Toys from the upcoming Black Widow movie are starting to hit here and there and I forgot to pre-order most of them and can’t really go hunting, so I was glad to see that Hasbropulse.com had this deluxe white costume version in stock late last week. Let’s take a look!
The box does a good job showing off the figure and all of the accessories and has a pretty snazzy piece of artwork on the sides. It’s the usual fare from Marvel Legends, just wider.
Natasha comes with a good amount of stuff with two extra sets of hands, seven different blast effects, two guns, and two baton/hook weapons.
The stand is a substantial hunk of clear plastic consisting of a base and an adjustable arm that can plug into one of the nine holes on the base. The larger blast effects also plug into these holes. The base also has smaller holes for the smaller blast effects and regular pegs that fit Natasha’s feet.
The arm can raise and lower along a track and connects to a smaller perpendicular arm with a swivel. At the end of the smaller arm there is a claw attached at a swivel/hinge joint. The claw itself has an internal spring so it grips the figures.
The explosion blast effects are all cast in a nice orange translucent plastic and plug into the different holes on the base. They don’t quite sit flat on the ground when not on the base because the pegs are a little longer.
I initially thought the smaller blast effects were from the Iron Man figures, but they are angled so they look to me like a trail of bullet hits. On the other hand, they really do remind me of Tony Stark blast effects, so it almost gives the impression of blasts exploding from the ground.
I do love the look of the larger effects with some light shining through them.
Black Widow comes with fists, pistol grip and baton grip hands. The baton and pistol grip hands hinge up/down and the fists hinge in/out. The pistols feel pretty tiny, but fit the hands and holsters well.
I’m not sure, but I think BW’s batons transform into a segmented chain and claw type weapon in this film and the wavy look of the baton is meant to convey a flexibility of the weapon. I’ll have to see it in action to make more sense of it, but they fit in her grip hands well.
The stingers have some blue plastic blast effects that can be added when you swap the hands off. I think they do a good job conveying an electric shock blast.
The sculpting is overall very nice and I think the likeness is exceptionally good. Her face does seem pretty relaxed for any sort of fighting poses, but I think it capture’s the actresses’ expression perfectly. One thing I don’t love about the sculpting is that the arms can’t fully rest at her sides and the legs can’t get close together.
Articulation is standard for Marvel Legends with:
- Swivel/hinge neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips and ankles
- Ball and socket mid-torso wobble
- Swivel thighs
- Double hinged knees
I found the articulation a little frustrating. It probably doesn’t help that I got the nicely articulated Snake Eyes the same day that I’m writing this up. Nat does have a ball joint at the head, but really only gets swivel movement out of it. The hips don’t kick forward 90 degrees straight and the swivel/hinge at the ankles doesn’t work well for stabilizing poses because the ankle hinge is pegged straight down into the foot so the feet swivel rather than tilt. It makes action poses a little annoying, but thankfully the stand helps with that.
The belt doesn’t impede movement, but it can ride up a bit when you move the legs forward.
Overall I like this figure, but don’t love it. The stand and explosives are neat and fun display pieces and I love the stinger blast effects. I did find the articulation a little frustrating, especially the stiffness of the head movement and the lack of stabilizing ankle movement. It is interesting how ML used to be on the forefront of great articulation, but lately Star Wars and now Snake Eyes have taken the mantle.
