Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Retro Toy Week: Transmetropolitan Spider Jerusalem!

Ah, I miss the days when DC Direct used to do a little bit more offbeat character selections, rather than simply grinding out yet another Batman or Superman (or now, Green Lantern) variation. From Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson's Transmetropolitan, Spider Jerusalem!


This was one of my favorite series, so of course I was up for a figure of the future's premier gonzo journalist. While Spider usually wore a jacket or pants when he left the house, the shorts look gives the opportunity to show off the tattoos. Still, he's not quite as articulated as you might think; and because of the tatts, he looks like he's going to have cut wrists, but he doesn't. Does he? Frankly, I always thought the shoulders looked like ball-joints, but they're not.
Spider came with a laptop, and his terrible two-headed cat. (There was a variant with a bowel disruptor handgun, which I believe was molded to his hand and non-removable, so...) I wish Spider had a bit more articulation, to better type away on his columns, or stroke his cat like a Bond villain. A better neck joint, rather than a mere cut, would've better served the character as well, but this was the state of specialty market figures around, I don't know, 1999 or so.
Unless a movie deal materializes (I was holding out for Transmetropolitan: the Animated Series...) I doubt we'll see another Spider Jerusalem figure. Which means, if you want him, well, you're going to have to shell out a bit now. I found one here, which looks about the best price you could figure on right now, but as usual, shop it around.




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