Category Archives: Comics

May 12, 2026

NECA TMNT Garfello

By Joe

Before they teamed up with the likes of Batman and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had an encounter with an orange cat with a love for Italian food. I am speaking of none other than Garfield, the Jim Davis creation who was everywhere in the 1980s. The two franchises came together for a one page comic in the pages of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Magazine in 1992 in which Garfield, disguised as fellow ninja turtle Garfello, tries to dupe the turtles into letting him guard their precious pizza while they go do crime-fighting stuff only for Odie to blow his cover when he can’t get his turtle costume on right. The comic was written by Garfield creator Jim Davis with inks by TMNT co-creator Peter Laird. Art was handled by Gary Barker and Larry Fentz with color by Steve Lavigne and letters by Mary Kelleher. This little comic was apparently popular enough to attract the attention of not one, but two toy companies 23 years later. It was at San Diego Comic Con in 2025 that NECA unveiled their take on Garfello with Odie along as well. The reveal was perhaps the highlight of NECA’s booth for the convention and something that seemed to attract a lot of attention online. Shortly after, Boss Fight Studio (who has a whole line of Garfield action figures) revealed its own Garfello and Odie two-pack that is so similar to what NECA showed that I honestly felt bad for them. Did Garfield rights owner Paramount even alert either toy company to the plans each had? Most licensors won’t greenlight the same thing across licensees because they would just be competing with each other, but evidently Paramount wasn’t too concerned. Both sets look fine from a sculpting standpoint, but the NECA approach of painting all of the little details and the fact that I’m well into their TMNT collection sold that set for me, but I’m guessing those who already have Boss Fight’s Garfield figures would opt for that version.

“We can be ninjas Odie. How hard can it be?”

NECA’s take on Garfello is sold as an “ultimate” release with new box art by Jason Yang. It features all TMNT branding putting it squarely in the turtle toy line. The figures inside are based on sculpts by Tomasz Rozejowski and Kushwara Studios with paints by Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo. Even though it’s an ultimate style release, the price tag is a bit elevated which could have something to do with the dual license or perhaps the lack of reuse potential contained within. Or at least that seems to be the case everywhere but Target who prices the set at $38. Many specialty shops are $45 and up which is a bit of a tough sell for such small figures. Is there even enough in the box to make consumers happy at $38? We’ll try to answer that one today.

The two smallest turtles around.

Garfello stands at a miniscule 2.75″ to the top of his head and right around the 3″ mark to the tip of his ears. He’s a little guy, but he’s also a house cat and meant to be in-scale with the turtles. Just which turtles is a legitimate question as the ones from the one-shot are kind of their own thing. Stylistically, they probably most resemble the Jim Lawson turtles, but with colored bandanas. They even look a little like the recently made Stan Sakai turtles, but it’s funny that my memory of the brief comic seems to always insert the Archie turtles into the page and only viewing the actual source gets them out. There’s only one group shot in the comic which puts Garfield at a little past the mid-thigh point of the turtles which does make the figure scale best with the Lawson turtles. With the toon, he’s closer to the belt area, but I think the scale is close enough that he’ll work for whatever turtles you prefer to place him with. And since this is Garfello as opposed to Garfield, he is clad in his turtle costume which is non-removable. The black bandana is part of the sculpt and he features a belt, plastron, and shell. He’s also sporting brown elbow and knee pads and his belt has a big “G” in the middle of it as that was the style at the time.

The shell continuity between the two is pretty nice.

The sculpt for Garfello is quite good and on-model for the comic. The head has that oval shape to it and the eyes dominate the space available on the front. The ears are situated close together and the black markings of the fur are visible from all angles. NECA did take some liberties with the design as they included the little pieces of fur that are often found sticking up and out from the sides of Garfield’s head, something the comic omitted. Here they’re coming out of the bandana which is a little odd, but honestly feels right and I was actually surprised to see that detail wasn’t present on the page. The figure has a very matte appearance as everything is painted over. There’s black linework throughout the shell and plastron which really helps to capture that comic style and helps give the figure a striking appearance. Perhaps the best part of the paint job is reserved for Garfello’s lone weapon: the pizza cutter! It features a brown handle and real working cutter wheel (not sharp, likely terrible for cutting actual pizza) that’s painted a combination of white, blue, and black. The blue helps to give it that comic shading which we see often in NECA’s comic figures while the black lines add detail and create the illusion of a whirling pizza cutter. Painting metal objects as they appear in comic books is honestly one of NECA’s biggest strengths and it really puts to shame other companies that go with just one color or swirly plastic.

“Is there a prettier sight?”

The majority of Garfello’s accessories are reserved for altering his expression or hands. The comic is brief which allowed NECA to literally recreate every expression Garfello is responsible for in five of the six panels. The only one he can’t do is his final, disgraced, posed where he’s smushed on the road and glaring at Odie – a pose the figure had no prayer of recreating so why bother with a portrait of the same? The three heads are smiling, smiling with teeth exposed, and smiling with the ears flattened. To swap between the three are three sets of eyes: half-lidded, open, and open with tiny pupils. You can find all three in the comic so it’s hard to argue that anything is missing, even if it would have been fun to get an open-mouthed expression for devouring pizza. To remove the eyes, NECA included a little, plastic, tool that resembles a railroad spike or flooring clete. You can use it to push the eyes out from behind, or just carefully use a fingernail from the front. The pegs that hold them in place are pretty short so they’re fairly easy to remove and replace. For hands, Garfello has a set of fists, gripping, open, and open with claws. They too have fairly short pegs which makes taking them off and on fairly painless. The only danger is that his arms are so short that it’s a little tricky getting leverage, but not impossible. Heads are a little more stubborn, but there’s just a big old ball joint under them so there’s not much risk in damaging anything when removing or seating one. The bandana tails are shared between all three portraits so it’s a good idea to remove that part first. If you do get into any trouble then just turn to some hot water and that will likely cure what ails you. To complete the look, NECA included a stack of pizzas for Garfello to drool over. They have a nice, messy, gooey, quality that makes them appear both delicious and gross. Seriosuly, who removes their pizza from the box to stack like this?

“Stand back, Odie. I don’t want you to see what I’m about to do.”

The other accessory of sorts is Odie himself. Unlike Garfield, Odie can appear on your shelf as his costumed version or just as a garden variety Odie as NECA included two portraits. By default, he’s just Odie with a closed mouth portrait that looks pretty cute. He’s just a tick over 2″ to the top of his head with the ears bringing him to about 2.75″. If you remove that head you can swap it with Odie’s turtle costume which is just a shell with his tongue sticking out of the neck hole. It’s a bit tough to get on, but the figure is pretty sturdy. As always, use heat if it’s being stubborn. Odie’s head connects via a double ball peg so it’s not quite as durable as Garfello’s connection, but hardly weak. Paint for Odie follows the same style as Garfello with lots of linework, especially on the shell head. His soft yellow fur does seem to be a magnet for dirt as he came out of the box looking slightly dingey when viewed up close. Mine also has a black dot on the lower part of the right eye that’s a bit annoying. He looks like Odie though with the only caveat being that I tend to always picture Odie in my head with his mouth open and tongue hanging out. He never actually appears unmasked in the comic so it’s hard to quibble with what is essentially a bonus head. I suspect other Garfield fans will be more disappointed in the fact that Odie can appear as just regular Odie while Garfield is forever in his Garfello attire. There would have been no easy way to make him a two-way figure. It would have been cool if NECA had devised a way to do so, but since we’re already dealing with a full-priced offering I don’t think I’d have wanted to spend more just to make Garfield be able to take the costume off. Especially since I would be unlikely to ever do so.

“Oh, the heck with it – I’ll just use my claws.”

Garfello and Odie are little guys. They’re also NECA figures so it’s a given the articulation is going to be underwhelming with the pair and that much is true. Garfello is articulated at the head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles which includes both a hinge and a rocker. As I mentioned before, the head is just a big ball socket so it rotates and has a minimal amount of tilt. The shoulders, elbows, knees, wrists, and ankles are standard hinged-peg joints. They’re small, so they have a delicate feel to them and range is fairly limited. The gripping hands do not have a vertical hinge which would have actually served the pizza cutter accessory far better than the standard horizontal hinge. The ankles were tight on mine at the hinge, but other joints were fine. His tail is also articulated, but it just swivels and is best served as a third leg to help balance the figure. The hips are the oddest part as I think they’re just ball-socket connections, but they appear to connect to a ball-pin that’s angled down as opposed to a standard horizontal angle. This limited the movement at the hips to mostly a swivel, a shame if you want your Garfello to kick Odie in the butt for messing up his plan. As for Odie, he has the double ball-jointed head while each leg barely moves. I think they’re all ball joints with the rear legs having slightly more range than the front. The feet feature hinges and rockers which really only exist to get his feet flat on the ground. That’s all Odie is capable of and I’m honestly surprised they didn’t trim the budget and just make his body static. He’s basically articulated just for the sake of saying that he is articulated. Functionally, it’s mostly useless.

“Bon appetit”

Likely no one was buying these figures for their posing ability. It doesn’t meant we can’t expect a little better, but if you just want a silly looking Garfield and Odie for your TMNT display then this will get the job done. The only real question is how much is that worth for you? On a purely value level, I don’t think this set is equivalent to a typical NECA ultimate release. It would have been awesome as a $30 item, but this is a world in which Super7 and Mezco are charging over $20 for figures with five points of articulation. Garfello is like a step up from such and I do wonder how I would have reacted if he was by himself for $30? Would I consider that a good deal? If so, doesn’t that make Odie worth the extra $8? That’s, of course, if you can find him for $38 at Target. NECA did offer Garfello on their website, but with a steep shipping cost. Big Bad Toy Store is charging $47 for this release which does feel steep and I can’t fault the person who looks at that price and decides to pass. This is a novelty figure and the price for that novelty is going to vary from person to person. For what it is, it’s pretty nice. The sculpts are on-model and the paint is great. I’m guessing if you’re a big Garfield fan that this set makes you wish NECA was doing more Garfield if it’s going to look this good. Unless you’re looking at the price tag and feeling thankful your toy budget doesn’t need to make room for more stuff.

