Spider-Man and Friends

Spider-Man and Friends was a line of action figures and related merchandise featuring the comic book character Spider-Man and other characters appearing in Marvel Comics publications, released by Marvel Entertainment's toy division, Toy Biz, from 2003 to 2006. The line was aimed primarily at preschool-age children, and the character likenesses used were often altered to seem "cuter" and more childlike (and child-friendly); most characters were depicted as wide-eyed and smiling, even supervillains and characters better known for anger or savagery, such as the Incredible Hulk or Wolverine.

Featured characters

Heroes

• Spider-Man
• Spider-Girl—essentially a female counterpart to Spider-Man, wearing a near-identical costume; has no perceived connection to the Marvel Comics character of the same name or the various characters known as Spider-Woman. Storybooks under the Spider-Man and Friends brand name suggest that she is Spider-Man's cousin.
• Wolverine
• Hulk
• Captain America
• Thor
• Cyclops
• Hercules
• Iron Man
• The Fantastic Four
• Iceman
• Colossus
• The Beast—for the most part, he is the same as the original Beast, but he is not a mutant, instead having been an ordinary boy (who appears similar to Beast's earliest appearances) who invented a potion that made him grow long blue hair.

Villains

• The Rhino
• The Lizard
• The Green Goblin
• Doctor Octopus

The end of Friends

The Spider-Man and Friends line ceased production at the end of 2006, when all toy licenses for Marvel Comics characters passed from Toy Biz to Hasbro; the final wave of figures was released in December 2006.

Hasbro currently continues the concept of Marvel characters for the preschool set with a new line of action figures called Marvel Super Hero Squad, which debuted in January 2007. Featured characters in Wave 1 include Archangel, Colossus, Captain America, Magneto, Sabretooth, Cyclops, Wolverine, and Hawkeye., Wave 2 includes Hulk, Wasp, Iron Man, Thor, Daredevil, Elektra, Punisher, and Ghost Rider. Super Hero Squad figures are much smaller than their Spider-Man and Friends predecessors, and are comparable in size and design to a similarly preschool-specific line of Star Wars toys already produced by Hasbro. In 2009, an animated series based on the toy line debuted, titled The Super Hero Squad Show.