Category Archives: toys

August 17, 2023

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Super Saiyan Trunks – The Boy from the Future

By Joe
He didn’t exactly travel through time to get here, but he did have to cross an ocean.

The most captivating character in all of Dragon Ball Z for me back in the 90s was unquestionably Trunks. The offspring of Bulma and Vegeta who traveled back in time to warn the heroes of the day about impending doom on the horizon was unique for many reasons. For one, he actually looks like a normal person. Or rather, his hair does when compared with the likes of Goku and Vegeta. He wields a sword which is pretty different, and he sports some sort of half-jacket or 3/4 jacket that, while nothing I’d wear, he’s able to pull off. Mostly though, he was captivating to me because he was a character I knew was coming, but since the english dub of the show was stuck in Namek for so many years, he remained a mystery. And when FUNimation finally resumed dubbing DBZ when it became popular via Cartoon Network I finally got to see what all the fuss was about. It turns out Trunks is pretty okay. A tragic backstory, a determined will, and who is pure of heart – what’s not to like? Plus, he shows up and absolutely dominates Frieza, the enemy Goku spent somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 episodes fighting, dispatched in mere moments. Pretty bad ass stuff.

When it comes to Future Trunks, I definitely needed an upgrade. And Bandai, please, pretty please, re-issue the Dragon Ball Super Future Trunks!

Trunks, as one of the more involved character designs on the show, has always made for a rather desirable action figure. His figure in the old Bandai Super Battle Collection was, for me, one of the few worth getting. When Irwin Toys started making their own sculpts, a Trunks figure arrived before even Goku or Vegeta (actually, light praise since the same could be said of Yajirobe and King Kai) with a Super Saiyan version not far behind in their action feature subline. For a character with comparatively few episodes compared with the main cast, the show did get a lot of looks out of him which allows toy companies to do the same when it comes to figures.

We’re all in agreement, right? Trunks is cool because he has a sword.

When I got back into DBZ toy collecting, a Trunks figure was on my short list of figures I wanted. I almost picked up the battle armor version of Super Saiyan Trunks in the waning days of Toys R’ Us. A store near me had one with liquidation pricing, but it was still over 40 bucks and I just wasn’t that into the figure. It turns out, I was playing the long game as a better version of that figure is getting re-released later this year at the budget price of $35. I win again, universe! The real version of Trunks I wanted though was his first appearance. That’s the blue jacket, sword, short hair, look. Preferably, a Super Saiyan portrait, but it’s always nice to get both. My patience has paid off as recently released (okay, well, a few months ago because this sat in my Pile of Loot for a bit at Big Bad Toy Store) is a new version of Trunks from his debut episode. It is, as far as I know, an all new sculpt from an earlier version of the same which is why it doesn’t get the budget pricing (unlike Vegeta, who was released alongside him). That’s fine though as I don’t want a dated figure, just a good one. It’s a popular character we’re dealing with and did Bandai do Trunks justice?

Was this the last thing Frieza saw before he kicked the bucket?

Trunks arrives in the standard window box packaging for the S.H.Figuarts line. Out of the box, he stands approximately 5.25″ not counting the hair. As is often the case with this line, much of the figure is done with molded, colored, plastic with little in the way of paint hits. His jacket is a soft rubber with a very matte appearance while the sleeves are part of the arm’s sculpt. They’re a touch glossy when compared with the jacket so it’s not the most uniform look. The Capsule Corp. logo on the left bicep is more gray than white, but the opacity is at least appropriate. There’s a touch of paint at the ends of the sleeves where some gold buttons are featured, but that’s it for paint on the coat. The chest is painted flesh-color and it matches the neck, which is unpainted, better than some of the other figures I have. It’s not, however, especially clean as the left side is pretty rough looking where the flesh meets the shirt. There’s a little paint on the belt and boots and that is at least cleanly applied. The pants feature no shading that I can tell, and the plastic in his crotch region is more glossy than the pant legs which is a bit of a bummer.

Or maybe this was the last thing Frieza saw? He seems to be able to survive when in pieces.

What does look great though is the face. Bandai has really upped their game when it comes to their face-printing and Trunks is no exception. The linework around the eyes is sharp and clean and I like the little paint hits on the creases of his skin and at the ends of his eyebrows. The Super Saiyan hair is cast in a pale yellow, but with a kiss of light orange paint in the center. I honestly think they could have gone a touch heavier with the shading, but I’m glad to see it’s here. This is probably the approach to Super Saiyan hair I like the most. The translucent hair is a bit fun, but not really screen accurate, and the gold color they sometimes use is overkill. And then there’s the Super Saiyan Gohan head which is just pale yellow with no shading which was definitely lacking.

No energy effects, so I had to improvise.

In terms of the accessories, this is one of the most complete Bandai releases I can think of. Trunks comes with two heads and five faceplates. Four of the faceplates are for his Super Saiyan look. We get a neutral expression, yelling, teeth gritting, and a side eye. For that look, he also has two pieces for his bangs, one that’s basically neutral and another for when he’s powering up that’s pointed skyward. The second head is a base Trunks head with his very 90s haircut in molded, purple, plastic. He has one faceplate for this hair and it’s a neutral one. If you’re only going to have one, then it makes sense for it to be neutral. I’m a little disappointed that the upcoming Trunks in the battle armor doesn’t come with another base Trunks face as it would have been a clever way to expand both figures, but that’s not a shortcoming of this release. The base head is nice to have though, but it looks a bit off to me. The hair sits rather high, and while I’m happy the figure can be both super and non, I do wonder if I’ll ever really use this one. To go with the faces, Trunks has six sets of hands: fists, gripping, clenching, open, flat palm, and a more nuanced gripping hand. The extra gripping hands are kind of unnecessary, but I do like that his right hand and left can have a different grip which is kind of neat.

He looks pretty great with this aura effect. I’m going to have to make some room for it.

And Trunks needs those gripping hands because his signature accessory is his sword. The blade comes with its own scabbard which looks to be sculpted in a silver and then painted brown with light blue straps. I’m not sure if this brown is from the manga or something or just an error as it was more of a red-orange in the anime. The paint isn’t perfect on the straps, but it’s featured on the figure’s back so it’s not going to be displayed prominently in most cases. It slings over the figure’s shoulder via a strap done in a soft plastic. It’s painted well enough and seems to stay in place just fine. When posing the figure the strap might pop off and it is annoying, but it’s easy to work with, at least. The sword itself is sculpted in the same silver and the handle is painted brown. I like the shape of the blade and it comes to a nice point, something the old Irwin toy couldn’t do because of safety standards. The pommel of the sword is removable which is how you’re supposed to slide the handle into one of the gripping hands, which is a nice idea. The pommel does pop off rather easily though, so do be careful as it would be an easy thing to lose given its size.

Here comes the Burning Attack, or whatever he calls it.

Trunks comes with everything he needs (save for a blast effect), but does he have the articulation to wield it all properly? The head is on the usual double ball peg, though the hair covers the back of his neck enough to limit the figure’s ability to look up. Looking down isn’t a problem and the ball peg at the base of the neck enhances that range. Otherwise, you get rotation and plenty of nuance posing there. The shoulders are hinged ball pegs which fit into a socket attached to a butterfly joint. Trunks can raise his arms out to the side past a horizontal pose, rotate all around, and the butterfly has quite good range. It comes with a visual trade-off though in that Bandai did the rear of the jacket in segments. I don’t know that they needed to. On one hand, it’s on the rear of the figure and is also further obscured by the scabbard if that’s in place. On the other, it’s pretty ugly and visually unappealing. We also have a biceps swivel and the left one, for some reason, has a tendency to pop off. It’s easily popped back into place, but can be annoying. The double-jointed elbows bend well past 90 degrees and the wrists use the usual ball peg setup. They’re recessed quite deep in the cuffs of the jacket though so the range isn’t as robust as usual.

The figure also comes with a base head, if you want that.

In the torso, the usual ball-jointed diaphragm is present. There’s no hinge that I can see, and it mostly provides some lean to each side and rotation. The range back and forward is minimal, and if you turn too far you will expose some gaps on both the side of the torso or on the back and front. The waist is ball-jointed as well and it’s actually elevated more than usual. This is because the floating belt obscures the gap and it does let the figure bend forward and back quite a bit. Plus, it provides the customary swivel and a little tilt. The hips will allow the figure to do splits and also kick forward about 90 degrees. The range going back is minimal, and there’s a thigh swivel as well. The look of this joint is a little ugly though as they felt it necessary to have the paints continue up the side of the thigh all the way to the hip and I don’t know why. Or maybe they shouldn’t have the cut-out in the crotch, but it looks goofy. This is also the lone loose joint on my figure. It will hold a pose, but it’s a little floppy which is unusual for a S.H.Figuarts release. The knees are double-jointed and will go a bit past 90 degrees. There’s no boot swivel, and the ankle joint will bend back pretty far, but has almost zero range going forward. The ankle rocker is just okay and there’s a toe hinge, if you want it.

Trunks has great range in the shoulders, but it does come with this wonky setup with the jacket.

The articulation on Trunks is mostly good. I like the range in the shoulders and torso as he can hit a variety of sword poses. He can easily grip the sword with both hands or just one and he can also grip the handle while it’s sheathed, a favorite of mine. I don’t really like the hips though. The range there is great, but the looseness is unpleasant. This one was made in the Vietnam factory and it has that cheaper feel to it some of the figures out of that factory have possessed. Most of my nitpicks though are with the presentation. The jacket is over-engineered and the hips as well. I don’t like that there’s a sizable gap between the base of the neck and chest, but at least the strap on the scabbard can obscure that. The paint could also be better and the boots stick out to me as looking especially cheap. They need a wash or something to just class it up a bit. This is, after all, not one of the $35 efforts.

“Wait! Your dad’s Vegeta, and your mom is an inventor who knows me…?!”

Presentation nitpicks aside, where Trunks flourishes is with the display options. The faces all look so good that picking just one is a challenge. Maybe I would have traded the side-eye one for a smirk, but I also do like that one. The only accessories that could have made this release better is the usual blast effect, which most figures forego, or optional bare arms so he could have his end of arc look. That would have caused problems with the butterfly joint though which is done in blue. They would have had to include some caps or floating pieces to obscure that in addition to the arms, so I get why they didn’t pursue that further. Plus, I prefer the jacketed look more and I wouldn’t want that to be compromised at all to make way for such a thing.

These Super Saiyans practically grow on trees.

Trunks is one of the most popular characters in Dragon Ball Z and I think anyone who collects this line should probably grab this figure. It’s not perfect, but it looks nice on a shelf. I just hope we get more Trunks from Bandai down the road. We’re getting the battle armor reissue which features Trunks as a Super Saiyan with his hair tied back, but I’d really love a bulked-up Super Saiyan Trunks from when he challenges Cell. Yeah, it ended up being a bad form for fighting, but damn did it look cool!

Interested in more Dragon Ball action figure reviews? Here’s a few to check out:

SH Figuarts Super Saiyan Vegeta

He’s the Prince of all Saiyans. The last survivor to have laid eyes on Planet Vegeta, home world of the mighty warriors and birthplace of the legendary Goku. And he’s also a pretty fine toy. Vegeta, arguably the most popular character to emerge from Dragon Ball Z, has seen his likeness cast in numerous forms…

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by Joe

Bandai Dragon Stars Super Saiyan Trunks

Dragon Ball Super did to me what basically every cartoon/anime does:  it made me want toys based on it. It’s a compulsion I’ve never outgrown, apparently, and Bandai has made it fairly easy (but not cheap) to get what I want. Months ago I did an entry on the SH Figuarts Super Saiyan Vegeta. That…

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by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Gamma 1 and Gamma 2

Last year saw the release of a brand new film in the Dragon Ball franchise: Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. The mouthful of a title was a bit of a throwback affair. It seemed that Toei and series creator Akira Toriyama wanted to use the film to return the spotlight to Gohan and Piccolo, two…

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by Joe

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August 15, 2023

NECA TMNT The Last Ronin Best Buy Exclusive Synja Patrol Bot

By Joe
He’s here to…patrol, and stuff.

I thought the string of Turtle Tuesday posts was going to end with last week’s item, but then I got a surprise email from Best Buy. The Synja Patrol Bot I had preordered months ago was actually getting moved up instead of bumped out, and to my surprise, it was going to be delivered in two days! I was pretty skeptical, but sure enough, two days later I had my action figure before I had even finished my morning coffee.

The Synja Patrol Bot is like the Foot ninja of The Last Ronin, the comic story about the very last Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle from IDW Publishing. These are the guys the titular character has to deal with upon his return to New York and they seem a bit more formidable than its predecessors. I read those books over a year ago at this point so my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I think they’re cybernetically enhanced humans. Either way, they have an aesthetic that I really like of the techy ninja. Think the Cyborg Ninja character from Metal Gear Solid. I’ve always liked that look, and since these guys have a blue and gray color scheme to them it makes me like them all the more.

Army builders need heads, and this figure has you covered. Plus it has this weird, white, robot, thing.

This figure is essentially an army builder and it’s the first release for this mold. There is a second on the way that’s mostly black and white and I’m not sure what the plan on that is as far as release goes. This one is exclusive to Best Buy and it’s one of three that went up in the spring. The other being Michelangelo as “The Wanderer” and a three-pack of IDW re-colored Shredder clones. I have never bought an action figure from Best Buy prior to today and I would have to say the experience is a bit mixed. On one hand, the order was fulfilled and in a very timely fashion which is better than some big box retailers. And then on the other hand, the box came smashed to shit. It was one oversized, empty, cardboard box and the figure was inside that without anything else. I am not an in-box collector, but if I was I’d be pretty unhappy because the figure box was beat up pretty well. If you are an in-box collector, I guess buyer beware.

Ninjas don’t always stick with swords.

