Welcome to our review of Black Widow from the 2018 Avengers Infinity War wave. Black Widow was packed in the Cull Obsidian Build-a-Figure line alongside Thor from the Infinity War movie as well as Wasp and Ant-Man from Ant-Man and the Wasp. The other two figures in the wave were comic book based releases of Malekith and The Black Knight
Packaging 3/5
The Infinity War packaging employs a purple hue to the artwork either side of the standard Legends window box, with a deep yellow exploding card back behind the figure with the Avengers "A" in the middle. The side artwork for Widow is well executed and a good likeness for Scarlet Johansson.
Our review copy was purchased off the shelf in Asda in the UK. For some reason the Asda sold Infinity War figures have had a black sticker placed over the age rating? They are also subject to intrusive tags - thankfully our Widow had escaped the adhesive tag.
Round the back of the box we get a slightly unflattering image of the figure. This promo art doesnt paint an accurate picture of the figure, and as we will see the head sculpt and paint is much more impressive in hand. To the side of this sits a short piece of text talking about Widow as an "agent of espionage", the wording is quite odd and doesn't seem to fit too well with how Widow is portrayed in the movie - it is as though the text is being taken from some older comic based bio? Underneath the image and text is the Build-a-Figure checklist detailing the parts that make up the Cull Obsidian figure.
"An agent of espionage and expert in hand-to-hand combat, Black Widow is trained to take out any enemy of justice"
Widow comes out via either of the two side flaps. For some reason, and for the first time in a long while, Widow is actually strapped into the inner packaging with clear elasticated twisty ties. These can always rub or scratch paint work so a heads up they are there.
Sculpt & Paintwork 4/5
Despite the unflattering image on the back of the box, the likeness in hand to Scarlet Johansson is exquisite, another fantastic female face likeness delivered by the face print technology. The skin tone is spot on, and not as glossy as the images here (and on the box) make out. The eyes are extremely realistic and the lips a natural tone - not the bright pink we've seen on earlier MCU Widow figures. The hair is a second piece, so there is a touch of a gap at the hairline. This is very subtly washed with a darker blonde over the top to add some depth to the hair.
The outfit is good and the body shape much more realistic than some of the earlier Widow figures. The vest is a green tone with black painted panels and some silver detail on the zips. Sadly they didn't go all the way (as seen on the packaging) and the front facing clips and straps are all left unpainted and this is a shame. The rest of the suit is essentially black plastic, but there is a texture to this and appropriate breaks via straps in a grey tone. The stingers are sculpted around her wrist and these are picked out in silver. There is also a belt with holsters that is cast in grey plastic.
The vest is removable as it is clipped in place on her left side. Once off there is a full sculpted jump suit underneath and this looks all new rather than re-using the older body. The head can be swapped with the older red headed Widow, although sadly it sits too high on the neck. The other issue if you pop the vest off is that it is very hard to clip back n place and the side section has a habit of flicking open now which is annoying.
Widow comes with an alternative set of closed "punching" fists. These swap in and out really easily with a satisfying click as they are positioned in the wrists.
Articulation 4/5
Widow has a slightly disappointing 16 points of articulation. The lower half is really good with ball jointed hips, thigh swivel, double jointed knees and ankle rockers. The main body is also pretty mobile with a ball joint pivot head/neck and a ball joint built into the waist which rotates and leans forward and backward.
The arms, like all female Legend figures, are sadly lacking with only a ball jointed shoulder, single joint rotating elbow and wrist peg. This lack of mobility in the arms will impact later on when using her staff - although there are some good fighting and action stances possible with what's available. I wonder how long we will wait for double jointed arms on Legends female characters?
Accessories 4/5
The first accessories that come with Widow are a little odd in that they are essentially two shaped pieces of black plastic. Having looked at these I can only assume they are some form of taser that Widow was going to use in Infinity War, but something that never made the main movie. The tasers are handed and marked as Left and Right and are designed to slot into the thigh holsters. While they are a bit odd in terms of context to the movie they do look pretty good filling those holsters.
Accessory number two is the black and silver staff that Widow does utilise in Infinity War. This arrives a little warped as it is cast in a softer plastic. Like the Tasers it is cast in black plastic, with silver rings painted around its lengths. It slots into Widow's hand well enough, with both gripping hands holding tight around the staff - sadly it is here we see the limitation of the elbows as the posing is a little stiff with staff in hand.
The staff does come apart to make two batons, and with these in hand the posing becomes more dynamic. The one thing missing for me is a holster on Widow's back to hose the batons.
Summary
At this point, Widow is up there with the best of the Infinity War releases to date. While some of the male characters have not had brilliant facial likenesses - the female characters are knocking it out of the park, and Widow is one of the best to date alongside the Evangeline Lilly Wasp head sculpt.
The outfit is pretty good, but it is missing a few paint apps on the vest - and what makes that worse is that these are shown on the promo image used on the back of the packaging. Accessories are a mixed bag, with the tasers not being seen on screen. And while the staff is good, it does need some work to straighten it out.
Articulation is as good as any other female Marvel Legends figure, but is still lacking with the elbows in particular.
I score Infinity War Black Widow a 4 out of 5.
