Marvel Collector Corps August 2016 unboxing and review: Spider-Man
By Nick Tylwalk
Spider-Man swings into Collector Corps as only he can, and we take a look at what he brings with him.
In the WWE, John Cena calls himself “the face that runs the place,” and no one probably deserves that title more in the Marvel Universe than Spider-Man. The web-swinger is one of the most iconic superheroes ever, and for a Collector Corps shipment on a month without an obvious movie or comic book tie-in, it’s hard to go wrong by simply devoting the box to Spidey.
Funko and Marvel were thinking the same way, which is why we have Spider-Man for the August 2016 theme. He’s a safe choice but also a universal one, because who doesn’t love the wall-crawler? Besides his villains, of course.
Let’s see what’s waiting inside this one.
The Box and Accessories
There’s no mistaking who’s the star of this show. Spider-Man is on the outside of the box, the interior art, and he appears on the patch while his logo is on this month’s pin.
Funko notes in the card that comes with this box that the round look for the patches is here to stay, and this one is about as classic as it gets.
The Vinyl
We get two figures in this box, which is always a welcome development. The first is an exclusive Spider-Man Pop Vinyl figure. If you’re a Spidey fan, there’s an above average chance you already have a Pop in your collection, but this is the first one to use a flying stand to make it appear he’s leaping and about to fire a web at someone, so it still should earn a place on your shelf.
He’s joined by a Spider-Man Fabrikation, which Funko says was supposed to be part of its original Marvel line but instead was saved to be the largest item inserted into a Collector Corps shipment to date (and it does, indeed, make the box physically bigger). This writer’s favorite vinyl assortment of 2016 was the dual Pop and Dorbz figure that came in the Civil War box, but your mileage may vary, and if you like Fabrikations, this is a cool piece.
The Shirt The Hat
No t-shirt this month, as Funko pivots and inserts what they are calling a Pop Top, which is a snapback cap. I’m a huge hat collector and am a bit wary about caps not made by one of the industry leaders, like New Era or Mitchell & Ness, but this one is well-constructed and has cool embroidery with the Spider-Man Pop’s head front and center.
A similar cap recently appeared in Funko’s Smugglers Bounty Star Wars shipments, but this is the first we’ve seen for Marvel. I love it, but there’s no question that it’s not as universal as a tee would be — in other words, a flat brim snapback is not something everyone would wear — and is the most likely item in a while to be something you might need to give to someone else.
The Bonus
How about a comic with a special variant cover to finish off this assortment? Your wish is Funko’s command.
The issue here is The Amazing Spider-Man #16, which went on sale earlier this month. It’s got a clean, crisp image of the Spider-Man Pop in a classic pose, and like all comics in Collector Crops boxes, it comes sealed in plastic with a backing board in case you want to keep it pristine.
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The Verdict
No issues with value in this one, but that’s never really a problem with Collector Corps. The only qualm one might have with a single character theme like the August 2016 box is that if you don’t like said character, you’re completely out of luck.
But who doesn’t like Spider-Man? The cap and Fabrikation make this perhaps a bit less of a slam dunk for every collector and fan than other shipments, but if you dig those two items, you’ll find this box superb.