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DAILY TIMES
OP-ED
Constitution-Making in Pakistan (1947-73) (Part I)
Dr Ghulam Nabi Kazi
APRIL 8, 2023
When Pakistan emerged as a Dominion of the British Commonwealth in mid-August 1947, its first and foremost priority should have been the development of a Constitution suited to the genius of its people. Unfortunately, that was not the case; it took us nearly nine years to approve our first constitution in March 1956 and to become a Republic, although subsequent developments were far more disillusioning. On the eve of the Golden Jubilee of the approval of the 1973 Constitution, let us explore the genesis of our troubles and discuss the circumstances and historical perspective in which the Constitution was developed and how it has benefitted us.
Following a consensus meeting with all the principal Indian leaders on Independence and the Partition on June 3, 1947, the Viceroy of India Lord Louis Mountbatten conveyed the entire plan to his government in London. Subsequently, on July 26, 1947, the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan was notified with 69 members, which was later expanded to 79 members. Subsequently, Pakistan emerged on the world map in pursuance of the provisions of the Government of India Act, 1935 read with the Indian Independence Act, 1947 on August 15, 1947. The first session of Pakistan’s Constituent Assembly was held on August 10, 1947, and our Founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah was soon elected unanimously as its President and accorded the title of Quaid-i-Azam. On August 14, Lord Mountbatten flew to Karachi, participated in the Independence ceremonies and addressed the Assembly wishing Pakistan a long life, while he was inwardly working against it. At the stroke of the midnight hour the same night, Pakistan and India emerged as two independent Dominions in the British Commonwealth, Mr Jinnah took oath as the first Governor General of Pakistan on August 15, 1947, and worked far beyond his mandate. Mountbatten had wanted to continue as Governor General of both the new Dominions but while the Indians allowed him that courtesy, Mr Jinnah explicitly refused to allow such a position causing the former to lose his temper, which is documented. Thereafter, Mr Jinnah was always targeted by the Western media, however, due to Mountbatten’s duplicity – the worst of which was yet to come with the Radcliffe Award – and the state of his health, the Quaid-i-Azam chose to occupy this office himself for the remainder of his lifetime. Interestingly, when Lord Mountbatten asked him why he wanted that largely ceremonial office, he replied that in Pakistan he would be Governor General and the Prime Minister would do what he told him to do.
Meanwhile, it was a foregone conclusion that the interim Finance Minister and some other colleagues whom Mr Jinnah had nominated for the Government of India in 1946 would be inducted into Pakistan’s first Cabinet headed by Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan. And so the plan worked – Mr Jinnah presided over Cabinet meetings, decided on many matters personally and instructed his government to implement those decisions. He was a hard taskmaster but was also conscious of his frail health.
The foremost task of the first Constituent Assembly was to frame a Constitution as per the country’s requirements and Joginder Nath Mandal was chosen for the task of coordinating the process in his capacity as Law Minister. Mandal and his Indian counterpart Dr B R Ambedkar had earlier established the Scheduled Castes Federation in Bengal to ameliorate a lot of the lower castes.
However, while Dr Ambedkar could provide a constitution for India by 1949 duly approved by the Assembly, Pakistan was nowhere close to it. It is hypothesized that the Prime Minister who was in the constituent assembly on a seat from East Bengal feared an election and deliberately delayed constitution making. In his very first speech on August 11, 1947, Mr Jinnah mitigated the apprehensions of the minorities and assured them of a level playing field in the affairs of Pakistan. However, his speech was censored by Secretary General Cabinet Chaudhry Muhammad Ali and after Mr Jinnah’s death in September 1948, Liaquat Ali Khan emerged as a powerful Prime Minister of Pakistan. On March 7, 1949, he introduced the Objectives Resolution in the assembly, which mainly related to Islamization in Pakistan and represented a preamble for all future constitutions. Despite strong criticism from the minorities, the Prime Minister secured the approval of the House on it combining religion with statecraft because Pakistan had been created on the basis of religion. This was only six months after Mr Jinnah’s passing away and conflicting with the principles enunciated by him for administering the new state. Meanwhile, the life of Mandal was made so miserable that he resigned, left Pakistan and returned to his untouchable status in India in 1950, citing social injustice and a biased attitude towards minorities as his main grievances. Another major crisis occurred on October 16, 1951, when Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated in Rawalpindi.
While Jinnah was head and shoulders above his partymen, the same was true for Liaquat after the former’s death. With the departure of both Jinnah and Liaquat in a little over four years, the country fell into the hands of mediocrity, all claiming to be superior to one another. After consultations, Governor General Khawaja Nazimuddin stepped down as the Prime Minister on October 17, 1951, with Finance Minister Ghulam Muhammad elevated as the Governor General. Decision-making reverted again to the Governor General’s office, but this time, to an incumbent lacking in integrity and scruples. Just when the final draft of the Constitution was prepared in 1954, the Governor General set the clock back by dismissing the Prime Minister in 1953 and dissolving the assembly in 1954. Both Prime Minister Nazimuddin and Constituent Assembly Speaker Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan belonged to East Pakistan and thus, an ominous signal was sent to the majority province. But worse was to come. In collusion with the Chief Justice of the Federal Court Muhammad Munir, Ghulam Muhammad’s action was upheld enabling him to continue his shenanigans with the tacit support of General Ayub Khan, the Army Commander in Chief.
The second Constituent Assembly was created on May 28, 1955, with 80 Members, 40 each from East and West Pakistan. Although East Pakistan had 54 per cent of the population of Pakistan, all four provinces of the Western Wing were amalgamated into one province to create a deceptive parity between the two wings. In hindsight, this appears to be the raison d’etre for enabling the Constitution of Pakistan in 1956. Choudhry Muhammad Ali had moved from his civil service position of Secretary General to Finance Minister and was the Prime Minister at that time. The Federal Constitution of 1956 was very similar to the one introduced in 1973 and could have been promulgated years earlier having there been a will to do so. It was passed by the Assembly headed by Speaker Abdul Wahab Khan and Deputy Speaker (later Speaker and President) Fazal Elahi Chaudhry on February 29, 1956, and after receiving assent from the acting Governor General Iskander Mirza was enforced with effect from March 23, 1956 – our first Republic Day, transforming Pakistan from a British Dominion to an independent Islamic Republic. Unfortunately, the focus of authority shifted to the shrewd President despite constitutional provisions to the contrary.
(To Be Continued)
The writer is a senior public health specialist in Pakistan and Editor-in-Chief of the Public Health Action journal of the International Union Against TB and Lung Disease.
To the surprise of probably nobody that knows my habits, I preordered what is probably the last Scarlett Johansson Black Widow Figuarts release - of course, I'm speaking of the one for her movie, which we would have seen by now under normal circumstances.
Interestingly enough though, despite being seen in at least two costumes, there was only one Widow figure solicited, and the entire movie only generated two figures - Widow and Taskmaster, which I didn't bother to get.
A bit about the box art first.. bottom right hand corner of the front shows Natasha with her hair down, but wearing the black costume. So for those keeping score, that's now potentially four different hair styles I've seen within the scope of one movie, which will make things interesting if Hot Toys decides to actually make anything for this movie.
If you bought the Endgame release of Natasha, you're basically already familiar with the payload - there's the figure in her all new suit and one of several hair new hair styles, no additional faces this time, two baton handles for her backpack, two batons, one sickle, two empty holsters, two pistols, two filled holsters, Widow's Bite effects mounted on two fists, and pretty much the same extra hands (except her left hand no longer has the Quantum Watch).
If the face looks familiar, it's because she's had that face since Infinity War, and somehow I think maybe Tamashii Nations intended it to be a two faced package, but the same MSRP as before, might have nixed that idea.
If you look at the profile view of her head, you'll see the surgical scars there.
Otherwise, you'll notice that the batons and the handles have paint on them this time, which was not present on the Endgame version (not in the movie anyway) but was lacking from the Infinity War version, and naturally the paint is on the sickles.
A bit more before we move on from comparisons to the previous versions.
You'll notice that this version of Nat is shorter than previously. After a bit of staring.. and more staring, I FINALLY arrived at the conclusion she's not shorter, she's just not wearing platform boots anymore.
Finally, I don't know what happened, but the Endgame version ended up looking much more jaundiced compared to both her predecessor and her successor. Thank goodness they fixed that because it certainly wasn't a one time thing, seeing how my backup Endgame Nat has the same complexion.
The new Widow suit appears to be a very stylized version of her comic suit, including finally gold accents, and she gains some neat elbow pads. It'll be interesting to see if they explain how her movie suits evolve into the IW ensemble that displeased many a viewer, as it appears to borrow many elements from her Endgame outfit, despite taking place between Civil War and Infinity War.
I don't know what to make of her hair. I mean, it's hair.. it's red.. so I guess that's a good start. Her massive ponytail is well detailed and painted for something of this scale. It just feels to me that they might have made her head too square at the forehead and the overall shape of her hair, making her head seem a tad undersized. The ponytail is relatively pliable, so you don't have to worry about it snapping off easily.
Articulation is effectively identical to what Endgame got you - toes, ankles, double jointed knees, hips on ball joints with a floating crotch section for improved range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with some collapse and bicep swivel, single jointed elbows with forearm pivot, wrists, neck, and head. Her upper torso (bust to neck) has more restrictions on range of motion compared to Endgame as she no longer has that gap at the bottom of the piece and her abs.
The good news is that she looks slightly better from the side with fuller bust.
Paint work is once again an area with no real concerns (especially since I'm going forward in time for a review for once). The base black that Nat has all over the body is smooth, and there are no concerns I have to raise with regards to the gold, silver, and red accents on her body, though some of the silver paint on her weapons have seen better days (arguably the fault of the less than stellar finish).
Hands are consistent, which is to say they've been.. alright. You can tell they're fingers and that's about it - the Figma guys definitely have a better product from this perspective.
