BOB SHARE

Funny thing happened: Id have reviewed Marvel Universe HAMMER Files 3.75" Black Widow earlier if I hadnt noticed that there was an error in her packaging.

Its not a big deal, but the cardboard insert in the bubble for the figure read "Bucky" instead of "Black Widow."  So I put off opening that particular figure hoping that one day itll be so rare Id make a million off it.

But in the meantime, I went out and snagged another fig of our fave Russian spy and cracked it open.

While it may not be the figure with the most eye-catching costume or the character whos the popularity contest winner, the Black Widow turned out to be a surprisingly good figure.  And it was the simplicity of the sculpt that made it so...
 



Like: Her clean sculpt.  Nothing obstructing joints except on her head, where her trademark flowing red locks limits the swivel despite the ball joint.

A clean sculpt means less tooling and detail, but in this case Black Widow doesnt need it because shes the ultimate spy/killing machine--shes supposed to be efficiency personified.  A clean sculpt also means here original articulation goes unhindered, which brings me to my next "like"...
Like: Her articulation.  Its befitting of a superspy. While shes made of the standard Marvel Universe female body, it does seem like this is her body, as if it were made for her in mind.  Where certain characters might look a tad spindly with this sculpt (Enchantress, perhaps even Storm), it seems to fit Natasha Romanov here pretty neatly, so she looks sleek but at the same time dangerous.

Like: That shes got her wrist guards and belt as separate pieces that are not glued on to to sculpt.  Granted, you cant actually remove them without taking off her hands or disconnecting her waist, but if you do, youll have yourself a completely clean body that is ready for customization.

In fact this is the good thing for Hasbro and customizers alike--the female MU body is pretty much clean, while the head is easily popped off. It makes it easier for Hasbro to do new figures but equally, its easy meat for newb wannabe cuztomizers like myself or veteran ones who wont really have to take apart the figure.


Dislike: Her left elbow. Poor QC issues here because the hinge is somewhat incomplete--looks like a defective part. Its kinda hard to tell its there unless you look real close, so I can understand why the QC people might have missed it.  Im still keeping her though. I dont feel its that big of a deal but if Id noticed her flaw I wouldnt have bought her in the first place.

Like: The head sculpt.  First off, they got the hair right. Its the right shade of red-brown.  The face is rather expressionless but this works for the character as a cold blooded killer/spy.

The eyes and the lips are also really well done and when you put her side by side with someone similar looking like Jean Grey, she still has a distinctively different look.  Both their face sculpts are pretty much the same, but the eye and lip color is different.  Natashas got darker eyes and even slightly more tanned skin.  Of course overrall, Blakc Widows face is painted better as a figure from a newr wave should be compared to an older one.

Dislike: That other than the Fury HAMMER File and the Figure stand, she only comes with an M-16 with a M-203 grenade launcher attached.

An accessory is all well and good, but I think in this case two handguns wouldve suited her better.  One: shes a spy and is all about being silent and sneaky but deadly.  So she wouldnt be inclined to lug a damn M-16 around.  Two: two guns are a very large part of what made Sienna Miller look really sexy in GI Joe:Rise of Cobra.  And three: Two hand guns have been cool since time immemorial. Ok, maybe not that long, but just since Chow Yun Fat sported them in the classic Hong Kong gangster flick "A Better Tomorrow."  Yeah, go ahead and YouTube it up. ;)


RATINGS

Aesthetics: 7.5/10 - A great looking figure--but you wouldnt know it until its out of the package. Sure, here face looks great but the rest of the figure does look a tad bland in packaging. Only when you do open it up will you realize the subtle things like the really slick paint on her face and the great shimmery blue-blackness of her body suit.
Poseability: 8/10 - Black Widows best feature.  Shes almost as good as Attack on the GI Joe Pit Baroness but lose out slightly because I feel the Joe figures were better constructed overall (in terms of things like metal ball-joints and harder plastic) except when it comes to the head sculpt.  Now we all know how much of a failure the Baroness face turned out to be...

Still, Black Widow is similar to Baroness in that shes got unrestricted joint movement.  Also, her softer hair makes it much easier to rotate the head.  Too bad she doesnt have small holes in the sides on her legs like Baroness does nor the guns to go along with it.  That wouldve made this figure awesome.

Fun: 7.5/10 - I always like my figure poseable and well balanced for their poses.  But thats proven to be a problem for most of the female figures I have--theyre so slim and their feet have to be small enough to be in proportion that they can hardly balance without a stand, let alone on one foot as lots of great poses require.  Thats not a huge problem with the stand or if youre putting her side by side with Nick Fury or Tony Stark, both of whom, along with movie Natasha/Scarlett Johansson, are slated to be released in the Iron Man 2 Movie line somewheer down the road.

And thats the other plus point of having this figure: if we dont see the IM2 line figures (as toys which come at the end of lines tend to be rare for some reason), then well at least have this figure, which fits is nicely with the IM2 line

Value: 7/10 - Despite the figure stand and the Fury HAMMER File, Blakc Widow only comes with one M-16 assault rifle.  For someone of her nature, she shouldve been more GI Joe like--more guns, a grappling hook (?), even a grenade or two.  That wouldve ben fun and wouldve made a popular character a popular toy.  As it is, she seems to sit on pegs as Modern Thor steals her thunder. ;)
Overall: 7.5/10 - A fair score for a fairly good figure which had the potential to be a lot better.  Still, Natasha Romanov aka Black Widow is one of the rare few female characters to appear in the Marvel Universe line so far.  The fact thats shes single carded and comes with her own file and stand makes her more appealing than Secter Wars two-pack Enchantress and Storm.  But by the same token, since she was sold as a single figure, more couldve been down to make sure they got the best and more accessories.