The patrol bot was sculpted by Paul Harding and comes in NECA’s Ultimates packaging with artwork from IDW’s Ben Bishop. The box is numbered “6” though this is the third figure based on The Last Ronin to see release thus far. Out of the box, the figure stands at approximately 6.375″ in height. The sculpt is largely a mixture of turquoise and black plastic with gray and silver paint as needed. There’s also a lot of black paint to fill some of the gaps in the character’s circuitry and linework customary of NECA’s comic-inspired offerings. It’s a very nice sculpt all around with lots of detail and great proportioning. The paint is applied fairly well, though there’s some spots here and there that are imperfect. The only one that bothers me is this tiny dot of silver almost dead center on the figure’s chest. There’s also a little scuff mark on the front flap which covers the crotch, but overall it feels acceptable for a mass-produced item.

“He killed my buddy!”

The accessory load-out with this figure makes it clear that NECA wants you to buy more than one. The default head features a metallic visor with a red grill over the mouth. I’m not certain on the hierarchy of the patrol bots, but there’s another head that features a large, red, visor and antennae. Both look pretty nice and the paint is quite sharp. I love the lens flash on the antennae head, though that head is really hard to get onto the ball joint and will require heat. There’s also a third head that’s a battle-damaged version of the default head. It has an exposed, left, eye and the look of shock implies this guy has taken his last breath. Part of the skull is also missing exposing some wiring and what appears to be a socket of some kind. It comes in the box affixed to a stump of a neck with wiring hanging out of the bottom of it. Getting the head off of such a small piece was a little bit of a challenge, but do-able. And since it came on a ball socket of its own, getting it onto the figure is a piece of cake. To further differentiate any additional patrol bots you may add to your collection, NECA also included a small sticker sheet. It has just two stickers and they both appear to be a badge or symbol signifying rank. They go on the left breast, if you want to use them. I’m not sure that I will.

I don’t know if I’ll use the stickers, but this is from the back of the box and shows you where they go. Photo by Stephen Mazurek.

In addition to the heads and stickers, the patrol bot also comes with three sets of hands and a pair of weapons. For hands, we get these open, clenching, hands by default plus a pair of fists and trigger/gripping hands. The clenching hands are a bit odd as they don’t really work with anything. He can hold one of the extra heads with it to a point, but they’re mostly of the style-posed variety. The trigger hands are intended to be used with the included handgun and sword. The handgun is painted with a gun metal finish and looks pretty nice and slots into the hands easily or can be stored on the right thigh. The sword comes with a scabbard that plugs into a peg hole on the left shoulder blade. The blade has a metallic finish and the handle is done in gray with a little black paint on the design. The black isn’t the cleanest, but it’s not terribly applied either. Lastly, we get this creepy looking head that looks like an evil version of the Fugitoid. I don’t really remember it, but the Baxter Stockman of this universe made more than just Mousers so I think it’s something like that. It’s all white with red eyes and some black linework. There is a peg hole on the underside so maybe it will have a use down the road. I don’t know what to do with it though, and I imagine it’s the one accessory army-builders won’t be excited about.

He can kick high, though his slender feet mean you’ll probably need a stand of some kind to keep him upright in such a pose.

For articulation, the Synja does some things different, and some things as expected. The head is on a double-ball peg so you get plenty of range there, especially because the neck is on a ball peg as well. The shoulders are the standard hinged-ball pegs and they rotate fine, but can’t quite hit a horizontal pose out to the side without some help. That’s because the shoulder pads get in the way, but you can pop the arms off relatively easily and re-insert the peg so that the shoulder pad is tucked into the shoulder joint to get that full “T” pose, if you desire. There’s a biceps swivel and single jointed elbows, which is a bummer. You will get a 90 degree bend out of the joint, plus a swivel, but I don’t know why NECA felt like it couldn’t do a double-joint here. The wrists swivel and hinge and, unfortunately, all of the wrist hinges are of the horizontal variety. The gripping hands, at least, should have vertical hinges. This is a freaking ninja robot that also has a sidearm, it’s begging for vertical hinges!

The diaphragm joint allows for some nice nuance.

In the diaphragm, we have a double-ball peg setup. It allows the figure to rotate there as well as bend forward and back and get some side-to-side tilt as well. The amount it bends forward isn’t terrific, but it’s better than we’re used to with NECA. It does get gappy though. At the waist is a standard swivel joint which is a little bit of a bummer. Another ball peg here would probably give us that forward and back crunch we’re really looking for, but oh well. The hips are the ball and socket joints NECA is known for and since NECA decided to forego a “diaper” piece over the crotch we get some nice, unobstructed, range here. Full splits and the ability to kick forward and back. The little flap in the front hanging off of the belt as well as the butt cheeks on the rear are both soft plastic that don’t offer much resistance at all, a very wise decision on NECA’s part. There’s a full thigh swivel on this guy where the ball pegs into the thigh and double-jointed knees below that. The knees are a tad gummy though and getting both hinges to work is more challenging than it should be, but get them both going and you will get better than a 90 degree bend. Be warned, it looks like the hinge is turquoise plastic painted black so it will probably flake eventually, though it’s holding better than usual on my figure. It’s also possible the turquoise I’m seeing is paint rub from the kneecap. At the ankles, we have a hinged ball peg which pegs into the shin. This lets you rotate at the joint as well as make use of the hinge which has good range going forward and back. There’s also a rocker which works great.

A vertical wrist hinge would help a whole lot even with the sidearm.
Even with some of the figure’s limitations, two-handed sword poses are still possible.

You’re not going to confuse the Synja Patrol Bot with an S.H.Figuarts release, but it does articulate better than most NECA releases. I really like how the diaphragm joint turned out, and even though I wish it had double elbows, it is possible to get the figure to grip the sword with both hands. The lower half is pretty fantastic with my only issue there being the overall gummy feel to the knees. If this figure had a ball-jointed waist it would really take it up a notch, and the missing vertical hinges at the wrists continue to be a sore spot for me when it comes to NECA’s TMNT releases.

Sorry pal, but you’re on your own.

The Synja Patrol Bot is a nice release from NECA. It’s definitely going for that army builder crowd with the extra heads and even the added stickers to differentiate the figures from each other in your display. The only slip-up there might be with the included white, Mouser, thing, head as another battle-damaged part would have been more useful for the army builder crowd. For those who want even more variety though, the white version will provide for that. As for me, I don’t intend to get more than one. I sort of forgot I had even pre-ordered this figure and since doing so I’ve come to the decision that I’m likely not going to continue with The Last Ronin. The figures are great and all, it’s just an issue of resources. And it’s not just the money needed to acquire the whole collection, it’s the space. I’m not the type who wants to just buy stuff and toss it in a closet. I want it out and in the open, but that’s just not possible with so much TMNT coming from not just NECA, but other places as well. The figure of the Last Ronin is a great stand-alone piece and now it has a friend too. I still intend to continue buying the toon, Mirage, and even the Archie stuff so rest assured there will be no shortage of TMNT on this blog.

Interested in more Last Ronin coverage? Look no further:

NECA The Last Ronin (Armored)

When it comes to multimedia based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, we find ourselves in a rare dry spell when it comes to television and movies. The final episode of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles aired in 2020 with no new television series announced since. The show did receive a long-delayed finale…

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by Joe

Playmates TMNT The Last Ronin PX Previews Exclusive (Chase)

A few years ago, Mattel launched a new subline of action figures based on their most famous IP: Masters of the Universe. The subline was titled Origins and it basically took the vintage toys of the 80s and updated them with more modern articulation while still preserving that vintage aesthetic. And ever since then, collectors…

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – The Last Ronin

I don’t read a lot of comics these days. Actually, I suppose I never truly read a lot of comics even when I was very much into X-Men and Spider-Man. Back in the 90s, I received most of my comic lore from trading cards. They were cheaper and fun to collect. When it came to…

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by Joe

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

August 10, 2023

Lego Disney 100 Minifigures Wave

By Joe
More Disney 100 merch has arrived.

Disney and The Lego Company have found a partnership that is mutually beneficial so it was not a surprise to see Lego get in on the Disney 100 celebration. We already looked at one set that falls under that umbrella, and now I’m back to take a look at Lego’s third wave of minifigures based on Disney, this one focusing on the history of the company itself.

The first two waves of minifigures from Lego and Disney seemed to perform rather well. They would thankfully show up in large quantities at retailers, but didn’t linger too long. Collecting an entire set meant one needed to hit the store at the right moment to find either a fresh box or pegs filled with the little foil bags. These are shipped in bags and are intended to be blind buys. For the first two waves, I somewhat degraded myself by painstakingly feeling my way through them in-store until I had a complete set. Lego’s tendency to do custom head portraits for the characters makes finding them surprisingly easy when just feeling-up a bag. It still takes awhile, but my method worked as I was able to get full sets without doubles.

For this third wave, I ran into some troubles. No, not in picking through them, just in finding them! I don’t know if some of the stores around me just didn’t get them when they were supposed to, or if someone cleaned them out before I got there, but these things seemed to sell faster than usual. My wife managed to find four close to their release date, and thankfully it was four unique figures, but we didn’t come across any at a big box retailer for weeks after. Instead, we seemed to only have consistent success by hitting The Lego Store. They got regular shipments often twice per week and our store even did the feeling out for you! I don’t know if that’s a common practice, but it was certainly convenient. Even hitting that store routinely, we still had trouble filling out the ranks. Eventually we got it to where we were missing just one, but The Lego Store was also receiving smaller and smaller shipments indicating the wave may be nearing the end of its lifecycle. Thankfully, not long ago I happened to be walking through my local Target and came upon a fresh box on an endcap. It was highly unusual for my store which normally hangs the bags by the registers. I could have easily missed this, but got lucky. I secured the missing piece, and now I can tell you all about them.

This wave celebrating the 100th anniversary of The Walt Disney Company is a celebration of the company’s animated films. There seems to be a concerted effort to hit on each decade of the company’s existence, though missing representation are the 1980s and present decade beginning in 2020. It’s not that much of a surprise to see the 80s excluded. That wasn’t a great decade for the company as it included the noted bomb The Black Cauldron. The Little Mermaid did make it out just before the 80s concluded, but we already received an Ariel and Ursula in a prior wave. Oliver & Company doesn’t work all that well for minifigures since it’s characters are mostly dogs and a cat, but why not hit on The Great Mouse Detective?

Excepting Lego’s mistreatment of the 1980s, the character selection this time around is pretty solid, so let’s take a look!

Of course we have a Mickey in the set.

We’ll go in 3s, and for this first group we have the original Disney star, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, along with Mickey in perhaps his most iconic role and from the year 2002 another version of fan-favorite Stitch. Oswald is a standard Lego body with a unique portrait. It looks fine, but its very round and looks a bit off. For an accessory, he comes with a clapboard that is not articulated. All of the figures come with the standard Lego stand, but this time it has a “Disney 100” printed on it. For Mickey, he’s in his sorcerer’s apprentice costume and it’s printed with sparkles. The hat is non-removable and he has a bucket and broom to complete the look. They had to include a Mickey, and this version is a bit of a no-brainer. And then we have Stitch, the figure who I had to track down. His portrait is the same as the prior one, but his eyes are printed differently to make them more narrow. I would have liked a new mouth, but oh well. He’s in his Experiment 626 form so he has four arms which are done by adding them to the sculpt as opposed to inserting four standard arms into the torso. He also has a pair of laser guns. It’s a fun look, albeit a compromised one due to how they did the arms.

Clues for finding them in bags: Oswald’s ears, Mickey’s head, Stitch’s ears (these three are pretty easy)

Lego knows what many know: Disney collectors love villains.

Next up, we have a trio of villains. First is the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She has a soft goods cape and collar and her lower body is done with a brick like other dress-wearing characters before her. The crown is actually a full skull cap, which is nice, but it means she only has the one expression, not that she really needs another. She comes with her magic mirror and I like that the entity within it has been “Lego-fied” as well. She looks the part, and pairs nicely with the Old Hag version of the character released in the villains set. We also have the Queen of Hearts who has a soft goods collar and a bulbous lower half to simulate her large dress. She gets two heart-shaped wands and two expressions for her face: a grin and an angry scream. I like this one, and she slots into the villains set as well which featured her on a playing card, but it would have been fun to get the little king as a slug figure or something instead of two wands. Last, is Cruella who also features a soft collar. She comes with two purses, which is a little half-circle piece with printing, and one of the many dalmatians from the film: Patch. He’s just a little slug figure, but the printing is well done and he’s pretty adorable. Cruella also has two expressions: a smile and a yell. I wish the angry face had tried to better emulate the animation from just before she crashes her car. Excepting that, she looks fine, but is a bit on her own with no other figures from the movie.

Bag clues: The Queen’s mirror, the lower dress for the Queen of Hearts, and Patch

I love Pinocchio, but I’d be lying if I said either of these two were my favorite in this set.

Our next trio includes the puppet who wanted to be a boy, his conscience, and Pocahontas. Pinocchio uses the articulated kid legs and comes with Cleo, who is a transparent head piece with the character printed on one side, and her castle on the reverse. Pinocchio has a unique portrait so his nose could be captured, but this also means he only gets the one expression. Despite that shortcoming, he looks fine, but I wish they had printed some of the screws in his body onto the arms and legs. Jiminy is on the kid body, but the non-articulated version, which is a bit disappointing. He obviously does not scale at all with Pinocchio, but at least he looks nice. He has a soft goods collar, removable hat, and comes with a pink umbrella. Pocahontas is a traditional minifigure with a stylized hair piece that also hides the back of her head so she gets two expressions, but they’re both smiles. Her accessories include two compasses and some autumn leaves. They’re fine, but I think fans would have preferred a Meeko instead. She’s also on her own from the movie so I guess she just goes with the other princess characters.

Bag clues: Pinocchio’s head, Jiminy’s hat+umbrella, and Pocahontas’s hair

A modern princess and her foil plus a classic one. It’s a winning combination.

Our next group includes another villain and a pair of princesses. Dr. Facilier is another traditional minifigure, but he has a lively design that works for the form. His lack of a hairpiece means he, like Jiminy, gets only one expression and for him it’s a sinister grin. He also has a wand, removable hat, and a Tarot card. He’s not bad, but it feels like he’s just here to pair with Tiana. She is done in the typical princess fashion with a large brick piece for her dress. She’s in her green dress from early in the film, though she comes with a menu from her restaurant from the end of the film. She also gets a frog, the same frog that came with Cinderella’s Castle, because why not? Aurora rounds out this trio, and even though she’s the lone representative from her film in this wave, we have two versions of Maleficient to pair her up with. She has the same form as Tiana and comes with a tiara and owl. I’d have gone with a spinning wheel, personally, but at least the owl is different. She also has a fun second portrait which features her doing what she does best: sleeping.