I don’t have any other Garfield toys to link to below, but I do have some other stuff:

Dec. 5 – A Garfield Christmas

This year, I’m bringing back a feature from last year where I take another look at, what I consider to be, the greatest Christmas specials ever made. I explained my reasoning for doing this in prior posts, but in short, the first time I looked at some of these specials I did just a short…

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by Joe

Dec. 20 – The Garfield Show – “Caroling Capers”

Back in the 1980s, Garfield was pretty damn popular. His presence was pervasive in pop culture, so much so that younger people today would probably be surprised. He originated as a comic strip by Jim Davis, but his popularity grew enough to pave the way for some prime time animation specials. These proved popular, and…

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by Joe

NECA Mirage Studios Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4-Pack

When it comes to the popularity of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a lot of the credit goes to Playmates Toys. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created the characters born out of a joke. Credit them for having the vision to think this joke had appeal beyond their small circle as they self-published Teenage Mutant Ninja…

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by Joe

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May 4, 2026

Medicom MAFEX 287 Gambit (Comic Variant Ver.)

By Joe
Everyone can relax…

When I think of 90s comic book characters, there are quite a few who come to mind, but first and foremost is Gambit. I attribute that largely to the X-Men animated series as that was my first real introduction to the character. Prior to that show’s premiere, I had seen images of the character and had a vague understanding of what made him a superhero, but he wasn’t someone I paid much attention to. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Jim Lee, he is quite a bit different from the classic superhero when it comes to his appearance. He’s been around so long and is so popular now that it’s easy to lose sight of how a guy in a trench coat and hot pink shirt might not read as a superhero right away. His role as a bit of a scoundrel and unique power set have certainly helped make Gambit a memorable member of the X-Men, but I do think that very popular cartoon in ’92 really helped cement the character as one of the most popular X-Men of all time.

This figure is a costly, but obvious, upgrade over the Legends figure. It does make me want to talk myself into the MAFEX Rogue though.

If you have followed any of my previous X-Men figure reviews, then you know that a big part of my goal as an action figure collector is to assemble that animated team on my shelf. The only issue with that goal is the only game in town when it comes to something in a 1:12 scale the only game in town in a lot of respects has been Hasbro. They did their own take on some of the animated team and have since moved on to X-Men ’97 based figures, but a lot of them have been not great. In particular, the dedicated ’92 series of figures was pretty bad. The line was only 8 figures and yet I’ve already replaced 3 of them in some form or another. And all of them have been replaced with other Marvel Legends offerings or a kit-bash approach, but this new Gambit figure marks my first time attempting to replace one with another company’s offering.

For some, this might be the ideal Capcom Gambit.

Gambit was released in the first wave of X-Men ’97 figures by Hasbro. It was basically just a straight re-release of a prior Gambit, but with an updated portrait that’s more evocative of the new show’s style. It’s an okay release. The articulation is dated and the card-throwing accessory is worthless, but visually it’s passable. Certainly not good enough to not be at risk of replacement. Enter Medicom and their new MAFEX-branded release of Gambit. This is an update on an older figure that has proven to be one of the more popular releases in the line. Just perusing the toy community online it sure seems like Gambit, Magneto, and the brown-costumed Wolverine are often cited as being among Medicom’s best efforts. And one look at Gambit and it’s easy to see why. The proportions and sculpt look nice, the soft goods coat turned out well, and there’s a bunch of stuff included in the box – so why did I never pick it up? Well, it’s expensive. MAFEX figures for those sitting outside Asia will routinely cost around $100 when all is said and done. That figure looked good, but it wasn’t $100 good for me. Medicom went with a metallic paint job, something they seem quite fond of with their X-Men figures, which just isn’t my thing. I want my figures to resemble their source material as close as possible and nothing about a metallic paint job on Gambit really screams that for me. Then last summer, Medicom unveiled a new variant Gambit which they referred to as their comic variant. Basically, it’s a more straight-forward paint job with a different color applied to the coat and effect parts and suddenly I was in. Well, almost. I still waited for the figure to actually release before I finally gave in (and a nice bonus at work helped give me a nudge) and once I was satisfied with how it turned out I laid my money down.

If so, he’s not going to make the SHF Cyclops look tall.

Gambit comes in the standard Medicom MAFEX box which is designed to mimic a comic book with a snippet of art from the books and a bunch of product shots. I will say, it immediately made me chuckle that the comic book art doesn’t match the look of this supposed comic book variant of the figure (and we’ll get more into that shortly), but that’s not something that truly bothers me. Out of the box, Gambit stands a little over 6″ with his poofy hair taking him up to around the 6.5″ mark making him true 1:12 scale. He possesses the typical, MAFEX, proportioning as his legs are fairly long and the build is more on the slender side than the bulked-up type. It works for Gambit and the coat helps to add more of a presence to the figure’s form. The pink of the shirt is a nice, bright, shade with some light purple shading added which helps create texture. The blue…whatever this thing is…around the base of his neck is sculpted as I remember it from the comics and is shaded with dark blue which really helps to make it pop. The paints and the cowl are a nice, matte, black and the pink rectangles on the thighs are present and painted well. The blue of the belt and boots matches to each other and there’s some nice black linework in both areas. The face is really well done and the hair has some black or very dark brown wash applied. There’s also a hint of stubble on his chin and the trademark red eyes glow brightly. Most of the paint is clean. There is a white spot on the right thigh of my figure and some of the black lines on the boots could have been applied in a neater fashion. The hands, which feature Gambit’s traditional fingerless portions, could have been painted cleaner as well. If it sounds like I’m nitpicking know that I am, but we’re also talking about a $100 action figure and standards should be exceptionally high.

The sculpt is pretty freakin’ nice.

The presentation of the sculpt and paint works very well for me. This is a sharp figure. What’s been a bit more divisive is the coat. In pictures, the coat has a real touch of red to the brown. It’s a far more saturated shade compared with the original release which is much closer to the comic image on the box in terms of color. In hand, it’s still noticeably red, but not to the same degree. It’s indeed a brown coat and I think it plays off of the hot pink shirt very well, but if you’re looking for pure comic book accuracy this shade probably isn’t it. Now, we are talking about a character who debuted in 1990 and in the ensuing decades he’s had a lot of looks and variations and if you scour the pages of Marvel Comics I don’t doubt that someone could turn up an image of Gambit where he looks like this, but is it what people think of first? Probably not. For me, I personally think the figure looks great. I get a lot of Toy Biz vibes out of the figure as far as the colors go stretching back to the first Gambit released in that line (with the karate kick action!). I’ve seen people online doing a coat swap with the first release and being quite happy with the result, but that’s a lot of money to shell out for the ideal Gambit.

He has two arc effects, one with more of a fire texture and another that’s smoother.

Another area where this color discrepancy rears its head is with the accessories. Gambit gets the usual vast assortment of hand options including fists, gripping, relaxed, open, open with an effect peg, and a set of card holding hands that are not mirrored. The right hand is the classic two-finger Gambit pose while the left is designed to hold two cards. The alternate head features a gritted teeth expression while utilizing the same sculpt for the hair. Gambit has his staff which is a light brown with some black linework painted onto it. The “controversial” part are the effects. Gambit has a solo card with a trailing effect on it, a two-card piece that’s more stationary and flaming, and then there are two flame effects for the ends of his staff. For all, Medicom went with a yellow and orange coloration like actual fire. On the previous figure, they went with the pink/magenta the character is more known for when he activates his powers in the comic. Like the coat, you can find images of Gambit’s powers taking on this color, but they’re definitely the minority (and originally his powers were green which is just weird to think about). His power effects were similar to this color in the original cartoon series, but in that show they also used an animation effect that gave it a different texture. In X-Men ’97, his powers were altered to resemble the comic. I think we got this set because Medicom just wanted to differentiate the figure further from the first release, but in doing so it does lessen the whole notion of this being the true comic variant. For me personally, while I would have preferred the pink, it doesn’t really move the needle at all. I think the effects look good, they’re just not in the color that first comes to mind for when I think of Gambit.

He also has his staff and even some flame effects for the ends.

And those aren’t even the only effects. Gambit also has two, large, throwing effects. Each one features three cards and an arc of flame behind them. They’re designed to peg onto the effect hands and the peg hole is at the end so we don’t end up with a Hasbro situation where the arc makes no sense. All of the cards, including the other two effects, are just yellow like they’re glowing and there’s no visible suit or number. One of the arc effects is thinner and sharper looking while the other has textured flames. It’s heavier as a result, not that the slimmer profiled one isn’t heavy, and to counter that Medicom included a stand for the effects. It’s just a clear, plastic, base and post with two options for a “Y” shaped top to help prop it up. Without it, the wrist joint won’t be able to support the weight and it will turn towards the ground. Certain poses, like a vertical toss, can work, but if you want a horizontal sweep type of throw you’ll need the post. Also included is the usual MAFEX stand that works just as well as it always does.

It can be tricky to pose, but these effects are pretty damn fun to mess around with, though they do add heft.

The articulation for Gambit is pretty typical for MAFEX which is to say it’s quite good. There’s a double-ball peg head, ball-jointed neck, butterfly shoulders, shoulder hinges, bicep swivel, double elbows, ball-hinge wrists, diaphragm, ball-jointed waist, drop-down hips, thigh swivel at the hips joint, double-jointed knees, ball-hinged ankles, toe hinge. Range at pretty much all spots is a plus. The torso gets nice arch back and crunch forward, the head can be posed with a great deal of freedom, and the hips allow for high kicks and the like. The ankles are the only area I’m not in love with. The ball hinge can be tough to get a good ankle rocker out of it. It works, it’s just a bit more fickle than I’d like. The coat is wired all along the hem including the collar so it can pose very well. It will bunch up on the arms and that’s just the nature of soft goods – you’re always sacrificing something when they cover limbs. The coat can come off, if you so desire, which will free up the range of the arms, but your Gambit will look far less cool. To probably get the most out of the arms, you will have to remove the coat to pose him, then try to carefully get it back as manipulating the bicep swivel and even the elbow joint can get really cumbersome with the coat on.

The big effects are flashy, but sometimes the simpler ones work just as well.

