Holy hell, someone at Hasbro sure loves The Beetle. We’ve already had the Janice Lincoln version in The Absorbing Man Wave and the Ultimate Beetle from Earth-1610, as part of The Ultimate Green Goblin Wave, and now we’re getting Abner Jenkins, the original article! That’s right, all you True Believers who were upset that Hasbro was dicking around with them other Beetles can now rest easy. Your day has finally come. Me? Well, I really dig the other two figures, and I always knew they’d get to Abner soon enough.

Beetle shares the same slot in this assortment with Tombstone as one of the “Sinister Villains” and there sure is a lot of stuff in this box! He comes with his wings and shell pieces detached, as well as one of the VTOL pieces needed to build the MCU Vulture’s wings.  Putting on Beetle’s own wings and shell is as easy as plugging them into his back and he’s all ready to go.

The coloring! So pretty! I rarely start out talking about the paint job on a figure, so when I do, you know I’m really pleased with the result. Here’s one example where the paint and colors carry the day and take this figure from potentially average to absolutely gorgeous. I’m in love with this metallic green and purple combo. The shimmery green plastic reminds me of the factory paint on my first Ford Mustang. I think it was called “Hunter Green,” but whatever the case, I think this is beautiful. Couple that with the eye-melting sex that is the metallic purple on the boots, pelvis, and gauntlets and it’s easy to overlook how little sculpted detail is on this figure.

Beyond the coloring, my favorite thing here is the beetle shell on his back. The pieces swivel to open and close, so you can display him with his wing’s retracted and the shell closed or open it and peg in the wings for when he’s ready to take to the skies. Marvelous!

Do the wings look familiar? They’re the same translucent purple flappers that we got with the Janice Lincoln Beetle. The main wings are mounted on rotating hinges and the smaller ones are pegged into the larger ones so they will swivel. All four have sculpted veins running throughout them and they really look great with the purple and green deco of the suit.

The head sculpt is simple, but really captures that classic comic look. The purple paint matches the rest perfectly and the giant gold eyes really pop.

The articulation makes this bug loads of fun to play with. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, along with swivels in the biceps, and double hinges in the shoulders. The legs are ball jointed up in the hips, have double hinged knees, and swivels in the thighs and the lower legs. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. He has a swivel in the waist, an ab crunch hinge under the chest, and his neck is both hinged and ball jointed.

Hasbro has done well by The Beetle, now in his many forms, and these have been among my favorite additions to Spidey’s rogue gallery. Personally, I think he was well worth the wait, not only because he turned out beautifully, but also because we got two other great figures running up to this release. I first opened him up back on Friday and he’s been on my desk all weekend for me to fiddle about with while watching Netflix or working on projects. I have to imagine that even if I had no interest in Spider-Man or Marvel Legends (OK, I can’t really imagine that, but bear with me), I’d love to have this figure in my collection. Will I be back tonight with a Double Feature? No guarantees, but I’m going to do my best!