Bag clues: Dr. Facilier’s hat+stick for his wand (to differentiate him from Jiminy), Tiana’s menu plus her dress, Aurora’s owl and hair

I love this Prince John, but I can’t help but feel Lego missed an opportunity to include a tiny Sir Hiss.

The next group is perhaps the most surprising entrants. From the film Robin Hood, we have Robin himself! He gets a unique headsculpt and the feather in his hat is removable. He also comes with a tail piece and a bow and arrow. He’s not going to be able to hold that bow and arrow in a convincing manner, but it’s hard to think of a better accessory for the famed archer. Joining him is that phony King of England, Prince John. He too has a unique portrait which features a scowl. I love that Lego got his ears right and have his crown sitting on top of them. He also has a sack of money and a coin, both appropriate for the character. The third figure in this grouping is Baymax from Big Hero 6. He’s a standard minifigure, but with new arms that better resemble his from the film. As an inflated, bulbous, character, the minifigure form doesn’t really suit him all that well as it’s basically the opposite of that aesthetic. He has his charging station as an accessory which he can stand in, though it doesn’t look particularly special.

Bag clues: for both Robin and John it’s the head with the bow and money sack providing extra assurance, for Baymax it’s his arms plus all of the little bits that will makeup his charging station

The characters from Coco pretty much steal the show.

Our last grouping features two characters from a Pixar film, Coco, and Mulan from the movie of the same name. Ernesto De la Cruz is our fifth villain, though he has two very happy expressions so you wouldn’t know he’s a bad guy without seeing the film. He has his sombrero and signature guitar which turned out really well. His body is printed with black and silver and he’s one of the stars of the wave. Not to be outdone, is the hero from the film Miguel. He has the most stuff of anyone as he gets two heads, a hairpiece, a hood, guitar, and a slug figure of Dante. If you were going to get multiples of any of the figures in this wave, it would likely be Miguel as he can be skeleton-faced Miguel or standard Miguel and both heads have two expressions! I am partial to the skeleton look with hood and he has the guitar he used when performing in the Land of the Dead. As for our last figure, Mulan, we get a pretty basic minifigure. Her hair means she gets two expressions and Lego actually allowed one of the “princess” characters to look angry. She also has her cricket friend and a pair of swords. She’s certainly a different flavor of princess from the rest.

Bag clues: Ernesto is quite possibly the easiest due to the sombrero and guitar. For Miguel, it’s the guitar plus Dante and with Mulan you want to feel for the swords.

And that does it! Disney Minifigure Wave 3 does a solid job of giving us some new characters and films while also filling out the prior waves and sets. Aurora, the Evil Queen, Queen of Hearts, and I suppose the new Stitch fit well with those. Acknowledging films like Fantasia and Pinocchio are also no-brainers, and if you’re celebrating 100 years of Disney then you basically have to include Oswald. Most of the rest are fun inclusions as well. I love seeing Robin Hood get some love as it was a favorite of mine as a child, and who could argue that Cruella is not worthy? The two figures from Coco might be my favorites from the entire wave and it feels right that Pixar should get some recognition as well. The only ones I’m kind of down on are Baymax and Pocahontas. Baymax just doesn’t make for a fun figure in this format and I don’t feel like Big Hero 6 needs representation in this wave, but I’m guessing they wanted one CG Disney film to showcase. I feel the same about Pocahontas as we already have Mulan to stand-in for the 90s and the figure is a bit uninspired. I’d easily drop one of the two for a Basil, and maybe both so we could double-up on The Great Mouse Detective, an underrated film in the Disney catalog.

If you’re a Disney fan and enjoy Lego, this wave is probably in your possession already or on your radar. It’s still being sold at retail and online, though ordering online means you’re making a truly blind purchase. If you have the time and patience, I suppose you could order an entire box and sell off the doubles. I’d guess you’d probably break even doing so as plenty of people are willing to pay a few bucks more on the secondary market to know what character they’re getting. Definitely hit a Lego Store if you have one nearby if you’re only missing a couple. My difficulty in finding Stitch suggest to me that he’s either quite popular, or some figures are short-packed. Feeling them out is relatively easy though. All of the unique portraits are distinguishable from each other, while many of the rest feature a signature item or accessory for you to home in on. Happy hunting!

Check out our coverage of other Disney and Lego collaborations:

Lego Mini Figures – Disney Series 2

I feel like I need to take credit for the existence of this wave of Disney Mini Figures. It wasn’t that long ago I wondered why the flood gates never opened following the 2016 release of Cinderella’s Castle from Walt Disney World and the wave of mini figures that preceded it. Just days after that…

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by Joe

Disney gets the Lego Treatment

Lego is one of the most popular toy manufacturers on the planet. They’ve become known for their building block style toys that come in various shapes, sizes, and colors and can be combined to form castles, pirate ships, space crafts, and other fantastic designs. They also have struck gold with their mini figures, simplistic action…

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by Joe

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August 8, 2023

NECA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III SDCC Four-Pack

By Joe
NECA did it. Those crazy, sons of bitches, actually did it.

2023 marked the 30th anniversary of the much maligned third entrant in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film franchise and you just had to know that NECA Toys would mark the occasion. It was almost too obvious that I thought maybe the company would zig when everyone was expecting a zag, but they didn’t and for San Diego Comic Con we got yet another four-pack of action figures in an oversized, VHS, inspired package.

Not only did everyone expect this set, but we all expected it to arrive just like this too.

It’s amusing that we’re here, since back when NECA first dipped its toe into the TMNT film franchise the director of product development at NECA, Randy Falk, basically scoffed at the idea of doing figures based on the sequel films. I don’t say that to throw shade at him or anything, it was a totally defensible position as the only good movie of those three 90s films was the original. What Falk couldn’t have predicted was just how well TMNT would sell for NECA. The popularity made it too much to ignore and fans wanted figures based on the sequels so NECA delivered. Kudos to them for listening to their fans.

Just a turtle looking to migrate.

Now, the third movie is mostly shunned because it has little to do with the first two movies and New Line Cinema no longer employed the services of The Jim Henson Company. That meant lower quality suits that looked pretty terrible. Where I could believe that the turtles were real when I first saw the original film, come the third the illusion was shot. Their suits looked like rubber, the head flapped with little nuance, and the turtles had a far more uniform look now. What was really bad though were those eyes: giant, lifeless, sunken-in eyes. They looked off back in 1993, and now with HD you can really see how they had eyeholes right underneath the bandanas for the suit actors. All that said, I am on record as saying the third movie is actually a better watch than the second. The only thing the Secret of the Ooze has over the third film is Henson, everything else sucks. The third movie has some of that “So bad it’s good,” charm going for it. I still have no interest in revisiting either film these days, but if I had to pick one I’d pick the third. And I’d probably pre-game with a few beers before watching it.

“Man, you dudes are ugly!”
“Hah! You need to look in a mirror, dude!”

Because the third is so non-essential to me from a visual standpoint, I wasn’t sure if I was going to get the action figures when they were eventually announced. I would say that to anyone who asked, but in my heart I think I knew I’d cave the second they were made available. I have the first two therefore I need to complete the set. And since it’s another VHS box I basically had to do it – so I did. No, I did not attend San Diego Comic Con this year, instead, I bought this off of NECA’s website as they made the set available through there just as they have over the past several years. It wasn’t super hard to get, and their shipping was actually really cheap for a change, and they also sold more during the con both physically and online. I’m guessing they made a ton of these things so my guess is everyone who wanted one was able to get it. It was $150, basically the new standard for their four-packs, and it was also sold alongside a Keno from Secret of the Ooze. I passed on Keno, so apologies if you were looking for a review from me. NECA wanted $100 for Keno and his scooter and tossed in a bunch of “swag” to basically bring it up to that price. That’s too much for a Keno. If the set makes it to retail at a more manageable price I’ll reconsider it then.

I pretty much had to do this one.

Before we get to the toys, lets talk about that box. Just like the convention exclusives for the first two movies, this one comes in a box that looks almost exactly like the original home video release. That means we get the four turtles on the cover with their helmets from the film. There’s some shots on the back as well and even a flashy quote from the Yes, Have Some podcast group. Where this set is different though is that NECA had to “cheat” to do the cover. The figures on the front of the box are not the ones in it. That’s because the turtles were sans clothing on the VHS box, but these figures place them in their samurai costumes. NECA does have a disclaimer on the front of the box letting you know that you’re looking at the Secret of the Ooze figures with the movie three heads. Am I mad about that? No, but I felt it was warranted to point out in case anyone was hoping for maybe soft goods in the box that could strip-down for this look.

As usual, NECA’s sculpt and paint is exceptional. These figures were done by Brodie Perkins.

With that out of the way, lets get down to business. The turtles are all essentially the same figure with minor differences. They stand around 6.5″ in height which puts them pretty much on par with the past movie figures which exist in more of a 1:10 scale as opposed to 1:12. As mentioned previously, the clothing and armor is all part of the sculpt, and it’s pretty impressively done. There’s a ton of detail on the chest especially with a wash applied to the softer materials to bring out the sculpted folds. There’s some nice trim work on the shins and gloves, and if you spin the figure around you’ll see a bit of the shell poking through. Since they’re fully clothed, NECA didn’t actually sculpt and affix a shell to each figure which will pay off when we get to the articulation.

I’m less impressed by the soft goods. They’re just okay.

The heads on these guys are what will attract the most attention. They have that pretty dead-eye stare going with some deep recesses where those eyeholes would have been. There’s also a bit of green visible around their eyes and the expressions are fairly neutral. Donnie has a bit of an open mouth with a hint of a smile and Mikey’s mouth is a bit more relaxed as well. Leo and Raph look almost bored which is pretty on-model for the film. And if you don’t like these faces, they have their masks to cover them up. They slide on rather easily and fit snug enough. There’s some nice weathering applied via the paintjob and the sculpted mustache and beard is color-coded for each turtle. Leo and Don get blue and purple, respectively, while Mikey gets a light brown and Raph a darker one. I have no idea if they were like that in the movie, but this is NECA, so the answer is “probably.”

You can put the new heads on an older body if you want an unclothed look. On the left, is movie 1 Mikey and on the right is SotO Mikey’s body with the TMNT III head.

To complete the look, each turtle has a helmet and cloak. The helmets are all the same and they slot onto the bandana knot on the back of the figure’s head. They were pretty snug in the box and I haven’t been able to get them back on to that degree with the masks on, but they sit fine either way. The cloaks are soft goods with a wire running through the front. As far as soft goods go, they’re not NECA’s best. They feel thin and kind of cheap. If there was a bit more substance to them, and in turn more weight as a result, I would like them a lot more. Three of them are the same, while the fourth is for Leonardo and it has some slits cut into it to accommodate his sword holsters. It’s a little tricky getting his on as a result, and it looks kind of bunched up and messy once done. I’m left thinking just a pair of long slits would have worked better, but this is probably more film accurate. Regardless, it’s on the figure’s back so it’s not that big of an issue.

“Donnie, what are you doing?!” “What?! We need horses and Barbie is HUGE right now. We’d be stupid not to get in on this!”

Once you get everything on, the turtles do look pretty cool and like they stepped out of the film. All of the details I remember from the movie are present and I like the proportioning on these guys too. I agree that it was the right move to just sculpt all of the clothing because the samurai look is the one most associated with the movie. I know they did ditch the outfits fairly quickly, but if they had come with soft goods there’s no way I’d display them unclothed. Unless the soft goods turned out frumpy and bad, which is likely given they’re wearing armor over clothing. There is one subtle difference between the four and it’s the belt. Again, I’m not sure if it was different for each turtle in the movie or not, but it probably was and I’m glad NECA didn’t skimp on such a minor detail when they probably could have.

The accessories for this set are mostly as expected. In keeping with past four-packs, all four figures come equipped with gripping hands in the box and there are five additional sets of hands for the guys to share. This is actually better than the Mirage four-pack which only had four extra sets. And those extra sets are relaxed hands, wide open hands, pointing hands, fists, and a set of tighter gripping hands. The tighter hands work well with some of the thinner weapons in the set while the pointing hands also function well as specialty sai hands. The regular gripping hands can also manage to grip a sai with the center blade through them. All of the hands feature horizontal hinges which is a continued bummer for NECA and TMNT.

This thing had to be included.
“Ohh man, I’m never time-traveling again.”

To go with those hands, the turtles have their expected weapons. Raph has a pair of sai, Mikey his nunchaku, Donnie his bo staff, and Leo his set of katana. The sai, ‘chuks, and bo are the same as past versions of those weapons while Leo’s swords are new. I’m guessing they decided his swords were different enough onscreen to warrant a re-sculpt, but it may have also been to make them a bit more durable. The prior swords are thin and some have complained that they’re too brittle. I haven’t had an issue with them, but these new ones are fine too. The handle is pretty thick as well and they slot into the scabbards with ease. Mike and Raph can store their weapons by just fitting them between the belt and body. Donnie could too, but not really while wearing the cloak.

“Donnie, is this thing really going to work?” “Of course it is!”
Say what you want about the third movie, but at least it didn’t have Mikey running around with hot dogs for weapons.

We’ve got hands and the usual weapons so what else do we need from the movie? How about a time scepter? How about 3?! Yes, we get three versions of the magical, time-traveling, device: the standard version, the broken version, and the homemade version. All three look pretty damn great. There’s some nice, transparent, plastic used for glass and the sculpt and paint looks great, especially on the standard one. The busted one has sculpted breaks in the glass and a darker paint job as if it had a bunch of smoke just pour out. The homemade one is appropriately plain, but cool to have, I suppose. The little, hourglass shaped thing in the center doesn’t actually spin, but they look cool and obviously we had to get the scepter. I don’t know if we needed all three, but credit NECA for covering their bases. We also get a pair of sabers from the scene where Michelangelo finds them in a barn. I didn’t remember that they were actually two different swords in the movie, but of course NECA did. They look great as well and it’s a good pull from the film.

