Category Archives: Television

May 14, 2026

Mondo The Real Ghostbusters Ray Stantz

By Joe
We’re finishing off a collection today, folks.

And with that, another bucket list item can be crossed off for Mondo has released the fourth action figure in its line of The Real Ghostbusters toys: Ray Stantz. Ray follows Peter, Egon, and Winston and completes the quartet from the 1986 cartoon series which has been sorely underrepresented in the adult collectible market. There have been quite a few attempts at figures based on the movie versions, but for The Real Ghostbusters there was basically Mego and Diamond Select and neither represented on-model interpretations of the characters in a format befitting an adult collectible. It was a bit incredible to know that few companies had even attempted it given how popular the vintage Kenner toy line was. Hasbro has done reissues and even releases of figures based on cancelled projects in a retro style, but for whatever reason the company has never waded into the waters of the Dic cartoon series with a modern toy line. Supposedly, there are reasons for that some of which has been reflected in Mondo’s hefty price tag of $101 per figure, but for 80s kids and longtime toy enthusiasts such as myself, having a premium version of these characters for the shelf is a bit of a dream come true.

If you have experienced any of the prior releases in Mondo’s line then Ray isn’t going to feature a whole lot of surprises. He is quite familiar and shares a lot of parts with the past figures as well as some accessories. He is another sculpt by Alex Brewer with paint by Mark Bristow, art direction by Hector Arce, and packaging by Jordan Christianson. I received the standard edition which comes in the box modeled after the ghost trap from the show. It has a nice window on the front, but since there’s an abudance of protective material inside the box it’s not going to display all that well for those who choose not to open the figure. There is a lot more in this box compared with both Egon and Winston so it presents as more full. Even Ray’s head is partially cut off by the window border since he’s placed high in the tray.

I think the sizing could have been a little better.

Out of the box, Ray is going to stand a tick over 6.5″ on your shelf putting him basically at the same height as both Peter and Winston. Egon, by virtue of a longer neck and head, stands the tallest. The show can be inconsistent with how it portrayed the busters, but Ray was almost always depicted as the shortest of the four by a noticeable amount. Given that these are likely the most on-model representations of the show we’re likely to get in plastic, it’s a bit of a shame that Mondo did not go out of its way to capture the different heights of the characters. There is so much reuse between the four that it would have been nice if Ray could have received unique legs. He does, at least, feature a unique torso to capture his heavier build which I appreciate. He also appears to have a unique neck that is a little thicker than the rest which is appropriate. I do feel like his head sits a touch too high as the silhouette is off just enough for me to notice. Yes, I am nitpicking a bit with that critique, but as I’ve pointed out in all of the other reviews for this line we are talking about a figure that retails for over a hundred dollars so nitpicking is expected.

Goggles up or goggles down?

Apart from my critiques with the proportions, the rest of what is presented here looks quite nice. I think Mondo did a good job of finding the right shade of beige for Ray’s jumpsuit and the paint applications are quite clean. The “No Ghosts” logo on the right arm has the right opacity to the white which is something that has either improved as the line has gone on or is a function of Ray’s suit being a fairly light color. He has that nice, matte, finish and the flesh tones are warm. His default expression is a bit of a happy one and the roundness of his cheeks and nose look to be quite on-model. It’s funny that when watching the cartoon I’ve never seen any of the actor’s likenesses in the characters which was by design since Dic had no interest in paying for those likeness rights, but when I view this portrait at a 3/4 angle I do see a bit of Dan Aykroyd in Ray.

Beware the Pink Nightmare!
“We rabbit people demand your respect!”

Ray’s accessories are a mix of both familiar and new, and to my surprise, there is a bit more “new” than we’ve seen with other releases. The repeats are what you probably expected: a proton pack, stream effect, trap, gloved hands, and a disc stand. Like the other guys, Ray comes with one alternate portrait and it features a determined expression, let’s say. He doesn’t quite look angry, but he’s definitely busting ghosts or looking to. He also has a trap effect which features the ghost Mr. Gash, who is the included ghost with the deluxe version. I’ll admit, he’s a cool design and I was slightly tempted to go for it, but I really don’t remember the ghost from the show so I decided to pocket the $100 (and they ended up getting me for Janine anyway, so don’t weep for Mondo). It looks great and slides in with relative ease, though like the other trap effects we’ve received so far it can be a bit of a challenge to get it to stay flat on a surface. I also noticed that the standard trap insert is a bit looser this time around. It will stay put when inverted, but the slightest tape will cause it to slide out. Ray also has a companion ghost of his own and his is Drool, the dog-faced goblin. Admittedly, I don’t remember this guy from the show, but he does possess an interesting design. More bug than ghost, he has eight limbs and a big, grinning, open maw. Each limb can articulate via a swivel point as does his tail and head. It’s not much, but it allows for at least a little bit of variety in your display. The sculpt is great and so is the paint so even if you have foregone the big ghosts of the deluxe packages, you should still have a nice little ghost display if you have all four Ghostbusters.

He’s a good boy.

For unique accessories, Ray has a trio. Like Egon, he comes with some additional equipment in the form of his goggles. I think all of the Ghostbusters have such in the show and may even use them from time-to-time, but they are definitely most associated with Ray going back to the original film. They are well sculpted and painted and feature a soft, plastic, strap to fit over his head. If you want Ray to wear them over his eyes, I recommend taking off the head and putting them on from the bottom. If you want them on his head as he is so often featured, it will take a slight amount of elbow grease to get them onto his tuft of hair if you want them to feel secure. You could also just attempt to rest them on his head which may be the better move for a long-term display to avoid stretching of the strap. For additional headgear, Ray also has his pink bunny hood. This is taken from the episode “Look Homeward, Ray.” when Ray goes back to his hometown and takes a job at a shoe store that requires a rather embarrassing costume. He ends up doing some busting with the hood on which is likely why Mondo included it. Depending on the head you want to display it with (his serious expression takes on a grumpy feel with the hood that I appreciate), you will want to pop it into the hood first before putting it on the body. It sits well and there doesn’t appear to be a ton of rub so I don’t think paint transfer will be much of an issue. The hood is really well painted and features some nice shading so it will work well if you want Ray to look like a pink nightmare on your shelf. Finally, we have a mini Stay Puft doll. It looks just like a scaled-down version of the old Kenner toy and features some nicely painted details. I think this was just a doll Ray (and possibly Slimer) would be seen sleeping with. It almost looks like the arms should swivel, but nothing appears to be articulated here which is fine. It’s a fun inclusion and all of the extra bits with Ray make me wish Peter and Winston had received some unique accessories too. Egon had the ghost bomb and PKE meter.

So long, Mr. Gash.
It’s like a security plush.

Ray being almost a direct copy of the figures before him features exactly the same articulation as his ghost busting brothers. For a quick rundown, there’s head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees, and ankles. Knee and elbow joints are single hinges while the hip joints feature built-in swivels at the ball joint. Ray pretty much has the same strengths and weaknesses as the others. The shoulder joint almost looks like a butterfly, but it doesn’t really do anything special. To wield his proton wand properly, he has to basically hold it across his body. The knees won’t bend 90 degrees while the elbows get close and the waist mostly rotates as there’s little room for forward and back. Ray’s articulation is a bit more smooth than his predecessors. I notice it in the right hip mostly which almost comes up a full 90 degrees. The left not so much and even if it matched the right hip I think he’d still be hard-pressed to sit convincingly in a potential Ecto-1. The ankle hinges are borderline loose with Ray and he has fallen over once in the short amount of time that I’ve had him. I hope they don’t get any looser as that would be a drag since even the disc stand is unlikely to help with that. Like the other guys, Ray is capable of just the basics and won’t be able to do much more than that. I do like that he’s a bit smoother out of the box, though the ankles are a bit of a bummer.

Say it with me: busting makes me feel good!

If you have the other three Ghostbusters from Mondo and like them then you’re going to like Ray. If you have experienced these figures before and came away unimpressed, then Ray isn’t going to change your mind. He is relatively on-model with the cartoon series with exceptional paint and a solid assortment of accessories, but he does come up short if you were hoping for 100% or even 99% screen accuracy. And that may be fine as few action figure releases achieve such a hit rate, but not all of them retail for $101. That’s the question facing us all when we go to make a purchasing decision and the higher the price the more scrutiny is invited. I don’t like settling at this price point, but I also don’t expect another company to come along and do a better job than Mondo. That’s the simple fact for me when it comes to The Real Ghostbusters and I am content to let these be my one and only. And with Ray being the fourth and final Ghostbuster, it puts me in a reflective mood. I do understand and take Mondo at its word when it was said the price was something out of their control. However, I do think they could have done a better job of putting value into the box. I like the extra stuff with Ray, but what I would like more is for him to be more on-model. I also think we should have received at least three portraits with each Ghostbuster, something like a spread of neutral, serious, and scared. Neutral would vary as I think Peter’s smug expression is a good neutral for him just as I think Ray’s happy expression is a good base expression. We also really need more hands as Mondo only included gripping hands. I get wanting to do the gloves, but I’m never going to use them. What I really want are some relaxed hands as well as pointing hands so they could imitate their strut from the ending credits. What I’m getting at is the approach should have been “Let’s make these the ultimate Real Ghostbusters figures,” and I don’t get the sense that was the goal. It absolutely has been with the sixth scale X-Men and even looks be the case with the 1:12 Masters of the Universe, but not with Real Ghostbusters. Mondo doesn’t really do accessory packs from what I’ve seen too so I don’t think that’s a possibility, but maybe I’m wrong and they’re working on something. At the end of the day though, I stand by what I said in that I don’t think anyone else is going to come along and do this line better so if you want The Real Ghostbusters on your shelf in this format then you know what it’s going to cost you.

That’ll do, Mondo, that’ll do.

To read what I had to say about all of Mondo’s Real Ghostbusters action figures see below:

Mondo The Real Ghostbusters Winston Zeddemore

We are now three deep into Mondo’s line of 1:12 scale action figures based on The Real Ghostbusters. Well, we’re now six deep counting the ghosts, but I personally passed on both Boogie Man and now The Sandman who has been released in tandem with our third Ghostbuster, Winston Zeddemore. At this point, we know…

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by Joe

Mondo The Real Ghostbusters Egon Spengler

It’s a Halloween miracle! The second figure in the Mondo The Real Ghostbusters line of action figures, Egon Spengler, had been bumped to November. Even when I got my shipping notification from Mondo it said a delivery date of November 1st. It felt almost cruel to receive a Ghostbusters toy the day after Halloween, but…

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by Joe

Mondo The Real Ghostbusters Peter Venkman and Samhain

I didn’t do a big 2024 wrap-up type of post like I sometimes do, but if I did I would have awarded toy producer Mondo with the biggest reveal of the year when they debuted their line of action figures based on The Real Ghostbusters. The Real Ghostbusters was one of many 80s properties to…

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by Joe

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April 28, 2026

NECA TMNT Toon Robo Tokka and Robo Rahzar

By Joe
It’s the duo you know, but not how you expected.

The vintage Playmates toy line for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had no shortage of variants. There were beach turtles, police turtles, hockey turtles, and so on. We even had something akin to Operation: Desert Storm turtles. In looking back, it seems like few stones were left unturned unless you want to get into the weeds of licensed collaborations (the TMNT x Star Wars collab was just never meant to be, unfortunately), but don’t tell that to the fans of today still brainstorming and coming up with concepts never before explored by Playmates or anyone else. People like Sylvain Plantier, a self-described toy designer and illustrator who had a dream of robotic versions of the duo Tokka and Rahzar from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. The duo was inserted into that film pretty much because TMNT co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird wanted nothing to do with the dimwitted duo of Bebop and Rocksteady, not that it stopped the writers of the film from making Tokka and Rahzar giant, literal, babies. At least they looked scary? Due to the popularity of the characters and film, the two made their way into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon where they were quite different as characters, but visually were identical to the Playmates interpretations of the two created to promote the movie as toys. And since their TV counterparts, Bebop and Rocksteady, appear in both the toy line and the show as robots, why not extend the same to Tokka and Rahzar?

I love the design of Tokka’s shell. Rahzar’s backside isn’t very interesting, but I didn’t want him to feel left out.

