Iceberg (2013)
Oh boy, where to begin? I’ve not made it a secret that the 25th anniversary style figures are, at times, frustrating and disappointing to me. There were articulation issues, strange proportions, and a lack of consistency among figures. This wasn’t a new concern, by the way. It had been happening regularly since the 2002 relaunch. For some reason though, I found the later o-ring figures had a toy charm to them, much like the vintage figures. As improved as the modern no-ring construction has become since the first movie line, this new figure just conjures memories of bad figures from early in the modern era.
These construction issues are particularly a problem when a mix and match process is used to create new figures. In the RAH era, pretty much every figure could interchange parts with others, and though the first few years featured thinner builds than later releases, the arms, legs, heads, etc. were generally of the same scale and could work together.
At times, the mix and match of modern parts works well. When it fails, the results can be fairly hideous. Witness poor Iceberg. The man couldn’t catch a break with this figure. I bet he’s almost wishing he’d been turned into a killer whale again.
So much of this figure just doesn’t work. It never really comes together as a whole. The biggest problems lie from the waist cut down. First off, the legs. In order to get the furry boot effect, he’s got Sprit’s pants, which not only have fringe on the sides, but they’re just too thin in relation to the upper body. Are there any other modern figures with furry topped boots? I can’t think of any, but the arctic Snake Eyes mold had some snow boots that could have worked out, had the design not been so dependent on the classic figure’s look. Then again, I suppose the figure isn’t totally vintage accurate, what with Snow Serpent’s mink stole draped over his shoulders. Even that doesn’t fit quite right, as the holster underneath keeps it from sitting flush on the shoulders. Don’t try to display the figure without the shoulder fur, unless you’d like a giraffe-necked Iceberg.
The accessories I must admit are pretty incredible. The missile launcher and the snowboard clip to the backpack, which is nice. The snowboard gets massive points from me as a callback to the Battle Corps Iceberg. I only wish an alternate yellow ski-masked head had been included to complete the homage. The original Iceberg was lacking in accessories, and this new one atl least kits him out to the extreme. The two rifles are also pretty great, and having Recondo’s rifle cast in white is a great bonus. Hmm, an arctic Recondo custom? I could somehow justify that weird concept.
Finally, the vintage style head doesn’t work. I understand why it’s here, but wow, is it ever out of place. Iceberg is a valiant effort, but this is one figure that may have benefited from a translation into a Pursuit of Cobra influenced uniform, rather than going for a primarily vintage look.
Mine just arrived two days ago and I opened him last night. It’s one of the Club’s lesser efforts, to be sure. Almost like they threw in whatever parts they had available in order to get this guy out in time for renewal season. Even the file card comes across as weak compared to previous years. The feeling one gets is that Iceberg isn’t well loved by the Club going by their end result.
The giraffe neck is an issue that should be avoided by now. It’s ridiculous. Not everyone will want to display him with his fur collar. It’s times like this that I reiterate my point about preferring the vintage o-ring era with their molded accessories rather than the present trend geared towards bucks and web gear combinations.
As mentioned, the only saving grace here are the accessories. Yes, Iceberg helps round out the ’86 roster but if guys like Frostbite are going to end up like him, then there’s not much to expect in the future.
This guy…wow. I like the vintage Iceberg but this is disappointing, especially with the amount of cold weather gear molds available. If they held a bit looser to the vintage design they might have built a better Iceberg.
I’ve gotta say, seeing this guy here, I’m pretty glad I didn’t re-up with the Club. I’d been getting kind of annoyed with them between the Con issues last year, the identity theft problems they had that they were awfully lackadaisical in dealing and the fact that they’d shifted my subscription to auto-renewal without giving me any heads up that they were doing it. (I didn’t get burned by it because I’d changed banks since the ID theft scare–unrelated–and hadn’t gotten around to giving them my new card at my new bank. I’d always made it clear when I renewed that I didn’t want to be automatically renewed every year because I wasn’t sure if I could afford it all the time since my jobs are kind of paycheck variable but that change occurred without my knowledge or consent, and honestly, had I gotten auto-renewed, it would have really hosed my bank account.) I’d kinda promised myself I’d re-evaluate my continued membership based on the figure and when I heard it was classic Iceberg I nearly bit since I loved that figure growing up. But then the first photos were released and something just looked off…so, in the long run, I’m pretty okay with him not being in my collection.
Iceberg has always been my favorite of all the arctic Joes. And it’s hard to wrap my brain around just how in the hell the Club settled on THIS trainwreck for the membership figure when 99% of everything else they do is excellent quality. Sue, I can fix it via customizing, and I am, but I expected much better from the GIJCC.
I give the club high marks for effort, this is a figure a lot of people have wanted, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired, Spirit legs? Really? I know, I know, the fur tops on the boots but really? What about the fringe on the legs, the extremely specific knife? I can actually live with the Snow Serpent fur collar stuff, although it seems like they could have modded it a bit and taken off the shoulder pieces.
Maybe he is disproportioned because he is in the process of being turned into a whale? I dont know
Is he actuly as bad as he looks in the photo. A pity this is what the Joes have became now; overpriced, badly made exclusives. Hard to beleive they were the biggest selling ‘boys’ line of the 80’s
I won’t get it, so I’ll never have more than pictures to go on, but from what I can see I agree with your assessments of the figure.
The floating plastic fur would bug me like the floating cover-up vests. The wrapped “dusty” rifle sticks in my head as a desert troopers rifle like no tomorrow, that just shows my age, though.
–“The snowboard gets massive points from me as a callback to the Battle Corps Iceberg. I only wish an alternate yellow ski-masked head had been included to complete the homage.”–
The Battle Corps Iceberg always felt more battle-ready to me. ’86 Iceberg is nice, but tone back the yellow on the Battle Corps Iceberg and it would be my pick any day.
–“Finally, the vintage style head doesn’t work.”–
I think you’re spot on. I don’t even hardly buy any “modern” figures, but I have at least a few pairs of goggle accessories. It could not have been hard to get these included with the figure and not mold them into the head, wouldn’t one think?
Waist down, there must be some new thin heat retaining material on this Iceberg, too. ???
I don’t want to sound negative, but these new design choices on figures totally neglect emulating real life material; the fur on the boots or something that says Iceberg is prepared for subzero combat for days on end…. ya know what I’m saying?
This figure is terrific.
I’d swap out his legs for the ROC Arctic Snake Eyes or the 25th Anniversary Arctic HISS driver’s.
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