Is Super7 going to finish a set of variant Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?! Maybe, as we’re now three-fourths of the way through the rock n’ roll turtles as released by Playmates. Punker Don, Classic Rock Leo, and now Rapper Mike make 3 with only Heavy Metal Raph remaining. As of this writing, Raph hasn’t been shown or even really teased. I only bring it up because Super7 has given us 3 of the 4 disguise turtles – Sewer Samurai Leonardo, Sewer Surfer Mike, and Raph the Space Cadet with Undercover Don left out in the cold. Seemingly in lieu of that figure, we received Slam Dunkin’ Don as part of the ninth wave with no indication that more sports turtles are on the way. I guess what I am saying is don’t expect anything or purchase any of these figures with the expectation that you’ll eventually get a complete set.
Rapper Mike was previously released as Rappin’ Mike in the Playmates line. Unlike Punker Don, I have no issues with pairing Michelangelo up with hip hop. It makes sense for him, the party dude, though he could be melded with other genres without much issue. He was also a figure I had as a kid, but since I wasn’t much of a hip hop fan, he wasn’t among my favorites so he’s been lost to time. And personally, I really like the other three figures from this set so I’m mostly getting Michelangelo here for the sake of completion. That doesn’t mean he can’t be a good figure though, and like the prior two in this set, he’s a pretty faithful recreation of the Playmates figure. The head, creative, person on the line at Super7, Kyle Wlodyga, sat down for a pretty expansive talk with Nick of the Robo Don’t Know YouTube channel and discussed some of the design choices with this figure. He sometimes has to dance around issues where it’s obvious Playmates is exerting some influence over Viacom when it comes to approving Super7 releases, but I didn’t pick up on any of that with this figure. It sounds like most of the changes were made voluntarily.
And there aren’t many changes. Mike still has his white tank and green hat with what I guess are intended to be MC Hammer style parachute pants. He still has the usual arm bands and knee pads to go along with a big, toothy, grin. The biggest changes may just be taking what was previously a sculpted element and turning it into an accessory with the giant clock necklace and pink sunglasses. One highlighted change by Kyle was the choice to change the message on his brass knuckles from Mike Raps to Mike (sic) Drop. The old figure also had a chunky turntable on the front of his belt which has been removed. The belt is a little different, since it’s now more visible, and the shoes have a slightly different deco. The sculpt of the shoes is largely the same, but before they were all green and now they’re painted green and white. When I look at this one I do find him a little less interesting than Don and Leo, but is that just my bias against the genre showing through? I do think Super7 should stay close to the Playmates designs because I think that’s what their customer wants more than anything. Maybe a big, soft goods, coat that rips off the old Starter jackets would have made for a fun addition? I do wish the design was a little louder, but that’s partly the fault of the original figure.
Paint across the board with Mikey is a step up from Punker Don. The shoes, especially, look clean and the linework on the face is pretty nice, all things considered. The printing on his pants now reads “Shell Shock” and it’s styled reasonably well. The two speakers on the rear of his belt are fully painted as are the audio cables attached to them. The painted elements and different materials give the figure a nice finish, though it clashes slightly with the soft, orange, plastic used for the elbow and kneepads. They just come off a little cheap in comparison. There’s also a paint error where the under arms are painted this sort of cream color which matches the visible portion of plastron. On all other turtles, this part of the shell is green so it’s pretty odd looking. I went back to where I bought the figure, Big Bad Toy Store, to check the glamour shots to see what it was colored then, but they removed those images. Super7 still has them up, but they’re inconclusive. There’s also a minor defect with my figure where the portion of the overlay that’s supposed to connect at the crotch is disconnected. I’m guessing it was supposed to be glued. It’s an easy fix, but it might be something that impacts other figures or just mine.
Articulation for Mikey is pretty standard for a Super7 turtle: double-ball head, hinged balls at the shoulder, single hinge and pin at the elbow, swivel and hinge at the wrist, waist twist, ball-hinged hips, pin and hinge knees, ankle hinges and rockers. Punker Don was a floppy mess while Classic Rock Leo was damn near perfect. Mike slots somewhere in between. He’s not as floppy in the hips as Donnie, but he’s also not as tight and smooth as Leonardo. It’s frustrating that Super7 still struggles with this joint in what is now the 11th wave of the line, but it is what it is. Maybe we’ll finally see a big change with the 2003 turtles due up next? Some of the other joints are pretty tight too and in particular the left knee of my figure. It will need heat to function. Mikey does have one extra articulation feature and it resides under his hat. The old figure wore his hat backwards, but this one spins so you can have him wear it however you wish. It’s a good idea and a fun addition. It does mean that the hat doesn’t work with the other portrait, but that doesn’t strike me as a big deal.
