“Can you summon an army of spiders?”
“No, man!”
After the various releases of Peter as Spider-Man, as well as figures of MJ, the Vulture, and Iron Man the Hasbro team appeared to have been done with Spider-Man: Homecoming. But in 2022 to mark Spider-Man’s 60th Anniversary, a new Homecoming 2-Pack was announced containing new figures of Peter Parker and Ned Leeds as Midtown High students. The set was a general release and arrived during the short-lived plastic-free packaging era which meant the box had no windows and relied on both images of the figures and illustrations of the character to show off the contents.
We start with the first Peter Parker in his civilian gear in the MCU series and this depicts Peter in a pair of tan trousers with a green sweater over a patterned shirt which is just visible at the collar and a piece of the lower seam peeking out from his jumper. Peter’s outfit is complete by a pair of grey trainers with a white painted sole - the sole, and the exposed shirt pieces the only paintwork added onto the base plastic colouring of the cast parts. All of this is reasonably accurate to the outfit we see in Homecoming in the montage at the start as he waits for the call from Tony Stark and that includes the trainers with the only missing element the branding which is off the table for obvious reasons. It is worth noting that the colours may be slightly off as on-screen both the jumper and trousers are more muted, but there may be some exaggeration here for the scale of the figure.
Peter includes two head options. The first is a very well-executed Tom Holland neutral head and is the best likeness of Peter Parker to date and would go on to be re-used with some updating of the facial printing on the No Way Home Spider-Man. The second head option is less impressive as Hasbro has tried to get some expression into the face, sculpting Peter as though he is talking or starting to laugh with his mouth sculpted open and the teeth and gum detail painted in. The likeness to Tom Holland is not as clear cut with this version, it just looks off from most angles and doesn’t work too well either with the NEd figure who only comes with a neutral head of his own - so he can’t be displayed sharing the joke. Bother heads are also slightly glossy in the finish, a niggle with a lot of Hasbro releases circa 2021 and 2022.
Peter comes with two sets of hands which can be used in combination across the figure. You can choose from a pair of clenched fists and a pair of open hands which work really well with the included backpack. The backpack itself is soft plastic and shaped to fit Peter’s profile. The softer straps go over the arms and shoulders, with the backpack sitting squarely and securely on Peter’s back. It is coloured beige, slightly lighter than his trousers, with painted detail on the zips and the top handle as well as the two straps. The student look is completed by a school book, a fairly non-descript piece in brown with no cover details of any kind. It doesn’t fit in either hand well but can be clutched to Peter’s chest thanks to the arm articulation.
The articulation overall is pinless and there are 20 points on paper although the bottom of the neck and the waist have no movement of any note, leaving 18 joints to support posing and movement. All of these work really well and while it is unlikely he will be displayed this way, there are plenty of dynamic (fighting) stances open to Peter.
The Ned Leeds figure marks his debut as a Marvel Legends and like Peter, his costume is based on one specifically worn during scenes at Midtown High in Homecoming. This includes a pair of baggy stonewashed jeans, a blue and white striped T-shirt with a beige short-sleeved shirt over the top. The entirety of the shirt and T-shirt are added as a separate full sleeve over a basic torso and this does mean the blue and white of the shirt are painted onto the base beige plastic - while it's fairly neat in terms of the striping, there is paint bleed onto the edges of the shirt.
Ned does not come with any additional hands, but he does feature a wristwatch that is removable if you pop off his right hand. He only comes with one Ned Leeds head which doesn’t quite do actor Jacob Batalon justice compared to how nailed-on the Tom Holland neutral head is in the set. Ned's head is off in both skin tone and the overall likeness with the facial sculpt making him look quite a bit younger than he actually is in Homecoming. Like the Holland sculpts, this one also suffers from a slightly glossy tone.
There is however a second head for Ned, a nod to the scene where he is trying on the Spider-Man mask. The two heads swap out easily enough, and the alternative head is still given the same level of decor and sculpting as any Spidey head sculpt with sculpted - but unpainted - weblines, as well as white eyes, edged in black.
Ned also comes with his student backpack, a camouflage pack with black zips and trim. It has plain black softer plastic straps that fit around Ned’s shoulders and it too is shaped to sit on the figure naturally. Ned features 17 points of articulation with the standard leg joints alongside a limited motion waist joint under the shirt, and a duel jointed neck with most of the movement at the top and minimal motion at the base. The arms are more restricted than usual with the elbows not even reaching the 90-degree mark and the shoulders being quite stiff and awkward to move and pose. There isn’t much we expect Ned to be doing, but it would have been nice for the arms to move sufficiently to pose him as though putting on or taking off the Spidey mask
The Spider-Man 60th Anniversary 2-Pack of Peter Parker and Ned Leeds is a set that has had an interesting journey at retail. It was highly sought after at first due to limited stocks, then a large volume was dumped here in the UK via Game with prices dropping way past the £50 RRP to circa £20. The set is still available at the time of writing, although prices have stabilised. What you get in the set are two reasonably well-executed figures based on on-screen costumes and with appropriate accessories for each.
Peter is the better of the two and also features more variations in hand and head options. Ned has less articulation and no additional hand options, but the alternative Spider-Man head is quite fun. It is interesting that the way Ned has been designed indicated more variations of him may be in the works - probably No Way Home as a minimum - but the set (at the time of writing) is the only one that will give you a Ned Leeds for your Spider-Man display.
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About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...
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