Storm Collectibles Mortal Kombat Sub-Zero figure review

Storm Collectibles has kinda come out of nowhere to be one of my new favorite toy companies. I love their Street Fighter figures, but another draw is their master license for all the main fighting games. Having Mortal Kombat fighters battle King of Fighters and Tekken battlers is a major lure. While I’ve still got a few Street Fighter figures to open and review, I wanted to look at my first Mortal Kombat figure — Sub-Zero.

He’s the icy blue ninja who’s been one of the iconic members of the game roster so he was definitely one of the ones I wanted to kick off my Mortal Kombat line grabbing. Despite various companies having the license this is the first Mortal Kombat figure I’ve ever gotten. Let’s see if he’s worth the wait.

Packaging:  Befitting the Mortal Kombat line, Storm Collectibles went with a darker package set up from the Street Fighter series. In addition to the darker hue, there’s some other subtle differences. The Street Fighter character portraits are on the left side of the package.

With the Mortal Kombat line, the portraits are on the right. Street Fighter has more of a world traveling vibe while Mortal Kombat has that underworld presentation. Bottom line, I really dig it and like that SC mixed it up for its big two fighting games.

As opposed to a drawing on the side, SC went with a picture of the Sub-Zero figure holding the spinal cord accessory. That really screams Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat so that’s a cool choice. On the back package, we get a breakdown of all the accessories and a well thought out bio.

Likeness:  Before there were a million color swapped ninjas, Sub-Zero and Scorpion held it down on the MK ninja front. Storm Collectibles captured this look beautifully. I love the textured vest with the detailed gi underneath, the mask with just the right amount of creases, knee/shin pads and gauntlets.

Scale:  Sub-Zero might have a bit of a pin head. It’s tad undersized giving the impression that he’s much shorter than the SC Ryu. He is smaller, but that’s more that SC went with the larger, bulkier scale designs from Street Fighter V.

When SC gets to the Street Fighter II style, I would think the scales would match up even better. It’s not bad now, but will likely be better later.

Paint:  Storm Collectibles does a great job on the paint job and a lot of Sub-Zero’s excellent paint work is so subtle you’d almost miss it. The shade of blue is nice and bold without being too bright and there’s no slop anywhere on the figure.

The knee and shin guards have some really well done scraping and wear and tear. But my favorite aspect of the figure is the subtle icing of the gauntlets to simulate Sub-Zero getting ready to frost up his opponent. That’s some seriously impressive work there.

Articulation:  Here is where the SC line shines. The articulation is so solid and sensible that you can accomplish all of Sub-Zero’s trademark moves.

Sub-Zero has:

• • neck
  • shoulders
  • elbows
  • wrist
  • torso
  • waist
  • shoulders
  • knees
  • ankles
  • feet

Accessories:  Sub-Zero comes with all the accessories I’d want from this version.

He comes with a separate Mortal Kombat II mask, which features more of a mechanical stylized, more modern look.

The masks switch out easily enough thanks to a plug that fits into the space that would typically be his mouth although it could just as easily be used for a shocked unmasked Sub-Zero expression.

To accommodate various fighting poses, Sub-Zero has nine hands: grasping pair, flat pair, outstretched pair, fists and a spinal cord holding hand. About the only gripe I have with the figure is the hands tend to come off a bit too easy at times. It’s a small issue, but worth keeping in mind when moving the figure around.

Additionally, Sub-Zero has a ice sliding kick effect and an ice blast. Unlike the Street Fighter V figures, the ice blast fits easily onto the flat right hands and stays on with no trouble.

Worth It?  I snagged Sub-Zero on a pretty decent eBay deal. The bloody variant is still available for a bit over the original cost, but I’d rather have a clean looking figure.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Sure, SC can milk out the various iterations of Sub-Zero’s attires from the game series, but this is the main one I wanted for my shelf. I had a lot more fun posing this guy than I expected. Storm Collectibles is really putting together an impressive line of figures.