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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. It’s interesting to note that on this carton DST can’t make up their mind which version of Spider-Girl to display. On the front it’s Spider- Girl. On the side flap and back it’s May Parker. To that end I’ve taken front and back photo’s of both guises.

The Vault is a prison that was built to contain super powered criminals. Naturally it’s going to require more than your regular guard. Enter the Vault guardsmen, augmented with what appears to be Stark-tech armour and weaponry.

The Vault Guard wears a full face helmet represented here by DST’s trusty slip-over mask. The print on the mask is well thought out. Simple but with just the right amount of detailing. Underneath the mask the guard wears a green balaclava and some impressively high-tech looking goggles. I’m guessing the cross-hair over the left eye lens is to aim the armours’ built-in weaponry. Facial expression is minimal but that’s not a minus.

The armoured piece that sits over the shoulders is a re-use of the War Machine piece, as are the miniguns that can either sit upon the shoulders or mount on the figures back. I must say I’m rather disappointed to find that this armour piece is warped on one of my guards. Check out the photos of the back of the figure with the guns mounted on the shoulders, you’ll see what I mean. Yet another Friday afternoon Minimate in my collection. Some guys have all the luck!

Gauntlets appear to be new pieces as do the boots. The gauntlets are of a similar style to other Iron-Man type Minimates though there are no weapon pods or guns mounted upon them. The design of the mask and the two-tone green give the guard an insectile appearance that makes me hanker for an Annhillus Minimate.

The Vault Guard has no accessories, though he is packaged with regular Minimate hands and feet which allow for an alternative look.

In conclusion: Another cool army builder, but nothing to write home about.

MMC Score – 6 out of 10

The possible daughter of Peter Parker and Mary Jane. May Parker inherited her father’s powers and, judging from her taste in street clothes, his sense of responsibility as well.

The mask is a slip over piece. In my opinion these don’t look right on ‘spider’ characters. It makes the head far too bulky as there’s no extra pieces on the body to take the eye away from the incongruity. On it’s own the mask is OK-ish. The weblines are well applied but can be detected running underneath the white area of the eyes. I consider this to be quite poor. It shouldn’t be too much problem to leave a gap in the webbing lines for the white print to fit inside. After all there’s that thick black outline running around the eyes that should minimise any errors. This problem is only really apparent upon close inspection and is hardly likely to be noticed by a casual observer but dammit! Standards people. Standards! Under the mask is a pleasant female face I’d even say there’s a hint of MJ there but her hair colour (thanks to the included hair-piece) is definitely inherited from her father. The hair-piece is a re-use from the DC Direct Power Girl. I think this is the first time it’s been re-used and to be fair it’s a well thought out piece and looks fine here.

Spider-Girl’s costume is, at first glance, similar to that of her father’s though the blue has been replaced with black and the spider emblem is markedly different. The red area is much reduced being confined mainly to the upper body, though there are flashes at the ankles and hands. The spider emblem is a far slender, elongated affair that dominates the chest area though thanks to female anatomy it can appear at times to have 10 legs. Turn the figure around and… Oh dear! Are they… Back boobs? It does appear that an enormous clanger has been dropped here. The print on Spider-Girl’s back is exactly the same as the one on her front. This really is a major boob (or four)! Obviously the ‘mate will be displayed face on, but how this ever got past quality control is beyond me. Spider-Girl wears her web-shooters on the outside of her costume in a manner similar to that of the Scarlet Spider. DST have used the wrist band piece that has been around since the year dot and I do feel it’s a bit lazy. Obviously I’d have preferred a new piece that looks more like web shooters, but in a pinch I’d find re-using the silver print from the Scarlet Spider to have been acceptable.

Spider-Girl has no accessories. Not even a webline, poor thing.

In conclusion: Should have been a lot better. Back boobs. BACK BOOBS!!! 

Review and pictures by Rad Kerrigan

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