The story of how I managed to find this extremely rare figure some 2 weeks back can be read here.


Amazingly, Ive been accused of being a scalper for finding and buying a couple of this figure (one for the Rangerlord) and the others I picked up that day.  Well guess what?  Ive opened and reviewed the figure like I do for all my stuff, so there!

I do have to concede I was very lucky to find Black Widow.  And I hope all of you hoping to find one manage to hunt one down at retail.  On to the review! ;)





Like: The head sculpt and paint.  Its so good it was the first thing I noticed!  They got her hair right, her face is great, and the flesh tone is smooth and clean too.  Her eyebrows, eyes and lips are all done very sharply and I have to say I certainly wasnt expecting these sorts of standards on a figure, let alone a 3.75" female figure of an actress rendered for the first time in this scale.  great job, Hasbro!

Like: The super articulation.  Shes got 25 points of articulation even without a chest joint.  Still, would it have been that tough to give us a waist swivel?  Its kinda bitter sweet that they went to all the trouble to give her legs with seven PoAs but a torso with zero!


Dislike: Despite the fantastic articulation, shes missing one important PoA: the chest hinge/pivot/waist swivel.  Also, her head ball-joint is reduced to a swivel.  Without these two what-I-like-to-call "central" joints, her poses end up being a lot less dramatic than they could be, whatever flexibility in her limbs.  But maybe with my new-found status as Padawan customizer, Ill have to remedy this...imbalance to the Force...

Like: The usable dual hip holsters!  Both are attached to a simple belt that hangs on her hips but sits nicely on them.  Im glad they didnt glue this down because sometimes it ends up getting in the way of leg articulation.  This way, you can pose Black Widow first, then push the belt down nicely into place. :)

Like: That she comes with two handguns.  Its nice to see some accessories on an Avengers figure--sure, theyve all got their BFGs, but those are just for kids to increase the risk of shooting each other in the eye after buying the figure.  Lol.  I ignore these completely and ScarJos "Grapple" here is no different.  But just for your info, its the same spring loaded BFG that comes with Fandral out of the Thor line from last year.  And it aint no grapple, its a missile! ;P

Dislike: That while her right hand is molded to hold a gun properly with the trigger finger able to fit in the trigger guard, the left isnt.  I really hate it when this happens.  It makes her look like she doesnt know how to shoot with her left hand.  And its not like they gave her anything else to hold in it. :(

Dislike: That the guns are cast in really soft rubber!  Safety standard?  Perhaps.  But if youre gonna swallow it, it wont matter how hard it is, right?  If youre gonna toss it in someones eye, itll still hurt as much unless its made of sponge or something, right?

Like: The tampographs of S.H.I.E.L.D logos on her shoulders, belt buckle, and zipper are really clear and bold!  Theyre so tiny, they are easy to miss.  But up close you can see how clean theyve been done.  Awesome!

RATINGS

Aesthetics: 9.5/10 - Truly amazing ScarJo likeness.  Even if it wasnt, it would be one heckuva knockout of a female figure.  Whats awesome is that the figure achieves this by not needing to have crazy comic proportions--Widow has a real ScarJo-like figure!  Whodathunk the best Avengers movie figure would turn out to be a girl, and one with womanly proportions, at that? :P

Poseability: 8.5/10 - Would easily be 9+ if she had some sort of torso swivel/pivot/crunch joint.  As is, shes still super flexible and can even squat!  Hooray for the double-jointed knees, thigh cuts and hinge/swivel ankle combo!

Sir Mixalot is proud!

These new ankles that Hasbro have developed are a real revelation.  What theyve done is reversed the joint: the hinge goes on the lower leg, while the swivel is in the foot.  Theyve also designed for the post to be inserted into the foot at an angle, so the post goes into the foot like a foot would go into a shoe. So now we have the same turning and pivoting, and the added ability to rotate the ankle, all with the same number of joints!

Fun: 9/10 - Like all highly poseable figures, Black Widow plays well on her own and especially with other figures.  Beating up on Haweye?  Easily done.  Taking on the Hulk?  No problem.  Shes highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat, so being able to pull off poses with her PoAs is especially rewarding. Giving her two guns and usable holsters adds to the playability and as a result, the fun factor.  Also, the fact that she looks so much like Scarlett Johansen is a real treat.  I always find it fun when they get actors and actress likenesses spot on.  Its just fun to own!



Value: 8.5/10 - Two guns, a dual holster/belt combo, a "grapple" and an excellent head sculpt and paint-job--so good value there.  They didnt skimp on articulation (except for the torso) so that checks out too.  But what makes her worth getting is that shes a chase figure and can only be found one out of every twelve in case.  So yeah, grab her at retail if you see her!

Overall: 8.9/10 - Its a keeper for sure! - The Avengers Black Widow and Hawkeye from the same wave complete the all-star lineup for the summer blockbuster.  That shes been given a great sculpt and paint on top of some brilliant articulation says a lot for the line--they actually bothered to please us collectors!  ;P  Also, any future version of her for this movie will probably use this figure as a base, so that will be a nice way to get her if you cant find her.  But heres hoping that they include more of this version in future waves because that would mean more Black Widow for everyone, and it would also mean more (hopefully new) Avengers movie figures!