Venom's vehicle mode is a muscle car-- not quite the first vehicle I would have picked, but it's certainly an eeeevil muscle car, that's for sure. Black with purple flames is agreat paint job, and Venom's signature spider symbol is smack-dab in the center of the hood. Oh, and let's not forget the spike bumpers and wheel rims that look like throwing stars, hmm? And his license plate says "VENOM", in case his disguise wasn't obvious enough. Besides the aforementioned spikes, though, the mold detailing in this mode is a bit sparse, though part of that may just be because Venom is HUGE for a $15 toy. He'd easily pass for a Voyager-class transformer, no question. Venom also has no robot mode extras whatsoever in this mode-- heck, even from the UNDERSIDE he practically has none, with his robot hands just BARELY being visible in you look closely in one corner of the vehicle mode. Now THAT'S impressive. Venom does have some a bit of a frustrating transformation, however-- whether you're getting him into robot mode OR vehicle mode, there's a lot of little fiddly bits and panels that have to be just right in order for everything to click into place.
    Venom's robot mode is okay, but it has some definite proportions issues. The lower legs are HUGE compared to the upper legs, the arms are rather skinny and flat, and his chest doesn't connect to his waist like you'd think-- rather, it connects at quite an angle to the waist, making it look like Venom is jutting out his pelvis. There's also some kibble problems, like the huge chunks of car parts hanging off his lower legs and his back. His wheels also look odd, the way they're positioned vertically on his shoulders like that. The car door pieces around his arms can also activate his spring-loaded missile launchers housed in his lower arms rather easily. That's not to say that Venom is completely terrible in robot mode, of course-- he's definitely got some upsides, as well. For one thing, I love his chest and head design. The way his spider insignia breaks up the sides of his "toothed" front bumper looks really cool, and Venom's head sculpt is top-notch, completely with creepy tongue-thing and all, while still having some robotic purple parts on the head to make it look more mechanical. In fact, with all the sinewy purple parts visible, it actually makes Venom look rather technorganic as a whole, as opposed to just mechanical. I mean, the mold detaling is just excellent, and the paint detailing is in an adequate enough among and spread out enough over the figure to break up all the black. Venom also has pretty good articulation-- he can move at the neck, shoulders (at three points), elbows (at two points), at the wrists, at the base of each index finger and again at the base of the other three fingers on each hand (with all three other fingers being one piece of plastic), and he can move at the hips (at two places), ankles, and knees (at two places). He is a tad back-heavy, though, which slightly limits the amount of posing he can do.
    Venom's car mode is fantastic in every way, but his transformation can be a little frustrating, and his robot mode suffers from some major proportion and kibble problems. Not a BAD toy by any means, but my least favorite of the first wave of the Marvel Transformers Crossovers.

Review by Beastbot

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