Preface:
Before I get into today’s review of this new Mr. Freeze figure, I
want to address the quality control issues of this line and DC
Collectibles’ reaction to them.
I
have already reviewed New Adventures Batman
and Animated Series Catwoman.
Both figures are beautiful and yet critically flawed. As I did with
Funko’s Game of Thrones figures,
I reviewed the figures based on their production and design and hoped
for less QC issues in future releases.
I
look at it like this – a figure that breaks in the course of normal
handling is obviously a failure. It pretty much deserves a zero out
of five. But how many of you would accept this as a toy review:
Toy
Review – Batman: The New Batman Adventures Batman from DC
Collectibles
The
first one of these I got had a clear, unpainted elbow joint. One of
the second one’s extra hands broke when I tried to move the joint.
0
out of 5
Don’t
buy this figure:
That
would be ridiculous.
Not just because it would be lousy content for the site, but because the possibility exists that I just happened to end up with the only NA Batman that broke in this way. I can’t very well assume that every single one of them will do this.
Not just because it would be lousy content for the site, but because the possibility exists that I just happened to end up with the only NA Batman that broke in this way. I can’t very well assume that every single one of them will do this.
Granted, they
might (and probably did) break in other ways, but that’s not for me
to speculate on. As I see it, my job is to report whatever flaw my
figure had, but otherwise critique those basic “across the line”
attributes – design and production. Although I will say that the
use of clear plastic for joints is something that has been proven as
an utterly unacceptable practice.
To
their credit, DC Collectibles seem quite upset about this. They have
provided an e-mail address through which you may contact them to
report whatever problems you might have with your figures:
Moreover
– and I know this thanks to my wife working at a comic shop –
they have instructed retailers to destroy
remaining stock of the first series of figures. That’s wild.
We
do not yet know what action DCC will take regarding existing figures
already purchased by consumers, but they seem serious about righting
their wrongs. And they damn well should be. This DC Animated line has
the potential to go on for a decade – it could easily match the
variety and longevity of Mattel’s DC Universe Classics line; if not
surpass them. With this line being under the direct control of DC,
there is much more room to expand and diversify. Just look at the
fact that Baby Doll is among the first twelve figures being offered
(she is included with Killer Croc). And quite frankly, so far this
line is putting DCUC to absolute shame
with its character selection, design, and bevy of accessories.
In
short, DC knows they have something special here that is potentially
a massive cash cow. Once you hook a toy collector on a line, they’re
typically all in. And few franchise in or outside of comics are quite
as revered as the DC Animated Universe.
Here’s
hoping DCC keeps a much tighter rein on Quality Control going
forward. I honestly don’t even care if they replace the figures I
have. Mine function just fine. But they have a whole universe of
characters (and possibly vehicles and more) to produce, and I want to
see them all.
I
love Mr. Freeze. He might be my favorite Batman villain. I might have
even said
before that he’s my favorite Batman villain and at the time I
probably meant it. That’s all because of the way he was handled in
Batman:
The Animated Series.
Almost
every character that appeared in The
Animated Series
and New
Adventures
had a story arc of some sort, but Freeze’s was one of the most epic
(if not the
most), to the point where he was the antagonist in his own feature –
Batman &
Mr. Freeze: SubZero.
The tragic Victor Fries was featured throughout the run of the
animated Batman franchises, including Batman
Beyond.
His motivations were never villainous – he was always driven by
love (or obsession). His deeds, on the other hand, usually planted
him firmly in the Rogues’ Gallery.
This
isn’t my favorite Mr. Freeze design. It’s not bad by any means. I
can’t say I dislike any Mr. Freeze designs except for the New 52
version. Even Schwarzenegger looked pretty rad in Batman & Robin.
Granted, Patrick Stewart or John Malkovich (my Freeze dream casting
choice) would have been better physically, but the suit design was
awesome.
Except
for when it turned into a butterfly.
I
like my Mr. Freezes to have backpacks and hoses. I can deal with
sleeker designs like this one and even the one from The
Batman
(who had a totally different origin story), but in my mind Freeze
needs a ton of life support and a source for his cold gun. I think
the Arkham City
design nailed it, but the original Animated
design is great, too.
While
I would have preferred that first design, I definitely want both.
After all, this one’s head turns into a terrifyingly creepy robot
spider. The good news is that I think if this line continues on we’ll
get that original Freeze design. DC Collectibles has just announced
that they are releasing the original Animated
Series
Batman. So they’re not averse to multiple versions. Granted, that’s
Batman and he’s the main draw, but I’m sure I’m not the only
one that prefers the old Freeze.
FIRST
GLANCE
I
can’t get over how true these figures are to the animation designs.
I think Freeze is the best one so far. The general aesthetic of these
characters is to have pretty wild proportions, but Freeze’s long
legs, clunky boots, barrel torso and arms, and narrow head he really
defines the style. The figure looks absolutely spectacular.
