It’s finally here! Took a while, but the Spawn Remastered Kickstarter figures from McFarlane Toys finally landed on my doorstep last week. A re-imagining of the original toy from 1994, Spawn gets redone in modern form at the 7 inch scale with the upgraded sculpt, paint and articulation we expect in modern times. Things that were also spear-headed by McFarlane Toys in the late 90s and early 2000s, basically creating the game for collector level action figures.
The Kickstarter had a lot of options, upgrades, “stretch goals” and variants as it progressed, but the end result were 3 distinct figures with a set of weapons each (see inside for the breakdown). One extra weapon was available only to those that bought all 3. After that the variations are comic cover and autograph type. The three figures were Classic Spawn, Modern Spawn, and Artist Proof Spawn (all grey). I actually bought 5 – a three pack and one each of the Classic and Modern. So we have them all here and are seen in depth after the break.
In addition to the Kickstarter figures – I also bought a sealed original 1994(5?) Spawn recently and cracked him open to compare. So a quick but full gallery for the original figure is also available after the break! Read on to check it all out (over 200 pics) along with some additional thoughts!
Spawn Remastered Kickstarter Trilogy 3 Pack
Introduction
Yes! Saw it at Toy Fair 2020, right before the world went nuts. Wanted it. Live in April, all in. I’ve been on a Spawn kick in recent years – grabbing older pieces here and there and of course anything new Todd puts out. Played MK11 through and through just to rock Spawn, did that pretty thorough. And now Spawn is back in modern form, with classic vibes. The MK11 figure was great, but it was specific to the game. This is the real deal, comic based looks.
The offerings were a bit confusing, I couldn’t even remember what was what when it showed up. I’ll try to map it out below:
Classic Spawn
-Masked Head
-Hamburger Head
-3 sets hands
-Necro knife
-Necro blasts
-Sword
-Machine Gun
-Stand
Modern Spawn
-Shoelace Head
-Al Simmons Head
-3 sets hands
-Necro knife
-Necro blasts
-Launcher Gun
-Stand
Artist Proof Spawn (All grey, except energy pieces)
-Masked Head
-Hamburger Head
-3 sets hands
-Necro knife
-Necro orb
-Wooden Plank
-Sword
-Stand
3 Pack Trilogy (when you bought all 3 together)
-Autograph – Golden ink on Black w/ Gold Trim. Comes packed with Classic.
Other Notes
-Each one could be purchased individually.
-Each one could be purchased with an autograph.
–(Classic = Red on white, Modern = Green on White, AP = Black on White)
-Individual purchases – comics don’t have foil trim.-All comics have foil trim
-All figures with an autograph (3 pack or individuals) get the Wooden Plank accessory.
All the pics here are of the Trilogy figures. There isn’t a difference other than the placement of items in the foam insert around the clamshell, since you get different ones depending on what you ordered, and autographs get worked in when purchased. The figures and items in the bubbles are the same. Comics will be foil/not accordingly. Bottom line – figures and accessories the same with one exception – painted Wooden hook. Only with the 3 pack, Only with autographed pieces (3 pack or singles) in the foam insert.
I’ll drop thoughts for each below with the pictures. I’ll save some overall thoughts on the figures and project for the end.
Spawn Remastered – Classic
The original. I’ve been partial to modern Spawn’s look, it always felt a bit more grown up. However, once this got in hand it’s now my favorite of the three. Color blocking of the red mixed with the upgraded sculpt and paint washing makes it really pop on the display. He’s getting center stage.
Original 1994 Spawn Action Figure
Throwback! I had a beat up OG Spawn around here somewhere, but since this whole thing started as a homage to the original toy including cape gimmick, packaging and all that – I had to get a fresh one. The new set really does homage the original front to back, tons of nostalgia feels here.
Spawn Remastered – Modern
A really sharp modern take. Couple of nitpicks. One – no masked head. I got the 3 pack so I can swap, but I’d rather not. If I decide to pack all but this one away, I won’t have the masked head handy. Two – the boot is on the right leg. I thought that was 100% wrong, but how could the creator of the character get something like that wrong! Turns out the boot was on the right in a couple pieces of art, so there is precedent. But it’s been on the left for most of the time, so would have preferred that. I smell a re-release later in the traditional format. Arm gauntlet – awesome, but since there is no cut below elbow, it can’t easily be displayed outward(ish). It’s always facing to side or back, hidden by cape.
