DSC_6166
We start off Season 2, as it were, on a somewhat bittersweet note.
2018 was the year of Infinity War. It was pretty much the only thing the movie going public was talking about late 2017 and early 2018. Of course, some merchandise was announced, including a line from Figuarts. The other Marvel stuff up to this point was hit and miss, mostly being a miss if it involved the face of a human being. But it appeared that this whole "digital printing" noise was the new hotness, and this batch looked promising, specifically Black Widow actually having a prototype that looked like Scarlet Johannson.
So fast forward about 6 months the figure was received, and basically sat there for about two months while I dealt with life. With my backlog cleared, I finally opened the box.
Within 5 minutes of me opening the box, I LOST THE FREAKING BELT. ARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!
Lesson here, folks. Whenever you're popping off body parts to remove the protective plastic, make sure you know what you're removing. That and, probably doing this sort of thing at 11:30 pm isn't the smartest idea.
*sigh*
I'll find it one day... I was able to extract my wedding band from my car the morning before I sold the thing, so I'm hopeful that one day I'll pull that off with the belt... or maybe someone can sell me a belt.
Belt aside, here is the figure itself. The set comes with 3 addition sets of hands, two addition expressions (eyes left, aggressive) and her two Escrima sticks in various forms, including handle only for plugging into her backpack and combined in Quarterstaff form. No guns for her holsters, though.
But hey, if you're able to find it (and pay extra money) there is apparently a set that comes with a stand and some sort of explosive effects... which to be honest I probably would have had it been offered to me as an option.
The base Figuarts body provides good range of motion, including the ability to partially collapse the shoulders forward. Combined with the various accessories and if you can find one, as stand, all but the most extreme of poses should be easily held by this figure.
Also, if it wasn't obviously, Natasha here isn't winning "Ms. Bootilicious Figuarts 2018" any time soon.
Now, being a Figuarts figure I wasn't expecting Hot Toys or even Mezco One:12 accuracy in terms of the the outfit. Sure enough, certain paint apps are missing as compared to Hot Toys, and obviously the joints are evident, but the final product is very clean and crisp.
I think the best way to describe the outfit is this - this figure is what Marvel Legends would be like if upped their QC game (and price, accordingly). The actual detailing on the Marvel Legends stuff isn't bad. In fact it's pretty impressive how much they squeeze in. But the quality of the actual molding and paint apps leaves much to be desired.
I honestly think that if they stepped up their game from that perspective that they'd get a good chunk of the Figuarts superhero market.
The hair is a mixed blessing, but positive on the whole. It certainly doesn't look a whole lot like the actual on screen character, but its certainly a whole lot more pleasant to look at than the Hot Toys release, particularly out of the box. The deep gold colour is of course an artistic choice, though I feel it could have been a bit lighter. Detailing is a bit on the coarse side, as are the tolerances on the mating parts themselves.
The face is new territory for me - combined with a decently shaped face piece itself, the product is actually pretty close to the real life Scarlet Johannson. It's not perfect, but it's loads better than the Avengers version, and so long as you don't look too close the illusion of having a picture perfect sculpt is there.
Look too close, however, and you'll be like me and realize why they call this digital printing, as you'll see all sorts of dots that make up the image. I imagine this is a combination of small size, low DPI image source, and technology infancy. Still, it's a good indicator of things to come, even if it's kind of cheating on the artistry side of things, and is much better than the Mafex stuff I've seen thus far.
My other nitpicks have to do with the Escrima sticks... to me, they seem a bit small, both in terms of girth and length and do have a tendency to fall apart easily
So that was the Figuarts version of Infinity War Black Widow. Not bad at all, with the exception that price tag. It's a neat addition to your Figuarts assortment and your roughly 1/12 scale figures.
Unless you're a Figuarts junkie or demand that higher level of articulation, getting any of the other figures with human faces is not advised. You're probably better off having Marvel Legends surprise you, like with the 10th anniversary Captain America.