Hair and face I touched up on earlier. Solid stuff, especially with a decent Scar Jo sculpt and that digital painting stuff that has been working well for the past three iterations (AoU, IW, Endgame) and the new healthy complexion.
Finally there's build quality.. which strangely enough feels a slight step back. There's the anal retentive stuff (to my fingers, the box feels flimsier), and then there's the fact this is first Marvel Figuarts I've picked up that actually had a joint pop apart (fortunately it was something you could snap back together) and the left arm actually popped out of the socket (again, easily reassembled)
There are no other issues with QC (the rough finish on the baton handles were probably always there, just no paint to highlight them). The plastic itself definitely feels softer than Endgame (bringing it back more in line with Infinity War) and this is probably due to the lack of extensive fine textures, which were prevalent on the Endgame suit.
Well that about wraps it up for this Widow. It's still pretty good, despite trading aesthetics for articulation, having only one face, and some minor quality quips. She won't be the one travelling with me (my Endgame Nat is already play worn, so not point damaging another figure) but she'll be at home in the horde, keeping order when I'm not around.
To the surprise of probably nobody that knows my habits, I preordered what is probably the last Scarlett Johansson Black Widow Figuarts release - of course, I'm speaking of the one for her movie, which we would have seen by now under normal circumstances.
Interestingly enough though, despite being seen in at least two costumes, there was only one Widow figure solicited, and the entire movie only generated two figures - Widow and Taskmaster, which I didn't bother to get.
A bit about the box art first.. bottom right hand corner of the front shows Natasha with her hair down, but wearing the black costume. So for those keeping score, that's now potentially four different hair styles I've seen within the scope of one movie, which will make things interesting if Hot Toys decides to actually make anything for this movie.
If you bought the Endgame release of Natasha, you're basically already familiar with the payload - there's the figure in her all new suit and one of several hair new hair styles, no additional faces this time, two baton handles for her backpack, two batons, one sickle, two empty holsters, two pistols, two filled holsters, Widow's Bite effects mounted on two fists, and pretty much the same extra hands (except her left hand no longer has the Quantum Watch).
If the face looks familiar, it's because she's had that face since Infinity War, and somehow I think maybe Tamashii Nations intended it to be a two faced package, but the same MSRP as before, might have nixed that idea.
If you look at the profile view of her head, you'll see the surgical scars there.
Otherwise, you'll notice that the batons and the handles have paint on them this time, which was not present on the Endgame version (not in the movie anyway) but was lacking from the Infinity War version, and naturally the paint is on the sickles.
A bit more before we move on from comparisons to the previous versions.
You'll notice that this version of Nat is shorter than previously. After a bit of staring.. and more staring, I FINALLY arrived at the conclusion she's not shorter, she's just not wearing platform boots anymore.
Finally, I don't know what happened, but the Endgame version ended up looking much more jaundiced compared to both her predecessor and her successor. Thank goodness they fixed that because it certainly wasn't a one time thing, seeing how my backup Endgame Nat has the same complexion.
The new Widow suit appears to be a very stylized version of her comic suit, including finally gold accents, and she gains some neat elbow pads. It'll be interesting to see if they explain how her movie suits evolve into the IW ensemble that displeased many a viewer, as it appears to borrow many elements from her Endgame outfit, despite taking place between Civil War and Infinity War.
I don't know what to make of her hair. I mean, it's hair.. it's red.. so I guess that's a good start. Her massive ponytail is well detailed and painted for something of this scale. It just feels to me that they might have made her head too square at the forehead and the overall shape of her hair, making her head seem a tad undersized. The ponytail is relatively pliable, so you don't have to worry about it snapping off easily.
Articulation is effectively identical to what Endgame got you - toes, ankles, double jointed knees, hips on ball joints with a floating crotch section for improved range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with some collapse and bicep swivel, single jointed elbows with forearm pivot, wrists, neck, and head. Her upper torso (bust to neck) has more restrictions on range of motion compared to Endgame as she no longer has that gap at the bottom of the piece and her abs.
The good news is that she looks slightly better from the side with fuller bust.
Paint work is once again an area with no real concerns (especially since I'm going forward in time for a review for once). The base black that Nat has all over the body is smooth, and there are no concerns I have to raise with regards to the gold, silver, and red accents on her body, though some of the silver paint on her weapons have seen better days (arguably the fault of the less than stellar finish).
Hands are consistent, which is to say they've been.. alright. You can tell they're fingers and that's about it - the Figma guys definitely have a better product from this perspective.
Hair and face I touched up on earlier. Solid stuff, especially with a decent Scar Jo sculpt and that digital painting stuff that has been working well for the past three iterations (AoU, IW, Endgame) and the new healthy complexion.
Finally there's build quality.. which strangely enough feels a slight step back. There's the anal retentive stuff (to my fingers, the box feels flimsier), and then there's the fact this is first Marvel Figuarts I've picked up that actually had a joint pop apart (fortunately it was something you could snap back together) and the left arm actually popped out of the socket (again, easily reassembled)
There are no other issues with QC (the rough finish on the baton handles were probably always there, just no paint to highlight them). The plastic itself definitely feels softer than Endgame (bringing it back more in line with Infinity War) and this is probably due to the lack of extensive fine textures, which were prevalent on the Endgame suit.
Well that about wraps it up for this Widow. It's still pretty good, despite trading aesthetics for articulation, having only one face, and some minor quality quips. She won't be the one travelling with me (my Endgame Nat is already play worn, so not point damaging another figure) but she'll be at home in the horde, keeping order when I'm not around.
To the surprise of probably nobody that knows my habits, I preordered what is probably the last Scarlett Johansson Black Widow Figuarts release - of course, I'm speaking of the one for her movie, which we would have seen by now under normal circumstances.
Interestingly enough though, despite being seen in at least two costumes, there was only one Widow figure solicited, and the entire movie only generated two figures - Widow and Taskmaster, which I didn't bother to get.
A bit about the box art first.. bottom right hand corner of the front shows Natasha with her hair down, but wearing the black costume. So for those keeping score, that's now potentially four different hair styles I've seen within the scope of one movie, which will make things interesting if Hot Toys decides to actually make anything for this movie.
If you bought the Endgame release of Natasha, you're basically already familiar with the payload - there's the figure in her all new suit and one of several hair new hair styles, no additional faces this time, two baton handles for her backpack, two batons, one sickle, two empty holsters, two pistols, two filled holsters, Widow's Bite effects mounted on two fists, and pretty much the same extra hands (except her left hand no longer has the Quantum Watch).
If the face looks familiar, it's because she's had that face since Infinity War, and somehow I think maybe Tamashii Nations intended it to be a two faced package, but the same MSRP as before, might have nixed that idea.
If you look at the profile view of her head, you'll see the surgical scars there.
Otherwise, you'll notice that the batons and the handles have paint on them this time, which was not present on the Endgame version (not in the movie anyway) but was lacking from the Infinity War version, and naturally the paint is on the sickles.
A bit more before we move on from comparisons to the previous versions.
You'll notice that this version of Nat is shorter than previously. After a bit of staring.. and more staring, I FINALLY arrived at the conclusion she's not shorter, she's just not wearing platform boots anymore.
Finally, I don't know what happened, but the Endgame version ended up looking much more jaundiced compared to both her predecessor and her successor. Thank goodness they fixed that because it certainly wasn't a one time thing, seeing how my backup Endgame Nat has the same complexion.
The new Widow suit appears to be a very stylized version of her comic suit, including finally gold accents, and she gains some neat elbow pads. It'll be interesting to see if they explain how her movie suits evolve into the IW ensemble that displeased many a viewer, as it appears to borrow many elements from her Endgame outfit, despite taking place between Civil War and Infinity War.
I don't know what to make of her hair. I mean, it's hair.. it's red.. so I guess that's a good start. Her massive ponytail is well detailed and painted for something of this scale. It just feels to me that they might have made her head too square at the forehead and the overall shape of her hair, making her head seem a tad undersized. The ponytail is relatively pliable, so you don't have to worry about it snapping off easily.
Articulation is effectively identical to what Endgame got you - toes, ankles, double jointed knees, hips on ball joints with a floating crotch section for improved range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with some collapse and bicep swivel, single jointed elbows with forearm pivot, wrists, neck, and head. Her upper torso (bust to neck) has more restrictions on range of motion compared to Endgame as she no longer has that gap at the bottom of the piece and her abs.
The good news is that she looks slightly better from the side with fuller bust.
Paint work is once again an area with no real concerns (especially since I'm going forward in time for a review for once). The base black that Nat has all over the body is smooth, and there are no concerns I have to raise with regards to the gold, silver, and red accents on her body, though some of the silver paint on her weapons have seen better days (arguably the fault of the less than stellar finish).
Hands are consistent, which is to say they've been.. alright. You can tell they're fingers and that's about it - the Figma guys definitely have a better product from this perspective.
Hair and face I touched up on earlier. Solid stuff, especially with a decent Scar Jo sculpt and that digital painting stuff that has been working well for the past three iterations (AoU, IW, Endgame) and the new healthy complexion.
Finally there's build quality.. which strangely enough feels a slight step back. There's the anal retentive stuff (to my fingers, the box feels flimsier), and then there's the fact this is first Marvel Figuarts I've picked up that actually had a joint pop apart (fortunately it was something you could snap back together) and the left arm actually popped out of the socket (again, easily reassembled)
There are no other issues with QC (the rough finish on the baton handles were probably always there, just no paint to highlight them). The plastic itself definitely feels softer than Endgame (bringing it back more in line with Infinity War) and this is probably due to the lack of extensive fine textures, which were prevalent on the Endgame suit.
Well that about wraps it up for this Widow. It's still pretty good, despite trading aesthetics for articulation, having only one face, and some minor quality quips. She won't be the one travelling with me (my Endgame Nat is already play worn, so not point damaging another figure) but she'll be at home in the horde, keeping order when I'm not around.
