While the Main site will soon be starting MAYvel with a collection from Disney+, I thought I might use this as a chance to go through some of the other Marvel Legends I picked up. Because nothing says "riding the hype train" quite like reviewing toys from a few waves back from a movie that came out in 2018, does it? I mean, it is MAYvel after all; catch up is the name of the game here.
As with the Gwen Stacey, this represents Miles from the movie Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. However, while Gwen's design for the movie was mostly the same as it is in the comics, Miles' takes many more liberties. You can't pass this off as a comic Miles, thanks to the shorts, shoes, hoodie and jacket. The design itself is a bit of a mixed bag because while it looks good in the movie, it doesn't translate well to plastic. Unlike Gwen, though, one of the best things about the toy is the head sculpt for a maskless Miles. It's an excellent translation of the animation model, though there are other parts of the toy that I don't think translate as well. The shins look a bit too thin and skinny on the toy, which is heavily contrasted by loose-fitting shorts. Another minor nitpick of mine is the fixed neck. Due to the way it's sculpted, it kind of looks like he has a hunched back thanks to the way the jackets sit on his torso, but if you take the jackets off, other than the awkwardly coloured arms, it looks too long. The neck reminds me of Hungry Hungry Hippo when the hippo heads are extended to reach the marbles.
Sculpting on the figure (prior nitpicks excluded) is well done. I love the sculpting details on the spider suit, and the work done on the sleeves to give the jacket a fabric texture look to them is impressive. I'm also quite impressed with the paint. The eyes on the mask stand out nicely. It is a shame, though, that the spider logo is lost amongst the red hoodie. Articulation is solid; he is far more agile than the Gwens were thanks to a resounding ab crunch, though the hoodie can get in the way at times of movement, mainly if you want to curve his back. The lack of a double elbow joint is annoying but not the end of the world.
The big takeaway for me from this figure, comparisons to G.I Joe articulation excluded, is that this makes me think, "Wow... I'd rather have a comic version of Miles." This toy isn't bad, far from it, it does the job it set out to do pretty well, but when I think of what Miles Morales looks like, this isn't it. I like his design in the movie, Into the Spiderverse is up there as one of my favourite Superhero movies. But just because I associate the character's personality with the movie form doesn't me I associate the design. The black and red spider suit looks cool, and the appeal of it is lost due to all the extra clothes this toy is wearing. Because of that, though, this feels like an "it's close, but I can do better." It's not bad, not quite what I'm after. I hope you stick around because while Sundays this month will all revolve around Marvel Legends, the main site will be mainly focusing on Disney+ streaming for MAYvel 2021, starting with The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. If this marathon of content goes well, great! If not, I can always default back to Lego if I need MAYvel content for the Toybox.
