Symbiote Spider-Man Premium Format Figure
by Sideshow Collectibles
Released: July 2016
Edition Size: 1,250
Product Size: 24.75" H x 12" W x 14" D
Product Weight:
Design Team: Martin Canale (Design & Sculpt), Ian MacDonald (Design), Zac Roane (Design), Walter O'Neal (Sculpt), Bernardo Esquivel (Paint), Anthony Mestas (Paint), The Sideshow Design and Development Team
Original Retail Price: $469.99 USD plus shipping
Please watch the video review HERE
Spider-Man Fun Facts:
Real Name: Peter Parker
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 167 lbs.
Eyes: Hazel
Hair: Brown
First Appearance (in black costume): a tie between Amazing Spider-Man 252 and Marvel Team-Up 141, May 1984
Trivia: The initial black suit that Spider-Man wore turned out to be a living alien symbiote, which later went on to bond with Eddie Brock to become Venom. Spider-Man did wear a cloth version of the black suit for some time after ditching the alien version. The symbiote version of the suit had several perks, though...it could mimic any clothing, allowing Peter to change back and forth to/from Spider-Man with a mere thought. Also, his webs were organic in nature, so no more worrying about web fluid refills!
Sculpt: 8.5 / 10
Wonderful sculpt on Spider-Man himself, great body size and physique. A veiny texturing was added to the suit to give it a more organic feel. I was not sure how this would turn out in hand, but it actually achieves the desired effect nicely. The webs on the symbiote suit actually project from the back of the hand (and were organic in nature...they were actually part of the suit) rather than the traditional web shooter, so a "web port" was added to the back of each hand. Nice attention to detail here. The shape of the eyes, although a matter of personal taste, is very well done here.
The base is sculpted reasonably well. The steel beam and column are not properly sized compared to most real world "I" beam sections, and the bolted connections between the beam and column are not strucutrally logical (sorry, I am a strucutral engineer), but ultimately, these points don't really matter that much. The smoke is sculpted nicely, too, with a nice texture to it.
Paint & Mixed Media: 8.5 / 10
Heavy blue highlighting is used throughout the suit, giving the piece a very "comic book" feel. I was worried how this was going to turn out on the factory production pieces, but the effect is fairly pleasing in person. The lines along the edges of the white portions of the suit are cleanly painted throughout...nothing to complain about here.
The coloring on the steel beams is very realistic when compared to many real world steel bridges etc.
The color scheme on the smoke is a bit odd, as generally the brightest part of an explosion would be at the center (presumably near the base of the steel column). But, this paint scheme is opposite of typical convention. That's not to say it looks bad, but something is off about it. I believe it would have looked better with a darker, smokier tone around the outermost portions of the smoke clouds. The smoke paint can be classified as "just ok"...it doesn't really take away from the exciting parts of the piece (i.e. Spidey), but doesn't really add anything either.
Design: 9.5 / 10
Love the dynamic, action packed leaping pose, it's such a refreshing departure from the typical "Captain Morgan" museum pose. Huge marks to Sideshow for doing something outside the box, and being able to pull it off at the production level. The collapsing steel structure is completely fine with me, but the smoke explosion isn't that well implemented. Again, it's not terrible, but not great...I would say the smoke, again, is just ok. Thankfully, it does not take away too much from the otherwise excellent and original design.
Production & Build Quality: 8.5 / 10
The statue comes packed as 5 separate pieces: 1. the smoke base, 2. the steel column and beam, 3. the beam trolley/pulley, 4. Spider-Man's body, and 5. Spidey's left arm. The pieces generally fit together nicely and feel secure once they are in place. The seam for the arm is right along the edges of the white spider emblem, so they are quite well disguised.
The red/blue version of this statue was confirmed to contain a metal rod running all the way up the right arm and into the body. At this time I cannot confirm that the Symbiote version is built the same way, but for now I will presume it is. The additional reinforcing with the arm should help to ensure the long term stability of the piece; however, we will not know for sure until a few years pass with the statue on display.
One nice feature is that the pieces are wrapped in a silk or silk-like material in the shipping box. This softer material appears to provide better protection to the paint during shipment and should be a vast improvement over the waxy paper that was used on the red/blue version (the packing materials appeared to cause many paint issues on that version of the statue).
Overall, the quality appears to be there on this piece, and there are no real complaints for me at this time.
Overall: 8.75 / 10
Being born in the early 80's, some of my earliest memories of Spider-Man are in this black costume, since he wore it full time from about 1984 to 1988. So, this costume holds a special place in my heart, and is actually my most favorite superhero costume of all time. I normally do not buy variants (as I already had the red/blue version on PO), but for the Black costume, I make an exception.
The statue turned out very well. Both of my concerns about the prototype (the heavy blue highlights and texturing on the costume) were alleviated in person...both achieve their desired effect.
The only downfall on this piece, for me, is the explosion/smoke at the bottom of the base. The paint seems unnatural and off, and ultimately an alternate design for this area could have been beneficial to the overall look of the piece. However, it is not so bad as to take away from the highly dynamic design for Spider-Man himself. The pose captures the acrobatic agility that Spidey is known for.
If you're a big Spider-Man fan, I think you'll be pleased with the production results on this piece. I definitely recommend it.
