Happy Friday!!! Thanks for visiting Dan's ToyBox as today, we are discussing the Hasbro Marvel Legends 60th Anniversary Spider-Man Celebration... Future Foundation Stealth Suit Spider-Man Action Figure. So many great tributes to the Wall Crawler coming out this year and I feel like these figures are the tip of the iceberg. I am still waiting on the AF 15 First Appearance, but once I've got one, you'll be getting the review!
Upon the death of Johnny Storm, The Human Torch, Spider-Man joined the Future Foundation. He and the other members received black and white costumes, made from unstable molecules, which offered a number of amazing functions. In normal use, the color scheme is primarily white with black eyes, spider emblem, and accents, but each costume can go into a stealth mode, which essentially swaps the white/black to a black/white scheme, reversing the look. The costume can actually replicate Spidey's regular red and blue look or can even change into civilian clothing, should he desire. This suit first appeared in the pages of FF (vol. 11) #1, released March 23. 2011, created by writer Jonathan Hickman and penciler Steve Epting.
Dan's ToyBox gives each figure an overall rating of zero to five toyboxes, with five being the best. This rating comes from a careful examination of four categories: Accessories, Appearance, Articulation, and Affordability. With our criteria out of the way, let's swing into this review.
ACCESSORIES
Once again, we find ourselves with a Spider-Man lacking a critical component of any Spidey figure... WALL CRAWLING HANDS. This figure comes with two fists, two web-thwipping hands and two translucent clear web lines. As you can see in the picture, the web lines were bent in order to accommodate the little white baggy they were packed in. I like that these webs are translucent as, in my opinion, they look more like Spidey's webs. That being said, I am NOT a fan of the design. I really don't like the weird triangular loop for the fist to go through and the lines are pliable enough that you really can't "hook" the other end to anything. I'd almost rather see fists with holes in them to grip the webbing, so that you could at least get better web swinging poses. As packaged, these webs have a tendency to swivel around the wrist and hang down, rather than maintaining any kind of upward pose. Still not understanding why Hasbro doesn't make wall crawling hands a standard inclusion with Spider-Man figures and it irritates me sufficiently to not want to give this figure an accessory grade. C'mon, Hasbro... you can do better than this, especially for the price you're gouging us with now.
Images © Dan's ToyBox 2022
APPEARANCE
The Hasbro Marvel Legends Future Foundation Stealth Suit figure is, at first glance a really nice-looking Spider-Man figure. The body mold is black with the white paint applications applied overtop. Upon closer inspection though, I noticed a number of sloppy spots where some of the white bled over into the black regions. Most of the line work and edges look good, but there are some fuzzy edges and black spots in white areas. I also noticed that the line work on my left shoulder, when lined up with the spider legs on his front, fail to line up properly with the spider design on his back. His right shoulder is a bit better, thankfully. I think, my biggest complaint here is that the white likely needs more coats as around his torso, I have a good deal of transparency which allows the black to "bleed through" and diminish the glossy white look of the suit. Additionally, this figure is not made with pinless tech, which means that the black pins on the arms stand out starkly against the white underside of his arms and the white pins on his legs, are highly visible against the black of his inner legs. I will say that I'm actually considering swapping the head on this figure with the head on the Retro style Symbiote Suit Spider-Man as it more closely matches the body of that figure. If you saw my review of the symbiote suit, you'll recall that the head on the figure had this odd glossy/matte look to it which was frustrating. I want to give this figure a decent grade for appearance, but for every straight line on the spider emblem design, there are splashes and sprays elsewhere. I'm just not a huge fan of the lack of QC applied to this figure. Yes, this might just be on mine and other collectors may be enjoying some clean paint apps, but I gotta review what I've got, right? So, sorry... no appearance grade here.
Images © Dan's ToyBox 2022
ARTICULATION
While we've had some concerns in the accessories and appearance sections, I am happy to say that this figure has improvements in the articulation department. His head is on a ball peg and can look up quite far, though there is a gap under his chin. It will also look down very far and can turn easily, side to side. There is a bit of "wobble/tilt" but not as much as would be nice. The shoulders are on butterfly joints, which move well and allow for decent range of motion, with the arms able to rotate back quite far. The problem, of course, is the spider design isn't painted entirely along the joint, so there will be a missing spot on the paint, leaving a black space between the white designs. The shoulders will also rotate a full 360 degrees and can raise out to the sides to a decent T pose. The upper bicep swivel works good enough, and the double-jointed elbows bend in to just past 90 degrees. That could be a limitation on my figure, but I didn't want to push too hard and end up breaking something. Each hand hinges and pivots nicely. The upper diaphragm joint allows for some forward crunch and back bend but the upper abdomen sculpting stops, giving Spider-Man kind of an odd look. The waist swivel works fine and doesn't look terrible when turned. The biggest surprise I got was the fact that this Spidey can do amazing splits! The legs will kick forward but will turn outward at their apex. There is no back kick though. The upper thigh cuts and boot cuts both work well and are camouflaged somewhat as they look like black lines wrapping around the figure's legs. Both ankles hinge and have terrific pivot motion to them. Spider-Man can do splits!!! That alone merits an A for Articulation. I hate the limited abdominal crunch, but the rest of this figure can move decently, allowing me to get some good spider poses. Definitely worth an A grade here.
Images © Dan's ToyBox 2022
AFFORDABILITY
I found this figure in the wild for $25.99 at a Target in Omaha Nebraska. Happened to glance up and discovered that it was the last one, so naturally I scooped him up. After carefully examining the tape to make sure it hadn't been tampered with, I dropped the Future Foundation Stealth Suit Spider-Man in my cart and made my way to check out. Once again though, we see the disparity of Marvel Legend pricing as that store had a number of the X-Men Bonebreaker BAF wave figures and they were all priced at $22.99 each. I really don't understand what is going on, but I do know that I'm seeing more and more YouTube figure reviewers becoming disgusted with Hasbro and the Marvel Legends line and threatening to discontinue buying. I'm becoming more discriminate in my purchases as well but at least this figure falls into the pricing "structure" that we're... getting used to seeing?!? I'm not happy with the increased prices as mentioned many times before, nor with the windowless packaging, but it's still relatively affordable, so I'll grudgingly give him an A- in this category.
Overall, I had hoped to like this figure more, but there is just enough wrong with mine to make me a bit disappointed. This is an average, at best, figure for me therefore, I am giving him an overall rating of:
2.5 Toyboxes out of 5
Thanks for taking the time out of your day to read through another Dan's ToyBox Action Figure review. I appreciate all of your support for the website. Until next time... GEEK OUT!!!