Hey, it’s been a while since I’ve featured any MOTUC figures on FFZ. I’ve only purchased two this year, and one of those was an older figure off of Ebay. Truth be told, I had completely forgotten that the Filmation Sub was a thing and that I had subscribed to it. I’m pretty sure I was drunk when I did it, because I’ve never subbed the regular Club Eternia, so committing to this line seemed like a rather unusual thing for me to do if I were sober. Nonetheless, the first figure was released this month and arrived on my stoop this week. It’s Icer. I have absolutely no recollection of this guy from the cartoon, but I’m going to remedy that right now. Here, read this bit about the packaging, and I’ll be right back…

While technically part of a separate sub, Icer comes in the standard MOTUC packaging. There’s nothing on it anywhere to differentiate it from the rest of the line. Seems like at least a sticker saying “Look! It’s Filmation, Bitches!” might have been in order, but the packaging is about to be shredded and trashed, so I really don’t mind. It’s been a while since I last opened an MOTUC figure, so I’ll take the opportunity here to point out once again how much I love the presentation here. Big bubble, great Greyskull inspired deco, and a bio card on the back. I’m glad Matty never tinkered with the package designs, because they nailed it from day one.

Ok, so Icer appeared in “The Ice Age Cometh” Cometh? So, Masters of the Universe is Shakespeare all of the sudden? Well, believe you me, after watching that I can attest to the fact that it is not. Even as a kid, I found the Masters cartoon hard to stomach and since I’m writing this at 6:30 in the morning, I didn’t even have my pal Jameson to help me through it. Things start off shaky with 12-year old, Philip the Guard guarding the parking lot of Castle Eternia and Whiplash walking around the castle grounds in plain daylight like he owns the place and trying to jack royal vehicles. Philip messes up and promptly gets exiled to a weather control station in Eternian Siberia where he runs afoul of Skeletor’s minion, Icer. Seems harsh… does this kid have parents? Icer can melt himself to pass under doors and is understandably immune to the freeze rods, which the Eternian guard bewilderingly uses as their main defensive tool in Eternian Siberia… where everything is already f’cking freezing. He also talks in a monotone voice and makes lots of cold puns. After that, um… things happen… and, look, I’ll be honest, I couldn’t get through the whole episode… Let’s just look at the damn figure.

This figure is awesome! Icer is a fantastic use of a standard MOTUC buck, with minimal added sculpting for the head, fur cuffs and boots. What makes this figure work so well is the superb frosty ice effect of the semi-translucent plastic. The plastic varies from milky clear white to bright blue and has a snowy dusting over it that really makes Icer look like he’s been hanging out in the back of my freezer for too long. If Matty couldn’t pull of the ice effect, this figure would have crashed and burned, but they totally nailed it. Kudos!

The head sculpt features an angular chiseled shape, which works very well. There’s a little spray of snow frost on his forehead and the sculpted fur on his hood looks great, as does all the fur on the figure. Filmation purists may be pissed that Matty opted to not paint in his pupils, but I’m so very glad they didn’t. Truth is this figure doesn’t look much at all like the boring character art from the episode. Nope, Matty took the idea of the character and ran with it and we got a better figure for their efforts.

Icer features pretty standard MOTUC articulation. That means you get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, and hips. The arms have swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbow. The legs have hinged knees and ankles, and swivels just above the boots. Icer can also swivel at the waist and he has an ab crunch hinge in the torso.

Accessories! Icer comes with an icicle spear and a staff. The spear is cast in the same awesome icy looking plastic as the rest of him. The gold staff has a trident-like head and a little sculpted skull on each side. Both are excellent pieces.

I’m not sure what mindset I was in when I subbed Club Filmation, but right now I’m sure glad I did. Icer is a fantastic figure and while he didn’t break any records, he did sell out within a few days of the sale. I really only have one little gripe about Icer and that’s a stroke of metallic gold paint on his back. It’s no biggie, but a reminder nonetheless that Matty still needs to work on their QC, especially when they’re charging so much for these figures. I obviously don’t give two shits about the character from the show, but I love this figure and I’m thrilled to have him on my Masters shelf. Above all, getting him really reminded me how much I still adore this line, even though I haven’t been buying a lot of the figures lately.