DSC_8331
Hello again folks, and welcome to another entry into the journal, as it were. It's now the beginning of March 2020 and we are about two months away from what I predict will be the "Endgame" for MCU Widow Fans, the solo Black Widow movie. If you've been keeping up, you'll probably know I'm kind of a fan myself, and as such would naturally keep abreast of any merch pickups.
Strangely, as of this point, my usual import brands haven't announced anything from the upcoming Widow or Wonder Woman movies. The Marvel Legends line of course was doing figures for the Widow movie, and they looked decent in previews, so I preordered almost all of them, with the Deluxe version coming in from EB Games as scheduled on March 1, 2020. As luck would have it, the figure just as I was finished up another bunch of photos, so I got right to it.
The Deluxe edition of the Black Widow figure costs $10 more than the standard one, coming in at $39.99 CAD. Natasha is garbed in her striking white outfit, and comes with far more accessories than the standard edition, and I need a copy of the standard version to compare headsculpts. Contents are as follows:
- Figure
- Three pairs of hands (closed fist, pistol gripping, melee weapon gripping)
- Pair of pistols
- Pair of sickles
- Widow Bite attack effect
- Various ground explosion effects
- Base with arm
I don't know how accurate it is, but it appears that this particular white suit is effectively a redeco of the black and grey suit of the standard edition.
As expected, Natasha is built on the standard female Marvel Legends body, which is not my thing but it does make writing this article much shorter. For reasons unknown, it appears the chest collapse joint used on the Lighting Pink Ranger still seems to be limited to that figure, and I'm going to guess the rest of the female Ranger cast. So yeah.. limited ankles, limited wrists, no waist, and ugly knee joints make their return here. Nothing spectacular posing wise, but it gets the job mostly done.
The overall presentation of Widow, to me, much better than most of the other female figures I've seen. A big part of it is, ironically, there's less paint on the body. In fact, I think it's limited to the little specs of red and silver, along with the black on her back. Everything else is a separate piece and even then the painting in is minimal, with the most paint probably on her face. While it's not perfect, the masking work and quality of the paint apps themselves appear to be better than my last few check ins.
Furthermore, it appears that the neck on this Widow isn't as long as other figures and that the gaps in her thighs, the ones that normally turn me off, are masked by the holsters. Yes, that doesn't help when the figure is posed, but at least when she's standing Nat looks like a million bucks.
Of course, there's the head itself, or more accurately, the face because the hair perfectly functional, has decent detailing, and is coloured right..end of story. The most recent iteration of the Scarlett Johansson head was on the Infinity War Widow which... didn't look great. Then there was the apparently much improved Endgame one which I wouldn't know about, seeing how we never got it in Canada, and I never got around to going to Target. Well, I'm happy to say that for a mass release Hasbro toy, they did a great job on this figure. It's a pretty good resemblance to the actor, with face printing technology taking care of the painting of the eyes and lips. From the usual arms length distance, these paint apps are sharp and crisp, and far better than what could be accomplished by hand on something this small.. or at least accomplished by the fine, fine people at Hasbro.
The base was an interesting addition.. needed for sure if you want to do all sort of aerial posing. It's a decent quality, and has the Hasbro logo on the base of the arm. The arm is kind of big, if I'm being honest, but it does get the job done. The random explosion effects are.. kind of random if you ask me. Maybe they'll make an appearance in the upcoming GI Joe line or someting.
Build quality is about the same as the rest of the Legends, with softer than I'd like joints, though fortunately it appears packaging didn't warp them. The body itself is alright.. it appears they've moved towards the same plastics used on the Transformers figures now, which is a strange combination of matte finish, and kind of a rubbery feeling. Suit detailing came out decently, so I guess at least from a functionality perspective it's fine. There are some mould lines on the fists that should have been taken off by QC, but I am happy to say that the effects themselves came out quite nicely.
That about wraps it up here - Natasha is just like all the other Legends figures, so you know what to expect, and you either love or hate the tech behind it. But, as stated, and it bears repeating, it appears the combination of improved QC and simplicity of finish has resulted in a very crisp, clean looking figure that I would still keep even if a better quality figure were available down the road (though to be fair, I'd keep it anyway because I'm a hoarder). The face is a very pleasant surprise, and I feel that the face alone is worth the price of entry.
Time to head out for the day - keep an eye open for more Black Widow merch in the months ahead.
