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The by now ubiquitous marvel carton with control art and windows on the front. Photographs of the relevant characters on the side flaps, and a picture of the entire wave to the rear.

Another Spider-Man Minimate. Oh God make it stop. Please make it stop!!!

House of M was a massive crossover a few years back that was notable for annihilating the mutant race. Before that though it gave the majority of the Marvel Universe characters a bit of wish fulfillment. In the world of House of M Spider-Man was a celebrity who had everything he’d ever wanted in life. Until the world discovered he wasn’t a mutant. Then it went a bit wrong.

Unlike most Spider-people in this wave, House of M Spidey at least has a regular Minimate head, so he looks to have better proportions. The head itself is a fairly standard-looking job for Spidey. The weblines are still apparent in the white area of the eyes, but only under close inspection.

House of M Spidey’s costume is similar at first glance to the regular costume but it has a lot more blue to it. Rather than the usual spider motif the costume has a kind of giant spider that starts on the back with the legs, continues over the head and finishes with the spider’s head and jaws on the front of the chest. It looks OK, but the red on the spider is darker than on the head or shoulders. I don’t know if that’s deliberate, or simply a case of a cheap and cheerful blending of two different tampos. There isn’t really much more to say about this ‘mate. It looks fine, it’s built well, but it’s just another alternative Spidey in a wave chock full of alternative Spidey’s, and therefore hard to get too excited about.

House of M Spider-Man has no accessories. This is also a bit of a theme for the wave, sadly.

In conclusion: This is a well executed Minimate from the House of M source material, but it’s a completely unnecessary version in a line not really hurting for lack of Spidey.

MMC Score – 6 out of 10

The Scorpion is another classic Spidey villain and one that’s been long requested by Minimate fans. Mac Gargan was a private investigator who J Jonah Jameson convinced to try an experimental procedure, which gave him the characteristics of a scorpion, with the express intent of defeating Spider-Man. Naturally it all went horribly wrong. Gargan went gaga, and Jameson ended up having to be rescued from Scorpion by… Spider-Man!

This is the third Mac Gargan Minimate that DST have produced. The first being 2009’s Dark Avenger’s Spider-Man, the second; 2009’s Thunderbolts Venom. This though is Gargan’s classic look and it really has been a long time coming.

The Scorpion’s costume is a very simple green bodysuit with an armoured appearance and a robotic ‘tail’ that’s attached to the back. The mask is an all-over piece that only leaves the eyes and somehow the mouth exposed. The face is excellent, again very simple but brilliantly effective. Scorpion’s eyes have the tiniest pupils that I’ve ever seen on a Minimate. These, and the snarl of the mouth, give the impression of both madness and a drive for revenge.

As previously mentioned the suit is quite simple but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The simplicity means that the details that are present can be appreciated even more. In this instance the rivets on the armoured bands on the arms, chest and legs. These are tiny but perfectly printed and are one of those details that really help nail a character.

Now… The tail. The Scorpion is all about the tail. So it’s important that the tail looks good, and more importantly works well… Isn’t it? There’s no denying the tail looks good. It’s made in three parts, the first of which is attached to the chest block by a funky bracket that clicks onto the neck post and then sits between chest block and t-piece. It’s a good piece of design engineering that doesn’t compromise the aesthetics of the figure. Into the backpack piece slots the middle of the tail, this comes down the back of the figure before swooping back up. It’s this part of the tail that has absolutely ruined the Minimate.

Other Scorpion action figures I’ve seen have used the tail to balance the figure, usually by having it come down to foot level before swooping back up. This piece stops far short of the ‘floor’ which causes it to overbalance the figure. Surely it’s not unreasonable for an action figure to be able to stand up on its own? The only way to achieve this is to either use a Lego (or SFII) stand or to bend the characters knees so that the tail is low enough to balance the ‘mate. Not at all ideal and for me it’s a real dealbreaker. The third part of the tail finishes in the Scorpion’s sting, it looks great but ends up far too far behind the figure and over time the tail has become loose in the backpack simply because of gravity.

In conclusion: The tail section proves to be a fatal flaw to this Minimate.

Review and pictures by Rad Kerrigan

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