Spawn Remastered – Swaps and Comparisons
Here are all the heads and weapons mixed together on each figure. Shows how you can piece him out differently if you got both Modern and Classic. Technically AP can work here too, but since it’s all grey no point.
Spawn Remastered – Artist Proof
I love seeing grey models of prototypes. And I love photographing them in harsh light, it really makes the sculpt pop. However, due to limited shelf space this one is going back in the boxes. It’s really well done, and I enjoyed running it for photos. So if it calls out to you, worth the pick up. Just about personal taste.
Spawn Remastered – Fancy Pants Hero Shots
And lastly, here are some artistic shots of these guys in action. I love shooting Spawn because it’s right up my alley style wise – lots of harsh light, shadows, glowing eyes, and green glowy mist. Was another fun couple days running these before he takes top billing on the shelves!
Final Thoughts
So all in all, I love the project and am glad I backed it. But I do have some nerd boy nitpicks to blast off about, hopefully constructive criticism for future projects if anyone over there reads this…
Articulation (someone over there just flipped their keyboard). We’ve come so far from Color Tops, old school staction figures. It’s good. But it could be better. I was really hoping we’d go there with this, but they didn’t stick the landing. I understand the form vs function argument. I also get costs are a factor. I’m speaking from the perspective that I can accept unnatural cuts for a better functioning piece. So long as they are streamlined to best of one’s ability, cuts are fine with me. Costs – especially for a centerpiece item, I’d rather pay a couple extra bucks and get the functionality.
No torso cut, and no soft plastic with a bend inside = limited posing. No hunchy moody poses. No in-air, about to pounce moves. No epic stretching up to the side for Malebolgia.
Upper thigh cuts – limits range of leg movement. Goal is to bend one knee all the way, and have both feet planted on the ground. Very difficult to achieve that without an upper cut.
Hip connection is better than it used to be, but it’s still limited in range. I’d like to get that knee close to his chest, with his toes pointing at the ground.
Single jointed elbows. Not horrible here, but again, I’d like to have him be able to point his gun straight up, so it’s parallel with his chest. Or even over his shoulder pointing a bit backwards. The cuts are nicely done tho – upper biceps and then another swivel at the elbow. So you get two turns there. Doesn’t help the gauntlet issue on Modern tho since that can’t swivel after you bend the arm.
Heads – the body has a unique sculpt, with a raised shoulder on one side. A lot of folks didn’t like that, I was neutral on it. However, the one place this becomes an issue – at the head/collar line. The heads themselves are unequal at the collar line. They are cut without pure intent to actually move side to side. If you turn the heads too far either way, you see a big chunk of non lined up plastic. In addition, the Shoelace and Hamburger heads do not have a neck joint. You plug it into collar area, and then that’s it. You can turn it, but you get that plastic chunk showing. The masked and Al Simmons heads actually have a joint in addition to the neck connector. All of them can easily get misaligned above collar showing a gap. You can fix that, but it happens with natural fiddling.
The cape. That awesome cape. That sonofab**** cape. :). It’s big, it’s plastic, it’s firm. It does what it says it’ll do, it opens and closes. It homages the original. It looks great in vanilla poses. It also is a bit taller than the figure. So it pushes out behind him while he’s standing straight up. Not horrible, but a thing. Then, if you want to pose him in any way that has his legs bent, you lose height, and it becomes a bigger issue. It is also not easily removeable. They seem glued in place to me. I didn’t want to break it trying to find out. That being said, half of one side on one of mine started disconnecting. But not enough that I felt comfortable going all the way. The heavy posing and resting with legs bent I guess put upward pressure on one side and it came out of it’s track. And yes, there is a track cut into the figure where the cape sits in. What I would have preferred – do this, make it removeable, and even offer multiple other capes later. Give me a cape pack that works with all Spawn figures down the road, using a unified technology on all figures. Some will work better than others, but we can make the choice. Or, choose to remove it and put a custom non-plastic cape on instead. As a vanilla pose centerpiece it’s great, but functionally for photos, dynamic poses on shelf, or just “playing” with it every once and a while, the cape is limiting.
