Toy Review: Mr. Freeze

05/20/10

Mr. Freeze (2003)

It’s been pointed out to me that there is a distinct difference between American and Filipino shopping sensibilities. When the majority of Filipinos shop for anything, they usually have in mind what it is they are looking for and how much they want to pay for it. If they don’t find it or find it at a price above the one they’ve set, they will pass on the purchase.

Historically, Americans have shopped for fun. If they don’t find what they are looking for, they will often buy something else on impulse, just so that they “don’t waste the trip”. Though this is changing now that Americans are faced with a changing economy and the need for fiscal prudence, that prevalent consumerism is still evident in my own shopping habits.

Having only found a Colossus and Shadowcat from the new Marvel Univeres H.A.M.M.E.R Files toys, I decided to make the trip to Greenhills “worth it” by getting something else. This time, it was a few villians to join my DC Universe Classics Joker and Man-Bat in my Batman rogues’ gallery.

This particular figure was initially produced back in 2003 (or 2004 depending on what website you’re looking at) during Mattel’s Batman line. The wave had 2 variations; this one, and a chase figure without the googles. Mattel being Mattel, they decided to stick with the same figure when they were beefing up their DC Superheroes line in 2006. It later came out again as an exclusive figure in 2007.

Having seen the 4 re-colors, I tend to think this is the best version. The 2006 DCSH one looks as if he’s in a muscle tee, and the exclusive version is dark gray with blue touches and red highlights. Both have black guns instead of the plain gray. I prefer the darker blue that this figure has, though and since I’ve always liked the googles…

But then again, this may just be me sour-graping.

The package that the figure came is the same as most figures back in the day. Only Toy Biz and some of the other high end companies had adopted clam shells, so this one is the good old blister on card, with a internal plastic tray to hold the figure in place. It works just as well as it does today.

The back of the card has an excellent photo of the toy, one of the things I miss from old cards. It was that picture that sold me on the toy more than anything really, since looking at it, it seems as if his right hip moves away from the crotch. When I saw the gap, I thought that this had the same articulation as the modern day DC Universe Classics. Sadly, that’s not the case. The hip joints are just plain swivels.

It’s pretty awesome that I found this toy for only Php 500.00. Sure back in the day the original price for this thing was probably Php 300 or so, but cosidering that a 3.75″ figure is now already Php 450.00, I think I’m coming out ahead. Also, I was looking this up on line, and it looks like prices range from $30 to $60 for this toy, depending on what series it’s from.

Under of the blister, the toy is held in place by a plastic tray that holds him fairly securely. You can plainly see the two accessories he has; the backpack and cannon that make up his freeze ray. They’re both pretty huge, though mostly hollow.

The gun isn’t really all that great. I mean, it looks nice and is styled a lot like how you’d expect a big fat ray gun to be styled, but it’s not really ergonomically sound. The figure can only hold it in a single position, and only with two hands.

If you attempt to put the gun in only one hand, it’ll just fall off because of the thin grip and the limited articulation of the arm. The stock of the gun is completely useless, unless you bend it down and tuck it under his arm. It’s pretty ridiculous since they must have made the gun for this toy. How can they have designed a completely useless element like that stock? It doesn’t go anywhere, doesn’t fit anything, and it can’t get any where near his shoulder.

The backpack acts as a resevoir for water (you can remove one of the caps on top), and pumps it through a hose attached to the gun. A neat little action feature that isn’t too conspicuous and can easily be removed from the figure.

There are also hoses coming out of the backpack that plug into his arms. Luckily, they can also be removed so you’re not stuck with the one look. You can dissasemble him and have a “naked” Mr. Freeze to wail away on old Bats.

By it self, the figure looks awesome. I’m sure this was around the time that the Batman Animated Universe was still big, so he has a lot of that Mr. Freeze thrown in, along with the Arnold Schwarzenegger man hunk build. The body looks a little on the exaggerated side, much like the animated version, with big boots and broad shoulders.

He’s in his survival suit, so you can see all sorts of doohickery and thingamajiggies around his person. The skin looks like plated armor, and he’s got the dome covering a well sculpted head.

I love the fact that he’s got a second action feature built into him; a movable head. You’d think that since his head is inside a transparent bubble you wouldn’t be able to move it, but you’d be wrong. Mattel connected the head with the lower torso so that when you turn his body, the head turns with it inside the helmet.

That’s pretty cool. I’m sure they could have gotten the same effect by just building the head and the bubble dome as seperate pieces, gluing them together and just sticking them to a post on the upper torso, but this solution seems much more elegant.

As I said, there was a chase figure without googles released shortly after this one, but since I’ve never seen it up close, we’ll skip it.

Paint is good, but nothing that just means that there isn’t much to get wrong. It’s about on par with the old vintage Toy Biz stuff. Mostly cast plastic with a few highlights. He fares pretty well, since he’s made of a dark blue, but his gun is a different story. It’s a dull gray that looks like nothing but plasticky. It could certainly stand a few coats of blue or something.

Unfortunately, he’s not in scale with the DCUC crowd, but then I can’t fault the toy for that since it came out well before that line. If you have a bit of imagination, you can ignore the fact that he’s a bit short compared to The Riddler and The Joker.

Articulation is something he is sorely lacking. If you’re familiar with DC Direct joints then you know what to expect here. It’s basically just a bunch of hinges with a couple of swivels thrown in.

What’s worse is that because he’s been sculpted with his legs spread out, it means that he can’t stand in anything but the one position, making his knees completely useless. The slanted soles of his feet won’t hold him up if you try to do anything with him.

The upper body is a little better with the swivel/hinge ball joint shoulders, but there’s not much else there he can use.

Despite that, I’d still recommend this figure if you can still find it. He’s close to the current DCUC scale, has a nice look and a bad-ass looking BFG to point Batman’s way.

Until we get a new one from Mattel, This one does rather nicely.