PACKAGING
Ah,
the wonderful blister card. There’s nothing I don’t like about
this. Since I will –hopefully – be reviewing tons of these
figures for many years to come, this is going to be the stock
paragraph I use in this section from here on out.
The
cardback is simple, with clean graphics and a number on the blister
insert. This insert identifies the figure and which show the design
comes from. It also gives credit to the sculptor, which in this case
is toy legend Gentle Giant.
LOOKS
Freeze’s
suit looks like and evil refrigerator from 1950, which is awesome.
He’s all clean lines, but has a certain hand-drawn feel that lends
itself to the style these figures are trying to capture.
I
like a lean Victor Fries – he should be a severe, skinny character
– but I was never a fan of this head. It’s a little too alien or
corpse-like. I also miss the goggles. But I’m not here to critique
the original design, I’m here to decide how well the figure
captured it. And the figure does a darn good job. The long face and
angular cheekbones look great and the slightly peaked skull is
exactly right. With just a few dashes of paint for the eyes and
mouth, the head looks perfect.
As
does the plastic dome he has for a helmet. It’s a clean,
translucent plastic that is completely seamless. I don’t even
understand how they did that. It fits snugly into the groove around
Freeze’s collar and stays put without the assistance of notches or
anything disruptive to the design.
This
version of Freeze has one of the more distinctive forms of the DC
Animated characters (for a human, anyway) and the figure has captured
that profile without giving anything up to stability or articulation.
All of the lines on his shoulders, waist, gauntlets, and boots are
sculpted. The paint in those lines is a little sketchy, but I’m not
sure if that’s intentional. It doesn’t bother me, but if it were
a little more solid it might be better.
The
various colors are uniform throughout the figure. All of the matte
black matches, as does the blue. This may not be my favorite Freeze
design, but there’s no doubting this is Victor Fries.
ACCESSORIES
Mr.
Freeze comes with a stand, his freeze gun, four head spider legs, and
four extra hands.
The
hands are in various useful poses and are hinged at the wrist. They
are sturdy and are fairly easy to switch out – but do be careful
doing so. You’re going to want to very carefully work each hinge
before plugging them into Freeze’s wrists.
The
freeze gun is flat black and very simple. It looks like it should
look and has a very cool design for the smaller, pistol version of
Freeze’s weapon. It’s just not as exciting as a rifle with a tube
and a backpack attached.
Freeze’s
head is removable at the collar and has four smaller holes
surrounding the one that affixes Freeze to his body. The creepy
spider legs plug into those holes to recreate that mind-boggling
moment in the cartoon where you realize just how nutso insane Freeze
really is because you see that he has cut off his own head and stuck
spider legs to it:
This
is one of the most horrifying moments in the history of American
animation (it doesn’t even make the top million for worldwide,
which would include Japanese) and I’m thrilled that DCC saw fit to
let us have a toy of it.
The
legs are a little tough to plug in. If you use a hair dryer to warm
the plastic up first it will be a lot easier.
Finally
there’s the stand. I normally despise stands as accessories, but
these are cool and have reference art printed on them. It occurs to
me now that this is the standard design, but that Batman’s was
different because he has a cape that his stand needs to fit under.
This clamp has two supports rather than just one and the support rods
adjust horizontally as well as vertically. This is easily the most
impressive stand I’ve seen at this scale. I like the graphics an
awful lot, as well. I think I might wish they had gone with a black
stand with red print (to match the usual color scheme of the show’s
materials). This white will likely discolor over time.
FUN
Since
this Mr. Freeze is sort of a transformer the figure is tons of fun.
The multiple interchangeable hands are neat, but not entirely
necessary. The big wins here are the excellent helmet and the
removable head and spider legs. They give the figure an awful lot of
“fiddling around” value, which is something I hold in pretty high
regard. A toy scores huge points when it’s something that takes a
long time making it off of my desk and onto the shelf because I keep
playing with it during podcasts or whatever.
Of
course, Freeze’s articulation is also very important. While I’ll
never be a fan of the hinged hips this line is using, the rest of the
joints are great and work very well. Additionally, the figure’s
balance is fantastic. I was able to achieve a number of poses without
any kind of support.
While
I wouldn’t just hand this figure over to my seven year old son to
play with (it’s not that
sturdy),
it is a good toy for those that know how to be very careful with it.
OVERALL
I
can’t give the figure a perfect score because I am unsure of how
intentional the paint irregularities are, but overall it still looks
fantastic and is a lot of fun to play with. It’s a welcome addition
to the shelf and I certainly don’t mind waiting for my preferred
Mr. Freeze with this one being so good.
4
out of 5
I’m
putting my normal copy here even though I don’t know if you’ll be
able to buy one from Amazon at the moment:
No comments:
Post a Comment