Review – Thor Invasion Frost Giant
“Since the beginning of time, the Frost Giants have struggled to break through the walls of Asgard. Although they have always been defeated by its king, Odin, they have never been destroyed. They now wait and plot their return when they will be strong enough to rise up again and finally destroy the golden realm and its king.”
— from the back of the card
WARNING: I am not a Thor fan and I am not at all excited by the movie or toy series. In fact, this action figure and the larger-sized Frost Giant are the only toys in the line that I know of that I have any interest in. You have been warned.
Today at Target I spotted several toys from the new Thor movie series. I skimmed the action figures fairly quickly and it wasn’t until I spotted this Invasion Frost Giant that I was even thinking about buying one of the toys. Thor just isn’t my character at all — sorry, “Son of Odin,” but you do nothing for me — but how could I pass a villainous giant with an arctic theme? As you can tell, I couldn’t. And now it’s time to see if Hasbro has improved on their work on the Marvel Universe series.*
Packaging
The Thor movie series packaging continues Hasbro’s basic approach to their Marvel Universe and Iron Man toy lines with one main character, the “Avengers Assemble” bug, and a fairly inoffensive background pattern. There’s nothing great about the packaging design, but it’s legible and easily identifiable once you see it . . . I saw the packs from the far end of the aisle so the packaging has successfully done its job and attracted me attention. Now I’ll do my job and trash the packaging.
Sculpt
At almost 5-inches tall (with his helmet on), the Invasion Frost Giant is kinda a small giant compared to most of the Marvel Universe* action figures. He’s big enough for a carded action figure, but I would have liked to have seen a bit more Hulk-like bulk . . . but I’m betting this is the basic movie design so my complaint is likely more with the movie giants than it is the toy’s design.
The sculpt is nice, fitting right in with the rest of Hasbro’s Marvel toys. The sculpted armor bits, raised tattoo-like pattern, and the eyes are some of the best features but in general this is a naked dude. If he wasn’t taller than most of the figures Hasbro could have saved some money on sculpting and started with the Silver Surfer. But what we get here appears to be a completely new sculpt.
Articulation
Basically, this guy is just another Marvel Universe* . . . and that means he has all of the flaws of most of the Marvel Universe action figures. We’ve got a ball-hinge neck that has almost no mobility, ball-hinge shoulders and hips that are restricted by the sculpt, swivel/hinge elbows and ankles, double-hinged knees, that ad-joint that appears to be Hasbro’s answer to waist joints, and twisty wrists. Nothing new or surprising, but the armor and muscles of the figure restrict the elbow joints while the design also has the problem that the guy can’t lower his arms to his sides.
If you’re happy with the Marvel Universe articulation then you’ll be plenty happy with this Invasion Frost Giant. Seriously, you’ve seen all of these joints before.
Paint
This is the toy’s biggest failing, since there’s so many spotty and sloppy painted spots on the action figure. The blue pearlescent coloring of the body is gorgeous, but the painted armor details are sloppy and either don’t cover the entire armor sculpt or go too far and slop over onto the skin (check the photos and look closely at the armor bits to see what I mean). And like some bad bootleg toy the dark blue paint apps on the raised tattoo lines only appear on the front of the toy; there are raised/sculpted tattoo lines on the back and inside of the thighs but those aren’t painted.
One really nice touch is the dark blue wash that helps bring out the details, but that’s not enough to save the toy’s otherwise bad paint details. He looks okay from a distance, and will work great as a playable action figure for kids, but collectors are going to want to look at the toy very carefully before buying one.
Accessories
The first thing I noticed is that Hasbro dropped the action figure stands. Too bad. But the included accessories — the “ice” club, shield, and helmet — look pretty cool and fit the action figure nicely. It doesn’t show well in the photos but all three pieces have a slight blue coloring to them; they’re not crystal clear accessories but actually have a bit of an ice-like look to them. Quite neat!
Closing Thoughts
I’m torn on whether I should recommend this action figure or not. The Invasion Frost Giant has a decent size and feel to him, and stands taller than most of the Marvel Universe action figures, but the guy just isn’t big enough to be a giant — in fact, he almost looks more like he doesn’t fit in the line than he does a giant — and the sloppy paint doesn’t save that size issue. The accessories are cool, the sculpt as good as you can hope for from a naked guy with some armored bits, but overall the Invasion Frost Giant is cooler inside his package than he is free and ready to play.
I may be too critical, though, since this review at Kastor’s Korner loves the figure (and Thor series in general) a lot more than I do:
All-in-all, Habsro’s Thor line is pretty great, with some major steps forward for the kings of 3 ¾†in terms of paint, sculpting and actor likenesses.
To be fair I only bought this one figure (and don’t forget my disclaimer at the start of this review), but I don’t see this as any steps forward over the Iron Man 2 action figure series. Yes, those were/are mostly armored suits, but the sloppy paint on this guy, odd size choice, and failure to improve the joints feels more to me like there’s no forward movement at all in terms of quality.
This is merely an okay action figure. It does make me ask again, though, what is up with Hasbro not bringing us a Dungeons & Dragons action figure series? Why own the property/company publishing the game if you’re not gonna bring me some cool 3.75-inch scale action figures. I need an Umber Hulk to fight my Marvel Universe Hulk!
Order Marvel Universe Action Figures from Entertainment Earth!*
Philip Reed doesn’t hate this action figure, but he’s sad that it wasn’t better painted and wasn’t presented as a massive, wide, scary monster of a giant.
This was the only figure from the line I was really interested in, so it’s sad to hear it’s not so great.
I may be too harsh, though, so be sure to look closely at the toy in the store. Of course you can’t see the back in the package, but check the front and you may be happier with it than I was.
If it was a mainstream MU figure I’d probably pick it up without any hesitation. I think it’s simply because it’s a Thor-specific figure – and I’ve not been impressed with what I’ve seen of them – that I’m sitting on the fence about it.
Thanks for the tip though – when (if!) I see them in-store I’ll be sure to pay close attention.
I think your disappointment in this figure is justified. I just Reviewed it myself and found it lacking in most departments.
I’m not buying any more Thor toys!
Due to lack of supply, I had to buy the deluxe model. The only difference is the skin is a darker hue and your get some additional weapons (projectile shooters?!? are we still pretending that kids play with these?).
it was very nicely done. None of the terrible paint jobs that riddled the IM line.
The Thors are really nice. A little less articulation then the MU line but the joints are uniformly tight – something that MU has suffered with. Pretty close to perfect on the paint.
On quality (my only reference is the MU and Spider-man lines as well as the old late 90’s five inch line) I have to give them top marks.
But I have to ask – why make Thor 3.75? I was under the impression that 3.75 would be the “normal” superhero/villian in the line, which is what . . . 6’2″. The Secret wars Thor, the new look Thor and the age of thunder Thor are all the same height (I am guessing about 4.25), which makes sense because Thor should be taller than Bullseye. The MU Thors are almost a full head taller. Yes, it helps to make the frost giant look “giant” but it also makes Black Panther and Yellow-jacket look towers. In comic book form Thor is supposed to be 6’6″ and the Hulk is 7’0″ The MU versions reflect this. But that puts the new Thor somewhere around 5’7″. And that is fine but expect Wolverine and Black Widow to out rebound him.
@Dante – Man, thanks for that involved comment. I’m surprised you found the Thor line better painted than the IM line, but to be fair this is my only Thor action figure so it’s probably not representative of the entire series.