Doc Thomas Reviews > Icer (Masters of the Universe Classics, Mattel)

Icer is the first toy from the Club Filmation sub-line from Masters of the Universe Classics, and as someone who isn’t an avid fan of the 1980s cartoon (I seem to remember thinking it was pretty stupid even as a kid, though not stupid enough not to own cool toys from), I’m a little perplexed at the specific characters they’ve chosen to produce. It seems like most of these characters only appeared briefly, and most don’t have truly interesting or memorable designs, limiting their popularity. But a major exception is Icer. Icer is very cool. (GET IT?!)

This is a character whom one could easily imagine as a vintage Masters of the Universe toy, complete with some sort of goofy hot-and-cold color changing action feature, or water shooting out of his hands. His inclusion in a special line celebrating Filmation characters who were never produced as toys makes perfect sense.

To prep for this review, I watched his episode of the Filmation series, “The Ice Age Cometh.” It’s nothing memorable – more or less just as silly and artless as the rest of the half-hour commercials that made up the show. Icer doesn’t make for much of an interesting villain, and the way He-Man and company defeat him is up to the usual standards of the show’s writing. Even his design seems like the animators were out to lunch – he’s just a pale guy with some Eskimo-themed clothes that make no sense. Why would a half-naked guy whose power is “being cold” need clothing to keep one warm?

Despite the simplicity of the character in the original Filmation episode, the Four Horseman have done a really good job crafting a really awesome and detailed Icer action figure. The plainer look of the cartoon character design is replaced with more solid, sharper edges; take a close look at the face and see how intense his stare is. It’s really cool. (BOOM!!!) The nose, and eyelids, and indeed the entire face look like it was chiseled out of ice, created as individual blocks put together into one very scary glare. This is terrific sculpting. Likewise the Eskimo-like fur hood around the face is excellent, and is also seen on the wrists, loin cloth and boots.

Beyond this, there isn’t much in the way of new sculpting, as Icer shares the same body as most of the other Masters figures. (I also find it hilarious that he shares the same loincloth as most of the characters, as if said underwear is the only thing available to Eternians.) But what makes this character stand out is that he’s been sculpted nearly entirely in translucent blue plastic, with “frosted” sprinkles of white paint to create an amazing ice effect. Icer looks terrific, and this design is what attracted me to the action figure. It reminds of Toy Biz’s terrific Ice Man from their Marvel Legends line, except the effect here is even more striking and impressive. Icer is one cool dude. (IT ONLY GETS FUNNIER!!)

Icer shares the same articulation as the other male Masters Classics, and similarly shares the same packaging. He features two accessories, and they’re both great: first up, he includes a nice long icicle, molded in the same translucent plastic with white frosting, which he can wield nicely in either hand. I’m really impressed with this – it looks just like the similar piece he wields in the cartoon, and he can hold it either like a long knife, point down, or like one of the many swords other Masters command. Even though his powers don’t involve weapons,  it makes sense that he’d have something like this to use against other characters (in the cartoon he supposedly touches people which “freezes them,” though what it actually does is change them into a different color – and later they’re inexplicably encased in ice blocks).

His second accessory comes directly from the Filmation series: the golden Staff of Avion. This is supposed to be for Stratos, apparently, though I don’t really care. It’s a neat accessory with good detailing on the paint and it looks excellent with Icer, though I suspect most fans will want to stick to the (hilariously flimsy) continuity and give it to the accessory-free Stratos. Power to them! A big part of what I like about MOTU is how chop-and-change one’s continuity is – fans can do whatever they want with these characters since the “official” continuity always differs. Just like Poe points out, why not make Gygor a hero instead of a villain? Your toys, your world.

And it’s a world Icer fits into very nicely. Icer is an excellent toy, and currently the stand out of the Club Filmation sub-line. Despite my initial spiel, I also really like Shokoti, who will be reviewed here later on; the others I’m not sure about, but might change my opinion on release. Icer is awesome not just for fitting in as an excellent MOTUC figure, but a cool “ice man” figure that fits in with other toys too. It’s a universally cool (AWWWWWWWW YEAH!!!) and very spiffy design…even if it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But that’s Masters of the Universe for you!