Plantier at least seemed to think that was warranted and he created and shared designs for what that might look like. His concept got the attention of NECA’s Trevor Zammit who liked it so much that he proposed making figures based on Plantier’s work and incorporate them into NECA’s long-running toy line based on the vintage cartoon. And now here we are. A deal was struck and the designs were handed off to NECA sculptor Tomasz Rozejowski and a pair of what-if characters now exist in the NECA toon line. These concept figures have increased in numbers over the past few years as the line gets a bit long in the tooth. Robo Tokka and Rahzar join the likes of Wyrm, Panda Khan, Dark Leo, Samurai Mikey, and others which is a fair direction to take the line in these days as the number of characters who appeared in that show that have yet to see plastic gets rather small. This is the line that gave us the spare parts of Bebop and Rocksteady’s gang which is pretty incredible, all things considered, so while it’s fair to wonder where someone like Tempestra is, I don’t think we’re missing anyone at the expense of these fantasy creations. Besides, who really gave a shit about Tempestra when this line started?

With their flesh and blood counterparts.

Robo Tokka and Rahzar follow in the same sort of look as the robotic Bebop and Rocksteady. Plantier did a great job of creating some all new characters, but also ones that if seen by someone unfamiliar would cause them to start searching their memories for such an episode of the show. Both characters utilize some blocky components and hard edges, but also plenty of curves like one would expect to see in the show. The two are predominantly a light gray and slate gray, but they also each incorporate their own unique color to the design. Like Bebop featured red and Rocksteady yellow, Tokka has some green accents via the knee pads and pauldrons while Rahzar has some striking blue parts most prominently featured in his pauldrons and knee pads. I like how Plantier apparently gave consideration to the Playmates figures as well as both characters feature a red dome on the top of their head which I assume is to mimic the light-piping feature of the vintage toys. It would have been cool if NECA could have provided an alternate head with such a feature, but this works fine.

They display well with robotic Bebop and Rocksteady.

Let’s get more into the nuts and bolts of each one starting with Tokka. He stands at approximately 5.375″ to the top of his head. The little spike on his shell atually sits higher than his head. He’s a little shorter than the standard Tokka, but is pretty much just as stocky. He’s got these Bowser-like pauldrons that are a nice combination of green and yellow and the shell on the back of the figure mostly recalls the Playmates figure, but with fewer spikes. There are some sculpted cables about his shell and also around his neck that line up with the two rockets positioned at the top of his shell. They can come off, but they’re a little tight so I’m loathe to force it, especially since there is little reason to remove them. I like the updated “tech” Foot logo on his belt buckle as well as the attempts at creating the illusion of robotic joints, in particular the ankle area. There’s more of the light gray with this figure as compared to Bebop and Rocksteady and I think it looks better. It allows the darker gray to enhance it and provide more of an outline. I appreciate the little studs and rivets found in the design which are just numerous enough to break up the design, but not look out of place in a toy line based on an 80s cartoon. Paint for both figures was handled by Mike Puzzo and Geoff Trapp and it’s as clean and crisp as usual. The black line work on the yellow spikes is especially impressive and I remain impressed with how consistent these little details are applied by NECA’s workers.

There is a couple of weapons in the set.

Rahzar is a much bigger beast when compared with his box-mate coming in right around the 7″ mark. Like Tokka, he’s a touch shorter than the standard Rahzar, but this one is definitely bulkier by comparison. I like how his design incorporates a lot of what we associate with the character like the rounded pauldrons, the spikes on the thighs, and, of course, the grill on the abdomen. There’s a bit more of the dark gray incorporated into the design as a result of those thigh pieces, but it looks good and helps to contrast him with Tokka. I really like how the blue was incorporated as it was only a small part of the original Rahzar look in the toon and toy line, but it’s well enhanced here. I also like the asymmetrical look of the forearms since that’s a true Playmates callback if I ever did see one. Tokka did the same, but in a less obvious manner. Here Rahzar has a boxy right gauntlet and a round, spiked, left. And because NECA was apparently so committed to making these two have a large size discrepency between them, there are almost no shared parts between the two. They both use the same hands, but as far as I can tell everything else is unique. The paint on Rahzar seems a little sloppier than Tokka’s, but not to an alarming degree. There’s a tiny bit of gray on the blue part of the chin on mine as well as a light, gray, dot in the midst of the dark gray on the back of the head. The detail work is still quite impressive and overall it’s a striking figure for the shelf.

Mostly, I think of the toon Tokka and Rahzar as food monsters so I appreciate these inclusions.

The accessory load-out on these guys is a bit sparse, but perhaps that’s the result of two, unique, sculpts with little reuse potential. Each figure has three sets of hands: fists, gripping, and an open gesture. As mentioned above, the hands are the same between the two, but NECA did include a set of each for each figure so you don’t have to share any between the two which is appreciated. Each character also appears to have an intended weapon, but since these are fantasy creations, do with them as you will. For Tokka, he has a chunky sword with a spiked handguard. The inner part of the handle is blue so if you think it fits Rahzar better then go for it. The rear of the blade is serrated and the handle is black with a red diode or button on it. For Rahzar, there’s a big, spiked, mace which also features a gold spike at the end and a little white tape at the base of the handle. There’s a red button sculpted onto it as well as some red trim near the base which doesn’t really correspond with either character. The spikes on this thing are quite sharp though so do be careful. I do like both weapons, but it would have been cool to callback to Rahzar’s skull staff the old toy came with. They’re also both really hard to get into the gripping hands and I would advise not even trying out of the box. Heat them up, slot them in, and then never remove them. Lastly, we have two food items which is appropriate for the pair since it seems to be the only thing the toon versions of Tokka and Rahzar cared about (besides each other, they are the best of friends). We get a bowl of nuts, as in metal nuts, which has a sculpted spoon handle sticking out of it. It’s a fun design and may be mandatory for a display. There’s also a circuit board with a bite taken out of it. The sculpt and paint on this thing is really impressive considering it’s just this little throwaway accessory. The characters can hold that one with either a gripping hand or even the fist as the thumb is spearate from the rest of the fingers and it slides in pretty painlessly. The bowl is best held with the open hand unless you want to wedge the spoon into the fist or gripping hand, but that’s it for accessories. No blast effects are a shame as Rahzar has two guns mounted to his shoulders and Tokka the two rockets. I wonder if something was considered as there’s a small hole in the right barrel on Rahzar, though not on the left.

“Hey! Give me a bite!”

If you looked at these two and concluded that these designs would not lend themselves well to articulation then you would be correct. Articulation is never NECA’s strong suit, and much like the Usagi Yojimbo figures we looked at recently, the articulation here is going to be rather poor. Somewhat to my surprise, the better of the pair is Tokka. Both figures feature the same points of articulation: head, jaw, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees, ankles. For both, the elbows and knees are single-hinged and they do swivel which is to make up for the lack of a bicep joint in the arm. Tokka’s pauldrons are on hinges and can get out of the way to an extant. Curiosly, the fixture on my figure’s right shoulder sits higher than the left. I assume this is not by design and is just variation at the factory. The waist is basically useless on both figures as Tokka’s turtle body severely restricts it while Rahzar has that grill in place. Neighter figure can do splits or kick forward very far. Rahzar’s head is limited by that giant chin he has which also prevents his jaw from opening unless he’s looking up. His shoulder pauldrons also have no mechanism in place to help get them out of the way. Raising his arms out to the side for the old “T” pose is not happening. The two little canons on his shoulders might swivel, or might not. The right one on mine is not budging while the left came out of the box orientated incorrectly with the sight at 3 o’clock. That was my only hint that it could even move as I was able to swivel it back into place. To NECA’s credit here, nothing was stuck on my figures out of the box nor was anything loose. It might have helped that they were delivered by mail and the box sat in the sun for about an hour before I could get to it. Are we done with frozen figures until the fall? One can only hope.

“Michelangelo, I’d just like to say I really hate your plan.” “Shut up, Leonardo…”

These robotic versions of Tokka and Rahzar from Sylvain Plantier and NECA are probably what you would expect of them. The design is terrific and the sculpt and paint really bring them to life. The size and aesthetics mean they don’t slot into your vintage toy collection, but they look right at home in a NECA toon display despite never appearing in the show. I do wish we got some effect parts, but I do wonder if that’s something Nickelodeon frowns upon. It seems JoyToy can get away with such, but maybe not toys for the US market? The articulation is what it is. I don’t think anyone expects much out of NECA in that regard and at this stage of the toy line’s life it’s not something that’s going to change. If you like the design then that’s what you should base your purchasing decision on. And as for that decision, the unique tooling in place here certainly seems to have impacted the price tag. These guys are exclusive to Target in the US where they retail for $70. This two-pack is more expensive than the movie versions two-pack. These are basically priced like two NECA Ultimates, or something a little lesser since those seem to be trending towards the $40 mark. Gone are the days of the $52 two-pack, especially when it’s a set that doesn’t feature much opportunity for parts reuse. I’m not going to tell you how to spend your money, but we’re definitely at that point where I’m passing on sets because of the price. At $52 I was willing to buy just about anything, but at $70 I’m definitely selective which is why I never reviewed the Creepy Eddie and Shibano-Sama two-pack – they just didn’t seem worth it to me. This set did because I really like the designs and I think it works well for the line. Who knows what will come next for me with this line as we don’t have much confirmed past this. Each turtle is getting a unique disguise later this year and there may be a Tempestra coming, though the figure was not on display at New York Yor Fair for some reason. And then there’s the question of whether or not the line continues past 2026? The San Diego exclusive is already out and available for purchase and it’s just a black and white set of the 2012 turtles with an accessory pack. I don’t need another set of those and if the toon line is coming to an end then at least I can look forward to saving some money!

For more NECA and Tokka and Rahzar goodness, check out these:

NECA Cartoon TMNT Tokka and Rahzar

There is certainly a lot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles product flying around these days, but I would guess collectors and fans of the property are paying the most attention to two toy makers in particular: NECA and Super7. One search for “NECA” on this blog will reveal that the company has produced a ton…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Secret of the Ooze Tokka and Rahzar

Merry Boxing Day every one! I hope you enjoyed the Christmas content this year, but it’s time to go back to our usual programming. Which in 2020 means toys. And I just could not wait any longer to talk about what was probably my most anticipated release of 2020: NECA’s Tokka and Rahzar based on…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Cartoon Super Bebop and Mighty Rocksteady

2021 introduced a lot of good things for collectors of NECA’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line of action figures based on the classic cartoon. The toy maker still kept the line a Target exclusive when it came to brick and mortar, but it also started selling a lot of it online to coincide with each…

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by Joe

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

April 24, 2026

Dragon Ball Z – The Legacy of Goku II

By Joe

In the late 90s, FUNimation and various stakeholders tried to make Dragon Ball Z a thing in western markets. Both the original Dragon Ball and its sequel series Dragon Ball Z were partially dubbed and released on VHS with a syndication package sold to local networks. For the first in the US, a Dragon Ball video game (yes, I’m aware of Dragon Power, it doesn’t count), Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout, was localized and released on the PlayStation outside of Japan while retailers were sent repackaged versions of the Bandai and AB Toys action figure line. It didn’t take off. Maybe people in the US weren’t quite ready for DBZ? Or maybe the video game was terrible, the toys sucked, and the show was aired in horrible timeslots where it had no chance to take off?

If you’re at all familiar with the Dragon Ball franchise then you know that didn’t last forever. Eventually, networks gave up on it and so did apparently everyone else. Everyone except Cartoon Network who loved acquiring cheap programming to freshen up its broadcast schedule as it tried to incorporate more than just old Hanna-Barbera cartoons into its lineup. Dragon Ball Z found a home on the cable channel and it soon gained enough popularity that Cartoon Network was able to center a new anime block, dubbed Toonami, around it. The only problem was that by the time DBZ had found its audience all of the old product was basically gone. Sure, the VHS tapes were still around, but a lot of the toys had been sent to the discount bin and everyone was doing their best to forget about the PlayStation game. Well, some poor souls paid exorbitant prices for copies on the secondary market that they almost certainly would come to regret, but there was a hunger for more: more episodes, more merch, and definitely more video games.

