Batman & Robin Merchandise Review - Ultimate Armor Mr Freeze figure from Kenner

Getting close to completing the Batman & Robin toy line. These last few are becoming harder and harder to track down. I was lucky to find someone in Germany selling this and ended up paying a bit extra to get it posted to the UK.

This was totally worth it though. The figure is a villain version of those Batman and Robin figures where you snap on the armour and those types of figures are some of my favourite ones ever. 

This time it makes way more sense because Arnie's suit was big and bulky and he did have a sequence where he has to put it all on ("A laundry service that delivers!").

The paint work is still pretty minimal but I appreciate them going with something other than blue for the colour. The mint green undersuit looks kind of awesome.

Just a couple more Mr Freeze figures to go.

News: Hot Toys bringing out two versions of Mr Freeze

Prepare your wallets for a BITTER WINTER. 

Hot Toys are releasing not one but two versions of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Mr Freeze in 2026. One standard and one deluxe (that comes with a frozen steps stand and the iconic(?) wings). 

Very happy and surprised to see this figure, it looks incredible. Once again their faces look almost lifelike. I love that they have included the two vials of MacGregor's syndrome cure on his wrist. "Take two of these, and call me in the morning!" 

I nearly purchased the bootleg SooSooToys Mr Ice and Dragon Toys Dr Zero but am glad I held off. Who knows if I'll have the money to get this, hopefully they space the release out with the Batman and Robin figures otherwise that's a huge chunk of money in one go. 

Do you think Hot Toys will do any more Schumacher figures? Poison Ivy? Two Face? Riddler? Batgirl? Bane? That guy who yells "Batman, yeah!" when Batman crashes through the ceiling of the Nygmatech party?

Batman & Robin Merchandise Review - Mr Freeze figure from McFarlane

Finally at the end of the McFarlane line. This episode looks at Batman (which I've already reviewed) and the Build a Figure Mr Freeze. I've got to say they did a great job with Mr Freeze. I wish we had a Jeep Swenson Bane figure as well but hey, maybe that was too much to ask for.

The Mr Freeze has a great head sculpt. Really good Arnold Schwarzenegger vibes. And I love that they used a semi-translucent blue for the see-through parts of the helmet.

The only criticism I really have are the colours of the suit. The blue parts of the suit feel a bit light and flat. Obviously these lit up on the real suit but that's impossible to do on this scale. I still feel they could have come with a brighter colour. 

I've had a look at other people's customs and I think I'm going to find some shiny pearlescent blue plastic to stick over the top of these bits.

The other issue is the grey suit which really should have been painted with chrome. I'm going to try and rectify this by using a "Molotow Liquid Chrome pen, 2.0 tip" as recommended by ace action figure customizer Les Walker.

Batman & Robin Merchandise Review - Mr Freeze figure from Funko Pop

And so we reach the last remaining figure I needed to get for the Funko/Schumacher Batman figures. The Mighty Mr Freeze.

As with all Funkos the attention to detail is perfect. They've really captured the likeness really well. If you like Funkos and like Arnie's Mr Freeze this is well worth getting and eminently affordable (which not a lot of toys are!). 

As I mention in the video Funko have had a tough time recently and these aren't as plentiful in shops anymore so if you want one I wouldn't wait too long.

As for my sidenote about McFarlane making some Schumacher figures in the future, I seem to have willed this into being!

McFarlane Toys have just yesterday announced they will be making a line of Batman & Robin figures as well as an Ultimate 6 Pack of all the Movies Batmen (Keaton, Kilmer, Clooney, Bale, Affleck and Pattinson).

See my posts on www.1995batman.com here and here.

Batman & Robin Merchandise Review - Frostbite figure from Kenner

Henchmen are an essential element of many Batman stories. Who can forget Jack Napier's "number one guy" Bob the goon? (Who got a figure from the Toybiz line). Or Two Face's hulking henchmen with their neon Tommy guns? (Who didn't get a figure but maybe show have).

Of course the Batman & Robin movie had the ultra silly idea to give Arnold Schwarzenegger's Mr Freeze a "hockey team from hell". And we did at least get one figure named Frostbite. I'm not 100% sure he's meant to be the same character as Frosty (the henchman who get frozen by Freeze for interrupting the movie). 

Anyway, it's a decent sculpt. He's got his mask down and has this weird backpack/luge/armour thing that folds in lots of different directions. I've got to admit this one had me puzzled. There's no instructions for how this works.

But anyway, you can either fire the hockey sticks or put them in his hands as weapons. And that's enough for me. I'm glad we got a henchman and maybe if I get bored I'll buy a few of them, paint them slightly different colours and build a little army.

Batman & Robin Merchandise Review - Ice Blast Mr Freeze figure from Kenner

Back to the Kenner reviews with this early Mr Freeze figure. I'm fairly certain this was the first Mr Freeze figure they put out for the movie toy line. As you can see it's a long way from what Arnie ended up looking like in the finished film and is likely based on some early concept art.

