Spider-Man "Read-Play-Imagine-Create" Tin (Blue, Marvel Press)

Background

This product is a tin box sized 10.5" x 12" x 1.75" containing multiple goodies.

This review is for the "Blue" version of this, which was sold in the U.S.A. by Marvel Press. There was also a "Red" version sold in the UK by Parragon, see Spider-Man "Read-Play-Imagine-Create" Tin (Red, Parragon).

The two versions are similar, but different.

Story Details

This U.S. version features hinges at the bottom of the tin box, and a carry-handle at the top.

The front of the tin has a removable sticker which proclaims the contents as:

• 1 Storybook
• 1 Activity Book
• 2 Coloring Books
• 1 Sticker Book
• 4 Press-out characters and 2 scenes
• Game Board
• 10 Felt-tip Markers
• 1 Photo Frame

We'll take this by parts, working through the checklist from the sticker on the front of the tin.

Storybook - "Spider-Man: Super Hero Tales"

The storybook is the largest at 8.5" x 10.6". It is square-bound 48 full-color pages and it reprints five illustrated stories from The Amazing Spider-Man Origin Storybook Collection which was published the previous year.

Activity Book - "Spider-Man: Super Hero Activities"

There are two books with "Activity" in their name. This is the smallest of all the books, being only 4.7" x 5.9". It contains 24 black-and-white activity pages.

Activity Book - "Spider-Man: Web-Slinging Activities"

This is also labeled an "Activity" book, but in fact it contains only 3 activity pages (1 answers page) and 12 coloring pages – so I figure it's technically one of the two coloring books. It is 7.5" x 9.6", containing 16 pages of black and white content.

Activity Book - "Spider-Man: Crime-Fighting Coloring"

This is the other coloring book. It's a top-hinged pad, 6.5" x 8.3" with 24 pages of black and white line art.

Sticker Book - "Spider-Man: Sticker Scenes"

This is the last of the five books. It is 7.5" x 9.5" with 16 full color pages, plus a centerfold spread of stickers.

This fold-out game board also has press-out game tokens and printed rules. The photo shows only half of the game board. It opens out to a roughly 14" x 11" play area.

There are two play-set cards. There's a 5" x 8.5" stand-up cardboard backing scenes, plus a couple of figures that also go on cardboard stands. Depicted is Spider-Man vs. Green Goblin. The other is Spider-Man vs. Rhino.

General Comments

The story book is great. Good page count, good size. The reprinted stories are silly but harmless enough.

The black-and-white Activity (x1) and Coloring (x2) books are pathetic. Teensy page counts. All three of them feature artwork shared with the Spider-Man Color/Activity (Parragon/Scholastic) series of books.

The sticker book is in color at least.

Ten felt-tip markers is at least a generous choice of colors.

The board game is a dice-controlled yawn-fest with no player choices.

The play-scenes are underwhelming.

Overall Rating

These tins cost $25. Would it really have killed the profit margin to add a few more pages to each of the coloring and activity books? It's an elegant, boutique product that just feels slightly stingy for no good reason.

Still, it's a really nice tin. Let's go Three-And-A-Half webs.

Footnote

The books are packed in a cardboard box inside the tin box.

The books were stuck together (to avoid damage during shipping) with a sticky gunk that is supposed to be cleanly-removable. But in reality it wasn't, and removing it caused some minor damage on the cover of the books.