Frieza is the villain from Dragon Ball who just refuses to die. His initial battle with the heroes of Dragon Ball Z spans a whopping 30 episodes! Thank goodness that DBZ was a weekday show or else it would have taken more than half a year to see Frieza get taken down. And that’s just talking about the actual fighting, he’s a presence prior to that with the show teasing that this diminutive, effeminate, character is the most powerful being in the universe. And if the confrontation wasn’t long on just a straight episode count, it felt even longer because Frieza has a series of transformations to undergo before reaching full power. I guess since his underling, Zarbon, had a transformation of his own Frieza couldn’t stop at just one. No, he had four distinct forms to cycle through and the one he spent the most time in is his ultimate form – his fourth form. It’s become the most recognizable form of Frieza ever since, and since DBZ action figure collectors want every version of every character, Bandai has cycled through all four for its S.H.Figuarts line.
That is, all except for the unofficial fifth form. I say unofficial, but it’s very much official as he does this in both the manga and anime, it’s just not a transformation on the same level as the other forms. Frieza’s full power form is basically his final form during his battle with Goku and it’s a bulked-up version of his fourth form. The whole fight, Frieza keeps teasing his foes that he’s not even using the full might of his awesome power so this bulky version is basically meant to signify that, yes, Frieza is finally going all out. I don’t think it’s ever been retconned to be a suboptimal form similar to the super bulked out Trunks we’d see in later episodes, though when Frieza returns in Dragon Ball Super he’s rarely depicted in such a fashion. And he definitely fares better against the might of the newly transformed Super Saiyan Goku while fighting this way so he doesn’t appear to be sacrificing any speed, though he does ultimately fall.
Naturally, since Bandai has covered Frieza’s first four forms (and his golden one from later) it made sense to just do this Full Power Frieza and consider the villain complete. The figure was sold via the Premium Bandai website in 2023 and has recently started showing up for those who ordered it. This is the extremely buffed out Frieza that I suppose some have always wanted. There’s a part of me that finds this look for Frieza a bit ridiculous. I think the villain works best when he looks somewhat less imposing than most, but packs a lethal punch. I felt the sculpt on display in the renders looked pretty damn spot on though and I tend to like chunkier action figures. It also will pair well with the Legendary Super Saiyan Goku (and even includes an accessory for that figure) release from 2022 and as one of the most iconic confrontations in Dragon Ball Z it felt like a worthwhile addition to the collection.
Frieza in his full power form comes in the usual box which features a nice window and a bunch of product shots. This one comes courtesy of the Vietnam factory, which has had some hiccups in the past, but appears to be on-par with the stuff we see coming out of China at this point. Frieza stands a shade under 5.25″ which makes him taller than the Fourth Form Frieza, but not as tall as Goku. As promised, he is very bulky. The neck is wider than the head, the shoulders are massive spheres, and the upper body especially is huge. It’s an over-the-top character design that Bandai and Tamashii Nations have done a great job at bringing to life. The purple areas are very glossy, as one would expect, and the white areas have a hint of a blue wash for a little depth. There’s veins and battle damage sculpted all into the body in various places. The articulation is numerous, as is typical of the line, but this figure does as good a job as most in hiding it as best it can. There aren’t any weird spots or massive gaps. The base of the neck is perhaps the one area that could be a little less gappy, but it’s not as bad as the recently released Vegeta.
Aside from the blue wash, paint is fairly minimal. The faces are all printed on exceptionally well and nothing appears misaligned or sloppy. There’s black in the ears as well as the finger and toenails. The purple spots appear to mostly be inserts of colored plastic except for the shins. The right shin on my figure is perfect, while the purple on the left is a bit sloppy around the edges. It’s the only real blemish I can find across all of the parts. His tail has also been chopped off at the end and there’s paint on the stub. I like that there’s a slight wash applied, but I do wish Bandai would try painting the sculpted-in battle damage. In the show and manga, those hatch marks are always black or black and red. By leaving them unpainted in the sculpt they’re almost invisible from the shelf and only apparent in-hand. Their sculptors do such a nice job that it’s a shame to see such detail almost go unnoticed.
In typical fashion, we do get a large assortment of optional parts with Frieza. For hands, we have a set of fists, clenching, open, flat palm, and open hands with peg holes in the palms. The peg holes are for two, pink, disc effects that have a nice buzzsaw edge and are done on translucent plastic. They plug into the hands, though the posts on them are not glued in so don’t be surprised if the peg stays in the hands when removing them. It’s not really a big deal since those hands only exist to work the effects so as long as one end stays inserted in another it’s fine with me.
