Spider-Man 2: Sticker Book (Funtastic)

Background

Funtastic brought out a swag of coloring and activity books back in 2002 for the first movie - the usual mix of jumbo coloring pads, sticker books and such like, but also including a tattoo book and a paint-with-water book. Sadly, the rather disappointing art they decided to use last time really overshadowed any high points that the format may have provided.

For "Spider-Man 2", Funtastic is back with new art and even more nifty formats. As your devoted reviewer, I headed down to my local Warehouse (the NZ equivalent of Wal-Mart) and picked up one of each of the different books I can find. And here they are. Note that Funtastic appears to be an Australian company. I'm not sure if these books will make it to the US If they don't, then please accept my condolences. If you get something else instead, please drop me a line and let me know...

Story Details

OK, now we get some action. Only a measly 16 newsprint pages in this soft fold-over cover book, even less than the coloring book! But you do get two pages worth of stickers, including Spider-Man 2 logos, and some nifty Doc Ock tentacles. Inside the book it's more of an activity book, really... there's a word scramble, some odd-one-out, a crossword, a word search, some coloring, a sticker fun double spread, a crypto-puzzle, a copy-the-drawing-grid, a find-the-spiders, and a maze.

The art follows the same formula as the first book - Spidey is drawn in very light outlines, while Ock by contrast is high-tech-detail with big solid ink areas. The contrast is rather brutal. Again, there's a big lack of background inks, leaving a lot of blank space on each page. This one cost NZ$4.99 (US$3), a bit more than the preceding coloring book.

Overall Rating

Sure, there's a good mix of activities, and the stickers are passable, but with only 16 pages, you can't help but feel a bit short-changed at that price. Still can't offer more than a sub-standard 2 webs.