Frozen "Queen Elsa" Nendoroid Review

I would like to preface this review by stating that I will attempt to abstain from as many of the following as possible: 1. Gratuitous use of quotes from the movie Frozen. 2. Puns involving snow, ice, or frozen precipitation of any type. 3. Mock Norwegian.

I feel that I have to hold myself to higher professional standards at times. Carry on.

As any regular readers will have undoubtedly learned by now, I am nuts for Frozen. I have the movie on BD. I have the soundtrack (that I ran to buy the moment I got out of the theater). I have the Disney Store dolls. I have two shirts, a poster, a bracelet...you get the picture. When I learned that Good Smile had gotten the rights to make Nendoroids based on Frozen, I might have screamed my head off, rolling around and flailing on the floor. But only in my mind, since I was at work and I have to hold myself to higher, less crazy-seeming standards when I'm on the clock.

But anyway, I pre-ordered that so hard. Like you wouldn't believe. And she's here now! SHE'S HERE! All the glorious details will be available for you folks after the jump.

Edit: This was supposed to be the Black Friday review, but I got sleepy and couldn't finish on time. Sorry!
To begin our story, the Queen Elsa Nendoroid was announced last December, with a May 2015 release window, Japan-only. Several retailers, however, sneak around that, so I was able to order her for about $45 from Big Bad Toy Store. I didn't end up receiving her until fairly recently, though; BBTS offers a feature where you can pay for an item and then have them hold it for you for up to six months. This way, if you order multiple figures over the year, you can combine your orders and save on shipping. My window expired, so I got this last week. I'm very impressed with the services; it was shipped quickly and arrived in fantastic condition. (Psst, BBTS, I gave you a plug, can we be besties now?)

Elsa's box is huge. It's at least an inch deeper than normal Nendoroid boxes, although it isn't any heavier. It's got some gradient shading here, going from white on the top to a deep aqua blue on the bottom. The front has a photo of the Elsa Nendo with her smirky face, plus the mini Olaf figurine. Nice design overall here.

Here are some other poses you can put her in. I love that the little cutout window on the side has her name on it. This is so aggressively cute with the snowflakes everywhere and aaaaarrrrrgh CAN"T HOLD IT BACK ANYMORE

*Ahem*. The same photos/poses are on the back. I have to say that I like the bottom right pose the best; it looks like she just finishing singing her big musical number and is awaiting her applause. 

P.S. Here is the sticker letting you know this is an official GSC/Disney piece of merch. 

There are even pictures on the very top of the box; Good Smile is pulling out all the stops and making this a very colorful and visually busy design.

Please ignore the reflection of my living room in this photo. ("Please ignore the man behind the curtain!" Nothing to see here.) You can see Arendelle and the North Mountain depicted on the inside box art! This is a beautiful touch, along with the snowflakes printed on the window.

I love how easy it is to pull everything out! In contrast to unboxing dolls, figures are so much easier. Here's the spread: the base Elsa figure, plus two other faces, three arms, a swirl of snowflakes, Olaf (who comes with his own stand!), and a MASSIVE base for Elsa to stand on. In case you were wondering, the base is the reason that the packaging had to be so big.

Oh, and the instructions. That's cool, I guess.

I didn't measure exactly, but the base is about 5-6 inches wide. It's very lightweight, surprisingly, but sturdy. It is this beautiful cool icy blue shade, and is opaque when you hold it to the light. It's supposed to represent the creation of Elsa's ice castle, hence the enormous snowflake on it. This is probably the best tie-in to the movie they could have made. It just works so well that I'm enormously  impressed.

Here she is, in all her glory! As you can see, the train on her skirt balances the figure out, so Elsa can stand unaided. Save GSC money on a stand, I suppose, and freed up space/money to make the super-cool base.

I have to apologize for the crappy lighting in some of these photos. I was on something of a time crunch, and had to take pictures with what daylight I had. Let's soldier on the best we can, shall we? Now, my major gripe is that Elsa's hair shade is nothing like the shade depicted on the box. In the movie, Elsa is a platinum blonde, so blonde that her hair is almost white. This carries over to virtually all of her merchandise. The shade depicted on the box here is a bright, pale gold. But the Nendoroid herself has hair that is more of a muddy, muted gold. It isn't close in the least, and it's not a particularly flattering color. Something much lighter would have been more true to the character design, as well as more visually appealing.

This is probably the fuzziest, darkest picture I have ever taken, and I cannot apologize enough. Just wanted to show you guys the snowflake effect clipped into her arm piece.

The cape-like part of dress in the back here is rendered in frosted glittery plastic, with a few large snowflakes here and there. Most importantly, they got the snowflake tines reaching down from the neckline.

Here is a close-up of the skirt's train.

She comes with a teeny little Olaf figure! His head turns side to side and his arms move up and down, so he has a fairly limited range of motion. He also comes with a wee bitty stand to clip into, which I think is adorable.

The first of Elsa's extra faces is a wide-eyed happy open-mouthed smile. Perhaps she's frozen mid-song? (I broke my promises. My deepest not-really apologies.)

AUGH THAT SMIRKY FACE IT IS SO PERF

The dress is very true to the movie and has that same pale powder-blue color. The top looks like it's covered in glitter, and I'm a wee bit disappointed that the skirt has none.

Now, my gripes? It's normally hard to pry off a Nendoroid's bangs for the first time to switch out the faceplate, but Elsa was damn near IMPOSSIBLE. I don't know if prying off the bangs removed some paint or something, but her default face has these golden streaks on the side; paint transferred from her bang piece, no doubt. You can't see it when the bangs are in place, but ugh central, guys.

This is an AWESOME figure, both as a piece of Frozen merchandise and as a Nendoroid. You really cannot go wrong with this one, considering how much you get for what you pay. I'll admit that if you're more of a price-conscious Frozen fan, there are cheaper pieces of merch out there, but if you want a figure (and don't have a couple hundred to shell out for an official maquette or the Figuarts Zero), this is about the cheapest you'll get,

If you like what you see and want your own, a second wave of Elsa Nendoroids (approved for US release) will be available in January!

Miss Scarlett suggests: Although it might be a bit pricy for fans of Frozen who aren't into figures, it's an awesome piece worthy of being added to a Frozen or a general figure collection.