Soldiers from Charlie Company and Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 426th Brigade Support Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, evaluate and treat a notional casualty, September 23, 2017, on Fort Knox, Kentucky. All Soldiers in the BSB are expected to know basic casualty care and are supported by the Charlie Company medics in properly treating and evacuating casualties. (U.S. Army photo by Capt. Michael Burke, 426th Brigade Support Battalion)
From the top row left to right: Longshot, Wolverine(brown suit), Deadpool,Spider-man, Bullseye, 1st Appearance Wolverine, Ant Man, Doc Ock, Ist Appearance Iron Man, Vision, Gambit, Weapon X, Green Goblin, Iceman, Thor, Hawkeye, Phoenix, Logan, 1st Appearance Thing, Kingpin and Daredevil, Namor, Punisher, Professor X, Blade, Daredevil, Taskmaster, Moonknight, Unmasked Wolverine, Daredevil(spider-man classic), Pyro, Man-Thing, X-23, Unmasked Wolverine, Iron Fist, Beta Ray Bill, Nightcrawler, Mystique, 1st Appearance Spider-Man, Omega Red, Bishop, Wolverine, Maestro, Sasquatch, Mr. Sinister, Angel, Black Panther, Cyclops
at Arlington cemetery.
From its earliest days, Arlington (Robert E. Lee's) House was home not only to the Custis and Lee families who occupied the mansion, but also to dozens of slaves who lived and labored on the estate.
For nearly sixty years, Arlington functioned as a complex society made up of owners and slaves, whites and blacks. To some observers, on the surface, Arlington appeared as a harmonious community in which owner and slave often lived and worked side by side. Yet an invisible gulf separated the two, as slaves were the legal property of their owners. The enslaved possessed no rights, could not enter into legally binding contracts, and could be permanently separated from their families at a moment's notice. The contributions of the Arlington slaves have been a vital component of Arlington House's history from the beginning.
In 1802, the first slaves to inhabit Arlington arrived at the estate with their owner, George Washington Parke Custis. The grandson of Martha Washington and adopted grandson of George Washington, Custis had grown up at Mount Vernon, as had many of his slaves. Upon Martha Washington's death, Custis inherited her slaves and purchased others who belonged to his mother, Eleanor Custis Stuart. In all, Custis owned nearly 200 slaves and as many as 63 lived and worked at Arlington. (The others worked on his other two plantations, White House and Romancoke, located on the Pamunkey River near Richmond, Virginia.)
Some slaves had very close relationships with the Lee and Custis members, though these relationships were very much governed by the racial hierarchy which existed between the slaves and slaveholders. Mr. Custis relied heavily on his carriage driver, Daniel Dotson, and Mrs. Lee had a very personal relationship with the head housekeeper, Selina Gray. As Mary's arthritis increasingly restricted her activities through the years, she depended on Selina for assistance with basic tasks. A reflection of their relationship, Mrs. Lee entrusted Selina with the keys to the plantation at the time of the Lees' evacuation from Arlington in May 1861.
While such allowances may have improved the quality of life for the Arlington slaves, most black men and women on the estate remained legally in bondage until the Civil War. In his will, George Washington Parke Custis stipulated that all the Arlington slaves should be freed upon his death if the estate was found to be in good financial standing or within five years otherwise. When Custis died in 1857, Robert E. Lee—the executor of the estate—determined that the slave labor was necessary to improve Arlington's financial status. The Arlington slaves found Lee to be a more stringent taskmaster than his predacessor. Eleven slaves were “hired out” while others were sent to the Pamunkey River estates. In accordance with Custis's instructions, Lee officially freed the slaves on December 29, 1862.
In 1863, Federally-supported Freedman's Village, a camp for former slaves, was established on the Arlington estate, south of the mansion. Over the next 30 years, many freedman, including some of the former Custis slaves, established permanent homes in Freedman's Village where they learned trades and attended school. Though Freeman's Village closed by 1900, the contributions of the former slaves who worked to build and shape the Arlington estate are not forgotten. Some settled locally and many of their descendants still live in Arlington County today.
If you like this, You can check my Most Interesting Photos according to Flickr.
James “Tommy” Thomas, Jr., president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, poses for a photo with an unidentified young girl at an unknown location circa 1990.
Thomas was the son of a West Virginia coal miner who found work with the D.C. Transit Company in the early 1960s.
Thomas worked out of the Northern Division at 4615 14th Street NW and was known for the number of hours he put in operating a bus. That also brought him into contact with nearly every one of the 700 operators who then worked at the division.
After Metro took over the private buses In 1973, Thomas challenged Walter Tucker for shop steward/executive board member in the December 1973 union elections. Tucker was the first black voting member on the union executive board but Thomas prevailed.
In 1976 he was added to president George Davis’s slate as Recording Secretary of the union when Robert Delaney retired. Thomas won that election.
In addition to his duties as Recording Secretary, he fielded phone calls from members and worked the phones to resolve their issues. He also made regular visits into the work locations around the Metro system
Davis and his team became more unpopular as the years went by and by 1978 rank-and-file workers staged two wildcat strikes as Davis was seen weak and ineffective.
In the December 1979 union elections (held in January 1980 due to a court order), two rank-and-file members with no previous union experience beat president Davis and financial secretary-treasurer Rodney Richmond by 2-1 margins. But Thomas prevailed in his contest, largely due to staying connected with the membership.
In December 1982, he challenged incumbent president Charles Boswell and beat both Boswell and former secretary-treasurer Richmond becoming the first black president of Local 689.
He would be re-elected five more three year terms ending his tenure in December 1997.
He was known for driving a hard bargain and obtaining good labor contracts for the members. He also was a taskmaster on grievances and demanded his appointed business agents research the cases thoroughly.
He used the strike threat often, but never had to call a strike.
The local had lapsed in its political clout and felt the effects of privatization of Metrobus routes that was threatening the existence of the bargaining unit.
Breaking with his predecessors, he began to mobilize the rank-and-file to oppose these politically motivated attacks, winning some battles while losing others.
In 1995-6, he led the union to defeat a plan to privatize the whole Metrobus system that was under consideration by a Regional Mobility Panel composed of transit officials and area elected leaders.
In 1990 he obtained the approval of the membership to construct union offices and a meeting hall at 2701 Whitney Place, Forestville, Maryland. It would be the first hall that the owned and they occupied it in December 1990.
After retirement he was kept on as an advisor by the new president James W. Allen, but a rivalry developed between the two and Allen let Thomas go after about a year.
He has remained active, often attending union meetings and offering his perspective.
For a blog post on the turmoil in the D.C. transit union from 1974-80, see washingtonareaspark.com/2020/03/16/george-davis-and-the-t...
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsmLRWRyd
The photographer is unknown, but probably John A. Thomas. The image was donated by Craig Simpson.
During NYCC 2012 at Jacob Javits Center, New York City, NY, USA on October 13 2012 Photo: Jason Chau
Date: October 13 2012
Model: NIKON D800
Lens: AF Zoom 24-70mm f/2.8G
This beautiful 1952 film showcases Danny Kaye in his element, filled with tuneful songs, many to which I was introduced courtesy of an album on which they were sung by a children's choir years before I actually saw the film. Myles Connolly's Moss Hart's and Ben Hecht's fairly tale of this teller of fairy tales finds us in early 19th century Odense where Hans the cobbler is telling stories to the local children on a beautiful day when they should be in school. After giving an amusing recital of "The Emperor's New Clothes", Hans' young apprentice, Peter(Joey Walsh) warns him that a very irate Schoolmaster (John Brown), and Burgomaster (John Qualen) are on their way to confront him about keeping the children away from school with his tales.The confrontation, in which Hans states that there are different ways of learning things seems to touch upon the unspoken issue of Andersen's real-life dyslexia. Soon enough, there is a concerted effort to drive Hans out of town. To smooth things over, the ever-practical Peter suggests that Hans go to Copenhagenwithout telling him about the Burgomaster's decison.So, off Hans goes, and soon enough, Peter, who was initially supposed to be in charge of the shop in Hans' absence decides to join him and the two begin a marvelous adventure. "Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen" is celebrated in song as the two travel by ship in a glorious moment. Soon, they are mingling with the street vendors in the town square, and we see indirect fodder for the now-familiar stories of Andersen,perhaps most notably the sweetly singing match girl, portrayed by "It's a Wonderful Life's" own little Zuzu, Karolyn Grimes. With his usual song and good humor, Hans introduces himself and his business to those in the square, but ends up under arrest for unwittingly showing disrespect for the King's statue. Peter, who was also wanted for the same charge, escapes. While peering out of his cell, Hans converses with a lovely little girl( Beverly Washburn), whom he amuses with the tale of Thumbelina. Peter's chance encounter with an official from the Royal Danish Ballet who was in need of a cobbler helps win Hans' release. The country cobbler is enchanted at his first encounter with ballet, and with its lead dancer, the beautiful Doro (Zizi Jeanmaire). But the balletmaster Niels(Farley Granger)remains unimpressed by the dress rehearsal performance and, hard taskmaster that he is, makes them do it all over again. Peter witnesses the full subsequent interaction between Doro and Niels, watching it go from loving to violent and back again. But Hans, viewing only the negative scene is appalled by Niels' behavior, and stunned to learn that they are married. He fantasizes about rescuing and perhaps even marrying Doro, brushing aside Peter's astute observations about their earlier interaction with each other. Given his orders, he creates shoes for the ballet during they daytime. But writes a story that he hopes will speak to Doro by night. When the ballet moves out on its annual tour, leaving Hans and Peter in Copenhagen, they continue to work, but Hans cannot get the beautiful danseuse out of his mind.His days are spent working on shoes and amusing local schoolchildren with his tales, as was the case back home in Odense. But one particular tale of the Ugly Duckling, told to cheer up a young boy recovering from illness named Lars (Peter Votrian) results in his stories being published in the local newspaper by the boy's father, who is the editor.It's a lovely scene that also touches on Danny Kaye's real-life humanitarian work. The brief, sweetly-sung ballad, "Anywhere I Wander", summarizes Hans'ongoing yearnings. The song, "No Two People" features Kaye's trademark patter number with Jeanmaire in tow. When the ballet returns to Copenhagen, there are plans to put on a performance of Hans' story, "The Little Mermaid". Peter can see that his gullible boss is being used by Niels and Doro and laughed at behind his back. But Hans' swelling ego blinds him to this fact. One more reverently beautful ballet scene stands between Hans, and the final resolution of this story--an elegantly charming masterpiece that keeps on giving time after time! For More 5 Star Reviews Hans Christian Andersen starring Danny Kaye, Farley Granger, Zizi Jeanmaire, Joseph Walsh, Philip Tonge
To the surprise of probably nobody that knows my habits, I preordered what is probably the last Scarlett Johansson Black Widow Figuarts release - of course, I'm speaking of the one for her movie, which we would have seen by now under normal circumstances.