I had to include a shot from the game’s intro because the lone DBZ animation cel that I own happens to be from this scene.

The delayed fandom in the US meant that everyone basically had to play catch-up when it came to Dragon Ball Z. And in the backs of the minds of those involved was probably the worry that this was just some fad that would crash out so speed was necessary. Infogrames was awarded the video game license which it would release on its Atari brand it had acquired somewhat recently. The first game out of the gate was The Legacy of Goku in 2002. The Game Boy Advance action-adventure role-playing game put the player in control of Goku in a top-down, Zelda-style game where the legendary hero did battle with…wolves and snakes. And often died. The game was a mess with poor collision detection and little refinement. A true cash grab in many ways as the team at Webfoot Technologies was likely given a very small window to develop and release the title. Reviewers were not kind, but since it was the first DBZ game released to a fanbase practically frothing at the mouth for a new game it sold like hotcakes and a sequel was quickly greenlit.

By all accounts, The Legacy of Goku II improved on its predecessor in just about every way possible. Set during the Android/Cell Sagas, Legacy of Goku II puts the player in control of multiple heroes in the same action RPG style with improved collision detection, new maneuvers, and new power-ups. When it arrived on the GBA in 2003, I didn’t pay it much mind. I had played the first game and can confirm it was trash so I wasn’t going to just throw money at a new one. I’m pretty sure I was aware of the improved reviews, but I never did seek it out. Not until almost ten years later when I got the itch to play a DBZ game and wanted something that wasn’t a one-on-one fighter. I picked up a copy on eBay and the post office promptly lost it. I never did get it and didn’t want to double-down by just grabbing another so I moved on. Recently, my local comic book store posted on Discord a bunch of games it had taken in on trade recently and among them was a copy of LoGII. I figured now was finally the time to put my money down (again) and see just how much better than its predecessor this one truly is.

You’ll spend most of your time fighting enemies that look like whatever this thing is.

Legacy of Goku II is once again a top-down or isometric action RPG. Since it’s on the GBA it’s a sprite-based game and all of the characters have a slightly chibi quality applied to them. They’re cute, and most of their faces are just eyes so it’s kind of like everyone has become Krillin. It works even if it’s not as impressive to look at as the later Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure. The music follows the style of the english dub at the time and while it’s not my preference, it’s largely fine if a bit repetitive. You begin the game as Gohan, but as you progress through the story you’ll unlock Piccolo, Vegeta, Trunks, and Goku. And if you clear certain conditions, there’s a post game bonus character in the form of Mr. Satan (referred to as Hercule in this one because it’s for the kids). The game picks up basically right where the previous one ended with Frieza defeated and Goku missing. The game bypasses the Garlic Junior Saga with the only reference to that being the in-game excuse for why the animals attack in the forest (they’re corrupted by the Black Water Mist). The game will take the player through the bullet points of the Android Saga and culminate with the Cell Games. During the game playable characters come and go as the story dictates meaning you will rarely have access to all of the characters at the same time. The game utilizes a Final Fantasy-like world map complete with Mode 7 scrolling which you will utilize to access various locations that are mostly familiar to fans of the show and manga. Within those maps are Capsule Corp logos where the player can save as well as switch characters. There are also maps posted in a few places within each area that will allow the player to return to the world map if they so choose.

The meat and potatoes of the game is walking around and smacking enemies. Most of the enemies you encounter will once again be relegated to wolves, snakes, and the like. Yeah, it’s pretty stupid that any of these characters would pose a challenge taking on any of these guys, but it would also be pretty boring if you could just massacre everything with ease. Characters attack with a standard melee attack while the other button is reserved for ki attacks. You have two resources to manage: health and energy. Health naturally depletes when you take damage while energy depletes as you expend ki either via attacks or transformations. Ki will slowly replenish itself, but health can only be restored by finding consumables as you defeat enemies and smash rocks in the environment or via senzu beans, which are limited, but not finite. Leveling up will also completely refill both meters. What’s much improved this time around is the hit detection. In the first game, Goku’s range was positively puny while this game is quite generous. If you think of the display as a grid your character occupies one square, but his attack will impact the three squares in front of him (the one directly in front, the one diagonally to the character’s right, and the one diagonalley to the character’s left) so you don’t have to be lined up perfectly with an enemy to strike it. It also means the enemies have an easier time hitting the player and this might get you a few times when projectiles are introduced, but it’s definitely more good than bad. Enemies and the player also can’t get pinned against a wall as being knocked back into something will cause the character to bounce off of it usually resulting in them ending up on the other side of the attacker. Again, this means you can’t pin an enemy down, but they can’t do it to you.

Behold! The best attack in the game!

When you first acquire a character they can just punch and shoot a generic ki blast, but during the course of the game they’ll learn new attacks and it’s these attacks (as well as their underlying stats) that separates the characters from each other. Each character will learn one, charged, melee attack which doesn’t cost anything to use, but leaves you open while charging. With any attack, charging it locks the character in place and they can’t change direction so you do need to make sure you have the enemy lined up properly. For Gohan, he gets a a jump kick that helps close gaps. Vegeta has an overhand smash while Trunks attacks with his sword in an arc. Goku has a flurry punch while Piccolo gets the lamest attack as he just spins around with his fists outstretched. It seems to lack the range of the others, but he arguably makes up for it with one of the best energy attacks. And that would be his Special Beam Canon which fires straight ahead and through any enemy it touches. Piccolo can easily clear a screen of enemies with that one while his second attack, the Scatter Shot, is basically a spread shot from a game like Contra. Vegeta has his Big Bang Attack which has a slight vacuum quality to it as it pulls enemies in, though his second energy attack is just a punch. I have no idea where they got that from. Trunks gets perhaps the most abused special attack, his Burning Attack, which is just a weak ki blast that happens to stun the enemy it touches. And unlike say Sub-Zero and his freeze attacks in Mortal Kombat, the stun doesn’t dissipate after Trunks strikes the enemy. It basically persists for 3 seconds and since it’s so cheap to use it makes playing as Trunks a breeze. It even works on bosses! His second attack is just an energy sword wave. Goku has his Kamehameha which is surprisingly weak. It persists like Piccolo’s Special Beam Canon as long as the attack button is held down, but it doesn’t go through enemies and seems to burn through ki incredibly fast. On the other hand, his Spirit Bomb is quite destructive and will stun all of the enemies on screen as well, even ones it doesn’t hit. This does have a downside as once the stun vanishes the enemy immediately goes aggro, but it’s usually nothing Goku can’t handle. Gohan, who will likely end up being your most powerful character, has pretty lame special attacks. His Masenko was turned from a beam attack into a grenade as it arcs making it hard to aim. The longer you charge it the further it goes. His second attack is the Kamehameha and it sucks just as much as Goku’s version.

Transforming into a Super Saiyan is now possible and believe me, it’s most useful moment is for moving these stupid eggs.

Introduced for Legacy of Goku II are transformations. As expected, all of the playable Saiyans will eventually unlock the ability turn into a Super Saiyan. Doing so requires the player to stand still for a couple of seconds to initiate the transformation, but once completed the player’s speed will be increased and damage output is also better. It’s not a huge boost and it’s really the speed that matters here, a point driven home during the brief period in the game when the “Ascended” Super Saiyan power-up is unlocked via Trunks and Vegeta who suddenly move like tanks. Thankfully, that chapter is short-lived as it renders the transformation worthless. While transformed the player’s energy reserves constantly deplete and if you’re not finding replenishing items you will likely run out and revert back to your standard form. This is really only a concern in boss battles, but if you have a senzu bean or two you can mitigate that. As for the one non Saiyan, Piccolo gets his “Fuse with Kami” transformation which is treated just like a Super Saiyan transformation even though it makes no sense. Instead of getting a new hairstyle though, Piccolo removes his cap and cape.

The game is not terribly long and features a level cap of 50. It’s also not really well paced as there will be times when you need to grind away in order to gain levels and progress. There are even some areas locked behind a level gate (I think you have to get to level 40 to challenge Cell, for example) that are part of the story while others are extra areas. They’re key in unlocking Hercule as every character has a level 50 door only they can open, including Hercule himself. If you don’t enjoy playing as Hercule, I’ll save you the time and tell you his door is just an alternate ending that’s not particularly interesting. Just more of Hercule taking credit for killing Cell. He unlocks at level 40 so you have some grinding ahead if you want to access the final door. Playing as him is not as challenging as you may have expected for even though he’s incredibly weak, his lone special attack stuns every enemy on screen (he simply poses which I guess entrances all around him) and costs almost nothing to use.

Open all of the level 50 doors and beat the game and you get to play as this guy.

The game is an improvement over The Legacy of Goku in almost every way, but what it fails to do is create a compelling gameplay experience. Legacy of Goku II is still a pretty shallow experience, it’s just no longer broken. Most of your time is spent just mindlessly slaughtering woodland critters that will respawn the second you return to the same screen. There are a few special items to find throughout the game and non-player characters will make requests of the player, but it’s all very basic, easy, stuff. There’s one optional boss, Cooler, but little in the way of easter eggs. I would guess there was still a tight schedule with this one and just not enough time to insert more content into the package. Not that bonus fights against Broly or Super Android 13 would add much as the boss fights are truly lackluster. The only ones I found challenging are actually the earliest as Androids 19 and 20 are able to absorb energy attacks forcing you to take them on with just your fists. For many, you can often place some structure in between the enemy and player character and cheese them. Once you’re powered up, overwhelming bosses is also pretty easy and there aren’t many enemies in the game that will force you to change tactics. Just pound them and when their health is low bust out an energy attack. The only challenge with boss characters is that they have ranged attacks and melee ones. For most enemies, the tactic is to hit them with a ki attak and then charge the melee one as they approach. You can’t always do that against a boss, but there is a certain range that once you’re inside it they basically stop using ki attacks so it’s still pretty easy to do them in with charged melee strikes.

Later game bosses like Cell at least have some presence, but they behave more or less like every other garden variety enemy in the game.

The lack of spectacle with this game is a bummer. It’s also the little details which tend to bother me too. After Goku and Gohan emerge from the Room of Spirit and Time they’re in base form, not Super Saiyan. Gohan, for some reason, wears his Saiyan armor into the fight against Cell and not his typical gi and, post game, you can’t use Super Saiyan 2. There’s a lot of stuff that could have been playable, but isn’t. And when you do summon Shenron you don’t even get to see him! Just his tail dangles from the top of the screen. As a result, I hesitate to call The Legacy of Goku II a good game. It’s not bad. The first game was a broken mess (and the third seems to be as well) and was rightly slammed for it. I think with this one being at least a competent experience it caused some to overrate it when it came out. And when it came out in 2003 the pickings were still incredibly slim as Budokai had come out the previous December and was similar in that it was a pretty middling experience that Infogrames would need to improve upon with a sequel. The Legacy of Goku II was almost by default the best Dragon Ball Z game available, but that is no longer the case. I don’t think it’s even the best game for the franchise on the Game Boy Advance as I’d much rather play Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure. Still, I didn’t hate my time with this one and I’m glad I did finally play it. I’m just unlikely to ever return to it.

If you’re curious about some of the other Dragon Ball video games covered in this space then check these out:

Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure

In the West, it took awhile for Dragon Ball to make an imprint with US audiences. It was localized and brought over in the mid-90s in the hopes of making money in syndicated markets. There were over 200 episodes, so the reasoning was sound, but it just didn’t take off. It wasn’t until the property…

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by Joe

Dragon Ball Z – Budokai HD Collection

Oh, you thought we were done with DBZ?! Oh no, I have some more Dragon Ball related material to share with you and even though we’re done with the movies, I thought now was as good a time as any to talk about some video games. If you’re a usual reader, you may recall I…

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by Joe

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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by Joe

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March 27, 2026

Dragon Ball GT

By Joe
Step into the grand tour!

