Review: Marvel Legends Yelena Belova and Red Guardian Alexis Shostokov from Marvel's Thunderbolts* (2025)
- Mephitsu
- 36 minutes ago
- 7 min read
“Yelena, being the hero, there is no higher calling.”
The April 2025 review of Marvel’s Thunderbolts* brought together a mismatched team that would, by the end of the movie, be badged as The New Avengers. Each member of the team, excluding Bob, already had a Marvel Legends figure but just ahead of the movie release, Hasbro revealed they would be releasing some two-packs for the movie, bringing three of the main characters up to date in terms of their Thunderbolts look, with the final slot being given over to the new character of Sentry.
The usual format for Marvel Legends movie releases is to have a ‘launch wave’ on shelves ahead of the movie release, but for the Thunderbolts, the figures were only announced ahead of the movie, and collectors would then need to wait for late Summer 2025 for the sets to be shipped.
Yelena Belova and Alexis Shostokov were included in one of the two sets, updating both characters from their original releases for Black Widow (2021) and Yelena’s cameo in Hawkeye (2021). The pair are packed into a standard squared-off Marvel Legends two-pack box, which features a black base colour and a yellow accent colour, which is used as ‘glitched graphics’ elements across the main front of the box under the window. The Thunderbolts* logo is also a crisp yellow, but the character name text is a bold white font with shadow. Yelena is named as Yelena Belova, with no reference to Black Widow, while Alexis is named as Red Guardian.
The left-hand side is a wrap-around of the window, while the right-hand side includes images of both characters. These images, which also sit on the back of the box, are done as a shadowed black and white illustration, building on the shadowy background of the characters. On the back and next to each image, is a short paragraph of yellow background text for each character detailing the situation both Yelena and Alexis find themselves in, leading into the Thunderbolts* storyline. The backing card for the figures finishes the yellow theme and includes a topographical design that further enhances the shadowy spycraft theme of the film and characters at the start of the movie.
Yelena is a brand new figure, wearing the grey combat suit that she sports for much of the movie. This is a cast green grey with built-in sculpted textures, while also inclusive of cloth folds and seams. The upper shoulder section is picked out in green and includes some nondescript yellow decals on each shoulder. The wrist stingers are painted in black, as are the fingerless gloves, with the stinger wrist devices also featuring silver highlights.
The belt is also black with a painted gold buckle and silver straps. The belt sits angled to one side, with a thigh holster running from the belt and down the right leg. The costume concludes with a pair of black combat boots.
The head sculpt is glorious and captures an impressive likeness to actor Florence Pugh, enhanced with the usual facial print tech application. The hairpiece is also accurate to the movie, cropped short with the fringe brushed to one side. The majority of the hair is a light blonde, while darker roots are picked out underneath.
vs the 2020 Black Widow Movie Release (right) and the 2021 Hawkeye Disney+ release (right)
There is no comparison in terms of quality to the previous Yelena releases. It builds on the original 2020 figure from the 2021 Black Widow movie while doing away with the white of the suit and giving Yelena much better proportions and likeness. Similarly, it improves considerably on the headsculpt from the 2023 Hawkeye release, and also fixes several issues that this release carried, including being far too tall and having some slightly odd posing positions, thanks to the joint orientation.
This new Yelena comes with a pair of clenched fists for hand-to-hand fighting poses. These swap in and out easily enough with the alternative pair of gripping hands.
Yelena features 17 points of articulation, all pinless and worked into the lines of the costume where possible. The legs feature a solid ankle rocker, a double-joint knee, and the usual thigh swivel and hip joint. There is sufficient leg movement to allow Yelena to kneel, crouch, or execute a number of dynamic and fighting stances - the more extreme of which may require a stand. The main trunk of the figure is inclusive of a torso ball joint to help with more action-oriented poses, while the neck is double-jointed to replicate a good range of mannerisms and poses.
The arms do not feature a butterfly joint, which is a miss, but otherwise the elbow joint bends well past the 90-degree mark and with the basic shoulder and wrist joints it can wield any of Yelena’s included weaponry.
That weaponry starts with a basic handgun that can be holstered on the hip or held in either hand, with both gripping hands featuring a trigger finger. The gun itself is black plastic, lacks any detail and has zero paint application.
