Ever since Black Friday, Sideshow Collectibles has been doing all sorts of sales to drum up revenue, including a BOGO 50% off sale. Many people were were astounded by the generosity of the company, but unfortunately, being Yellow meant that I can do basic math, ultimately arriving at the not so secret conclusion that basically, at best, you have to spend twice as much as you were going to in order to get 25% off the entire order, and that's presuming you could actually find two of something the same price that you actually wanted.
Of course, being Canadian, I often lose sight of who these campaigns are targeted towards.
So having said that, I waited around for a few more days and found a compromise. 15%, but it was one single figure, and one that I actually was looking to get eventually. After discount and burning of all stored up coupon codes and what not, the Hot Toys Snowsuit Widow was on its way to me.
Unless I'm told otherwise, this is the final piece to my Hot Toys Black Widow collection, and I somehow don't think they're gonna be revisiting her any time soon for an Artisan. Furthermore, having built a custom one myself, there wasn't really anything surprising when I received this, both good and bad. Other than filling in the gap, this figure really was purchased to verify a few things about the head sculpt.
Unsurprisingly, Box Art/Style for this figure is identical to the rest of the line, featuring a slip cover featuring a cut out in the shape of the Black Widow emblem, with an art cover on the inner box with I guess concept art.
I didn't even bother to take a photo of the contents, as the only relevant note is that other than the suit itself and the head, this is basically the same figure. Those pieces basically never left the box. What IS interesting is that unlike the Figuarts release, the baton handles are the same for both Hot Toys releases.
Unboxed, again, a very familiar site. The underlying Hot Toys female body isn't exactly great for portraying curves and its never more evident than with figures featuring jumpsuits. Furthermore, making matters more complicated is the fact that the last two Black Widows are ever so slightly padded on the ab section to fill out the suit, which admittedly does allow for greater range of motion at the cost of reducing her femme fatale-ness even further. It is worth noting that the curves are still improved compared to the Endgame version.
Or at least the curves of the upper body. There isn't enough padding in the world to save the lower half of the body.
The infamous head sculpt. I've said for the longest time that this is probably the worst Widow sculpt I've ever seen, and that's not even taking into account the overly restrictive hair. I mean, compare it to the actual box art itself and I'm sure you'll be able to see that maybe. MAYBE... they got the shape of the face right and perhaps the lips. Otherwise, it's all pretty much wrong. I think they got the hair styling right (per screen caps) but as far as face goes, she probably looks more accurate as the actor who plays Bo Katan.
It also doesn't help that it's incredibly hard to find that singular point of of focus for the eyes, which is quite annoying when you're trying to take Portrait photos of close ups of the head.
The hair style is basically completely off, but it does at least have some decent detailing.
Articulation is alright. The addition of ankles helps immensely, and the tighter joints help with balance. But overall, you're not really going to be doing any deep, wide legged stances Overall, you're probably gonna be doing the typical Hot Toys action pose, which is the one leg straight, one leg stepping on something while the arms use uses to point her gun(s) in some direction.
There is, however, sufficient give in the outfit to do some more casual posing, with various degrees of success. I've found this to generally be the case with the Hot Toys figures I buy. - terrible at battle posing, but generally not terrible at more casual posing. The selection of hands, however, means you do need to get creative.
Furthermore, in case it wasn't obvious, the long sculpted hair effectively eliminates any natural head articulation. You can force it a bit, but ultimately it's nowhere even close to where it ought to be.
Paint work is solid as usual. Most of the heavy work is on the face, which inaccurate, is generally nicely done. The only areas of weakness I encountered is that the jewelry on the ear is a bit messy. The hard plastic parts possess some accent paint apps, but the suit itself is printed on the actual outfit and not applied by hand. Weathering effects are pretty good, though its not like they were aiming for anything high end. I guess another thing I can say is that they colour matched the hair fairly well.
Build Quality does not bring up any major concerns. Parts fit together nicely and joints are still new, so holding positions is no issue, even with the resistance of suit - having said that, it can't overcome the resistance of hip and ab areas, which is why you don't see here in "the pose" on this article. What I have found is that female figures with ankles, or at least the more recent ones (which in the two Widows and WB100 Wonder Woman) the feet tend to come off the peg, or the peg comes out of the socket. I can't even blame one particular body type as the Widows are jointed whereas Wonder Woman is silicone. What I CAN blame is poor quality control. The articulated batons, going by experience on the Solo suit, should be fine and hold up to posing no matter the position it is in.
With that, the OG Hot Toys Black Widow is now able to rest. It's just unfortunate it's a point where they had finally given the poor woman ankles. Who knows.. maybe the next improvement is that they'd finally give her an ass? Whatever it is, I guess it will be up to Yelena to carry on and hopefully reap the benefits of from the various failures from all the Natasha Romanoff figures.
Having said all that, I don't have a clue what people are talking about when they say the Snowsuit and Solo suits are the most accurate Scarlet Johansson heads Hot Toys has ever made. They might look the most realistic, but they don't look a damn thing like her.
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