One of my Dragon Ball blind spots is the sequel anime series Dragon Ball GT. It’s not exactly a true blind spot as I had seen some episodes and experienced the bullet points of the series via video games, but I have never sat down and watched it from start to finish. And that’s largely due to the series having a rather poor reputation. When the Dragon Ball manga ended in 1995 it marked the end of a decade of nose to the grindstone work for series creator Akira Toriyama. The life of a manga writer and artist is a busy one and the guy was ready to take a break and move on. The only problem was the manga had been adapted into an anime series and was very successful. Toei, the company that produced the anime, wanted more and like they had done already with a series of Dragon Ball movies they decided to create a new series largely on their own. Toriyama, to his credit, was fine with that. He gave the company a concept, a name, and even provided new designs for his characters and then largely left the rest to Toei. Aya Matsui would write, Osamu Kasai would direct, Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, designed the new characters and power-ups, while Akihito Tokunaga composed the music for the new series which Toriyama had named Dragon Ball Grand Tour, or Dragon Ball GT for short.

Considering that we are in a bit of a holding pattern with Dragon Ball following the death of Toriyama, I figured now was as good a time as any to make some time and view all 64 episodes of Dragon Ball GT for myself. I have certainly been guilty in the past of dismissing it out of hand or referring to it as a lesser show, and while that may be true, it’s not exactly fair of me to pass judgement on something I’ve never actually sat down and watched. I did sit down and watch the English dub of the series which is presently available via Hulu. It is perhaps not the best version of the show because while the English cast is fine and comprised largely of the people you know and love from the past series, it contains a new soundtrack that I really did not like at all. I suppose it was similar in spirit to the original English broadcast soundtrack for Dragon Ball Z credited to Bruce Faulconer, but I strongly would have preferred the soundtrack from Tokunaga. This soundtrack is more guitar driven, but it’s a very synthesized sounding guitar like industrial music. There’s often a dissonance to it and it’s very plodding and I just found it exhausting. It might be the rare anime where if given the choice I’d just go for the subtitled option if it meant I got to enjoy the music. And considering it’s Dragon Ball, it’s not like there’s a ton of dialogue that I really felt I needed to pay attention to.

We have ourselves an ominous new dragon.

That said, what are some things that I found Dragon Ball GT did well? Well, for one, there’s the music and it extends to the opening theme “Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku” which was adapted for the English broadcast and adapted well. It does unfortunately contain vocals by a voice actor who was outed during the whole Me Too thing so I don’t feel like name-dropping him, but I’ll at least acknowledge that I enjoy the performance. The ending themes I enjoyed less so, but the initial one “Hitori Janai” was the best of them. That one was performed by Stephanie Young. The animation and artwork throughout GT is consistently good as well. It doesn’t have the same action set pieces of Dragon Ball Z, but it also never has episodes where the quality drops in an obvious manner. In this, it’s much closer to the consistency of the Buu saga. The voice actors also do a fine job and Stephanie Nadolny gets to reprise her role as Goku for plot reasons which is a treat to experience again.

As for that plot. While I like the setup, it does seem to quickly run out of steam. At the start of the series we find Goku (Sean Schemmel) and Uub (Sean Teague) engaged in a sparring match at Earth’s look-out. A few years have passed since the end of Dragon Ball Z where Goku abandoned his family to train Uub, the reincarnation of Kid Buu, so he could be Earth’s next defender. He’s apparently done now so Uub heads home while a familiar trio invades the lookout. Pilaf (Chuck Huber), along with Mai (Julie Franklin) and Shu (Chris Cason), have returned and are after the Black Star Dragon Balls. What are the Black Star Dragon Balls? They are apparently the Dragon Balls created by Kami before he purged himself of the wickedness in his heart which gave birth to Piccolo. They have apparently just been hanging out at the lookout this whole time and for some reason did not become inert when Kami ceased to be. Pilaf and the gang have little trouble in locating these balls, which look just like the regular Dragon Balls save for the stars are black instead of red, and they summon Red Shenron to grant their wish. Goku, noticing the changing color of the sky, investigates before a wish can be made and recognizes the now elderly Pilaf. Pilaf gets frustrated because Goku always messed things up for him in the past and, in a moment of frustration, wishes he was just a kid again. Shenron, hearing this, takes it literally and turns Goku into a child and then disappears scattering the Black Star Dragon Balls not across the Earth, but across the galaxy. This is apparently a big problem as King Kai (Schemmel) pops into Goku’s head to tell him that without the Black Star Dragon Balls the Earth will explode. Yeah, a pretty big deal and it sure seems like Dende should have taken better care of these things given that. It basically falls on Goku, Trunks (Eric Vale) and Goku’s middle school aged granddaughter Pan (Elise Baughman) to travel the galaxy in a Capsule Corp spaceship and bring those balls back before the Earth explodes.

I do like that it’s Pilaf that sets this whole thing in motion, even if it makes little sense.

What I like about this setup is it takes GT back to the roots of Dragon Ball and quite literally by turning Goku into a kid again. After that though things start to go down hill and rather quickly. The first dozen or so episodes are adventure focused, but the gang never really finds a worthwhile adventure I enjoyed watching. Pan is portrayed as an annoying character who is quick to get angry, especially when the crew takes on a little android named Giru (Sonny Strait). She is vicious to the sympathetic little robot and it’s like the show wants me to hate this kid. Goku, for his part, isn’t all that much better. He’s a bit aloof, but constantly complaining about being hungry. I know, we get it, Goku likes to eat and eat a lot. GT returns to that well far too often and it loses any and all comedic value. He also tends to forget how powerful he is and there were many moments where I just felt frustrated by what was going on because Goku should be able to handle it no problem. He just chooses not to. Sometimes the show will make a joke out of it, but not often. They do take away his ability to use his instant transmission maneuver as I guess they just found it was too powerful, but there’s no attempt to explain it. He just can’t do it as a kid for some reason. Trunks is more of a stabilizing presence and he’s fine in that role.

The show arguably doesn’t get rolling until we enter the Baby saga. While hunting for the Dragon Balls, the gang encounters a Dr. Myuu (Duncan Brannon) who is a total rip-off of Dr. Gero. He’s created an artificial lifeform called Baby (sound familiar?) which can absorb others and use them to gain power, but also requires a host body to reach his full potential. Baby (Mike McFarland) is born of the Truffle race, an alien lifeform that was eradicated by the Saiyans, which is a detail I actually do like. He wants revenge against all Saiyans which is what brings him to Earth. He there takes over the body of Vegeta (Christopher Sabat) and also infects almost everyone on Earth creating a sort of hive mind. It’s during this arc that we get introduced to the most memorable part of Dragon Ball GT: Super Saiyan 4.

If the show had stuck to the adventure theme it starts off with it might have been better, though it still might not have been very good.

As a concept, I like Super Saiyan 4. I don’t know if I would have designed the look exactly like the one presented here, but the idea of a Saiyan reverting to his primal ape form and then harnessing that into this new Super Saiyan form is a good one. However, I hate Super Saiyan 4 Goku. For some reason he gets extremely cocky in this form. He talks in a lower tone (think Goku Black if you’ve watched Dragon Ball Super) and just comes across like a dick. It feels so out of character for Goku who can display confidence, but not to this extent and not in this manner. He acts like the fusion character Vegito, just without Vegeta’s voice literally filtering into his speech. It was also during this arc that it really became apparent that Goku basically has one move: Kamehameha. You will get sick of hearing Goku say that long, drawn out word by the time you’re done with GT. The action is so uninspired throughout the series and seems to only get worse as it goes on. Almost every confrontation is between two fighters who are unmatched. Whether it’s Goku or the villain, someone is at an obvious disadvantage to the point where they don’t even have to take the other fighter seriously. It makes for a drama-free experience and the only thing that turns the tide of battle is basically a new power-up.

After the Baby saga comes the Super Android 17 arc which is quite brief. It’s also inexplicable because the show basically draws attention to how the character Dr. Myuu is just a Gero knock-off by having the two team-up! And their team-up occurs in Hell where for some reason they’ve been allowed to keep their bodies (it’s best not to think about continuity with this series) and create a carbon copy of Android 17 in Hell. Some how. He is apparently able to control the real 17 and get him to open a portal to Hell so all of the bad guys can escape and run amok like an episode of Animaniacs. It’s a bit of a rehash of the twelfth Dragon Ball Z movie, but without charm. It’s terrible, let’s move on.

Oh, look! Another Kamehameha!

The final arc is the Shadow Dragon one and, again, it’s a solid concept that is just not well executed. Goku (who is still a kid and will remain one the whole series) and the gang try to make a wish with the Dragon Balls only for them to break. Black smoke comes out and with it comes the Shadow Dragons. Earth has made too many wishes in a short period of time and they’re being punished for it. The writers are essentially punishing themselves for this easy get out of jail free card baked into the series. In order to set things right, Goku has to beat each Shadow Dragon and recover the Dragon Ball imbedded in them. A few have a gimmick to them that Goku has to overcome while the finale, Omega Shenron (Sabat), is just a really strong guy. It culminates in a battle that’s really drawn out and almost never interesting. It’s always one-sided. The writers also never figure out a new way to end a confrontation. It’s always a riff on something from before. They absolutely love having the other Saiyan characters lend their energy to Goku so he can power himself up which is something that only previously took place in the movies. It’s not a gimmick I have ever liked. There wasn’t one new wrinkle to come up with?

If you like Super Saiyan 4, save yourself some time and just get an action figure or learn to love it from afar.

Dragon Ball GT has the reputation of being the worst Dragon Ball series to date and it’s a well earned reputation. While I do think the people working on it had good intentions and tried their best, it just feels formulaic and too derivative of itself to be any good. There’s very little in the way of creativity and while Dragon Ball is certainly guilty of repeating itself quite a bit, it’s usually able to find some way to put a spin on things or at least be charming in the process. GT drops almost all of that charm in favor of a cookie cutter, disposable, experience. It’s ending is lackluster and just as unsatisfying as the ending to Dragon Ball Z, something I’ve never talked about in this space but is an ending I despise. I get that Goku is a bit of a dolt who just loves to eat and train, possibly in the opposite order, and we’re supposed to laugh when he just up and abandons his family to go train Uub. If Z had not created Pan and showed us how much she idolized her grandfather in those few episodes at the end of the series it might have worked for me, but instead it just makes me sad. I don’t like thinking of Goku as a selfish piece of shit, but he’s sometimes written that way. GT has a very similar ending, but since I was looking forward to the series being over it didn’t bother me nearly as much. This isn’t a good series. You’re actually way better off just experiencing it through the video games which basically gives you the Cliff Notes version of the series and lets you act out battles that are probably way more satisfying than what’s actually in the show. And if you love Super Saiyan 4, go buy an action figure or just watch Dragon Ball Daima which takes a lot of the concepts baked into GT, but actually does them well. Only watch the series if you’re like me and don’t properly value the 30 or so hours of your life it takes to get through all 64 episodes.

If you must hear more about Dragon Ball GT then here are some toy reviews you may find interesting:

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Daima Super Saiyan 4 Son Goku (Mini)

It’s no great secret that the black sheep of the Dragon Ball universe is the anime Dragon Ball GT. Created in-house by Toei animation, Dragon Ball GT was a continuation of Dragon Ball Z without creator Akira Toriyama. While Toriyama had to grant approval to many aspects of the series, he wasn’t directly involved with…

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by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball GT Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta

We’re back with another action figure review from everyone’s favorite version of Dragon Ball: Dragon Ball GT! And really, the only thing people remember from Dragon Ball GT is the Super Saiyan 4 transformation. Designed to bring the Saiyans back to their more primal roots, the Super Saiyan 4 transformation is pretty much on an…

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by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball GT Super Saiyan 4 Goku

In the world of Dragon Ball, there are varying opinions on which version of the anime is superior. Dragon Ball Z is unquestionably the most popular, but there are people (like me) out there who swear by the original Dragon Ball that came before it. More recently, Dragon Ball Super has entered the fray and…

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by Joe

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March 24, 2026

JoyToy TMNT Turtle Van

By Joe
Apparently, I needed another Turtle Van.