This Gambit from Medicom is expensive, but it is a terrific action figure. There’s not a whole lot to complain about. I think the paint could have been a little sharper in places and I really think we should have got a third portrait with a smirk on it. Two heads where one is stoic and the other angry just isn’t ideal for a character like Gambit. People are going to want to pose him with Rogue and he’s never not smiling when he’s around Rogue. This reissue would have been a great opportunity to add an extra head, but Medicom opted not to. Still, what is here is pretty substantial when it comes to hands and effects and the end result is something special. This is only my fourth MAFEX figure, but it quickly became my favorite. If all of their X-Men figures turned out this well I’d have a whole lot less money to my name, but one Hell of a collection. This is the rare $100 figure at this scale that I have no regrets whatsoever about picking up. If you dig it and want one of your own, the import sites will probably be a better deal than some of the US-based retailers which are charging upwards of $130 for this one. That’s pretty rich, but if you shop around you should be able to get him for less so long as he’s in stock. And I would guess this one will sell out eventually so don’t put it off for too long.

For more premium action figure offerings check these out:

S.H.Figuarts Marvel Gamerverse Cyclops

A funny thing happened in 2025 where two companies revealed they were going to be making action figures based on the hit video game series Marvel vs Capcom only for neither company to actually mention the words Marvel vs Capcom. It would seem that neither Hasbro nor Bandai wanted to compensate the Capcom portion of…

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by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Across the Spider-Verse Scarlet Spider

In the two reviews I did of Scarlet Spider action figures I shared the origins of my love for the character’s design. To make it short, I found the appearance of him on a cover of a Spider-Man comic intriguing, but more is as a young artist I much preferred to doodle him in my…

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by Joe

MAFEX No. 117 – Superman (Batman: Hush Ver.)

They finally wore me down. It was nearly five years ago that I reviewed the Medicom MAFEX Batman (Hush Ver.) action figure and concluded that it would probably be the only figure I’d get. Then along came Superman. As a kid, I liked Superman well enough. I think the first pair of superhero themed pajamas…

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by Joe

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April 14, 2026

NECA TMNT Usagi Yojimbo – Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael

By Joe
After ceding their spot to a rabbit last week, the turtles return to Tuesday.

Last week, we took a look at the first figure in a line of action figures based on the artwork of the legendary Stan Sakai, creator of the comic Usagi Yojimbo. That first figure was the rabbit himself, Miyamoto Usagi, and he was drawn from the latest crossover between the two franchises which took place in 2023. Now, we turn to the turtles. NECA has given us a lot of turtles over the years, but only a few can trace themselves back to a specific artist. And, like these ones, they’re usually found in the comic subline of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and this time we’re getting Sakai’s take on the heroic reptiles. It feels like more often than not it’s Usagi who is coming into the world of TMNT and his look is reinterpreted based on whatever the look of that medium happens to be so getting action figures based on Sakai’s artistry feels like something that has been long overdue.

Not a ton of stuff in the box, but I also don’t know what more is needed?

Now, you may be wondering why I decided to give Usagi his own write-up while mashing all four turtles into a single one. And if your assumption is because this is essentially the same figure times four then you are absolutely correct. Like most TMNT lines, the turtles all share the same body and the only distinguishing characteristic between the four are their belts, portraits, and weapons. And while Usagi got three heads and multiple accessories, the turtles mostly share all the same stuff and even their alternate portrait isn’t unique. It does lead me to assume that NECA budgeted more for Usagi and the savings in reusing tools for the turtles was put into his figure. I’m not entirely sure how the licensing works here. Sakai is obviously compensated for Usagi while Paramount is getting their money for turtles, but is Sakai getting anything for his design work on the turtle figures? Does Paramount get any money for the Usagi figure since it still says “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” on the box? I don’t know the answers to any of that, but one would assume a line with essentially two licensing fees would be more expensive to produce, but the cost to the consumer is essentially the same as most NECA products so I suppose that’s a good thing. The boxes are also all the same save for the main color and the credits for these guys are the same as those for Usagi which will be linked at the end of this entry.

For alt portraits, Leo and Don share an expression as do Mikey and Raph.

Sakai’s take on the turtles has proven quite popular. NECA indicated a lot of positive feedback to the reveal which happened over a year ago and in my own circle of collectors it seems everyone really likes them. Sakai’s approach is a somewhat boxy proportioned turtle, but one that retains a lot of soft, round, edges. The plastron is quite rectangular with a fang-like quality to the base. The limbs are chunky, but muscled, and the feet are a tad oversized. The shell is in the shape of an oval with a simplified pattern in the middle of a large, elongated, hexagon in the center flanked by six, soft, pentagons. I say “soft” because the two on the side barely feature a point in the center making them more like a quadrilateral. The turtles each have their own coloration which seems to correspond with the 2012 series. Donatello may be a touch more saturated and Raph more pale (he’s no where close to the shade of green of NECA’s 2012 Raphael, but that one also doesn’t match the source). The only color is reserved for the bandanas and Leo and Donnie’s are almost a pastel shade of blue and purple, respectively. The belts are all unique with both Leo and Don getting some pouches on the front. All of the turtles have weapon storage and Michelangelo rolls with the unique holsters on the front of his belt as opposed to the back. Leonardo’s scabbards are also arranged in a parallel fashion as opposed to an X.

Leo looks a little intense for this to be a sparring match.

The paint is in the same style as NECA’s other comic interpretations. The colors are nice and matte and there’s an abundance of black linework painted onto the figures. It’s everywhere and really adds to the comic vibe of the source. It’s very clean and crisp with very little paint slop to be found. There’s a fleck of orange on Mikey’s plastron that I assumed transfered from the bandana tails in the packaging. I can’t really find any imperfections on Raphael and Donatello while Leonardo may be missing a tiny bit of black in his teeth. And speaking of, each turtle comes with a unique portrait by default. I really like how the open mouthed expressions on both Leo and Raph accentuate that rounded-off look Sakai gave them via the curl of their lips. There’s also this excess of black lines in Raph’s brow that really captures his personality. Donatello has a very stoic, almost grumpy, expression by comparison and Mikey has a cheerful one. He has inverted “U” shapes to represent his closed eyes and his smile is flat white with no teeth lines sculpted or painted on. It’s adorable. I think it’s the personality captured by these portraits combined with the clean presentation that really sold the public on these designs. They’re inherently charming and I find it impossible not to love them.

“Hey dude, you don’t need to be so serious all the time. Have a pizza!”

As for the rest of the stuff, well that’s a little less exciting. Each turtle comes with a set of gripping hands and a set of fists. Donatello also gets a set of more relaxed gripping hands, Raphael a set of finger pointing/sai grip hands, while Leo and Mikey each get a set of open hands. For alternate portraits, each turtle has basically a frown with one side of their mouth baring teeth – the classic TMNT expression. Donatello and Leo share the same portrait with the right side of the mouth open while Raph and Mikey have their grimace to the left. Each turtle also has a throwing star if that’s something you value. What most actually do want and expect are the unique weapons for each turtle. Raph’s sai have some nice size and the brown handles match his padding. Leonardo’s swords have a black and gray diamond pattern on the hilt and slot into the scabbards seamlessly. Donatello’s bo is in one piece as opposed to the break-away model we often see, but it looks fine and the paint on the gray wrappings with black outlining is clean. Mikey is perhaps the laggard here as his nunchaku are all plastic. The handles are black with a blue line that I think is a nice touch, but the connecting plastic for each handle is just plastic. There’s no bendy wire and they’re quite rigid so there’s no posing here. They fit into his belt just fine, so that’s a plus. The gripping hands across the board are also reasonably soft so getting weapons into hands is not much of an issue. If you want Raph to hold his sai in a more unorthodox manner then you may want to soften the hands up a bit, but otherwise you should be good to go out of the box with these guys.

That’s as far as the hips are going to go out to the side.

These being NECA figures, one likely has low expectations for the articulation and if so then expectations met. Though, in a way, NECA underperforms here and it’s related to one issue. The sidewalls, the tissue between the plastron and shell, is one, big, piece with these designs. It’s like the whole shell and plastron is one big overlay. Ordinarily, NECA doesn’t do that and you can see the hip joint when looking at a turtle figure from the side. The movie turtles do this as they had to match the movie, but those designs were less restricting and probably because actual people had to wear those things. With these figures, the plastic extends well past the hip and onto the thigh. It essentially takes away most of the hip range, one of the few spots where NECA’s turtle figures are ordinarily okay as they can get their legs out to the side for splits. These ones are limited to maybe 45 degrees there, and there’s no usable waist twist to take advantage of. Kicking forward is severely restrained by the placement of the plastron and the shell prevents the leg from going back. There’s also the slightly odd aesthetic of NECA utilizing pinned joints at the knees, but opting for pin-less at the elbow. It’s an all together odd double-joint as the top is like the old style NECA double jointed elbows where the top would peg into the thigh with a hinge below it and the bottom would do the same. Except here we get the peg and hinge on top, but just a hinge on the bottom thus necessitating the need for a pin through the calf. I think they did this with the movie Shredder/Foot, but I don’t know if I’ve seen it outside of that. As for the rest, the arms are fairly basic and the head range is probably what one would expect. Leonardo does get the preferred vertically hinged gripping hands, but for some reason no one else does.

If you think these guys all look pretty cool together then by all means go out and grab ’em, but don’t expect to be doing much posing.

The end result with the NECA Stan Sakai turtles is pretty much in-line with what I had to say about Miyamoto Usagi – if you love the look of these designs then that’s the only reason to get them. They’re not going to pose well and the value is less with the turtles than it was with Usagi because of all the shared parts. The design of these turtles was never going to lend itself well to articulation, but I do wish NECA had gone lighter on the sidewalls to free up the hips. Someone willing could probably trim that area and open these guys up a bit, but I’m not that someone. I do think they look great. On a technical level, they’re not as impressive as the Usagi figure, but the stylization is wonderful. NECA’s strength is in translating art to plastic and they certainly nailed it here. The execution of the paint is damn near flawless, and while this isn’t the most demanding paint job I’ve ever seen, it’s still impressive to see how clean it is on this scale. Based purely on aesthetics, these turtles are instant favorites for me. I think if I could only save one set of turtles in a fire it would likely be the NECA movie figures or maybe the Bandai ones, but these guys would be hard to ignore too. Though if I’m being practical I should probably put the original Mirage turtles ahead as they’d be the hardest to replace. At any rate, these guys look great and I am quite pleased just looking at them. They bring me joy, and in the end, isn’t that what this hobby is all about?