I don't know about you but I actually prefer this to what we got in the film. It's very reminiscent of the blue suit he wore in the Animated Series and has similar red goggles.

I'm also a total sucker for transculent figures and this one has see through arms and torso which admittedly makes no sense but is still and awesome look.

I'm not totally sold on the weird blaster. It's kind of flimsy but I do like the rocket boosters. Very cool that you can put them either on his legs or back.

If you're not fussed about figures looking completely accurate to the movie I recommend this one.

Batman & Robin Merchandise Review - Mr Freeze bust from Quick

Apologies, took November off but I hope you checked out the Knight Force Ninjas Power Kick figure on my YouTube channel.

Anyway, this week we've got a really interesting piece of Batman & Robin merch that I'd never seen until few weeks ago when I picked it up on eBay.

This Mr Freeze bust was a give away with fast food meals at Quick - a French equivalent of McDonald's.

It's a decent sculpt but not much paint work. And I guess it's fun that they tried to include a squirting water feature to make it more playable. I'm particularly amused by the instruction on the accompanying leaflet to pop the head off on put it on your finger!

I haven't see this before but I'm definitely keeping my eye out for the Batman one now. Shame they didn't do a Poison Ivy or Bane.

Toys: Mr Freeze figure photography

Shout out to Dwayne Pinkney who sent over these brilliant photographs he's taken of all the Mr Freeze figures from the Batman & Robin Kenner toyline.

Please feel free to email me at jackthursbyedit [at] gmail [dot] com if you have any images you want me to share here.

Batman & Robin Merchandise Review - Mr Freeze Bazooka figure from Kenner

This week we're looking at the main Mr Freeze figure from Kenner. Kenner made quite a few versions of Freeze for the toyline (I've got some cool photos to show next week). However many of the figures were based on concept art and didn't reflect what the suit looked like in the film. They also put red goggles on a couple of the figures making it hard to recognise it as being Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This silvery figure is as close as we get to what the suit looked like in the actual film. I'd love it more if it was chrome and had a translucent blue on the light up parts of the suit but it's fine... I guess.

The face sculpt is really good. It's clearly Schwarzenegger's face and isn't a generic face like the Uma Thurman Poison Ivy figure. I do feel the figure needed just one more paint colour. Having just two paint colours feels really cheap and bargain basement.

The missile again is good but not particularly close to the one he has in the film. Would have loved if they could have done some sort of diamond weapon using some clear plastic. 

Anyway, you want a vaguely screen accurate Mr Freeze this is the one to get.

Behind the Scenes: Mr Freeze make-up transformation

This week we're looking at the make-up transformation of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The combined efforts of make up artist Jeff Dawn, assistant Jim Kail, and hairstylist Peter Tothpal.

I've got to admit the bald cap was pretty seamless on Arnie. Interesting to note the wall of Arnie mouths on the wall. I believe these were applied to Arnie's stunt doubles so that they would closely resemble him.

Concept Art: Mr Freeze (and Bane, Batman, Batgirl) costumes

Last set of concept art for a while. First up we have some Mr Freeze costumes. Interesting to note that the initial idea seems to have been to cover his whole head in a glass helmet unlike the finished film.

NThen we have a quick sketch of one of Mr Freeze's goons.

Next up we have a sketch of Bane by Wil Rees.

Then another picture by Wil Rees of Batgirl wearing the slightly different "Ice" suit from the end of the film which included a cowl/helmet when she rode the bike.

And finally Batman in the "Ice" suit again by Wil Rees. Kind of looks neater here than it does in the finished film. Maybe having it been glossy and shiny like this would have improved the look slightly.

Cards: Storyboard Card Series 3 & 4 from Skybox

 Following on the previous post - here are the other two sets of storyboard cards from Skybox that cover Mr Freeze's imprisonment and then escape from Arkham Asylum. 

Sadly that's all Skybox released for the Storyboard card line however I have found an interestingly interview with Tim Burgard - the storyboard artist that drew these. Check it out here.

Magazine Article: Film Review Special #20 - Part 2

Returning to the Film Review Special - we have an interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger about playing Mr Freeze. The other topics covered are his heart surgery that happened almost straight after filming and his thoughts on movie merchandising (spoilers: he loves it, which is probably due to him having a percentage of Batman & Robin's merchandising profits as part of his contract).

Then we have an interview with Joel about making the film. Interesting to note that when a fifth film is mentioned at the end he says he would direct George and Chris and would look to bring back "one or two other characters." I presume he's referring to the idea of bringing back Jack Nicholson as the Joker. The only other character I can think is maybe Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman???

Magazine Article - Empire #97 - July 1997

Next up we've got a big spread of articles and interviews with UK film magazine Empire. Once again Chris O'Donnell gets a big interview to himself.