These days, there isn’t much the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles haven’t crossed-over with. Back in the day we had Star Trek, trolls, and the Universal Monsters. More modern times have seen cross-overs with the likes of WWE, Ghostbusters, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Throughout all of that, as well as the action figure license seemingly opening up, many of the world’s biggest toy producers have laid their hands on TMNT. One of the last remaining holdouts, Mattel, is now joining those ranks which is interesting because Mattel very nearly acquired the license from the beginning. A prototype was even made for a potential Mattel turtle, but it never went farther than that. Well, better late than never (yeah, right, think about all of the money Mattel and others missed out on by passing on TMNT in the 80s) as we now have Mattel versions of the turtles, but with a decidedly different flavor.
Masters of the Universe is a toyline I’ve never been into. I was born into a post-MOTU world where the action figure market was massive: C.O.P.S., Transformers, M.A.S.K., The Real Ghostbusters, just to name a few. Sure, I watched He-Man and the Masters of the Universe on television like many boys my age and I had been excited to see the baffling live-action movie as well. I guess it just didn’t stick. For whatever reason, I can never recall asking my parents for the toys. I had friends and cousins who had a bunch of MOTU figures and play sets, but I never did and never really yearned for them either. It’s a bit surprising to me that I didn’t have one figure, but that’s just how it was. The only He-Man toys I can recall owning came from The New Adventures of He-Man. I had one action figure and one role play sword that made cool laser sounds. I don’t recall ever pretending to be He-Man while playing with it, rather I thought of myself as Link from The Legend of Zelda. That lone He-Man figure joined the likes of the Ultimate Warrior, Junkyard, and Sunstreaker as single toys I owned from popular toy lines.
I suppose it goes without saying that the new mashup of Masters of the Universe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles isn’t specifically aimed at me since I don’t consider myself a MOTU fan. I do enjoy the good mashup though when it concerns my boys in green so it was naturally on my radar. And it’s impossible to be an action figure enthusiast in this day and age and not know about Masters of the Universe Origins. This retro-inspired toyline from Mattel is essentially the vintage line with modern improvements. The base look of the characters has changed very little, but they now have things like elbow joints – what a concept! It’s been well received and I constantly hear from TMNT fans how they wish Playmates Toys would do the same. It’s almost shocking that they haven’t tried (the Last Ronin figure they released is sort of in the same style), but maybe the re-releases are making them enough money?
First of all, I’ve seen the coverage of this line where a lot of the folks presenting it have stressed that this isn’t a mashup. It’s a story about the turtles and He-Man and there’s a companion comic book to emphasize that (it’s nothing special, but each figure comes with one). Bologna. There may be a story, but at least where the turtles are concerned, the character designs are clearly TMNT character crossed with MOTU character. Even the MOTU characters are getting turtle-themed armor so they’re like a mashup as well. Regardless, we have new character designs incorporated into the Origins set of tools and you’re either here for them or you’re not. For me personally, I could not care less about the MOTU characters. I’ll admit, Mouse-Jaw looks kind of cool, but I don’t need it. I’m here for the turtles and after only encountering the MOTU characters in stores, I finally came upon a lone Leonardo and singular Donatello so I decided to give them a whirl.
This Turtles of Grayskull line of figures comes in a standard blister pack with new card art on the front and rear that’s pretty eye-catching. I confess, I don’t buy many blister-carded figures anymore so slotting these two in my shopping bag brought back the warm fuzzies of doing the same when I was a kid. Leonardo is billed as the heroic ninja turtle leader while Donatello is referred to as the heroic turtle-at-arms. In other words, this is He-Man Leo and Man-At-Arms Donnie. The Origins line is basically designed to be one size fits all – for the most part. This is nothing new to TMNT and it should come as no surprise that both figures are the same. The only sculpted difference are the heads. Origins differentiates releases via the accessories. Both figures have a bunch of removable armor pieces that either slide on or strap on. The only things non-removable are their furry trunks which are part of the sculpt, the wrist bands, and the shin guards. Donatello’s helmet also appears to be non-removable, which is a bummer.
Both figures stand at a tick under 6″ – let’s call it 5 7/8″. They’re a little bigger than the vintage MOTU size, but I think that’s entirely due to these figures having articulated knees as opposed to pre-posed ones. As I said, the body is the same across both figures. It has a more pronounced V-shape to the torso and it reminds me a bit of the 2003 cartoon series design or the Super Mutants from even before that. It’s a different, more heroic, look for the turtles and their waists pinch in. The limbs are still plenty beefy and they have the right hands and feet. Leonardo is also in his classic Playmates green and Donatello in his brownish tone. The finish across the board is matte so no shiny, plastic, skin tones here. The shell is where the sculpt gets interesting as they have a sculpted-in shell on the back of the torso, but it’s not painted. Instead, they also have a more traditional shell that can be worn and it also doubles as a shield. It’s mildly unsettling. I don’t know why it bothers me, but it’s weird.
The Origins line is a throwback one, so it’s probably not terribly surprising to find out the paint, overall, is limited. The plastron is painted a sunflower yellow and each turtle has colored straps around their shins. The only other paint is reserved for the bracers on the wrists, the bandanas, eyes, and teeth. The paint on the bandana of my Leonardo is pretty sloppy with a lot of the blue continuing onto the face. I would have loved to have come across multiples of this figure in the store to see if some were better than others, but alas there has been only the one. The chest straps on my Leonardo were also stuck to the chest out of the package so the paint is a little marred underneath. There is a belt that goes across the back of the shell which is painted as well and it looks fine. Otherwise, these figures are more relying on the colored plastic of the armor bits to create shelf presence.
