[Trivial Psychic]

No pics just yet, but I finally pulled my Space Venom wave out of the box...and my goodness...am I impressed. This is my favorite wave of figures to hit this year, second only to the recent X-Men wave, and the quality shows. There is only one weak spot in Ashley Barton, and I think that lies really only in the character selection, not in the figure itself...here's some quick thoughts.

1. Ashley Barton: Let's get the one blemish in the wave out of the way, it's Ashley and we all knew it would be. The figure itself is not bad, mine had nice crisp paint apps, the articulation is what you expect, and like Silk, she appears to be on a new body mold. The head is pretty well done, it's a shame the mask is sculpted on, otherwise, if you were to shrink it down, it'd be perfect for Mayday. I wish she came with an accessory of some sort (like her katana...erm...I mean shotgun...) but honestly, the only thing that really hurts this figure is the character selection itself. I know Hasbro was trying to add another female figure to the wave, but right away I can think of about at least five different females from Spidey's universe that could and should have been picked over Ashley.
   
   
2. Hobgoblin: There is so much good going on here, that honestly the only things I can complain about is the obvious, the glider is way too small and honestly sucks. It's made of a soft plastic, and mine was immediately stressed at one of the foot loops on the very first attempt to seat Hobby in it because his feet are a little too big to fit in them without stretching them a bit. I have to the Toybiz Hobgoblin, so I might be swapping gliders with him very soon. So much of this figure is newly sculpted it's ridiculous, and I really dig the classic face (the Macendale "demon" head looks a bit ridiculous to me and I'm not a fan of the sculpt.) I like this one almost equally as I do my ToyBiz one...
   
   
3. Electro: Another high point of the wave for me...and this is coming from someone who LOVES the Toybiz version and didn't think we really needed him. I love the attention to detail on the new look with the lightning bolt coming off as a scar, and the Pizza Spidey body works perfect for Mr. Dillon. The gold colors really pop, and the electric hands are really well done. I know there are complaints about the lack of a spare set of non-lightning hands, but there's a saving grace, most if not all of Allfather Wave's Iron Fist hands work perfectly with him, so you can swap some of them (because he cannot wear all of them at once) with Electro for a gloveless look. Or you can add a little touch of black paint to them and you're set.
   
   
4. Ultimate Spider-Men: Going to lump these two together since they are practically the same exact figure, with different paint jobs. I LOVE these guys. The new teen body mold is sweet, and articulate great. The hands and heads are a little hard to swap out on both, so I might be putting my dremel to work on them soon, but other than that, I love the way they came out, especially Miles. I'll be swiping the accessories from my ASM Miles to give to the new one really soon. It's great to finally have a near perfect representation of Mark Bagley's artwork (long a favorite artist of mine) represented in figure form.
   
   
5. Silk: Oh man, where to start. Sorry Rogue...watch out Kitty...there's a new girl on the block ready to knock you out of your spot for most beautiful Marvel Legends figure. The head sculpt on this is gorgeous, and while it's still a bit vanilla (as in not entirely Korean looking) it's well done in a way that it looks uniquely Asian enough on her WITHOUT coming off as a caricature. The head is so well sculpted, I can see it easily being used for everything from Psylocke, to Black Widow, to Elektra for customs. The linework on mine was flawless, and the red has an awesome transition to the black. She also looks like she is on a new body mold, and although it appears she's a bit too tall to be an accurate version of Cindy, it looks fantastic and I cannot wait to get my hands on another one for customs. While I'm not a fan of the retconned backstory, I'm a fan of the character and I've rather enjoyed the books. While I'm sad we won't get her original web outfit, the fact that this figure is so darn good really lessens that sting to almost nothing.
   
   
6. Space Venom: Another character that I am NOT a fan of, but hot damn is it actually a really good BAF. The articulation on this guy flat out EMBARRASSES some of the other bafs of the past, as he can do nearly full splits, can bend his arms more than 90 degrees at the elbows, and has an awesome waist crunch. I wish we would have got a toothy head for it, but I'm sure some sculpter will do a custom head cast in the future, and since the figure is just black and white, it honestly shouldn't be too hard to paint that. The sculpted details on this guy are great, and while he might not look it, he's every bit as good as the recent Giant Man and Juggernaut BAFs.
   
   One minor thought that sort of ties into Space Venom but not really, seeing this costume REALLY reminds me of and makes me want an Angelo Fortunato version of Venom...I don't know what it was about that costume, but I really dug the way it looked.
   
   Marvel...MAKE VENOM GOOD AGAIN!