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Cape not
exactly as shown
Series: Image
10th Anniversary
Craftsmanship: 9.8/
10
- In short, the best Spawn
figure ever
- Very cool base
- Real chains
- Best cape ever
- Extremely high display properties
Playability: 7.7
/ 10
- Chain is way too long
- Great mobility and articulation (and surprisingly
tough)
- Cape is just begging to be ripped apart
- Great compatibility with other figures
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Spawn (Image 10th Anniversary)
by McFarlane
Toys
Think of all the Spawn figures produced, especially
last year’s (2002) Spawn Alternate Realities. Spawn has had much attention over
the years with some good renditions, but ask yourself, “Has Spawn be perfected?
Honed to an art-like state
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excellent, especially the prominent 12” Celtic cross that acts as a display
stand – a mix of steel straight lines and carved stone. I’m really pleased to
see real chains – or more accurately, chain, as it’s a continuous strand – make
a return. Plastic chains seem so wimpy.
Spawn’s cape is tinkered with each time a Spawn figure is released. This is the
best looking cape ever and it doesn’t get in the way of displaying him in either
position on the base. The cape is made of multiple sections held together with
pegs and, so help me, actually looks cozy. (It can rest on his shoulders, but I
recommend plugging it into his back.)
He has two possible positions on the base: standing in front of the cross or
perched on top of it. If he didn’t have over two-dozen articulation points – let
me emphasize that again, over two dozen – the latter position wouldn’t be
possible. (In fact, in this position he looks slightly like Spider-Man, a
character Todd McFarlane wrought into a new image.) He pegs solidly into either
position, but when he’s perched it frees up the lower pegs for another figure.
It takes a bit of experimenting to perch him in a satisfactory way, but really,
when you put his cape on… it’s just plain cool.
Poseability is astronomical. He’s solid when installed on the base but he can
also be displayed on flat surfaces, particularly without his cape. This is in
sharp contrast to “Spawn on Throne” from Alternate Realities, which approached a
work of art but failed to live up to the Ultra Action Figure subtitle I’ll
always remember McFarlane Toys for. This Spawn could easily be nicknamed, “Ultra
Poseable” Spawn and he does have good play value.
The only real downsides to Spawn are that the chain is just way too long and the
sectioned cape is at risk of being reduced to pieces. The chain certainly adds
to the display properties – draped dramatically from the cross beam, clutched in
his hands, wrapped around the base… but when played with, it’s likely to be
ripped from his belt buckle. As much as I like the cape, it just comes apart a
little to easily. The rubber pegs don’t cope well with force. I recommend
removing the cape and wrapping the chain around his waist when you play with him
– better safe than sorry, since mangling either one will bring down the display
properties. On the whole, he’s in proportion to the Spawn line, so there is play
value to be had. And you can’t help but play with him or set him up in dioramas
– the awesome (and useful) articulation is just too good to let him go to waste.
Don’t believe me that this is the best Spawn figure ever? Buy it and see.
Display is better than excellent even though the play factor might not be as
high. A very good buy.
It boggles the mind to think how McFarlane can top this effort.
- Omni
(January 26, 2003) |
