SPAWN 1
As shown in the above picture, there are 8 official versions of the regular-sized Spawn 1 and they can be divided into:
The Masked Group
The Unmasked Group
The Colour-Washed Group
Aside from the 8 regular-size figures, there is a supersize figure and 3 miniature figures, making it a total of 12 official figures.
April 1994 Diamond Exclusive: Spawn
Yes, I have made enquiry and I was assured that April 1994 is the date of official release.
The very first Spawn 1 is thus the 'Blue Spawn'. This may come as a surprise to many Spawn devotees who believed that the Black Spawn from Series 1 is the first.
The Blue Spawn is version.1 and initially only available through Diamond Distribution, a comics and related merchandise distribution company. v1 is distributed as a premium to dealers who purchased at least one case of the Wildstorm Spawn cards. The demand for the cards were however relatively weak and this ironically led to the rarity of this figure in the resale market. In April 2003, the defunct spawncollectorsguide.com calculated its average price as US$63.55. The price has since plummets downward after cases of them were "discovered" in the warehouse of McFarlane Toys.
Spawn Toy Comic
Each figure is accompanied by a 16-page comic titled Spawn: Promises & Lies written by Eldon Asp and illustrated by Brad Gorby. Appropriately enough, the Spawn in the illustration is dressed in blue.
Both the cover of the 16-page comic and Spawn 1 posture is based on the art found inside Spawn #13.
December 1994 Series 1 Original: Spawn
Series 1 makes its debut in Toy Fair 94 and since this said toy fair is always held in mid-February, early collectors would be forewarned of its impending arrival. And its arrival is declared by the official spawn.com website as December 1994 and this date is backed by an 'End Cap' article in December 1996 which puts it safely as Winter 1994.
The official date of release has a dissenter - in one of the advertisement found inside Battlestone #1 dated November 1994, it was announced that Series 1 had already hit the shelves in the Fall of 1994 (this refers to the autumn season of the northern hemisphere which usually starts in September) and that December marks the release of Series 1 Playsets comprising of Spawnmobile, Violator Monster Rig and Spawn Alley Action Playset.
Fall 94 or Winter 94, it is safe to conclude that the 'Black Spawn' comes after 'Blue Spawn'.
Series 1 was very well received and the attention to detail that is a hallmark of McFarlane Toys was quickly established. Check out his lovely cape.
Variants
Card collectors would be pleased to learn that variants range from packaging with cards that have the following background - lightning and diagonal lines to star-burst stickers that are pasted on the right instead of the left.
How to distinguish v1 from v2
Before the advent of pictorial guide, many mystified collectors were wondering how does one differentiate version.1 from version.2. It seems funny now but even the nickname of 'Blue with Mask' or 'Blue Spawn' offers little help for some of us new collectors.
The 1997 movie led to the usual piracy. Surely to be pirated has got to be an honour for it meant that your product is worthy enough to be copied! The first bootleg is on Series 7 card and subsequently Multipack was released containing the same figures. Check out more spawn images in http://www.bootlegactionfigures.com/pagetwo.html
The second series of knockoff figures is on a Series 8 card from the Curse of the Spawn series. Image again is courtesy of Joe Madeira, check out his site above.
Another bootleg, this time titled very appropriately as Reborn Hero, the very translation used in Chinese to describe Spawn. I actually thought the loose figure looks more like Commmando Spawn. The multipack image is again courtesy of http://www.bootlegactionfigures.com/pagetwo.html
And of course there are the usual customs. I rather like the Red Spawn. The origin I am afraid I am unable to recall, somewhere in the www!
January 1995 Series 1 Repaint: Spawn
Repaint is too exaggerated a description to use for this Spawn from Series 1 Repaint edition. The only change that version.3 has over v2 is the head. Whereas Spawn of Series 1 is masked, the Spawn of the Repaint Series is unmasked. It also gained bemusement among collectors for its rather raw-looking head - isn't this guy supposed to be charred? He also quickly earned the moniker of "Hamburger Head" that remains a slang till this day for unmasked Spawn. The origin of "Hamburger Head" can be found in the comics itself. I saw a Chinese website that nicknamed him rather aptly I thought as "Rotten Head".
Why is there a shoelace on his face?
The shoelace is used to stitch up the bullet hole on his face. The first time we saw Spawn with a shoelace on his face was in issue #21 (May 1994) - note the date of publication. The bozo in black that Spawn puts the blame on refers to Houdini.
It all started at Columbia University. Spawn was trying to protect Terry Fitzgerald and in the process took a few bullets including one to his face. You can read the story from the 2-issue storyarc titled Showtime that appeared in issues #19 (October 1994) and #20 (November 1994). Again, note the dates of publication, they are not a typo.
For quite some time, readers were left bewildered by this shoelace event as #19 and #20 which is supposed to precede #21 (that is logic for you) appeared instead five months after the release of #21...for reasons best known to the publishers! Actually the reasons are stated but the explanations are pretty tedious.
That Spawn required his face to be stitched is a sorry excuse to make him even uglier since I don't recall he needs any stitching when he got a hole on his chest or when he was dissected by the Curse. In fact, if he wanted to, he can heal himself, for heaven's sake this is a guy who raises the dead!
Of course there is the old argument that Spawn needs to conserve his power (his power is not finite and that once completely drained, he would be in Hell) but this is selective surgery at best. In issue #30, he got a "hole in one" on is cranium and guess what, no stitching.
