Marvel Legends BAF: Absorbing Man

Venom, Spider-Gwen, Ben Reilly, Beetle, Morbius, Speed Demon, Jack O'Lantern

The First BAF of 2016 in my possession and let me just say, it is probably the best Spider-Man wave I have acquired! The variations of characters (mostly villains), the step up in the accessory department, the refreshing attention to details, the comic book homage... this wave was awesome! I have to say, I only really dislike ONE figure (Lady Beetle), and even then, she isn't the worst Hasbro has come up with. With all that said, how does the BAF himself absorb all this fun factor his wave offered? Well, let's get to this guy then!

Well, I don't know much about Absorbing Man. His powers are pretty obvious; I think he has something to do with the Wrecking Crew at one point, but all in all, I am oblivious to him. I know of him. As a figure, right off the get go there are a few things about him that stands out. Most BAFs I have come across are pretty simple in terms of what it has to offer display wise. Absorbing Man shows variety. Just to show what I mean:

He has two options for his head and he has two pairs of arms.

 

Basically there are a few variations on how to display him and how to make him look. He has a plain face, 'absorbing face', metal absorbed right arm, rock/earth absorbed right arm, concrete left arm, and a plain left arm. Maybe a variation for his body would do good, but that's me being ridiculously too needy. Still, glad that we are given these options. So, now to take a look at him in a full circle with my favorite combination.

 

I found out from ShartimusPrime that this body Mold is from Terrax. It's not exactly bad for it, but the back does have some unnatural anatomy for a human being based character. Other than that, we get the usual dull paint job, except when we start getting to the arms that 'absorbed' and the head; then we start talking about details on the paint job! There are sculpted features to really try and convey what he absorbed; the concrete really does look like concrete, etc.

 

I think that is his highlight, the paint details and sculpted details when it comes to his arms and the absorbing face. Mold wise, he is a muscular guy so it fits. The purple striped pants could have been his jailer pants, but I guess it's okay because it gives a pop out color. The head at times looks huge, but it's okay, honestly. Not a bad shaped figure. Just the fact that there were some thought put into his alternates really makes the figure fun visually.

And I might be just guessing here but the last BAF I reviewed was the Goblin Knight. Of course Absorbing Man is the bigger figure out of the two but with Hobgoblin having more of the uniqueness, I think these two are a good addition to the rogue of villains. Hobgoblin is a bit more questionable on the BAF side though.

I talked about his variant arms and heads, other than that, the only other accessory he has is the ball and chain. It's pretty weak accessory actually. It can't have as many dynamic pose because it is not really articulated and it is a pretty dull color.

Articulation wise, he isn't too bad. If he had more movement on his ball and chain he would have better dynamic poses, but other than that, he comes with the expected range of movements for a figure this 'big'. Not so much 'range' of movement, but if he was able to hold his weapon with one of his left hand, it would give a little more variation in his poses; but again, with his articulation basic to our expectations, it shouldn't be that much of a hassle to get him to pose here and there.

One can get him to do some action poses with certain angles of his ball and chain.

And of course Absorbing Man will be sharing a villain shelf; the one I deemed as the "Apocalypse" shelf is the place t o be. And yes, it's getting a bit crowded on the villain side. Maybe they need more Hero BAFs!

In conclusion, as a BAF, he is not bad at all. I rather enjoyed him and with the thought brought upon by the various display options, I think Hasbro did a good job for this. His set is also not considerably bad; with Lady Beetle the only one that really does not meet the mediocre expectations, I think this BAF Set is a success. Now does this abate the rest of Hasbro's mishaps with lack of accessories, paint jobs, and other poorly executed patterns? No not at all, but its BAFs like these that really give Hasbro some credits. They have a couple more BAFs coming out and we can see who I gather this year! 

ML Absorbing Man BAF: Spider-Carnage/Ben Reilly

I remember when I was young and I saw this costume; I LIKED it then and I am okay with it now. It's different but still pays homage to classic. I did not mind Ben Reilly taking over as Spidey either because change was good. Hasbro recreated this guy and here we are with this Spidey and a good little twist of fate: he has a variant that makes him 'almost' a completely different character altogether: Spider-Carnage! So, let's get right into the review.

 

This Spider-Man is the running variant for the Spider-Gwen figure. "Edge of the Spider-Verse" is what this is called and technically, he was one of the main fighters of the Spider-Verse saga. He was not Spider-Carnage though, but Ben Reilly was badass.

