They say that breaking up is hard to do. I feel like I’ve been slowly breaking up with Super7 for a couple of years now. The relationship began with a “will they, won’t they,” feel when Super7 announced its line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimates! at the then high price of $45 each. Did I need recreations of the toys I had as a kid in a new scale and better articulation? No, then yes! Super7 and I kept it casual over the next year or so. I was never all-in, but I was always buying something. Then came wave five when Super7 raised the price to $55 and subsequently dropped the quality. One of my favorite designs from the vintage line, Sewer Samurai Leonardo, was done dirty. Sure, he looked fine, but the figure was a mess and damn near impossible to handle as a modern action figure. Things were pretty rocky from then on. Some figures, like Classic Rocker Leo, were great and reminded me of how good things could be between us while others left a lot to be desired. Super7 dropping the line in favor of the 2003 version of the franchise is probably where things need to end between us. The inaugural wave released last year was okay. The turtles looked the part, but the skimpy accessories and some terrible design choices made the wave more bust than boom. I was never going to be all-in on the line anyway, these turtles aren’t my turtles, but I wanted some representation for that era in my collection. And while I can pass on the likes of April and Splinter, I feel like no set of turtles is complete without the Shredder.

Even with my belief that all turtles need a Shredder, I still wasn’t sure about this one. While I love the look of this version of the character, I was hesitant about the quality after handling those 2003 turtles. Super7 made the artistic choice to reference the actual show heavily in their design over prioritizing things like the key art. That’s fine and defensible, though personally I don’t know why you would settle for the worst version of the characters when it’s possible to match the better ones. That didn’t bother me as much as the engineering choices. Much was made of Super7 finally embracing 21st century technology and adding double joints to the knees and elbows, but one change they made is truly puzzling. They started using soft plastic for parts like the biceps, thighs, and pretty much all over the limbs like the figures are endoskeletons with soft plastic parts layered on top. Softer plastics are great for things that need to be pliable like the belts, bandanas, and even the hands since it makes gripping weapons much easier. For things like the thighs where the parts are going to rub against the harder plastic parts when doing just basic articulation it leads to gouging and damage. Is this how Super7 plans on doing all of its figures going forward? I wasn’t sure. I’ve even done the rare thing (for me) of watching a video review of this figure before I got it. You pretty much have to with Super7 as you never know what you’re going to get. I considered canceling my preorder, but decided to hang onto it more out of obligation than anything. I hate canceling on retailers that I like (I’ll cancel on Amazon anytime) and my desire for a Shredder outweighed my apprehension over the quality of the figure. And despite seeing that review, I still don’t really know how I’ll react to this one. I’m writing this (as I do pretty much all of my intros) before handling the figure and remain hopeful that it will be “good enough.”

Shredder arrives in the normal box we’re used to. There are no credits on it and the artwork appears to be stock art from Paramount. It takes up too much space, but there is a nice, big, window so if you like to keep these in-box (a very defensible position with Super7) it will look fine. This Shredder is big and imposing coming in at around 8″. It’s what I liked about him from the moment I saw the artwork for the 2003 show as this was no longer the bumbling doofus entrusting all of his lame schemes to the likes of Bebop and Rocksteady. This was a Shredder out to win and in order to win it meant he had to kill. This dude is a literal murderer and also not a dude at all. He’s an Utrom (spoiler?) named Ch’Rell who ended up on Earth a thousand years before the start of the show and managed to turn himself into a legend. The figure you see before you is just a suit of armor being controlled by Ch’Rell in the abdomen. If that sounds kind of like Krang to you know that it is. These are the guys Krang was based around when the original show was adapted from the comic books, though in the comic Shredder was never among the Utrom. Not that it was needed for the character, but having Shredder essentially be a robot works in the character’s favor as it explains how he can be so massive and how those eerie, glowing, red eyes can shine out from under his helm. It was a step in the right direction for the character and this Shredder begets the one we’d receive in the 2012 series who was also a vicious murderer, though that one was a human.