The extra heads are a nice idea, but they don’t really match the movie 1 bodies and bandana tails.
The blue on the new head is quite a bit different from the original with Leo.

Lastly, we get some interesting bonus parts in the form of four additional heads. These heads though are not for these figures, necessarily, but are actually based on the first movie. All four are basically angry, almost snarling, expressions and I think they’re from the scene where the turtles find Danny hiding in their old sewer lair. At least, the shape of Michelangelo’s mouth looks to be from that quick shot. It’s an interesting addition for this set though and tells me that maybe NECA was unsure of whether or not figures based on the third movie would sell so they sweetened the deal with these. And that’s fine, but the problem is that the paintjob doesn’t really match those figures. The color of the bandanas is a bit different and the shade of green of the skin is too. As a result, I can’t really see myself using any of these. There were some variations in those first four figures so maybe they’ll match other sets better than they do mine.

Raph and Donnie’s extra heads, if you’re interested.
Leo’s got some new swords.

That’s all that’s in the box, so how do these heroes on the half shell move? Well, not great. These figures are definitely going for aesthetic over function, but I do wish they could do a bit more. Especially considering we have some clothing to hide joints. The head is on a double ball peg and that’s fine. You will get plenty of range so long as the figure is without helmet. The shoulders are hinged ball pegs and they raise out to the side just fine and rotate easily. NECA also snuck a little butterfly joint into the shoulder which is uncharacteristic of them. I’m not sure why they did it, but that’s cool. It unfortunately doesn’t add a whole lot though, but it’s not useless. The elbows are hinged pegs as well so you get a swivel and a bend that goes about 90 degrees. I was surprised that NECA didn’t use their unique double-jointed elbow setup which I think would have worked fine here. The wrists swivel and hinge and all of the hinges are horizontal ones which sucks.

If there is a diaphragm joint, I can’t tell. It would be useless, if so. The waist is a ball joint so you get a little play forward, back, and to the side, but it’s quite minimal. No shell means you get full rotation, at least. The hips are ball-jointed and raise out to the side to almost a full split. They, unfortunately, don’t kick forward much at all due to the presence of a “diaper” piece. Given how the armor has these flaps that hang down, I wish NECA had not gone with the diaper over the hips or had cut away a bunch of it for more range. The thigh swivel is pretty non-existent as well. The knees are double-jointed with a pair of hinged pegs similar to some of the elbows NECA does. Unfortunately, the sculpt of the pants basically covers the top hinge and it can’t do anything. The bottom hinge and peg will let the figures bend about 90 degrees and also swivel. At the ankle, we have the usual hinge and rocker which work okay. Lastly, there’s the wire in the cloak. It’s more for positioning, but if you want your figure to look like it’s getting blasted in the face with a leaf blower it can do that too. The wire is only in the front though and doesn’t run through the entire hem.

The pizza from the Musical Mutagen Tour set was the closest thing I had to Mikey’s attempt at pizza in the film.

These figures aren’t going to bust out with the cool ninja moves, they’re intended to just look neat on your shelf with some minor degree of posing. I think they mostly look good enough to make up for that lack of articulation, but I also think NECA could have done a little better and sacrificed some of that aesthetic for better range, particularly in the hips and knees. It probably doesn’t matter that much though as if you have ever wanted figures based on the third Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie then you’re probably not passing on this set. I can see some folks out there wanting base turtles from that movie, maybe with different expressions, but for me this is perfect. It’s the turtles from the movie in their most recognizable look. The set isn’t the home run it could have been given how the extra heads turned out, but the figures look the part and that’s what is most important. And if you’re into the novelty packaging, then NECA has you covered there as well. Now, let’s all thank Moe for being such a good sport!

If you want to read about more turtle toys, I can’t imagine a more robust place on the internet than here:

NECA 1990 TMNT Movie SDCC Set

For the past several years, the folks over at NECA have been making San Diego Comic Con an annual event for fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I mean, it’s always an event, but it’s been especially fun for TMNT fans because NECA has been able to release limited action figure sets based on…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Secret of the Ooze 4-Pack and Accessory Set

It’s that time of year when a lot of folks are reflecting on the past year and all of the things that happened. This usually coincides with list-making for favorites and worst of the year in basically every category you can dream of. And for action figure enthusiasts, there’s definitely a lot of list making.…

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by Joe

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III

When I was a child, going to the movies was a pretty big deal. It didn’t happen often so when it did it felt like a special occasion. Most of the Disney films of the late 80s and 90s were seen by me at home. Batman, Ghostbusters, every Back to the Future movie- all films…

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by Joe

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August 3, 2023

Medicom MAFEX Marvel No. 186 Scarlet Spider

By Joe
Wait! Why is Spider-Man wearing a hoodie? Answer: it was the 90s, baby!

When I was a kid, one of my favorite past times was drawing. Like most, I started really young with a box of crayons and coloring books. I’d eventually start keeping markers, colored pencils, and other instruments in a plastic McDonald’s case that came from a Happy Meal. It was blue and had a map of the United States on it, if you’re the curious type. As I got older I got into comic books and those characters became my inspiration for my drawing. I’d draw Marvel characters as well as my own, which usually looked an awful lot like an existing character because, hey, I was a kid!

One of my favorite subjects was Spider-Man. He’s a pretty popular guy and he certainly was with me. The problem with drawing Spider-Man is he has all of those web lines on his costume. Now, I’m not criticizing the man’s threads. That costume is iconic and one of, if not the, best superhero costumes of all-time. I just didn’t like to draw it because it was time consuming and definitely a little tedious. Enter the Scarlet Spider! Scarlet Spider debuted during the infamous Clone Saga in issue 52 of Spider-Man. I still remember seeing the cover to Web of Spider-Man #118 with Scarlet Spider on the cover. I took one look at that costume and said “Yeah, now that I can handle!” It was basically the same general idea as Spider-Man, only all red and no web lines. Easy! The clone of Peter Parker, Ben Reilly, had created his own persona and it had a bit of a D.I.Y. vibe to it with the exposed web shooters and blue hoodie, and it worked for me. The Clone Saga itself was a bit of a mess and probably ran too long. It also ended with the reveal that it was Reilly, and not Peter Parker, who was the REAL Peter Parker leading to Ben Reilly’s turn as Spider-Man that brought back the web lines and I personally didn’t know how to feel about it. Like Wolverine losing his adamantium, I wasn’t crazy about the guy I knew as Peter Parker being revealed to not be Peter Parker.

The figure comes with three different portraits, two of which I will never use.

Like most things in comics, eventually the status quo was restored. Ben Reilly was a clone after all, and then he died. Then he came back, because no one ever dies in comics. I honestly haven’t read much Spider-Man since the 90s so you’re better off heading to a wiki at this point if you want to know more, I’m just here for that costume. Scarlet Spider became a favorite of mine to draw and as a result I have a nostalgic attachment to the costume. The character was never done justice by Toy Biz back in day as his figures were always lame repaints. I had a 12″ version of the character with the hoodie painted on and some rubber overlays added to the wrists and ankles of what had previously been a Spider-Man figure. The inaugural line of Spider-Man Classics, the precursor line to Marvel Legends, also featured a Scarlet Spider repaint that I believe was exclusive to a retailer, possibly KB Toys. I never got it, or any other Scarlet Spider that followed. When I started getting Spider-Man figures here and there again starting with the Pulsecon exclusive Venom, my appetite for a Scarlet Spider came with it. Unfortunately, the Marvel Legends version (which actually looks pretty good from what I’ve seen) is a little old at this point and prohibitively expensive on the aftermarket. I’m not paying an inflated price for a Hasbro figure, but a Medicom one? Now that was intriguing.

I think the figure in the middle is unquestionably superior to the other two, but is it $70 better?

When Medicom unveiled their version of Scarlet Spider under their MAFEX branding, I decided to give it a go. The price is awful, as it was for the only other MAFEX figure I own, the Hush Batman, but I’d rather overpay for a boutique figure than something previously sold at Target. I had some nits to pick with that Batman figure and my overall attitude towards MAFEX is that it’s too expensive. The Marvel license probably doesn’t come cheap, but in general, I think Bandai makes better figures than Medicom and they’re usually at least in the $65 range. This figure will basically set you back about 100 bucks if you reside in the US, and I’ll tell you upfront it’s not a figure that justifies its price tag. That doesn’t mean it can’t be good as one could pay 50 bucks for a perfectly cooked steak and find it delicious, but overpriced compared with a chain restaurant’s $25 prime rib. It’s more a question of “Do you want to pay $75-$90 for a loose Marvel Legends figure, or $100 for a brand new MAFEX version of the character?”

Yeah, I wish the spider logo was bigger, but damn does he look cool or what?

Obviously, you know which option I chose and now I’m going to tell you how happy (or not) I am with that decision. Scarlet Spider comes in the MAFEX window box with artwork from the comic on the front and product shots of the figure on the sides and rear. This one is branded with The Amazing Spider-Man in the traditional font with the actual name of the character off to the side in a rather unglamorous and understated fashion. This isn’t the type of figure mothers at Toys R Us are going to be confused by, but it was somewhat amusing to me. Right off the bat though, Medicom is doing Medicom things which is namely using character art that doesn’t match the figure inside. The picture of Scarlet Spider on the top left looks to be from his early days. The red, or scarlet, of his costume is dark with lots of black shading and the hoodie has the big, spider, logo across the chest. The figure inside is a bright red, no shading, and has a small spider logo over the heart. It’s my understanding that this version is a later version of the character as he’s come and gone over the years. Why the person designing the packaging wouldn’t choose a better representation of the figure inside is beyond my understanding. And if Marvel dictated that this version of the character be featured on the box, why not make the figure match? It’s puzzling.

The hoodie is fine, certainly fine enough to not want to spend more money on a different one.

Right off the bat, we’re kind of off to a bad start. Not because the picture is wrong, but because the figure seems to be based on a version of Scarlet Spider that isn’t my favorite. And I don’t get the sense that I’m alone in that regard. Is it a deal breaker? Obviously not since I bought it anyway, but I wish he had the character’s original hoodie. The belt is also different with this one having a more traditional buckle instead of the red-buttoned belt. I’m honestly less irritated by that change, but felt it was worth pointing out. The shape of the eyes on the mask are also more of a traditional Spider-Man eye shape, but this is rendered moot by the inclusion of a head with more of a 1995 look to the eyes so I won’t count that as a knock. Still, I have encountered multiple collectors in the market for custom hoodies for their $100 figure to get the right logo on it. I can’t bring myself to drop another $30 on an already expensive figure in an attempt to improve it, but if it really bothers you there do appear to be some nice customs out there.

Is Scarlet Spider a little big or Venom a little small? Both things can be true. This looks okay to me though.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about the actual figure. Scarlet Spider stands at approximately 6.25″ tall making him a little oversized. The MAFEX line is a 1:12 scale line so that would make the character about 6’3″ which is on the tall side for a Spider-Man clone. At the same time, if you’re looking to fudge him into a Marvel Legends display this should work pretty well as most of those Spider-Man figures are around the same height, with a few exceptions. The figure is basically cast in all red plastic with very little paint. The paint is limited to the eyes, belt, and little pouches on his ankles. And at the ankles, it’s not as fine as it could be as the top of the straps wasn’t painted over leaving them red. A nitpick, perhaps, but this is a $100 figure, after all. I can’t tell if the web shooters are painted or not, but they’re a nice, lustrous, silver. They’re definitely separate pieces from the arms, but they may be painted over for added effect. On the body itself I’m not detecting any shading which is a bummer. I think some dark red over the bare plastic would have helped spruce this one up. Personally, I would have loved an ambitious paint job with a lot of black shading, but I’m not surprised we didn’t get that. Medicom did do a comic paint Spider-Man years ago so maybe we’ll get such a variant in the future (do I really want to be tempted by such), but for this release Medicom is definitely playing it safe. I also would have liked some outlining around the eyes, be it dark red or even black to add a little pop to the presentation. They are at least raised as part of the sculpt, which is better than nothing.

He’s got you now, Ben!

The overall sculpt is definitely going for a lean, but muscular, build suitable of Scarlet Spider. The soft goods hoodie is done well and I rather enjoy the almost metallic sheen it posseses. The logo is printed on, and despite being too small at least looks fine. There’s no logo on the back. The drawstrings are connected to the hood and don’t actually function, but respond a bit to posing despite lacking a wire. The hood itself is wired and the figure looks good with it on or off. I will say, the hoodie helps add a little extra bulk to the torso which is a good thing as without it I think he’d look too lean and shapeless. The torso doesn’t taper much from the chest to the abdomen so he would probably look stupid without the hoodie. Maybe that’s by design as we wouldn’t want him to look frumpy either, but if you’re someone with a lot of money looking to utilize this body for custom action figures you may be letdown. I do like that the hoodie fits tight enough that we can see some of the muscle definition showing through. If you did want to get a custom hoodie I’m not sure how difficult it would be to get this one off given its tightness, but the head is easily removed and he can raise his arms up to the heavens to it’s probably more than manageable.

The paint may be basic, but at least the figure makes up for it with a whole bunch of stuff.

The costume is a rather simple one, which is basically what drew me to it. Simple can be nice, and Medicom did a fine enough job capturing this particular version. I think his chest could be bulked out more and maybe even the abs to a degree. He looks fine from the front or back, but viewing the figure from the side makes him look rather thin. Aside from that, the proportioning looks good and while the paint doesn’t impress, what’s there at least isn’t sloppy. How much you enjoy the look of this figure will be determined by how much you like this particular version vs the original Scarlet Spider costume. Even if you’re someone who doesn’t like the over-articulated aesthetic of a MAFEX release, the hoodie, web shooters, and belt hide some of the seams on this guy and the only minor eyesore resulting from the articulation is that the knees and elbow pieces are an ever so slightly different shade of red from the rest of the figure. Under a white light, you’ll notice it more, but in natural lighting it blends fine.

This figure comes with too many web effects to make use of at once, which means your Hasbro offerings can finally get some decent webs!

