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My set arrived today, and I've been carefully inspecting and playing with it for the last few hours, and I decided I needed to write a review for anyone considering purchasing one of these sets, as well as offer my criticisms as well as praise.
As you all probably know, I'm a huge Marvel/Spidey fan, and I really, really wanted to love this set.
I like it, but at the price point that's being asked for these sets, I need to love it, and I don't.
Starting right at the beginning...the packaging. While it is very attractive and evokes the spirit of Mego quite nicely, it is the most un-collector friendly packaging I have ever seen. I know people have had varying degrees of success removing everything from the package, but I literally destroyed mine getting it open.
The repro Mego box had damage already inside the package, and the blister holding the updated costumes was completely heat sealed on both the perforated and non perforated sides, as well as two places in the middle. There was absolutely no way to remove it without destroying the box. Also, some of the plastic ties which hold the outfits in place only go through the inner plastic tray, while others go all the way through the first of two layers of cardboard which were glued together.
For a high end collectible such as this, I personally find this type of packaging unacceptable. These sets are too expensive to buy two of each to leave one sealed. A person needs to be able to easily remove and return everything to the package with zero damage. I hope this issue can be addressed with future releases.
Secondly, the material used on both Spider-Man costumes snags very easily. My circle suit Spider-Man had several pulls in it straight out of the box. Again, for this price point, I find that completely unacceptable. It's one thing if I damage it, but it shouldn't come straight out of the box that way.
Now for the good. The sculpt, paint, and accessories are all excellent. I do think the heads need to be color cast. This isn't due to any specific quality issue, but rather an aesthetic choice. The painted heads remove some of the very Mego feel that these sets are supposed to replicate, and isn't that the entire point of these? The translucent quality of rotocast flesh heads are such a part of the Mego "look" that figures with painted heads just seem to stand out.
My favorite part of the set was actually the fantastic booklet that comes with it. Very informative and nicely illustrated. All in all, I'm willing to forgive some of the design choices since it's their first offering, but the painted heads, quality of the material used and packaging issues bring what could have been a great set down to a merely good set. I hope future sets will be improved.
As you all probably know, I'm a huge Marvel/Spidey fan, and I really, really wanted to love this set.
I like it, but at the price point that's being asked for these sets, I need to love it, and I don't.
Starting right at the beginning...the packaging. While it is very attractive and evokes the spirit of Mego quite nicely, it is the most un-collector friendly packaging I have ever seen. I know people have had varying degrees of success removing everything from the package, but I literally destroyed mine getting it open.
The repro Mego box had damage already inside the package, and the blister holding the updated costumes was completely heat sealed on both the perforated and non perforated sides, as well as two places in the middle. There was absolutely no way to remove it without destroying the box. Also, some of the plastic ties which hold the outfits in place only go through the inner plastic tray, while others go all the way through the first of two layers of cardboard which were glued together.
For a high end collectible such as this, I personally find this type of packaging unacceptable. These sets are too expensive to buy two of each to leave one sealed. A person needs to be able to easily remove and return everything to the package with zero damage. I hope this issue can be addressed with future releases.
Secondly, the material used on both Spider-Man costumes snags very easily. My circle suit Spider-Man had several pulls in it straight out of the box. Again, for this price point, I find that completely unacceptable. It's one thing if I damage it, but it shouldn't come straight out of the box that way.
Now for the good. The sculpt, paint, and accessories are all excellent. I do think the heads need to be color cast. This isn't due to any specific quality issue, but rather an aesthetic choice. The painted heads remove some of the very Mego feel that these sets are supposed to replicate, and isn't that the entire point of these? The translucent quality of rotocast flesh heads are such a part of the Mego "look" that figures with painted heads just seem to stand out.
My favorite part of the set was actually the fantastic booklet that comes with it. Very informative and nicely illustrated. All in all, I'm willing to forgive some of the design choices since it's their first offering, but the painted heads, quality of the material used and packaging issues bring what could have been a great set down to a merely good set. I hope future sets will be improved.
). I was also able to carefully removed the Peter Parker outfit with no damage. I plan to remove the rest of the new Spidey and Peter Parker head without damaging the costume and heads. But there will be no saving the box, it will be completely trashed.
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