The Batmobile. The Time Machine. Ecto-1. The Turtle Van! Yes, I am placing the iconic vehicle of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the same category as those unforgettable franchise vehicles. And the crazy thing is that of those four, only one of them has never existed in live-action and it’s, of course, the Turtle Van. The Turtle Van was created for the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mini series. I suspect, since that whole production was overseen by toymaker Playmates, it was a directive from the toy company to include a themed vehicle because they knew getting a vehicle to market for the kids to place their action figures inside was a priority. When the van made its debut in plastic it was as the Party Wagon. The more bus-like design was still recognizable, but not exact, to what was seen in the cartoon. As a kid, I honestly don’t remember that ever being a point of contention for me and I was the sort of kid who wanted his toys to resemble what I was seeing on TV. The undersized Technodrome with its purple eye topper bugged me, but not the boxy van. I think it’s because both designs got the major details right: the grimacing front bumper, the logo on the nose, the spoiler on the top, the shell pattern to the roof, the twin canons. Those were all the hallmarks of the Van/Party Wagon and it was great to have a toy of it. I got it as an Easter present from my grandmother (she loved any excuse to give her grandkids presents) and she can be heard boasting on camera how hard it was to get ahold of and that she really wanted to deliver it for Christmas the prior year (don’t weep for me, I got the sewer lair). I loved that toy and would get a lot of use out of it, but I didn’t get a show accurate Turtle Van until NECA made one in 2023. And now, thanks to JoyToy, I have another.

Let’s get things started with what you all came for: comparisons to NECA, Hasbro (Transformers), and Mattel (Hot Wheels)

JoyToy’s 1:18 scale line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been a blast to collect. It was last fall we found out that JoyToy wasn’t content to just do figures, but vehicles as well. Or at least one vehicle, the mighty Turtle Van. Clearly based on the look of the vehicle in the original series, this 1:18 scale vehicle measures approximately 10.5″ long, 7″ wide, and 7.5″ to the top of the spoiler. If the NECA one is in 1:12 scale, that puts this one from JoyToy in approximately the same ballpark. The front of this design is rounded so it translates to about a 15′ long vehicle while the NECA one with its more stubby front would be 14′. The other measurements also translate pretty well. The JoyToy approach is to take the look of the vehicle on television, and dirty it up. Add some realism and incorporate as many display options as possible. The box it comes in is a big window and it’s very similar to the figure boxes we see. Some assembly is required out of the box as the spoiler needs to be attached. It comes in three pieces plus two covers for each side. It’s very easy to snap together and it’s configured in such a way that it would be extremely hard to mess up. It also requires two AAA batteries for what I think were unadvertised lights on the front and rear of the vehicle. After you get that stuff together you’re basically good to go.

We’ve got working lights, folks.

The Turtle Van is a plastic vehicle that does utilize rubber for the tires. There appears to be suspension in each tire as there’s a nice, springy, quality, but I can’t see an actual spring to know that for certain. Most of the vehicle is a pale yellow with a pretty heavy paint wash applied to give the vehicle a grimy appearance. They do park it in a sewer, after all. There’s the logo across the spoiler as well as on the front tire cover. The printing on the spoiler is very crisp and clean while the painted logo on the front (which is sculpted into the tire cover) is a little less crisp, but acceptable. There’s translucent, red, plastic in use on the top lights as well as the radar dish over the cabin. Unfortunately, those lights (as well as the dome light inside) do not light up. The side mirrors look like they may be a decal which, unfortunately, is not mirrored. There’s some nice black linework in parts and the wash is applied basically everywhere as well as on the interior.

In addition to the doors opening, the top of the cabin also comes off to make placing figures much easier.

And for the interior, we get a nice bench seat up front with seatbelts sculpted into the bench, but are otherwise non-functional. There’s sculpted details in the dash for the radio and clear plastic is utilized for the windows and windshield. If you were ever wondering, the Turtle Van has crank windows. I do wish the glass for the windows could pop off easily to simulate an open window, but at least I don’t have to worry about losing them. The rear of the van is accessible by opening the top of the van. The front of the roof can also pop off. Back there is a computer and some more equipment sculpted into the side walls. The center ladder can fold down into the floor allowing those in the back to see and communicate with those riding up front. As for other parts that open, we have the sides of the van with the driver’s side having the fold down platform and the right side swings open and has the laser canon mounted on it. The rear doors also open. They’re all easily accessible, though I do find it easiest to push from the inside of the vehicle. The rear doors feel sturdy while the front doors are slightly flimsy as the connection point is pretty small. If you have the NECA van the doors are very similar to that one in terms of feel.

The ladder can be pulled down and of course the rear doors open.

As for play and accessories, well there’s a lot to talk about. We’ll start with the canons on top which can pivot up and down. The barrel also pulls out to resemble the look of the guns in the show, but if you like the more compact look that’s there for you as well. The side turret is collaspable and once unfolded can accommodate a character sitting in it and firing away. Like the top canons, the barrel for this one can also be pulled out to better resemble the show and the two bombs underneath it are also removable. The front spare tire cover pops off to not reveal a spare tire, but a spot for the included pizza slice. Everyone needs an emergency stash. The panel is hard to remove the first time as it has a little gap at the bottom, but it’s quite close to the bumper so getting a fingernail in there can be a challenge. There’s a toolbox affixed to the exterior of the rear door and we get a litany of tools to put in it: hammer, two wrenches, two screwdrivers. If you don’t like it though you can pop that off and replace it with a spare tire which has a mount that holds it in place. Those rear doors are also a little on the flimsy side so you do want to exercise caution when trying to pry the tool box open or off when it’s on the door. For the guns, we do get effect parts. The two canons on top can accept a spiral blast done with translucent red plastic. There’s also two smaller blast effects that are red translucent plastic with some metallic orange paint sprayed over the base. There are also two smoke trail effects that are gray with a black wash. You can actually use all of these in three places: top canons, side canon, and the exhaust ports on the back. If you want a gun to look like it’s smoking from use you can do that. If you want the exhaust to look like it’s backfiring with a blast effect then go for it.

Just like in the show, the driver’s side has a platform for a turtle to attack from while the passenger side has a pop-out turret for when the turtles would rather use firepower than martial arts.

Inside the van we also get a few options. There’s a port in the middle of the floor which can accept a stool. It can also accept this big, mechanical, pillar which has two options for it. Option one is another turret that has three canons intended to be utilized with the three included grappling hooks. These hooks come on a wired piece to look like they’re being fire, but you can also remove the hook and insert that into the turret like it’s loaded as opposed to firing. What these turrets can’t do is accept any of the other effect parts unless you tip it up and let gravity keep such in place since the fit is too loose. And it is articulated so you can adjust the pitch of the turret. If you don’t want to use that though then you also have a platform. Yes, the very one from the classic TV intro that launches the turtles is finally realized in toy form. It has four peg holes on as well as four slots for an articulated armature which is also included. The armature can swivel and has three articulation points plus a grabby claw at the end so at least one of your turtles can be in mid-leap. It does get crowded if you want all four turtles on there and the pillar is a bit wobbly, but if you’re determined it can be done. There’s also a trio of included traffic cones and two fire extinguishers, with slots for them by the side panel of the van. There’s also a hazard marker for when the van gets a flat and the turtles need to pull over to swap out a tire.

Tool box, hidden pizza, safety first traffic cones – they have it all!

This sucker has a lot of function to it, but what most likely care about beyond the aesthetics is just how does it do with the figures? Overall, pretty good, but it does become apparent quickly that these turtle figures from JoyToy were never really meant to sit down. They have a lot of stuff on their thighs and belts that gets in the way, but you can certainly do it. The steering wheel is removable so you can place that in the hands of a figure before sticking them in the cabin if you find that easier. The characters sit pretty far forward on the bench seat, but it’s only really noticeable with the doors open. With a figure like April, she too sits forward and it looks a little silly from the side as there’s a gap of about 3/4ths of an inch between her and the seat back. I think this is a result of having to make sure the turtles and their bulky shells can fit. They fit more easily into the side turret, though basically all of the turtles should go without holstered weapons if being placed in said turret or in the cabin. In light of that, it would have been neat if JoyToy had built in storage for their weapons. The rear of the van is a little short in height for the turtles to stand up straight, but anyone who has been in a work van probably knows the feeling. It mostly only becomes awkward if you want someone at the computer. Could they have gone a little bigger with the design? Of course, but I don’t really fault the design here. It’s plenty big as it is when it comes to shelf real estate.

Grappling hooks, laser canons, and the ever popular turtle launcher!

To probably the surprise of no one who has experience with JoyToy, I think this van turned out fantastic. I just don’t have many complaints with this thing. The tool box and front cover are a bit stubborn. The hubcap on the passenger side front tire keeps popping off on me. I wish the interior light worked, but I get why it doesn’t since that portion of the roof is removable. One of my canon blasts is a little warped, but I bet I can fix that with a little hot water pretty easily. Aside from that – nothing. This thing looks fantastic. I think it’s easily the best Turtle Van ever released. Now, I don’t have Super7’s very expensive take on the Party Wagon, but I don’t feel like I need to have that in my hands to know I like this one better. This design is great. I like the rounded off front and it has all of the details that I think matter most. I love the inclusion of the platform and it’s great to get all of the extra stuff we got which is something that was really lacking with the NECA van. I like that one too and it’s great for my NECA turtles, but if I could only keep one I think I’d have to side with JoyToy. And that’s before I even get to the price which for me, shipped, was $153. I may have been on the high side too as some people are getting this for closer to $135. That’s a hell of a good deal in today’s market for a vehicle in this scale and at this level of quality. Of course, the drawback is you do have to buy it from an import shop as JoyToy isn’t licensed to sell TMNT product to North America. It hasn’t been much of an issue though and there are plenty of reputable shops to buy from. If you think this thing looks great, then I say go for it. I have no idea where I’m going to put it, but it’s a good problem to have.

If you want my thoughts on other Turtle Vans or wish to see more from JoyToy then check these out:

NECA TMNT Toon Turtle Van

It’s our last Turtle Tuesday before Christmas, though probably not of the year, and it’s a pretty big one: The Turtle Van! NECA solicited its version of the Turtle Van based on the same from the animated series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles back in April of 2022. It was originally scheduled to be released before…

by Joe

JoyToy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

It’s been said before and it will be said again: everyone is making Ninja Turtles. It feels like the list of companies not making Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is smaller than the list of those who are. Viacom has not been shy about licensing the brand out to toy makers and it’s reaching a point…

by Joe

Transformers x Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Party Wallop

The list of properties the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles haven’t crossed over with gets shorter by the day. When I look back to the 1980s, I view the big action figure lines as Star Wars, Masters of the Universe, Transformers, The Real Ghostbusters, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. TMNT has crossed over with Ghostbusters in…

by Joe

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March 17, 2026

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Shredder (2003)

By Joe
Here comes the bad guy.

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.

He’s got some size on the turtles.

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.”

Technically, this is the Shredder. What a little stinker.

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.

He’s a master of intimidation.

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.

I don’t care for this curve.
The unmasked portrait is fine, but has some paint issues.

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.

These colors aren’t right.

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.

Too bad he doesn’t have a scabbard.

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.

He kicks high.

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.

These two are destined to battle.

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.

Leonardo wins – always.

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.

“I’ll be back!”

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

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003)

Who isn’t making Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures these days? It’s becoming a far easier thing to keep track of than just who is making them. For years, it was the domain of Playmates Toys and only Playmates Toys. NECA tried to get in on that TMNT action in 2008 and it ended prematurely…

Keep reading
by Joe

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Guerrilla Gorilla

It feels like the last few times I’ve made a Super7 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles post I’ve wondered if it’s my last one so I’m going to stop trying to predict that. This one comes courtesy of Big Bad Toy Store and their generous summer of deals. I wasn’t going to pick up this particular…

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by Joe

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Triceraton

My summer of discounts continues today with yet another Super7 Ultimates! release. Back when wave 7 of Super7’s line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was unveiled I quickly locked in a preorder for three figures: Punker Don, Robotic Bebop, and Triceraton. By the time the line released way, way, late, I only ended up with…

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by Joe

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March 12, 2026

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Super Saiyan Goku – The Games Begin

By Joe
Hey look! Another Goku!

It was around 8 years ago that Bandai released an update to their Goku body. Dubbed the 2.0 mold, the company has since created many action figures of the legendary hero since then. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the sculpt, but some aspects of it have become dated. When Bandai wanted to do an update to Goku’s legendary Super Saiyan form, the company opted to completely redo the body rather than kitbash something together. New molds have been created for the likes of Gohan, Trunks, Krillin, and others and many collectors were left to wonder when Bandai would turn its attention to the protagonist of the series once again – a 3.0 body that it could then utilize for another round of different Goku figures.

