General Marvel Legends

Well... "perfect"... I mean... that's a hard one. The last carded one we got I really like a lot.

And "what I like a lot" is informed by the Sinister Six Sabretooth arm Venom being the best thing available at the time for a while...

Collecting through the Toy Biz years and some of those blowing our socks off at the time I think has a lot to do with how much we appreciate the modern stuff. Newer collectors are exposed to a lot of import quality and expect that in Legends for... well... $27 USD Dollars which doesn't help at all.
 
Same. I do think the blue Venom we just got is the best yet, albeit in a shade most probably don't want. The proportions are just a bit better than the retro card one. Tweak the legs and put a Bagley head on that bad boy and we're in business provided the quality is also a bit better (the opacity on the logo is pretty bad).
 
When I say perfect in regards to getting Venom in Legends, the invisible ink caveat is that it's a Legends figure with all that entails, including the fact that perfect today may look dated and awful in 5 or 6 years. I don't think we've ever had a Venom that was perfect -when it came out-. ToyBiz was probably the worst for doing Venoms I just genuinely did not like at all.

Recent Venoms have been really close for me, but just aren't hitting what I want in a '90s comic Venom or something adjacent to that (so I'm ignoring the Gamerverse or even modern comic/cinematic stuff). The four I can think of were Absorbing Man BAF, movie-carded unmasked Venom, first retro, and second retro.

Absorbing Man BAF Venom is probably my favorite of the four, but I really don't love that body overall for a lot of reasons I won't get into. So it was like "exactly what I want, but wrong body."
Then the movie-boxed figure was that figure repeated with worse accessories (worse heads, no extra hands, and the neck thing I'll never use).
Then we got the first retro card Venom which WOULD have been perfect if it didn't have the ugly veins all over the forearms, had the original Absorbing Man heads, and didn't have the awful cell shading (and could be purchased... I've never even seen that figure in person). Close, but no cigar. I also have some complaints about this body choice, but AT THE TIME it would have been perfect.

Second retro-card Venom I'm back to 'I don't like the heads and I hate the forearms.' I also don't LOVE the body, but I think it's probably the best one we have for Venom.

Gamerverse MVC Venom is easily the one I like the most design-wise, including fixing elements of the Retro body that I didn't like with the legs. But he's fucking blue.
 
Of course perfect exists, unless you only view perfection as a final state without qualifiers. Which is weirdly abstract and not useful to us. A perfect Marvel Legends figure isn't necessarily a perfect action figure. Those are conceptually different ideas.
 
Totally in the same place with Venom and so far haven't gone for any of the existing options.

The recent retro-card one is kind of close, but I also don't like either of the heads. The main problem I have is the body proportions though, it's almost like they're all too bubbly? Like, the muscles seem really round, so it almost feels as though he's made of bubbles.

It's odd, but I can't get over the bubble thing.

Kind of liked the king in black version, but it was too lanky (due to the movie body) and I cannot deal with toes on a Venom figure. Just absolutely not.

I never owned a Venom figure as a kid either, even though he was my favourite villian in the animated series. Maybe it's just a really specific and benign curse.
 
Same about toes. I cannot handle Venom with toes. Or Venom with boots, for that matter. Also agree that the current body, particularly the way it looks on the current retro card one, is too bulging and rounded. Somehow, I do think the MvC one looks a little better in that regard, but I can't say why. But again... it's fucking blue.
 
Movie Venom is pretty close to me with a head that feels just a little too tiny.

But my favorite Venom is the Animated Cel-Shaded one. It just looks cool. And thanks to Hasbro Hasbro-ing that particular release, I had to go the KO route.

I also like the Monster Venom BAF. I like his colors and proportions.
 
Same about toes. I cannot handle Venom with toes. Or Venom with boots, for that matter. Also agree that the current body, particularly the way it looks on the current retro card one, is too bulging and rounded. Somehow, I do think the MvC one looks a little better in that regard, but I can't say why. But again... it's fucking blue.
The MvC one does look a little better, but I also discounted because blue.

It might also look better because it's blue, as the lighter colour sort of blurs the edges of the sculpt or something. Either way, cannot do blue. The head does look cool though.
 
I'm usually someone who likes to keep just one version of any given character. Venom is a character that I've never been able to stick to that with. Right now I'm enamored with the super tall Gamerverse version from the Spider-Man video game as he's the new hotness for me, but for comic accuracy I think my favorite is the one from the Life Foundation 3-pack. However there are things that I like a lot about both the winged version that came with Knull and the Monster Venom BAF. I've got the blue Gamerverse version as well and I think they'll likely do that one again in black sooner rather than later. I've also kept Agent Venom, the Space Knight version and at least 3 old Toy Biz versions. I skipped the retro card versions so I can't speak to those. Venom is just one of those characters that I have a weakness for. I'm the same way with all of the different Goblins from Spidey's rogues gallery. I just can't stick to my "one version" rule with those. Also true for Iron Man and all of his different armors.
 
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