The accessory load-out here is pretty solid, but also mostly unique when compared with the vintage figure. The optional sunglasses and necklace are here to mostly complete the old look. The sunglasses are like other glasses accessories in this line in that they don’t plug in or anything, but they’ll stay in place on your shelf well enough and better than the sunglasses for Sewer Surfer Mike. The big necklace is gold and contains a new pattern on it. Instead of a clock, it’s like a bronzed pizza which I guess is fine. I prefer the clock, but maybe they feared a lawsuit from Flava Flav? There’s also a second gold chain provided. It’s a bit cumbersome to feature both at the same time so you may prefer to prioritize one over the other, but as you can see from my pictures it is possible to get both on. The optional hands are all unique to this figure since they need to feature the brass knuckles. They include fists, gripping, open, and what I guess are meant to be turntable hands that could also serve as a pointing gesture.
The old figure came with this turntable on a strap that Mike wore around his neck and the device was held out in front like an actual table. Super7 opted to alter this one so that it’s now a turntable and boom box all in one. On one side, you have the boom box which looks pretty nice and it’s painted well. There’s an articulated handle on the top and Mikey can carry it or put it up on his shoulder reasonably well. The reverse side is where the turntable is found and it looks fine, but is harder to pose the figure with. It lacks a strap to have it draped on the figure like the old one and since it isn’t an actual table it can’t be setup in front of the figure. Super7 really should have included an optional stand. Just a cheap piece of folding plastic or just optional legs that could be plugged in. This limitation means it’s likely to remain a boom box for me, but you can kind of get it in place if you slot the handle over the hands. It just won’t look like a practical way to manipulate a turntable. And in order to sing along, Mikey has some nunchaku where each handle has been replaced with a microphone. This is a recreation of a vintage accessory and it’s a welcomed inclusion. The real chain is almost a gold color which adds a nice splash of color on the shelf.
The last accessories are an alternate portrait and some headphones. Since the alternate portrait lacks the hat, the turtle shell themed headphones fit better on this head than they do the default one. This extra head though was of real interest to me going back to the solicitation. When it’s come to Michelangelo figures from Super7, I haven’t been too impressed with their portraits. The alternate head on the original is just odd looking and the Sewer Surfer portraits are large and cartoony. Even so, I’ve been using one of those heads for my Wave 3 Michelangelo, but this new one looked like a real upgrade. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. Like the other variants, the proportions aren’t a match for the original turtle figures Super7 made. The heads are slightly larger and if you can manage to get this onto your figure (it was tight, though getting the old head off was really the hard part) it may look too much like a bobblehead for your taste. Worse though is the color difference. Rapper Mike has a skin tone that’s close to a green-blue where as the original figure is what Crayola probably described as a forest green. It’s not going to look very good as a result and combine that with the oversized nature compared with the other brothers and it’s an all around failure of something that could have been awesome. It’s just a shame because I really like the look of the sculpt. It fits in very well aesthetically with the alternate portraits of the other guys, but Super7 went and Super7’d it up.
Rapper Mike is largely more of the same, which is both good and bad. I think the sculpt turned out pretty well and Super7 did a good job of keeping what made the original fun while also adding a few new elements. The paint is an improvement over Punker Don and the accessories are fine, it’s just that it has too much of that Super7 feel to it. And if you have handled many of their figures, you might know what I’m talking about. Despite looking pretty good, and costing quite a lot relatively speaking, the feel in-hand just isn’t there. Mikey feels clunky and some of that is definitely owed to the floppy hips. As I said above, they’re not as bad as Donnie’s, but that doesn’t make them good. They don’t feel nice when moved almost like the figure doesn’t want you to mess with it. The stubborn knees, subpar range at the elbows, and little imperfections just add up.
In the end, Rapper Mike is another figure from Super7 that struggles to really earn its $55 price tag. From the shelf, I’m generally happy with what is here, but there are enough faults and the in-hand experience is lacking enough that I don’t feel great about it. I absolutely love the vintage set of four so I’m attached from the onset when it comes to the Super7 versions. I just remain disappointed that Classic Rock Leo, the first in the set released, wasn’t a sign of things to come. If you love those old figures and are happy with Leo and especially Don, then you might as well go ahead and add Rapper Mike to the band. If Punker Don was a bad experience that you aren’t sure if you want to repeat, then approach with caution. For the other fence sitters, the usual Super7 caveat largely applies here where you may feel a lot better about your purchasing decision if you can score it on discount somewhere down the road. And with 2003 turtles on-deck for the next two waves from Super7, don’t expect a confirmation on Heavy Metal Raph anytime soon. We won’t see him until 2026 at the earliest, and maybe even longer since Super7 has cut way back on their preorders. We know 2003 is Wave 13 because they showed off a teaser back at San Diego, but it has not gone up for preorder yet with Wave 12 due in June right now. If they’re waiting for that wave to deliver before solicitation, then we won’t even see Wave 14 solicited until 2026 and that, ultimately, kind of sucks.
Check out these other rock n’ roll turtles from Super7 and some more Mikey:
Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Classic Rocker Leonardo
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We are back with one more look at Wave 6 of Super7’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line of Ultimates! action figures: Sewer Surfer Mike. This, like every figure in the line so far, is a recreation of a Playmates Toys figure from the vintage line of TMNT action figures, and in this case it’s of…
The Nostalgia Spot 
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