Sometimes, a new action figure release hit on all cylinders. It seems almost impossible when you think about the crazy journey it is from the conception stage to being on-shelf, but every once in awhile, it does happen. So, if you are a Black Widow fan, I have some good news for you because even though you won’t get to see the movie until November, this new Wal-Mart exclusive Marvel Legends figure is a whole lot of fun.
I know, I am sure you are calling me out for saying a figure hits on all cylinders when it is exclusive to WM. I get it, it can be a real challenge to find exclusives in their stores, and sometimes even pre-ordering from their website is no guarantee that it will complete. BUT ASIDE FROM THAT, if you are taking this figure simply on its own merits, it is difficult to find a reasonable nitpick. I chuckle a bit at that because while BW is one of my favorite Marvel characters, I have never been a huge fan of this particular look. That said, this is definitely my new favorite ML Black Widow figure.
What can I say? The 1980s were a bit of a crazy time, so crazy that the decade allowed Marvel to change an iconic character look pretty much on its head. I mean, even as kid I could not reconcile that a character named Black Widow, whose previous costume was modeled after the spider of the same, could suddenly be put into an all GREY costume, but then, there we were. I get it, I probably was, and still am, making a bigger deal about this than it is or ever was, but do me, Black Widow should be dressed in black, so grey still looks kind of weird to me. That said, if I am adding a “Grey Widow” to my ML collection, at least it is extremely well done, and loaded with a lot cool extra stuff.
For this particular look, Nat has traded the black body suit for a grey one, donned a leather jacket and bobbed her hair for a more efficient do. While certainly not iconic to my eyes, this figure makes all of these things look really, really good, and in usual ML fare, the construction uses a combination of new and existing parts to make it all happen. Sure, a lot of the body is (appropriate) reuse, but there are a lot more new part used for this figure, especially for a store exclusive. Looking it over, it doesn’t look to me like anything was sacrificed or cheated in bringing this figure together, and the cool thing is that a lot of the new stuff can be used with your other Widow MLs, too.
The majority of this figure is a mash-up of the Retro and recent Target-exclusive white costume Widows. The addition of the Avengers jacket and different belt helps to mask that a bit, but honestly, the reuse is appropriate so everything looks good from that perspective. There are fists, of course, but also those ubiquitous open female hands, which are fine, but I am kind of with the crowd that it is probably time to get some new ones. The big highlight is the new head though, and it is impressive from sculpture to paint. Granted, I am more of a fan of the long hair look for BW, but this figure captures the short hair very well, and the little curl over the eye is the icing. More so, I LOVE the sculpting and paint on this new face, and to be honest, I wish the classic version had this mug, too. It, more than any others, really captures Nat’s personality to me – it is serious and strongly feminine and does the character a lot of justice. It is really great.
The other big highlights of this figure are the accessories, and maaaaaaaaaan, this is the kind of stuff I want to see all over Marvel Legends. Widow gets her SHIELD-issued jet pack with removable rocket blasts, so she is prepared for action and ready to take off with the fliers of the Avengers team, too. Widow also leaves her guns behind for her wrist blasters, so you get those, of course, but you also get swappable versions that feature blasts and smoke, too. These are really, really dynamic, and for action poses and photography, Widow is possibly the most out of the box ready ML yet. If you are more of a “vanilla” poser, the smoking blasters, combined with her facial expression, just makes her look bad ass in a post fight pose. The best part is that these are all compatible for the aforementioned retro and white Widow figures, so no matter which version you prefer, the action game just stepped up.
Talk about winning me over. The grey look has never really stood a chance with me since I love the iconic/classic Black Widow look, but damn, this figure has done the impossible. As far as I am concerned, this is by far the best comic-based BW we have gotten in Legends yet, so I really have no nit to pick about the figure itself. Now, it IS a Wal-Mart exclusive, so that is definitely a hump to get over to get this figure in hand, but hopefully you are like me and got lucky with your pre-order actually shipping. If not, keep an eye out if you are there looking for essential items, this is not a figure to be missed.