Interestingly enough though, despite being seen in at least two costumes, there was only one Widow figure solicited, and the entire movie only generated two figures - Widow and Taskmaster, which I didn't bother to get.
A bit about the box art first.. bottom right hand corner of the front shows Natasha with her hair down, but wearing the black costume. So for those keeping score, that's now potentially four different hair styles I've seen within the scope of one movie, which will make things interesting if Hot Toys decides to actually make anything for this movie.
If you bought the Endgame release of Natasha, you're basically already familiar with the payload - there's the figure in her all new suit and one of several hair new hair styles, no additional faces this time, two baton handles for her backpack, two batons, one sickle, two empty holsters, two pistols, two filled holsters, Widow's Bite effects mounted on two fists, and pretty much the same extra hands (except her left hand no longer has the Quantum Watch).
If the face looks familiar, it's because she's had that face since Infinity War, and somehow I think maybe Tamashii Nations intended it to be a two faced package, but the same MSRP as before, might have nixed that idea.
If you look at the profile view of her head, you'll see the surgical scars there.
Otherwise, you'll notice that the batons and the handles have paint on them this time, which was not present on the Endgame version (not in the movie anyway) but was lacking from the Infinity War version, and naturally the paint is on the sickles.
A bit more before we move on from comparisons to the previous versions.
You'll notice that this version of Nat is shorter than previously. After a bit of staring.. and more staring, I FINALLY arrived at the conclusion she's not shorter, she's just not wearing platform boots anymore.
Finally, I don't know what happened, but the Endgame version ended up looking much more jaundiced compared to both her predecessor and her successor. Thank goodness they fixed that because it certainly wasn't a one time thing, seeing how my backup Endgame Nat has the same complexion.
The new Widow suit appears to be a very stylized version of her comic suit, including finally gold accents, and she gains some neat elbow pads. It'll be interesting to see if they explain how her movie suits evolve into the IW ensemble that displeased many a viewer, as it appears to borrow many elements from her Endgame outfit, despite taking place between Civil War and Infinity War.
I don't know what to make of her hair. I mean, it's hair.. it's red.. so I guess that's a good start. Her massive ponytail is well detailed and painted for something of this scale. It just feels to me that they might have made her head too square at the forehead and the overall shape of her hair, making her head seem a tad undersized. The ponytail is relatively pliable, so you don't have to worry about it snapping off easily.
Articulation is effectively identical to what Endgame got you - toes, ankles, double jointed knees, hips on ball joints with a floating crotch section for improved range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with some collapse and bicep swivel, single jointed elbows with forearm pivot, wrists, neck, and head. Her upper torso (bust to neck) has more restrictions on range of motion compared to Endgame as she no longer has that gap at the bottom of the piece and her abs.
The good news is that she looks slightly better from the side with fuller bust.
Paint work is once again an area with no real concerns (especially since I'm going forward in time for a review for once). The base black that Nat has all over the body is smooth, and there are no concerns I have to raise with regards to the gold, silver, and red accents on her body, though some of the silver paint on her weapons have seen better days (arguably the fault of the less than stellar finish).
Hands are consistent, which is to say they've been.. alright. You can tell they're fingers and that's about it - the Figma guys definitely have a better product from this perspective.
Hair and face I touched up on earlier. Solid stuff, especially with a decent Scar Jo sculpt and that digital painting stuff that has been working well for the past three iterations (AoU, IW, Endgame) and the new healthy complexion.
Finally there's build quality.. which strangely enough feels a slight step back. There's the anal retentive stuff (to my fingers, the box feels flimsier), and then there's the fact this is first Marvel Figuarts I've picked up that actually had a joint pop apart (fortunately it was something you could snap back together) and the left arm actually popped out of the socket (again, easily reassembled)
There are no other issues with QC (the rough finish on the baton handles were probably always there, just no paint to highlight them). The plastic itself definitely feels softer than Endgame (bringing it back more in line with Infinity War) and this is probably due to the lack of extensive fine textures, which were prevalent on the Endgame suit.
Well that about wraps it up for this Widow. It's still pretty good, despite trading aesthetics for articulation, having only one face, and some minor quality quips. She won't be the one travelling with me (my Endgame Nat is already play worn, so not point damaging another figure) but she'll be at home in the horde, keeping order when I'm not around.
To the surprise of probably nobody that knows my habits, I preordered what is probably the last Scarlett Johansson Black Widow Figuarts release - of course, I'm speaking of the one for her movie, which we would have seen by now under normal circumstances.
Interestingly enough though, despite being seen in at least two costumes, there was only one Widow figure solicited, and the entire movie only generated two figures - Widow and Taskmaster, which I didn't bother to get.
A bit about the box art first.. bottom right hand corner of the front shows Natasha with her hair down, but wearing the black costume. So for those keeping score, that's now potentially four different hair styles I've seen within the scope of one movie, which will make things interesting if Hot Toys decides to actually make anything for this movie.
If you bought the Endgame release of Natasha, you're basically already familiar with the payload - there's the figure in her all new suit and one of several hair new hair styles, no additional faces this time, two baton handles for her backpack, two batons, one sickle, two empty holsters, two pistols, two filled holsters, Widow's Bite effects mounted on two fists, and pretty much the same extra hands (except her left hand no longer has the Quantum Watch).
If the face looks familiar, it's because she's had that face since Infinity War, and somehow I think maybe Tamashii Nations intended it to be a two faced package, but the same MSRP as before, might have nixed that idea.
If you look at the profile view of her head, you'll see the surgical scars there.
Otherwise, you'll notice that the batons and the handles have paint on them this time, which was not present on the Endgame version (not in the movie anyway) but was lacking from the Infinity War version, and naturally the paint is on the sickles.
A bit more before we move on from comparisons to the previous versions.
You'll notice that this version of Nat is shorter than previously. After a bit of staring.. and more staring, I FINALLY arrived at the conclusion she's not shorter, she's just not wearing platform boots anymore.
Finally, I don't know what happened, but the Endgame version ended up looking much more jaundiced compared to both her predecessor and her successor. Thank goodness they fixed that because it certainly wasn't a one time thing, seeing how my backup Endgame Nat has the same complexion.
The new Widow suit appears to be a very stylized version of her comic suit, including finally gold accents, and she gains some neat elbow pads. It'll be interesting to see if they explain how her movie suits evolve into the IW ensemble that displeased many a viewer, as it appears to borrow many elements from her Endgame outfit, despite taking place between Civil War and Infinity War.
I don't know what to make of her hair. I mean, it's hair.. it's red.. so I guess that's a good start. Her massive ponytail is well detailed and painted for something of this scale. It just feels to me that they might have made her head too square at the forehead and the overall shape of her hair, making her head seem a tad undersized. The ponytail is relatively pliable, so you don't have to worry about it snapping off easily.
Articulation is effectively identical to what Endgame got you - toes, ankles, double jointed knees, hips on ball joints with a floating crotch section for improved range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with some collapse and bicep swivel, single jointed elbows with forearm pivot, wrists, neck, and head. Her upper torso (bust to neck) has more restrictions on range of motion compared to Endgame as she no longer has that gap at the bottom of the piece and her abs.
The good news is that she looks slightly better from the side with fuller bust.
Paint work is once again an area with no real concerns (especially since I'm going forward in time for a review for once). The base black that Nat has all over the body is smooth, and there are no concerns I have to raise with regards to the gold, silver, and red accents on her body, though some of the silver paint on her weapons have seen better days (arguably the fault of the less than stellar finish).
Hands are consistent, which is to say they've been.. alright. You can tell they're fingers and that's about it - the Figma guys definitely have a better product from this perspective.
Hair and face I touched up on earlier. Solid stuff, especially with a decent Scar Jo sculpt and that digital painting stuff that has been working well for the past three iterations (AoU, IW, Endgame) and the new healthy complexion.
Finally there's build quality.. which strangely enough feels a slight step back. There's the anal retentive stuff (to my fingers, the box feels flimsier), and then there's the fact this is first Marvel Figuarts I've picked up that actually had a joint pop apart (fortunately it was something you could snap back together) and the left arm actually popped out of the socket (again, easily reassembled)
There are no other issues with QC (the rough finish on the baton handles were probably always there, just no paint to highlight them). The plastic itself definitely feels softer than Endgame (bringing it back more in line with Infinity War) and this is probably due to the lack of extensive fine textures, which were prevalent on the Endgame suit.
Well that about wraps it up for this Widow. It's still pretty good, despite trading aesthetics for articulation, having only one face, and some minor quality quips. She won't be the one travelling with me (my Endgame Nat is already play worn, so not point damaging another figure) but she'll be at home in the horde, keeping order when I'm not around.
Taskmaster (Ultimate Spider-Man), Absorbing Man (MCU-Agents of SHIELD), Beetle (Ultimate Spider-Man)
If you want to know what pieces I used for them, ask me!
To the surprise of probably nobody that knows my habits, I preordered what is probably the last Scarlett Johansson Black Widow Figuarts release - of course, I'm speaking of the one for her movie, which we would have seen by now under normal circumstances.
