BLACK WIDOW

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Extensive training in the Red Room made Natasha Romanoff into a warrior with few peers.”

Okay, so, I gotta be honest, putting that specific bio on this specific version of Black Widow is, admittedly, a little bit humorous.  I mean, yeah, she has trouble making friends, and it’s relevant to the movie that was being released around the time of this figure’s release, but, umm, the figure’s sort of in her specifically Avengers-branded attire.  From when she was with the Avengers.  Long enough to have specifically branded attire.  Which would make them…her peers?  I don’t mean to keep throwing wrenches into the Hasbro bios here, but, you know, I’m just throwing that out there.  Okay, enough bio-reviewing, onto the figure reviewing.  Would you guess I’m looking at a Black Widow figure today?  I know, pretty crazy!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Black Widow was a Walmart-exclusive Marvel Legends release, initially showing up in the summer of 2020 to coincide with the original planned release date for Black Widow.  As with most Walmart-exclusives, it was not super easy to find, and this wasn’t aided by the whole pandemic thing.  Ultimately, she would up being offered up again through Entertainment Earth, and by extension through a good number of Fan Channel locations.  This version of Widow is sporting her grey jumpsuit and Avengers-branded bomber jacket from the early ’90s.  Notably, this same design was also the one used by her very first action figure, back during the Toy Biz 5-inch days, and it also showed up once prior as the variant color scheme for the Widow from the Legends two-packs in 2010.  The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Her sculpt is a mix of old and new.  The bulk of the body is the Phoenix mold, with the upper arms and jacket overlay from Rogue.  She gets a new head, upper torso (which was subsequently re-used on Firestar), and add-ons for her bracelets and belt.  It’s a good mix of parts, which does a pretty spot-on job of capturing this particular version of Widow.  In particular, I really like how the head sculpt turned out.  The hair really captures the look and feel really well, right down to the one lock in front of her right eye.  It’s honestly one of Hasbro’s nicest female heads, and certainly my favorite of the Widow sculpts they’ve done.  The paint work on this figure is pretty decent.  The bulk of the color work is via molded plastic colors, but the work on the two spiders is sharp, and the face and hair are particularly dynamic and lively looking.  She’s even got the Avengers insignia on both shoulders of the jacket, which is super cool.  Black Widow is packed with two sets of hands (fists and open gesture), three different sets of bracelets (standard, blast effect, and smoke), a jetpack piece, and two rocket effects for the jetpack.  It’s a really great selection of extras.  About the only other thing I could think of to really seal the deal might be an alternate set of unjacketed arms, but that’s really a minor complaint, given the other awesome stuff included.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve got a nostalgic spot for this design, what with the old Toy Biz figure and all, so I was very excited when this figure was shown off, and immediately less so when it was confirmed as a Walmart exclusive.  I then had no luck locating one at retail, and kind of figured that was it.  Thankfully she got the second release, and I got a second chance at getting her.  I’m glad I did, because she’s a fantastic figure, and honestly my favorite Widow figure from Hasbro.  Just a really strong release all around, and I’m glad it’s getting a wider distribution.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website.