Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Retro Toy Week: Spider-Man 2099!

Sometimes, a figure gets replaced just because a better version comes along; and that's pretty much what happened to the 1995 version of Spider-Man 2099. Since he's an easy repaint of the regular Spidey, he came out pretty early in the articulated Spider-Man line, the new figure arriving in 2002. (Predating Marvel Legends?)

Other than that, old-future Spidey isn't a bad figure. There's not a lot of paint, but it's good. The articulation is good for the time: both ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, and his neck. His hands seem kind of big, which I seem to be seeing here and there now on the old Toy Biz figures. His 'web-cape' is almost a jacket here, but it's a little more sturdy than the wisp of the updated version's. It might even be removable, but I wouldn't.

Spidey 2099 was introduced in 1992, so a three-year turnaround to an action figure? Not too shabby. I read the comic for it's entire run, but then Marvel was having financial trouble, Peter David left the book, and they tried to consolidate the 2099 line into a single book. Didn't take. Miguel O'Hara still turns up from time to time, and was probably most recently seen in Exiles.
One of the weird things about this figure? For no apparent reason, since he never used one in the comics, Spidey came with a frankly massive chaingun-thing. (I used it in an old strip, here.) Hmm. He might've come with a pin as well...no, but he came with a big flaming battleax with a skull face on it! Really? Damn, do I still have that thing?...it's stupid, but metal as metal. Boy, if webbing, talons, and poison fangs don't get the job done, a chaingun and battleax really should.

Old Spidey 2099 is bound for the storage bin, but don't feel too bad for him: he had a good run, and his newer counterpart is still on my shelf. And I totally screwed up the photos on this one, but more are coming. How many can I cram into this week? You'll know when I do...



2 comments:

Wes Grogan said...

I really liked Spider-Man 2099. That and Doom 2099 were the only two non-garbage books in the whole series. Miguel was pretty awesome and a nice nod to Peter Parker while still going to new places with the character! Doesn't hurt that he was a Peter David comic, which I almost always like.

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