Review by tanuki

I do like me a bit of Black Widow, and having Joss Whedon helming the Avengers made sure the Widow got to kick arse as good as the chaps.

I've never been much of a Scarlet Johansson fan, she plays Ms Romanoff pretty well though.

I would like to see a Black Widow/Hawkeye film at some point, then again marvel doesn't even know what to do for a Hulk follow up yet.

Last year Hot Toys released The Avengers Black Widow, sporting her new haircut and a slightly better suit.

After seeing pictures i wasn't sure if she'd be any good, but after buying a figure, my opinion changed.

Aside from a few niggles, Black Widow is one of my favorite Hot Toys figures, she's more posable than others in my collection.





Box pictures! front and side, the back is blank and shows the usual credits, on top we have the character name.







So what comes in the box?

The figure itself, the standard Hot Toys stand and instruction sheet, two Glock 26 handguns with removable clips, a Chitari weapon, two taser disks (as seen in Iron Man 2 but not The Avengers), two sets of wrist gauntlets, one plain one with the blue "Widows bite", a set of closed fists, a set of fists with the electocution knuckles, a set of trigger pulling hands, and two right hands for holding various accessories, finally are a spare set of wrists pegs, slightly different than the usual pegs as they are smaller to fit with the smaller female body.

The Chitari weapon is a nice addition, Black Widow used it once in the battle of New York, flipping it around her back and firing it from over her shoulders.

The weapon has nice detailing as you would expect from Hot Toys, it looks a little like a sniper rifle with blades on the end.







Natasha's twin Glock 26's are wonderfully recreated, they have the usual functionality of Hot Toys handguns, the barrel slides back and springs forward thanks to a tiny spring mechanism.

They also have removable clips with nice bullet detailing inside.

Each gun has a holster on Natasha's legs, they fit snuggly.











The wrist gauntlets and fisted hands enable you to have Natasha with normal gauntlets and hands or to have her "Widow's Bite" fists that in the film were used as a kind of electro-shock knuckle duster.

These attach easily to the figure, just pull the hands off and slide the gauntlets over her wrists, careful not to pull the arm of the catsuit back then replace the fists.







The taser disks are extremely tiny, Natasha can hold them in certain hands, but it's more a balancing act than securely holding them.

Her belt also has detailing showing 4 sets of disk holders on each side of her belt, front and back.







The first thing most people notice is the hair, yes, it's dolls hair.

This figure is a doll, i'm aware that certain collectors will refuse this fact.

My issue with the hair is that it can be difficult to control and maintain, i've brushed it several times, i've even cut away a few random hair strands, but more keep appearing and i don't want to cut them all as they won't grow back!

The face sculpt is brilliant, this is the first female Hot Toys figure i own and the likeness to Scarlet Johansson is spot on.





Articulation is better than most on the figure, she has double jointed elbows and knees, her torso has a rubber covering hiding a diaphragm joint and lower neck joint.

Her ankles have a joint but its hindered by the thickness of her boots.

I got her into some nice kneeling action poses and even a high kick/heel kick, though her stability suffered and the rubber catsuit tends to push the joint down.

The catsuit does allow for alot of movement, i've found a lot of figures with clothing are hindered by their outfits, Black Widows suit has more give to it.











Her boots even have tread detailing, but i don't think fighting in boots with a wedge heel would be easy.





Now onto what some have come to see, BEWBS.

Yes the catsuit zip works, and yes you can zip it down to her belt.

However why anyone would do this is beyond me, her boobs are just, well, see for yourself.

What the fudge is happening there? it's like someone took a ball and cut it in half and attached it to her chest.

If my boobs ever looked like that i'd be straight down to a cosmetic surgeon getting them fixed.

I'm 99% sure Scarlet Johansson doesn't have boobs like this.

Moving on....





My only complaints about this figure are the Boobs, the hair and the look of the elbows when bent.

I can overlook these because everything else makes up for it.

These Avenger figures are getting harder to find at a reasonable price, i have just seen a Black Widow on Ebay for £170, which is just a bit more than what i paid for mine.

If you collect Hot Toys Avengers figures Black Widow is well worth adding to your collection if you don't already have her, i imagine there will be another Black Widow figure coming in the next year to have her updated look from The Winter Soldier, hopefully she`ll be as good as this figure.









