Spider-Man Friends & Foes

Okay, Minimates, you win, I'm willing to pay over $20 to complete my set of Sinister Six minimates. Even if it does come with a stupid Spider-man variant and new versions of two figures I've already gotten in the past. But if the Excalibur Boxset showed me anything, it's that new versions can be kind of cool, so wow me.

Okay, I'm really liking the Vulture, so that's good. They used the same arm thingy they did with Blackbolt, but it works really well here. The only gripe I've got is one that's inherint to minimates as a whole. Without a nose you lose part of what makes the Vulture look so iconic.

Spider-Man looks... ugh, I hate when they do a Battle Damaged Spider-Man. I get it, he got beat up, do I need 10 variations of this? At this point I want them to follow the trend they had in the 90's with the regular action figures. Give me Crocodile Hunter Spider-Man, Dinosaur Fighting Spider-Man, Hip Wader Spider-Man. Ridiculous variants would be better than all these Beat-Up Spider-men figures.

The other two are updates of the Black Cat & Dr. Octopus. Any good?

Black Cat is a toss up. (New one on the left.) It's mroe realistic, but by losing the simpler caricature look of the older minimates they also lost some of the implied voluptuousness. Face facts, a square body is not a good way to express sexy. If you go simpler you allow the imagination to fill more details.

Meanwhile Doc Ock is an improvement. (New figure on the right.) The added detail makes him look angrier, more cranky. The old figure is kind of comical rather than threatening. So this is one time where the more detailed approach works. Also the arms are a lot cooler, even if they aren't really articulated. They have cut joints, but the pre-posed tentacles almost render that joint moot.