WheresNatasha

#HeresNatasha — Black Widow Toys, Clothing and Merch Has Finally Arrived

Appearing in five movies, the Black Widow is Marvel’s most recognizable female hero. But her ubiquitous presence on the silver screen has historically not translated to an abundance of choices in the toy aisle. There are likely multiple reasons for this. She is always a supporting character in the movies and traditional toy marketing discourages boys from buying toys featuring women, and girls from entering the action-figure aisle to find merchandise designed for them.

Marvel’s deliberate strategy of carefully proving a market for female action figures, toys and clothing has frustrated many fans, leading to multiple social media hashtag campaigns to pressure them into speeding up the release of merchandise aimed at women and girls. With Captain America: Civil War, the dam holding back merchandise featuring — and for — women appears to have broken.

One industry insider confided, “Marvel has licensed hundreds of products featuring Black Widow for this movie — if not thousands.”  And the  Widow is just the first. Scarlet Witch is already traveling down her established path in the movies, and Marvel has announced that they will be expanding products featuring female heroes like Spider-Gwen, Ms Marvel, Spider-Woman and Squirrel Girl through specialty retailers like Hot Topic.

But it all starts with Black Widow. From the toy aisle to apparel to home furnishings, everyone’s favorite Russian assassin is popping up everywhere.And we’ve put together a cheat sheet to show some of our favorite merch — and this is just a fraction of what is out there.

Toys & Collectibles

While not as widely available as some of the more core characters like Iron Man or Captain America, the Black Widow has an extraordinary amount of action figures available at a variety of price points. Most of these can be found at Target, Toys ‘r’ Us or other retailers; while a few items are Disney Store exclusives.

Action Figures

Collectibles

There are some great desk chotskies here from adorable (and inexpensive) Tsum-Tsums and FUNKO Pops to hyper-detailed (and pricey) action figures for adults from Hot Toys, Square Enix and Marvel Select.

Kids’ Toys

A lot of people felt that you couldn’t market Black Widow to little kids. It just took one look at that Playskool Hero to prove the naysayers wrong. I think I kind of need one of those.

LEGO Building Set

LEGO righted one of the most egregious slights of Avengers: Age of Ultron by giving us a Black Widow playset and finally letting Natasha rock the motorcycle she uses in the films.

LEGO® Super Heroes Crossbones’ Hazard Heist 76050
LEGO® Super Heroes Crossbones’ Hazard Heist 76050
LEGO® Super Heroes Crossbones’ Hazard Heist 76050

Costumes

Finally, a costume for girls who want to kick butt — not look cute.

Clothing and Apparel

Retailers from Target, to Walmart, to JC Penney’s to Macy’s all have Black Widow and Avengers apparel for women on the shelves. No more sneaking over to the boys department for an ill-fitting shirt. Girls today have lots of mass market options to show their fandom.

Avenger’s Grey Tee – Macy’s
Avengers High Low Tee – Macy’s
Avengers Long Sleeve Tee – Macy’s
Black Widow Baseball Tee
Black Widow Spy Tee – Disney Store
Black Widow Tee – Disney Store
Girl Power Tee – Disney Store
Marvel Black Pastel Tee – Walmart
Marvel Black Widow Sleep Set – Target
Marvel Comics Sleep Set – Target

Accessories

Marvel has been expanding their line of purses, wallets and handbags over the past few years and that trend continues for Civil War. An the Disney Store has an entire line or lamps, bags and tablet sleeves featuring the world’s greatest spy.

 

Black Widow Header

Russo Bros. Vote “Hell, Yeah!” on ‘Black Widow’ Solo Movie

Captain America: Civil War directors Joe and Anthony Russo are doing the press circuit to promote the upcoming film. At a recent press conference in China, they were asked what they thought about a Black Widow solo movie.

“Hell yeah! We love that character,” said Joe Russo.

“And we love Scarlett,” Anthony added, referring to Scarlett Johannson.

“We find that [Black Widow] is one of (if not the) richest character in the Marvel universe,” continued Joe Russo. “A very complex character, haunted by demons and her understanding of the world is fascinating. I think there is a lot that can be done with that character.”

(Black Widow discussion occurs at 6:30 in the video above)

The Russo Bros. themselves are likely too busy. After the success of Captain America: Winter Soldier, Marvel gave them the keys to their biggest franchise with Avengers:Infinity War, parts I and II. But their voices carry considerable weight in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at this point. Hopefully, that will be enough for Marvel to find a space for Black Widow on a very busy schedule of upcoming superhero movies.

via Newsarama

#WheresNatasha? Age of Ultron Continues Trend of Excluding Female Heroes From the Toy Aisle

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Natasha Romanov, the Black Widow, is the world’s deadliest assassin and spy, and essential part of the Avengers movie franchise. But with Avengers: Age of Ultron hitting theaters the Friday, Marvel and Disney continue to treat Natasha as the “invisible woman” when it comes to toys, clothing and other merchandise.

Of the 60 products that Marvel and Disney released for Avengers: Age of Ultron, only three featured Black Widow. That’s five percent. There were no Black Widow action figures, costumes or clothing for girls. The three Black Widow items available from Marvel are a tote bag, a men’s t-shirt, and a figure that is part of a large LEGO set.

Marvel’s licensing partners do not fare much better. Black Widow is consistently left out of toy lines, the fail to even try to market her to girls and she is excluded from team shots on merchandise aimed at boys.

Last summer, we all were asking #WheresGamora? We hoped that the outcry would lead to changes in marketing this time around. It did not.

Fight the Power

There are two ways you can help Marvel and Disney see the error of their way. The first is to find examples of how Black Widow is excluded from merchandise, take a photo and then share it on Twitter with the hashtag #WheresNatasha.

The second is to sign and share our Change.org petition to “Include Black Widow in all Avengers-related toy lines, clothing and merchandise.”

Sign the Change.org petition
Sign the Change.org petition

We’ve partnered with our friends over at Legion of Leia to get the word out, but we need your help, too. Every hashtag, signature and share puts more pressure on the decision-makers who have decided that girls don’t need heroic toys and that boys can never look up to a woman as a hero.

After women bought record numbers of tickets to see Guardians of the Galaxy last summer, and complained mightily that they were shortchanged by the lack of Gamora merchandise, we expected that Marvel had learned its lesson, and that things would be better with Age of Ultron.

The fact that there was no improvement means we need to keep fighting to let Marvel know that they are doing a disservice to fans that they claim to care about very much.

Maybe we’ll finally get some female merchandise when Captain Marvel comes out.