Interestingly enough though, despite being seen in at least two costumes, there was only one Widow figure solicited, and the entire movie only generated two figures - Widow and Taskmaster, which I didn't bother to get.
A bit about the box art first.. bottom right hand corner of the front shows Natasha with her hair down, but wearing the black costume. So for those keeping score, that's now potentially four different hair styles I've seen within the scope of one movie, which will make things interesting if Hot Toys decides to actually make anything for this movie.
If you bought the Endgame release of Natasha, you're basically already familiar with the payload - there's the figure in her all new suit and one of several hair new hair styles, no additional faces this time, two baton handles for her backpack, two batons, one sickle, two empty holsters, two pistols, two filled holsters, Widow's Bite effects mounted on two fists, and pretty much the same extra hands (except her left hand no longer has the Quantum Watch).
If the face looks familiar, it's because she's had that face since Infinity War, and somehow I think maybe Tamashii Nations intended it to be a two faced package, but the same MSRP as before, might have nixed that idea.
If you look at the profile view of her head, you'll see the surgical scars there.
Otherwise, you'll notice that the batons and the handles have paint on them this time, which was not present on the Endgame version (not in the movie anyway) but was lacking from the Infinity War version, and naturally the paint is on the sickles.
A bit more before we move on from comparisons to the previous versions.
You'll notice that this version of Nat is shorter than previously. After a bit of staring.. and more staring, I FINALLY arrived at the conclusion she's not shorter, she's just not wearing platform boots anymore.
Finally, I don't know what happened, but the Endgame version ended up looking much more jaundiced compared to both her predecessor and her successor. Thank goodness they fixed that because it certainly wasn't a one time thing, seeing how my backup Endgame Nat has the same complexion.
The new Widow suit appears to be a very stylized version of her comic suit, including finally gold accents, and she gains some neat elbow pads. It'll be interesting to see if they explain how her movie suits evolve into the IW ensemble that displeased many a viewer, as it appears to borrow many elements from her Endgame outfit, despite taking place between Civil War and Infinity War.
I don't know what to make of her hair. I mean, it's hair.. it's red.. so I guess that's a good start. Her massive ponytail is well detailed and painted for something of this scale. It just feels to me that they might have made her head too square at the forehead and the overall shape of her hair, making her head seem a tad undersized. The ponytail is relatively pliable, so you don't have to worry about it snapping off easily.
Articulation is effectively identical to what Endgame got you - toes, ankles, double jointed knees, hips on ball joints with a floating crotch section for improved range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with some collapse and bicep swivel, single jointed elbows with forearm pivot, wrists, neck, and head. Her upper torso (bust to neck) has more restrictions on range of motion compared to Endgame as she no longer has that gap at the bottom of the piece and her abs.
The good news is that she looks slightly better from the side with fuller bust.
Paint work is once again an area with no real concerns (especially since I'm going forward in time for a review for once). The base black that Nat has all over the body is smooth, and there are no concerns I have to raise with regards to the gold, silver, and red accents on her body, though some of the silver paint on her weapons have seen better days (arguably the fault of the less than stellar finish).
Hands are consistent, which is to say they've been.. alright. You can tell they're fingers and that's about it - the Figma guys definitely have a better product from this perspective.
Hair and face I touched up on earlier. Solid stuff, especially with a decent Scar Jo sculpt and that digital painting stuff that has been working well for the past three iterations (AoU, IW, Endgame) and the new healthy complexion.
Finally there's build quality.. which strangely enough feels a slight step back. There's the anal retentive stuff (to my fingers, the box feels flimsier), and then there's the fact this is first Marvel Figuarts I've picked up that actually had a joint pop apart (fortunately it was something you could snap back together) and the left arm actually popped out of the socket (again, easily reassembled)
There are no other issues with QC (the rough finish on the baton handles were probably always there, just no paint to highlight them). The plastic itself definitely feels softer than Endgame (bringing it back more in line with Infinity War) and this is probably due to the lack of extensive fine textures, which were prevalent on the Endgame suit.
Well that about wraps it up for this Widow. It's still pretty good, despite trading aesthetics for articulation, having only one face, and some minor quality quips. She won't be the one travelling with me (my Endgame Nat is already play worn, so not point damaging another figure) but she'll be at home in the horde, keeping order when I'm not around.
To the surprise of probably nobody that knows my habits, I preordered what is probably the last Scarlett Johansson Black Widow Figuarts release - of course, I'm speaking of the one for her movie, which we would have seen by now under normal circumstances.
Interestingly enough though, despite being seen in at least two costumes, there was only one Widow figure solicited, and the entire movie only generated two figures - Widow and Taskmaster, which I didn't bother to get.
A bit about the box art first.. bottom right hand corner of the front shows Natasha with her hair down, but wearing the black costume. So for those keeping score, that's now potentially four different hair styles I've seen within the scope of one movie, which will make things interesting if Hot Toys decides to actually make anything for this movie.
If you bought the Endgame release of Natasha, you're basically already familiar with the payload - there's the figure in her all new suit and one of several hair new hair styles, no additional faces this time, two baton handles for her backpack, two batons, one sickle, two empty holsters, two pistols, two filled holsters, Widow's Bite effects mounted on two fists, and pretty much the same extra hands (except her left hand no longer has the Quantum Watch).
If the face looks familiar, it's because she's had that face since Infinity War, and somehow I think maybe Tamashii Nations intended it to be a two faced package, but the same MSRP as before, might have nixed that idea.
If you look at the profile view of her head, you'll see the surgical scars there.
Otherwise, you'll notice that the batons and the handles have paint on them this time, which was not present on the Endgame version (not in the movie anyway) but was lacking from the Infinity War version, and naturally the paint is on the sickles.
A bit more before we move on from comparisons to the previous versions.
You'll notice that this version of Nat is shorter than previously. After a bit of staring.. and more staring, I FINALLY arrived at the conclusion she's not shorter, she's just not wearing platform boots anymore.
Finally, I don't know what happened, but the Endgame version ended up looking much more jaundiced compared to both her predecessor and her successor. Thank goodness they fixed that because it certainly wasn't a one time thing, seeing how my backup Endgame Nat has the same complexion.
The new Widow suit appears to be a very stylized version of her comic suit, including finally gold accents, and she gains some neat elbow pads. It'll be interesting to see if they explain how her movie suits evolve into the IW ensemble that displeased many a viewer, as it appears to borrow many elements from her Endgame outfit, despite taking place between Civil War and Infinity War.
I don't know what to make of her hair. I mean, it's hair.. it's red.. so I guess that's a good start. Her massive ponytail is well detailed and painted for something of this scale. It just feels to me that they might have made her head too square at the forehead and the overall shape of her hair, making her head seem a tad undersized. The ponytail is relatively pliable, so you don't have to worry about it snapping off easily.
Articulation is effectively identical to what Endgame got you - toes, ankles, double jointed knees, hips on ball joints with a floating crotch section for improved range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with some collapse and bicep swivel, single jointed elbows with forearm pivot, wrists, neck, and head. Her upper torso (bust to neck) has more restrictions on range of motion compared to Endgame as she no longer has that gap at the bottom of the piece and her abs.
The good news is that she looks slightly better from the side with fuller bust.
Paint work is once again an area with no real concerns (especially since I'm going forward in time for a review for once). The base black that Nat has all over the body is smooth, and there are no concerns I have to raise with regards to the gold, silver, and red accents on her body, though some of the silver paint on her weapons have seen better days (arguably the fault of the less than stellar finish).
Hands are consistent, which is to say they've been.. alright. You can tell they're fingers and that's about it - the Figma guys definitely have a better product from this perspective.
Hair and face I touched up on earlier. Solid stuff, especially with a decent Scar Jo sculpt and that digital painting stuff that has been working well for the past three iterations (AoU, IW, Endgame) and the new healthy complexion.
Finally there's build quality.. which strangely enough feels a slight step back. There's the anal retentive stuff (to my fingers, the box feels flimsier), and then there's the fact this is first Marvel Figuarts I've picked up that actually had a joint pop apart (fortunately it was something you could snap back together) and the left arm actually popped out of the socket (again, easily reassembled)
There are no other issues with QC (the rough finish on the baton handles were probably always there, just no paint to highlight them). The plastic itself definitely feels softer than Endgame (bringing it back more in line with Infinity War) and this is probably due to the lack of extensive fine textures, which were prevalent on the Endgame suit.
Well that about wraps it up for this Widow. It's still pretty good, despite trading aesthetics for articulation, having only one face, and some minor quality quips. She won't be the one travelling with me (my Endgame Nat is already play worn, so not point damaging another figure) but she'll be at home in the horde, keeping order when I'm not around.
To the surprise of probably nobody that knows my habits, I preordered what is probably the last Scarlett Johansson Black Widow Figuarts release - of course, I'm speaking of the one for her movie, which we would have seen by now under normal circumstances.
Interestingly enough though, despite being seen in at least two costumes, there was only one Widow figure solicited, and the entire movie only generated two figures - Widow and Taskmaster, which I didn't bother to get.
A bit about the box art first.. bottom right hand corner of the front shows Natasha with her hair down, but wearing the black costume. So for those keeping score, that's now potentially four different hair styles I've seen within the scope of one movie, which will make things interesting if Hot Toys decides to actually make anything for this movie.
If you bought the Endgame release of Natasha, you're basically already familiar with the payload - there's the figure in her all new suit and one of several hair new hair styles, no additional faces this time, two baton handles for her backpack, two batons, one sickle, two empty holsters, two pistols, two filled holsters, Widow's Bite effects mounted on two fists, and pretty much the same extra hands (except her left hand no longer has the Quantum Watch).
If the face looks familiar, it's because she's had that face since Infinity War, and somehow I think maybe Tamashii Nations intended it to be a two faced package, but the same MSRP as before, might have nixed that idea.
If you look at the profile view of her head, you'll see the surgical scars there.