So yeah, this is like light years beyond what McFarlane Toys were doing just a couple years ago, but in terms of actual functionality there is still a way to go. Just doing the articulation cuts doesn’t make it better if they are not fully functional. A simple way to explain it is…
All those super cool poses Todd is known for drawing Spawn in – the covers, the spreads – I want to be able to recreate ALL OF THEM, with ONE FIGURE. I want to completely mimic every single Spawn cover, and Spawn full page spread, ever done, with one figure. If you go to homage a cool piece of art, and can’t due to lack of articulation, that stinks. This applies to regular collectors looking to do it on their shelves, and photo guys like me.
Anyway, enough of that. All that may seem like bitching and hate, but it’s not. Tough love. And I do love these figures. I am 100% happy with the end result. They look great, they didn’t break, and they are here. I can’t ask for much more.
Bottom line – if you missed out on these, and see them aftermarket for a reasonable price, grab them. They feel great in hand and look great on shelf.
Hope you all enjoyed the pics, looks like we will be getting more Spawn this year – new toys have been teased and multiple new Spawn’s Universe books are coming. Can’t wait!
Finally got him in, and done. 200 pics and thoughts here:




Spawn Remastered Kickstarter – In Depth In Hand Photos and Thoughts
And, a bonus set for the OG 94!
I’m not looking at the photos as gorgeous as I know they are. I want to be totally surprised when my trilogy shows up. I was an early backer and still have no word on it.
My only question. Anything I should know about opening them.....any weapons that are hidden or fall out? Any breakage issues? Thanks!
For post issue 31 Spawn I'm fine with the MK11 figure, plus them inverting the big boot with this release is really odd, but the original costume with the shoelace head looks rad. I'm eager to see where they'll go with the upcoming line.
The pre-posed torso was still a mistake.
Stellar pics as always. Spawn + green smoke just works so well. I’m actually surprised how much I like the unpainted one. The fancy pics of that remind me of good 3D renders.
Wow; that's some review, who needs marketing with reviews like this! Looks like a great product, but it's the original that has the feels, so many remakes, so little space for them.
My only question. Anything I should know about opening them.....any weapons that are hidden or fall out? Any breakage issues? Thanks!
Re: Opening - not really. It's all pretty straight forward, everything slides out and apart as needed. Only two little plastic ties to cut and he's free. It's a really collector focused set up and well done.
Also updated the article details on each set. I was wrong even after trying to map it out all in my head. Will continue to review in case I missed something. If you guys see anything off LMK.
My only question. Anything I should know about opening them.....any weapons that are hidden or fall out? Any breakage issues? Thanks!
To answer your question, no, everything is securely packed and the figure is solid. You can read the write up whenever, it's very thorough on the deficient areas. I don't play/pose anything toy related so none of the issues matter to me, but you should at least read his thoughts at the end. You can scroll down past all the pics.
I'm also 100% satisfied my only regret was not getting another Artist Proof. This one is so cool I don't want to paint it and now want another. Anyone interest in a trade straight up?
Did not get this set....
The only one that held my attention...
Was "Hamburger face". I guess
they call him "shoe lace" today...
Looks like Todd gave you a ton of Spawn...
That's for sure..
Tony...
Great review and the pic's as always..
"SUPER" =^)
Damn EPIC review and photo gallery, Tony. So in-depth! You did a great job pointing out the good and the bad for exactly what they are.
Overall, the figure looks nice in plain, vanilla poses but the multiple articulation issues really are a really big disappointment. It's a shame that this figure was developed back when Todd's people were still trying to tell their asses from their elbows in terms of how articulation is supposed to work. They've figured it out just fine with their latest offerings (seriously, they've come a long way in quality in a short amount of time), but sadly this Spawn figure still reflects their fledgling efforts circa the first DC wave when things were shitty.
Thanks for the info guys!
The torso is a major disappointment. So is the hard cape. I get that this is an updated version of the 1994 release bu it’s updated to about 2008 standards. I’m still excited, but I really hoped for a cloth cape. I guess someone is selling one on eBay that works great for him.
