Review – PoC Ice Cutter!
The Highs:
1. It doesn’t suck as much as the Mole Pod.
2. Having trouble here.
3. Yeah, that’s pretty much it.
The Lows:
1. It sucks almost as much as the Mole Pod.
2. Strange color and design choices.
3. Gun barrels could be fragile.
The Verdict:
It doesn’t suck as much as the Mole Pod, but it’s pretty damn close.
Every now and then, Hasbro releases a Joe vehicle that makes you shake your head and say, WHAT the HELL were you guys THINKING?
?? Be it poor design, poor playability, odd color choices, or a combination of the above, sometimes Joe vehicles are released that just kinda suck. The Ice Cutter is one of these. Longtime readers of my reviews know that one of the vehicles I hate the most is the Rise of Cobra Mole Pod. I find it the perfect storm of poor design, playability, and detail. Well, the Ice Cutter isn’t quite as bad as the Mole Pod, but it does come close.
The Ice Cutter is a small, one seater vehicle that consists of small fuselage with a small blade/guard on the front. On the sides are devices that resemble a cross between a tank tread and a chainsaw blade. There’s a windshield wiper on the canopy, and a decently sized double-barreled cannon positioned on top of the vehicle, behind the cockpit. At the rear of the vehicle sits a single large tire for propulsion. The overall design isn’t terrible, and at first glance the vehicle has potential. So what makes me hate this thing so much? Oh, let me count the ways.
First are the color choices. Let’s say you want to camouflage a vehicle for the Arctic. You put black on the nose of the vehicle that fades to white towards the rear. Ok, so far, so good. Then you decide on a color for the accents and weapons of the vehicle. Hey, let’s pick BRIGHT RED. THAT won’t stick out among the polar bears at all!
There’s more to the vehicles oddities besides the colors. The first oddity is the cockpit itself. The small front windshield has a frosted look to it, with a clear spot arced out by the windshield wiper. I’ve always been a fan of this detail, ever since it was first used on the Snow Cat. Its use here however, is questionable. The windshield here is hardly worth having the detail, and the wiper just looks odd…especially with its bright red color. Further, the cockpit has three openings around the driver’s head. You would THINK that in the Arctic you would want the driver of your vehicle to stay as warm as possible…kind of hard to do that when the cockpit has several openings. Also, wouldn’t the openings make a wiper necessary for the INSIDE? Warm air from the heater mixed with freezing air from outside would make for plenty of condensation, I would think.
Another oddity is the way the Ice Cutter propels itself. Instead of acting like tank treads, the Ice Cutter propels itself by using the blades on the sides to pull itself along. One blade flops forward and the Cutter pulls itself forward for a certain distance, then the other side flops forward, and so on. Kind of an odd way to move, but I guess it would work on ice. The only bad thing about this design is that it limits the cutter to an icy environment. At least other Arctic vehicles like the Snow Cat/Wolf Hound could still be used in other environments if necessary.
The Ice Cutter is armed with one double-barreled cannon. The cannon is decently sized for the vehicle, and it can be moved into a multitude of positions to provide maximum firepower. The only flaws with it are the long, thin barrels, as I can see them breaking off easily if the vehicle is handled roughly.
All of the vehicle’s flaws could be forgiven if it at least came with a decent or at least unique figure. Well, not only is the figure included with the Ice Cutter one that we’ve gotten multiple times already, it’s the worst version of that figure yet. The Ice Cutter comes with yet another 25th style Snow Serpent. Unlike the TRU exclusive RoC version though, this one doesn’t come with a neat camo pattern. In fact, his whole body is plain old gray. The only spice added is that his boots, webgear, and goggles are all bright red. Not only is this again a terrible Arctic color choice, it just looks terrible. This figure just seems like a total give up. "Well, this vehicle sucks, so we might as well get off as cheap as we can with the figure. Good thing we have all these leftover unpainted Snow Serpents. Throw some red on him and let's call it a day."
So, let’s recap here. Odd color choices? Strike one. Poor overall design? Strike two. Terribly blah figure? STRIKE THREE. Pick this one up if you absolutely HAVE to have another Cobra Arctic vehicle or if you’re a PoC completist, or you like crappy Joe vehicles. If not though, give this one a big, fat PASS.