For accessories, Medicom did what Hasbro don’t and loaded this guy up with plenty of hands and web effects. We do get three heads: standard eyes, wide eyes, and what I’ll call “classic” eyes. The classic eyes look more like the box art (even the image of the figure on the front of the box is using these ones) and those early first appearances of the character. The default eyes look like standard Spider-Man eyes to me and the third set are even larger and a bit more expressive without getting as stylized as some Spider-Man eyes tend to get. For hands, we get a set of fists, thwip, gripping, open, and relaxed hands. There’s also another set of open hands with magnets in the palms and a set of feet with magnets in the soles so he can scale a metal wall or refrigerator. All of the extra hands and feet come on little acrylic stands to I guess make sure the openings on them don’t warp in the package. The fists are what come on by default, and as such they slide off and on the easiest and actually won’t really fit on any of the little acrylic pieces when not in use. The extra hands, for their part, go on easily enough and at no point was I afraid of breaking anything. The heads require a bit more effort, but aren’t too bad either. I was a little apprehensive about the feet, but they too go on and off with little effort. Overall, a much better experience than the one I had with Batman.

He has magnetic hands and feet if you want him in a wall-crawling kind of pose provided you have some metal on your wall. It stayed in place for me, but I personally wouldn’t trust it longterm.

To go along with the extra bits are a whole bunch of web effects. We get two short “thwip” effects and two longer ones. These have a little loop on them and are meant to be slotted over the wrist peg and then the hand can be placed over them. It’s a simple, and effective effect made easier by the exposed web shooters this costume features. We also get two “L” shaped webs which basically feature handles for the gripping hands. I wish there was a little nuance to the handled part, but it works fine. We also get two additional “L” shaped webs where the handle portion is actually a spiral of web. There’s a loop where the long portion ends and the spiral begins that a hand can go through with the rest of the spiral portion riding up the forearm.

I really like these web lines that coil around the forearms, but I wish he could grip this figure 8 one better.

Lastly, we get another swinging web that basically ends in a figure eight. It has a lovely look, but the issue with this figure is that the gripping hands are lumps of plastic with a hole through them. The fingers are connected to the palms, so the only way for the figure to grip the webs is to start at one end and slide them through. I would like to have the figure grab an inner portion of the figure eight, but it’s essentially impossible without some modification to the figure or the accessory. You can try to use the relaxed hand instead like he’s in the process of letting go, but making the fingers flex on the gripping hands would have been the way to go. As for the effects themself, the web lines look the part. They’re just white plastic with some knots and such sculpted into them. I’m happy to have so many, as Hasbro is terrible about giving us web effects with its figures so the extra will be put to good use. Of course, Hasbro also doesn’t give us gripping hands so they’ll only go so far. Medicom also packs in a display stand so you can actually display your figure in mid-swing. It’s just a plain, acrylic, stand, but it gets the job done. It articulates at the base, the midway point, and at the “claw” where the figure slots in. There’s also a straight peg included and a second, narrower, claw that I believe is more for grabbing a thigh instead of a waist. There’s also yet another piece that’s basically a “J” shape with a peg above it. I don’t see how that peg plays a role in posing this figure, but the J piece acts like a seat if you want to try and balance the figure on it as opposed to having a claw piece grab it.

Some of these leg poses were tricky out of the box. I had to hit this one with some silicon spray to get them moving well enough that I wasn’t afraid of snapping anything.

Medicom’s major boast with its MAFEX line concerns articulation. This is a “super” articulated line that should blow away anything you’re likely to find at a brick and mortar retailer. With this guy, we get a double-ball peg setup at the head. Medicom likes to use this angled peg that I don’t think adds much, but combined with the ball-peg at the base of the neck means you get a figure that can look up, down, and packs some nuance as well. The shoulders are ball-hinges which peg into a socket inside the chest. You get some up and down play, and the arms raise out past a horizontal position. There’s a butterfly joint here as well which allows for some back and some forward range, but not a ton. At least with this figure, we’re not dealing with any aesthetic trade-off with the joint as the soft goods hide it. There’s a biceps swivel, double-jointed elbows that bend well past 90 degrees, and ball-hinged wrists. Either the hinges at the wrist are really tight, or the web shooter interfere with their range as I can’t get much out of them which is unfortunate.

Do I want to put this figure on a shelf or on the fridge? Shelf? Or fridge?

In the torso, we get ball joints in the diaphragm and the waist. This allows the figure to bend back rather far as well as crunch forward. There’s tilt and rotation at both joints and overall I would say this is a very well done torso. It also helps that we once again have the soft goods to hide any ugliness these joints might create. I’ve never been a big soft goods guy, but maybe this figure is winning me over? The hips are where I lose a little bit of my enthusiasm as Medicom loves the drop-down hinged joint with ball and sockets. They’re finicky, and they’re the only joints that scare me as sometimes I feel like they’re fighting me, especially the left hip which might actually be stuck. Kicking forward is a chore and he gets to about horizontal when you get everything in proper alignment. Drop the hip and you get just a little bit more range which is why I don’t really like the design. He can at least do splits and the thigh swivel at the socket works great. The double-jointed knees are fine and at the ankles we get more hinged ball pegs. They can bend forward and back plenty fine while the ankle rocker is a little more cumbersome, but functional. They’re also tight enough that the figure has no issues standing on its own.

Shelf, it is!

Aside from the hips, I mostly like what this figure does as far as articulation goes. I can’t quite get him into some of the deep crouches Spider-Man is known for, but part of that is the stuck left hip. I may try to hit it with oil to see if lubrication helps alleviate the issue. If it didn’t have the more delicate drop-down setup, I’d just pop the leg off and try to diagnose the issue that way. Or if it was 70 dollars cheaper, I’d be more aggressive with it. I can still basically get the figure into the poses I want, especially since I’m mostly interested in using the stand, but it’s never much fun to fear moving a part of an action figure like I do with the hips on this guy.

Is the MAFEX version of Scarlet Spider worth the $105 asking price some retailers have it listed for? Probably not, but what 1:12 figure could be? None really, this is an expensive commodity, but given the lack of alternatives I can’t say I blame anyone for just going for it. That’s what I did as I’m not a regular MAFEX buyer nor am I amassing a giant collection of Spider-Man stuff. I just get things here and there so for me I was able to rationalize the occasional splurge with this one. I certainly don’t blame those who can’t, and given the frequency of higher budget releases this year, one could easily argue that I should have passed on this one all-together since I don’t make any money off of this blog, so I’m collecting just for fun as opposed to content. At the same time, if you do grab this figure and can look past the price and the fact that it’s not based on first appearance Scarlet Spider, I think you’ll be plenty happy. There are things that could be better, but at the end of the day it has enough stuff to make sure it looks good on your shelf and it probably will get the attention of anyone who comes looking. And that’s definitely what you want from an expensive collectible.

Interested in more Spider-Man figures or maybe you’re curious about another MAFEX release?

Marvel Legends Spider-Man (Animated)

It was in 2021 that Hasbro released a PulseCon exclusive Venom figure on a Spider-Man retro card. The retro card series is meant to stir-up nostalgia for all of the adults who were buying toys and watching cartoons in the 90s as the retro card is a facsimile of the old cards Toy Biz used…

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by Joe

MAFEX No. 105 – Batman: Hush

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

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by Joe

1 Comment   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Comics, toys

August 1, 2023

Playmates Toys TMNT Mutant Mayhem Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael

By Joe
A new set of turtles are ready to rock the town without being seen.

With a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie on the way this week that can only mean one thing: new action figures from Playmates Toys! With the license to produce toys based on TMNT becoming easier to obtain in recent years, Playmates has become a bit of a punching bag in the toy community. Some of that is justified, but some of it really isn’t as Playmates has primarily been a company making toys for kids to play with. Sure, they’ve made attempts at collector grade stuff over the years with varying levels of success, but the company’s bread and butter is making toys that kids can beat up and parents can acquire at an affordable price. There’s room in the world for such an approach, especially in light of the loosening licensing restrictions, and Playmates does it pretty well.

Because the company is focused on non-collector action figures, I’m usually able to ignore whatever Playmates is putting out. It’s stuff that’s just not for me. Even their vintage reissues aren’t really on my radar as I lived that already, but whenever a new version of the turtles shows up the temptation to add them to the ever growing collection is often there. I sometimes resist the pull as I did for the Bay turtles and the Rise ones, but when the toys come out and are pretty cheap it’s hard to ignore.

Playmates will apparently never get sick of the weapon sprue.

And that is the case with the new lineup of figures based on the upcoming Mutant Mayhem film. That movie features the four heroes with a newish look. They’re instantly recognizable as the four turtles, but they’ve been altered enough to have their own flavor. And overall I would say those designs are fine. Yeah, there are things I like and don’t like (which we’ll get into when we talk about the figures), but they’re not repulsive like some other versions of the turtles have been. They’re also not and likely never will be my favorite interpretation, but the 2012 turtles weren’t either and yet that show is one of the best TMNT things ever!

The sprues feature very similar accessories to what came with the 2012 turtles.

The inaugural wave of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the new film started showing up at retail a few weeks ago. Because of my insistence on only posting TMNT stuff on Tuesdays, this post is a little dated, but I’m guessing these figures will be shipping all summer long. The figures come on blister cards with artwork from the film on the front and even on the cross-sell on the back. You still get a little I.D. card for each character that can be snipped from the back and really not much has changed when it comes to the approach. The inaugural wave contains the four turtles, Splinter, and some baddies, but I only went with the turtles. Maybe I’ll come back for more after seeing the film in August, but probably not.

Weapon storage is mostly the same as always, but Raph lost his pizza holder.

The line is basically a 5″ scale toy line where the characters really don’t even scale with each other. This is in keeping with what Playmates typically does so if you’re after a line with a true scale, this isn’t it. There also looks to be a little more effort put into the actual turtles, maybe because Playmates views them as the figures that will make or break the line, and they’re at least not all the exact same height. The shortest is Mikey who stands at a tick over 4.25″, next is Leo and Donnie at 4.5″, and finally Raph at 4.75″ is the tallest of the four. The main driver of their look would appear to be the classic animated series. All of the turtles wear colored bandanas and various pads and wraps. The belts are black with an initial on the buckle and weapon storage as well. Leonardo is the only one that gets a shoulder strap and each turtle is colored with a different shade of green with Donatello being the palest and Mikey the darkest.

These guys are pretty little.

Where things are changed is really the general shape and accents. These turtles are fairly lean and not as chunky as many of their predecessors. In terms of shape, they feel most like the 2007 turtles from the film TMNT, but with each turtle having a different head shape. Michelangelo’s is the most extreme, as the film’s trailer points out it looks like a watermelon. There are other little differences as well. Leo has some sculpted ninja stars on his belt while Donnie is adorned in “techy” stuff. He has a fanny pack and cell phone slung around his waist plus some glasses and headphones he can either wear or just have dangle around his neck. Raph has the full skull cap which is reminiscent of his Rise persona and he even gets some 90s inspired pouches on his belt. Mikey’s design is the most straight-forward as his only real embellishment is a painted belt buckle. He should have braces, but Playmates opted not to attempt them for some reason.

They’re little, but not much different from past Playmates offerings. That 2007 TMNT line sure stands out though.

The sculpts overall are pretty solid. There doesn’t appear to be much of any reuse between the four as there are lots of subtle differences. Raph is the most chunky which appears to be accurate to the film. His chunk is mostly in the torso, but the arms and lower legs are a bit thicker too. Playmates opted to outline the eyes and mouths on each figure in black which really helps to make them pop. Aside from that, paint hits are kept to a minimum and are limited to the various pads and painted details of the belt. Would these look better with fully-painted bodies? Sure, but it’s not what they’re going for. I do wish the plastron on each turtle had some paint, especially Raph’s with its scarred portion, but the presentation is solid. They might be the best looking set of turtles Playmates has done since the originals.

Articulation-wise, these guys are very similar to what Playmates has been doing since the 2012 toy line. It’s basic, but certainly better than the vintage line or the comparably more expensive Super7 ReAction brand. The head is on a ball peg and each turtle can look up, rotate, and tilt there with basically no room to look down. The shoulders are ball-hinged and can raise out to the side past horizontal and rotate around at an angle due to the shell. The elbows are also hinged-pegs so they swivel a bit and bend about 90 degrees. The wrists just peg in and swivel. At the hips, more ball-hinges which I really don’t like for hip joints, but they work okay. They swivel and will kick out to whatever the direction the hinge is facing. They don’t go very far though as the peg is too far up into the shell so no splits and no 90 degree kicks. The knees are hinged-pegs like the elbows so they swivel and bend pretty close to 90 degrees. At the ankles, just swivels like the wrists. In short, it’s decent for the price range, but ball-socket hips would have been better and likely would have cost the same. Hinges at the wrists and rockers at the ankles would be pretty nice to have as well, but again, it’s a budget line. It does make me wonder if just a ball-socket ankle would work better though, but maybe they’d be prone to separating too easily for a line aimed at children.

Four baby turtles!

The accessories for these guys should feel pretty similar to longtime TMNT fans. Each figure comes with his signature weapons: sai for Raph, katana for Leo, nunchaku for Mikey, and a bo staff for Donnie. Only Donnie gets one weapon with the others being dual-wielders and I’m happy to say we get some paint on all except Donnie’s staff. It’s not amazing, but it’s better than the often monochrome approach and it’s basically just to differentiate the metal and wooden portions of the weapons. The belts all have weapon storage as well that’s easy to use with only Mikey’s being tricky. That’s primarily due to the pre-posed nature of his ‘chuks which seem to work best if you alternate the slots on his back. Of the four, I do like the nunchaku the least and it’s just because the shape is not ideal.

There may be little “wow” factor here, but you can’t beat the price.

