Marvel Select has been a pretty good toy line for probably over a decade now, but it hasn’t reached into my wallet too often over the years. It was a mixture of a few things, my once-preference for DC Comics, the general 7” scale of the line, and the early figures with limited articulation & bulky dioramas not really appealing to me at the time (despite some good sculpting).
Occasionally, I’d pick one up when it was a character or look I really wanted to have like the Black Costume Spider-Man & Spider-Woman. Or if it was an oversized figure that would fit in great with my Marvel Legends collection like Thanos (& Uatu, but I don’t think I ever got around to him). In recent years, I’ve been more tempted, particularly as the articulation increased with little sacrifice to the great sculpts. The jury is still out on the Rhino release from earlier this year, but one figure I knew I wanted right away was the Classic Venom.
Now, I’m not a big Venom fan really. I am a HUGE Symbiote Spider-Man fan. I fell in love with that costume when I saw the Secret Wars figures. My parents tracked down the comics and I’ve compulsively bought it ever since. The old 5” line. Famous Covers. Legends. The aforementioned crappy Select one. Animated versions. Squashdown versions. Minimates. I’m reminded I still need to go back and get the Medicom one. And that LEGO has forsaken me with an SDCC exclusive (can I pay $150 for a LEGO Minifigure??) Anyway, hey, yeah… Venom.
As you might gather, while Venom simultaneously represents a huge perversion of my favorite Spidey look, he also sports it. So, hey, I like the guy enough, particularly in that narrow window when he was a big, scary-toothed alien and not a crazy-tongued thing. So I don’t normally buy Venom figures, but when I do… they don’t typically have a tongue. It doesn’t happen often.
But Marvel Select took Venom-figure making to a whole new level. This figure tried to cover as many bases as it could. The basic figure itself is pretty awesome, I’ll get to that in a minute, but the accessories knock this figure out of the park. Three heads. 8 hands. Clip-on back-spawn with articulated arms. Two extra half-arms. That’s a lot and with it, you can have my preferred toothy Venom, the more popular crazy-tongue Venom (the tongue is also removable), a mid-transformation Eddie Brock, and then a crazy-looking child-spawning Venom using all the extra attachments. Those options alone are pretty impressive and that’s not counting that the four of the spawn-heads are articulated as are four extra arms, featuring swivels at their base and their wrists, as well as hinged elbows on the larger two.
All that extra stuff is fantastic. There’s the obvious play value, but even display-only collectors can get in on the action choosing their favorite look or switching between the looks whenever they choose. While the Eddie Brock & crazy tongue heads are well-sculpted & well-painted, and I have the option of pulling the tongue out of the screaming head, my Venom will be keeping his old school McFarlane head on my shelves for the foreseeable future.
I’m a little out of order talking about the accessories first, but the main body is as well-sculpted as any of the add-on pieces. The guy is massive first-of-all. Topping out at 8”, I think he might be a little too big to even be in-scale with other Select figures, but it hardly matters. We could chalk this up to artistic interpretation and the variable size of the symbiote, but he still a little large. I, personally, don’t mind tossing him with my Marvel Legends – though he does look a bit silly when he’s paired off with Iron Monger or someone else that should be larger. I love it though, and if I didn’t have affinity for that old ML Sabretooth-repaint Venom, this guy would take over his spot in my display instead of having to share it. Continue to Page 2…
great review! I’m right there with you on the tongue thing!
Normally, I would never prefer a McFarlane anything to a Larsen anything, but what are ya gonna do? LOL
Great review, pics, and excellent comics!
Never been a huge comics collector, but I’ve been a casual fan of Venom for some time. Not enough to buy any figures of him, but this one is sorely tempting.
“You wanted Spidey to have a gay lover Garfeild.” I could hear that with that shot easily. Hopefully doesn’t happen.
I haven’t dabbled into the selects but this fig to me would be worth it to me. Venom: the madness is what I see with all that on and that was a fun read (also helps to know all removable now.) Counting down days now so who knows may snag this guy.
The ” Mattel toy” shot set is funny as some recent hiccups I have had. Soon to have fun with my broke hand supes as I got that RotMLs wave 1 Thor.