It's almost as if I am reviewing two figures; almost. The one thing I will say right off the get go was that it was a really smart idea for them to do this; it's a great homage to the character and a point of his short-lived comic book life that some fans really remembered. So on to the figure. The mold is familiar. This Pizza Spidey might be the standard mold for all the Spider-Men coming out. I'm not entirely against it, but they need to do something about that torso. The lanky frame works, but one can't forget that Spidey is also a slightly more on thicker side most times(depending on the artist).The paint is something I can complain about. While the red looks great and the blue really makes both colors pop out, the black, ESPECIALLY on the spider emblem does look a little weak. They needed to add another coating. The sculpting on all variations, Carnage included, are something we have seen before with Spidey-Reilly being the Pizza Spidey, and the Spider-Carnage being the Carnage we got from the Ultimate Green Goblin BAF. While I'm not entirely uber impressed, I do like the foundations of this figure so in turn I do like how this figure looks aesthetically; for the most part.

I have already talked about the accessories somewhat. He has that one set of hands for the Carnage and then the head. His hands are pretty gracious just like the Pizza Spidey. One thing that would have added to the fun factor and give Hasbro more credit for 'thought' is the variant legs for the Spider-Carnage. He had symbiote oozing up his legs and if that was part of the variant leg, it would have made things better. I could have sacrificed some of these hands for those legs. And he comes with a pair of Absorbing Man's arms; the metal and the plain left fist.

I won't lie--I had tons of fun posing him about. I found myself using his Carnage variant more though, so most likely he will be in Spier-Carnage form. This mold should be very familiar so I won't get too much in-depth with him. Either Carnage or Ben has the same movement since the head and the hands don't really change anything aside from looks. Again I wish his legs could do more Spider-y things, but again, until Hasbro does away with that debacle, I think I'm going to be saying this a lot. The 'y' joints seems to be more adequate for Spider people, but it might take away some of the aesthetics; but I guess let's be honest, I don't repose my figures as much as others so it should not be that much of a hassle.

One thing I noticed with this figure and all the other figures that have this mold (minus the Scarlet Spider since the torso is different) is that the shoulder joints have such a wide range of motion. At times 'too much' I think and it takes away from the grand look. Regardless, it's appreciated.

Damn it I'm a clone of Peter and Cletus' Symbiote! CLONE! CLONE! 

You know I've been wanting a Ben Reilly Spidey since I was a kid playing with his toys. As I grew apart from Spider-Man (mostly his costume), I started to swing away from wanting this figure. I do have the older Ben Reilly Spider-Man from the Ares BAF days and honestly, I didn't even open that one. So when it's here now I find myself posing it as Spider-Carnage in my Spider-Verse shelf. Funny. All in all, I really like this figure. He is a variant and technically he is not required to finish Absorbing Man; but he does come with his worth and the arms for Absorbing Man does tie in with the BAF's personality. Other than that, pretty cool figure.

ML Rhino BAF: Scarlet Spider

You know what is hilarious? I've had this figure for a long time now. A few months, more or less. It's only now that I finished his photoshoot and decided it is time to review him. How can't I? He is part of the 2015 line up. So, I won't be adding too much on his history, but he is a clone. This was Ben Reilly's first Spider-Man costume before his much hated Spider-Man run. SO.... let's just get right on the figure.

This was 2015's box and it is something we have seen a ton of times before. As one can see, he comes with more than a few variations for his hands. Not too bad. Oh and two variant heads for Rhino.

As a Scarlet Spider, he is dominantly red minus the few accessories and the bright blue hoodie that he wears. This was a pretty liked costume and honestly, it's not that bad. Not my favorite, but it offers some variation to the well used and classic Spider-Man costume. I believe as a mold, this one is recycled, but I believe the torso(the hoodie) is brand new. It's not bad at all. It has enough details on the wrinkles, he comes with the pouches on his leg, the web shooters, the belt... it's got enough flare to him and it is costume accurate.

Three pair of hands: open/wall crawling, fists, and web shooting hands. Not too bad. Then Rhino has two heads to choose from. I am not going to finish Rhino for a lot of reasons. I might not list it in this; I might just do a 'why I did not finish this BAF' post.

Reilly retains the standard articulation for a Spider-Man figure with this mold. Again Hasbro has to one day correct the legs; Spider-related characters like these guys HAVE to be able to do the splits! Doing so will allow for some much appreciated dynamic poses.

The spare hands definitely adds to the fun factor as a figure; again one has to depend on custom webbing since Hasbro has yet to grace us with one.

As they should, these two stand well side by side. Again, "pizza" Spidey shares a lot of Scarlet Spidey's body and as comic book clones, they SHOULD stand side by side.

And of course, the OTHER Scarlet Spider in my collection. I wish the Kaine Scarlet Spider was a bit more articulated and was like the new Scarlet Spider. I really like the Kaine Spider better and he has more to offer as a character (in my opinion) and aesthetically to me. Since Kaine came from a much older BAF in Hasbro's revival of Marvel Legends, certain things are out dated. Surely highlights this new figure even more.

I'm sad. I'm a clone.

In conclusion, this is actually a pretty decent figure. I got him for the purpose of the figure and not because of the BAF completion. He is a pretty well liked figure so we were bound to get him. Still, I have this inkling that I am not even close to done with the introduction of my Spider-Men! 2016 is starting off right in collecting!