Signature Collection: Ice

I said in my Fire review that this line didn't get enough support so it was being cancelled. That's still true but they decided to release the figures that were already tooled including Ice. These will be available at a later date in the US but mine apparently came from China due to their earlier release date. This didn't come with packaging or the ice accessory but I'm just glad to have the figure.

 

The newly sculpted pieces Ice has are the furry boots, fingerless gloves, the sections at the top of the gloves, the upper torso and head/hair. There has been some negative feedback on this face sculpt. I think it's passable, its not enough to bother me although it could have been much better. The early retail lines obviously had different sculptors as these figures do not look like the work of the Four Horsemen. You can tell since the faces had a similar look to them while these don't match up. Like any artist the style of their work is like a signature. Speaking of, the stamp Fire had on her boot that bugged me is on Ices' sole which is a vast improvement.

The female arms these lines have remain a bane that looks and feels kind of flimsy compared to the arms the male characters have. With the big furry boots they look even smaller. This lines' female hands rarely hold anything and although Ice has a more open right hand it's just for show. Nothing can be held in it. I suppose the accessory that comes with it would cover the hand much like Beas' fireball does.

 The ab joint for Fire worked fine but it's the only joint of Ice I can't get to move. It's not really needed so it's not a biggie for me although I heard various problems with different joints being like this with Ice.

 

 

The paint of the white of her costumes' inner thighs is darker than other areas. I don't mind the shading or "dirty" look to give it texture but this isn't consistent. Is this figure perfect? No, but like Fire I can look past the flaws to have her on display with the core JLI members. That being said she does look a little odd next to Guy but that's mainly because he looks so odd. I'll have to get another Guy Gardner to make the group work better. I'd only recommend Fire and Ice if you have to have them in your display and aren't willing to wait for better figures. They are important to the group so many including me are settling.

 

For awhile there's been talk about Mattel favoring their He-Man line at the cost of their DC license and it shows. The quality has gone down and there's not enough effort to keep this line afloat. I haven't been interested in most of the character selection or the final products of DC Classics/The Signature Collection for some time so maybe it's time for it to end. I'm just glad DC Collectibles (formerly DC Direct) has stepped up it's game. It's about time too but for those that want Fire and Ice in these costumes that might not happen at DCC for awhile since their focused on the New 52. Although I'd still get their current versions of the female dynamic duo of JLI.  

 

 

I finally got my JLI display! Yes I want Jaime in there too and since there's no Rip Hunter figure I gave Booster a baby Rip.