Like much of Thor’s back story, the Frost Giants also spring forth from Norse Mythology and aren’t exclusive to Thor. As I said in the intro, I bought this Frost Giant because of its versatility. You already saw him sparring with a Marvel Legends Valkyrie on the last page and he doesn’t look out of place with her. On this page you’ll see him mixed in with some other lines and his design fits right in with them too. I think Hasbro will surely squeak out some extra sales on fans like me buying him to fight Vikor or Conan.
I don’t know enough about Marvel’s Frost Giants to know if this is a specific one, but the packaging doesn’t seem to indicate that he was designed to be. There is a comic included, The Mighty Thor #175. I read through it and didn’t see this particular Frost Giant in there either (though I did feel like I might have gotten a preview/spoiler for how the movie is going to play out).
The Frost Giant stands about 12″ tall and is an ingenious reuse of the 12″ Marvel Legends Thor. He only needed new feet, knees, the armor/kilt, and a new head. It’s hard to even tell he’s a reuse – the bandages on the feet blend perfectly with the bandages from Thor’s boots, but a quick check under his kilt will reveal his… Thor belt buckle. What’d you think I was gonna say?
I never had the original Thor, but it looks to have been a well sculpted figure for the size and the Giant benefits from it here. The pieces unique to him really add a level of detail that made him hard to resist on the shelf. He’s unmasked in the package, which lets you see the great sculpt on his face. He’s not happy, he’s about to snarl, and he might even be hungry. I don’t know if Frost Giants eat people, but I wouldn’t want to find out on a dark night in the icy tundra. His armor and kilt are nicely done. They’re a soft plastic, but with plenty of detail. His armor is a big selling point for me with hammered details, rivets, and dents & dings aplenty. I’m also unnaturally happy about his rough and broken toenails. I don’t know why.
The paint work excellent. His skin fades from a light icy blue (his molded color) to a darker blue in key areas. The armor is made to look like metal through a mix of brushwork and dry washes. The washes on the fur pieces bring out their details and the specific areas like the chin tattoo, the eyes, and bullring are all crisp. The only thing I didn’t like about the paint was the use of silver to simulate the snow/frost on the top of the fur around his shoulders. I think it’s just too metallic to convey snow to me. An off-white might have been better and using a little bit of it on the rest of the sculpt would’ve probably helped blend it in as well. That’s a minor quibble on an excellently painted figure however.
Like most MUs, the articulation is pretty good, but it also makes me want to pull my hair out at times. Above the waist, he’s fantastic. Ball-joints on the head and shoulders, swivels at the biceps, wrists, and waist, hinges at the elbows, wrists, articulated fingers on his left hand, and the ab crunch. The legs give me pause though. I’ve never been a fan of ball hips for two reasons. One, they’re unsightly (which is taken care of here with the kilt) and two, they can be a real pain in the ass to get in the right position. This is particularly true with the Frost Giant. When I bought him I couldn’t get much range out of his hips. I had to hike up his kilt so I could get at the joints more directly and it took some serious work to get them to twist and turn how I wanted. They’re still a bit hard to turn and any deep range is blocked by his sculpted butt and the kilt (it’s pliable, but cumbersome). Once I got them working better, I still had problems with the ankles. They look like rocker ankles, but they don’t have much side-to-side range – meaning even when I did get the hips into nice poses, the ankles didn’t help me stabilize them. The giant also features double hinge knees.
The articulation isn’t a make or break issue for me. I wish the legs worked better, but the upper articulation is excellent and, as you can see in the pics, I got some decent battle poses despite the restricted legs.
The Frost Giant also included a giant axe accessory. It’s a nice piece unto itself with a good sculpt and nice paints, but I had trouble with the figure holding it. It’s designed for only his left hand* (with the articulated fingers), but the weight of it is sometimes more than the fingers can handle. I spewed my share of curse words trying to get the axe the way I wanted it in a lot of these shots. I like it, but I wish it had been designed to better fit between the thumb and palm of the hand so it could fit snugly without relying on the articulated fingers to hold it in.
* – It’s okay that his right hand can’t hold it because the fur over his right shoulder prevents him from raising that arm to swing the axe anyway.
His other accessory is probably my favorite piece in the whole set. I love his helmet. It’s a skull adorned with tusks. I don’t know if it’s based on a crazy Norse beast or if three elephants had to die to make it and I don’t care. It’s made of a pliable plastic and fits on the giant perfectly, but it’s the details – the cracks, holes, striations – that really make it shine. It’s just a really cool piece. The great head sculpt makes me want to have him not wear it, but it’s great enough in its own right that you want to keep it on all the time. Fortunately, he can hold it by the horns or, like at my house right now, he traded with my GI Joe 12” Marine. The Marine is sporting the tusked helmet with his dress blues while my Frost Giant looks like the Captain of the Love Boat!
Overall, Hasbro hit it out of the park on this set. Loki is a well-executed buck figure and an important part of any Thor collection (I’ll finally have a Thor when I pick up that Avengers 3pk), but the crown jewel here is appropriately the Frost Giant. I wouldn’t mind picking up the Bill Foster Goliath figure (he looks cool even though I’m not terribly familiar with the character), but I couldn’t say no to the Frost Giant. He’s a great reuse of the 12″ Thor with all the right details added via new pieces, cool paints, and two great accessories. Yeah, there were one or two things I didn’t like with the hip joints or the articulated fingers, but they ended up being smaller distractions on an otherwise great figure.
