Review of Teegra - Fire and Ice

Introduction

I've been doing this - collecting and reviewing pop culture collectibles - for a long time. This February marks 25 years for this website, but my writing about figures goes back years before that, to usenet and the very beginning of the Internet. And in all that time, one consistent feature remains. When someone who truly loves a property gets the chance to develop collectibles for it, the results are exceptional.

Great examples include the World of Springfield, a line produced at Playmates by folks that loved the Simpsons. Then there's the Muppets from Palisaides, lovingly handled by Ken Lilly and others who treated the Henson properties with the care they deserved. More recently you can see this with EXO-6 and their Star Trek sixth scale figures, where the attention to detail and love of the license is apparent in every release.

And then there's today's review - Teegra from the film Fire and Ice. My good friend Eamon O'Donoghue, who I do the HotToyCast podcast with, is the creative genius behind this line, so I might be biased. It also means that his love for all things Frazetta and barbarian 'could result in a unique line that goes deep, highlighting his passion for the license.

This is the second figure in this series, and I covered the terrific Dark Wolf earlier. You can pick up Teegra for around $90.

Packaging - ****
Like the earlier Dark Wolf package, the window box uses the terrific poster artwork for the cover flap. It's all collector friendly of course, and you can remove her and the accessories without any damage to the packaging, and you an always return the contents later for storage or sale.

Sculpting - ***1/2
This is a 1/12 scale line, which means the average 6 foot male would be about 6" here. The earlier Dark Wolf was 6 3/4" tall, and Teegra comes in at about 6", making the two look good next to each other.

Teegra has three heads, with slightly different expressions. The standard head she comes wearing has a closed mouth, with a serious but not extreme look. The second has a slightly open mouth, more action oriented, with a icy stare. Finally, the third also has an open mouth, but this time it's a slight smile, and that expression of happy - but not joyful - extends to the eyes as well.

All three portraits are great, and very accurate to the cartoon. They are pretty but strong, and the varied expressions give you a lot of options on the display shelf.

To extend those options, there are also two different hair sculpts. The long black hair attaches to the top of the three heads with a simple post, but it's a tight fit and will remain in place when posing her.

The standard hair comes styled down her back, with wild bangs in front. You can swap this out with a style that's wind swept, blowing out back to her left, with the hair crossing her face on the right. While I assumed I'd stick with the straighter hair, I found that once I had her in hand, I liked the more dynamic, wild look even better.

While the sculpting discussion is usually centered around the portrait and its accuracy, it's worth noting the excellent work on the body here. The musculature and the anatomy are all extremely well done, mirroring both reality and the on screen look. The engineering of the articulation - more on that in a minute - also allows for a better looking body sculpt while maintaining posability.

Paint - ****
One of the trickiest areas for a new company, especially in this scale, is the paint operations. Getting high quality paint ops with detail and fine edges is always difficult, but particularly for those new to the manufacturing business.

Here we see excellent work, from the terrific detail on the face to the clean work on the costume. The eyes are sharp and straight with no bleed, and the white teeth look even better. The skin tone is even and appropriate, and the edges on small details, like the lips or eyebrows, are very clean.

Those clean edges are present on the bikini too, including the thin straps. These are even more tricky with this character, because they are multi-colored, which means more operations, which means more potential for error.

Of course this quality work extends to the accessories as well, especially her big kitty.

Articulation - ****
I mentioned earlier that the engineering of the articulation is quite special, designed to allow for posing, but also remain as hidden as possible. It's tough to do both, and most companies will sacrifice posing for sculpt or sculpt for posing, and just accept that this is the way it must be.

The ball jointed neck is a bit restricted by the long hair of course, although it's less of an issue than I expected. That's particularly true with the dynamic, wind swept style, where most of it is blowing out behind her, and is less tight to the shoulders and neck.

The ball shoulders and hips are well hidden by the sculpt, as are the rotating hinge elbows and knees. Combined with the rotating hinge wrists and rocker/pin ankles, the legs and arms are able to take plenty of dynamic action poses, including deep fighting stances. Yet the lines are fairly clean, the joints hidden pretty well.

The torso articulation is accomplished with a rocker joint just below the breasts, which hides it extremely well when viewed from the front. Overall, I'm really impressed with the time and attention that's been paid to the design of the articulation, particularly with a female figure that is largely nekkid.

Accessories - ****
Teegra is packed with goodies, including a complete second figure, a black panther.

Let's start with the items I already mentioned - two extra portraits and an extra hair sculpt. These go a very long way to increasing this score, since they provide you with a ton of options when displaying her.

Then we have her swappable hands. There's six in total designed to work with the various other accessories, and for certain poses. They swap easily, and even though the posts are quite tiny, I had no worries about breakage.

Next up, weapons. She has a very cool knife, as well as a long spear that she can brandish in one or both hands. There's also a wooden stake that she can easily stab her opponent with.

One of the other big display options is her 'shawl' and loin cloth. While she is wearing the sculpted bikini, she also comes with a blue soft plastic shawl that drapes perfectly over her shoulders and chest, and a long loin cloth that hangs down in front. The latter has an elastic belt that is very strong, and again, I had no worries about breaking it while I was removing or adding the loin cloth to the figure.

Finally, there's the big extra - Shaltan, the black panther. While his legs aren't articulated, the stealthy walking pose they've given him works great in every instance, and his head is on a ball joint for posing. It gets even better! You can swap out the closed mouth head with one that has a snarling open mouth...and this mouth is articulated! This head also has the ears down, ready to attack, and makes for a fantastic look on the shelf.

Fun Factor  - ****
Pair this beautiful lady with Dark Wolf, as well as any other Conan or barbarian figures in your collection, and you'll have a great time coming up with battle dioramas. Going with 1/12 scale was a good idea, particularly since it allows this line to cross over with a number of others.

Value - **
While you're getting a ton of extras and goodness here, it comes at a price. At $90, this is in the same ball park as the Mezco One:12 Collective figures, which have all cloth costumes and a ton of  accessories as well.

Getting multiple heads, multiple hair sculpts, and the big panther are a huge bonus, but whether folks will be willing to pay for all those extras is the real question.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not much. While the tiny wrists posts seem like they could be a problem, I swapped hands multipe times with no issue. I didn't use any heat either, but just to be safe you might want to hit the forearms with some hot air when removing and replacing the hands.

Overall - ****
Okay, I'm biased. But I also know a great series when I see one, and this is going to be a great series. We might only be two figures in, but the love of the property and the love for the style is clearly evident, and that's always a winning combination.

While the price tag might scare some off, remember that not only is this a fairly obscure license, it's also a young company, just getting out in the market. They also packed this figure with some great extras, including the additional panther figure with his own second head sculpt. That's a lot of goodness in one box.

I'm excited to see what's next in the series, and I hope they can expand to include other Frazetta works.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ****
Sculpting - ***1/2
Paint - ****
Articulation - ****
Accessories - ****
Outfit - ****
Fun Factor - ****
Value - **
Overall - ****

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
As I mentioned, I covered their first release, Dark Wolf, earlier.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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