DSC_8331
Hello again folks, and welcome to another entry into the journal, as it were. It's now the beginning of March 2020 and we are about two months away from what I predict will be the "Endgame" for MCU Widow Fans, the solo Black Widow movie. If you've been keeping up, you'll probably know I'm kind of a fan myself, and as such would naturally keep abreast of any merch pickups.
Strangely, as of this point, my usual import brands haven't announced anything from the upcoming Widow or Wonder Woman movies. The Marvel Legends line of course was doing figures for the Widow movie, and they looked decent in previews, so I preordered almost all of them, with the Deluxe version coming in from EB Games as scheduled on March 1, 2020. As luck would have it, the figure just as I was finished up another bunch of photos, so I got right to it.
The Deluxe edition of the Black Widow figure costs $10 more than the standard one, coming in at $39.99 CAD. Natasha is garbed in her striking white outfit, and comes with far more accessories than the standard edition, and I need a copy of the standard version to compare headsculpts. Contents are as follows:
- Figure
- Three pairs of hands (closed fist, pistol gripping, melee weapon gripping)
- Pair of pistols
- Pair of sickles
- Widow Bite attack effect
- Various ground explosion effects
- Base with arm
I don't know how accurate it is, but it appears that this particular white suit is effectively a redeco of the black and grey suit of the standard edition.
As expected, Natasha is built on the standard female Marvel Legends body, which is not my thing but it does make writing this article much shorter. For reasons unknown, it appears the chest collapse joint used on the Lighting Pink Ranger still seems to be limited to that figure, and I'm going to guess the rest of the female Ranger cast. So yeah.. limited ankles, limited wrists, no waist, and ugly knee joints make their return here. Nothing spectacular posing wise, but it gets the job mostly done.
The overall presentation of Widow, to me, much better than most of the other female figures I've seen. A big part of it is, ironically, there's less paint on the body. In fact, I think it's limited to the little specs of red and silver, along with the black on her back. Everything else is a separate piece and even then the painting in is minimal, with the most paint probably on her face. While it's not perfect, the masking work and quality of the paint apps themselves appear to be better than my last few check ins.
Furthermore, it appears that the neck on this Widow isn't as long as other figures and that the gaps in her thighs, the ones that normally turn me off, are masked by the holsters. Yes, that doesn't help when the figure is posed, but at least when she's standing Nat looks like a million bucks.
Of course, there's the head itself, or more accurately, the face because the hair perfectly functional, has decent detailing, and is coloured right..end of story. The most recent iteration of the Scarlett Johansson head was on the Infinity War Widow which... didn't look great. Then there was the apparently much improved Endgame one which I wouldn't know about, seeing how we never got it in Canada, and I never got around to going to Target. Well, I'm happy to say that for a mass release Hasbro toy, they did a great job on this figure. It's a pretty good resemblance to the actor, with face printing technology taking care of the painting of the eyes and lips. From the usual arms length distance, these paint apps are sharp and crisp, and far better than what could be accomplished by hand on something this small.. or at least accomplished by the fine, fine people at Hasbro.
The base was an interesting addition.. needed for sure if you want to do all sort of aerial posing. It's a decent quality, and has the Hasbro logo on the base of the arm. The arm is kind of big, if I'm being honest, but it does get the job done. The random explosion effects are.. kind of random if you ask me. Maybe they'll make an appearance in the upcoming GI Joe line or someting.
Build quality is about the same as the rest of the Legends, with softer than I'd like joints, though fortunately it appears packaging didn't warp them. The body itself is alright.. it appears they've moved towards the same plastics used on the Transformers figures now, which is a strange combination of matte finish, and kind of a rubbery feeling. Suit detailing came out decently, so I guess at least from a functionality perspective it's fine. There are some mould lines on the fists that should have been taken off by QC, but I am happy to say that the effects themselves came out quite nicely.
That about wraps it up here - Natasha is just like all the other Legends figures, so you know what to expect, and you either love or hate the tech behind it. But, as stated, and it bears repeating, it appears the combination of improved QC and simplicity of finish has resulted in a very crisp, clean looking figure that I would still keep even if a better quality figure were available down the road (though to be fair, I'd keep it anyway because I'm a hoarder). The face is a very pleasant surprise, and I feel that the face alone is worth the price of entry.
Time to head out for the day - keep an eye open for more Black Widow merch in the months ahead.