Otherwise, you'll notice that the batons and the handles have paint on them this time, which was not present on the Endgame version (not in the movie anyway) but was lacking from the Infinity War version, and naturally the paint is on the sickles.
A bit more before we move on from comparisons to the previous versions.
You'll notice that this version of Nat is shorter than previously. After a bit of staring.. and more staring, I FINALLY arrived at the conclusion she's not shorter, she's just not wearing platform boots anymore.
Finally, I don't know what happened, but the Endgame version ended up looking much more jaundiced compared to both her predecessor and her successor. Thank goodness they fixed that because it certainly wasn't a one time thing, seeing how my backup Endgame Nat has the same complexion.
The new Widow suit appears to be a very stylized version of her comic suit, including finally gold accents, and she gains some neat elbow pads. It'll be interesting to see if they explain how her movie suits evolve into the IW ensemble that displeased many a viewer, as it appears to borrow many elements from her Endgame outfit, despite taking place between Civil War and Infinity War.
I don't know what to make of her hair. I mean, it's hair.. it's red.. so I guess that's a good start. Her massive ponytail is well detailed and painted for something of this scale. It just feels to me that they might have made her head too square at the forehead and the overall shape of her hair, making her head seem a tad undersized. The ponytail is relatively pliable, so you don't have to worry about it snapping off easily.
Articulation is effectively identical to what Endgame got you - toes, ankles, double jointed knees, hips on ball joints with a floating crotch section for improved range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with some collapse and bicep swivel, single jointed elbows with forearm pivot, wrists, neck, and head. Her upper torso (bust to neck) has more restrictions on range of motion compared to Endgame as she no longer has that gap at the bottom of the piece and her abs.
The good news is that she looks slightly better from the side with fuller bust.
Paint work is once again an area with no real concerns (especially since I'm going forward in time for a review for once). The base black that Nat has all over the body is smooth, and there are no concerns I have to raise with regards to the gold, silver, and red accents on her body, though some of the silver paint on her weapons have seen better days (arguably the fault of the less than stellar finish).
Hands are consistent, which is to say they've been.. alright. You can tell they're fingers and that's about it - the Figma guys definitely have a better product from this perspective.
Hair and face I touched up on earlier. Solid stuff, especially with a decent Scar Jo sculpt and that digital painting stuff that has been working well for the past three iterations (AoU, IW, Endgame) and the new healthy complexion.
Finally there's build quality.. which strangely enough feels a slight step back. There's the anal retentive stuff (to my fingers, the box feels flimsier), and then there's the fact this is first Marvel Figuarts I've picked up that actually had a joint pop apart (fortunately it was something you could snap back together) and the left arm actually popped out of the socket (again, easily reassembled)
There are no other issues with QC (the rough finish on the baton handles were probably always there, just no paint to highlight them). The plastic itself definitely feels softer than Endgame (bringing it back more in line with Infinity War) and this is probably due to the lack of extensive fine textures, which were prevalent on the Endgame suit.
Well that about wraps it up for this Widow. It's still pretty good, despite trading aesthetics for articulation, having only one face, and some minor quality quips. She won't be the one travelling with me (my Endgame Nat is already play worn, so not point damaging another figure) but she'll be at home in the horde, keeping order when I'm not around.
To the surprise of probably nobody that knows my habits, I preordered what is probably the last Scarlett Johansson Black Widow Figuarts release - of course, I'm speaking of the one for her movie, which we would have seen by now under normal circumstances.
Interestingly enough though, despite being seen in at least two costumes, there was only one Widow figure solicited, and the entire movie only generated two figures - Widow and Taskmaster, which I didn't bother to get.
A bit about the box art first.. bottom right hand corner of the front shows Natasha with her hair down, but wearing the black costume. So for those keeping score, that's now potentially four different hair styles I've seen within the scope of one movie, which will make things interesting if Hot Toys decides to actually make anything for this movie.
If you bought the Endgame release of Natasha, you're basically already familiar with the payload - there's the figure in her all new suit and one of several hair new hair styles, no additional faces this time, two baton handles for her backpack, two batons, one sickle, two empty holsters, two pistols, two filled holsters, Widow's Bite effects mounted on two fists, and pretty much the same extra hands (except her left hand no longer has the Quantum Watch).
If the face looks familiar, it's because she's had that face since Infinity War, and somehow I think maybe Tamashii Nations intended it to be a two faced package, but the same MSRP as before, might have nixed that idea.
If you look at the profile view of her head, you'll see the surgical scars there.
Otherwise, you'll notice that the batons and the handles have paint on them this time, which was not present on the Endgame version (not in the movie anyway) but was lacking from the Infinity War version, and naturally the paint is on the sickles.
A bit more before we move on from comparisons to the previous versions.
You'll notice that this version of Nat is shorter than previously. After a bit of staring.. and more staring, I FINALLY arrived at the conclusion she's not shorter, she's just not wearing platform boots anymore.
Finally, I don't know what happened, but the Endgame version ended up looking much more jaundiced compared to both her predecessor and her successor. Thank goodness they fixed that because it certainly wasn't a one time thing, seeing how my backup Endgame Nat has the same complexion.
The new Widow suit appears to be a very stylized version of her comic suit, including finally gold accents, and she gains some neat elbow pads. It'll be interesting to see if they explain how her movie suits evolve into the IW ensemble that displeased many a viewer, as it appears to borrow many elements from her Endgame outfit, despite taking place between Civil War and Infinity War.
I don't know what to make of her hair. I mean, it's hair.. it's red.. so I guess that's a good start. Her massive ponytail is well detailed and painted for something of this scale. It just feels to me that they might have made her head too square at the forehead and the overall shape of her hair, making her head seem a tad undersized. The ponytail is relatively pliable, so you don't have to worry about it snapping off easily.
Articulation is effectively identical to what Endgame got you - toes, ankles, double jointed knees, hips on ball joints with a floating crotch section for improved range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with some collapse and bicep swivel, single jointed elbows with forearm pivot, wrists, neck, and head. Her upper torso (bust to neck) has more restrictions on range of motion compared to Endgame as she no longer has that gap at the bottom of the piece and her abs.
The good news is that she looks slightly better from the side with fuller bust.
Paint work is once again an area with no real concerns (especially since I'm going forward in time for a review for once). The base black that Nat has all over the body is smooth, and there are no concerns I have to raise with regards to the gold, silver, and red accents on her body, though some of the silver paint on her weapons have seen better days (arguably the fault of the less than stellar finish).
Hands are consistent, which is to say they've been.. alright. You can tell they're fingers and that's about it - the Figma guys definitely have a better product from this perspective.
Hair and face I touched up on earlier. Solid stuff, especially with a decent Scar Jo sculpt and that digital painting stuff that has been working well for the past three iterations (AoU, IW, Endgame) and the new healthy complexion.
Finally there's build quality.. which strangely enough feels a slight step back. There's the anal retentive stuff (to my fingers, the box feels flimsier), and then there's the fact this is first Marvel Figuarts I've picked up that actually had a joint pop apart (fortunately it was something you could snap back together) and the left arm actually popped out of the socket (again, easily reassembled)
There are no other issues with QC (the rough finish on the baton handles were probably always there, just no paint to highlight them). The plastic itself definitely feels softer than Endgame (bringing it back more in line with Infinity War) and this is probably due to the lack of extensive fine textures, which were prevalent on the Endgame suit.
Well that about wraps it up for this Widow. It's still pretty good, despite trading aesthetics for articulation, having only one face, and some minor quality quips. She won't be the one travelling with me (my Endgame Nat is already play worn, so not point damaging another figure) but she'll be at home in the horde, keeping order when I'm not around.
To the surprise of probably nobody that knows my habits, I preordered what is probably the last Scarlett Johansson Black Widow Figuarts release - of course, I'm speaking of the one for her movie, which we would have seen by now under normal circumstances.
Interestingly enough though, despite being seen in at least two costumes, there was only one Widow figure solicited, and the entire movie only generated two figures - Widow and Taskmaster, which I didn't bother to get.
A bit about the box art first.. bottom right hand corner of the front shows Natasha with her hair down, but wearing the black costume. So for those keeping score, that's now potentially four different hair styles I've seen within the scope of one movie, which will make things interesting if Hot Toys decides to actually make anything for this movie.
If you bought the Endgame release of Natasha, you're basically already familiar with the payload - there's the figure in her all new suit and one of several hair new hair styles, no additional faces this time, two baton handles for her backpack, two batons, one sickle, two empty holsters, two pistols, two filled holsters, Widow's Bite effects mounted on two fists, and pretty much the same extra hands (except her left hand no longer has the Quantum Watch).
If the face looks familiar, it's because she's had that face since Infinity War, and somehow I think maybe Tamashii Nations intended it to be a two faced package, but the same MSRP as before, might have nixed that idea.
If you look at the profile view of her head, you'll see the surgical scars there.
Otherwise, you'll notice that the batons and the handles have paint on them this time, which was not present on the Endgame version (not in the movie anyway) but was lacking from the Infinity War version, and naturally the paint is on the sickles.
A bit more before we move on from comparisons to the previous versions.
You'll notice that this version of Nat is shorter than previously. After a bit of staring.. and more staring, I FINALLY arrived at the conclusion she's not shorter, she's just not wearing platform boots anymore.
Finally, I don't know what happened, but the Endgame version ended up looking much more jaundiced compared to both her predecessor and her successor. Thank goodness they fixed that because it certainly wasn't a one time thing, seeing how my backup Endgame Nat has the same complexion.
The new Widow suit appears to be a very stylized version of her comic suit, including finally gold accents, and she gains some neat elbow pads. It'll be interesting to see if they explain how her movie suits evolve into the IW ensemble that displeased many a viewer, as it appears to borrow many elements from her Endgame outfit, despite taking place between Civil War and Infinity War.
