.

Since wave 14 Marvel Minimates have been packaged in closed cartons with a cardboard J-Hook. While this has the disadvantage of not being able to see the figures you’re buying it does give a nice broad canvas for the DST packaging designers to go mad with. Both waves 17 and 18 have the same background of a New York cityscape as if seen through a fish eye lens. It’s quite a departure in style for the Marvel packaging and is very effective. Superimposed against the background are the (by now) standard 3/4 length view of the figures within. The only jarring element is that big black expanse of card where the Minimates logo sits. I imagine it didn’t stand out too well against the cityscape but there are plenty of other ways to emphasise the logo.

The back of the card features a full size photo of all the figures in the wave. Someone’s had a lot of fun with the design as Spidey and Venom are both hanging upside down from the top of the card.

Who comes up with these snappy titles? Seriously, I’m amazed they managed to fit the name onto the cards. Having said that I struggle to come up with a snappier monicker… People in glass houses and all that.

So this figure depicts Spidey with his mask rolled up all ready to give Gwen Stacey a large amount of snogging. We’ll ignore the fact that Spidey was in his regular blue ‘n’ reds when this scene occurred in the film. Face front doesn’t look too bad. The eyes appear to be too far up on the head, but that may be an optical illusion caused by the lifted portion of the mask. Annoyingly around the back of the mask the web pattern doesn’t continue to the base which leaves a fairly large area of plain black.

What’s cool about this ‘mate, especially as it’s the one that’s bundled with this wave variant, is that the masked face is a removable sleeve. Underneath is a standard Minimate head featuring Peter Parker’s face, and also included in the pack is a hair piece so Spidey can be completely unmasked. Peter looks nothing like Tobey Maguire, but it is still a good likeness of Peter Parker.

Spidey’s black costume is fairly well represented apart from missing web-lines on the hands and feet. The print doesn’t appear as bright as on 2007’s San Diego comic-con two pack and the armoured gridwork pattern on the legs and torso is nowhere near as noticeable. Of note is the fact that like the Spidey found in the Spider-Man Classics box set, this Spidey’s belt section is on the t-piece rather than the base of the torso. This gives us a much leaner looking Spider-Man which is more in keeping with the character.

Unmasked Black-Suited Spider-Man comes with no accessories (I don’t consider hair pieces accessories).

In conclusion, nice but un-amazing. I find it hard to whip up any enthusiasm for this ‘mate. There’s no real ‘Wow!’ factor. It’s clean and tidy, it’s well made, but it’s a bit humdrum really.

MMC Score – 6 out of 10

For some reason it was decided to include Peter Parker’s first girlfriend from the comic books into the movie universe. In movie continuity Peter has never been involved with Gwen.

While this is another movie’mate that doesn’t really look like the actor it’s based on, it’s clear that an attempt has been made to capture Bryce Dallas Howard’s huge smile. This really lights up Gwen’s face and facially makes for a very appealing Minimate. The hair piece is very accurate, some one spent a lot of time designing it, and it frames the face very nicely.

The chest piece for Gwen’s jacket is well crafted but not all that stunning. In fact all of Gwen’s clothes are fairly dull. The pink top worn under the jacket should have had a floral print, and what more can you say about a long brown skirt? Other than it’s long… And brown. This Gwen might be slightly based on John Michael Straczynski’s ret-con of the character as good old DST gave us another party girl. No pants on this heroine. Other than that it’s another case of nice but… NEXT!!!

Gwen has no accessories.

In conclusion, nice but un-spectacular. [Yes, I see what you did with the conclusions in this review! Good work – Ed]

Review and pictures by Rad Kerrigan

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