In addition to those weapons, each figure also comes with a classic weapons rack. They’re in two different shades as Mikey and Donnie’s are the wood color while Raph and Leo’s the metallic color. Raph, Mikey, and Leo have broken canisters of ooze on theirs with Donnie coming with the intact canister. Each figure gets a different throwable weapon and pizza slice and then a unique set of weapons. Mikey has some microphone ‘chuks and Donnie his bladed staff and some other stuff that’s pretty familiar compared with the 2012 line. It’s probably fun for kids, but for me I’ll probably just leave the sprues intact. Collectors interested in painting these things will probably have more fun with them though. Lastly, each figure comes with a pre-mutated version of himself. It’s a little slug figure colored all in the shade of green used for the character. To my surprise, the little turtles are all unique sculpts. It’s a fun little throw-in.

These turtles are pretty fun to look at and handle. They won’t blow anyone away, but I can’t imagine anyone declaring them trash. And I haven’t even mentioned the best part: they’re only 10 bucks! Yes, that’s right, for less than the cost of one Super7 turtle you can get all four. That’s an incredible deal in today’s market and hopefully it leads to good things for Playmates and the TMNT franchise. I’d love it if either of my kids threw these guys on their Christmas lists, though it’s probably not happening in my house, but not for lack of trying. There are some shortcomings with the figures: the articulation is so-so, the opacity on the whites could be better, and Mikey’s weapons also aren’t optimal. If you want better paint, there are special editions of each figure that are painted-up to look more like the film, but they’ll cost you triple what these do. The issues are easy to overlook at this price though and these guys will look great with your other Playmates figures. Hopefully the movie is just as good!

Interested in what else Playmates has put out there for TMNT?

Playmates TMNT The Last Ronin PX Previews Exclusive (Chase)

A few years ago, Mattel launched a new subline of action figures based on their most famous IP: Masters of the Universe. The subline was titled Origins and it basically took the vintage toys of the 80s and updated them with more modern articulation while still preserving that vintage aesthetic. And ever since then, collectors…

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by Joe

TMNT Classic Collection

I’ve been out of the toy collecting game for several years now.  I used to enjoy it as a hobby and it was a nice way to link my childhood to my adult life as I pursued action figures of characters I loved as a kid.  It became a compulsion eventually.  I started off just…

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by Joe

1 Comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in Film, toys

July 27, 2023

The 2023 San Diego Comic Con Reaction Post

By Joe
It’s the second most wonderful time of the year!

You probably heard, but Hollywood is essentially on strike right now. Two large unions are fighting for better pay, benefits, and assurances that they won’t be replaced by artificial intelligence while major studio heads like Bob Iger are tossing stones from their golden mansions. I am firmly on the side of labor when it comes to most strikes, but this isn’t a strike post. It’s a comic con one as the just recently wrapped San Diego Comic Con of 2023 had a decidedly different feel to it in light of the work stoppage. Unions frown upon any of their members even promoting their projects right now, and with good reason. Without the glitz of Hollywood, it meant Comic Con could go back to being about comics for at least one year. Though for me, every year is all about the toys!

I don’t know when it started, but Comic Con has become a huge spot for toy producers to show off what’s coming in the next few months to a year and 2023 was no exception. I sat glued to my phone once preview night started and fought with myself to put it down all weekend since I couldn’t be there in person. Now that it’s over, I’m going to tell you what I think because my opinions are very, very, important and the fate of the companies involved, nigh the entire industry, is dependent upon securing my approval.

NECA TMNT

That is one big ass Krang! Photo: Pixel Dan

Let’s start with the old standby – NECA and their many versions of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In some respects, this year’s display felt slightly subdued, but I think that’s because NECA has really branched out beyond just the cartoon and movies. They basically showed off a little bit of everything and undoubtedly they’ve held stuff back for the conventions to come. And that’s fine by me, I was kind of happy that I took one look at the new TMNT toon stuff and didn’t feel like I necessarily needed any of it. And some of that is tempered by the fact that I know I have a major expense in the sewer lair diorama to look forward to. On the toon side though, I’m definitely in for the street turtles. While I prefer the season one street looks to these, I’m still happy to have what they showed. That’s it though. I’m probably going to get more, and the giant Krang was certainly the show-stealer, but I’m definitely in more of a wait and see how I feel mode when some of this stuff starts becoming available.

These wrestling turtles so perfectly nail that Archie aesthetic I love. Photo: The Fwoosh

On the movie end, we just had some new Secret of the Ooze figures to look at. There was kick-boxing Keno, some new Foot, and two versions of Professor Jordan Perry. Is that too much of the professor? For me, yeah, and I can probably ignore all of these. Oh, and there was a pretty neat Shredder throne on display, but that’s another thing I don’t need. The comics end was far more exciting with a bunch of new figures based on The Last Ronin shown. They all look pretty damn good, but I may be out on that subline for the simple reason that I can’t buy, and display, everything TMNT from NECA. The Mirage line is getting some new figures as well, with the big one being Rat King who looked fantastic. That is definitely going on the “must buy” list. As for Archie, that may have stolen the show with a brand new Mondo Gecko unveiled and the much demanded Wrestling Turtles! Even if the models shown for the turtles were so early that they didn’t feature any articulation, I couldn’t have been more excited! I’ve wanted that black suit Raph ever since I was a kid and my dad bought me TMNT Adventures #10. I must have read that thing cover-to-cover at least a dozen times.

As for disappointments, there wasn’t much to be found. All of the new stuff looked good, so any disappointment was likely just the result of something not being shown. And the big one, for me, is Tempestra. I thought there was a very good chance we would see her from the toon line, especially after the profile boost given to the character thanks to Shredder’s Revenge, but she remains the elusive final member from the Night of the Rogues. I feel confident she’s coming though, so I’m not that broken up about it. I’d also like to see a new toon Shredder, or an Archie one, but again that’s probably coming, we just don’t know when. And hey, that Turtle Van is looking pretty sweet!

Super7

All right, when can I have them?! Photo: The Fwoosh

Super7 has cast such a wide net these days that maybe I should break their display up, but then again, there wasn’t a ton for me. The biggest though, by far, was the official unveiling of the new line of Misfits figures. These are being done in a retro, Masters of the Universe, style which is pretty cool. It means they won’t be as expensive as Ultimates, but definitely better than ReAction. I’ve felt for awhile that Super7 needed something in between those two lines, and maybe this is it. Would I like an Ultimate Glenn Danzig some day? Sure, as long as it’s good, and some of the figures Super7 has done of real people haven’t turned out so hot. This line, which features Skeleton Danzig, Jerry Only, The Fiend (aka Crimson Ghost), Samhain Danzig, and early 90s Danzig, already has hit on some great designs. We just need a Doyle to round things out. I’m also amused by how Super7 is basically just following the Medicom blueprint when it comes to Glenn Danzig.

On the disappointing side, well, there just wasn’t anything from the other lines I care about at Super7. Well, they did have TMNT Wave 8 on display and that’s looking fine, but there was nothing from the Disney or Simpsons Ultimates or even any new ReAction that I saw for either. Super7 usually doesn’t unveil new Ultimates at Comic Con, and they also don’t always go with a robust display. If they have something anticipated that they just got from the factory or something, they may bring that, but not always. I’m just concerned for both of those lines. The most recent Disney wave based on The Rescuers failed to secure enough preorders to go into production. Is the line in jeopardy? Sort of similar is that The Simpsons Wave 4 is still listed with an ambiguous “TBD” on the pre-order status page. It could be an oversight and they just haven’t updated it, or it could mean that no progress is being made and until it goes into production it should be considered as “in jeopardy,” as far as I’m concerned. It’s not exactly a star-studded wave and features two figures at $65 so nothing would surprise me.

Hasbro

Now that’s a figure worthy of the Master of Magnetism. Photo: The Fwoosh

I am certainly not the biggest Hasbro fan, but the company had my attention going into the convention because we knew that Marvel Legends based on the highly-anticipated X-Men ’97 were likely to be shown. And they were! Coming in Wave 1 is Wolverine, Rogue, Gambit, Storm, Bishop, and Magneto all with new sculpting to make them better resemble the upcoming show. For me, someone who collected the VHS line of X-Men based on the 1992 cartoon, I wanted to see if some of these could be fudged into that line. We have no assurances that Hasbro intends to come back and finish that team, so plucking Gambit and Rogue from this one might be our best option. And, for the most part, they look okay. Rogue has her green jacket and black headband and Gambit has a more “toon” appearance to his face. Neither face-sculpt looks truly like the ’92 show, but Hasbro was unlikely to give us that in the VHS line anyway. There is no cel-shading though, so that might throw off the display a bit, but given how half-assed Hasbro’s approach to that style was maybe it’s for the best? Wolverine is essentially the same as that release too, just now he has an unmasked portrait and pin-less limbs, so collectors waiting on a non-cel-shaded version of that figure should be happy. I personally don’t need it. And with Storm and Bishop featuring new hairstyles, I can pass on them as well. That Magneto though is a must have and I’m happy to see that Hasbro shaded his face. He could use some accessories, but this is Hasbro we’re talking about so that’s hardly a surprise.

I don’t know if I’m as happy as Pixel Dan is about this Crystar, but I’m definitely in “gimme gimme gimme” mode! Photo: Pixel Dan

Hasbro also gets credit for one of the biggest surprises as they showed off a figure of Crystar! Yes, Crystar The Crystal Warrior is coming to Marvel Legends and the figure looks pretty sweet. It’s all done in translucent plastic with a blue hue and he has his sword and shield to round things out. The comic he hails from is pretty forgettable, except for the fact that the iconic Danzig skull was lifted from the cover of issue 8. Naturally, this is one I need for the Danzig collection more than anything.

And that’s pretty much it for me. I did see other great stuff like Jada’s Mega Man line and NECA had some new Gargoyles to show, but the above stuff is what really stood out for me and got me excited. Mondo also unveiled an Omega Red in their sixth scale line based on the X-Men animated series and he looks unsurprisingly spectacular, I just wish they’d slow down a bit as that line is killing me financially. Special shout out to all of those working hard during the convention covering this stuff for people like me who can’t go. I’m talking about The Fwoosh, Pixel Dan, Toy Shiz, Toy Bro, and loads of others. The excitement is now over, we have lots to look forward to, and the next convention or show lurks on the horizon. This golden age of toy collecting appears to be going strong, weap for my wallet!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

In the late 1980s the arcade scene in the US was still going strong. Classic style arcade games like Donkey Kong and Pac-Man were being overtaken by a new genre of quarter-munching pain: the brawler. Or the beat-em-up. If you’ve played one, then you can picture what I’m talking about. It was usually a one…

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by Joe

The Saga of Crystar – Crystal Warrior #8

There’s been a hole in my Danzig collection for quite some time. It was a hole that was easy to fill and actually quite cheap considering most Danzig records fetch well over $100 these days, but an important piece was missing. And that piece is not what one would necessarily expect, but I would assume…

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by Joe

Super7 is Heading to Springfield!

Wednesday, August 18th, ended up being quite an eventful little day in the world of toy collecting. There were some reveals from major toy companies, leaks, and even those long neglected Street Sharks fans got something to get excited about late in the day. Personally, it was a good day for me too as I…

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by Joe

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July 25, 2023

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Mutagen Ooze Leonardo (now with the rest!)

By Joe
Leo’s back, but in glow form.

If you’re into collecting action figures then you’re likely familiar with the concept of a variant. Tooling action figures, the process of cutting steel into molds in which plastic is inserted to create the figure, is the most expensive part of creating an action figure. That’s why it’s in the manufacturer’s best interest to get as much use out of those tools as possible. Many action figure lines are dependent upon sales of variants, usually identical action figures with minor differences, to help keep the costs down as a whole. Sometimes these variants are used to poor results. Anyone who walked into a Kay Bee Toys in the 90s may remember the X-Men and Marvel Comics exclusive figures which were just bad repaints. There was a savage Wolverine that was just a repainted Sabretooth, for instance. Those are bad variants, but a good variant can be plenty fun and when it comes to Super7 you can basically bank on the company having an assortment of color-changing and glow-in-the-dark variants ready to go at any moment.

For you in-box collectors, the packaging is pretty cool. And with the window box, I suppose you could make the figure glow without taking it out.

That’s what the Mutagen Ooze series is from Super7. It’s the four turtle figures they’ve already done, but cast in glow-in-the-dark plastic. They aren’t the first, nor are they the last, of Super7’s glow variants for TMNT. The first wave included a glow-in-the-dark Baxter Stockman as a convention exclusive and they have also done Mutagen Man, the Foot Soldier, Muckman, and have Slash on the way. Super7 loves glow-in-the-dark figures, and it’s easy to see why. They have their own, unique, aesthetic with the translucent plastic and often a different finish from a traditionally painted figure. And then, of course, there’s the glow which has been delighting kids and adults for decades. It’s silly, stupid, fun.

How do you prefer your Leonardo?
We probably shouldn’t forget about the samurai option.

Unfortunately, that fun comes with the downside of added cost. It wasn’t always the case as the first few glow variants were the same price as the non-glow options, but with the Mutagen Ooze series there came a hike. Where the turtles cost $45 a piece in their first run, the glow versions were $65 and exclusive to Super7’s webstore which meant payment upfront and no free shipping. I took a look at that solicitation and liked what I saw, but there was no way I was going to pony up that kind of dough for a fun, but also silly, gimmick. I considered getting just one, my favorite turtle Leonardo, but after shipping that was going to total over 80 bucks for one figure! Sorry, Super7, it just wasn’t worth it. The reason offered up by Super7 co-founder Brian Flynn was that the cost for the glow additive for the plastic had gone way up and so they had to up the price significantly. I’m not going to call the man a liar, I do believe what he said is true, but it’s still hard for me to wrap my head around how a figure that’s already been tooled can warrant such a markup just for the cost of materials. And if this glow situation was only temporary, maybe just don’t do it? Wait it out. See if the price comes down. Maybe the factory will want the business later on and be willing to negotiate. I don’t know, but at the end of the day it’s not my problem. As a consumer, we see the product and the price and have to decide on the subjective worth of it all and, for me, it just wasn’t working.

I love the use of blue with this figure.