The funny thing about those “statue” figures from the later 2000’s.......look them up on eBay.....some are way overpriced. They were cool, but I want “action” in my action figures.
This is killing me....I so want to look at these pics......I still have nothing in my fedex delivery manager!
This and Unicron and the wait related to actually getting out has been infuriating. This arrived, and Uni started his journey so it's almost over for me.
I saw in the comments on the kick starter that mcfarlane is planning a medieval spawn for the next Kickstarter..........next! I don’t have this one yet. Lol.
Add on to that, the end of this year and next year will be several big ticket items. The Razor Crest, the Marvel Legends Sentinel, the Thundercats Battle Tank and hot toys Batman and Robin from “Batman Forever”. At least when everything shows it’s paid for, but this is a lot of “green” tied up for things that may be more than a year away.
This post single handed made me wanna join the website. I've been lurking for a couple of months thanks to my brother's recommendation (he runs Totally Rad Toyhouse in Nashville, TN)
The photos you posted are amazing and I can't wait to get my 3 pack in. I so feel like I should have ordered 2 sets though, I really wanna leave some boxed and some displayed, but guess I'll make due haha.
I totally agree with all your nitpicking, but I also agree I'm 100% happy with what I've seen so far. I really hope Todd does more kickstarters for more Spawn series and maybe some add ons for this line as well. He is absolutely killing it with his DC line right now and I'm glad to be seeing a resurgence in his amazing work. Marvel needs to hire him because their figures are okay.
The photos you posted are amazing and I can't wait to get my 3 pack in. I so feel like I should have ordered 2 sets though, I really wanna leave some boxed and some displayed, but guess I'll make due haha.
I totally agree with all your nitpicking, but I also agree I'm 100% happy with what I've seen so far. I really hope Todd does more kickstarters for more Spawn series and maybe some add ons for this line as well. He is absolutely killing it with his DC line right now and I'm glad to be seeing a resurgence in his amazing work. Marvel needs to hire him because their figures are okay.
Glad you dug the post. I agree, I feel like I should have just done two sets. I have doubles of the Classic / Modern, but not the AP.
Another note for anyone that is planning to display sealed :
I found that if you open it up, remove the plastic film layer, remove the foam padding, AND remove the top layer of plastic from the insert - you will get a very nice display similar to the original packaging.
Example:
With all that removed:
Without it removed:
Now, it won't be as drastic in normal lighting, but it will still look better with those adjustments.
Beautiful figure. And gorgeous photos.
I can still remember the day I got the original Spawn figure from Toys R Us. I was so blown away by the level of detail that first figure had. It was so beyond everything else being made at the time. Funny to see it next to this new release.
I hope everyone that backed this thing actually gets it. Like a LARGE growing number of others, It was MONTHS before only some of us received tracking information, and FedEx shows that it is PENDING and sitting still for WEEKS. I am just about to the point that I believe that my figure doesn't even exist and I need to dispute the charge. It's funny how so many people that happen to be reviewers got their figures with no hassle.
Coincidence?
Who knows. If I do receive the figure, maybe I'll still be too mad to keep it. Then off to eBay and lesson learned. No more Todd kickstarters.
I got mine and I'm not a reviewer. Mine also sat pending for a couple weeks. Floship is sending out tracking numbers long before Fed Ex actually gets the boxes.
But I get it, I've been watching people unbox Unicron since February. I've had tracking for Haslab Unicron since March 8th as well, just got picked up yesterday, and hasn't moved since.
Not sure what causes this or how to fix it, but I don't like it. Hold till all are in, labeled, ready, and then tell Fedex you need a fleet of trucks to show up for pick up.
Awesome pics Tony!
Not much of a Spawn fan, so don't know how valid this comment might be. But, I think this design of the figure where he doesn't have a very large leg looks much better as a design for the character. He looks more symmetric that way.
Think I'm just as happy with my MK11 Spawn. Having to buy two of these to do head swaps, and the poor articulation choices make me glad I stayed away form this.
Dammit, I think I might have missed this kickstarter... are these being sold anywhere still or am I stuck paying scalper prices for them?
Keep reading: Toyark's Spawn Remastered Gallery & Review - Page 2
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