The same is true of the combat knife, a small piece that is harder for Yelena to grip with the knife sitting rather than being held in the gripping hands. While not immediately obvious, there is a holster for the knife on the belt, but as per her configured weapons in Thunderbolts*, it is positioned upside down, so we missed it when taking our gallery images.
The final weapons are the batons, which are also black cast and left plain in this base colour. They include a wider ridged grip section, and a smaller striking section with a large end pommel. These again fit in the single pair of gripping hands, while they can also be holstered in two loop fittings on the back of the figure.
Moving on to Red Guardian, this also replicates the suit he sports for much of the film. The key elements are cast in a deep red, with off-white detailing added around the shoulders, chest, torso, wrists, thighs and around the boots. The central star on the chest is painted in silver, while more silver is then applied to the suit buckles and the main buckle of the belt.
The figure features two head sculpts, the first a masked Red Guardian, complete with his red helmet to match the suit and featuring a smaller silver star on the forehead. Facial printing is used to create realism in the eyes, which are visible through the helmet, while the beard is picked out in different greys.
The unmasked head takes the helmet away, and reveals a full likeness of David Harbour in costume, complete with a very close-cropped shaved head, which uses photoreal printing to bring out the shaved scalp rather than painting it as a flat colour. Like the masked head, the beard is coloured, so there are variations in the greys.
Again, this 2025 release is a considerable upgrade to the previous release from the Black Widow 2021 2-Pack with Melina, which itself was an upgrade on Red Guardian from 2020 that suffered from a poor David Harbour likeness. Despite similarities, there is no re-use from the older figures with this Thunderbolts* Alexis fully updated to his new costume while also improving his proportions and overall aesthetics.
vs the 2021 Red Guardian 2-Pack release (right)
Alexis comes with two sets of hands, with a pair of gripping hands, a closed right fist, and an open left clawed hand. This allows you to have Red Guardian in a fighting position, although a second left clenched fist would have been nice, and to have Alexis use his twin guns.
These guns are holstered around the back of Alexis' belt in working holsters. The guns themselves are black plastic with basic details to pick out the textured grip and the components of the barrel, but they lack any paint. The two gripped hands can hold a gun each, allowing Red Guardian to aim and fire one or both guns.
Articulation for Red Guardian is significantly higher than Yelena, with 22 points in total. The legs benefit from a solid set of ankle rockers, boot cut swivel, double joint knee, thigh swivel, and hip joint. These allow the figure to be securely posed in a number of fighting stances, while also allowing him to sit or kneel.
The arms do include a bicep swivel alongside the elbow, wrist and shoulder, but like Yelena are missing a butterfly shoulder. The shoulder armour uses a similar design to some Star Wars armoured figures and is a softer plastic that is hinged to move with the arm when it's raised. The body features both a waist swivel and a torso joint, while the neck is jointed top and bottom.
The Thunderbolts* Marvel Legends 2-Packs had an RRP of £49.99, equivalent to the price of two single releases. Packing them together is a shrewd move considering previous iterations of all the Thunderbolts* returning characters have been peg-warmers. However, considering how well both Yelena and Red Guardian have been executed as brand new figures from the ground up, both figures are on par with any of the other movie/TV releases of the last year, including The Fantastic Four and Daredevil: Born Again.
Yelena comes with a wealth of weaponry, and it's probably greedy to want one extra hand for her throwing knife. Alexis, too, would have been a step closer to perfection with a pair of clenched fists rather than just the one.
Both figures are a joy to pose, from vanilla looks to action-oriented stances; they both have lots of character and demonstrate how far the Cinematic arm of the Marvel Legends figures has come in such a short time, considering it's only been four years since these two characters were last released, and the side-by-side comparison is night and day quality-wise. The only issue with the Thunderbolts* releases is one of team building with our four characters in play so far, and no further sets announced to bring us an updated Taskmaster, Ghost, or Bucky Barnes - or a figure of The Void.
Keep Track of all the Marvel Legends figures from Hasbro at our comprehensive
If you are reading this via a 3rd party website that is importing our newsfeed, please come and visit us directly and give us a follow on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Check out our direct news feed for more action figure news, reviews, and store reports
About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...