I think my favorite parts of the Black Widow trailers have been David Harbour’s scenes as Russian Super Soldier, Red Guardian. From his insane tatts to grizzled beard and ill-fitting uniform I’ve gotten a kick out of his take on the middle-aged hero trying to keep up with the youngsters. I immediately wanted a figure, but I’m not sure this quite hit the mark. Let’s take a look!
I really like the artwork depicting Red Guardian on the box and wish the figure matched this a little bit more.
He comes with a shield and a piece of Crimson Dynamo’s arm. The shield is pretty nice and has good detail and a few different paint hits that have a nice shine to them. It’s got the flippy clip/peg system so it can clip onto his arm or plug into a hole in the back.
The Crimson Dynamo piece looks impressively large and has some interesting translucent blue jewels in the gauntlet that add a nice pop of color and visual interest.
It’s not my ideal Dynamo, but based on the arm, it’s looking like an impressive ‘bot.
I’m of two minds about the sculpting here as I really like the solidly built body and all of the requisite (over?)designed MCU uniform details, but the likeness in the face isn’t amazing. It feels a little soft on detail and while I can tell who it is supposed to be, it’s not on par with recent likenesses from other MCU figures. It just doesn’t nail Harbour’s look for me 100%
I also really wish this guy had come with an alternate head with the mask. The cool cover art is almost teasing me. Look how rad this guy’s helmet is, Matt! Too bad you didn’t get that. Overall he also seems really clean cut and normal, which is not my impression from the trailers, but maybe this is based on flashback scenes or concept art. It’s probably the latter, which is a known issue with these figures.
Articulation is pretty standard with:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Double hinged knees and elbows
- Swivel waist, biceps, boots, and thighs
- Hinged ab crunch
- Barbell ball and socket head
I do like the barbell ball and socket in the neck and head because it allows for nice tilting. The ab crunch crunches really well too. The double elbows only get about 90 degree bend because he’s fairly beefy, with the knees getting a little better than 90.
The paint is fine, but I did have a splotch near the lip that kind of makes it look like my Red Guardian has been sloppily eating chocolate chip cookies. The outfit also feels really overly clean and a little wash or overspray would have been nice.
Overall, I like the figure on it’s own merits, it is just not what I was looking for based on my trailer views. I knew that when I bought it, so that’s really on me and we’ll see if I like this look more after I finally see the movie. Right now, I’ve enjoyed playing with the figure and imagining him having early adventures as the newly minted Red Guardian.