This new Goku represents an upgrade over the 2.0 body (left) by incorporating some of the design changes implemented with the Super Hero Gohan (right).

That 3.0 body has arrived. And to debut the look Bandai turned to a pretty familiar look for Goku – that of a Super Saiyan. Dubbed “The Games Begin,” this Goku is specifically from The Cell Games era of Dragon Ball Z, an era of the show and manga most would describe as the peak of the show’s art. Those rounded edges of Dragon Ball and early Z were gone, replaced with sharp angles and well-muscled super men. I’m not here to say that everyone thinks this is the best of DBZ or Dragon Ball as a whole, but if you encounter licensing art outside the show chances are it’s going to resemble this era of the anime. And the franchise has basically retained this style ever since with the most radical departures being the Broly film and Dragon Ball Daima. Perhaps coincidentally, we did get a Daima Goku prior to this one – a figure I didn’t seek out. Some of the articulation tweaks Bandai made for that figure have been carried over to this one and it seems likely that these are here to stay.

Quality control is, unfortunately, a problem here as the faces struggle to fit the hair piece leaving behind small gaps.

The main difference in stylistic approach for this Goku update is the move away from an all sculpt approach to one that mixes sculpted parts with overlays. We saw Bandai kick the tires on such a style with Krillin and the Super Hero version of Gohan. There’s basically a sculpted base body with a rubbery overlay laid over the top of that for the upper portion of the gi. It presents better, and it removes the obstacle of trying to match paints to colored plastic as they no longer have to paint the exposed flesh of the chest, but it does change how the figures articulate. The other big change is the move away from those pegged-in sleeve cuffs Goku used to sport. The portions of the gi that covered his shoulders were always plastic caps that pegged directly into the shoulder. It made articulating the arm easy, but it did look kind of odd. The biggest change though is the move from a double-jointed knee to a single-jointed one. That is basically completely new and it’s the element of this design we saw on the Daima Goku first. Goku’s baggy pants always made sculpting the double joint a little messy and the shape of the pants also limited how much range the figure could get at the knee. Someone at Tamashii Nations must have been looking at that joint and concluded “What’s the point?” If it can only achieve a slightly better than 90 degree bend then why not try a single joint that basically does the same thing and presents better?

The alternate hair is arguable worse when it comes to gaps, and mine has a defect on that center piece of hair as well.

We’ll tackle the presentation element first. This new Goku stands at approximately 5.5″ to where I estimate the top of his head would be under all of the Super Saiyan hair. He’s essentially the same height as the 2.0 Goku when the torso hinge is not extended. If you were someone who liked displaying Goku with his torso stretched to the max then this one is slightly shorter. The faces look enough like Goku while the hair shape is appropriate. The sculpt on the body is more muscled and bulky which is appropriate for this era of the show. It does give him a slightly stocky look though. When I look at individual parts and limbs, it all seems fine, but put together it just looks a little off. Maybe his legs need to be a little longer? Is the neck too thick? There is a hinge in the joint where the head meets the neck and if the head is seated all the way down it makes the issue worse. I definitely prefer it extended. The torso uses some mixed media. We have the soft, orange, overlay with hard plastic underneath it. The overlay has a softer appearance that’s slightly pale compared with the harder plastic parts. It clashes a little with the orange of the lower torso and legs as the two have a different finish. The overlay also doesn’t include Goku’s blue undershirt so Bandai still needed to paint the exposed portion of his chest. The neck, face, and arms are unpainted for the flesh tone, but Bandai got pretty close with the painted part as far as matching the bare plastic goes. Like the overlay, it just has a different finish and thus reflects light differently so there’s a noticeable difference, but it’s not as extreme as we’ve seen with past releases.

The new knees at least turned out well.

The belt is a floating piece while the wristbands are now separate and unpainted. All of the blues on the upper body are different hues which is a little strange looking, but not necessarily inaccurate. The crotch area is done the way we’ve seen Bandai do it with more recent releases like Future Trunks.. Those floating, spacers, are gone and instead we have legs with obvious thigh swivels. Bandai cuts them out on a curve and has the side of the pants run higher than the front which seems needlessly complicated. It looks better from a straight side angle, but from the front it looks worse than an old-fashioned thigh cut. The single jointed knees do present cleaner and the boots are similar to the Legendary Super Saiyan Goku. Most of the paint on this figure is reserved for the details on the boots which is clean. The rest of the paint is mostly shading on the front of the pants which is heavier near the boots and lessens as it moves up the figure’s legs. The hair is done with pale yellow plastic and shaded with a soft orange which is a nice look and probably my preferred approach for Super Saiyan hair.

It would have been nice to get an effect part. I had to take this from a past Goku.

Did Bandai knock this one out of the park in terms of a visual upgrade? Not really. The arms definitely look better without those plastic caps pegged in, but I don’t like the look of the mixed media on the torso. There’s more front-to-back bulk in the torso which was my biggest issue with the old design, but the chest sill comes across as a little flat. The knees are definitely an improvement, but the thighs are not. I really hate this approach Bandai has been using lately. He also has that weird, droopy, butt Daima Vegeta has. I’m pretty conflicted here, so let’s move on to the rest.

This new shin joint is pretty weird.
Range is better, but it can get pretty gappy.

The accessory load out is pretty basic for Goku, but considering he’s in that more budget price of $35-$38 that’s to be expected. We get four faces for this one: stoic, teeth gritting, yelling, and a smirk where his eyes have that rounded-off look to them. We also get two hair pieces in the form of a standard one and a windswept one. Unfortunately, the windswept hair I received has a chewed-up portion on the center piece of hair on the front attachment. It’s pretty awful and I don’t know if I’ll ever display this one as a result. The faces and hair also do not go together well. This is a figure out of the Vietnam factory and we’ve seen that one have issues with the finer details of its output. With this one, it’s a struggle to get the faces to fit flush on either hair piece and you should probably just try and heat the hair first to see if that helps. The spikey nature of the hair also makes trying to use force to fit them together a painful exercise. Swapping the hair is also a pain as the ball peg in the neck will likely pop out first. I was able to pull the piece out of the hair without heat, but it left my fingers in some pain thanks to those spikes. For hands, there’s a set of fists, open, two-finger pointing, clenching, and Goku’s martial arts posed hands and that’s the extent of the hands. They come off and go on with relative ease, at least.

He can at least do a pretty solid Kamehameha pose.

Perhaps even more so than the aesthetics with this figure is the articulation when it comes to its selling points. Bandai has all kinds of silly buzz words associated with it, but what you need to know is this figure articulates a lot like the Gohan figure with only minor differences. The head is one such difference as we do have a hinge in there. There’s a little room cut out of the back of the neck to help with range looking up, but it doesn’t help much and exposes a gap under the chin. He looks down well enough and I can’t tell if the joint at the base of the neck is even doing anything here. The shoulders, the biggest selling points, are hinged ball pegs that plug into a cup inside the shoulder. That cup is on a hinge as well which gets us the butterfly articulation. The arms basically pull out to the side in order to have enough clearance to come across the chest. And it works! Goku can do a fairly convincing Kamehameha. There’s also the usual bicep swivel, double-jointed elbow, and hinged ball peg wrists.

Attempts at a pair of classic Goku stances return mixed results.

In the torso, there’s a ball joint in the diaphragm and a hinge below it for an ab crunch. The range is quite good in all directions, but as we saw with Daima Vegeta it does create large gaps pretty easily. The floating belt can be manipulated to hide it some, but it only does so much. The legs can go out to the side nearly to a full split and kick forward just a hair better than 90 degrees while going back is imepeded by his long, flat, butt. The thigh swivel does what one would expect while the single-hinged knee gets better than 90 degrees of bend going back. In a pretty weird move, Bandai put a joint at the boot, but not what you would expect. Instead of a swivel, it’s a hinge of some kind. It bends maybe 30 degrees forward and I guess it’s for adjustment posing in certain stances. It mostly seems to make standing the figure harder than it should be as this joint is pretty loose. Not floppy, but there’s little resistance. The ankles are ball-hinged so they swivel, hinge forward and back, and rock side-to-side. The range going forward is pretty much nonexistent on the hinge, but the rest is fine. There’s also a toe hinge if you value that.

The Cell Saga has been pretty well represented in this line.

All in all, this one is a bit of a mixed bag. I had high hopes when it was first unveiled and visions of replacing a lot of the Goku figures in my collection with updates on this body, but now I’m not so sure. I don’t think I’ll be getting the base Goku and I definitely don’t need Super Saiyan 2 or 3 updates. I don’t really like my current Super Saiyan Blue Goku so I tentatively have the new one on preorder, but it may be one I seek out reviews on to see if some of the finer points are at least cleaned up. Overall, on the articulation front Bandai and Tamashii Nations mostly delivered here. I don’t see much reason for the odd shin hinge, but the shoulders work well and the torso has good range, even if it can get unsightly. I don’t like the head or the thighs and the thighs play a big part in the aesthetics, which I’m less sold on. The proportions and mixed media look best when posed-up, but then you have the gaps to contend with so there’s a feeling like you just can’t win with this one. The quality control issues are also not a point in its favor. The faces don’t fit together well and swapping the hair pieces is not a smooth process leaving a lot to be desired. This may be a budget release as far as the line’s standards are concerned, but it shouldn’t feel like one. And since this is undoubtedly a figure that’s going to be re-released many times over I can’t help but come away disappointed with the end result. If it’s one you want, I would recommend giving it some time. There’s a reissue going up in March and it’s possible some of the quality control issues will be addressed there like they were with Future Trunks. This is the one time where you should avoid buying from anyone who has stock at the time this post goes up and instead seek out a preorder. There are also three other Goku figures on this body due for release in 2026 (base Goku, Super Saiyan God, and Super Saiyan Blue) so maybe check those out to see if the quality gets better before committing to this one.

Interested in some of the figures referenced above? Then check these out:

Dragon Ball Daima S.H.Figuarts Vegeta

Dragon Ball Daima has come and gone, but we’re still getting action figures based on the limited series. When it comes to the Bandai/Tamashii Nations action figure line, that’s usually par for the course. It’s not like the classic movie tie-in toy line where product shows up in stores weeks before the movie hits theaters.…

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by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Super – Ultimate Gohan Super Hero

As part of the promotion for the film Dragon Ball Super – Super Hero, Bandai released a wave of action figures from its S.H. Figuarts brand of characters from the film. The neat thing was, these releases were actually really cheap relative to other SHF releases with a MSRP of just $35. Of the four,…

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by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Krillin – Earth’s Strongest Man

My Dragon Ball collecting was once simply focused on the original series, Dragon Ball, but has been expanding over the years. I’ve definitely leaned more towards Dragon Ball Super of late, but one of my Dragon Ball Z purchases last year was the event exclusive Nappa. I don’t know why I like Nappa so much.…

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by Joe

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March 2, 2026

Mondo X-Men ’97 1/6 Scale Mister Sinister – Limited Edition

By Joe
“My name is Sinister. Mister Sinister.”

When the topic of X-Men villains is broached the first name that comes to mind is Magneto. And rightly so, he was on the cover of the very first issue getting pelted by a snowball from Iceman (and Marvel wonders why the kids of the day thought the X-Men looked lame). When the X-Men were first brought to television in pilot form, it was Magneto that was chosen to lead the antagonistic group the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants removing all subtlety from the character and firmly placing him in the role of villain. That show never made it any further and when Marvel got yet another chance to bring the X-Men to animation it was, once again, Magneto placed as the big, bad, guy right there in the opening title directly opposing Xavier’s X-Men. He didn’t actually debut in the series until the third episode where he had a brief skirmish with just three members of the team before returning in the following episode for a slightly more combative showing that ultimately ended in defeat.

And then that was it. Magneto was never the central villain again past the fourth episode. He briefly teamed-up with Apocalypse for the “Beyond Good and Evil” arc, but otherwise he was more like a hostile ally which is why the first villain I think of when someone mentions X-Men – The Animated Series my mind goes to Mister Sinister.

