Conventions are always a great time, even from home, because lots of toy companies use them to show off their latest and greatest. Last year had a number of surprises from NECA where Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were concerned. And some of those surprises were pretty damn big. When those conventions end, it’s always fun to rearrange the list in my head of what I’m looking forward to the most. Vaulting to near the top of that list was a figure I hadn’t even really considered would be shown: Shredder. Not just any Shredder, but the Shredder from the Archie Comics run of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures.
I have detailed in several of these figure reviews that I wasn’t a regular reader of the Archie run of TMNT. I should rectify that some day, but I had honestly forgotten what Shredder looked like in those books. I mostly saw those issues via the covers and covers alone and on those he was often depicted as he was in the cartoon. In the books themselves, Shredder was usually colored with a blue body suit and purple cape. The metallic portions of his traditional outfit was colored white with blue highlights. This isn’t that unusual as if you take a look at just about any depiction of Wolverine in a comic his claws are often white. We know they’re steel and probably wouldn’t be white in reality, but that’s comic book coloring logic. The cartoon went with gray for Shredder with minimal shading. The toy went with blue. Shredder was all over the place, but this white and blue look was certainly unique and something about it works. It’s classy!
NECA is rounding out its line of TMNT Adventures slowly but surely. There’s basically a three-issue arc or so in the comic that NECA has focused on. In it, we meet Slash who comes into contact with Krang. They meet Bellybomb and he in turn helps Krang take over Shredder’s body. Yeah, it’s a bit weird, but since Krang is a brain I guess it makes sense that he can take over the body of other people. He doesn’t have to always ride around in an android’s stomach. That’s why if you come cross this Shredder in a store you may be surprised to see Krang on his shoulders. This figure is Krang as Shredder (Kredder?), but NECA wisely included a traditional Shredder head in the box. It’s a little more eye-catching with Krang in place and likely to get some double-takes by people unfamiliar with this depiction. I suppose NECA is taking a risk with impulse buyers in that the Shredder head isn’t front and center, but I’m guessing most people into this line basically know what they’re in for.
This Shredder, or Krang, comes in the same style of window box as other figures in the line. It’s adorned with original artwork by Ken Mitchroney which all features the Krang head in place. The figure is an entirely new sculpt by Tomasz Rozejowski with a credit to Kushwara Studios. Paint is once again handled by the duo of Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo. And following in the footsteps of the Stump Wrestling turtles, this Shredder is pinless. NECA is gradually making the move to a pinless approach with the elbows and knees of its future figures and the results have been smooth. I’m not exactly offended by the presence of pins, but the ones NECA has used in the past can be a bit on the large side. They’re usually good about using the proper color and painting over them when necessary, but there have been a few where they stick out a bit too much (mostly their Bebop and Rocksteady figures, for some reason) so I’m happy to see them gone. Especially because we’re not losing any function, and as we’ll see when we get to the articulation, we’re not running into any new issues either.
This Shredder is a much beefier version of the character than we’ve received in the past. The NECA Shredder mold is getting quite long in the tooth. It’s been used for multiple versions of the Mirage Shredder as well as toon and video game versions. It’s not terrible, but it’s a very lanky Shredder. This new sculpt is likely also the base for the new Ultimate Toon Shredder that should start showing up any day now (unless it’s being held back for another Target event that everyone will surely love) and I think fans are going to be pleased. He’s big in the arms and broad in the chest and stands at a commanding 6.75″ and should look formidable beside the turtles. The sculpt has that slightly soft, rounded, but muscled look to it that was featured in the comics. The body is a dark, flat, blue with basically all of the muscles outlined with black. The details on the white portions of the costume are also brought out with black linework with a hit of light blue for shading. The face guard is dark blue with a nice swash of white and the visible portion of his face is a warm flesh tone and the detail work is impressive.
There’s almost nothing for me to critique when it comes to the presentation, but I’ll do my best. The linework is exceptionally clean. Given the presence of white surfaces, it could have gone off the rails in places, but it does not. I had to hunt for paint imperfections and I found one, black, speck on the right forearm band. That’s basically it. Aside from that, my criticisms are more subjective. There’s a cut in the abdomen that goes through the top of Shredder’s abs. I wish the cut went above the abs instead and followed the rib cage, but maybe that wouldn’t move as well. He also still has a soft goods cape that’s very basic. I’m fine with the choice of soft goods over plastic, but it’s very thin and there’s no wire. It’s basically the same cape as what’s included with the toon Shredder which is a pretty basic cape with just some minor tailoring around the neck. With the exception of Dark Turtle, capes in the toon TMNT line have been pretty weak and that has apparently carried over to the Archie line.