If you liked this one we have plenty of related topics to interest you here:

NECA TMNT Usagi Yojimbo – Miyamoto Usagi

Stan Sakai stumbled into a pretty good thing when he met the co-creators of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, and struck up a creative friendship. It would seem all liked and appreciated each others work with Eastman and Laird’s ninja turtles and Sakai’s samurai rabbit. The fateful little pairing would eventually…

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by Joe

NECA Mirage Studios Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4-Pack

When it comes to the popularity of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a lot of the credit goes to Playmates Toys. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created the characters born out of a joke. Credit them for having the vision to think this joke had appeal beyond their small circle as they self-published Teenage Mutant Ninja…

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NECA TMNT Toon The Adventures of Space Usagi

When it comes to NECA’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line of action figures based on the old cartoon, I’ve pretty much been all-in. The only figures I’ve passed on have been the style guide variants for the turtles. That will probably change in 2024 as the collection has grown quite large and has hit on…

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Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, toys

April 9, 2026

Dragon Ball Super Vol. 24

By Joe

It’s been over two years since the world lost manga artist and writer Akira Toriyama and it’s been about that long since the unofficial end of Dragon Ball Super. The manga and anime series was the official sequel to the hugely successful and mega popular Dragon Ball Z. The final chapter, 103, was released in March of 2024 in Toriyama’s native Japan while English speaking readers have had to wait two years for the collected final volume to be released elsewhere. Sure, the chapters are all made available much sooner via the Shonen Jump app, but I’m still one of those digital deniers clinging to physical media with just about everything I consume. It was a long two years of waiting, but had this volume arrived shortly after Toriyama’s passing I probably would have been a blubbering mess. Having two years to process such a monumental loss may have been a good thing.

After the anime series ended, I went back and picked up all of the volumes of Dragon Ball Super as well as the ones that followed. Super the manga did not end and continued on with two full arcs of Dragon Ball goodness. The manga did bypass the Broly film, but chose to adapt the Super Hero movie and even fleshed it out more with a short arc featuring Goten and Trunks as super heroes in the same style as The Great Saiyaman. The collected volumes are published by Viz Media in the US and the artwork contained within is in black and white. Since Toriyama’s passing, artist Toyotarou has taken up the mantle of an introduction to the volume usually with some nod to Toriyama. For this particular one, he notes that Toriyama often advised him on how to better be a manga creator (a mangaka) and he expresses a desire to keep those lessons in mind for as long as he’s a mangaka himself. Toyotarou is always deferential to Toriyama when speaking on the subject of Dragon Ball and it will be interesting to see if that changes should the manga continue in some way.

As for the story, it’s a post Super Hero one where we find the remnants of the Red Ribbon Army, lead by Carmine, seeking to exact revenge upon Gohan for thwarting their plans with Cell Max. And to do that they want to recruit the newest super heroes in town: Saiyaman X-1 and Saiyaman X-2. Unfortunately for them, those happen to be the alter egos for Trunks and Goten and they’re not going to help the Red Ribbon Army take down Gohan. Elsewhere, Vegeta, Goku, and Broly are training with Whis on the planet of Lord Beerus. It’s while Vegeta and Broly are dueling that they learn about Gohan’s sudden burst of power and his conquering of Cell Max. It seems they were so engrossed in their training they didn’t notice, but are immediately curious about what the son of Goku is capable of now. Goku decides to pay his son a visit just as Carmine and a soldier are arriving at Gohan’s house with Trunks and Goten along for the ride. Goku can’t be bothered with what’s going on and instead brings everyone to the planet of Lord Beerus. There, Carmine and his lone soldier get to bare witness to what these Saiyans are capable of first with Trunks and Goten taking on Gohan followed by father and son. It’s a simple story and a breezy one as Goku is just out to test the limits of his son with the hope of reaching the conclusion that he doesn’t have to worry about Earth so long as Gohan is there to protect it.

Much of the volume is dedicated to Goku testing out his son’s new abilities.

The ending of this story received some additional press because Toriyama apparently requested a change. During the fighting, Goku and company find out about Piccolo’s new power-up as well and naturally Goku wants to see it as well. Vegeta is also curious, but also concedes that he needs to head home or else Bulma might lose interest. When Goku and Gohan return to Earth to find Piccolo he has to decline a sparring session because someone needs to pick Gohan’s daughter, Pan, up from school. Goku tags along at Piccolo’s insistence since he apparently forgot his granddaughter’s name and we get a wordless exchange to close out the story of Pan elated to see her grandpa and Piccolo waving bye to her teacher. The way the scene is illustrated it’s as if Piccolo is waving “bye” to the reader, and since Piccolo was Toriyama’s favorite, it’s been interpreted as his way of saying “good bye.” Right in the feels.

Volume 24 actually doesn’t end there, but with a prequel chapter about how Trunks and Goten decided to become super heroes. Toyotarou explains it was something he wanted to do initially, but just didn’t have the time for it. With the story over (and Shonen probably not minding extra content) he was able to go back and do it and it’s a fun little story, though in this format it’s definitely a tonal shift following the end of chapter 103. I even put my copy down for about a week before I picked it back up to read the prequel chapter.

Farewell.

As the present conclusion to Dragon Ball Super, this is a nice little end. It’s basically a slice of life story just set in the world of Dragon Ball where titanic battles are an everyday thing. The anime is expected to resume in the not too distant future following a remake of the first arc with Beerus. I do wonder, when it finally gets to this final scene, can it possible land with the same impact? Maybe Toriyama can be inserted somehow into it either via a caricature or his little avatar of himself with the mask? Should the manga continue in the hands of Toyotarous, there’s plenty more to explore as Goku still hasn’t seen Piccolo’s new form, Broly is striving to harness his own power, and Frieza is still out there somewhere. If not and it ends here then it’s a sweet ending and one I much prefer to how Dragon Ball Z originally ended with Goku abandoning his family to go train Uub. If you’re a Dragon Ball fan, you have probably read this already so this isn’t exactly a review, per say. This is more of a chance for me to acknowledge the end of the series while it was in the hands of Akira Toriyama and an opportunity to say “Thanks,” and that I’m going to miss that guy.

For more thoughts on Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball, check these out:

Dragon Ball Super: Broly

The first movie under the Dragon Ball Super umbrella is one that sets out to take what was previously non-canon and adapt it into the main series. The most recent two Dragon Ball Z films; Battle of Gods and Resurrection ‘F’, ended up being the start of Dragon Ball Super which is now well over…

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Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, that Dragon Ball Super has been the thing I’ve loved most that I never knew I wanted. I was done, or at least content, with Dragon Ball Z. Dragon Ball GT wasn’t good, but I didn’t need it so it wasn’t something that bothered me. Then…

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Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot

I need a break from action figure reviews so why not turn to the world of video games? I don’t get to play many these days, but I did splurge on a PlayStation 5 not that long ago and was looking for something to play. And ideally, that something would be budget friendly. The good…

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Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in Comics

April 7, 2026

NECA TMNT Usagi Yojimbo – Miyamoto Usagi

By Joe
The samurai rabbit is back at it.

Stan Sakai stumbled into a pretty good thing when he met the co-creators of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, and struck up a creative friendship. It would seem all liked and appreciated each others work with Eastman and Laird’s ninja turtles and Sakai’s samurai rabbit. The fateful little pairing would eventually lead to Sakai’s rabbit and the turtles crossing over in each other’s works and even a publishing deal with Mirage Studios for a time. Likely more lucrative for Sakai was Usagi being included in both the Playmates toy line for TMNT and the 1987 series. Usagi Yojimbo, as the fanbase knew him, would go on to appear in other shows and toy lines and there’s a pretty good chance that most who know of the character know of him first and foremost via his interactions with the turtles.

If you have been around the fandom long enough then you probably know we have a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster thing going on with Usagi Yojimbo. The name of the books from where the rabbit comes is titled Usagi Yojimbo, while the character’s name is actually Miyamoto Usagi. I don’t know why he was credited as Usagi Yojimbo within the turtle franchise, but it has stuck with a lot of fans even as later incarnations of the franchise (like the 2012 series) corrected it. For its own TMNT toy line, NECA was smart to secure the licensing rights for Sakai’s samurai rabbit for inclusion in the company’s toon toy line. This apparently even boxed out other companies like Super7 who had a mock-up for their own version of the character that had to be trashed. NECA utilized the license to do the expected and release an action figure of the character based on his appearance in the old cartoon, but they’ve also done other variations like a space version, an armored one, and even a four-pack of different looks. For all of them, NECA stuck with their base design of the toon version with one of the four-pack versions sporting more of a Sakai likeness in the face. It’s only now that we’re getting a true Stan Sakai version of his classic character molded in plastic.

This is hardly NECA’s first dance with Usagi.

In 2023 the turtles once again crossed over with Usagi in a story written and illustrated by Sakai. NECA has used that series as the basis for its new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Usagi Yojimbo line consisting of Usagi and the four turtles. We’ll talk about the turtles next week, but for this one I felt like we should let the rabbit take the spotlight first. As I mentioned already, this is a version of Usagi that is unquestionably based on the artwork of Stan Sakai. He’s taller, more imposing, and all decked out in armor unlike the more simplified toon version many are used to. This is a line sculpted by Tomasz Rozejowski and Kushwara Studios with paint by the duo Mike Puzzo and Geoff Trapp. Each figure is sold separately, but not in the typical five-panel NECA Ultimates box. Instead it’s more of a standard window box like we’re accustomed to seeing with the retro cloth figures. Each release is numbered with Miyamoto Usagi being number 1 and the box is color-coded as well. There’s some scenery illustrated by Ben Seto, but most of the box art is reserved for photographs of the figures and they’re by Stephen Mazurek. I’m a little surprised there’s no art from Sakai like a mural for the side of the box, but such a thing would also be wasted on me since I’m going to throw these out. It’s probably a good thing that I planned to do that from the start as my Usagi box got pretty banged up in transit. I got these all direct from NECA via Target’s website when they went up for order on March 20th as part of the Haulathon event we all so love dearly.

