Iceberg (1997)
I initially had a bit of trouble deciding which of the 1997 figure multi-packs to pick up. Having seen preliminary photos in Tomarts and Previews, I was excited to have the chance to pick up new versions of classic molds. What ended up on shelves not only differed in terms of paint jobs, but molds as well. The arctic team pack was my eventual first choice. I needn’t have worried about missing out on any of the figures in the series, as they all hung about at Toys R Us for a while.
Iceberg is one of those figures you can easily tie to a year simply by looking at his paint job. The 1997 figures featured a quite subdued color palette, as well as a few instances of simple spray patterned camouflage. This is where Iceberg really becomes a quality repaint. Where the original was a basic white with detail colors throughout, this one is different enough to be useful. The greys add some interesting contrast, the belt and goggles colors are nice details, and the painted eyes bring out more personality in the head sculpt. Also, having his original rifle in an all-around useful color is a bonus.
”Whatever year Iceberg was available ,he is always a popular Joe.Especially from 1986 original.”
Iceberg was the only 1986 Joe I didn’t buy in th UK!
I’d have bought all the 97/8 joe packs of they’d have come out here but they didn’t, especially this one as I really wanted a Snow Job. But this was the age prior to eBay and Internet shopping so the only way to get them was if you had a US based friend.
Things had changed by the time the blue 2 packs came out.
The late substitutions annoyed me,especially here where the pack looses one of my favourite figures, the original Blizzard. The loss of Snake Eyes v2 is also VERY annoying. Oddly I don’t mind the blue armoured Cobra Commander do much: there it’s the missing mouth pipe that’s the problem!
To me, the tragedy is that this was the last time Hasbro used the mold. This would have made a much better torso for the Comic Pack Clutch or Steeler. He also would have been a welcome sight in the TRU Winter Ops set.
I would have preferred them to skip the charcoal splotches. I think the figure would look much better without them. But, this was the only 1997 3 pack I acquired at retail. I skipped the rest as I didn’t like the figures and bought them in early 2001 for about 1/2 retail: right before the prices for ’97’s skyrocketed.
Gotta disagree about the torso idea–the fur collar wouldn’t have worked for Clutch.
The rolled-up sleeves on a long sleeve jacket. LOL.
Yeah the upper arms used here just suck. The original arms are some of the best in the entire line.
A pity these sets were never released down here. I’m guessing it was due to all the shelf warming street fighter and star brigade stuff.
I like Iceberg, but this figure is a little bland. The carelessly airbrushed camo makes him look like a knock off more than an upgrade. It would’ve been cool if they’d detailed him like that “Blizzard” (not-Frostbite). Snow Job, too. And gotten the original Blizzard mold. That could’ve been a nice set!
I thought the plastic quality on the ’97 figures were not very good.