Toy Review: Spawn Boxed Figures Series 2 and Bloody Variants

With McFarlane Toys‘ relaunch of Spawn comic-based figures an apparent success, the company continues the line with even more regular and deluxe boxed figures. Some are straight up modern remakes of older, less-articulated figures. Others give new designs to old favorites. With the latest group of Spawn boxed figures McFarlane sent us for review (save Cy-Gor, purchased individually), we get one repaint, one partial resculpt, and three new versions of characters done before. Some work significantly better than others.

The big winner of these five is the bloody version of The Clown. In addition to blood splatter all over his hands, legs, and chest, and a new, physics-defying, chainsaw-on-a-stick weapon, his guns now look like actual cannons and guns. They’re still cartoonishly absurd in proportions, but look much more like lethal weapons than on the original sculpt.

The bloody hands also address the previous figure’s issue that his hands’ flesh tone didn’t match his body’s. Choose splattered versions (above), or full red-drenched swap-outs that look like he’s wearing wet, red gloves (below). The splatter makes a better transition with the forearms.

Violator also gets a bloody variant, though the sculpt remains the same. The body color’s a little darker, though it feels more so because the dark red splatter gives it that feel overall. A fantastically detaield figure with extra gore — what’s not to like?

Bloody Violator also comes with a signed Todd McFarlane print. Todd’s autograph is easy enough to get that it’s likely not worth much, but it always looks cool.

The darker shade and the blood makes this Violator look more and more like a Stranger Things creature. Considering McFarlane made a toy Demogorgon, perhaps Todd got inspired.

RELATED: Toy Review: Spawn Figures Are Back, Bigger Than Before

When McFarlane Toys originally made a Spawn on throne figure, he was, like most at the time, stuck in one pose, with limited articulation. Though he did have a skull to hold, Hamlet-style. The new version ditches the skull, but features the full current McFarlane range of articulation.

That said, he looks best sitting.

The bottom curl of his cape is part of the throne, separate him from it, and only the hood and shoulders area attaches to him, though it’s easily removable if that’s preferred. The shoulder and butterfly joints seem a touch loose on him, and he’s quite light relative to other recent Spawns. But he is a new sculpt, with smoother texture that looks more like superhero spandex than rough symbiote texture.

The throne itself boasts a sculpt that gives a better sense of its component parts, but also makes it feel like a serpent rearing up.

It’s a shame to lose the skull, but the figure massively improves on the original. And that’s certainly not the case with every figure here.

Overtkill, the mafia-produced giant cyborg, was done to perfection in 2001 with a deluxe figure called Overtkill III. The newer figure of him resembles the newer comic version, so it may be a matter of taste. The design style seems to take a page out of Super-Patriot’s book, and the face looks very Resident Evil: Nemesis. A bit more color transition between the torso and the limbs might have helped.

The big surprise with Overtkill? His lightness. Most of him is hard, hollow, rotocast plastic. This makes him easy to pick up, and keeps his waist ball joint pretty loose. He feels almost more part of the RAW10 figure line than a Spawn. Still, with Overtkill III fetching around $100 online these days, fans who’d like an Overtkill now have one to afford. At least the sculpt is cool. It maintains that classic McFarlane aesthetic of detailed and dirty, like an intricate but smudged rough sketch brought into reality.

Finally we have Cy-Gor. An awesome sculpt nearly ruined by a major design flaw. Can you see it?

Look closer:

That waist joint, as they say, is fugly. Thanks to a super-loose crotch piece over elaborate hip articulation, he has a massive waist gap that shows off the figure’s articulation frame inside. It’s a botched attempt to execute the figure so he looks good on all fours and standing upright, but the rubbery crotch piece looks awful in the upright pose. However, hunch him down like a gorilla, and he recovers somewhat. It seriously seemed like a piece came accidentally unglued. But looking around online, you’ll find most folks who reviewed him had the same issue.

That one big flaw’s a shame, because the rest of him’s top-notch.

His articulation is limited somewhat by his size and by cables attaching his right arm to his body, but he does have limited ball joints where needed. Most importantly, the head can move into position for upright or all fours. But damn, McFarlane, if you do a bloody variant, FIX THAT CROTCH. A double ball joint ought to pull it off. It feels like some rushed execution — as does Overtkill, frankly. Violator and Clown just feel better put together and more fun.

Throne Spawn’s body will probably see reuse, as it’s versatile.

One packaging note. Some figures still use wire twist ties; many others sport the much-more annoying plastic shirt ties. Cy-Gor splits the difference with plastic twisties! Which are still better than shirt ties.

Bloody Clown and Bloody Violator sell exclusively at Gamestop. As of this writing, they sell for around $35 and $50, respectively, which sounds surprisingly reasonable for that particular outlet. Entertainment Earth has the rest for similar pricing. (Superhero Hype is an affiliate partner of Entertainment Earth, and may earn fees from purchase made through site links.)

Take a look through the gallery below for more images. Let us know your thoughts in comments.

Recommended Purchase: Spawn Series 4 Cy-Gor Action Figure

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