His posing is going to be limited, but he can get his hand onto the hilt of his blade while it’s still partially sheathed.

Usagi stands at about 5.25″ to the top of his head not factoring in the ears. Out of the box he sports a rather grim expression and his hears are bound together as they so often are like a ponytail which is sculpted to appear to be blowing in the wind. He has that trademark arc over his left eye Sakai so often illustrates and there’s some fur sculpted to the edges of his cheeks, but that’s it as far as textured fur goes. Usagi is decked out in a lovely blue suit of armor which includes a lighter blue undershirt that is covered with a checker pattern on the sleeves. The armor is textured and fully-painted and looks absolutely gorgeous. I am a sucker for blue so I’m predisposed to like this design, but I am really blown away with the accuracy of the paint applications. There’s rivets of red and panels of black and gold and if you’ve ever painted something black and gold then you know how ugly that can get with an unsteady hand. The paintwork continues onto the rear of the figure, no skimping out here, and there are subtle embellishments of black linework to give the figure that comic look. The pants are all black and he’s sporting brown sandals. The paint job isn’t perfect, there’s a little bleed in spots on the shoulder pauldrons and the left foot has a faint yellow mark on the otherwise white foot, but for a mass-released item at $38 I have no complaints. This figure looks spectacular.

Ears are swappable, and easily so.

Usagi comes loaded with accessories – more than the turtles. For portraits, we get the previously mentioned grim expression as well as a smirk and a gritting teeth expression. Each head has a set of ears which can be moved from portrait to portrait. We have the windswept ears plus down ears and a more neutral look. Swapping ears is painless while swapping heads is a bit troublesome. I had to use heat to get the stock head off. The hands are much easier to swap and for those we get a set of fists, gripping, and open hands. Other accessories include a pouch, and having not read the story I have no idea what’s in it. Usagi can hold it, but there’s no place to store the pouch on his belt which is a bit unfortunate. He also has his sword which features a lime green wrap and yellow trim. Paint rub can happen if you’re not careful when inserting it into his hand, but the hands are a bit softer than usual for NECA so it’s not too hard to get it in place. Usagi also has a scabbard permanently affixed to his belt and the sword slides into that just fine. There’s also an included Tokage decked out in armor similar to Usagi’s. If you don’t know what a Tokage is, they’re little dinosaur-like creatures from the book. It’s a slug figure so no articulation, but the paint app is nice and he’s a fun, cute, addition.

I feel like the ears down look is best suited for things like hoods, which this figure does not have.

NECA usually impresses with the aesthetics when it comes to action figures and not so much with articulation. Usagi here is, unfortunately, no exception to that rule. He’s pretty limited and the intricate armor isn’t going to make things easier, but believe it or not, he’s better than the turtles we’ll be talking about next week. For articulation points we have the ears, head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees, and ankles. The elbows and knees are both single joints. You won’t get a 90 degree angle at either and the knees don’t seem to want to swivel on mine. This is a bit irksome as the left leg isn’t centered, but it thankfully is only visible from the back. Since I can’t line the hinge up with the opening in the thigh it means the range on my left leg is even worse than the right. The ankles and range at the head are at least a plus, and in a surprise move NECA actually included vertical hinges on the gripping hands! This is something they didn’t include in the original toon Usagi and I honestly almost forgot to check here as I had given up on NECA going back to this method after they declined to do this for the 2012 Leonardo. I should add that the shoulder pauldrons are mounted with pliable plastic so they do a decent job of getting out of the way when articulating the shoulders, though I’d be hesitant to leave them posed in such a fashion for fear of them permanently assuming an unflattering position.

That Stan Sakai fellow does good work.

Miyamoto Usagi looks absolutely resplendent in his samurai armor and the portraits and overall vibe really do a tremendous job of capturing Stan Sakai’s artwork. He has enough stuff while the articulation is going to severely limit the ability to pose him like a proper samurai. NECA’s articulation shortcomings have started to ware on me over the past year or so, but here I’m more forgiving because I am absolutely in love with how this guy looks. He doesn’t need to assume an elaborate pose to have presence on a shelf. I considered passing on this release at first thinking I could just be happy with the turtles, but once I got a good look at it I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I currently have no idea where I’m going to display this mini collection in my home, but I consider it a good problem to have. This is the best figure of Usagi we’ve ever received and it’s unlikely we’ll get a better one anytime soon.

If you’re a fan of the samurai rabbit and TMNT then you may appreciate these figure reviews:

NECA Cartoon TMNT The Tale of Usagi Yojimbo

The early issues of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles released by Mirage Studios include a few guest stars here and there. One of them comes from the pages of Usagi Yojimbo, the samurai rabbit by the name of Miyamoto Usagi. The pairing of samurai rabbit and ninja turtles was a big enough success that it migrated…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Toon The Adventures of Space Usagi

When it comes to NECA’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line of action figures based on the old cartoon, I’ve pretty much been all-in. The only figures I’ve passed on have been the style guide variants for the turtles. That will probably change in 2024 as the collection has grown quite large and has hit on…

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NECA TMNT Toon Granny Bebop and Baby Rocksteady

When 2025 is all said and done I think we’ll look back on it in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collector sphere as the year the NECA toon toyline started showing its age. For some, that probably already happened. Jersey Red, Chakahachi, Lotus Blossom – who the heck are these characters? They are pretty deep…

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Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, toys

March 31, 2026

MAFEX No. 117 – Superman (Batman: Hush Ver.)

By Joe
The Man of Steel finally makes it to my shelf.

They finally wore me down. It was nearly five years ago that I reviewed the Medicom MAFEX Batman (Hush Ver.) action figure and concluded that it would probably be the only figure I’d get. Then along came Superman. As a kid, I liked Superman well enough. I think the first pair of superhero themed pajamas I ever got were Superman ones. The films were pretty popular, but once Batman hit in 1989 Superman took a back seat to the caped crusader, who then took a backseat to the mutants from Marvel. I moved on, though when the Man of Steel toyline showed up from Kenner in 1995 I did dabble in it to get the flying Superman figure which is most notable for featuring the new mullet design of the hero. I think my thought process at the time was I should have at least one Superman in my vast action figure collection and I may have even planned on getting a villain, but it would be my only figure from the line. And for much of my life afterwards, I felt like I didn’t need a Superman in my modern figure collection until I laid eyes on that Hush Superman from Medicom.

Medicom came much closer to the source art with Superman than it did Batman.

When Jim Lee took over the Batman books it seemed like the goal was to get his take on as many characters as possible as fast as possible. The Hush storyline included a ton from Batman’s rogues gallery and also managed to sneak in an appearance from the man of steel himself. In it, Superman gets possessed by Poison Ivy and Batman has to deal with him armed with his Kryptonite ring. The storyline was fine, but I did really dig Lee’s take on both Batman and Superman so an action figure based on his looks obviously appeals to me. It’s just that MAFEX releases are so expensive and I wasn’t blown away by Batman. I was able to resist the call of Superman despite how good the figure looked. Then it came back and I was able to do so again, and again, and again. Well, I don’t know what reissue we’re onto now, but I finally caved when yet another reissue went up for preorder early this year.

The sculpt is barely different from Batman, but executed so much better.

Superman has the typical Hush packaging and stands at approximately 6.375″ to the top of his head. He sports a very serious expression befitting his look in the book that borders on a scowl. The colors are slightly muted compared with a typical Superman. The red is just a little bit darker and the blue a little deeper. It’s most apparent on the yellow portions of the costume where the yellow is so pale it’s bordering on off-white. The hair is black but hit with blue highlights while the paint on this face is crisp and clean. The sculpt of the boot tops is present, but soft, giving them a painted-on appearance. The cape is soft goods and permanently affixed to the chest. The yellow shield is present on the rear of the cape and the printing is clean. The one blemish on my figure is on the right pectoral where the yellow in the “S” logo is scratched exposing some of the blue beneath. It’s a real unfortunate eyesore and in a tough place to touch-up with an equally tough shade of yellow to try to match to. I wish I had been able to see it before opening the box so I could have attempted an exchange, but he’s also sold out so it may not have done me any good.

The poor paint right in the middle of the chest is such a bummer.

In terms of sculpt, there’s actually quite a bit of reuse here when compared with Batman. It makes Superman an interesting case in how perception can be altered in subtle ways. I don’t like how skinny Batman is. Jim Lee’s take on the character is built like a tank, but his figure is most certainly not. Much of the arms and legs are shared with Superman with the only differences being the forearms to remove Batman’s “fins” and the boot tops which have a slightly different shape to them. Otherwise, the main difference is all in the chest. Superman has a much fuller, broader, chest which really adds to the aura the figure projects. The abdomen may even be the same as Batman’s, though Superman’s sculpt looks more defined so it could be different. The chest plus the smaller cape seems to be all it takes to make him look more imposing compared with Batman and his narrow chest and massive cape.

Most of the accessories are devoted to making Superman look like his possessed self from the book.

Accessories included with Superman are somewhat light. He has just the one alternate portrait which is red-eyed and angry as it represents him when he’s under Ivy’s control. To better sell the effect he also has some leaf garland to wrap around his neck and forearms which looks fine enough. Out of the box he comes equipped with fists, but he also has a set of flat palms, relaxed hands, open hands, and fists with a small gap between the thumbs and fingers that can hold the edge of his cape. There’s also a bonus right hand for Batman that’s a fist with the Kryptonite ring sculpted onto it. A solid inclusion, though it will only look right on the blue and gray Batman as opposed to the black and gray that followed it. Swapping the heads and hands is pretty painless so that’s a plus. Also included is the usual MAFEX stand which is always appreciated as it is a pretty good one. I just wish we got a smiling portrait or an effect one like laser eyes. I get why the Ivy parts are included, but I’ll honestly never use them.

He comes bundled with Batman’s Kryptonite ring fist to help give the caped crusader a fighting chance.