Obviously, something had to change or else this post wouldn’t even exist. And that something was a sale. Super7 ran a Father’s Day sale that, for some reason, included the Mutagen Ooze Leonardo. Maybe they wanted to feature a glow-in-the-dark figure from this line, but since they have yet to do Splinter, they figured Leonardo made the next most sense for such a sale? I don’t know, but I was happy to see him included and happy to see him discounted to a little over 50 bucks. Throw in shipping, and he was still under the $65 MSRP. Perhaps still more than I wanted to pay, but at least at this level I could talk myself into it. And I’m glad I did because this figure is wonderful! It’s a real shame the wave wasn’t more affordable as I wouldn’t mind adding the rest, but not at the current asking price.

“Uhh, Leonardo, are you feeling all right?”

If you have the original Wave 2 Leonardo then you essentially have this figure. The sculpt is exactly the same which is a Playmates inspired mold, but with a modern approach. The default portrait is an almost exact recreation of the vintage figure except for the angle of Leo’s eyes. Where he once had a look of concern on his face he now has something a bit more intimidating. The same hands and the same swords are present and all of the same engineering is still in place. I’ll link to the original review at the bottom of this, but I’ll add that this figure is better engineered. The joints aren’t as loose, but nothing is overly tight either. What little paint was needed is applied well, and anything your old Leo can do this one can as well. The only new issue this figure presented for me was that swapping the heads is way harder than it should be. I couldn’t get the secondary head onto my figure, and since I didn’t plan on displaying him that way anyway, I gave up. If you get this figure and want to make use of the alternate portrait then I suggest heating it up first.

And glow he does.

The obvious selling point here is the glow and the minor deco changes made to accommodate that. The entire figure is cast in a slightly translucent, green, plastic. Even without the “glow” in effect, the figure has an almost glow quality about it because the green is practically neon. Stick him under some lights and then move to a dark area and the glow works without issue. The plastron is painted yellow and it’s a bright yellow which accommodates the green well. The pads and belt are all in Leo’s signature blue and I love the choice to make the belt blue. It’s an homage, intentional or not, to the storage shell series from Playmates and I always liked that aspect of the line. The blue just looks so good and it’s probably my favorite aspect of the figure. The eyes and nails are painted yellow and I think it works since they play off of the plastron. The shell is still painted a fairly dark green, but the rim around it is painted in a lighter shade of green and I really like that contrast to the point where I wouldn’t mind seeing it in use on the standard figures. This is a really fun looking figure and if you like glow stuff then you’ll probably fall in love with it.

“Two heads! I got two heads here!”

The accessories are mostly rehash from the prior release, but with a couple of differences. Leo has the following sets of hands: gripping with vertical hinge, gripping with horizontal hinge, style posed open hands, and fists. There’s an open and closed communicator and the pizza slice also returns. He has his trusty katanas, and the handles are painted blue to match his belt which looks nice, though do be careful not to scratch the paint when inserting them into his hands. He also has the same alternate portrait which is a very similar expression to his default one, but done in a more realistic style. The new accessories are an unmutated turtle which is from the Splinter release and a leaking canister of ooze. All of the accessories are cast in the same glow-in-the-dark green plastic as the figure with little in the way of paint hits. You basically just have the eyes of the baby turtle, the caution stripes on the canister, and the screen and buttons of the open communicator for paint apps. All of the paint apps are done in yellow.

Aww, look at the cute, baby, irradiated turtle!

This is a short post because this figure is what it is: the same figure released before, only now it glows in the dark! For what it is, I love it. I also like the Super7 turtles in this line so it should go without saying that if you do not then you won’t like this release. It’s just a shame that the MSRP had to be so high since Super7 is essentially asking us to pay 20 bucks a figure to make it glow-in-the-dark. Is that gimmick worth 20 bucks to you? It sure isn’t for me, but with a discount it was for at least my favorite turtle. Even if I could get the other 3 for the approximately $52 a piece price this one cost, I’m not sure if I’d jump in. That’s still over $150 to complete the set. If I could get them for $45 each then, yeah, I’d probably do it, but I don’t know if we’ll see such a steep discount.

“Hi, Donnie? You there? It’s going to cost me 65 bucks to get you here?! Never mind.”

If you would like to add this Leonardo to your collection, or any of the other glow-in-the-dark turtles, then you can head on over to Super7’s website where they’re still available. Big Bad Toy Store also has them on-hand, but they’re asking for $70 a turtle and I cannot recommend them at this price. BBTS does offer $4 shipping so it’s possible, maybe even likely, that a set from them would cost less in the end than a set from Super7 direct, but both are bad deals. My advice is to wait it out because if this is something you absolutely had to have then you probably already bought them when they went up for sale last year.

Four, glowing, brothers together at last!

UPDATE – Due to a combination of store credits and clearance events, I was able to complete my set of Mutagen Ooze Turtles by adding Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo. I considered doing a review for each, but since each figure is essentially the same (and is already just a variant of figures I already reviewed) I figured a simple update was warranted. In short, if you like one of these then you’ll like all four. They come with the same accessories and hands and the only thing separating the figures is the unique weapon, head sculpts, and colored belts and pads. Pretty standard stuff.

Let it glow!

Worth noting, all of my figures have tight heads and getting the secondary heads on will likely require heat. My Raphael has a stuck, left, knee joint as well which is interesting since my Wave 1 Raphael had the exact same issue. Michelangelo only comes with his plastic nunchaku, not the ones with real chain links, which I get, but is a bummer. Maybe they could have done a plastic chain in glow-in-the-dark plastic instead? The plastic ones are very rigid and don’t pose well. That’s really the only differences worth pointing out though. My only other gripe with these would be that Raph’s accents look more red-orange than red to me, but also see what they were going for with the shades used. At $75, these aren’t worth it, but absent the cost they do look pretty cool. If you can find some on-sale (I scored two of them at Macy’s, of all places) and you think they look cool then I say go for it. Big Bad Toy Store still has these and did not make them part of a huge clearance event in November 2023, but maybe that will happen eventually? Some other smaller shops (like ecollectibles) also were allowed to stock these and have them discounted so shop around, see what you can find, and grab ’em if you want ’em.

Looking for more Super7 TMNT reviews?

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Leonardo

If you ask me what my most cherished childhood toy was I won’t hesitate to answer Leonardo. My original Playmates Leonardo was a figure I adored and played with for years. I would get other Leonardo action figures, but they were always a temporary joy. When I sat down to act out and play with…

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by Joe

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Sewer Samurai Leonardo

Well, after looking at the Wave 6 Slash a couple of weeks ago we can now finally turn our attention to a Wave 5 release from Super7’s line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimates! series of figures: Sewer Samurai Leonardo. The thing with TMNT is, you have the four good guys, a few core allies,…

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by Joe

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Slash

It’s been over 9 months since I last reviewed a figure from Super7’s line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures. That figure was Muckman, and I actually waited on that one a little while because I ordered through Big Bad Toy Store and wanted my pile of loot to fill up a bit. Had…

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by Joe

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July 18, 2023

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios Splinter

By Joe
Splinter has arrived and he didn’t arrive alone.

When NECA started down the path of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with the 2008 release of the four titular characters, it didn’t go very far. After the turtles came April, but as a convention exclusive, and then nothing else. It would be years before their Shredder, which was shown off at the very same convention April was released at, was released as a con exclusive himself along with three of his henchmen. And it seemed to take the success of the eventual cartoon and movie lines that pushed NECA to go back to the original comics. It’s been an interesting line as it started with perhaps less-requested characters with the Fugitoid and Renet, but now we’re getting to those heavy hitters fans were dreaming of fifteen years ago. And some of those heavy hitters come in pint-sized packages like the beloved Master Splinter.

He’s a little guy.

Splinter sets the bar as shortest figure in the line. Coming in at a tidy 3.5″, he’s very much a little guy. Especially when placed with the recently released turtle four-pack who are taller and bulkier than the 2008 figures. I said he comes in a pint-sized package, but that was an embelleshment on my part as the actual box he’s in is the same as most of the other single releases. It features new art by Kevin Eastman which matches the look of the figure pretty well. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I do believe first appearance Splinter in the books was a bit more fuzzy and frayed looking than the figure here, but that would be very hard to pull-off in plastic.

If you prefer your Splinter with the 08 versions.
He apparently got a boost in size when making the leap to animation.
“You have got to be kidding me.”

I noted Splinter is 3.5″ tall, but I should add that is in his neutral stance which features bent knees. It’s basically how he came out of the box and how he likely should be posed, but someone who wanted him to be taller for the sake of being taller could get a little more out of him. He’s sculpted all in brown plastic with a lot of black dry brushing over him. The black is heaviest on the top of his snout and extends to around his eyes which creates a striking portrait. It’s a solid approximation of the comic art and if there’s anything I think could have been done better with the sculpt and paint it’s the claws on Splinter’s hands and feet. They’re a bit soft in sculpt and all brown so they just blend into the fingers and toes. It matches the art on the box so I can’t knock the figure for its accuracy, it’s just one of those design choices that works better in print than sculpt.

This is probably a better foe for the sensei.

The shading on the figure covers the entire body, but it’s almost irrelevant since Splinter features a soft goods robe. Just like his cartoon and movie counterpart, the robe is wrapped around him and fastened with a brown ribbon. It’s a maroon color and it looks fine. It’s a lot of material and a little frumpy looking. It might have been neat to see it look a little more worn since this is a rat who lives in the sewer. I don’t like the ribbon used for the belt as it just doesn’t look like any belt one would expect a robe to fastened with. It’s a criticism I had for the movie and cartoon Splinter. A piece of stretchy material, like the additional belt on the Foot and Shredder movie figures, with a knot glued onto it would have been my preference, but it’s fine.

Since he doesn’t have much, Splinter gets all of the pre-mutated guys and some ooze too.

The figure, despite being small, has most of the same articulation one would expect of a NECA figure. The head feels like it’s on a double ball peg and it has great range in all directions. The shoulders are ball-hinged and can raise out to the side fine, but rotation is going to be limited by the robe. It’s something that can be worked around though as that’s the benefit of the robe being slightly oversized. The elbows are single-hinged with a swivel and will bend to 90 degrees. The wrists swivel and hinge horizontally as well. In the torso is a diaphragm joint that feels like a ball-joint, it could be a double, but you get rotation, a little forward “crunch,” and some tilt. The hips are ball-jointed and can go out to the side for splits. They kick back rather far, but not really forward a whole lot. There’s a little thigh pivot and the knees are single-hinged and swivel. You do get about a 90 degree bend at the knee, but again, he’s meant to stand with his knees bent to about 45 degrees so the practical range is limited. The ankles hinge and pivot with the ankle rocker being a bit flat, but functional. The tail is connected via a hinged ball peg so you get rotation and the hinge can direct it a bit. The tail itself is also bendy, though the wire only goes about halfway through it so it’s a bit limited.

And he also comes with this guy.

Splinter has decent articulation, though it’s hard to argue that he’s not meant to mostly just stand there on your shelf. He can hit a few battle ready poses and also stand on one foot if you want to place him in a side-kicking pose. I’m a little surprised that NECA did not include an articulated jaw as they did with the cartoon Splinter, but I don’t hate the exclusion. The profile looks good so if they felt they couldn’t get that joint in there without harming the presentation then that’s a decision I support. I only mention it as some may have expected it based on past versions of the character and may miss it.

The old and the new. The Utrom on the left came in the Foot four-pack and the turtle on the far right came with the 08 figures.

Since Splinter is such a small figure, he does come with a pretty robust assortment of accessories to justify his price tag. Big figures cost more money for both NECA and the consumer, but that rarely applies to small figures. To get more plastic into this, Splinter comes with three sets of hands: relaxed, gripping, and pointing. The gripping hands have the less desireable horizontal hinge. I’m surprised we didn’t get flat, chop, styled hands as well. Splinter also has his walking stick and that he can grasp with the gripping hands or the relaxed hands. The relaxed hands can also rest on top of the stick too so you have some options when posing him with it. There’s a small tea kettle with articulated handle and a little cup to go with it. The kettle has some nice black linework on it while the cup is blank. Splinter can hold the kettle by the handle and palm the cup well and it’s a nice little pair of accessories. I do wish NECA had ripped-off Super7 and included a steaming effect for the cup, but it’s fine as-is.

Cartoon Splinter is bigger than comic Splinter, but the opposite is true for the Mouser.

Those are the accessories for Splinter, the rest are basically extra characters. Up first is a brand new Mouser. It’s painted all in gray with some light blue shading on it to create a metallic effect that looks really nice. It’s also covered in the usual black linework and looks rather sharp. As far as I know, the entire sculpt is brand new as it doesn’t share any parts with the cartoon Mouser. If it shares any parts with the Mouser released back in 2008 I’m not sure as I don’t have any of those. It functions just like the toon one with an articulated jaw that features a fully-sculpted interior, hinge at the base of the head, ball-jointed neck which allows for a lot of rotation and tilt, leg swivel, hinged knee, and hinged ankle. The hinged joints in the legs are plenty tight so the figure has no trouble standing and overall it’s a nice addition that I’m sure collectors will want more of.

Who’s for tea?

Splinter also comes with an assortment of slug figures for accessories. We get a new Utrom that has more of a surprised expression on its face. It’s very close in size to the previously released stand-alone Utrom that came in the Shredder convention set, it just drops the articulation entirely. It’s well-painted with a lot of dry-brushing that makes it look dirty and gross. We also get a pre-mutated Splinter that’s in sort of a martial arts pose. To go with him are four, baby, turtles. Stylistically, they’re very similar to the pre-mutated turtles the 2008 figures came with, but they’re all new sculpts and noticeably smaller. They’re nicely painted and they almost look like they’re smiling so they bring a cute factor to the package. The last item is the broken cannister of ooze. It’s a new sculpt and it’s basically upside down with a big puddle of the stuff spreading out from it. It serves to create a nice little display with the other slug characters and I prefer it to just a plain cannister.

“Michelangelo! You have neglected your training for too long!”

And that’s NECA’s take on Splinter. It’s a small figure with a bunch of stuff that NECA hopes will offset the price of the figure. I got my figure at Target where it retails for $37 which is about the same price as figures like Jagwar and Dreadmon, but less than Zog and the Shredder clones. Is $37 too much? It’s hard to blame folks who feel like it is. The added accessories are nice, but would I trade some of them to knock this release down to $30? Sure. As for the figure itself, I think it gets the job done. I think it could have more hands and a better belt, but this Splinter will look nice on your Mirage Studios shelf which is rapidly becoming shelves in many collections. It’s an essential release if you’re a TMNT Mirage collector, and if you can stomach the price I think you’ll be happy enough.