I don't know what to make of her hair. I mean, it's hair.. it's red.. so I guess that's a good start. Her massive ponytail is well detailed and painted for something of this scale. It just feels to me that they might have made her head too square at the forehead and the overall shape of her hair, making her head seem a tad undersized. The ponytail is relatively pliable, so you don't have to worry about it snapping off easily.
Articulation is effectively identical to what Endgame got you - toes, ankles, double jointed knees, hips on ball joints with a floating crotch section for improved range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with some collapse and bicep swivel, single jointed elbows with forearm pivot, wrists, neck, and head. Her upper torso (bust to neck) has more restrictions on range of motion compared to Endgame as she no longer has that gap at the bottom of the piece and her abs.
The good news is that she looks slightly better from the side with fuller bust.
Paint work is once again an area with no real concerns (especially since I'm going forward in time for a review for once). The base black that Nat has all over the body is smooth, and there are no concerns I have to raise with regards to the gold, silver, and red accents on her body, though some of the silver paint on her weapons have seen better days (arguably the fault of the less than stellar finish).
Hands are consistent, which is to say they've been.. alright. You can tell they're fingers and that's about it - the Figma guys definitely have a better product from this perspective.
Hair and face I touched up on earlier. Solid stuff, especially with a decent Scar Jo sculpt and that digital painting stuff that has been working well for the past three iterations (AoU, IW, Endgame) and the new healthy complexion.
Finally there's build quality.. which strangely enough feels a slight step back. There's the anal retentive stuff (to my fingers, the box feels flimsier), and then there's the fact this is first Marvel Figuarts I've picked up that actually had a joint pop apart (fortunately it was something you could snap back together) and the left arm actually popped out of the socket (again, easily reassembled)
There are no other issues with QC (the rough finish on the baton handles were probably always there, just no paint to highlight them). The plastic itself definitely feels softer than Endgame (bringing it back more in line with Infinity War) and this is probably due to the lack of extensive fine textures, which were prevalent on the Endgame suit.
Well that about wraps it up for this Widow. It's still pretty good, despite trading aesthetics for articulation, having only one face, and some minor quality quips. She won't be the one travelling with me (my Endgame Nat is already play worn, so not point damaging another figure) but she'll be at home in the horde, keeping order when I'm not around.
To the surprise of probably nobody that knows my habits, I preordered what is probably the last Scarlett Johansson Black Widow Figuarts release - of course, I'm speaking of the one for her movie, which we would have seen by now under normal circumstances.
Interestingly enough though, despite being seen in at least two costumes, there was only one Widow figure solicited, and the entire movie only generated two figures - Widow and Taskmaster, which I didn't bother to get.
A bit about the box art first.. bottom right hand corner of the front shows Natasha with her hair down, but wearing the black costume. So for those keeping score, that's now potentially four different hair styles I've seen within the scope of one movie, which will make things interesting if Hot Toys decides to actually make anything for this movie.
If you bought the Endgame release of Natasha, you're basically already familiar with the payload - there's the figure in her all new suit and one of several hair new hair styles, no additional faces this time, two baton handles for her backpack, two batons, one sickle, two empty holsters, two pistols, two filled holsters, Widow's Bite effects mounted on two fists, and pretty much the same extra hands (except her left hand no longer has the Quantum Watch).
If the face looks familiar, it's because she's had that face since Infinity War, and somehow I think maybe Tamashii Nations intended it to be a two faced package, but the same MSRP as before, might have nixed that idea.
If you look at the profile view of her head, you'll see the surgical scars there.
Otherwise, you'll notice that the batons and the handles have paint on them this time, which was not present on the Endgame version (not in the movie anyway) but was lacking from the Infinity War version, and naturally the paint is on the sickles.
A bit more before we move on from comparisons to the previous versions.
You'll notice that this version of Nat is shorter than previously. After a bit of staring.. and more staring, I FINALLY arrived at the conclusion she's not shorter, she's just not wearing platform boots anymore.
Finally, I don't know what happened, but the Endgame version ended up looking much more jaundiced compared to both her predecessor and her successor. Thank goodness they fixed that because it certainly wasn't a one time thing, seeing how my backup Endgame Nat has the same complexion.
The new Widow suit appears to be a very stylized version of her comic suit, including finally gold accents, and she gains some neat elbow pads. It'll be interesting to see if they explain how her movie suits evolve into the IW ensemble that displeased many a viewer, as it appears to borrow many elements from her Endgame outfit, despite taking place between Civil War and Infinity War.
I don't know what to make of her hair. I mean, it's hair.. it's red.. so I guess that's a good start. Her massive ponytail is well detailed and painted for something of this scale. It just feels to me that they might have made her head too square at the forehead and the overall shape of her hair, making her head seem a tad undersized. The ponytail is relatively pliable, so you don't have to worry about it snapping off easily.
Articulation is effectively identical to what Endgame got you - toes, ankles, double jointed knees, hips on ball joints with a floating crotch section for improved range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with some collapse and bicep swivel, single jointed elbows with forearm pivot, wrists, neck, and head. Her upper torso (bust to neck) has more restrictions on range of motion compared to Endgame as she no longer has that gap at the bottom of the piece and her abs.
The good news is that she looks slightly better from the side with fuller bust.
Paint work is once again an area with no real concerns (especially since I'm going forward in time for a review for once). The base black that Nat has all over the body is smooth, and there are no concerns I have to raise with regards to the gold, silver, and red accents on her body, though some of the silver paint on her weapons have seen better days (arguably the fault of the less than stellar finish).
Hands are consistent, which is to say they've been.. alright. You can tell they're fingers and that's about it - the Figma guys definitely have a better product from this perspective.
Hair and face I touched up on earlier. Solid stuff, especially with a decent Scar Jo sculpt and that digital painting stuff that has been working well for the past three iterations (AoU, IW, Endgame) and the new healthy complexion.
Finally there's build quality.. which strangely enough feels a slight step back. There's the anal retentive stuff (to my fingers, the box feels flimsier), and then there's the fact this is first Marvel Figuarts I've picked up that actually had a joint pop apart (fortunately it was something you could snap back together) and the left arm actually popped out of the socket (again, easily reassembled)
There are no other issues with QC (the rough finish on the baton handles were probably always there, just no paint to highlight them). The plastic itself definitely feels softer than Endgame (bringing it back more in line with Infinity War) and this is probably due to the lack of extensive fine textures, which were prevalent on the Endgame suit.
Well that about wraps it up for this Widow. It's still pretty good, despite trading aesthetics for articulation, having only one face, and some minor quality quips. She won't be the one travelling with me (my Endgame Nat is already play worn, so not point damaging another figure) but she'll be at home in the horde, keeping order when I'm not around.
To the surprise of probably nobody that knows my habits, I preordered what is probably the last Scarlett Johansson Black Widow Figuarts release - of course, I'm speaking of the one for her movie, which we would have seen by now under normal circumstances.
Interestingly enough though, despite being seen in at least two costumes, there was only one Widow figure solicited, and the entire movie only generated two figures - Widow and Taskmaster, which I didn't bother to get.
A bit about the box art first.. bottom right hand corner of the front shows Natasha with her hair down, but wearing the black costume. So for those keeping score, that's now potentially four different hair styles I've seen within the scope of one movie, which will make things interesting if Hot Toys decides to actually make anything for this movie.
If you bought the Endgame release of Natasha, you're basically already familiar with the payload - there's the figure in her all new suit and one of several hair new hair styles, no additional faces this time, two baton handles for her backpack, two batons, one sickle, two empty holsters, two pistols, two filled holsters, Widow's Bite effects mounted on two fists, and pretty much the same extra hands (except her left hand no longer has the Quantum Watch).
If the face looks familiar, it's because she's had that face since Infinity War, and somehow I think maybe Tamashii Nations intended it to be a two faced package, but the same MSRP as before, might have nixed that idea.
If you look at the profile view of her head, you'll see the surgical scars there.
Otherwise, you'll notice that the batons and the handles have paint on them this time, which was not present on the Endgame version (not in the movie anyway) but was lacking from the Infinity War version, and naturally the paint is on the sickles.
A bit more before we move on from comparisons to the previous versions.
You'll notice that this version of Nat is shorter than previously. After a bit of staring.. and more staring, I FINALLY arrived at the conclusion she's not shorter, she's just not wearing platform boots anymore.
Finally, I don't know what happened, but the Endgame version ended up looking much more jaundiced compared to both her predecessor and her successor. Thank goodness they fixed that because it certainly wasn't a one time thing, seeing how my backup Endgame Nat has the same complexion.
The new Widow suit appears to be a very stylized version of her comic suit, including finally gold accents, and she gains some neat elbow pads. It'll be interesting to see if they explain how her movie suits evolve into the IW ensemble that displeased many a viewer, as it appears to borrow many elements from her Endgame outfit, despite taking place between Civil War and Infinity War.
I don't know what to make of her hair. I mean, it's hair.. it's red.. so I guess that's a good start. Her massive ponytail is well detailed and painted for something of this scale. It just feels to me that they might have made her head too square at the forehead and the overall shape of her hair, making her head seem a tad undersized. The ponytail is relatively pliable, so you don't have to worry about it snapping off easily.
Articulation is effectively identical to what Endgame got you - toes, ankles, double jointed knees, hips on ball joints with a floating crotch section for improved range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with some collapse and bicep swivel, single jointed elbows with forearm pivot, wrists, neck, and head. Her upper torso (bust to neck) has more restrictions on range of motion compared to Endgame as she no longer has that gap at the bottom of the piece and her abs.
The good news is that she looks slightly better from the side with fuller bust.
Paint work is once again an area with no real concerns (especially since I'm going forward in time for a review for once). The base black that Nat has all over the body is smooth, and there are no concerns I have to raise with regards to the gold, silver, and red accents on her body, though some of the silver paint on her weapons have seen better days (arguably the fault of the less than stellar finish).
Hands are consistent, which is to say they've been.. alright. You can tell they're fingers and that's about it - the Figma guys definitely have a better product from this perspective.
