NECA Turtles in Time Shredder

We’re continuing to work our way through the latest offerings from NECA as it pertains to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. A lot of collectors are presently going nuts trying to track down the cartoon wave at Target or the movie figures at Walmart, meanwhile anyone wishing to collect the video game line is just sitting back and waiting for the package to arrive. That’s because the video game series, currently consisting solely of figures based on the Konmai classic Turtles in Time, is sold through online retailers and comic/hobby shops and have been available for pre-order since January. Wave 2 just hit in mid-to-late July and should be in the hands of most of the people who ordered them very soon. The wave consists of four figures: Raphael, Michelangelo, Leatherhead, and Shredder. Yours truly isn’t big into this line, but I did place a pre-order for Shredder and he has just arrived.

If you’re not familiar with this line, it’s basically a series consisting mostly of previously released figures with a new, pixelated, paint deco applied. There is some new tooling involved though, so it isn’t all just funny paint. Earlier this year we looked at Slash from the first wave who utilizes the same body as the other turtles, but has an all new and all different headsculpt as well as different pieces on his person. Shredder is not quite that extreme, but he is a bit different from the Shredder we received in the cartoon line. This Shredder is based on the arcade version of Turtles in Time. If you primarily played the home version, then he may seem a little unfamiliar. That’s because the Super Nintendo version of the game replaced the boss fight against this Shredder with one against Super Shredder. I am partial to the Super Shredder fight, but this Shredder caught my eye because he has a wild paint design with a hot pink cape and lots of magenta and purple mixed in. He also has some neat effects pieces that I’ll get to in a bit.

Shredder comes packaged in a window box designed to mimic the old arcade cabinet. All of the figures in this line come in the same style of box with the only difference being the figures on the back. Some online vendors have listed this figure as Super Shredder, but as you can see just by looking at the box, he’s intended to just be Shredder.

If you have the cartoon Shredder, then you should know what to expect articulation wise here. Shredder has ball joints at the head and shoulders, though he doesn’t get a ton of movement out of either because of his cape, helmet, and shoulder pads. His arms can go all the way out, but can’t go up much. He has a swivel in his bicep and double-jointed elbows as well as a cut forearm. His hands rotate and are on hinges as well with in-out movement. He has a cut waist and if there’s any articulation in the main part of his abdomen it’s hard to tell because he has a piece of rubbery plastic serving as his shirt. He has good range of motion at the hips with ball joints and rotational articulation there. He has double-jointed knees and the calves swivel as well. A rarity for this line is the toe articulation as NECA seems to forego that detail frequently.

Where this Shredder differs from the prior one is just in the various armor pieces on his person. He still has a soft goods cape, but now he has fewer spikes on his shoulder pads, gauntlets, and shin guards. He makes up for this in what he does have for spikes are much longer and meaner looking. This is even true of the spikes wrapping around his helmet which are more pronounced as they come off of the back of the helmet. The gauntlets are also overall just bigger than before and the black wraps underneath are gone. He also has these little strips of “metal” at his ankle which is different from the cartoon version. Otherwise though, this is the same figure right down to the hands he comes with.

Shredder comes packed with fists that can pop off and be replaced with either gripping hands or a more open hand. The gripping hands are needed for Shredder’s sword, which is basically a light saber. It’s green and the paint is blended well on the “blade” to give it a glowing look. Why does Shredder have a light saber instead of a traditional sword? I don’t know – it was the 90s and swords just weren’t good enough. His fist hand works best with the fireball attachment he comes with. It’s a yellowish color and it fits over Shredder’s fist to give him a flaming punch effect. It’s a bit tough to wield as it’s not super snug and there’s some weight to it. By far the most interesting accessory is the big, flaming, hand. It clips onto Shredder’s forearm to resemble it shooting forward, as it does in the game. It is of Shredder’s right hand so you’ll probably want to clip it to his right arm, though if you wanted to nothing is stopping you from clipping it to his left. You can combine it with any of the hands, though I think it looks best with the open hand.

The other difference I notice between this Shredder and the past one is in the constitution of the plastic. This Shredder has a far more rubbery texture to him, which is something I’m noticing with the new figures in the cartoon line. I’m not sure if NECA has made a change, but the result gives the figure a less confident feel. He doesn’t stand as well as the cartoon Shredder as the more rubbery plastic causes him to bend and curve ever so slightly making him easy to topple even when using a NECA stand. On the plus side, none of the joints were stuck out of the box so maybe that’s the trade-off with this mix. The plastic used for the flaming hand is a much harder plastic, which is good because if it were soft then it would probably start to droop. It is a bit heavy though and the shoulder joint can’t sustain it fully. I set him up shooting his hand forward on my shelf and after an hour his arm had dropped until the hand was resting on my SDCC Hot Wheels set from last summer. From a quality control standpoint, my Shredder had a little paint slop on some of the spikes, most notably on one of his fists. There’s also a weird seem in the cape by the opening, but for all I know that’s supposed to be that way to maybe bunch it up more. Most of his spikes stayed straight in the package with minimal warp, which can be a problem with old Shred-head.

Shredder is a repaint of an already good action figure that’s true to the source material. I do love that flying hand accessory as well as all of the colors on this guy. I’m less sold on the pixel effect, especially with this figure because the cape is a flat color. He does ditch the cape in the game prior to the fight, so maybe that’s why NECA didn’t pay it much attention. It’s a bit surprising they even included it, but he does look cooler with it on. Since this is only my second figure from this line, I just have him kind of hanging out off to the side with my cartoon figures. Maybe some day I’ll go back and get more of these figures. I do prefer the video game Leatherhead to the cartoon one, and NECA showed off an early sculpt of a Baxter Stockman that will be the first all new sculpt for this line and one I’ll definitely get. As it stands, this figure is a touch underwhelming, but it’s also a little hard to get real excited for a Shredder repaint when so many other exciting figures are hitting retail right now. I don’t regret picking him up, and I think I’ll like him more when he has some more “friends” to play with.