RandoAF: the pulse of flight
a must-have accessory for any Marvel Legends Spider-verse display
I’ve been griping here, pretty regularly, about McFarlane not including flight stands with characters who are flying figures, but instead only including his black plastic disk figure stands. The fact that Uncle Todd includes figure stands at all, though, should be praised because most companies don’t bother. It’s an added expense (minor though it could be) that they just choose not to do.
I haven’t done the research into which companies may be making supplemental figure and/or flight stands, as for the most part I don’t use figure stands, and it’s only been in this year’s journey into posing and taking photos of me toys that I’ve realized what a necessity flight stands are to the posing experience.
The McFarlane flight stand is a really solid (okay it’s a bit wobbly, but I mean to say, for a free pack-in it’s decent, and does the job well). It’s a fixed arm with a hinged claw that can circulate in pretty much any direction. The hinge and the claw have some pretty decent detents that can hold a position well, but the clear plastic is fragile (as I think is standard with clear plastic) and the detents can wear with over use or undue pressure. It’s also designed for a 7-inch figure so the claw looks rather large when holding a 6” figure in place.
In the recent Hasbro Pulse shopping I have been doing (because Hasbro keeps making things exclusive to their site) I have noticed they have “Poseable Action Figure Stands”. The exclusive Black Widow figure (from around the time of her movie) came with a big, seemingly awkward stand that offered many options (including spots for slotting explosions) but just didn’t fit on our display shelves very well. So I just kept passing them by.
But in my latest, necessary Pulse purchase (Chuckles!) I thought “what the hell, why not”. It’s a three-pack of display stands for $15 (US). I need flight stands, and have considered buying a $25 McFarlane figure just to get another stand on many occasions.
-Aside- Now, being Canadian, I really hate that shopping on Hasbro Pulse means an additional $30 (US) shipping fee… so if I want just one (exclusive) figure from Pulse (be it one of now 4 exclusive-to-pulse G.I. Joe figures, D&D monsters, or the Star Wars army builder packs) it can add an additional 25-75% additional cost onto my order. I try to group my orders but Hasbro sends out figures as they are ready to ship, not holding the order back for it to be complete, so I haven’t checked if they’re charging me each time they ship me something or if it’s just the one charge per order.
Had I bothered to pull the Black Widow and her stand off the shelf and give it a play around, I would have ordered a half-dozen 3-packs of these “poseable action figure stands”. They’re kind of awesome, and I completely used up the three stands in one pretty swift go.
Here’s what comes with a 3-pack
A closer look at the bits and bobs (click to expand the image):
From left to right, top to bottom:
1) the stand itself is a fairly sturdy pole with an adjustable height arm
2) the hole where you can place either the claw or the extender arm has some noticeable grooves which means there will be at least some resistance to movement
3) the adjustable height arm has a peg and little grooves it slots into. In practice, it only really slots when there is some weight on the arm, which means it moves pretty freely up an down when you need it to but it uses leverage to hold itself into place when a figure is attached
4) The base of the arm has a solid ball joint and hexagonal base shape that , when it fits in to the base (picture 8) it clips into place very well, and doesn’t swivel without a bit of force. It also unclips very nicely, requiring a good bit of force to get it out, but never feels like something is going to break.
5) The extender arm has a grooved clip that allows for some flex for clipping in and removing (though removing is a bit more work). Like the hole in the adjustable arm, the extender arm has noticeable grooves in its receiving end which helps keep from moving if another extender arm or the claw is in place
6) The claw has the same time of grooved clip the extender arm does for some in/out clipping flexibility. You maybe can’t tell in this picture, but the claw is jointed in a way that it can move in any direction, and you might be able to see the detents the joints have here. It’s pretty sturdy.
7) Front view of the claw, and it looks a little like a scorpion. You can see through the plastic the very solid metal springs, so these arms are going to hold a figure nice and tight, but also they release really well. I have no worries about the claw damaging the figure.
8) The base has 9 slots for the height arm to insert into and you can’t tell it from here but they seem to have different pivot points for the ball joint to settle into, so depending on how you want to angle the stand, you may want to use a different position on the base. Also, there are two moulded in foot pegs, and three slots for modular pegs (not included) or maybe other accessories like gunfire effects.
What inspired me to pick up these stands was my recent Toys’R’Us clearance sale binge that netted me three new Spiders-man (and woman). Posing a Spider-person on a shelf is fine but it’s not very dynamic, and Spiders-persons are supposed to be dynamic.
Individually, they look good on a stand in a big flexible pose, but the same complaint I had with Black Widow returns here…the stand is just too big. I like the stands functionally but they are a bit of a space hog on their own.
Put them together and yeah, they look nice but that’s half a shelf worth of space it’s taking up there:
But hey, the base has 9 slots on them, and there’s no rule that says you can only have one stand per base, right? So why not just put them all on one?
Et voila!
With the modularity of the figure stands - the placements on the base, the height adjustments, whether you use the extender arm or not, your left/right swing and vertical tilt… you’re able to get a density that allows each figure to exist on the same base. It feels like a Spider-verse comic cover, or at least the start of one.
I think I could get two, maybe three more figures on this stand easily. I would like to push it and get a full nine. But to do that, I’ll need more stands.
I really disliked this stand when we got it with Black Widow based on sheer size, but I’ve come around to appreciate what the stand provides. At the very least, it's an absolute essential piece for building a Spider-verse display…. More to come.