SpongeBob SquarePants (Spongebob Squarepants (Super7)) Review

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SpongeBob SquarePants (Spongebob Squarepants (Super7)) Review

SpongeBob SquarePants
Spongebob Squarepants (Super7) (Super7)There's no denying that SpongeBob SquarePants is one of the most iconic characters in animation history, branching out from just another Nickelodeon cartoon to a franchise with a couple spin-offs and movies. The show has also gotten its fair share of toys over the years, a lot of which have proven to be pretty neat. The latest merchandise are Super7's Ultimates for the characters; they've already done ReAction, so this was the next step.

The slip cover for the packaging has the character's face, with a painted look to it, and I prefer these figures having their own unique covers rather than being uniform. Underneath, the box carries a tiki motif, with character artwork and a bio on the back. There's no twisties or plastic ties to worry about here, and everything can be easily removed from the plastic trays.

SpongeBob has been translated into plastic a lot, and Super7's sculpt for the Ultimate looks miles better than the earlier ReAction, mainly because the proportions are much more spot on. The head is made out of vinyl rather than plastic, and hollow vinyl at that. I feel doing it like that was the right call, as making it solid plastic could affect his leg joints. SpongeBob gets two heads: the ever-common open-mouth smile, and a bubble-blowing face. The different portraits look great, but my one nit with them are that the eyes are a little too close together. Both heads have a pair of shoulders, as his arms attach to that rather than his torso, so here, you'll just need to swap the arms at the biceps.

The torso, like the head, is hollow, but it's plastic, and I'll admit it suffers a bit from visible seam lines on the sides. The legs are a little thicker than usual, but I suppose that was done to give the figure more stability. The paint is alright, but there are a couple fuzzy edges, especially around the white areas, and a mark on his right legs. SpongeBob stands pretty tall at 5 1/2", in fact, he's a bit too tall. If you put him up next to Sandy, you'll notice that he's almost as tall as her, when he really should come up to half her head.

SpongeBob has less articulation than a standard Ultimate, but still moves pretty well. He gets swivel/hinge joints at the shoulders, wrists, and hips, swivel biceps, and a head that plugs onto a ball mounted on a hinge, giving him some really nice tilt forward and backward. The joints move solidly, but I will admit he would benefit a lot from additional points of articulation. Promo renders showed him with swivel/hinge ankles, which for some reason aren't present on the final product. The same type of joints on the elbows and knees would've been great, but they at least found a work-around to the lack of elbow movement.

As mentioned earlier, SpongeBob gets an alternate head, but it takes a bit of work popping them off the ball. He also gets a couple of hands, including 2x relaxed, 2x gripping, 2x pointing, 2x finger guns, and an extra left holding a container of bubble solution. For some reason, the extra left has a thicker peg, making it a little tougher to pop in and out. Additional arms are here as well, with a pair of arms with bent elbows, and an extra right arm with a hand holding a bubble wand, and outstretched to go in front of his face. The arms swap with ease, and enhance his display options a bit.

Moving onto all of the other extras, SpongeBob comes with none other than his pet snail Gary. Gary is a lot bigger than I expected him to be, and he's a solid hunk of plastic as well. Super7 even went ahead and threw in his food bowl, which isn't too necessary of an extra, but is a nice inclusion regardless. There's also SpongeBob's jellyfishing net and glasses, along with a little jellyfish. It would've been nice if the jellyfish had a clear stand to pose it "swimming" through the air. Lastly, there's Bubble Buddy, and while he's smaller than he should be, it was either that or release a full-size version on his own. He's pretty cheaply done, however, due to the lack of painted shine and poor balance, and I would've been willing to swap him out for something else.

While SpongeBob isn't perfect, he's one of the more solid Ultimates I've seen, thanks to a dead-on sculpt and plenty of fun extras. Even then, though, he doesn't have as much as he should. I'd be down for an add-on pack with more interchangeable parts, Krusty Krab hat and spatula, a Krabby Patty, and various episode-specific extras. There's plenty that can be done for this license, and I want Super7 to do as much as possible.

- 4/30/23