Marvel Legends Red Widow review (2024) BAF Zabu wave

June 4, 2026 Jeffrey Lyles Avengers, Black Widow, Darkstar, Hasbro, Marvel Legends, Red Guardian, Red Widow, Ursa Major

Red Widow is a relatively newer Marvel character, which is always tricky for a “Marvel Legends” figure since she’s barely been around long enough to have an established following. She’s so close to being a more useful relatively older character as Crimson Cowl, but at least we get another addition to the Winter Guard.

Let’s see if this latest counterpart to Black Widow is worth displaying with Darkstar, Red Guardian and Ursa Major or if she should get placed behind a curtain in the figure display. If nothing else, at least she finishes off the Build-A-Figure Zabu.

Packaging: The BAF Zabu wave features the signature black with red trim with orange yellow as the accent color. That makes for an easy contrasting color against Red Widow.

marvel legends red widow review - package front

marvel legends red widow review - package rear

marvel legends red widow review - package side

She has the same image repeated on the sides and on the back — possibly suggesting she’s not fully a legend if that’s the most prominent artwork. For once, the bio does a pretty comprehensive job of breaking down a character’s backstory.

Likeness: Red Widow has a simple look with some design flairs to make it look like a modern costume. Her hood is sculpted properly to create enough space to allow her Optimus Prime-style mouthpiece to jut out properly. This is one of the coolest aspects of her design and it was translated perfectly with the figure.

Her layered cape has an accurate flow, so it flares out from the high collar with a portion draped over her left shoulder while leaving her right arm relatively uncovered.

marvel legends red widow review - front left side

marvel legends red widow review - front right side

marvel legends red widow review - rear left side

marvel legends red widow review - rear right side

Per the norm for modern comic book costumes, artists can’t settle on one look for Red Widow so there are bunch of variations. The one constant aspect of the design is she has some paneling along her forearms that resemble long gloves as well as a slimmer panel along her thighs. It wouldn’t be realistic to think that would be sculpted on some most of this is done via the paint job.

The wraps and cords that are strung along randomly across her waist and thighs are a bit big, but if they were any thinner, they’d likely have to be painted on, which wouldn’t look great. Red Widow uses the Shriek mold, which is the best option for most female figures.

Scale: Red Widow should be a little shorter than Red Guardian and around the same height as Darkstar. Naturally, she’s going to be looking up at Ursa Major. She scales properly with her ML counterparts though she does look a tad slender compared to the others.

Paint: While her dominant color is red, Red Widow has some variations in the shades with her cape being more of a candy apple red and her outfit being more of a maroon hue. The distinction isn’t as prominent with the figure though the outfit red looks a tad darker due to it being painted against black.

marvel legends red widow review - left side

marvel legends red widow review - right side

Her thigh should have more of a 50/50 split between maroon and black, but the figure has more of an 80/20 ration red to black. These are the little details that should be preventable with the line. Her eyes did come out nicely as they aren’t too big, but just right to convey her menacing demeanor.

For the most part, the black “panel” effect is clean save for a stray mark on the left leg of my figure.

Articulation: Red Widow is a formidable fighter trained in the same skills as Black Widow, so she needs maximum articulation. Unfortunately, the cape creates major limitations of the very fluid articulation available with the Shriek mold.

Barring wiring added to a soft goods cape, the plastic sculpted cape is a better aesthetic, but it’s a trade off when you want to pose her in action stances. Since the cape isn’t a dress, you can get some dynamic poses in running stances and prepping for battle. It’s actually having her square off against a Captain America or Black Widow where the deficiencies start to show.

Red Widow has:

neck
ball-jointed shoulders (with butterfly shoulder joint)
bicep
elbow (double-jointed)
wrist
wrist hinge
upper torso
hip
thigh
knee (double-jointed)
ankle

Accessories: Red Widow comes with a decent number of accessories. She’s got a left fist and an open right hand.

Also included is her double-bladed staff. Due to her limited shoulder and arm range, she can’t really hit exciting battle poses with it, but she can hold it and look cool on the shelf.

Finally, she’s got the front left leg to the Build-A-Figure, Zabu.

Worth it? Amazon had a great sale for the Zabu wave during the 2024 Christmas season, but I ended up having to pay the old $25 price for her. She’s definitely the character in this wave better suited to get for $15 due to her restrictive articulation setup due to the design. A figure with swappable hands, a weapon and a BAF piece isn’t the worst deal for $25, however.

Rating: 6 out of 10

This was a no-win situation for the Marvel Legends team as Red Widow needed better articulation while there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to accommodate the aesthetics of her cape properly if it weren’t plastic.