Articulation for Superman is the same as Batman. It’s a fairly robust list of articulation points: head, neck, shoulders, butterfly, bicep, elbow, wrist, diaphragm, waist, hips, thigh, knee, ankle, and toe. The head has pretty good range with its bent double ball peg approach. He can’t quite look all the way up using just the head and neck, but a little tweak of the diaphragm joint will accomplish that. The forward crunch will mostly come at the waist as the chest is a bit too bulky. There’s tilt there and very few restrictions to be found in the upper body. The hips are those pesky drop-down hips, but they’re smoother than the ones on Batman The thigh swivel works well and is completely hidden as all of the rotation happens at the ball joint. I don’t know why Bandai and Tamashii Nations can’t figure this out as they keep giving us those horrid things in their Dragon Ball line. The ankles don’t get much forward range, but going back works well and they even swivel. The ankle rocker works well and there’s the toe hinge if you like it. The only joint I have an issue with is the knee. It looks fine and the range is good, but when it’s bent all the way the kneecap pops out slightly from the thigh and gets stuck. I have to push it back in from the front before bending it back. I guess the lesson here is don’t bend the knee all the way, though it should work. The cape is also wired and it’s all in the sides. It’s a nice, light, material so it works just fine as intended and it’s not so big that it needed more wires throughout like Batman’s.

Best Superman ever? Probably.

I finally gave in and dropped $100 on a Superman figure and I would say he is mostly worth the wait. No, I’m not convinced any figure in this scale is truly work the ask of $100, but compared with Batman I would say I’m much happier with this Superman. He just looks fantastic and the articulation is more than sufficient to hit a lot of Superman-type poses. Truly, my only real complaint is with the paint as the scuffing on the chest of my figure is unacceptable at this price point. I probably could have received some compensation from Big Bad Toy Store for this, but I knew they didn’t have any stock left so I didn’t bother. It’s not their fault Medicom provided them a scuffed-up figure. The accessories could also be better or more robust at this price point. Removing cost from the equation and, yeah, this is a great Superman figure to own. Especially if it’s going to be the only Superman figure you own. And for me that’s almost certainly the case.

If this figure review interested you then maybe you’ll enjoy these:

MAFEX No. 105 – Batman: Hush

You may have been wondering why I decided to devote an entry earlier this week to a nearly twenty year old action figure of mediocre quality, and if so, now you know why. I wanted to take a look at the DC Direct Batman based on his appearance in the Jeph Loeb written, Jim Lee…

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Superman (2025)

James Gunn’s highly anticipated Superman has finally arrived in theaters. Is this the film Superman fans have been waiting for? The start of a mega franchise executives are hoping for? Or is it just a nice movie about a super guy and his super dog? Read on to find out!

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Mezco One:12 Collective Batman (1989)

When it comes to the world of more high end action figure collectibles, I’ve been able to get my hands on a few. Some rather prominent companies have yet to cross my path though, and it’s not really for any reason other than they either don’t make what I like or I don’t really like…

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March 10, 2026

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios The Shredder – Worms of Madness

By Joe
Bring on the madness!

NECA’s dance with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles began way back in 2008 with a set of four turtles based on the first issue of the comic series. That set would then have other figures crafted around it of which most were cancelled, but when the license opened up and TMNT proved a hot seller they all found their way into the hands of collectors. A couple of years ago, NECA went back to the well and produced a new set of turtles based on their later look in the Mirage Studios run of comics based on the artwork of Jim Lawson. Those bigger, bulkier, turtles looked out of place with the old Shredder NECA produced based on his first appearance so it was all but assumed that an update would follow at some point. That update arrived in 2025 in the form of the Worms of Madness Shredder two-pack which was released at Walmart and also offered up to online retailers for the low, low, price of $60. More in some places. Despite my desire for a new Shredder based on his return appearance, I was not interested in this two-pack at that price. And that’s because the second figure in the set is basically a repaint of the initial one only shirtless and maskless so I played the waiting game. I knew it was only a matter of time before Walmart put this on clearance because they have a tendency to do just that, sometimes very quickly too. When the set was dropped to $30, I placed an online order and picked it up from my local store later that day. Mission accomplished!

2025 was really the Year of Shredder for NECA, and this isn’t even all of them!
He’s going to fit in well with your Lawson turtles.

This set probably looks weird to someone not familiar with the Mirage run of comics and the name Worms of Madness isn’t helping. What most TMNT fans are likely aware of is that the Shredder was never intended to be some evergreen opponent for the turtles. Truly, I don’t think co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird ever expected to do multiple issue of what was ostensibly a gag comic which is probably why the Shredder was killed-off in that inaugural issue. When the franchise made the leap to children’s television and the toy aisle, the desire for a standard rival was created and the Shredder was the best fit. Perhaps Eastman and Laird felt the same for they laid the genesis for Shredder’s return in the Leonardo one-shot published in 1986. Considering that Shredder was literally blown up, it was going to be a hard sell to the reader for him to be alive all of a sudden. Enter the worms! I don’t know if I ever quite understood where these things came from, but essentially the Foot mystics had access to some special worm that could take on the form of whatever it ate. They basically gathered up whatever remained of the original Shredder, fed it to some worms, and from that we got a new Shredder (as well as the malformed clones NECA has already immortalized in plastic). The only truly relevant thing to know here is that when Shredder was brought back he took on a different look that was more reflective of the evolving art style in the books. He was taller, broader, and all together just more imposing to look at. This is a Shredder that will fit in with your Lawson turtles, and considering that NECA never reissued those first appearance turtles, this is likely the Shredder most will want in their collection over what has been made available up to now which makes this two-pack all the more frustrating since the other figure may not be something most people want.

He’s imposing.
Shredder clones – assemble!

Shredder stands at a full 7″ and is another sculpt by Gurjeet Singh who previously sculpted the Foot Elite Assassin. The two are very similar stylistically and I would have expected them to share parts, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Yes, they likely share some as the musculature of the abs on both is pretty much the same, but the sash is different. Shredder is also pin-less at the knees and elbows so while the arms appear to be more or less the same, some updates had to be made for Shredder in order for him to be pin-less. That must have been a driver for NECA with this figure as they probably could have just reused the arms, legs, and maybe even the chest and called it a day, but opted not to. Shredder is mostly clad in a skin-tight, dark red outfit that has a vague hint of purple to it. It’s more purple than the Elite and the browns on the sash, boots, and gauntlets are a more Earthy brown than the Elite. The metal portions are all a shiny silver with an ever so slight hint of blue. There’s also some sculpted distress details like this is a guy who has seen his share of battles. The black linework is frequent throughout and I continue to love the completely black-out flesh beneath the helm as that’s how the character was colored in the comics. He’s long of leg with a slightly undersized head which really conveys that comic look. This is definitely a more intimidating Shredder and I’m content with the looks of it.

Back dat ass up!

For accessories, Shredder has multiple sets of hands: fists, gripping, chop, and open. For weapons, he has a pair of swords that you’ve probably seen before as well as the smaller version of the bladed polearm (I think this came with Karai too). There’s also a tiny worm since you can’t have a Worms of Madness set without the worm. And then there’s the other Shredder. He’s his own figure, but in a way feels like an accessory. In the books, the turtles tangle with Shredder and eventually he removes his shirt and all of the armor on his head and arms to reveal his weird, wormy, body. It’s basically just a textured body with lots of lines carved into it. I’m thinking maybe to mimic the look of an earth worm? I don’t know, but for the figure you get a duplicate sculpt with different forearms to remove the wraps and armor. There are lots of subtle grooves in the torso with a paint wash applied to bring them out. I don’t know enough about toy making to know if this necessitated new molds or if this distress could be added to the sculpt without cutting into steel. The head is certainly new as it’s an unmasked Oroku Saki and it looks fine with clean paints. He does lose part of his sash, the bit that hangs over the crotch and rear, which exposes the odd sculpt of the bum area. Shredder has a big, droopy, butt that has a lot of area around the thigh hollowed out presumably to allow for more movement forward and back. It looks fine on the regular Shredder since he has a way to hide it, on the second figure it’s just out in the open and kind of funny looking. I guess be mindful of how you leave him on the shelf, unless you want to accentuate the buttocks then by all means do so. This figure also has the same assortment of optional hands as the other Shredder.

Worm.
This diaphragm joint is no substitute for a proper waist joint.

Since we’re dealing with two identical figures from a structural standpoint, the articulation is going to be the same across both. We get: double ball head, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, diaphragm, hips, knees, and ankles. To my surprise, there is no glove or boot cut like we’ve seen with toon versions of the character from NECA. There’s also no vertical hinge for the gripping hands, something I’ve basically come to expect with NECA as much as it irritates me. As previously mentioned, the elbows and knees are pin-less and work just fine. Range at the head is acceptable while the standard Shredder has the shoulder pauldrons which interfere with the shoulders. I don’t know why they don’t either pin them to the shoulder itself or use a loop through the shoulder peg. The diaphragm joint gets a little forward and back and rotates easily, but there’s no waist cut. I don’t know why NECA has been omitting waist articulation of late with its Shredders, but I don’t like it. Hide a ball-joint behind that sash and let us get this figure into more natural poses. The diaphragm joint isn’t a great substitute because the figure looks ridiculous if turned more than 45 degrees. He does get decent range at the hips though I find the ankles to be a bit tough to work with. The left bicep on my Shredder is also binding and not rotating. The right arm is fine as are both on the Saki figure. I’m not sure if heating it would do much good as that could make shearing it off easier. It’s at least the only trouble spot between the two figures as nothing is too tight or too loose. It’s still pretty basic articulation by today’s standards so don’t expect import-level posing or even Marvel Legends caliber. For this line, it’s mostly as one would expect.