This edition of Shredder has a pretty solid assortment of accessories. I’ve been reviewing this as if it’s a Shredder, but the actual, default, head is Krang. Krang follows the same styling as the one included with Bellybomb only this time he has an angrier expression. Or rather, he’s showing more teeth and his eyes aren’t as asymmetrical as the prior one. His tentacles are on little ball joints so they can move a little bit, but he plugs onto the ball joint like any other portrait would. Which is why it’s a shame that the Krang that came with Bellybomb wasn’t equipped to do the same. Did they not want to tip their hand that this was coming? Maybe, but that’s a silly reason not to do it. It would have been a great way to get multiple portraits for Krang into the mix so it feels like a missed opportunity. Krang is very well painted though and if you’re only going to have one Krang head for a figure at least it’s a good one. You may notice there are no pictures of Shredder with Krang for a head. That’s because once I swapped heads I couldn’t get the Shredder one off. I actually had the whole neck apparatus come out, and since I’m not going to display this figure as Krang, I wasn’t going to go through the trouble of getting this head off.
The rest of the accessories are a mix of obvious and perhaps not so obvious. For hands, Shredder has a set of fists, open, gripping, and fists with his signature blades on them. The blades kind of come and go in the comics and it was pretty important to have an array of hands without them. Still, I do wish we got a set of open and gripping hands with the blades in place too. For the gripping hands, Shredder has this big poleaxe of sorts. It basically looks like a bo staff topped with a bladed head that’s serrated on one side while the other side almost looks like a giant bottle opener. It’s cool though and I like the size. It’s also pulled right from the comic and if this Shredder was only going to have one weapon then they picked the right one. Shredder also has his little banzai tree which, sort of like Slash from the cartoon and his “binky,” is an important item to Shredder so it’s a fun thing to have even if it’s not the most exciting. It’s really well painted and I might just keep it on my desk.
Shredder features a new articulation scheme in some respects, but the end result is mostly the same as usual. He has a double ball joint for his head, hinged shoulder pegs, bicep swivels, double-jointed elbows, forearm swivel, wrist swivel and hinge, diaphragm ball joint, ball-socket hips, swivels at the hips, double-jointed knees, shin swivels, hinged ankles and an ankle rocker. The elbows and knees both have no trouble bending past 90. They’re a little stiff out of the box, but not exceptionally so and I didn’t have to heat anything with this figure. The diaphragm joint swivels side to side with a decent arch back and a slight crunch forward. There’s no waist articulation, which is odd, but maybe it’s not present because the oversized sash would negate its use. The forearm and shin swivels are really well integrated into the sculpt to basically be seamless. At first, I couldn’t even tell where the shin was swiveling as it’s not at the very top of the boot. The gripping hands also feature vertical hinges, finally, which is great to see. More of that please, NECA. Though it is a bit ironic that the pole weapon doesn’t get much use out of them, but if you want to give him a sword or gun it will work well. Nothing is loose, nothing is floppy, and nothing was so tight I felt like it was going to break. The only joint that’s being stubborn for me is the right shin swivel. The factory generously lubricated the elbows and knees, which I’ve actually never seen before, and it certainly seemed to help.
This Shredder is just a fantastic figure to behold. I just keep finding my eyes drawn to this guy and he’s been on my desk for weeks because I don’t want to place him on my shelf and then rarely touch him. If this is how the new toon Shredder is going to turn out, then folks are going to be very happy. I doubt it tops this one though because I just love this color combo. The white and dark blue just pop well and in such a different manner than other figures in the line. I’ve grown accustomed to a lot of bright colors with this group, but Shredder proves you can pop with dark. This Archie line has really become the most exciting TMNT line for me. Maybe NECA’s 2012 line will top it eventually, but for now I am far more excited to see what’s next from TMNT Adventures than I am from the cartoon or comic lines. Only thing we really need now are proper Archie turtles. Those wrestling ones are great fun and were maybe the best figures I got in 2024, but I think the people want some more conventional looks as well. I’m sure they’re coming, as are more Mutanimals and familiar foes and they’ll all have a hard time topping this Shredder. If you’re looking to add him to your collection, he’s currently shipping to Walmart stores in the US. Since it’s TMNT Adventures, he should eventually make his way to other places, but if you don’t want to wait you’ll have to brave your nearest Walmart. Good luck!
Check out these other figures from NECA’s line of figures based on TMNT Adventures:
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