Back in the day, ToyBiz brought another dimension to action figures when they dropped the Spider-Man Classics line. Then a few years later, the webslinger made his long-awaited silver screen debut with the Sam Raimi directed, Spider-Man film starring Tobey Maguire in the titular role. ToyBiz immediately released a line of figures based on the movie designs and collectors went nuts!!!!
I am eagerly awaiting the SHFiguarts No Way Home:Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man figure, which shipped from BBTS yesterday!!! I figured, as long as that figure is on the way and I'll be dropping a review shortly thereafter, why not take a look at some oldies but goodies?
You just had to know that I was going to recreate the meme.
When ToyBiz first released the Spider-Man classics line, I owned small sports card/comic shop and we got these figures in. I was stunned at the amount of articulation packed into them and ended up grabbing several for myself. Naturally, the red and blue was a no brainer and when the black suit hit our shelves, I made sure to scoop one up for myself as well. Then they released the "battle-damaged" version, and it was as if I were looking at a page out of McFarlane's Spider-Man comic itself. The damage matched up almost perfectly with how Spider-Man was drawn in that first arc featuring the Lizard. I started looking for other ToyBiz stuff, but wasn't really into collecting, like I am now. (Much to my regret because I'm sure I'd have a heck of a nice collection of the old ToyBiz Legends!) A few years later, Spider-Man hit the big screen and ToyBiz dropped an incredible set of movie-based figures. I do still have both the Green Goblin and Battle-Damaged Green Goblin figures, packed in a box downstairs. Once again, I was amazed to see how much articulation was packed into these figures and thought..."this is how a Spider-Man figure is supposed to move!" Looking at these humble origins, though, it's incredible to see how far Marvel Legends have come over the years. Every now and then, when I'm out and about, I come across the old ToyBiz Legends and think about picking up one or two of them. I haven't done it yet, mainly because I'm really trying to focus on the new stuff, but there's no denying that ToyBiz opened the door for the hobby to become what it is today. I didn't take a lot of pix, mainly because I'm still getting over being sick, but I hope you enjoyed this brief trip down memory lane today.
Thanks for dropping by Dan's ToyBox. Until next time... GEEK OUT!!!