Is this the update people were hoping for out of NECA where Shredder is concerned? I think so as it looks the part based on his appearance in the comic and he definitely looks like he can hang with the updated turtles. Did anyone want to pay $60+ to get this and the shirtless variant? That is probably less of a slam dunk. I know personally I did not want this other figure. At all. I assume NECA added it to the mix to basically make a cheap (for them) two-pack since it’s two figures using essentially the same tooling. It’s too bad they didn’t pair him with the Foot Elite instead. And I say $60, but a lot of places have this set at $70 which is an even worse deal. I do have to wonder if NECA had gone with a swap-able torso instead could they have convinced more people to pay $50 for the release than what they sold at the two-pack price? Would it really make a difference compared with the actual costs? I can’t answer that, but I feel like there was an opportunity to up the perceived value of the package, but maybe dropping half a figure from the set isn’t as big a cost savings as I would imagine. All I know is that their basic, single pack figure is $35-$42 depending on where you get it. I wouldn’t pay that for the extra figure in this set so I needed to wait for it to be essentially free to feel comfortable buying this one. And I was fortunate that I ended up getting Shredder for even less than that. If you think this figure looks neat and can get it for the same price then I think it’s an easy recommend. As a two-pack with mostly ho-hum accessories, it’s a much harder sell. You have to really want shirtless, wormy, Shredder and place considerable value on him to make it worth your while. Maybe if they had included something fun with the set, like a wormy stump for his neck, that could have made a difference. Instead, I could never shake the perception that this set was a money grab and we were being forced to pay extra just to get the new Shredder we wanted, but sometimes that’s how the toy industry works.

Leonardo always wins.

If you enjoyed this look at Shredder then here are some Shredder-adjacent reviews you may find informative:

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios Elite Foot Assassin

NECA has gradually built out the ranks for Shredder’s Foot Clan via its line of action figures based on the pages of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as published by Mirage Studios. The clan got started way back in 2016 with a box set released in conjunction with New York Comic Con. That set featured Shredder,…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios Shredder Clones

NECA and Target’s Haulathon event which has seen a vast assortment of product dumped onto shelves recently was not content to limit the products to just the cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Far from it, as an assortment of comic book based characters were also released and today we’re going to look at the first…

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by Joe

NECA Mirage Studios Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4-Pack

When it comes to the popularity of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a lot of the credit goes to Playmates Toys. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created the characters born out of a joke. Credit them for having the vision to think this joke had appeal beyond their small circle as they self-published Teenage Mutant Ninja…

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by Joe

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February 23, 2026

Marvel Legends Retro Card Mystique

By Joe
Mystique is coming to get you – bang! Bang!

This should be a relatively quick review because today we’re looking at what I was hoping would be an upgrade over a prior release. Mystique was one of 8 characters released in the Marvel Legends X-Men – The Animated Series subline and she was just one of two villains for the line (3 if you count Evil Morph). She was an interesting pick for the line, but in thinking over the major villains in the show, not unworthy. It was just a surprise to see her take a slot over someone like Magneto (Apocalypse was released on a retro card in cartoon colors as a sort of companion figure to the line) who is is thought of as the main rival to the heroes. Mystique did make numerous appearances and she had her hand in some stories, though she did mostly fall by the wayside post Season Two with the exception of the Nightcrawler return episode. All that is to say I had no problem with the character selection, but I did have a problem with the figure.

At least her blue matches Kurt’s now.
They just can’t seem to get her right.

Things got off to a bad start for Mystique when Hasbro advertised her using a render that was not accurate to the figure. There was a mix-up somewhere and the digital artist basically used the wrong base body for the render making collectors think they were getting a true upgrade on an old release. They did not. Instead we got the same old figure on the tubular body with a new, animated series inspired head. It had all of the problems of a lot of the female figures of the era where the knees basically bowed and the figure was limited with its posing. Now, we have a new Mystique and this time she’s exclusive to Target. The previous comic book version of the character was a Walgreens exclusive, if I’m not mistaken, so some fans had a hard time tracking her down. This time figures to be easier as she appears to be getting stocked in ample supply. It was my hope to bring one of these home and do a head swap, but once I got home I realized I had an issue.

Damnit…
It’s an improvement, but worth full price?

One of these things is not like the other. The cartoon version of Mystique had a grayish, blue-green skin tone while this comic book one is more of a royal blue. Oops. Still, maybe it’s an upgrade since this is on a newer body. Kind of. The arms are double-jointed now and the legs pin-less, but the torso appears to be the same with its narrow proportions. Mystique isn’t built like She-Hulk or anything, but I feel like she needs bigger shoulders. The original render is perfect in that her shoulders sit higher, or maybe the angle is just better. A lot of Legends females end up being too slight for my taste. They have the opposite issues of the men where head-on their proportions look fine, but from the side they’re lacking in bulk. Mystique has plenty of curves from a side view, but not the front. Anyway, she has sleeves up past her elbows and her boots are different so the costume isn’t exactly the same either, but it’s close enough that it wouldn’t have bothered me if the skins matched. They did a really odd thing where they painted some blue onto the butt area of the torso. Apparently someone took one look at this figure and decided she wasn’t showing enough ass and demanded a little stripe of blue be added. The same skull belt with skirt is still being utilized only now there’s a gold finish to the skulls which looks nice. The face appears to be the same, but the hair is entirely different. It’s a very late 90s look, almost like a Rachel haircut, and it’s okay. Funny enough, the back of the box once again has an incorrect render. There she has the animated portrait and the torso might even be different as there’s a sculpted belly button. Once again, we’re sold a Mystique that looks better on the box than in-hand.

What am I supposed to do with this?
“Whoa! You’re not getting me to take that!”

The double-jointed elbows are a marked improvement over the prior figure, but they don’t offer much more in a practical sense. With no butterfly joint and an ample bosom to deal with, she just doesn’t get really any clearance across her chest which would have been nice since she has a pair of firearms to utilize. They are new to me, but I’d guess they’ve been released before, and include a pistol and an assault rifle. They’re done in black plastic and seem fine while she also has a set of trigger finger hands and a set of open hands. She also has a very odd accessory in the form of Jean Grey as the Black Queen’s head. I think this was something that was locked away in a convention exclusive before or something, but I don’t like it. There’s nothing wrong with the head itself, but I’d much prefer another Mystique portrait. And you could say “Well, she’s a shapeshifter,” but what good is one head that’s a completely different color from the rest of her body? Yeah, I had fun with my Morph Toy Biz figure back in ’94 too, but that sort of gimmick does nothing for me now. If there was a surplus of White Queen figures out there then maybe I’d be tempted to buy one and paint it up, but as it stands this is just wasted plastic.

She doesn’t look bad alongside them…

Articulation is the same as the previous Mystique which was mediocre. The only change is now we get bicep swivels and double-jointed elbows. The knees aren’t bowed so she stands much easier and is an overall better release, I just wish that old head worked or we got the head that’s on the back of the card. I was tempted to try and heat and pry the hair pieces off of each, but I don’t want to risk ruining them in the process. That mediocre Mystique is now gone so replacing it if I messed up would be costly. I think I’ll just return it to her box and make this my display figure from now on. Maybe I’ll even add some shading to the dress – I don’t know. This is a figure only for those Legends collectors who must have a slightly better Mystique in their collection or for those who missed out on her. There’s nothing special about the figure itself and there’s a very good chance she hits clearance six weeks from now as most of the Target exclusives tend to do. If you’re on the fence then you probably shouldn’t pay full price. If I had been smart enough to actually compare my two figures before I opened this one I probably would have returned it. Oh well.

We have a whole lot more from Marvel Legends and the X-Men if that’s your fancy:

Marvel Legends X-Men Animated Series Mystique

The penultimate figure in this series is a bit of a curveball. When one thinks of the animated series X-Men, the first villains that come to mind are Magneto, Sinister, Apocalypse, Sabretooth, and then it gets muddled. Graydon Creed made quite the impression in the show’s second season and may even be the most hate-able…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men Retro Card Series Apocalypse

It is Halloween and that means it’s time for costumes, candy, and spooky fun. It’s also Halloween 2022, a pretty important date if you grew up loving those mutants who ran around in colorful spandex fighting for a better tomorrow. That’s because 30 years ago on this very night, the animated series X-Men premiered on…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men Animated Series Mr. Sinister

This week, the long wait for an in-person San Diego Comic Con comes to an end. For the first time since 2019, attendees, creators, and the like will be invited back into the city of San Diego for a celebration of all things comics, movies, and general “nerd” culture. One of the many panels this…

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February 16, 2026

Marvel Legends Cardiac

By Joe
He’s a real heart-stopper. Or rather, starter.

A figure some never expected to appear in Marvel Legends is the Spider-Man ally/foe Cardiac. For whatever reason, he was apparently off-limits at Hasbro. There could be a number of reasons for that, but whatever was in the way is obviously no longer an issue because Cardiac has now taken his rightful place in plastic. Had we never received a Cardiac action figure would that have been a great tragedy? No, but fans of the character certainly would have been disappointed. I’m personally not one. I barely remember the guy, but when I saw the reveal I thought the figure looked interesting. And then when I saw him hanging out on some pegs at my local store I said “What the heck?”

Cardiac is about average height for a superhero character.

Cardiac is basically a vigilante, like many heroes. He’s a cardiologist (get it?) who is basically angry at the insurance and pharmaceuticals industry for the unjust death of his brother and, man, that’s a guy who feels made for this moment in time. He’s basically a guy in a cool suit with a “pulse staff” that can shock dudes. He’s in a skin-tight, navy suit that’s adorned with an EKG down each side which is sculpted into the figure and painted silver. The rest of the figure is white plastic including his shoulder pads, knee pads, boots and gloves. And since Cardiac made his debut in 1990 he is adorned with pouches! They’re at the cuffs of both his gloves and boots and he also has them going around his thighs. It was just in the water at the time. What got me with this figure is I love the clean look of the white juxtaposed with the dark blue. The silver paint work adds a little something extra as well and it’s pretty clean. And I read a lot of 90s comics so I do have nostalgia for this type of look. It’s silly, in retrospect, but strangely effective.

“I find your lack of nose…comforting.”

That’s not to say everything is perfect. The paint isn’t perfect, but it’s surprisingly close. I wasn’t sure in the box what was going on with the torso, but it looks like the white is white plastic inserted into the blue torso. That helps to keep things clean and it also ensures that all of the blues match as well as the whites. There’s a little shading in the face around the eyes and in the creases of the brow which looks really good. I like the expression, a teeth-gritting one, though the paint is a little messier at the base of the mouth. Not distractingly so, but it looks off up close. One thing fans of the character have pointed out as being suboptimal is the nose. Cardiac was almost always drawn with basically a flat face and no nose. My guess is the sculptor here wanted to add a little realism so there’s a bump for a nose under the mask. It’s one of those inconsistencies with Legends that drives me crazy – are we matching the source art or going with this house style of realistic interpretations of comic book characters? Hasbro used to almost always go for the realistic interpretation, but over the past couple of years have started doing more source art looks. It seems almost universal that fans wanted a source accurate Cardiac, especially because this is likely the only one we’ll ever get. Not being a fan, it doesn’t bother me, but what does are the wrists. They’re puny and it’s weird looking. I’m not really sure what happened there (I have since seen images of people online putting the power effect over his wrists instead of the staff so maybe that’s a reason, though you could just use the wider opening on a thicker wrist), but his forearms look like they belong on a different body.

