1/6 Hot Toys BW Movie Taskmaster

[Bleah]

It is simple - Taskmaster in the comics trains troops and is a merc for hire. He happens to have a great skill set in mimicing people's movements. How cool is that? So clearly you have him train the Black Widows. I mean, doesn't take a genius to put that together. The Nat family gets together to take it down while other Widow's are trying to kill them. Taskmaster is the adversary that takes all of them in order to take him down. They wanted Dreykov Weinstein to be manipulating all women, that is pretty obvious. Surprised they didn't show Dreykov hanging Epstein in his cell. Still surprised they used Bill Clinton meeting with him.

Given how the writer was having a hard time constructing sentences and getting across his thoughts, I don't expect for him to come up with this idea. I think it's mostly he didn't know who Taskmaster really is except for his mimic ability.

 

[The Buffinator]

It is simple - Taskmaster in the comics trains troops and is a merc for hire. He happens to have a great skill set in mimicing people's movements. How cool is that? So clearly you have him train the Black Widows. I mean, doesn't take a genius to put that together. The Nat family gets together to take it down while other Widow's are trying to kill them. Taskmaster is the adversary that takes all of them in order to take him down.

The merc for hire named Tony Masters is where this doesn't work for me. Again, I just don't see a top secret Russian spy/assassin program hiring a merc to do what is its stock-in-trade. To do some compartmentalized, one-off job in the field? Sure, but IMO they'd never let a merc see the inner workings of their program. Now if he was an actual Russian special ops guy that Dreykov brought in to direct their training that would have been cool. Would you have gotten behind a Taskmaster named Anton Mastekov?

 

[Bleah]

The merc for hire named Tony Masters is where this doesn't work for me. Again, I just don't see a top secret Russian spy/assassin program hiring a merc to do what is its stock-in-trade. To do some compartmentalized, one-off job in the field? Sure, but IMO they'd never let a merc see the inner workings of their program. Now if he was an actual Russian special ops guy that Dreykov brought in to direct their training that would have been cool. Would you have gotten behind a Taskmaster named Anton Mastekov?

Why not? He is a merc. If the price is good enough, he can be bought. That's what a mercenary is. He has the skills to learn the fighting moves of the best that is around, he can train the widows to learn those skills making them more formidable.

 

[matticus]

Given how the writer was having a hard time constructing sentences and getting across his thoughts, I don't expect for him to come up with this idea. I think it's mostly he didn't know who Taskmaster really is except for his mimic ability.

IMO the movie was all over the place logically so it fit with the writer.

The merc for hire named Tony Masters is where this doesn't work for me. Again, I just don't see a top secret Russian spy/assassin program hiring a merc to do what is its stock-in-trade. To do some compartmentalized, one-off job in the field? Sure, but IMO they'd never let a merc see the inner workings of their program. Now if he was an actual Russian special ops guy that Dreykov brought in to direct their training that would have been cool. Would you have gotten behind a Taskmaster named Anton Mastekov?

Big corp bring in highly paid consultants all the time. He just needed to train, not see how they were warped. But I see your point.

 

[JMT1979]

Or how about after the Black Widow team failed to bring down BW and Yelena in Budapest, and knowing there's a risk that all the Black Widows could have their brainwashing undone by the red gas, Dreykov hires Taskmaster/Tony Masters to take down BW & Co?

 

[The Buffinator]

Big corp bring in highly paid consultants all the time. He just needed to train, not see how they were warped. But I see your point.

Yes but consultants sign NDAs, whereas the Dreykov equivalent of that with a merc would be a bullet in the brain pan. I'm thinking your Tony Masters TM would be smart enough to turn down that kind of gig lol.

Hey, maybe Antonia is just a variant TM and when Loki fixes the sacred timeline your Tony Masters will show up.

 

[Turtle882]

If you look at the movie as an origin story for Taskmaster, it performs slightly better. We've seen her origin, what she is capable of, and how she was set free. She lacked character and agency, but now that she is free, I can easily see her adopting the alias of Toni Masters while retaining the Taskmaster merc gig. I would not complain about seeing her pop up again in a more Taskmasterly way.

 

[matticus]

Yes but consultants sign NDAs, whereas the Dreykov equivalent of that with a merc would be a bullet in the brain pan. I'm thinking your Tony Masters TM would be smart enough to turn down that kind of gig lol.

Hey, maybe Antonia is just a variant TM and when Loki fixes the sacred timeline your Tony Masters will show up.

The multiverse to fix anything the fans are unhappy with! Or just say he is a fake like in IM3 and do another one in another movie!

 

[Turtle882]

Note, I said slightly better. What's weird is that you could remove Taskmaster from the movie completely, and it would not substantially affect the story.

 

[matticus]

Note, I said slightly better. What's weird is that you could remove Taskmaster from the movie completely, and it would not substantially affect the story.

Yep, should've just made Widows after her or some other Russian villain. Think about it, maybe some guys are hesitant to go watch a female lead. Introduce clearly badass looking Taskmaster disguised as a male to sell tickets. Then stick them with the woman story telling at the end. Thankfully Jack Sparrow had the pirate ship for me!

 

[Turtle882]

Ha. I at least assumed the whole time that Taskmaster was going to be Melina, so I was at least prepared for the bait and switch. It was pointless except to troll comic fans in a weird way.

 

[chrisstbh]

Released? TW showing in stock.

 

[chrisstbh]

 

[Star-Crunch]

 

[troy_story]

Woohoo! I can’t wait to get my hands on her. Keen for another villain!!

 

[chrisstbh]

 

[Hoody999]

It's a bit unfortunate the lack of interest in this figure, only from the perspective that Hot Toys get the reinforced idea that people don't want villains.

Which is of course far from the truth, they just need to pick the right ones to do....

 

[Chindie]

This might become the new Snake Eyes for kit bash and custom fodder.

 

[The Buffinator]

I'm digging the look with the hood down. IIRC most of the promo shots were with it up. I think it looks cooler with the helmet/mask in full view.

 

[Starfleet Captain]

I want to get the sword for Natasha!