And those armor bits are a double-edged sword. Leonardo comes with a skirt piece, shoulder pads, and a chest harness which has this big, furry, mane attached to the back of it. He also has an additional forearm guard that is intended for his left arm. These three armor pieces just slide on and they make the figure more cumbersome to handle as they’re always moving. The Origins line is essentially a modular one so everything is intended to be mixed and matched amongst figures. In that, they’re kind of like the dolls we action figure collectors have been insisting are different from what we like. I don’t love the mane which appears to be glued to the harness which sucks. I was hoping it was removable, and I suppose if I really wanted to I could take it off, but I’m not the type to make permanent alterations to my toys. The chest strap does have some paint to it in the form of a big L in the middle of the chest which looks clean. The blue bits have a pearl quality to the finish, despite just being plastic and mostly look okay. They look better if you can hide the big rings on them that fit around the arms, but that can be a challenge.
For Donatello, all of his armor comes on him out of the package. He has his own chest armor which features this big face guard right in the middle. I’ve never liked that aspect of the Man-At-Arms design and unfortunately that part doesn’t come off. In addition to that chest piece, he has a ring around his right bicep and a big piece of shoulder armor on the left. There’s a left wrist guard as well and he has shin guards which don’t loop on, but actually have plastic straps that basically function like zip ties. There are some silver bits painted on his chest and wrist as well as a fur trim, which is certainly a choice. The plastic is a lighter shade of purple and it also has that pearl quality that Leonardo’s has.
In addition to the armor, both figures come with their own weapons. For Leonardo, he has his own take on He-Man’s sword of power, or whatever it’s called. It has a play feature in that it comes as two swords that can be snapped together into one. It’s cast in a silver plastic, and as one sword looks fine, but as two looks stupid. The handles are too thin for Leonardo to hold reliably and you’re better off just sticking with the one sword. It can slot into the belt on the back of the shell, but it’s tight and it left a weird bubble-looking eyesore on the blade. There must be a coating of some kind on the plastic. Donatello comes with what looks like a big mace. It’s all orange, and the handle is sculpted to resemble wood with tape around it like Donatello’s traditional bo staff. It can connect with Man-At-Arms’ version of the weapon to create one, large, version. There is a turtle shell sculpted into the top of the weapon, but given that it’s not painted it doesn’t really add to the vibe. I don’t particularly care for the look of this weapon, but it’s his only weapon so he’s going to have to make due. It also can slot into the belt loop and does so much easier than Leo’s swords. And as I mentioned before, the shells can come off and function as handheld shields, if you’re a sicko.
Since this is a throwback line I wasn’t expecting much out of the articulation. Consider me surprised to find out these guys move pretty well. The heads are on double ball pegs so their range of motion is just fine. The shoulders are standard hinged ball pegs, but their range is plenty good as they can be raised up to a horizontal position and rotate just fine. They’re pegged in at a downward angle so rotating them can also raise the arms higher. There is no biceps swivel, but the forearm pegs in at the elbow and features a hinge so it rotates in addition to having the hinged motion. You should get 90 degrees, though this joint was the tightest on my figures. The wrists rotate and feature a horizontal hinge, the only major complaint I have since this is a line of guys wielding melee weapons. Give them vertical hinges!
At the waist is a basic twist and the hips connect via ball and socket joints. They’re probably the most limited, or just tight, but they don’t kick forward as far as I’d like. I suppose this is a line of brawlers and not ninjas so I can’t expect the greatest range. There’s no room for the thigh to pivot on the ball joint, which is unfortunate. The knees are setup just like the elbows so you get a hinge and a rotation point. The hinge is very tight and offers less than 90 degrees of range. There is a shin twist and the ankles hinge forward and back and feature an ankle rocker. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting the ankle rocker so that being there was a pleasant surprise that has colored my thoughts on the articulation in a more positive light. Stepping back from that, the legs kind of suck and there’s no ab crunch to be found. A ball joint at the waist would have been nice to get a little more nuance in there, but perhaps Mattel felt that would break-up the vintage look too much. It would have helped add to the modular nature of the line though as ball joints are usually easy to separate. I haven’t tried disassembling these guys beyond removing the head and the hands. The legs do not look like they’re designed to come off easily so I personally wouldn’t try.
As far as mash-ups go these figures aren’t bad. They’re definitely TMNT figures for MOTU fans first as opposed to vice versa. Some of the stuff I don’t like are just traits of the line and not something I’d expect Mattel to change because it’s attracting a new audience. Incidentally, it’s the modular elements of these figures that don’t go far enough for me that are among my biggest criticisms. I wish Donatello’s helmet was removable and the fur trim of Leo’s harness. I still think the removable shell is bizarre and off-putting, but that could just be me. It never bothered me when Cecil turtle did it in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, but I guess I don’t like seeing Leonardo take off his shell.
The mashup nature of the line is probably what will determine how much someone likes it. Leo essentially crossed with He-Man is a no-brainer, though it looks like Michelangelo is going to be as well. Donatello as Man-At-Arms doesn’t do nearly as much for me and I mostly bought him because I know I’m going to at least want all four turtles. That’s just how these things go. They’re fun figures to mess around with though, and it does make we wish Mattel was in charge of a TMNT Origins line of its own since Playmates doesn’t appear interested in doing such. The quality of the construction is good, the figures have a nice feel, and I think they do a good job of balancing modern design with vintage aesthetic. At 20 bucks a pop, they’re not quite the deal I wish they were. At 15 bucks these would be no-brainers, but there isn’t much occupying that price level anymore. If you’re holding out for a clearance sale, it might be hard to come by. These things appear to be flying off the shelves with only the Target exclusive Mouse-Jaw lingering on the pegs near me (which may have something to do with its $25 price tag) so it may not pay off to wait. If you really want them, get them!
There’s not a lot of Masters of the Universe coverage here, but there sure is plenty of Turtle Talk:
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