DSC_6166
We start off Season 2, as it were, on a somewhat bittersweet note.
2018 was the year of Infinity War. It was pretty much the only thing the movie going public was talking about late 2017 and early 2018. Of course, some merchandise was announced, including a line from Figuarts. The other Marvel stuff up to this point was hit and miss, mostly being a miss if it involved the face of a human being. But it appeared that this whole "digital printing" noise was the new hotness, and this batch looked promising, specifically Black Widow actually having a prototype that looked like Scarlet Johannson.
So fast forward about 6 months the figure was received, and basically sat there for about two months while I dealt with life. With my backlog cleared, I finally opened the box.
Within 5 minutes of me opening the box, I LOST THE FREAKING BELT. ARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!
Lesson here, folks. Whenever you're popping off body parts to remove the protective plastic, make sure you know what you're removing. That and, probably doing this sort of thing at 11:30 pm isn't the smartest idea.
*sigh*
I'll find it one day... I was able to extract my wedding band from my car the morning before I sold the thing, so I'm hopeful that one day I'll pull that off with the belt... or maybe someone can sell me a belt.
Belt aside, here is the figure itself. The set comes with 3 addition sets of hands, two addition expressions (eyes left, aggressive) and her two Escrima sticks in various forms, including handle only for plugging into her backpack and combined in Quarterstaff form. No guns for her holsters, though.
But hey, if you're able to find it (and pay extra money) there is apparently a set that comes with a stand and some sort of explosive effects... which to be honest I probably would have had it been offered to me as an option.
The base Figuarts body provides good range of motion, including the ability to partially collapse the shoulders forward. Combined with the various accessories and if you can find one, as stand, all but the most extreme of poses should be easily held by this figure.
Also, if it wasn't obviously, Natasha here isn't winning "Ms. Bootilicious Figuarts 2018" any time soon.
Now, being a Figuarts figure I wasn't expecting Hot Toys or even Mezco One:12 accuracy in terms of the the outfit. Sure enough, certain paint apps are missing as compared to Hot Toys, and obviously the joints are evident, but the final product is very clean and crisp.
I think the best way to describe the outfit is this - this figure is what Marvel Legends would be like if upped their QC game (and price, accordingly). The actual detailing on the Marvel Legends stuff isn't bad. In fact it's pretty impressive how much they squeeze in. But the quality of the actual molding and paint apps leaves much to be desired.
I honestly think that if they stepped up their game from that perspective that they'd get a good chunk of the Figuarts superhero market.
The hair is a mixed blessing, but positive on the whole. It certainly doesn't look a whole lot like the actual on screen character, but its certainly a whole lot more pleasant to look at than the Hot Toys release, particularly out of the box. The deep gold colour is of course an artistic choice, though I feel it could have been a bit lighter. Detailing is a bit on the coarse side, as are the tolerances on the mating parts themselves.
The face is new territory for me - combined with a decently shaped face piece itself, the product is actually pretty close to the real life Scarlet Johannson. It's not perfect, but it's loads better than the Avengers version, and so long as you don't look too close the illusion of having a picture perfect sculpt is there.
Look too close, however, and you'll be like me and realize why they call this digital printing, as you'll see all sorts of dots that make up the image. I imagine this is a combination of small size, low DPI image source, and technology infancy. Still, it's a good indicator of things to come, even if it's kind of cheating on the artistry side of things, and is much better than the Mafex stuff I've seen thus far.
My other nitpicks have to do with the Escrima sticks... to me, they seem a bit small, both in terms of girth and length and do have a tendency to fall apart easily
So that was the Figuarts version of Infinity War Black Widow. Not bad at all, with the exception that price tag. It's a neat addition to your Figuarts assortment and your roughly 1/12 scale figures.
Unless you're a Figuarts junkie or demand that higher level of articulation, getting any of the other figures with human faces is not advised. You're probably better off having Marvel Legends surprise you, like with the 10th anniversary Captain America.