Frostbite (2003)
By Past Nastification
My hatred of head-to-toe repaints runs deep. Grand Canyon deep. Looking at this “Frostbite” figure takes some mental energy, because it’s just a Snow Job figure with the wrong name thrown on it.
Maybe that’s the worst way to look at it. Instead, I’ll try to set aside the naming issue and appreciate the figure on its own.
It was released 15 years ago as the driver for a Toys ‘r Us Snow Cat.
The color set of green-over-dirty beige looks really nice. The hood and pants appear to be white at a first glance, but when next to something truly white (like paper) the color is easier to see. The biggest problem with the color scheme is that the hood should also be green instead of dirty beige. The paint wipes bring out details that were not as easy to see on the first use of the mold back in 1983.
There is also a micro-printed American flag on the upper left sleeve. The painted details on the belt, neckwrap, and straps are also well done.
On the downside, there’s the name. If Hasbro had to make this Frostbite, it could have at least painted the beard black, not brown. The sleeves are also a bit of a head-tilter, as they use nonsensical rolled-up sleeves, ones that still have the rest of the sleeve below the rolled-up part. These should just be “clean” sleeves down to the gloves. The original 1985 Frostbite, also released with a Snow Cat, came with an amazing scoped rifle. This figure came with no accessories.
This isn’t Snow Job, but it’s not really Frostbite. It is, though, well done.
I could see this more as a version 2 of Whiteout.
This was such a bad release for TRU. For the few really nice exclusives that they got, there were a ton of duds, too.
While not a terrible figure, this was lazy, the ran with the1997 mistake again, the rolled up sleeves. Just like they kept using the Duke legs on Alley viper, the Roadblock waist on Snake-Eyes V1, the Bat Legs on Viper, the modded head on armored Cobra Commander.
One wonders where the Battle Corps Frostbite mold last used to make 1997’s “Blizzard” was at. It was funny how Frostbite had two vintage molds, yet the one post vintage use of one of those molds was for another character (Blizzard). Then the two ARAH style releases of Frostbite both used Snow-Job 1997. Of course, poor Blizzard’s mold became Short-Fuze for no reason!