The Pics, they’re killing me… Damn you Mattel for hogging most of my toy budget!!
cause now I don’t have spare toy money to hunt for this Venom!
Awesome post. Pics are hilarious as usual. Great review. I was on the fence on this for the same reasons you have with Diamond Select. Just pulled the trigger on it due to your review.
Noisy is . . . the most interesting man in the (toy) world.
This figure does rule, and I’m a “McFarlane purist” with Venom myself, the overwhelming reason why I had to own this figure and why IT owns every other Venom figure to date.
Neck is slightly long if I’m nitpicking, but overall I totally agree this guy is FOTY (figure of the year) material!
Hey, look at that! I’m pretty happy with this as a default Venom, though the Bagley-era Venom is a bit too crazy-jawed. The “cheese” class picture was great, I’m actually shocked there are so many smiley figures in the Spidey-verse to fill it.
Venom shows off some of the great fan-friendly strides Marvel Select has been making lately. Adding articulation, communication/accessibility to fans and loading in logical accessories has thankfully made them the anti-DC Direct/Collectibles. MSWord on TheFwoosh’s MS forum page (sorry for mentioning another site) is pretty responsive to questions and patient with the occasional obsessive nerd-rage outburst.
I know these guys are a bit out of the IAT emphasis, but I do recommend more of these for consideration. The new movie Logan, Colossus and Juggernaut are just as good if n
Not better than Venom here.
man, i still kick myself every time i see this figure, as i haven’t pulled the trigger yet, and i have, like noisy, a pretty big collection of venoms?… venoi? venomi? i don’t knows the plural here.
He is a great figure Dayraven, if you should get him.
Dentist line makes the comics.
Damn. not a favorite character, but this guy is jacked out the wazoo.
[adds to list of things I need to get.]
and yeah, I have the Sabretooth body and what I call the “Ah-nuld” body that got a clear variant. Did a pass on the Venom-Scorpion and the various Symbiotes, tho.
(seriously, Bride of Venom? time to pass the dutchie, Falacada.)
*FALCADA.
#things you notice .2 seconds AFTER hitting “post”
He’s pretty damm happy about something.
The only Marvel Select figures I picked up are the characters who are supposed to tower over others: Thanos, She-Hulk (7′!), and the Watcher. I loved the first one, merely liked the second (too posed), and was completely in love with the Watcher until the plastic at his ankles bent a little, causing him to permanently tip forward, even when on his stand.
I mostly otherwise passed on the line due to the scale. My reasoning is that I had a huge Legends-era Marvel collection, and didn’t want to re-collect everything. (Marvel Universe didn’t help.)
Now, I’m not so sure. Due to the hyper-articulation, many of the Legends have joints so loose they no longer stand. Those figures aren’t surviving the test of time. And Legends always had – and still has – a scale problem. The classic Iron Man and Piledriver I bought this year don’t belong on the same shelf.
I’ve had a hard time ascertaining whether Marvel Select’s scale has been consistent. I’m not a Venom fan for whatever reason (although I share your preference for the creepy McFarlane smiling version as opposed to the obnoxious tongue), but swappable heads? Swappable hands? That is actually starting to sound like an adult collectible. If this is a great figure, it may be worth taking a second look at some of those classic X-Men figures they were releasing.
Sigh..
Oh Marvel Select, why couldn’t you be in 6 inch scale, like all my other toys?
Like you, I’m a nut for the alien costume, and the whole story, including the non-alien black costume times like gang war and Kraven’s last hunt, and I even still have the Secret Wars figure.
I’m a much bigger fan of the old school Spidey villians, but I’d still like a nice Venom figure for the shelf, if I actually liked any of them.
So here’s this really nice Marvel Select version, and that old McFarlane head totally sells it for me, but like all Marvel Select toys, I take a pass, because it’s Too. Damn. Big.
I’d buy a bunch of the MS figures if they were in scale with every other toy I have, but no.
Venom actually looks good next to the Wrecking Crew, another bunch of toys I passed on for being way too big.