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Nice review and pictures as usual, but I kinda want to see pictures of this: “The Marine is sporting the tusked helmet with his dress blues while my Frost Giant looks like the Captain of the Love Boat!”
LOL
I’ll try to remember to grab a pic of it when I’m working on Wednesday’s review!
I’ve been trying to forego any more 3 3/4 figures, but you may have sold me on the Giant. I’ll have to keep an eye out!
The thing about the Gigantic Battles is that they work great with 6″ figures too! It burns!
Got one today! Hell, another one later would be mighty tempting.
Great pics with the Frost Giant! I’m definitely going to need to pick this guy up. Will you be doing a Goliath/Clor review?
I haven’t bought Bill Foster yet, but I do kinda want too. I like the overall look.
Outstanding as always. I am glad you posed him with MOTUC figure cause that is what I wanted him for since I do not collect MU. Thanks!
I really wanted to stress the different ways he can add to a collection. He makes a great MOTU giant.
I love Galactus talking like a Peanuts adult! Great review as always, man!
🙂 I was happy when I thought of that! The picture was born out of necessity though. He’s too big!
I can’t wait for these to hit my Wal-Mart! They really outdid themselves on the Frost Giant!!
They really did! They hit en masse here last week. Hopefully you find ’em soon!
Wow. Frost Giant is seriously awesome. This is a great example of what Hasbro can do in larger scales with Marvel when they devote the resources to it.
Pretty much. With Bill Foster being built on Cyclops, this wave churned out two great oversized figures with hardly any new tooling. Pretty smart too.
that shot w/ tytus really drives that point home, doesn’t it?
this set looks great, and will be a definite “must-buy” once i lay eyes on them.
I didn’t include any of it my review because it’s not about the Giant specifically, but the thing about Tytus being so crappy actually pales into comparison to how crappy the similarly sized DC figures are.
Those were $20-30 and while they retained the overall SP buck/look of the smaller figures, they were rotocast with only the basic articulation preserved, just like Tytus *had* to be. Since they won’t share bucks across toy lines, it’s moot, but if they’d properly done the DC figures, they’d have a 12″ fully articulated buck to be reused when needed.
Flash forward to Hasbro giving us a toy like this thanks in large part to their investment in Thor years ago.
Yeah, seriously Mattel. Hundred dollars for a tytus with joints my ass.
See my comment to DR, Nik! It’s sad to me the state that DC toydom is compared to Marvel. I mostly blame Warner Brothers, but Mattel doesn’t help much.
Shoot – more money to Hasbro. I demand you cease and desist making MU stuff look so damn essential….I gotta eat sometime this month.
Oh, and nice review.
Sorry, Motorthing. Food is overrated anyway! I do have some more MU reviews coming up, you might need to buy some canned goods and stock up…
Great review, you really showed the versatility of this guy with the comparsion shots.
Thanks!
“…when Vault called me late last week to tell me the newest Gigantic Battles had shown up at Wal-Mart, I found myself driving over to check him out.”
Y’know, I’m good with you and Vault potentially redefining your relationship with each other, but I really don’t think this review is the proper time or place. 😉
I HATE how much I’m liking this figure set, as I really can’t afford it right now. I was somewhat confused by the first shot with the oversized Loki, but then it made more sense.
I love the clarification/critique of Mattel’s poor strategizing in your response to D-Rave, hopefully it can be a subject for another Rant column. IAT has established itself as a blog that offers not just gripes but rational answers/solutions, that’s just one more.
Great job on this review! He’s a mighty He-Man villain!
Thanks, it’s usefully for me.
I was able to have my Frost Giant hold the axe in its right hand, but I had to really work with the hand to get it in there.
Things like this make me (sort of – not financially though) wish I had gotten into MU, but I like consistency of scale and since my main collection is DCUC collecting 3 3/4 inch Marvel figures just doesn’t work out. Even though they’re different companies I’d want the overall aesthetic of the figures to work together. GI Joe and Star Wars are different beasts, but I’ll always be a fan of the six inch figures for comic based properties.
Awesome. I’m not much of an MU guy, but I saw him the other day on a toy run and became fascinated by him. I really, really try to limit my collection to anything based in nostalgia, otherwise my collection would run wild. But I just have to figure out a way to add him to my collection. Was there any character even remotely similar to the Frost Giant in the MOTU world? I want to add a giant to my MOTUC display, but Tytus is a stinker and the Shadow Beast is underwhelming. This just feels like *the guy.* I do feel like he’d fit nicely with Vikor and Battle Ground Teela, but again, no nostalgic connection to them, so I’m not adding them to my display. Curse the obsessive ways of the adult collector!
I finally got this set today, Loki is cool and even though that body has been reused so many times I think it works for Loki. The Frost Giant is just WOW! Pictures do not do this figure justice. Best Gigantic battles fig yet.
Where & when is this pk coming to the metropolitan area(NYC). Is this a Wal-Mart or TRU exclusive. I’ve been looking 4 this & a couple of other figures & there no where to be found. Same series 2 figures but I have all 11 series 3 figures so I’m content for now. It would be so nice if they would give accurate release dates for the MU line.