“Whoa! Don’t get that cotton candy on the threads, buddy!”

That’s a somewhat subjective critique, though a justifiable one if you’re someone who just wants their figures to look like the source. My only complaint concerns the articulation. Before we get to that, the accessory load-out for Cardiac is a set of gripping hands, a right fist, and a left relaxed hand. He also has his staff which has a blue effect orb that clips around one end. I think it probably looks as good as it could, it’s a translucent blue with some frosting inside the globe, but it does kind of look like cotton candy. Or blown glass. The actual staff is just gray plastic, but it’s new tooling and looks how it’s supposed to. The articulation though has one major flaw.

Those wrists are a bit dainty.

For the most part, Cardiac articulates like most Legends figures. He does have the double ball peg head and it’s one of their bad ones. The lower ball is seated too low in the neck so the range is poor looking up and down. He has standard arm articulation and the shoulder pads are looped through the shoulder pegs so they rotate with the arm. They may be the reason for it, but the arms won’t go all the way out to the side for a classic “T” pose. The bicep swivel, double-elbows, and wrists are all fine. The gripping hands have the preferred vertical hinge while the other two have a horizontal one. There is a diaphragm joint that works very well. The hips can nearly hit splits out to the side and kick forward 90 degrees. The thigh swivel is hidden by the thigh pouches, the knees are double-jointed, and the ankles hinge and rock. All work pretty well, so what’s the problem? The waist! There’s no waist articulation at all. No swivel, no ball, nothing. I saw some speculation it was because Hasbro didn’t want to break up the EKG lines, but they were fine breaking them up for the diaphragm joint so that doesn’t make sense. And it’s really missed. This is all new tooling so why not go nuts and give him a ball-jointed waist? What a bummer.

“Stay out of my way, web-head!”

Does that ruin the figure? No, but it keeps people from feeling like Hasbro nailed Cardiac. I didn’t review it, but a lot of people felt like they did just that with their ROM the Space Knight from last year. That’s a similar case where it’s a long requested character who is unlikely to ever receive another figure. With characters like that, you hope that Hasbro puts out something that is unlikely to be topped in their line. They went through the trouble of tooling a unique body, they just stopped too short. I don’t know what that joint would have cost, but I don’t think much. Ignoring that, this is a fun looking character design that will add a little something to your shelf. That’s why I got it and I didn’t even wait for a sale. I don’t know if I could have, but I’m okay with it since there isn’t another figure in the wave I have any interest in. I’m guessing if you are a Cardiac fan and were dying to add him to your collection then you’ve already got this in your hands. And I sincerely hope you’re satisfied with it, because it seems unlikely we’ll ever get another.

If you enjoyed reading about Cardiac here’s a few more from the world of Spider-Man:

Marvel Legends Kaine

In some ways, Secret Wars was bad for comics. Commercially, the 80’s event was hugely successful for Marvel even though it seems to have just a lukewarm reception by fans in some circles. It helped to establish the belief that events sell and Marvel seemed hellbent on taking that approach in 90s. One of Spider-Man’s…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends Gamerverse Captain America vs Venom

We’re going to be doing a lot of 2025 catch-up here as Christmas always slows things down. Toy producers also like to push product for the holidays so I seem to always end up with a backlog at the end of the year. Especially when stores are doing generous sales and convincing me to buy…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends The Chameleon (Animated)

I had a bit of an impulse buy a few weeks back with the Marvel Legends Spider-Man Unlimited action figure from the show of the same name. What I didn’t mention was that he was not alone for hanging on the pegs that day with him was The Chameleon. Like Spider-Man Unlimited, The Chameleon is…

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by Joe

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January 20, 2026

NECA TMNT Adventures April – The Fifth Turtle

By Joe
Is this the turtle you’re looking for?

NECA’s line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures based on the pages Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures by Archie Comics is like the little engine that could. It’s not a fast-moving line, the releases aren’t always heavy hitters, but when they land they’re usually pretty damn good. And NECA appears to be slow-walking this line since they have yet to release the actual turtles in the line. We got wrestling variants of the boys, and now we’re getting a version of their ally April O’Neil, only she’s in her seldom seen look as the fifth turtle.

Or maybe it’s the April you’re looking for?

In the pages of TMNT Adventures there was a one-shot winter special where April O’Neil was mutated into a turtle. It didn’t last very long, but for at least a few pages she was essentially the fifth ninja turtle. And she looked how you might expect in that she has the same mask and pads, a belt, she’s armed with a single katana, and she has a big “A” on her belt. You may have expected her to go with yellow for her color of choice, but she actually had to settle for white instead. This figure was teased quite a while ago in April of 2023, but it didn’t actually see release until fall 2025. She is basically the first basic turtle in the Archie subline and one imagines that whenever NECA gets around to doing standard versions of the boys this is the buck they’ll be on. In that, it’s like a preview of things to come so even if you’re not interested in this obscure version of April this figure might be of some interest to you.

With Archie Raph and toon Raph.

April comes in the standard Archie packaging with new artwork by series regular Ken Mitchroney. I like his very stylized take on the character with the accentuated beak and angled eyes. The figure dials that down a little, but a lot of those traits are still present. April stands at about 5.625″ to the top of her head. I have her as slightly shorter than Archie Raph and it appears to be due to her head sitting lower on the neck. Her head and plastron are actually wider which gives her a slightly stockier look compared with Raph, who is basically a blank turtle body. April has new forearms which are slightly thicker as well and her shell is different, having a more angled approach to the different panels. It’s hard to tell if anything below the waist is new. The knee pads create a thicker look, but it might just be an optical illusion. If I get out my grandfather’s old machinist gauge for measuring thickness it tells me their legs are the same, but confirms what I suspected with the forearms.

I don’t think this is how April wanted to present herself.

The stylization with April might be different from what some might expect. If you’re primary frame of reference for a female ninja turtle is Venus DeMilo from The Next Mutation then this April will look pretty different. That’s because they didn’t give her those odd plastron boobs that character had and instead she pretty much just looks like a turtle – kind of like how male and female turtles in the wild pretty much look the same. Her only embellishment is a slightly curvier plastron silhouette and clawed fingers. I thought at first the fingers might be reuse from the Archie Slash, but they are unique to April. Her portraits have that pronounced beak though, and while her eyes aren’t comically feminine, they have that Archie personality we’ve grown accustomed to with NECA’s figures. I love the little “t” shape they paint onto the beaks as that is pulled right from the books. The figure is a very matte yellowish green that is accentuated very nicely by the white wraps that have a touch of light blue shading. The shell is deep green and all of the grooves are filled with clean, black, paint. There’s black linework to accentuate the muscles and overall this is another homerun from NECA in the aesthetics department for this line.

“Where do you get off calling yourself the fifth turtle?!”

April’s accessories are quite numerous for a general release in this line. She has four distinct portraits: unmasked, grin, yelling, and a classic TMNT angry side sneer. The bandana knot is transferable between the masked portraits and while it’s a little snug, it works fine. The unmasked portrait features a sad expression and there’s even some tears painted on which helps to make it quite scene specific. For hands, April has gripping, fists, and open clawing hands. She comes with a single katana which is what she utilized in the book which features a brown hilt and blue pommel and guard. The blade itself is white which I love because metal is often done in white in comic books. I’m a little surprised they didn’t hit it with a touch of blue shading like the weapons that came with the Mirage turtles, but it looks pretty good as-is. To store it she has a large, white, scabbard that is shaded with blue that simply slots onto her belt. It’s not a super secure connection, but it will stay in place once she’s posed. Just expect it to fall out a lot when posing her. The sword does store effortlessly in the scabbard which is nice to see after my experience with the 2012 Leonardo and his stubborn blades.

She’s got the look, but does she have the skill to take on the Shredder?

April’s articulation is basically the same as the Archie wrestling turtles only she has some elbow and knee pads to obstruct things. She has joints at the head, base of the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees, and ankles. There are built-in thigh swivels into the ball-joints at the hips and her gripping hands have the proper vertical hinge for wielding a sword. She has the pinless knee and elbow joints, but the presence of the pads will limit the range. Her elbows are pretty much only good for a 90 degree bend while the knees extend a little past that. They’re also very tight at both spots and I haven’t noticed any lubricating oil in those places like I did with the wrestling turtles. The shell will limit her hip range, but the plastron is soft so she can kick forward about 90 degrees if you want to push it. Going out to the side for splits is no problem and the oversized feet with solid ankle rockers make getting her to stand pretty easy. The waist isn’t going to do much owing to the turtle anatomy and range at the shoulders is not good enough for two-handed sword poses. It would be nice to see NECA integrate a butterfly joint there since one would think the shell would hide some of the ugliness of said joint, but I don’t know if they’ve ever done such with any release, turtle or otherwise.

“Geez April, think you might reconsider going back to the news reporter look?”

Perhaps the best thing about April is she should retail for the reasonable price of $35. Some places have her as high as $41 but she is shipping to big box retail which is likely to have the cheapest price on her. She comes with plenty of stuff and the sculpt and paint are fantastic. Yes, the articulation is just okay, though it is better than some of NECA’s other TMNT figures. That’s what they’re known for though and if your primary interest is in the figure’s presentation then this April should please you, provided you ever felt the need to own a figure of April as the Fifth Turtle.

If you’re looking for more Archie inspired TMNT figures or more April then check these out:

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NECA TMNT Cartoon Channel 6 Newsroom SDCC Exclusive Set

Remember San Diego Comic Con? You would be forgiven if you did not since, like last year’s edition, the event was a virtual one once again. Only unlike the 2020 version, this one came with the expectation it would be virtual. It also coincided with a global shipping crisis, so combine that with the expectation…

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