Toys - Marvel Select Toys : Let’s take a look on the Carnage Collector Figure

By Mulder, 19 march 2022

Since the introduction of Cletus Kasady a.k.a. Carnage in the final minutes of 2018’s Venom movie, anticipation has been high for Venom and Carnage to face off in the sequel. Now, the Disney Store and shopdisney.com have unleashed two comic-based figures of the characters, made by Diamond Select Toys, on an unsuspecting public.

Carnage is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, usually depicted as an adversary of Spider-Man and the archenemy of Venom. The character made its first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #361 (April 1992), and was created by writer David Michelinie and artist Mark Bagley, although the first published artwork of Carnage was penciled by Chris Marrinan. Carnage belongs to a race of amorphous extraterrestrial organisms known as Symbiotes, which form a symbiotic bond with their hosts and give them super-human abilities. Originating as an offspring of Venom, Carnage is much more powerful than its parent symbiote because of the symbiotes' biology, and is in many ways a darker version of him. Like Venom, Carnage has had multiple hosts over the years, but its most infamous one remains its first - serial killer Cletus Kasady, whose sadistic personality perfectly matches that of the symbiote. Other notable hosts include Ben Reilly, Karl Malus, and Norman Osborn, as well as Gwen Stacy in the alternate Ultimate Marvel continuity.

Since its original introduction in comics, the character has been adapted into several other forms of media, such as television series and video games. Woody Harrelson portrayed Carnage in its first live-action appearance in the film Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), set in Sony's Spider-Man Universe. In 2009, the Cletus Kasady version of Carnage was ranked as IGN's 90th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.

This exclusive edition of the Marvel Select Carnage figure is packed with accessories. Standing 8.25 inches tall and featuring 16 points of articulation, Carnage comes with four all-new interchangeable heads, four interchangeable hands, and a new backpack attachment with interchangeable legs and tendrils.

This figure comes packaged in the display-ready Select figure packaging, with side-panel artwork for shelf reference. Both will go on sale on November 2, in the Disney Store and at shopdisney.com.

Once again Diamond Select Toys offers us a superb figure perfectly mastered and which benefits not only from many articulations (toy photographers will appreciate) but also many accessories. The Marvel character is perfectly respected and all the readers of comics and movies from the Marvel cinematographic universe will appreciate the care given to this one.  The only dilemma we may encounter is whether we prefer to keep this superb collector figure in its box or open it and display it in the window or in its dedicated collector's room...
Carnage joins previous exclusive Marvel Select action figures, including Ant-Man, Wasp, Hulk, Thanos, Captain Marvel and Taskmaster.

Synopsis : 
Eddie Brock is still struggling to coexist with the shape-shifting extraterrestrial Venom. When deranged serial killer Cletus Kasady also becomes host to an alien symbiote, Brock and Venom must put aside their differences to stop his reign of terror.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Directed by Andy Serkis
Produced by Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, Amy Pascal, Kelly Marcel, Tom Hardy, Hutch Parker
Screenplay by Kelly Marcel
Story by Tom Hardy, Kelly Marcel
Based on Venom by David Michelinie, Todd McFarlane
Starring Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, Reid Scott, Stephen Graham, Woody Harrelson
Music by Marco Beltrami
Cinematography : Robert Richardson
Production companies : Columbia Pictures, Marvel Entertainment, Tencent Pictures
Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing
Release date : September 24, 2021 (United States), October 20, 2021 (France)

(Source : press release)