Super7 has always been good with size when it comes to their villains so it’s no surprise that Shredder comes out looking menacing. The body is largely black with some differing shades of gray. The main armor of the torso almost has a purple hue to it which, if intentional, is a nice, subtle, homage to his look from the original cartoon. There’s no cape on this Shredder, but he does have a sash, which Super7 elected to handle with soft goods. This comes as a surprise because this aspect of the figure was not apparent in the solicitation. The head-on shot made the sash look plastic, while the action shots look like they have a subtle texture to them implying that they could be soft goods. I’m not a huge fan of mixed media apart from capes when it comes to figures and this one won’t change my mind. The sash is clunky. Super7 wanted it to be wired, but whoever they contracted to make the sash used a thick material and the stitching around it is very apparent and amateurish. If you absolutely hate it you can pull it off, but I wish they included a plastic one like the old days of the line when Shredder came with a plastic cape and a soft goods one. The proportions on the sculpting is good and probably the figure’s strength. He does look like a Shredder that could kick your ass.

Where things are less great rests with the paint and materials used. Super7 is going all-in on these soft plastics as the shoulder pauldrons are like a very pliable rubber. It feels like the kind of material you might find in a hardware store used on cheap, plastic, products or in a gasket or something similar. It does what it’s supposed to in that it lets the arm move freely, but it looks really cheap as there’s no paint on it. I’m not sure if one can paint this material without the paint cracking. Super7’s approach to a toon aesthetic is basically solid, muted, colors. In other words, the opposite of what a company like NECA has done with its own toon line which uses a lot of paint, some line work, and shading. Paint just helps the figure to “pop” like the character would on an old animation cel (I have no idea if the actual show was done on celluloid or if it was all digital) and on your television screen. Super7 seems to think colored plastics get the job done and it just looks really bad in places. The pauldrons are one area and the crest on the helm is another which is that same, milky, plastic the company used for Raph’s sai. I know some would prefer a metallic silver, but I’m actually fine with white since animated metal often ends up being painted white in this case, but it needs to be actually painted. It at least isn’t shiny and the joints aren’t ugly, but a $55 collectible should look better than this.

Things get a little more off the rails when comparing this figure to the source. Super7 stated they were trying to match the look of the character in the show and that’s fine. However, this really isn’t it. I was trying to figure out what looked off about this guy right from the start and I think I’ve mostly figured it out. For one, his helm is a little narrow compared with the show. A lot of the time it’s flared to the side which exposes more of the jaw line. This one is a bit blocky by comparison. Not a big deal, but the kind of thing that does mess with your mind’s eye. The crest on the helm is also curved and I cannot understand why. At first I thought maybe it was a case where the character was drawn differently depending on the angle which wouldn’t be the first time that happened. I can find no evidence of that though. It looks like it should always be straight so having the ends curve was apparently a design choice and I don’t like it. And then the other issue I have are the colors used. They made the helm and the outer pieces of his skirt black. They were never black in the show. They should be gray. The only area of the figure that should be black are the arms, legs, and the face behind the mask. The character is basically just a bunch of gray, and some of these parts should be metallic gray. A good company would paint the embellishments the animation went with to create the illusion of a metallic surface, but instead we get flat colors or bare plastic. Maybe they ended up with this black, or almost black, in these spots because the gray for the main part of the torso is just a bit too dark. I mentioned that it almost has a touch of purple to it, but I do think it should be a little lighter. Am I being nitpicky? I don’t know – I’ll let you decide. I think the main issue is the lack of shading and painted details. With those, I think the colors would blend together better and these issues would be easier to overlook. This isn’t some $15 Playmates special though – this is a $55 figure in a line that’s getting bumped up to $65 after this wave. We should expect better.

Shredder is like a B or a B- looking figure, but unfortunately it’s the strong part of the package. The accessory load-out is merely okay. We get a pretty decent assortment of hands including sets of fists, gripping, and what look to be palm strike hands. The palm strike hands may be intended to function as an alternative gripping hand, but to grip what I don’t know. He also has a right, open, hand for gesturing to the Foot, I guess. It’s a solid spread – no complaints. He also comes with the Sword of Tengu. The sculpt is fine and there’s some painted yellow parts on the hilt, but the blade and the plastic between the painted parts are bare, gray, plastic. It’s that same milky, slightly translucent, plastic that they’ve been using for the weapons and the crest on Shredder’s helm. It almost looks like it’s supposed to be glow-in-the-dark (coincidentally, there is such a version for those who preordered the whole wave through Super7) and just another example of Super7 going cheap and letting down their sculptors. Shredder also has an unmasked head that’s a bitch to get on. That crest is kind of fragile so pulling off the head isn’t easy. The likeness is good though, but they left most of the flesh unpainted so it has a waxy appearance. There is, to my surprise, some shading on the cheekbones and inbetween the eyes, but they used an orange color that looks like someone smeared an orange rind against it. Maybe this is why they don’t often use shading since they’re bad at it? The last accessory is little Ch’Rell out of his suit and looking like he’s up to no good. It’s a slug figure that looks good, but again the lack of paint just keeps it from being as good as it could be. They painted the eyes and the scar over the left eye, but there’s no shading anywhere else. A dark wash would have really brought out the detail here, but instead it looks like the cheap throw-in that it probably is.