For portraits, Frieza comes with his standard cocky smile as the default one. The other expressions include a grimace where one eye is more narrow than the other, a teeth-gritting expression, and a yelling head. I’m surprised the grimace doesn’t feature one eye closed entirely as I think that’s where he ended up during the course of battle. He also has a portrait for Legendary Super Saiyan Goku that’s meant to simulate him getting punched in the face. I wish we had the same for Frieza. There are also two clenching feet that can be swapped with his flat feet. The feet can be tough to remove and I had to heat them in water. Without that, the whole ankle assembly was popping out. The hands swap easy enough while the heads can be a little tricky. The factory went with a standard double ball post and it’s a bit of a snug fit for most of the heads. This means that when removing them you may find the neck comes off the figure instead. I’ve been able to manage by making sure I pinch the neck when pulling a head off, but it can be a little frustrating. If you’re having trouble, heating the head with some hot water first would probably do the trick.
Articulation for Frieza is largely what one would expect, it was just always a question of how effective it would be given the design of the character. I mentioned the double ball for the head and the ball joint at the base of the neck. His neck is so thick that the joint at the base of it will do most of the heavy lifting. The joint at the head is mostly for rotation and a little nuance while the neck will provide your up and down. The ball joint in the torso is going to further help with getting the character to look up while also adding a little crunch, rotation, and tilt. The purple plate in the middle of his torso will limit the crunch a bit, but it is on a hinge so it can move out of the way to some degree while the ball joint at the waist allows for further crunch forward and back. The shoulders are on butterfly joints which have some decent range coming forward, but very little going back. More room could have been cut-out to do so, but I guess someone didn’t want to break-up the sculpt. There’s some play on the shoulders to move up and down and the hinge will bring them out about 90 degrees. Bicep swivel is fine and the double-jointed elbows go a little past 90 degrees before the bulkiness prevents more range. Standard ball hinges at the wrist work fine.
The hips feel like the normal ball-hinge setup. They can just about hit full splits going out to the side while kicking forward is no problem. At about the 90 degree point, the leg will want to go out from the body a bit because the crotch piece, but it will keep going higher. Because of Frieza’s narrow butt, the legs can kick back, but out to the side. There is a thigh swivel and I think the sculptor did a very good job of keeping it tapered as much as possible. Some more recent figures have looked a little goofy in that area. It will pop out from under the crotch piece when manipulating it, but you can slide the top edge of the thigh swivel under that for a more streamlined appearance. The double-jointed knee, like the elbow, will only go a little past 90 because of the bulk. The ball hinges at the ankle work okay, but the shape of the ankle and feet can make the more nuanced stuff a little harder. The tail, which does not come on the figure, connects via the standard hinged ball. It will rotate and has some play on the hinge. It’s mostly for adjustment posing, but it can also function as a third support, if need be.
Frieza is probably going to pose well enough without knocking anyone’s socks off. The butterfly could have been done better, but I don’t know that I disagree with the approach. The accessories are pretty solid as well and it’s always a plus to get energy effects. I do think we needed at least one pointing gesture since that’s such a common way for Frieza to attack. I don’t remember the flat palm gesture playing a role in the fight, but I haven’t watched it in over a year. I do lament the missed opportunity to not include a stump for his left arm and a similar thing for the base of his torso. Frieza got all cut up while fighting Goku and it would have been pretty amusing to be able to display him as he was at the end of that confrontation. He would have required some kind of stand as well, but honestly, every Frieza should have a stand. He, more than most characters from DBZ, is often hovering or flying as opposed to standing.
If ordered last year, Full Power Frieza would have set you back $85 plus shipping (which is usually $10). That’s not a cheap price for an action figure, especially one with so little paint. It’s not grossly out of whack with S.H.Figuarts releases, though he’s definitely not one of the better values. Is it worth it? I like it enough, and it helps that I spent that money roughly 9 months ago so it’s been gone for awhile. What will suck is the cost to acquire the figure now that the sale has been closed. I guess if you just somehow missed this and really need a Full Power Frieza to complete your collection then you’ll pay what you have to. For anyone else, it might be better to admire from afar because I’m guessing the secondary market is going to want somewhere in the neighborhood of $125. If you can get it down closer to $100, it might just be worth it. It’s a fine figure. I love the sculpt, I like the articulation, and there’s some good display options here. With a little more effort and creativity it could have been a truly special release, but as-is it’s probably good enough.
If you want some figures to pair with Frieza, here are a few:
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