Considering the Black Widow movie trailer has more than 33 million views on YouTube and growing, it’s a safe guess that majority of Beat readers have seen it. Today Hasbro unveiled its Back Widows toys as part Hasbro Legends line of 6-inch figures to tie-in with the film. Characters in the Black Widow toy line include Natasha herself, Yelena Belova, Red Guardian, Taskmaster, Winter Soldier, Crossbones, and Spymaster. The Build-A-Figure character for the line is Crimson Dynamo. As noted by comic creator Ryan Dunlavey, comic readers may recognize that Hasbro took inspiration from the Crimson Dynamo designed by Steve Ellis.
Some may also remember despite being featured as a main character that an executive infamously blocked of Black Widow merchandise for the Avengers: Age of Ultron film 2015, likely under the outdated impression that women do not sell toys. Needless to say, the decision sparked tremendous backlash from fans and for the Avengers: Age of Ultron despite Natasha that resulted in tremendous backlash from not only fans but even Hulk actor himself Mark Ruffalo. Let’s also not forget that Iron Man 3 writer/director Shane Black even revealed in an interview that Rebecca Hall’s character Maya Hansen was originally intended as the main villain but was changed due to a memo that told him that “women don’t sell toys.” With Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige wresting more control over the direction of Marvel from current Marvel chairman and notorious penny-pincher Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter, it appears Natasha Romanoff is finally getting her proper merchandising due. Check out the Black Widow toys hitting shelves in 2020 below:
“Scarlett Johansson reprises her role as Natasha/Black Widow in Marvel Studios’ action-packed spy thriller Black Widow—the first film in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Florence Pugh stars as Yelena, David Harbour as Alexei aka The Red Guardian and Rachel Weisz as Melina.”
