“Spider-Man: Far From Home” opened this past Tuesday so I thought now was a good time to crack open my Target Exclusive Marvel Legends Spider-Man/MJ 2-pack and review the MJ figure. This 2-pack is actually advertised as being from “Spider-Man: Homecoming”, but hey, better late than never.
Yes, it’s kind of weird that this is labeled with the ‘Homecoming’ logo since MJ really doesn’t play a big role in this movie…but I’m not complaining. She does have a better, more fleshed out role in ‘Far From Home’ (at least I assume she does, I haven’t seen the movie yet) so this inclusion doesn’t seem too off the mark.
From my understanding, Hasbro waited some time to perfect their newer face sculpting technique before they put this one out…did the wait pay off? Check out the review…
This being a 2-pack, it’s almost like having a double-wide regular Marvel Legends packaging. Actually, it’s exactly like having a double-wide Marvel Legends packaging.
Displayed prominently on the front window is Spider-Man in his hoodie and school jacket and MJ in regular (almost too regular) clothing with a few accessories.
Right off two things grabbed my eye: as I mentioned in the intro, this is from “Spider-Man: Homecoming”, mainly because of the school jacket and promotional movie poster featuring him in said jacket, and the other thing is that for a “Target Exclusive”, there is no “Exclusively from Target” sticker anywhere. Not that there has to, but I’m used to seeing a (RIP) Toys R Us exclusive sticker, or Walgreens exclusive sticker…something to indicate, hey you can only find it in this one place at the normal price. But nothing on this account.
Packaging Score: 7.5 out of 10 
So what accessories do you give the character that doesn’t really have a necessity for additional accessories? Well of course an extra head and hands.
The character comes out of the package with MJ/Zendaya’s hair down look, but also included is an additional head sculpt with the figure’s hair in a messy ponytail look, like in the ‘Homecoming’ movie.
The character also comes out of the package with a closed fist right hand and a splayed out fingers left hand, so the additional hands include a ‘grabbing’ left hand that can hold accessories, and a splayed out fingers right hand. Not very creative, but hey, it’s kind of the best Hasbro can do with the source material.
Taking that into consideration, I will be fair in grading the accessories. Yes, not very exciting but at least we got something in relation to the character.
Accessories Score: 8 out of 10
In terms of head sculpting, Hasbro gets closer and closer to nailing down the look of the actor…amazing considering this is essentially a $20 figure. It makes me think back to all of that junk they were shoveling to us before their face-sculpting techniques and the opportunities they’ll probably take to “re-release” the older figures with new face sculpts.
Both head sculpts look eerily close to the actress Zendaya, which is crazy because when I saw the promotional prototype, I thought this was going to come back looking like junk. Instead, we get a very close facsimile, as good as those $80-$100 Japanese action figures.
One thing about the ponytail head sculpt though…it’s a little too neat considering that most of the time we see MJ in the movie, her hair was a frizzy mess.
I’m not too sure about the clothing though. For one, I don’t remember her wearing this outfit, but it is plain enough that she very well could have been. And the colors on the jacket and clothing seem so drab to me. It is an olive-colored jacket, but in some of my shots the pictures came out too brown and in others they came out too green.
Other than a few nitpicks, very nicely done job on both the sculpting and the actress likeness.
Sculpt/Likeness Score: 8.5 out of10
This figure has about 27+ points of articulation, usually just right for a Marvel Legends female figure, but of course this is not without issue.
One of the main issues? While I love that there is a hinge in the neck area, you actually can not use it very well because the hard plastic sculpted hair makes it nearly impossible to get the figure to look up or down.
Another issue may pertain to more of a sculpting issue. The feet are most likely proportionately small on the figure…but the smaller feet makes it hard to balance the figure making some possible poses impossible without some type of figure stand. The pose in the articulation picture above took nearly 10 minutes for me to get to stay.
Of course some things that would have put this over the top are the usual missing points of articulation for female figures including double-hinged elbows and waist swivel.
Sculpt/Likeness Score: 8 out of10
I’m not one of those people who complain that traditionally White characters get recast as Black ones (or another race). The same people who claim “they don’t see color” are usually the first ones to cry out and complain “Mary Jane is supposed to be White!” I mean, Aunt May is not supposed to be a mid-age hottie either, but then we get Marisa Tomei, so there you go. As long as they’re good actors and the story is enjoyable, I really don’t care.
I may not care about race, but I think I’m a sizist…Tom Holland comes in at 5’8″ while Zendaya is a statuesque 5’10″…I had to look this up because even the action figures reflect the slight size difference. I’m sure movie magic will have lil’ Tom standing on a stoop or hanging off a wall while he’s talking to Zendaya…but really, that’s crazy. I guess shorter guys can get taller girls every once in a while…
Anyway, looking forward to seeing “Spider-Man: Far From Home” and hope Hasbro keeps putting out quality figures like this.