Sinister is actually a little taller than Cyclops.

Mister Sinister was still a relatively new face when the cartoon series began having first been mentioned in 1986, but holding his full debut until 1987. He was the antagonizing force over the show’s second season either directly opposing the X-Men or lurking behind the scenes setting plots in motion. Apart from a brief truce with the X-Man Beast during the Phalanx confrontation, he remained a villain throughout because that’s really all you can be with a name like Mister Sinister. The scientist Nathaniel Essex was obsessed with human mutation, but his experiments were so controversial he was forced to do them in secret and on himself and his wife. This basically turned him into a mutant with somewhat undefined abilities. His body can restore itself almost instantaneously and he can produce energy blasts. He may even have some telepathic abilities as well as telekinetic ones, or maybe all of that was just for show in the cartoon. He is often allied with Apocalypse and one has to wonder if a thousand years from now his powers might evolve to more match that of the original mutant.

Oh, don’t be such a baby, Cyclops. You don’t need all of that DNA of yours.

Because of his lofty standing in the show, Mister Sinister was a must have for Mondo’s action figure line based on X-Men and X-Men ’97. The character does always pose some difficulties in bringing him to life due to his unusual appearance. His costume and portrait is pretty straight-forward, but it’s that cape that can give animators and sculptors fits. It basically consists of three, main, parts: collar, upper portion, and lower portion. The upper portion rises from Sinister’s body and then takes an acute angle towards the ground. The section below that is wider and basically does the same thing giving his cape a tiered appearance. To further complicate it, it isn’t just one or two pieces of material, but it’s broken out into strips. I have no idea what the material is intended to be, it could be leather, it could even be a thin metal, but it moves around like a cape. For the show, the animators basically just kept Sinister as stationary as possible. He wasn’t allowed to turn or do much in frame to reduce the need to animate that cape. Sometimes, they would drape part of it over his forearm which is about as fancy as they ever got. In toy form, the original Legends one had rubber strips of plastic affixed to his collar and didn’t really attempt that big “hump” the upper piece creates. When Hasbro attempted the character it did the cape in the proper shape, but also tried to keep it as few pieces as possible by essentially fusing the strips together in a manner that made it look like the cape was just bunched together. That approach worked fine for a 1:12 scale figure, but for a 1:6 scale figure there’s a greater challenge. You can’t hide things at such a large scale and the need for realism becomes more important. Mondo had to come up with a way to both have Sinister’s cape retain its shape while also not being brittle. Now that he’s here, how did they do?

This gesture, along with the glove cuffs, are very X-Men ’97 specific.

Before we get into it, I want to mention that this another figure distributed in a box with new artwork by series storyboard artist Dan Veesenmeyer. It’s also adorned with production artwork from the original series depicting Sinister which I think is from the episode “Till Death do us Part – Part 2.” Sinister foregoes the usual frontal flap and instead has his bio on the rear of the box. It’s again by the Lewalds, Eric and Julia, who worked on the writing staff of the original series. I’m curious if this is the plan going forward which is honestly fine by me. There isn’t much use for a window box on something most people buy online, and even less so for a Mondo figure as they always wrap their figures in plastic bags and tissue paper to protect the paint. It is one of the deeper boxes in the series so far as Sinister needs quite a bit of room. Once again, this is a sculpt by Alex Brewer with paint by Mike Pflaumer. Hector Arce is credited with art direction and Jordan Christianson packaging.

This portrait is also pulled directly from X-Men ’97.

Sinister to the top of his head is a little over 12″ putting more or less eye to eye with the likes of Cyclops, Gambit, and Magneto. His collar takes him higher, but more so is the depth needed because of that bizarre cape. Mondo elected to do Sinister’s cape with a hard plastic – I’m assuming ABS. It’s basically four pieces: you have two upper pieces each consisting of four strips and two lower pieces each consisting of another four strips. The pieces for each side, one upper and one lower, are glued together where the cape slots into the body of the figure so you effectively have two pieces to slot into the figure. They do not go in easy. The right side is more stubborn than the left on my figure and the challenge here is that this type of plastic has little to no give. It’s thick, probably a quarter of an inch, so you probably have to give it way more force than is reasonable to actually break it, but it’s hard to find a safe way to apply the pressure needed to fit it in there. I don’t think heating the actual cape will help as this type of plastic usually doesn’t work like that, but heating the openings on the back of the figure is an option. I tried lowering the upper body into some hot water, but I don’t think I got it quite hot enough. It still helped, but there’s a little notch on the side of the cape that I think should be flush with the figure’s back and it’s not quite there. And yes, that is the sort of thing that will annoy me as I do my best to ignore it. I feel like the top of the cape relative to the top of the collar looks about right though so I’m trying not to let it bother me. If this were a cheaper figure I’d consider cutting some plastic away on the entry points to get a smoother fit. Or, I’d attempt to file off the little lip they put on the cape itself.

Aggravations aside, the cape does look good and it’s pretty accurate to the show. The figure’s right side has red and dark blue highlights on the side while the figure’s left has white which follows the shading in the show. This material will also never warp, though shelf dives could be quite destructive so definitely do be careful with how you ultimately pose this guy. As for the rest of the figure, he looks pretty damn great. The sculpt is basically dead-on with a nice shape to the torso. He is mostly a dark blue with a lot of black shading and some white highlights. The horizontal stripes are sculpted in which is accurate to the show as his costume almost looks like metal banding around his body. The collar is wonderfully excessive and the design of the shoulder pads and how they connect with the chest was realized well.

This portrait, along with the controller on his belt, are pulled from the original animated series.

Sinister’s bone white visage is also done well with black lines accentuating his cheekbones which was always prominent in the show. There’s a blue-gray used to shade his face and his very square haircut is mostly black with blue highlights. His default portrait is a rather…sinister grin with his pointy teeth prominently displayed. This is one area where some fans may quibble with the look of the character. When I look at this portrait I very much see the X-Men ’97 version of the character. The differences between the two are very subtle and come down to the style of the show. Sinister’s mouth is just a little wider in that show, a little more cartoon-like. And that’s fine given that the box says X-Men ’97, but I don’t see a true original series portrait in the box. His other portraits include a scowl that’s basically a neutral portrait for him and it’s very ’97-like in appearance. He also has a portrait of his withered, old, look from the finale of the first season of X-Men ’97. The only other portrait is the one that I think looks the most like it’s from the original series. It’s a yelling head where his eyes are aglow with yellow energy. The energy is part of the sculpt and painted yellow, it’s not a translucent piece glued into the eye sockets like Rogue’s optic blast portrait. The yelling mouth, which has no hint of a smile, is like an equalizer in bringing the two designs together. Plus, I think this look is from an episode in the original series. It’s just a shame that it’s such a specific expression, though it is one I like and am happy to have. Personally, I have no use for that withered portrait and I wish instead we got a specific original series portrait that looks like the character turn-around art on the rear of the box.

This Sinister shadow accessory is neat, but also really small (other portraits inserted for scale)

Those are the portraits, and per usual we also get a bunch of hands. By default, Sinister has some style-posed open hands. They look like he’s reaching for something or maybe getting ready to blast some foolish X-Man. He also has a set of fists and clenching/gripping hands. There’s an extra left hand that’s pointing with a red diamond at the tip of the index finger which is from X-Men ’97. The most eye-catching hands are his blasting hands which he comes with two of. They have the blast effects glued onto them which adds some noticeable heft, but so far my figure has been able to support them just fine. The blasts are done in red, translucent, plastic which looks very similar to the blasts that came with Cyclops. I kind of wish they went with yellow or mixed some yellow into it to differentiate them more from Cyclops since they famously had a collision of blasts to close out season two of the original show. When Sinister came back in later seasons he had red blasts so the figure isn’t inaccurate, I just would have gone with something else. He also has optional cuffs for his wrists. By default, he has red bands around his wrists which is how he was depicted in the original series. The cuffs were added for X-Men ’97 which is what he had in the comics as well so if that’s your preference Mondo gave you the option. His other accessories include a translucent, yellow-green, clip-on part for his abdomen to depict his battle damage after getting blasted by Cyclops. There’s his control device that can clip onto his belt which he used to control Morph. And then there’s his gross tentacle thing with red lips. In one of the more bizarre scenes in the original series, Sinister makes one of these things just kind of grow out of the ground which he then uses on Cyclops and it spits out some amber-colored jelly bean. For an X-Men ’97 specific accessory, there’s also the shadow Sinister from the final episode which is done on smokey, translucent, black plastic with the red details of Sinister’s face painted onto it. It’s neat, but way smaller than it was in the show. This is more like a little buddy accessory like Nightcrawler’s Bamf doll. Everything is sculpted well and painted perfectly. Lastly, there’s the traditional Mondo stand with X logo on the base. Even though Sinister isn’t the sort of character who would necessarily need it, I do wish we got the new flight stand that came with Nightcrawler as that one just feels more sturdy and this is one figure I want to feel like is secure on my shelf.

Blast off!

That’s a ton of stuff and I honestly kept forgetting about things here and there and would go back to the pile to remind myself of what else came with this guy. For articulation, there’s much less to talk about. Sinister is a step back for this line as Mondo has gone back to single-jointed elbows with no bicep swivel. I guess the thinking was that Sinister didn’t need more? I’d disagree, but it does help to give him a cleaner look. He does have double-jointed knees, but even with those thigh high boots he wears (they’re more like double boots as he has cuffs at the ankles too, but no one ever said this design wasn’t “out there”) Mondo opted not to put in a thigh swivel. His thighs do rotate a little on the ball-joint at the hips, but it’s not much. The diaphragm joint does nothing while the waist is a little loose, but does rotate fine with a little tilt. The elbows are quite tight and come close to a 90 degree bend while the double-ball peg at the head works mostly as intended. The collar will limit his ability to look up and there’s paint rub to be mindful of, but it’s probably enough. The cape does have some play in the slots on his back so you can kind of adjust the angle of it if it suits your pose.

Like his onscreen counterpart, this Mister Sinister figure is largely a statue. He can raise his arms and take advantage of those blast effects, but he’s not going to do anything remotely exotic or dynamic. The only figure in the line more limited than him is Omega Red, who between the bulk and the costume really can’t do much of anything. That likely comes as no surprise for those who collect this line as the articulation and ability to pose the figures is a distant second to the aesthetics, and like basically all of the other figures in this line, Mister Sinister looks great. He’s a wild design and that cape is a pain in the ass, but Mondo’s solution for it is one that preserves the look of the character from the show.

“My body…”

Mister Sinister is advertised as a limited edition by Mondo that’s been restricted to 1,250 units. It has apparently not been a big seller because even though this went up for preorder last summer it has yet to sell out. Some of that is likely due to the price tag of $265, and that’s before tariffs, shipping, and any applicable sales tax. He is, without a doubt, the worst value in the line so far and I guess that cape is the driving force of the price. Not only is it a unique piece of engineering, it necessitates a deeper box and a bigger box means more space is taken up and more room in a shipping container is needed and so on. There’s also a lot of stuff in here fans might feel like they don’t need. The weird Sinister wave, the withered head, maybe even the tentacle thing – all things fans might be able to do without in exchange for a cheaper price tag. Given that this one hasn’t sold out, I wouldn’t necessarily count on there being a standard version of this character. Especially when one considers that the non-exclusive versions are usually only around 15 dollars cheaper. If Mondo can’t sell 1,250 Sinister action figures at $265, how many do they really think they can sell at $250? All that is to say, if you’re like me and feel that Mister Sinister is a necessity for an animated X-Men display then you probably should just bite the bullet and grab this version. The figure looks amazing and absolutely brings up the quality of the display. It does lead me to wonder what villains could possible be next after Sinister? Apocalypse? Juggernaut? They’ll both be huge and a lot more expensive. Mystique seems likely, or maybe they’ll go X-Men ’97 specific with a Goblin Queen? More importantly, where am I going to put all of these figures?!

