Most of the rejoicers forgot who Mattel was, though. Just as large as Hasbro, and just as concerned with the bottom line. While the new comic-based line looked good, with some wonderful sculpts by the artists of the Four Horsemen, it became very apparent very quickly that weird, redecoed Batmen and short-packed villains woud once again be the talk of the message boards. Mattel has produced three series of the comic based line so far, with one "normal" Batman (called Zipline), one normal Robin, and one Joker, Mr. Freeze and Killer Croc. The rest of the assortments, and all the deluxe figures, have been Batman variations.

Mr. Freeze was the short-packed villain in the second series. However, he's been so hard to find that I haven't done a review until now. Series 2 was very under-ordered by the retailers, since they still had plenty of series 1, and most skipped it and went right to series 3. He was a very tough find until recently, when Wal-mart picked up the second and third series in a new package as an exclusive. They've added a comic to the package, and many Wal-marts suddenly had entire end caps of these two waves. You can expect to pay around $8 each for any of this series.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, you can always reach me at mwc@mwctoys.com. If you enjoy this review, take a minute to check out my other site at Michael's Review of the Week, and let me know what you think. Now on to the review!

"Mr. Freeze"

There are actually two variations of Freeze, to make the life of the Batman collector a little more hellish. The version I'm reviewing today has his goggles on. This was the more common version in the original packaging. The other version has an 'angry' face without goggles. This version seems to be more common in the Wal-mart/comic package than it had been previously.

Packaging - ***

The comic line has decent packaging, although there's nothing particularly imaginative or unique about it. It's definitely sturdy though, much more so than the average card back. The plastic bubble covers the entire comic, giving the whole card much more strength. The addition of the comic is nice as well, since it's part of the Hush storyline, and fits in nicely with the Hush line that will be released later this year.

Sculpting - ***1/2
I'm going to ignore the big honking backpack in my sculpting score, since that's an accessory and doesn't have to be on the figure if you're not fond of it. The sculpting on the figure itself is fantastic, with a great head sculpt - no constipated yelling here - and an excellent design on the body. There's not tons of articulation, but the sculpt works well with it to give you enough options, and to allow the figure to stand, even wearing that massive pack.

The recent Mr. Freeze design has more in common with the movie version than the old comics or the animated series. He's a big guy, in his protective suit and helmet. They've done a nice job here capturing the comic feel but adding enough detail and style to give him a realistic appearance as well.

Paint - ***1/2
I love the paint ops on this figure, and have to admit that for a large scale production line, Mattel has really done a nice job across the board. They've put in more detail here than they had to, and it should please both collectors and kids.

The head doesn't have as many paint ops as usual, with the plastic molded in the main bluish color. The goggle details are nicely done, and I love the "snow" effect on the bottom interior of the helmet. There's also a nice "frost" added to the suit in certain areas, giving the impression of extreme cold. Too bad I gave away my Christmas Story figures - a great photo would be with Flick stuck to the side of Freeze's outfit.

The silver areas of the suit are all consistent and clean, a tough trick with silver. It's easy to get inconsistencies with metallic colors, but they didn't have any trouble here. Overall, they did a fine job on the various paint applications, and Freeze looks great on the shelf.

Articulation - ***
The articulation is adequate, but not amazing. There's nothing "super-poseable" here, but he does have enough joints to give him a few pose options, keep him standing on his own, and allow him to hold his accessories.

He has neck, ball-jointed shoulders, cut biceps, cut forearms (at the gloves), waist, hips, and knees. The sculpt hides the articulation extremely well, and one of the joints detract from the overall appearance.

The neck joint is particularly unusual. Obviously, you can't reach the head, so you couldn't turn it. So they designed a system where you turn the waist, and the head turns with it. But not all the way around, only within the normal range of motion of a real person's head. That means that when he reaches a position looking over one shoulder, the head stops turning. The legs keep going, and as they reach the other side, the head engages again. It's a pretty cool idea, and one that works surprisingly well.

Accessories - ***
Frosty boy has three accessories, at least in this packaging variation. I'm counting the comic as one, and it's a decent comic at that. It just might suck you into picking up the rest of the storyline in trade paperback form.

There's the more obvious backpack and freeze gun as well. The backpack is huge, and fits on his back with a single post. It can be filled with water, and pressing a button on the back will shoot the water out the cannon. He can stand fine under the weight of the empty pack, but he has a little more trouble once he's loaded up. The pack also has some tubes that fit to his arms, and I like the way it looks overall once it's completely attached. It also helps that he can hold the cannon in both hands, unlike so many worthless accessories we've seen in the past. My only complaint with the cannon is the unrealistic color. It's that standard "I'm a toy" gray, and doesn't look nearly as good as the figure itself. They did try to do some frost effects here as well, but on the cheesy gray molded plastic it simply doesn't look as good.

Fun Factor - ***1/2
Here's a figure that will appeal to adults and kids alike. With a great sculpt and nice paint ops, he'll look ass kickin' next to Zipline Bats, the Joker and Killer Croc. And with decent articulation and fairly cool accessories, kids can play out their favorite conflict between good and evil. He's also very sturdy, and isn't going to break under regular play.

Value - ***
Prices just seem to be climbing. I know, big surprise, but that doesn't mean we have to not notice. At $8 each though, this line isn't bad. $6 - $7 would feel perfect, but I can deal with an eight dollar tag if I get solid sculpts and good character selection.

Overall - ***1/2
Mr. Freeze manages to pull three and a half stars, but just barely. He's better overall than Killer Croc, who's slightly small head and lack of decent accessories pulled him down a bit, but he's not quite as nice as the Joker, and certainly not as cool as Zipline Batman. Still, if Mattel were putting these figures out at regular intervals and in quantities such that you could find them, the comic based line would be a collectors favorite. Unfortunately, Mattel showed very little for the 2004 line up other than more repaints.

Where to Buy -
Most retailers COULD have these, since they carry the comic line - Toys R Us, Target, Meijers, Kaybee, even K-mart. But right now, the place to check is Wal-mart, and look for an endcap!