Lord Frieza Character Facts

Frieza is one of the villains in the series who possesses an entire range of transformations, each one being quite different than the others. It is implied by Vegeta and Frieza himself in the series that Frieza's fourth, most powerful form is actually his original form, with the other three being forms that suppress his power in order to conserve it, as well as to keep himself under control.
At his core, Frieza relishes death and destruction, as he shows in his enjoyment of Planet Vegeta's destruction. He is notable for being one of the most sadistic characters in the series, and often tries to make his enemies suffer before he kills them. Like any of the other villains in Dragon Ball Z, Frieza also has an ego to match his power. He also has a sardonic wit and explains in "Face Off on Namek" that the three things he refuses to tolerate are cowardice, bad haircuts and military insurrection, and is quick to declare that Vegeta possesses all three of these qualities. He also utilizes dark humor at times, such as saying "Long live the King!" shortly after killing King Vegeta, as well as saying "Pop goes the weasel!" shortly after violently murdering Krillin. Despite his cold-heartedness and numerous observations by other characters that he cares about no one but himself, Frieza does make several displays of respect towards his father, King Cold.
Frieza tends to react to situations quite evenly, and is only really driven over the edge once his full power starts to slip away and Super Saiyan Goku takes the upper hand in the final moments of their battle on Namek. Frieza takes full pride in his abilities, and often takes the opportunity to demonstrate them (e.g. not using limbs in some fights, killing enemies slowly, and so on). 
Ironically, for all of Frieza's power and arrogance, he sometimes displays a paranoid attitude. He destroyed Planet Vegeta simply because of the growing myth of the existence of a Super Saiyan, though when the idea of one is brought up, he utterly denies believing in one. 
Frieza had many races under his thumb in his planetary trade, but none were as prevalent as the Saiyans. Gifted with natural fighting ability, strength and the ability to become stronger after every battle, Saiyans became powerful weapons in Frieza's subjugation of planets. However, these very abilities made them a liability to the paranoid Frieza, afraid that, if left unchecked, the Saiyans could either unite and overwhelm him, or one day provide a warrior to rival Frieza himself. With the advice of his top henchman Zarbon, Frieza plans to wipe out the Saiyan race. He also ended up forcing King Vegeta into giving him his son, Vegeta, as part of their continued "cooperation", although King Vegeta secretly intended to betray Frieza before he could ever let him have his son. 
his first form, Frieza is a relatively short humanoid being, albeit with a large chestnut-shaped skull with two horns that protrude at near 45 degree angles. He also has a tail with a spiked end, which is relatively thick in width, able to crack the ground when slammed, as well as having three talon-like toes. He has purple sections on his head, shoulders, and abdomen. His pink parts with lines appear on his arms, legs, and cheeks as well as his lilac skin on his face, feet, and hands. He dons the wristbands and anklebands with brown sections with lines on the front. He has red eye pupils and his lips are darker red. He wears the same upper-body armor and shorts that many of his subordinates (including the Saiyans) are shown to wear. While traveling, he often gives the appearance of weakness by exclusively using his hoverchair for transportation, leaving his henchmen to do his "dirty work". In this form, Frieza appears to be very small in height, which is shown to be true on the rare occasions that he emerges from his hover-chair. 
His second form is similar in appearance to the first, except much larger, both in height and muscle mass, which can be clearly seen on his chest and stomach areas. Frieza claims to have at least doubled his power in this state, which he has stated is over 1,000,000. He also grows longer horns, which now instead of protruding sideways from his skull curve sharply upwards into near right angles. His armor cannot contain his form and shatters, leaving him with a new, white natural armor covering his chest and shoulders. He has purple sections on his shoulders and abdomen, and orange sections on his forearms and shins. In this form, he somewhat resembles his father King Cold. 
Frieza's third form is again more brutish, with an extremely elongated skull. His facial features contort and change, with his nose melding into his mouth to form a crude beak. His original horns recede and are now white in color, erupting in pairs along the length of his head. Two pairs of spikes grow out of his back and curve upward somewhat, and the armor on his shoulders fling themselves outward like shoulder pads. He walks and stands with a slight hunch, as if the strain of supporting his head was too much for even Frieza's own body to bear. Frieza stated that no-one had ever seen this form before (which leads us to believe that Frieza, even only in his second form, had been more than enough to trample over any fighter he had come across in the universe). Although powerful, Frieza spent less time in this form than in any other form.
This is, arguably, Frieza's most recognizable form. Drastically differing from his previous transformations, in his final form, Frieza instead regresses, with his former form cracking and shattering like a shell, becoming a short, lizard-like, almost harmless-looking creature; his horns and spikes disappear and his physique becomes streamlined. His skin becomes pure, solid-white with purple sections on his head, shoulders, forearms, abdomen and shins. His arms, legs, cheeks, and tail are no longer pink along with his lilac skin on his face, neck, hands, and feet. All injuries taken in other forms are healed. This form is the one that Frieza was born in, thus being his "true" form.
When Frieza attains 100% strength in his final form, it greatly increases his muscle mass (without lowering his speed). At 100%, this is literally the peak of Frieza's potential and the maximum amount of power his body can output; his muscle mass becomes engorged compared to his previously sleek frame. With absolute strength, he is able to make Super Saiyan Goku struggle during the final battle on Planet Namek. However, due to his prior damage and the strain on his body, he is not able to fight at maximum capacity for long, slowly weakening.
Mecha Frieza is Frieza rebuilt with cybernetic enhancements by scientists under the order of King Cold after what remained of the still-living Frieza was salvaged after being physically ruined while caught in Planet Namek's explosion after his defeat. The whole of the lower half of his body and right side of his face was replaced with scarring and metal accouterments covering what little was left of his organic self. These enhancements allowed him to exceed the limits imposed by his fully organic form, though by how much or in what way is unknown.