They were much more simple back then, but they really felt more worth while that way. A couple of months ago my wife sent me to purchase a Spider-Man action figure for a six year old kid's birthday, I was amazed to see that there was a pretty large number of Spider-Man action figures, and that the vast majority of them were Spider-Man himself, but in slightly different poses or with slightly different special features. One of the had suction cup hands so you could stick him to the window or smooth surface, another one had a big section with a string hanging from it so he could swing. I counted at least eight different variations of the exact same character in the exact same series of figures. When I was a kid there was only one Spidey figure (not counting the symbiote Spidey figure), once you had that one figure you could imagine him doing anything and not feel the need to make your parents dish out more money so he could do something slightly different. The selection was over whelming, and none of them seemed as cool as I thought they should be, so I ending up getting the kid a glow in the dark Spider-Man shirt instead.
I look at this massive selection of and remember how much fun I had with just my Spiderman and Doc Ock figures, as simple and low detailed as they were. I guess it is kind of biased though, probably every kid thinks the things he grew up with were the best.
EDIT: Okay, so I take it back. Some of the modern Spiderman figures kick the butts of the ones I had when I was a kid. For example:
Not exactly sure I'd buy it for my kids, but you have got to be impressed by the detail that went into this thing.