As a kid my favorite Saturday morning cartoon was Spidy and His Amazing Friends.  The cartoon was goofy but it gave me the name of my first dog, Firestar. The Marvel Universe 3 packs gave us both a feeling of nostalgia and a set of army builders. Check out the figures inside.

I was worried about finding these sets at my local Toy R Us store, just because they are exclusives. While Hasbro has been great at getting us most of the toys and making them easy to find, I was right to worry about this set. The Amazing Friends set has been the harder one to find. In almost every Toys R Us I see 3 or 4 army builders and no Amazing Friends.

The characters in the Amazing Friends set don’t fit in with anything in the Marvel Universe today, but with figures from the Secret Wars packs they look great. Together they look like they stepped out of the TV screen.  What worried me the most was when I opened the set Firestar lost a leg, but unlike the competitors figures it snapped right back into place.  The paint on these figures looks amazing and clean; from the bright white of Iceman, to the almost blinding yellow on Firestar, to the cartooned look of Spidy. I do not like having to buy multiples of the same figure but Hasbro has been able to make each Spiderman slightly different, while using the same sculpt. The only thing missing was the accessories from this pack. There is no ice slide, no fire ball, no web clip on.  For the price and the reuse of the Spidy body, I would have expected something a little extra.  The only other criticism I have is that in the pics of the character and in the old show Firestar had green eyes, while this figure has just white.  A marker or a small brush could fix it, but would have been a nice touch.  

The other box set is like potato chips, bet you can’t have just one.  I am up to three and want more, but with a slight price increase and inconsistent pricing thanks to the inability of Toys R Us to tell the difference between toys they sell, I will be sticking with three for now. This pack is full of extras, unlike the other pack. The soldiers in this pack all come with weapons.  This set helps to start an army of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hand and Hydra agents.  You can see the reuse in the set from the repainted Hand Ninja, to the Union Jack repainted as a Hydra Agent, and the reuse of the Daredevil body for both the Hydra and Shield agents. I don’t mind reuse for army builders, it allows for the company to make figures cheaper, and get them to us faster. I do mind when they use bodies that have flaws, like the Daredevil body. I have said since Wave One that it is both too small and too stubby, and the hands don’t work for a figure that needs both hands for weapons. 

Overall both sets are a hit for me, but the price bothers me. When you buy multi-packs you expect them to be slightly less than individual figures because they are packed together. The Secret Wars two packs are about $12.99, while these are now selling at $24.99, which puts them at the same price as three individual figures. That is what stings, but it has only slowed me down slightly. 

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