Incidentally, there is also another explanation as to how he got his scar; it is known famously as the "batarang incident". In the graphic novel Spawn/Batman: Red Scarce (January 1994) Batman threw one at Spawn and split his face and for a period, this was considered as the cause of the scar. However, it has been officially denied as the cause for the stitch, something about this crossover as not part of the continuum...
About that stitched face, well Overtkill speaks my mind and Spawn is not even unmasked!
June 1996 Diamond Exclusive: Spawn
Released by Diamond Distribution in June 1996.
Shipped to comic shops for each 50 copies of Spawn #50 ordered (from End Cap December 1996). It has been claimed that there are 5,000 figures released. Unlike the original version.1, there was a higher take-up rate and correspondingly a lower resale value but historically this is still the second most expensive Spawn 1 figure.
Despite this being the second Diamond exclusive in such a short space, the momentum was never maintained and a 3rd Diamond exclusive would not be featured until November 2001 with the release of the Series 12 exclusive.
This figure is an exact paint replica of v2 and v3 except that it has a more realistic charred head with maggots wheezing from the skull. If you read Blades of the Immortal, you would appreciate the healing power of the worms but it is nevertheless pretty yucky. AND NOTE - No shoelace! Which is really appropriate because he finally ditched it (Terry Fitzgerald provides the assist) on the 50th issue of Spawn comics.
April 1997 Retail Exclusive: Spawn
I stand to be corrected but I was persuaded through the official HQ that the date of release for this gold-washed Spawn 1 is in April 1997 and this despite a December 1996 article in End Cap that declared it as having been released in Fall 1995.
I always have a soft spot for Spawns that are turned into gold, pewter, silver...etc and I hope that the alchemists in McFarlane Toys would churn out more such figures.
'Gold Spawn' is part of the golden boys that are released by KB Toys in the US. The other two are Medieval Spawn and Pilot Spawn. The number on the card of each figure is an indication of the numbers made and apparently there are at least 24,000 of them!
September 1997 Retail Exclusive: Spawn
The green translucent 'Necroplasm Spawn' was released on many different occassions, among them MTCC Gold members. Officially however, his date of release is September 1997. In Japan, he is titled as 'Clear Spawn'.
This figure sets a milestone for Spawndom. He is the first Spawn to have red eyes!
In June 2007, a MTCC exclusive known as 'Necroplasm Spawn 2' was supposed to be a follow-up of him but this 'Necroplasm Spawn 2' is in replica of the Spawn from the Image 10th Anniversary Special and not this version.6.
Some cards have plank with a yellow studded nail instead of the usual black nail.
September 1997 Retail Exclusive: Spawn
The 7th appearance of Spawn 1. Released to both retailers as well as a MTCC exclusive between September and November 1997.
He is distinguished from the other wormhead with his suit, thus the division into "blue" and "black" to describe them.
He completes the Unmasked Group.
September 2002 Retail Exclusive Spawn the Evolution
In September 2002, an exclusive known as 'Spawn the Evolution' was released to celebrate the progress of sculpting achieved in Spawndom.
A prize for buyers of the two-pack is that one in every ten set has the signature of Todd McFarlane, the creator of Spawn while the majority would have the "sorry you did not win" piece of paper. I wonder how many sane person really purchase 10 sets in the hope of winning a signed piece of paper.
He is the Last of the Spawn 1
and completes the masked triumvirate
but how do tell you tell v2 and v8 apart?
How to tell v2 and v8 apart?
At a glance, there is nary a difference between the two but turn them around, remove their capes and hey presto, the arch support of v8 (figure on right) has a maroon colour scheme as compared to the brick red of v2.
And check out the skull buckle and chains (including those around the neck). The colour of v2 (left pic) is grey. The skull of v8 (right pic) is sexy hot pink and the chains are painted metallic grey.
What is easily the most identifiable item is that of the plank. v2 has an orangey-brown plank with bright yellow nail (left) while v8 has a plank and nail in grey (right).
The grey plank of v8 brought to four the number of planks available for Spawn 1.
THE SUPERSIZE SPAWN
December 1995 Supersize Edition Spawn 1
In December 1995 the first supersize edition of Spawn figure is released. He is advertised as 13" but when displayed, is shorter than the 12" Mandarin Spawn, go figure.
The elaborate details, the hallmark of McFarlane Toys' figures remain, the face is beautifully sculpted and the cape is as usual excellent. Even the base received a thorough go-through.
Despite the excellent effort, one however cannot help feeling that this figure comes across as plasticky.
Variant
Some box have sticker that said "bendable cape" (End Cap February 1997)
SPAWN MINI TRADING FIGURES SERIES 1
In April 2006, the first trading series of 3" figures feature an all-star cast of Spawn and Spawn related characters. It is only natural that one of them is the original Spawn.
April 2006 Trading Series Original: Spawn
Except for the lack of a pink skull, this figure most closely resembles v8
April 2006 Trading Series 1 Variant: Spawn
The repainted edition, now this is what one called a Repaint, not some simple of headsculpt. Unfortunately there is no similar figure in the regular-size team.
April 2006 Trading Series 1 Exclusive: Spawn
The gold-washed edition, image from spawn.com.
And there you go, all the 12 figures related to Spawn 1. Thanks for reading and if you have an extra Trading Series 1 Exclusive Spawn 1 gold-washed figure, do contact me.