Perhaps Shredder can impress with his articulation. After all, there’s more here than we’re used to with Super7 and unlike the turtles before him there’s no cumbersome shell to work around. The head is a double ball setup with another joint at the base of the neck, but it mostly just rotates and offers some tilt out of the box. I did find that removing the head and then reseating it helped to sit the head just a touch higher which opened up some more forward and back range. The higher sitting head also looks a little better to me (all of my pictures are after adjusting this so if you think his head looks too high know you could force it down further on the ball peg). Standard shoulder hinges are in place and he can raise his arms out to the side 90 degrees and rotate without issue. The elbow joint is like that old style NECA double-joint with a peg and hinge above and below the elbow. It doesn’t look as bad as some of those NECA elbows because they did sculpt a point onto the elbow so you don’t get that weird U shape when utilizing both hinges. There’s also less range to prevent that oddity as Shredder can only bend his elbows a little past 90 degrees. You do get a swivel point above and below the joint effectively giving you a bicep swivel and a forearm swivel as the bicep and forearm are basically plastic sleeves over the joint inside. This is actually quite useful for Shredder because of those forearm gauntlets so you can always make sure they’re aligned with the hand in a manner you like best. The wrists swivel and hinge with the gripping hands having a vertical hinge. Unlike the head, it’s quite easy to swap hands which I appreciate.

In the torso, we get what is probably a double-ball peg in the diaphragm. This mostly allows for rotation with minimal forward, nothing back, and only a little tilt. The waist twist is just a peg so it only swivels, but at least it’s there. The hips are standard Super7 hips with a hinged ball peg that also has a built-in swivel at the joint which works fine as a substitute for a thigh cut. The knees follow the same engineering as the elbows so you get a joint that will bend past 90 degrees, though perhaps not as far as you would have expected. In this case, I believe the knee pads play a bit of a role. There is also a swivel point both above and below the knee so you essentially have a double boot cut. It’s useful as if you always want the knee cap to align with the toes of the figure then you should be able to do so. The ankles are typical hinge and rockers and the range going back is very good and going forward is fine as there’s enough of the shin cut away to let the foot go forward. The ankle rocker is acceptable. Lastly, there’s that wired sash I mentioned back in the aesthetics portion of the review and even though it’s ugly, the wires at least function well.

To my surprise, the articulation for Shredder is pretty good. It’s not perfect. I think the diaphragm could be a little better and a ball joint at the waist would have allowed for at least some forward and back, but he articulates better than most Super7 figures. And his leaner proportions mean his softer parts don’t grind against the hard plastic ones like the turtles. Out of all the Shredder figures I have from various companies he may even articulate the best. I definitely wasn’t expecting that. Is it enough to save the figure? Yes and no. Save is a strong word. I have criticisms of the presentation here, but I still think he looks good on a shelf and in the 2003 collection. It’s an appropriately menacing looking Shredder so Super7 at least accomplished that much. It still probably doesn’t earn the $55 asking price. In addition to my presentation criticisms, the figure still feels like a Super7 offering. It poses reasonably well, but not in a fun way. Everything feels stiff and kind of clunky. It’s a bad in-hand feel like a lot of Super7 figures. There’s no smoothness to any of the joints as most are clicky, almost ratcheted, but also with loose spots. Nothing is floppy, but nothing is smooth. It’s a Super7 figure and you’ll have to decide for yourself if it’s worth it to add to your collection. I wanted this guy to pair with the turtles and I at least don’t regret my purchase. Will I six months from now when Amazon has him listed for $35? Maybe. It’s not a given that will happen, but it is likely. I do think this is where I get off the Super7 train though. The other figures in this wave either don’t interest me or don’t look worth the asking price and I am definitely not going up to $65 for this company. If they return to the Playmates looks and finally put up that Heavy Metal Raph then they may get me for the full $65, but from here on out I’m only considering these things on clearance as they’re just not worth what the company is asking for.

Despite my criticism of Super7 I do have quite a bit of stuff from them:

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