Review – X-Men Origins Iceman

“When he joined the X-Men, Iceman was nothing but raw power. Since then, he’s been trained to fight by the best their is — Wolverine. Despite the gruff influence of his friend, however, Iceman still prefers to use his powers to play practical jokes rather than fight.”
— from the card back

Last month I took a look at one of the figures in the X-Men Origins action figure series — Gambit (reviewed here) — and proclaimed the toy to be junk. That was the first — and last, I thought — figure in the series that I bought but recently, during a trip to Target, I spotted Iceman and was immediately drawn to his translucent, icy blue design.

Packaging

In looking back at my review of Gambit, I notice that I showed the package but I didn’t really discuss the package. Again, this series uses cards and this time the card design focuses on Wolverine, with the diecut defining “claw marks” on one edge of the card. This is an attractive card design and the card back, like the card backs for the Marvel Universe series, shows only a few of the other action figures in the series — Logan, Wolverine, and Cyclops — and spends most of its space on a photo of the packaged figure (in this case, Iceman).

The card design is just fine. Looks nice, stands out on shelves, and gives a short description of the included figure.

A Great Iceman Figure

Despite the fact that I don’t care all that much for either one of the Marvel Universe Human Torch action figures that were released earlier this year (this is an important point, trust me), Iceman went from “eh” when I saw him online to “yes!” when I saw him in person. There’s just something cool about a lot of clear plastic toys, and Iceman’s cool, icy blue translucent package is one of the best see-through action figures I’ve seen. He’s a little paler than he looks in these photos — anyone know the secret to photographing clear plastic? — and looks fantastic when backlit. The fact that’s he’s a highly articulated action figure, and not just a clear blue plastic sculpture, just makes him even better.

Iceman has the typical “head on a ball,” the usual mid-torso articulation point, and hinge/ball shoulders, hips, and knees. Additionally, the thigh rotates 360-degrees at the hip — just below the ball/hinge joint — and the feet are also on a rotate/hinge joint. Overall, Iceman has a pretty wide range of motion and a lot of poseability options.

Unfortunately, Iceman lacks balance. I can twist and contort him into a lot of different poses, but unless he’s on his accessory/stand (I’ll get to it), he has some difficulty with staying vertical. If he hadn’t come with the stand I’d be a bit less happy with him (I wouldn’t hate him, though, because the clear blue plastic is no awesome that that feature alone won me over). I guess it’s a good thing Hasbro included the accessory.

Iceman’s sculpting looks good; he’s a naked, muscular guy with muscles that you won’t get unless you turn exercise and weight lifting into your full-time job. Like most superheroes and action figures. I haven’t seen enough of the X-Men Origins action figure series to know if this is an original sculpt or a reuse, but what’s here is just fine. I just wish I could have snapped some better photos of him, since the ones here don’t quite do the sculpting justice.

Forget paint, people. This is clear blue plastic that shouldn’t ever be marred with paint. Well, I guess I would like to see some of the customizers out there take this Iceman and hit him with some silver or white spray paint, since some overspray effects on the clear plastic would probably look pretty sweet. Not sure what I’m talking about? Take a look at this post at toybot studios for some great examples of overspray effects on clear plastic. Yeah, Hellopike could probably do something great with this Iceman.

Closing Thoughts

Every now and then I write a post that is all about me drooling on a neat, great-looking and fun toy. Welcome, X-Men fans, to another one of those types of reviews which just happens to be the last review of X-Men Toy Week. I can’t insist that anyone out there rush out and buy this toy, but if you love translucent toys then Iceman’s going to make a great addition to your collection.

You know, I should really devote one shelf just to translucent toys. I bet that would make a shiny shelf of cool that — no matter how hard I try — would completely resist my attempts to take some great photos.

Philip Reed says that if you’re also a sucker for clear/translucent toys then you need to jump over to this page at rotocasted.com. There’s not much to see yet, but it’s gonna grow.