If you want to read my thoughts on other X-Men offerings from Mondo then check these out:

Mondo X-Men ’97 1/6 Scale Nightcrawler

Yes, I’m afraid this is another toy review that needs to begin with a word about tariffs. It was the talk of 2025 in the toy collecting community because it caused considerable delays, disruptions, and worst of all, increased prices across the board. One line impacted by the introduction of these new costs more than…

by Joe

Mondo 1/6 X-Men ’97 Wolverine – Limited Edition

Back in 2021, Mondo unveiled for San Diego Comic Con a sixth scale Wolverine action figure based on the X-Men animated series from the 90s. It was a presale to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the show’s premiere and product went out in 2022 closer to that actual anniversary. At the time, Mondo wasn’t…

by Joe

Mondo X-Men ’97 1/6 Scale Cyclops – Limited Edition

After putting a real hurting on my wallet in 2023, Mondo decided to take it easy in 2024 with its line of sixth scale action figures based on the animated series X-Men which ran from 1992-1997 on Fox Kids. Two figures ended up getting released this year, Rogue and now the leader of the X-Men…

by Joe

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

February 26, 2026

Jakks Pacific The Simpsons Stupid Sexy Flanders

By Joe
What are you smiling about, Ned?

There’s some mild debate about the “Golden Era” of The Simpsons, but most seem to narrow it down to seasons three through eight. A lot of that period saw the show do well and get mined for talent on the writing staff. It also coincided with the show becoming eligible for syndication and the daily episodes that followed certainly had an impact on the minds of viewers now able to consume many hours of the show per week. I also just think it’s objectively the best the show has ever been. That doesn’t mean there aren’t good episodes that fall outside of that range. In fact, some of the show’s most referred to and memed moments come from later seasons of the show and one I see pop up a whole lot is Stupid, Sexy, Flanders.

Ohh, that’s what you’re smiling about.

Season 11 gave us the episode “Little Big Mom” where Lisa takes on the role of homemaker when Marge suffers an accident at a ski lodge that requires hospitalization. The episode is fine, but what most remember comes from the opening moments. Homer, getting ready to attempt to ski, has a skier slide up alongside and kind of piss him off with his dusting of snow. The incredibly well built individual is sporting a skin-tight suit and a helmet that obscures his face. When Homer reacts negatively to this individual, he flips the visor of his helmet up to reveal he is none other than Ned Flanders. Homer is surprised, even though he’s seen Ned in more revealing situations before, but then calls out how revealing the ski suit is. Ned just gives a good-natured laugh then says it feels like he’s wearing “nothing at all!” Later, when Homer is spiraling out of control going down the slopes, he tries to recall what he was taught about skiing, but all he can think about is Flanders in his tight, revealing, ski suit (do you think this look could have been inspired by the NES game Slalom?) and cries out in frustration, “Stupid, sexy, Flanders!”

Scale is pretty much what you would expect.

Jakks Pacific, despite being the brand that sells to kids in the toy aisle of Target and Walmart, wisely decided that this often referenced moment was deserving of plastic. Honestly, I can’t believe Super7 didn’t get here in the short time they had the license, but they botched a whole lot more than that so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. The figure is labeled as Ned Flanders on the box, but shows up in inventory systems as Stupid, Sexy, Flanders which is pretty damn funny. I had to get this one, even though tracking down this line has been a massive chore. Luckily, this wave Ned is a part of received some distribution to online retailers, which is good because all of the stores I’ve been to in the last month have completely removed their Simpsons stuff from the toy aisles.

He can do more traditional ski poses if that’s your preference, but I doubt it is.

If you have a Jakks Simpson toy then there is little here to surprise you. This should also be rather quick since there’s not a lot to talk about which is why I usually review these as waves. Ned stands at 5″ and is depicted in his ski suit with the visor of the helm up. It’s not articulated and I guess because it would be impossible to fit his head inside the helmet without compromising the look. He has a smile on his face, but his mustache obscures most of it while his glasses are a separate piece with transparent, plastic, lenses. The body is a mix of red and blue plastic with paint details where needed. The main torso is blue, with the red painted on, while the limbs are red plastic with the blue painted on. The zipper down the center is also painted and Jakks did a good job of making sure the colors match each other. He comes with a pair of skis and his ski poles which are done up in all colored plastic. The handles of the poles remind me of push pins, but in checking the episode they’re pretty faithful to the look. The sculpt is pretty nice for what it is. The torso tapers in nicely, the buttocks are defined (though perhaps could have been exaggerated further to really sell the meme), the arms are muscled, and the legs are proportioned well.

“Go ahead, Homer, have a good long look!”

The only thing this guy needs to do is hit his signature pose and he can – kind of. Jakks loaded Ned up with articulation: head, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, diaphragm, waist, hips, knees, ankles. The range at the hips, knees, and elbows won’t quite reach 90 degrees, but he can approximate his pose from the show. The real limitation is with the torso. To really hit the pose, he almost needs to bend up his torso in a J shape, but he doesn’t get enough rock forward at the waist nor can he really arch back on the diaphragm joint. He needed a ball joint at the waist rather than peg and swivel to really get it. He can mostly fake it on your shelf though and honestly what’s really missing is a companion Homer to react to it. The standard Homer doesn’t seem to mind the view.

And that’s probably good enough. For 12-15 bucks, I can’t really complain. He makes me smile when I see it on my shelf and I have elevated this Ned to winter time decoration in the main area of my house. I have no idea if I’ll be getting much more from the line. I don’t think it’s doing well if Target and Walmart are giving it the boot and I have yet to track down the elusive Carl figure. This Ned was stocked by Big Bad Toy Store and hopefully is still up if you’re reading this and wanting to get your own. It’s fine, and it’s the type of release I enjoy from a Simpsons line because there are just so many fun moments from the show worth immortalizing in plastic.

If you’re curious about the other Jakks releases I’ve covered then check these out:

Jakks Pacific The Simpsons Deluxe King Homer

These days, The Simpsons is as synonymous with Halloween as candy and costumes. Via its annual Treehouse of Horror installment, which returns October 19th this year, The Simpsons has contributed more to Halloween pop culture than any other entity in my lifetime. Other shows have had memorable Halloween offerings, but none have taken over the…

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by Joe

Jakks Pacific The Simpsons Waves 3, a bit of 4, and most of 5

One thing I wasn’t expecting for 2025 was that the hardest line to collect would be The Simpsons by Jakks Pacific. It’s a mass retail release so, if anything, I thought it would be pretty easy. My assumption has been proven wrong and I think it’s because this is a line that is trying to…

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by Joe

Jakks Pacific The Simpsons – The Rest of Wave 1 and Wave 2

Back in October, we took a look at the very first wave of action figures from Jakks Pacific based on The Simpsons. At the time, I only had two figures from that inaugural wave: Homer and Bart. It was a series of great interest to myself and other Simpsons fans since it’s existence basically meant…

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by Joe

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January 29, 2026

Mondo The Real Ghostbusters Winston Zeddemore

By Joe
We’re three quarters of the way there.

We are now three deep into Mondo’s line of 1:12 scale action figures based on The Real Ghostbusters. Well, we’re now six deep counting the ghosts, but I personally passed on both Boogie Man and now The Sandman who has been released in tandem with our third Ghostbuster, Winston Zeddemore. At this point, we know what to expect from Mondo with these figures. The Ghostbusters all share many parts and accessories and that is very much true for Winston. With Egon, we saw a new torso to elongate him some, or at least, a new neck. With Winston, we’re dealing with basically a carbon copy of Peter with a new head. That may mean Winston is a little less exciting to receive compared with the other figures, but it’s no less good.

Winston, like the previous characters, is a sculpt by Alex Brewer with paint by Mark Bristow. He comes in the same ghost trap inspired box as the other single sets and stands at around the 6.5″ mark making him actually a little large for true 1:12 scale. He has his very pale blue/green jumpsuit with the no ghosts logo on the right sleeve. He has the same loop and gadget on his belt as Peter and Egon and his default portrait is a neutral expression. Curiously, mine appears to be looking up slightly given the position of the eyeballs and I’m not sure if that’s intentional or not. The promotional images seem to reflect a more head-on stare, but maybe this was a change or just a slight variation. I’m curious if other figures are the same.

He’s always looking up.

The paint for Winston is fairly clean and has a nice, soft, appearance. The paint isn’t perfect as the laces on the boots have some slop and the left elbow pad does too. There is some black linework which helps to give the figure an animated appearance and Winston has a bit of undershirt visible, like Peter. The portrait looks like the character from the show, in particular the earliest episodes. Winton’s alternate portrait is a slightly angry one with arched eyebrows and a hint of a scowl on his lips. The eyes on this one are also tilted up slightly. Considering he would be looking up at many of the ghosts encountered it makes sense.

Rosebud is a fun addition to the companion ghosts.

Winston’s other accessories are identical to Peter’s including his gear and the optional gloved hands. Paint on the proton pack and trap are crisp and clean and his effect part for the particle beam is the same as well. The only new items with Winston are the included small ghost and the trap effect. For the trap effect, he comes with Sandman since that’s the larger ghost he’s sold with in a two-pack. The sculpt and paint are quite impressive on this little guy and there’s some translucent electricity around him as well which looks nice. It fits a little more snug in the trap than the past two accessories and I can’t get this one to actually stand when in the trap either so that’s a little annoying. The companion ghost is Rosebud, a Citizen Kane homage in ghost form. He’s more static than Slimer and the intro ghost as his arms barely move, but the sculpt and paint look terrific and I love how he’s riding on a sleigh. He is slightly leaning to his right and I don’t know if that’s on purpose or just a variation in the production. He’s fun though and a nice addition to the other ghosts.

You’ll just have to pretend that they’re busting Sandman.

Winston’s articulation is identical to his co-workers which is to say it’s fairly basic. Unfortunately, Mondo hasn’t made any running changes to the production process to improve what’s here. The hips are still very tight, and in particular my figure’s left hip. The other joints are mostly okay while the head is still too restricted. The lower ball joint is set too deep in the neck to allow the figure to look down and the head doesn’t really tilt back either. Interestingly, he has the same ball joint as Peter for the head where as Egon had a larger, more mushroomed, one. The ball-peg shoulders are poor substitutes for butterfly joints and Winston will have to hold his proton wand across his chest to have a two-handed grip on it. He’s only going to hit the most basic of poses and if Mondo ever does do a vehicle for this line all of these figures will struggle to sit down in them.

Does busting make him feel good?

Winston is a pretty simple review: if you like Peter and Egon then you’ll like Winston. If you weren’t pleased by those releases then Winston will do nothing to change your mind. He is, for better and worse, the exact same aside from his portraits and a pair of accessories. And you’re certainly allowed to be picky and want more from a figure that retails for $101. These guys are not cheap, and while they do feel like they’re of a higher quality than a lot of figures in this scale, it’s hard to find $101 of value here as well given the articulation limitations and amount of reuse, but if you’re put off by the price tag with this line then that’s something you likely decided long ago. It’s why I’ve been picky with the ghosts as I don’t need them. The Real Ghostbusters was the first toy line I really got into as a kid so there’s a tremendous amount of nostalgia in it for me. I’ve wanted a set of Ghostbusters modeled after the show in a line like this and I’m mostly content. I look forward to receiving Ray in the coming months so all four are together at last.

If you missed our other reviews of the figures in this line then see below:

Mondo The Real Ghostbusters Egon Spengler

It’s a Halloween miracle! The second figure in the Mondo The Real Ghostbusters line of action figures, Egon Spengler, had been bumped to November. Even when I got my shipping notification from Mondo it said a delivery date of November 1st. It felt almost cruel to receive a Ghostbusters toy the day after Halloween, but…

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by Joe

Mondo The Real Ghostbusters Peter Venkman and Samhain

I didn’t do a big 2024 wrap-up type of post like I sometimes do, but if I did I would have awarded toy producer Mondo with the biggest reveal of the year when they debuted their line of action figures based on The Real Ghostbusters. The Real Ghostbusters was one of many 80s properties to…

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by Joe

Dec. 9 – The Real Ghostbusters – “Xmas Marks the Spot”

  The 1980s sometimes feel like they belonged to the Ghostbusters. That’s because, for me, the Ghostbusters were always around. The film came out when I was but a wee baby, but by the time I had a real interest in television The Real Ghostbusters (not to be confused with the Filmation series) was airing…

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by Joe

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