NECA TMNT Dimension X-Mas Vacation

If you know anything about me then you probably know that I like collecting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures and I like Christmas. Strangely, those two things have not come together all that often. Most of the television shows featuring the famed four opted not to feature the holiday in an episode. And without much Christmas stuff to go off of, the toys have not broached the subject all that often. There have been a few instances though and one infamous example is the 1994 release We Wish You a Turtle Christmas. Utilizing assets from the stage show that had been touring the country, the direct-to-video special saw the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles prepare for the holiday while seeking out a gift for Splinter. It was a musical event and one I never watched as a kid. Sure, I saw the tape available for rent, but those hideous costumes were a huge turn-off. Plus, by 1994 I had moved off of TMNT and onto Marvel and video games. There was no going back.

In 2020, NECA Toys released a set of action figures based on the old stage show. They called the Musical Mutagen Tour and it brought those ugly ass turtles to the world of plastic in a rather convincing manner. It was a convention exclusive that was also made available at Target since it was the summer of 2020 and conventions weren’t happening. Ever since that release though I had wondered if a set of figures based on that terrible Christmas special were in the cards. NECA likes to do holiday themed releases and we’ve seen Gremlins get more than a couple. They’ve also done Misfits and Elvira and there’s probably more I’m forgetting or choosing not to remember. TMNT is their biggest seller these days and it was dying for a Christmas release of some kind and 2024 ended up being the time for it.

The Dimension X-Mas Vacation is that set. It may not say it on the box due to licensing, but this is basically We Wish You a Turtle Christmas the action figures. It’s NECA repurposing assets from its movie line of TMNT figures along with the heads of those Musical Mutagen Tour figures. Joining the package are some accessories pulled from that special and it’s all presented in a very lovely package meant to simulate a VHS release. There’s even a new story created for this non-existent special that’s summarized on the box itself and it sounds rather plausible for a TMNT release of that era. The set was kept under wraps until San Diego Comic Con of this year and has been made available through Walmart for the not so low price of $150. Because of that price and the niche appeal here, this is probably going to appeal to a smaller audience than usual, but I am most definitely that audience.

This set features figures of the turtles: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo, as they were depicted in We Wish You a Turtle Christmas. It’s basically four identical figures where the only difference is the color of the bandanas. They’re all “naked” as compared with the tour turtles save for their usual belts, pads, and shoes. Yes, shoes, as these costumes decided making turtle feet was way too hard so they have black sneakers and leg warmers. It’s ridiculous. They also each come with a Santa hat which gently rests on the bandana knot on the back of their head. There are two styles of Santa hats between the four turtles and the only difference is which way the pom pom is going: 2 left and 2 right.

Most of the components of the bodies are reused from the prior tour set which means this is the dated 1990 movie body. The hips are the old pin joints, which is the main tell. The elbows are NECA’s own double-jointed setup and these ones were clearly cut to accommodate the much larger elbow pads of the Musical Mutagen Tour set. Here, they cut for the pad is too generous resulting in uglier looking elbows. The shell and plastron are new though and a better match for the source material compared with the other releases of these bodies. I’m not sure why we couldn’t get updated hips, but it is what it is. Paint across the board is mostly fine. The white of the Santa hats features numerous blemishes across the four while the bodies themselves are pretty clean. There is an overall harder plastic feel to these guys compared with other movie figures. Making use of the gripping hands is going to be harder than usual and there’s some flashing in the elbow joints. It gives the figures a slightly cheaper feel. These costumes are supposed to look cheap, but the figures don’t need to be. The paint around the teeth is at least an improvement over the tour turtles I have with less bleeding of the pink paint onto the teeth.

Articulation for these guys is essentially the same as the tour turtles, which is to say it’s basic. The articulated jaw is a welcomed edition and one of the aspects of these designs that stands out the most in my memory. They’re so ugly and NECA really captured that. Most of the joints are pretty stiff, some almost to a worrisome degree. These guys aren’t going to pose all that well to begin with so I’d advise not forcing anything if it’s fighting you. A hair dryer or hot water will be your friend. The shoulders and hips are especially tight for me while the elbows varied from figure to figure. The elbow joint almost looks like it wants to split which obviously isn’t good, but I haven’t had any breaks. I’ve also been pretty gentile. The ankles are also pretty useless so it’s too bad they didn’t figure out a better way to do the sneakers. The ankle joint really just needs to be visible with this design and it’s not the case. I’m sure the soft goods leg warmers aren’t helping.

These turtles aren’t intended to mix it up with the Foot and instead are supposed to just look ugly and festive on your shelf. And to do so NECA included a bunch of Christmas themed accessories. In addition to the hats, each turtle also has a scarf. It’s a soft goods, white, fabric with a wire running through it so it can be posed rather well. One of the four in my set is frayed a bit, which sucks. There’s also a string of Christmas lights to drape over the head of one turtle. They’re sculpted in a soft plastic so it works reasonably well and makes your chosen turtle look like some sort of hideous Christmas tree. There’s also the framed pizza from the special which is just a plastic square with a pizza in the center. The lack of a glass pane means it’s also pretty easy to have a turtle hold it even with the really tight hands. There’s a little hand bell and also a manhole cover, because every TMNT universe needs one, I guess. There’s a skateboard with moving wheels and a nice deco on it and then we also get a whole bunch of presents. They all feature different wrapping paper and help fill out the display. To round out the release there’s also the customary set of optional hands. Each turtle comes with gripping hands, then we get a set of open, thumbs up, pointing, and loose gripping hands for the four to share. I wish we could get a full complement of at least the open and loose hands for the turtles, but this selection is pretty standard at this point.

Since these are the singing and dancing turtles from a Christmas special, we definitely did not need the usual weapons so NECA did not include them. What I think we definitely did need though is a tree! No Christmas tree in the set makes it feel pretty light. For my pics, I used the Figura Obscura tree, but since it’s not decorated it only works so well. And at $150, that’s unfortunate. There’s a lot of reuse here as well as some reuse potential with the gifts considering all of the Christmas stuff NECA does. For all I know, some of these gifts could even be from other sets, just not ones I have. I like the hats and I like the scarves. I’m a bit torn on if I would have preferred soft goods Santa hats to the molded ones we got. Normally, I’m for molded stuff, but since these were live action characters I think soft goods might have worked. We could have also got a stocking for each turtle. It feels like we should have got more and I question how well this thing will sell because it’s already pretty niche and the price won’t attract many impulse purchases.

Criticisms aside, if you want some Christmas themed TMNT figures your options are pretty slim. It’s basically the ReAction figures Super7 did a few years back (which I have, but kept on card) or the Christmas plush of Raphael from back in the day. Maybe we’ll get a figure in the future from NECA based on the Michelangelo one-shot which took place at Christmas. And since Super7 is going down the 2k3 rabbit hole, maybe we can get Christmas turtles from the episode of the show based on that one-shot. What I’m saying is this set is fine, but we need more Christmas turtles! And while I think this set is too expensive for what it is, I am glad it exists. Figures based on an obscure and pretty terrible Christmas special is something I find fun and action figures should be fun. Now, if you’ll excuse me Christmas is coming and I need to deck the halls with pepperoni.

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