Everyone’s favorite “friendly neighborhood” Spider-Man has one of the most beloved and feared rogues galleries in the history of comic books. The most theatrical of this cavalcade of baddies is illusionist and special effects-extraordinaire Quinton Beck, also known as Mysterio!

Mysterio is one of those unique characters that could only be born from comic books, visually and narratively. A film director and special effects expert who is humiliated by Spider-Man after the wall-crawler succeeds a series of publicized challenges, Beck does the only rational thing following such public failure by donning a costumed persona and adopting a life of crime. Mysterio is a great foil with a wonderfully bizarre appearance is, but sadly does not get as much notoriety and attention as some of Spider-Man's more iconic roles. This lack of attention does extend to toys, which the new “Lizard Wave” of Marvel Legends has corrected with a spectacular new figure.

Mysterio and the other "Lizard Wave" figures have the same packaging gracing the Marvel Legends line since 2014. A window box closed by cardboard tabs tapped to both sides of the package. This is collector friendly packaging that allows for the removal and return of a figure to the box should a collector desire. The back of the box features a bio, picture of Mysterio, and cross sale images of the other figures in the wave and a picture of the completed Lizard "build-a-figure."

The first thing to note about the ML Mysterio figure is in regards to its amazing sculpt. Like other toy lines, Marvel Legends has a tendency to reuse parts and shared tooling among figures as a cost-saving procedure. It is then astonishing to see that the Mysterio figure features what seems like an entirely original sculpt! Aside from the hands and feet which seem familiar, every other detail of the figure is new sculpting. His trademark bubble helmet, cape, and forearm gauntlets are all new tooling. In fact, the inside of the cape actually has wavy patterns to further separate Mysterio from his fellow linemates. The most detailed sculpting on Mysterio is his terrifying head, which is usually obscured by his frosted dome helmet. Removing his fishbowl reveals an unorthodox headsculpt; namely a human skull spewing a tentacle from its open jaw. The skull is cast in a clear pearlescent plastic that is obscured by the dome, maintaining Mysterio's unhuman design while also producing a figure that still has a head.

The dome and the cape are glued together, creating one removable piece. A flaw of the figure is how the cape plugs into Mysterio's back, but has nowhere to connect from his front, making him flop around when he is not standing in one position. Other accessories include mist effects cast in a green translucent plastic, which are fantastic pieces with oodles of sculpted detail. You can even see similar tentacles like the ones from Mysterio's skull, implying they might come from the same mystical creature. The effects attach to the figure's arm and legs but really are meant to have one for each appendage. Finally, Mysterio comes with a build-a-figure piece to create a figure of fellow Spider-Man rogue The Lizard. The leg is also similarly well-sculpted, implying the completed figure will also be an amazing piece in its own right.

In terms of articulation, Mysterio has the plentiful standard that comes with a Marvel Legends figure, including an ab-crunch, waist swivel, double jointed elbows, bicep swivels, universal hand joints, universal shoulders with a full 360 degree range of motion, ball jointed hips, thigh-swivels, double jointed knees, calve swivels, and foot pegs with a decent amount of ankle tilt.

The paint on the figure is minimal, which makes sense, considering how the majority of the budget went to new sculpting. Mysterio's body is cast in an unpainted, dark-green plastic, with neon-green gloves and calves, and a solid purple for his cape. The only visible paint includes shading of his gauntlets, shiny metallic purple on his cape's accents, and the beautiful frost detailing on the interior of his dome. Collectors who value Mysterio's iconic look will not be bothered, but others who need significant paint on all their figures might be disappointed.

Pros: Great sculpt, massive amounts of articulation, nice paint detail, wonderful character-specific accessories, cleverly solves the problem of his head.

Cons: Limited paint, cape does not securely peg into the back of the figure.

If Mysterio's cape could be hooked up better to the figure, this toy would be a contender for best release of the year. As is, he is a near-perfect entry worthy of anyone's Marvel Legends or Spider-Man figure collection.