Toy Review: Marvel Legends’ ‘Brand New Day’ Spider-Man Is A Good, Solid Figure

There’s jokes in the collectors community that everyone has dozens of Spider-Mans (Spider-Men? Spideys!). Regardless, there’s not many “classic” Spideys out there, with most of them being costume variants or other characters in the Spider-family. So getting a classic Spider-Man from Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line — no matter the universe — is something worth looking at.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day was an absolute blockbuster this past summer, to almost no-one’s surprise. The fourth Marvel Cinematic Universe Spider-Man film was able to balance a Punisher story, Hulk story and the introduction of the MCU’s mutants with the first MCU Spider-Man film that felt like a Spidey story, not Marvel Team-Up. 

As of this past weekend, the movie had grossed over $2.5 billion dollars at the box office, easily pointing towards becoming the highest grossing film of the year. So naturally, a Spider-Man based on this version of Peter Parker is a must.

I always talk about three things in my figure reviews — design, accessories and posing. Those seem to be the best elements to dive deep in a figure, because ultimately, whatever you can talk about comes down to those three things. This figure is so interesting to break down in that way, because it’s very much a mixed bag in some aspects, but the other aspects make up for them.

For example, the design is definitely Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. He’s the right mix of skinny and wiry while still being muscular. The costume is just a little darker than I’d personally prefer on Spidey’s costume, but it’s still distinctly red and blue. It’s also close enough to a traditional Spider-Man design that if you didn’t want to purchase the Maximum Spider-Man, Renew Your Vows Spidey two-pack, or the upcoming animated-style reissue, that he’d stand in fantastically for a classic comics Spider-Man. Considering this design doesn’t have all of the little extras that his earlier MCU costumes had, like the capsules or the mechanical exterior web-shooters, it has a much more classic feel.

For accessories, I keep saying that an alternate head is welcome for other figures, but I think the lack of one here is actually a good thing. It doesn’t hold the figure back, and keeps that “could be a comics Spidey” feel. If you did want a Tom Holland head on it, there’s plenty of figures out there that include his likeness (I have one, maybe two).

For the rest of the accessories, I like them. Two sets of extra hands cover pretty much the entirety of what you’d need to pose Peter Parker, from wall-crawling hands, to the classic web-slinging to closed fists. I’m also glad to see webs included, though a webline on top of the two patches of webs would have been welcome. (Added bonus, apparently both webs fit perfectly over the guns included with the most recent MCU Frank Castle.)

Like with most Spideys though, this figure really shines in the posing. Between neutral stances and fighting stances, I had no problem standing him up in poses. As for swinging and jumping, I was able to make him do pretty much everything I wanted. He looks great on the flight stand, and this is where I had the most fun with him. He did need a hot water bath to loosen up his limbs, but I pretty much default to that with any Hasbro figure at this point.

This isn’t an exceptional figure. It’s not mind-blowing or an absolute stand-out. It is, however, a just plain fun figure that has a ton of shelf appeal. I’m not going to say it’s any better than “really good” but sometimes that’s all we need.