When NECA started down the path of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with the 2008 release of the four titular characters, it didn’t go very far. After the turtles came April, but as a convention exclusive, and then nothing else. It would be years before their Shredder, which was shown off at the very same convention April was released at, was released as a con exclusive himself along with three of his henchmen. And it seemed to take the success of the eventual cartoon and movie lines that pushed NECA to go back to the original comics. It’s been an interesting line as it started with perhaps less-requested characters with the Fugitoid and Renet, but now we’re getting to those heavy hitters fans were dreaming of fifteen years ago. And some of those heavy hitters come in pint-sized packages like the beloved Master Splinter.
Splinter sets the bar as shortest figure in the line. Coming in at a tidy 3.5″, he’s very much a little guy. Especially when placed with the recently released turtle four-pack who are taller and bulkier than the 2008 figures. I said he comes in a pint-sized package, but that was an embelleshment on my part as the actual box he’s in is the same as most of the other single releases. It features new art by Kevin Eastman which matches the look of the figure pretty well. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I do believe first appearance Splinter in the books was a bit more fuzzy and frayed looking than the figure here, but that would be very hard to pull-off in plastic.
I noted Splinter is 3.5″ tall, but I should add that is in his neutral stance which features bent knees. It’s basically how he came out of the box and how he likely should be posed, but someone who wanted him to be taller for the sake of being taller could get a little more out of him. He’s sculpted all in brown plastic with a lot of black dry brushing over him. The black is heaviest on the top of his snout and extends to around his eyes which creates a striking portrait. It’s a solid approximation of the comic art and if there’s anything I think could have been done better with the sculpt and paint it’s the claws on Splinter’s hands and feet. They’re a bit soft in sculpt and all brown so they just blend into the fingers and toes. It matches the art on the box so I can’t knock the figure for its accuracy, it’s just one of those design choices that works better in print than sculpt.
The shading on the figure covers the entire body, but it’s almost irrelevant since Splinter features a soft goods robe. Just like his cartoon and movie counterpart, the robe is wrapped around him and fastened with a brown ribbon. It’s a maroon color and it looks fine. It’s a lot of material and a little frumpy looking. It might have been neat to see it look a little more worn since this is a rat who lives in the sewer. I don’t like the ribbon used for the belt as it just doesn’t look like any belt one would expect a robe to fastened with. It’s a criticism I had for the movie and cartoon Splinter. A piece of stretchy material, like the additional belt on the Foot and Shredder movie figures, with a knot glued onto it would have been my preference, but it’s fine.
The figure, despite being small, has most of the same articulation one would expect of a NECA figure. The head feels like it’s on a double ball peg and it has great range in all directions. The shoulders are ball-hinged and can raise out to the side fine, but rotation is going to be limited by the robe. It’s something that can be worked around though as that’s the benefit of the robe being slightly oversized. The elbows are single-hinged with a swivel and will bend to 90 degrees. The wrists swivel and hinge horizontally as well. In the torso is a diaphragm joint that feels like a ball-joint, it could be a double, but you get rotation, a little forward “crunch,” and some tilt. The hips are ball-jointed and can go out to the side for splits. They kick back rather far, but not really forward a whole lot. There’s a little thigh pivot and the knees are single-hinged and swivel. You do get about a 90 degree bend at the knee, but again, he’s meant to stand with his knees bent to about 45 degrees so the practical range is limited. The ankles hinge and pivot with the ankle rocker being a bit flat, but functional. The tail is connected via a hinged ball peg so you get rotation and the hinge can direct it a bit. The tail itself is also bendy, though the wire only goes about halfway through it so it’s a bit limited.
Splinter has decent articulation, though it’s hard to argue that he’s not meant to mostly just stand there on your shelf. He can hit a few battle ready poses and also stand on one foot if you want to place him in a side-kicking pose. I’m a little surprised that NECA did not include an articulated jaw as they did with the cartoon Splinter, but I don’t hate the exclusion. The profile looks good so if they felt they couldn’t get that joint in there without harming the presentation then that’s a decision I support. I only mention it as some may have expected it based on past versions of the character and may miss it.
Since Splinter is such a small figure, he does come with a pretty robust assortment of accessories to justify his price tag. Big figures cost more money for both NECA and the consumer, but that rarely applies to small figures. To get more plastic into this, Splinter comes with three sets of hands: relaxed, gripping, and pointing. The gripping hands have the less desireable horizontal hinge. I’m surprised we didn’t get flat, chop, styled hands as well. Splinter also has his walking stick and that he can grasp with the gripping hands or the relaxed hands. The relaxed hands can also rest on top of the stick too so you have some options when posing him with it. There’s a small tea kettle with articulated handle and a little cup to go with it. The kettle has some nice black linework on it while the cup is blank. Splinter can hold the kettle by the handle and palm the cup well and it’s a nice little pair of accessories. I do wish NECA had ripped-off Super7 and included a steaming effect for the cup, but it’s fine as-is.
Those are the accessories for Splinter, the rest are basically extra characters. Up first is a brand new Mouser. It’s painted all in gray with some light blue shading on it to create a metallic effect that looks really nice. It’s also covered in the usual black linework and looks rather sharp. As far as I know, the entire sculpt is brand new as it doesn’t share any parts with the cartoon Mouser. If it shares any parts with the Mouser released back in 2008 I’m not sure as I don’t have any of those. It functions just like the toon one with an articulated jaw that features a fully-sculpted interior, hinge at the base of the head, ball-jointed neck which allows for a lot of rotation and tilt, leg swivel, hinged knee, and hinged ankle. The hinged joints in the legs are plenty tight so the figure has no trouble standing and overall it’s a nice addition that I’m sure collectors will want more of.
Splinter also comes with an assortment of slug figures for accessories. We get a new Utrom that has more of a surprised expression on its face. It’s very close in size to the previously released stand-alone Utrom that came in the Shredder convention set, it just drops the articulation entirely. It’s well-painted with a lot of dry-brushing that makes it look dirty and gross. We also get a pre-mutated Splinter that’s in sort of a martial arts pose. To go with him are four, baby, turtles. Stylistically, they’re very similar to the pre-mutated turtles the 2008 figures came with, but they’re all new sculpts and noticeably smaller. They’re nicely painted and they almost look like they’re smiling so they bring a cute factor to the package. The last item is the broken cannister of ooze. It’s a new sculpt and it’s basically upside down with a big puddle of the stuff spreading out from it. It serves to create a nice little display with the other slug characters and I prefer it to just a plain cannister.
And that’s NECA’s take on Splinter. It’s a small figure with a bunch of stuff that NECA hopes will offset the price of the figure. I got my figure at Target where it retails for $37 which is about the same price as figures like Jagwar and Dreadmon, but less than Zog and the Shredder clones. Is $37 too much? It’s hard to blame folks who feel like it is. The added accessories are nice, but would I trade some of them to knock this release down to $30? Sure. As for the figure itself, I think it gets the job done. I think it could have more hands and a better belt, but this Splinter will look nice on your Mirage Studios shelf which is rapidly becoming shelves in many collections. It’s an essential release if you’re a TMNT Mirage collector, and if you can stomach the price I think you’ll be happy enough.
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