Hair and face I touched up on earlier. Solid stuff, especially with a decent Scar Jo sculpt and that digital painting stuff that has been working well for the past three iterations (AoU, IW, Endgame) and the new healthy complexion.
Finally there's build quality.. which strangely enough feels a slight step back. There's the anal retentive stuff (to my fingers, the box feels flimsier), and then there's the fact this is first Marvel Figuarts I've picked up that actually had a joint pop apart (fortunately it was something you could snap back together) and the left arm actually popped out of the socket (again, easily reassembled)
There are no other issues with QC (the rough finish on the baton handles were probably always there, just no paint to highlight them). The plastic itself definitely feels softer than Endgame (bringing it back more in line with Infinity War) and this is probably due to the lack of extensive fine textures, which were prevalent on the Endgame suit.
Well that about wraps it up for this Widow. It's still pretty good, despite trading aesthetics for articulation, having only one face, and some minor quality quips. She won't be the one travelling with me (my Endgame Nat is already play worn, so not point damaging another figure) but she'll be at home in the horde, keeping order when I'm not around.
To the surprise of probably nobody that knows my habits, I preordered what is probably the last Scarlett Johansson Black Widow Figuarts release - of course, I'm speaking of the one for her movie, which we would have seen by now under normal circumstances.
Interestingly enough though, despite being seen in at least two costumes, there was only one Widow figure solicited, and the entire movie only generated two figures - Widow and Taskmaster, which I didn't bother to get.
A bit about the box art first.. bottom right hand corner of the front shows Natasha with her hair down, but wearing the black costume. So for those keeping score, that's now potentially four different hair styles I've seen within the scope of one movie, which will make things interesting if Hot Toys decides to actually make anything for this movie.
If you bought the Endgame release of Natasha, you're basically already familiar with the payload - there's the figure in her all new suit and one of several hair new hair styles, no additional faces this time, two baton handles for her backpack, two batons, one sickle, two empty holsters, two pistols, two filled holsters, Widow's Bite effects mounted on two fists, and pretty much the same extra hands (except her left hand no longer has the Quantum Watch).
If the face looks familiar, it's because she's had that face since Infinity War, and somehow I think maybe Tamashii Nations intended it to be a two faced package, but the same MSRP as before, might have nixed that idea.
If you look at the profile view of her head, you'll see the surgical scars there.
Otherwise, you'll notice that the batons and the handles have paint on them this time, which was not present on the Endgame version (not in the movie anyway) but was lacking from the Infinity War version, and naturally the paint is on the sickles.
A bit more before we move on from comparisons to the previous versions.
You'll notice that this version of Nat is shorter than previously. After a bit of staring.. and more staring, I FINALLY arrived at the conclusion she's not shorter, she's just not wearing platform boots anymore.
Finally, I don't know what happened, but the Endgame version ended up looking much more jaundiced compared to both her predecessor and her successor. Thank goodness they fixed that because it certainly wasn't a one time thing, seeing how my backup Endgame Nat has the same complexion.
The new Widow suit appears to be a very stylized version of her comic suit, including finally gold accents, and she gains some neat elbow pads. It'll be interesting to see if they explain how her movie suits evolve into the IW ensemble that displeased many a viewer, as it appears to borrow many elements from her Endgame outfit, despite taking place between Civil War and Infinity War.
I don't know what to make of her hair. I mean, it's hair.. it's red.. so I guess that's a good start. Her massive ponytail is well detailed and painted for something of this scale. It just feels to me that they might have made her head too square at the forehead and the overall shape of her hair, making her head seem a tad undersized. The ponytail is relatively pliable, so you don't have to worry about it snapping off easily.
Articulation is effectively identical to what Endgame got you - toes, ankles, double jointed knees, hips on ball joints with a floating crotch section for improved range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with some collapse and bicep swivel, single jointed elbows with forearm pivot, wrists, neck, and head. Her upper torso (bust to neck) has more restrictions on range of motion compared to Endgame as she no longer has that gap at the bottom of the piece and her abs.
The good news is that she looks slightly better from the side with fuller bust.
Paint work is once again an area with no real concerns (especially since I'm going forward in time for a review for once). The base black that Nat has all over the body is smooth, and there are no concerns I have to raise with regards to the gold, silver, and red accents on her body, though some of the silver paint on her weapons have seen better days (arguably the fault of the less than stellar finish).
Hands are consistent, which is to say they've been.. alright. You can tell they're fingers and that's about it - the Figma guys definitely have a better product from this perspective.
Hair and face I touched up on earlier. Solid stuff, especially with a decent Scar Jo sculpt and that digital painting stuff that has been working well for the past three iterations (AoU, IW, Endgame) and the new healthy complexion.
Finally there's build quality.. which strangely enough feels a slight step back. There's the anal retentive stuff (to my fingers, the box feels flimsier), and then there's the fact this is first Marvel Figuarts I've picked up that actually had a joint pop apart (fortunately it was something you could snap back together) and the left arm actually popped out of the socket (again, easily reassembled)
There are no other issues with QC (the rough finish on the baton handles were probably always there, just no paint to highlight them). The plastic itself definitely feels softer than Endgame (bringing it back more in line with Infinity War) and this is probably due to the lack of extensive fine textures, which were prevalent on the Endgame suit.
Well that about wraps it up for this Widow. It's still pretty good, despite trading aesthetics for articulation, having only one face, and some minor quality quips. She won't be the one travelling with me (my Endgame Nat is already play worn, so not point damaging another figure) but she'll be at home in the horde, keeping order when I'm not around.
To the surprise of probably nobody that knows my habits, I preordered what is probably the last Scarlett Johansson Black Widow Figuarts release - of course, I'm speaking of the one for her movie, which we would have seen by now under normal circumstances.
Interestingly enough though, despite being seen in at least two costumes, there was only one Widow figure solicited, and the entire movie only generated two figures - Widow and Taskmaster, which I didn't bother to get.
A bit about the box art first.. bottom right hand corner of the front shows Natasha with her hair down, but wearing the black costume. So for those keeping score, that's now potentially four different hair styles I've seen within the scope of one movie, which will make things interesting if Hot Toys decides to actually make anything for this movie.
If you bought the Endgame release of Natasha, you're basically already familiar with the payload - there's the figure in her all new suit and one of several hair new hair styles, no additional faces this time, two baton handles for her backpack, two batons, one sickle, two empty holsters, two pistols, two filled holsters, Widow's Bite effects mounted on two fists, and pretty much the same extra hands (except her left hand no longer has the Quantum Watch).
If the face looks familiar, it's because she's had that face since Infinity War, and somehow I think maybe Tamashii Nations intended it to be a two faced package, but the same MSRP as before, might have nixed that idea.
If you look at the profile view of her head, you'll see the surgical scars there.
Otherwise, you'll notice that the batons and the handles have paint on them this time, which was not present on the Endgame version (not in the movie anyway) but was lacking from the Infinity War version, and naturally the paint is on the sickles.
A bit more before we move on from comparisons to the previous versions.
You'll notice that this version of Nat is shorter than previously. After a bit of staring.. and more staring, I FINALLY arrived at the conclusion she's not shorter, she's just not wearing platform boots anymore.
Finally, I don't know what happened, but the Endgame version ended up looking much more jaundiced compared to both her predecessor and her successor. Thank goodness they fixed that because it certainly wasn't a one time thing, seeing how my backup Endgame Nat has the same complexion.
The new Widow suit appears to be a very stylized version of her comic suit, including finally gold accents, and she gains some neat elbow pads. It'll be interesting to see if they explain how her movie suits evolve into the IW ensemble that displeased many a viewer, as it appears to borrow many elements from her Endgame outfit, despite taking place between Civil War and Infinity War.
I don't know what to make of her hair. I mean, it's hair.. it's red.. so I guess that's a good start. Her massive ponytail is well detailed and painted for something of this scale. It just feels to me that they might have made her head too square at the forehead and the overall shape of her hair, making her head seem a tad undersized. The ponytail is relatively pliable, so you don't have to worry about it snapping off easily.
Articulation is effectively identical to what Endgame got you - toes, ankles, double jointed knees, hips on ball joints with a floating crotch section for improved range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with some collapse and bicep swivel, single jointed elbows with forearm pivot, wrists, neck, and head. Her upper torso (bust to neck) has more restrictions on range of motion compared to Endgame as she no longer has that gap at the bottom of the piece and her abs.
The good news is that she looks slightly better from the side with fuller bust.
Paint work is once again an area with no real concerns (especially since I'm going forward in time for a review for once). The base black that Nat has all over the body is smooth, and there are no concerns I have to raise with regards to the gold, silver, and red accents on her body, though some of the silver paint on her weapons have seen better days (arguably the fault of the less than stellar finish).
Hands are consistent, which is to say they've been.. alright. You can tell they're fingers and that's about it - the Figma guys definitely have a better product from this perspective.
Hair and face I touched up on earlier. Solid stuff, especially with a decent Scar Jo sculpt and that digital painting stuff that has been working well for the past three iterations (AoU, IW, Endgame) and the new healthy complexion.
Finally there's build quality.. which strangely enough feels a slight step back. There's the anal retentive stuff (to my fingers, the box feels flimsier), and then there's the fact this is first Marvel Figuarts I've picked up that actually had a joint pop apart (fortunately it was something you could snap back together) and the left arm actually popped out of the socket (again, easily reassembled)
There are no other issues with QC (the rough finish on the baton handles were probably always there, just no paint to highlight them). The plastic itself definitely feels softer than Endgame (bringing it back more in line with Infinity War) and this is probably due to the lack of extensive fine textures, which were prevalent on the Endgame suit.
Well that about wraps it up for this Widow. It's still pretty good, despite trading aesthetics for articulation, having only one face, and some minor quality quips. She won't be the one travelling with me (my Endgame Nat is already play worn, so not point damaging another figure) but she'll be at home in the horde, keeping order when I'm not around.