Mattel’s Masters of the Universe Origins subline, Turtles of Grayskull, has given us three of the iconic four reptilian brothers with a MOTU theme. Now, we have the fourth. The heroic captain of cowabunga Michelangelo is in the house and he’s got a new look, and a new ‘do, to show off.
Like his brothers before him, Michelangelo is a very familiar release. He’s going to recycle a lot of the same assets created for those turtles, but in his own shade of green. Somewhat to my surprise, Michelangelo uses the very yellow-green we have seen Playmates use before in their 2012 toyline for the character. The other brothers in this line were closer to their 1988 counterparts and if Michelangelo were to follow that pattern he would have been a very dark green. I’m curious how much freedom Mattel had when it came to the shades of green in play, but I don’t hate the choice. This is a rather bright line of figures and the lighter green has a place here. I think the figure would have looked just fine with a darker tone too, but it’s not something that’s going to bother me.
Outside of the green, the main thing that jumps out about this Michelangelo is that he has something he rarely features – hair. Mikey has apparently taken a liking to He-Man to the point where he decides to basically just dress up like him. He’s sporting He-Man’s battle armor, only he’s replaced the big “H” with an “M,” and tossed on a wig to help sell the look. The wig just sits on the figure’s head so if you hate it then it’s nothing to take it off, but I think it adds a dash of silliness to the look that’s fitting for Michelangelo. From the waist down, he’s basically the same as Leo and Raph only the straps on the fur parts of his shins have been left unpainted. He has his own, removable, turtle-shell shoulder pads and there’s an orange harness around his torso. The actual torso piece is new sculpting as the battle armor is non-removable. I say “new” as-in it’s new to me, but it could very well be reused from a past MOTU figure.
Mikey’s sporting a rather happy expression. He has an open mouth with visible teeth and he’s smiling. The carve-out for the open mouth isn’t very deep and has been left unpainted. I think some black in there would have helped the look. The white eyes and smile combo always looks a bit weird to me whenever it show up on figures, but it obviously would have been weirder to give just Michelangelo pupils. While I appreciate Mattel capturing Michelangelo’s silly side, I do think an angry expression would have looked better. The paint is limited in application, but where it is applied it looks fine. There’s one defect I don’t like where there’s a little blob of white paint at the bottom of the left eye. I’m tempted to try and scrape it off, but I’m worried that could make it look worse. There is a seem line on the front of Michelangelo’s snout that’s a bit off-putting which I assume is present on all figures.
Accessories with this line are slim and with Michelangelo that’s true. We already covered the wig, but he also has the same removable shell the other turtles come with. The only other accessories are the weapons and Mikey has his trusty nunchaku. To create them, Mattel went with an all plastic approach and utilized orange, which makes thematic sense. The chain links are done like real chain, just in plastic. I can’t recall a Michelangelo figure coming with plastic, chained, ‘chuks before, but it works fine. NECA did do a green chain with the Bugman release. There are a couple of links that are stuck together which I was able to work out, though there’s one that’s still pretty stuck. I think it’s because they had to mold these chains all in one go as there’s no cut in the links. You also get another installment of the comic. This time it has word bubbles (I never confirmed if the one that came with my Raph was unique to me or not) so if you’re interested in where the story is going it will actually make more sense now.
I don’t think we need to run-down the articulation for a fourth time here. Michelangelo is the same as his brothers, which are also basically the same as every MOTU Origins figure I’ve encountered. Mikey is going to pose reasonably well for what this line is going for. The joints are tight, but nothing is stuck. He should be fairly painless to pose.
And that’s Michelangelo. He’s more of the same which is the whole point of the Origins line of figures. The success or failure of the figure on a personal level almost entirely comes down to the design of the character. I think this is an amusing take on Michelangelo and it works in the context of the line. I do think the head could have used some tweaking, but the rest works for me. I like that Mattel went with chain links for the weapons and the all plastic approach suits the line well. For 20 bucks, I think a little more isn’t a hard ask. It would have been nice if all of the turtles came with a second head or a secondary weapon or accessory, but it is what it is. These things seem to be flying off the shelves around me so clearly Mattel has it all figured out. If you have the other three turtle boys, then this figure belongs on your shelf.
By the power of pizza…here’s more MOTU Turtles:
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