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Standard Marvel Minimate packaging. A cardboard carton with cut out panels that display the figures within. Minimate-style artwork of the characters sits below the cut outs. The carton’s side flaps feature a photo of each respective ‘mate, while the rear of the carton has a ‘gang’ shot of the entire cast of wave 33. Nothing new to report.

While I love the character, I’ve never been one to buy Spider-Man books. I was intrigued by the appearance of Menace (and Anti-Venom) but not enough to pick up the titles. Having read the Bio boxes on the back of the carton I’m glad I didn’t. Menace sounds especially poor.

Menace shares a lot of the same aspects as the Green Goblin, chiefly a demonic appearance and a high tech flying gadget (always referred to as a Goblin Glider, but gliders are unpowered). The face on the figure, with its pasty white complexion and baleful yellow eyes, is suitably villainous. This face is actually a slipover mask piece but one that’s a lot more sculpted than usual. The obvious sculpt is the cut away horns. Shades of Hellboy? More subtle is the protruding forehead, this gives a nice frame to the eyes and accentuates the furrowed brow. Bright red hair flows from the head of this ‘mate. Hmmm… Bright red hair? Spidey? Who could this villain be? Nope not MJ, according to the bio blurb it’s some total non-entity who stole some Osborn tech and a certain serum in order to help her Dad become Mayor… As you do.

Beneath the mask is the face of Lily Hollister, said non-entity. It’s another generic female face – again with that smirk. The eyes are nice though, and for some reason I really like the skin tone. The rest of this Minimate is a fairly nondescript affair. The body colour is so dark that not a lot of detail can be seen. The studded belt/tunic is a nice piece and the standard Minimate hands have been replaced by a gauntlet piece that represents heavy wristbands and knuckle dusters. There’s some silver detailing to the front of the characters boots which is a very intricate print. It appears the back of the boots should also carry some kind of silver print, but it’s only on one leg and the print itself is heavily marred. That’s really quite shoddy. Menace is packaged with alternate hands and a hairpiece so she can be displayed as her alter-ego. But why would you want to do that?

Menace is accessorised with a kind of goblin glider. It’s very different to the one packaged with the Spider-Man 3 New Goblin from wave 17, and mounts on one of DST’s nifty new flight stands. There’s a peg on the glider for Menace’s foot to clip onto, but I’ve found the union isn’t the best and some kind of poster tack has to be used to prevent display shelf wreckage.

In conclusion: Nice face, shame about the rest.

MMC Score – 6 out of 10

For about 5 minutes I wondered who Anti-Venom might be. Then I forgot all about it. After reading the bio box I thought it was a pretty cool twist to have Eddie Brock back in a symbiote suit but working as a kind of anti-hero (oh wait, I see what they did there). Could have been worse, it could have been ‘Lady Venom’!

Anti-Venom’s costume is essentially a negative represenation of Brock’s appearance when he was bonded with the original symbiote suit, now appearing as a kind of grubby looking off-white, with black detailing. The face is great, despite now being a sort of good guy Anti-Venom has lost none of his fearsome visage. If anything the face is even more terrifying for its demonic aspect. I am slightly disappointed though, that DST didn’t see fit to present the face as a slipover mask with Eddie Brock’s features on the actual Minimate head. All the cash for this two-pack must have gone into Menace’s sculpt and glider.

Still it is a good looking figure, a slipover chestpiece helps add mass and muscle definition to the torso, the chest block beneath has no detailing at all. The main chest and back print are nice and sharp, though the detailing for the chest musculature gets in the way and makes the spider emblem appear to have about twelve legs. Nice to see some detailing on the arms and legs as quite often these areas are missed. As with pretty much all of the many Venom Minimates released in the Marvel line, Anti-Venom gets claw hands rather than regular Minimate hands.

Anti-Venom has no accessories.

In conclusion: By no stretch of the imagination is this figure an essential Minimate, but a fine looking one all the same.

Review and pictures by Rad Kerrigan

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