LifeBrick's "Avengers 2012" Black Widow (Patreon)

Ya know I gotta hand it to ‘em, LifeBrick has never let me down! And this Black Widow holds true with that tradition!

What a slick looking fig! But I can’t help but wonder what it looks like against the recently released Lego Official Black Widow… 🤔

Hold on, let me rustle through the sorting system for a moment before I get started here…

*rustle rustle… rustle…* 

Aha! Look at that!

This is VERY interesting!

This $100 custom fig is standing next to an Official! Real Lego Brand Retail Product that you can go out and buy right now! The recent 2023/2024 Official Black Widow (minus it’s duplicated head design used across several other figs) has been one of the best official Marvel minifigures in quite some time, sporting both arm and leg printing (which is a real treat for officially printed minifigs)

Not only that but it’s got some reflective silver ink too! (ooo fancy)

This is, what I would consider some of the best that Lego can do for a Black Widow fig on a mass production level. And ya know it’s pretty good! Middle of the road stuff that it’s quite a CMF Mystery Blind Box quality. It sets the bar with its wonky alignments and slightly less than opaque pad printing.

But LifeBrick has come along and raised that bar… however not by much oddly enough, and that’s what surprises me!

Perhaps it’s the design of the character in it’s source, but Black Widow has always been a little simple in her costume designs (movies and comics alike), so for a custom minifig designer like LB, this is a walk in the park! A limited number of PAD Ink Layers, across all the elements and you can call it a day. This fig truly didn’t need anything more than what LifeBrick brought to the table. So with what they brought, you can see the quality if you’re looking for it.

There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that LB’s fig has the better print application! Going so far as to print a full 360° around the legs with proper ink alignment… yadda yadda yadda! That is a big factor of what you’re paying for. But the designs… those are much more similar and almost more of a talking point in my mind.

I really appreciate how Lego used a lot more silver reflective ink throughout (most notably on the arms), even when the source material is much more accurate on LifeBrick’s fig. It’s funny though, because there are details like clasps and zippers and things that are just more focused upon with Lego’s fig. But again, they almost fully omitted any boot design, and got the leg holster straps swapped to the wrong side.

It’s strange even making this comparison to Officially Produced Lego (notoriously my least favorite superhero minifig designers) but this one actually holds a candle to the custom community!

Yet LifeBrick still takes it! There’s just more refinement in the little details, like the zipper pull tab, the holsters, the fingerless gloves, the belt prints crossing from torso to hips, the facial designs… it’s all just that much better!

Then of course there are the custom elements that elevate this fig even further past the print!

The hair is just lovely! The shaping is great! The color is good (maybe a little dark). The clutch is also good and fits the head well! It’s 100% Natasha Romanoff’s hair. No other way to see it!

Then of course we also get the wrist gauntlets! 

While they aren’t colored in  anyway, they might not've needed any extra ink. They’re mostly black in unless charged up, but if LifeBrick were to give them any blue, then I would have expected swappable arms with blue lining as well (and what we have here I am perfectly content with)

But then! LifeBrick just kept on going and included a cool Chitauri Rifle! Frankly I’m not sure how she’s supposed to hold it without chipping that nice gold ink, but it still looks great!

It’s a really nice 3D designed piece that has sharp defining features around the nose, plus a really good paint job with the extra yellow-y gold and silver bits!

We even got two tiny pistols! Pistols with semi-rounded handles! Woo! But uh… they could have been gunmetal like the ones printed on the fig at the very least, right? Oh and also one of them is really really grubby for some reason...? Like it wasn’t cleaned after being 3D Printed maybe, idk...

So with alllllll of the extra bells, whistles, and layers of well printed ink… I mean what’s not to love about this fig? She’s pretty darn perfect for around $100!

But I’m curious what you all think! Is the official $25 minifig a better bang for your buck? I mean, if you spend the full $100 with Lego, they also throw in a building kit for free! 🤷🏻‍♂️