Fancy yourself a collector of NECA’s TMNT Mirage line? Here’s some more reviews to take a look at:

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios Triceraton Zog

Haulathon 2023 has brought some pretty big releases to NECA’s line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures. And I mean big in a literal sense. REX-1 was tall and hefty and the multi-armed clone of Shredder was no slouch either. Those two seem to pale in comparison to Zog, the Triceraton warrior from NECA’s…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios Shredder Clones

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

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by Joe

NECA Mirage Studios TMNT Casey Jones

Where there be turtles, there be Casey Jones – the bad ass vigilante of New York City! Casey was an early addition to the comics and he’s basically been included with every iteration of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles since. And in all of them he tends to wear a hockey mask and bludgeons bad guys…

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by Joe

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

July 11, 2023

NECA Mirage Studios Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4-Pack

By Joe
The turtles are back…in red!

When it comes to the popularity of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a lot of the credit goes to Playmates Toys. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created the characters born out of a joke. Credit them for having the vision to think this joke had appeal beyond their small circle as they self-published Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1984. It was basically perfect timing from there as the product quickly got the attention of Mark Freedman and his Surge Licensing brand which, much like Mirage Studios, existed largely in name only. He saw the property’s potential as a kid’s product and was able to get Eastman and Laird to grant him permission to shop the IP to toy companies. Aside from a prototype created for Mattel, no major producer bit, except for Playmates. Known more as a doll company, Playmates wanted to get into the action figure business and took a chance on the franchise. They co-developed a television mini series with Fred Wolf to help sell the toys, and the rest is history.

New artwork from TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman!
A nice window box to show you what’s inside.

Because of that early involvement and ridiculous level of success, Playmates has been intertwined with the TMNT franchise ever since. And for a long time, they were the only ones to make action figures based on the property. Then, in 2008, NECA Toys released it’s own version of the brothers. Marketed to collectors and sold outside the usual avenues occupied by Playmates, NECA sent to market a version of the turtles that had never really been done before in toy form. Based on their original appearance in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1, the turtles hit retail with hopes of more Mirage inspired characters to follow. Then, it stopped. Details are murky, but some have blamed Playmates for stepping in and essentially squashing the toy line by exercising its contractual rights as the master toy license holder. It also could have just been poor sales. NECA’s Randy Falk indicated years ago that the comic turtles weren’t big sellers. Anecdotal evidence suggests he may be correct as I personally can recall seeing both the standard issue and black and white variants hanging around comic shops for years and only finally vanishing after hitting clearance. It’s possible NECA was just a little too early and TMNT nostalgia just wasn’t ready to take off in 2008. Only a select few know for sure why the line was ultimately cancelled.

The biggest weakness of this set is the amount of stuff in the box.

Flash-forward 15 years later and NECA is back with a new iteration of the Mirage Studios Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If fans weren’t ready for turtle nostalgia in 2008, they certainly are now. The property is now owned by Viacom who has wielded its mighty powers to loosen the toy license and we’re basically swimming in TMNT action figures from various companies. And since then, those 2008 figures have become far more sought after. Where once they could be had for clearance prices, they now command over 100 dollars a piece on the secondary market. This helped turn them into a magnet for bootleggers and some have even suggested that the physical molds were swiped from whatever factory NECA had been using. If NECA felt their dance with TMNT was over, it’s possible they let them go. Either way, because of a desire to do something different or because the figures have been bootlegged to hell and back, NECA decided to forego ever reissuing them. Instead, they opted to do new turtles based on later issues and for fans who have been dying to get ahold of some affordable Mirage turtles their wait is finally over.

If you’re wondering the answer is “No,” the arm, blaster, thing does not fit on the new turtles.
These old figures have some outdated engineering, but still look pretty damn cool.

The original 2008 figures have commonly been referred to as the Peter Laird turtles by fans. That’s likely due to Laird being the one who worked with NECA at the time when they were in development. They also seem to clearly be based on a singular image from the first issue which has been credited to Laird over the years. I have no idea how much of that is true as Eastman and Laird had a unique drawing style in which the two literally drew the same issue switching off in an unconventional manner as they passed papers back and forth. That’s why it’s just easier to consider them first appearance turtles. As the franchise took off, Eastman and Laird moved to the business side and away from doing the actual art which allowed for other artists to come into the fold. One such artist was Jim Lawson, who would go on to do pencils for a number of TMNT books. Initially, his take on the turtles was to emulate what Eastman and Laird had settled on when he stepped in while adding a little of his own influence. Eastman and Laird both loved Lawson’s work and have heaped praise upon it over the years. With their encouragement, he brought more of his own style into the books which can easily be seen during the City at War arc. His turtles were rather blocky, their heads almost resembling inverted mushrooms, and it’s that style that I think most comic book fans associate with the name Jim Lawson.

My attempt at recreating the TMNT #4 cover. Most know that as the cover to the first NES game.

For this release, NECA hired Paul Harding as the sculptor and directed him to design the turtles based on Lawson’s art, but not his later work as seen with City at War, but his earlier stuff when he first started on the book. Because of that, this set is being marketed as the Return to New York Turtles, though Harding clarified on Twitter that he didn’t expressly design them based on that story. It’s an appropriate shorthand though to place these figures into an era of the original comics. NECA’s approach to comic figures, unlike some companies, is to be very stylized and to try and emulate a certain artist’s approach rather than adapt a character from a generic model sheet or reference material. American comics have almost always allowed for an artist to imprint their own style onto established characters and such can be seen across basically all of the major comic books published by the likes of Marvel and DC. It’s both a cool approach for fans and a wise one for a toy producer since it opens up the possibility to re-release popular characters like the turtles over and over with slightly different looks.

I love how NECA handled the deco on Leo’s swords.

With all of that background out of the way, lets finally talk toys! This long-awaited NECA four-pack has recently started showing up at Target and was even sold online via Target’s website on June 25th. It seems like Target may have actually purchased stock from NECA for this release in contrast with the usual vendor-driven system they usually have in place for NECA. That’s likely due to this being timed with the drop of new toys by Playmates for the upcoming Mutant Mayhem film and because this release is the actual turtles, not some obscure side character that could possibly shelf-warm. This set will sell, even at the steep price of $150. The real question is – is this worth that steep price? If you’ve been waiting years to get a set of official Mirage turtles, that answer might be an easy “Yes” regardless of how this set turned out. If you are like me and have those 08 figures, or maybe even bootlegs you’re happy with, do you need to drop a bunch of money on yet another set of turtles? Read on.

Don’t mess with this pair.

The turtles come packaged in what is essentially NECA’s standard four-pack box. It’s an oversized version of the Ultimates, or Deluxe, releases with a front flap and window on the package. It’s adorned with new artwork by Kevin Eastman which looks great. This is the type of box that will display well for you in-box collectors. For the rest of you, you probably only care about the contents. Each turtle is on the same buck so you basically have four nearly identical figures inside. The main difference between each is the headsculpt which just features a different expression for each turtle. Since this is a Mirage set, they’re all in red bandanas with brown straps and pads giving them a very uniform look. There’s also a different deco applied to the plastron of each figure with Raph’s featuring the most “scuffs” than the other three. They’re done with black lines as opposed to being sculpted in.

The Mirage line has been rapidly expanding over the past year.

The turtles stand at approximately 5.875″ in height. They’re quite chunky in appearance and fully-painted in a fairly neutral shade of green with lots of black linework to emulate the comic art. The linework is present on the pads, bandana, and belt and really sells the look well. It’s all relatively clean and consistent across the board. The only area I see as being a bit uneven is the linework around the bandanas. On a shelf, it’s fine, but up close there are some parts where there’s a smidge of green in-between the black line and the start of the red mask. My Michelangelo also has what looks like a scuff behind his right eye so there’s a little green showing. My Leonardo also has a speck of brown on his right bicep, but in general, I don’t see much in the way of color transfer throughout the four figures.

The paint is acceptable as is the level of quality control present throughout my set. Harding did a really good job of honing in on a design style for the turtles and capturing that with his sculpt. The only thing I personally would have changed are the legs which look really chunky. I think they could have been shrunk as the calf muscles basically extend outside the profile of the thigh muscles. That’s more of a subjective critique though than an objective one as these look quite close to the source material from what I can tell.

Shredder is looking a bit dated by comparison.

I think these figures are pretty much a homerun from a presentation point-of-view and that’s definitely where NECA’s strong suit lies. Where it often does not is with articulation, and these guys aren’t necessarily bad, but they’re not likely to wow anyone. Since the figures are essentially the same, they articulate the same as well. The heads are on a double ball peg (and in case you ever mix-up the heads, they’re stamped with the character’s initial inside) and the range is solid looking up, down, and all around. The shoulders are hinged-ball pegs and they can’t quite raise out to the side all the way. They rotate fine until they hit the shell, and past that is a biceps swivel. This joint was the only joint I had any issues with as 7 out of the 9 biceps joints in my set were stuck. I used the hot water to cold water method to get all of them working. The peg for the joint is pretty snug so I also pulled out a little before twisting and it required a pretty forceful twist. The peg is rather thick, so it should be pretty durable, but if you leave the joint in a hot water bath for too long and then try to twist it you could shear it off, so be careful. Once I essentially broke the seal on the joint it was fine.

Despite that, he still looks pretty good opposite these figures.

With that out of the way, the elbows are the next spot and NECA opted for double-joints this time. This is a welcomed addition as the cartoon turtles feature hinged pegs for the elbows and I wasn’t sure what to expect with these. The addition is worthwhile too as they can bend past 90 degrees at the joint. The wrists swivel and feature horizontal hinges. There are no vertical hinged hands in this set at all. That’s disappointing as the toon turtles had vertical hinges for the hands. The Turtles in Disguise set I believe came with two sets of vertical gripping hands, and this continues to be a problem with NECA. Where they once did a decent job of including the proper hinge, they seem to have essentially abandoned it for TMNT. Gargoyles characters get it, so I don’t understand the oversight. This is a set where essentially one set of tools creates four figures and it’s also something they’re likely to reissue many times so the fact that they couldn’t find it in the budget is absurd to me. It’s my biggest pet peeve with NECA of late.

For those who would like a more direct comparison.

At least at the waist we get an improvement over the 2008 turtles. NECA included a waist twist which they set fairly high behind the plastron to conceal it. It’s not going to provide the same amount of range a waist twist would with a non-shelled character, but it works all right. NECA added a “diaper” over the hips as well, but it doesn’t seem to get in the way. It does have the tendency to shift a bit though and my Leonardo has more of the part visible on his right leg than his left by quite a bit. The legs can kick forward past 90 degrees before the leg wants to go off to the side while the shell keeps them from kicking back. They also can hit a split. After that it’s pretty typical as we get a pivot point for the thighs where the ball connects with double-jointed knees past that which bend just a touch beyond 90 degrees. The ankles have the hinge and rocker setup, though the chunky nature of the ankles does restrict some of the range, but there should be enough to keep your figures flat-footed in most stances. These guys also have tails and there is a swivel point there if you want it. The bandana tassel also pegs in, and while it doesn’t really spin freely, you can reposition it if you want by removing it and re-inserting it even if you can’t get it to swivel.

Nothing is stopping you from swapping heads, but the default is (Clockwise from top left): Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael.

The level of articulation is acceptable, aside from the lack of proper hinges for the gripping hands. Where this set surprises in the wrong way is with the accessories. If you have the Turtles in Disguise set or most of the other four-packs NECA has done over the past few years then you’re accustomed to getting a bunch of stuff in these boxes. With these turtles, despite the amount of tooling needed to produce these guys, we don’t really have much. Each turtle comes with a set of gripping hands out of the box, and then there is one set of fists, open hands, style pose hands, and gripping hands with more space between the fingers. Those hands are intended for use with Raphael when he grips his sai with the middle blade going through his fingers. Since it’s four sets the boys have to share, you can’t have all four turtles with their hands in a style pose or chop. There’s at least an entire set of four alternate bandana tassels that can be swapped in and out. The figures come with the bandana draped over their right shoulder and each one has a straight bandana piece to swap to.

There may not be a ton in the box, but at least they didn’t screw up the weapons.

Of course, the main accessories are the weapons. Each turtle has his signature weapons and they all appear to be new sculpts. For Leo and Raph, the metal portions of their weapons are painted the way I’ve wanted metal to be done for a long time now: white with light blue shading. It looks so good and is much better than the flat gray so many companies use. Even the very expensive Mondo sixth scale Wolverine has flat gray claws. I attribute it to the idea of metal being white as “wrong” since we know it isn’t white in real life, but that’s how it often looks in print or in animation. With Leo, the effect is perfect, though with Raph the blue shading is basically all over. I think if they did it exactly how they did Leo’s katana it would have turned out better, but it’s minor. Mikey’s nunchaku are done similar to the movie figures with brown, plastic, handles connected via black thread. Donnie’s bo is done in an orange-brown with a slightly lighter brown wrap, which is an interesting choice. Perhaps an off-white would have contrasted more, but basically every Donatello figure does that with his signature weapon so I don’t mind the difference. There’s also three gear-like throwing weapons included painted in the same light blue as Raph’s sai and the shading on Leo’s katana. Why three instead of four? It’s an odd choice, but one I can’t get too worked up over since I’m not going to use these anyway.

You get three of these buzz saw things, if that’s something that interests you.

Lastly, we get a couple of accessories that are specific to Raph from the comics. His bandaged right arm is included as a swappable piece, but since all four turtles are the same mold, it can actually work with any turtle. The right arm pops off easily (the left does not) to facilitate swapping. The bicep was stuck on this arm as well, but I was able to free it up. Also included is Raph’s hood which is done in a soft plastic. It slides over his head easily after you remove the bandana piece and it’s a cool look for him. There’s a texture to the hood that helps sell the illusion it’s made from a rough fabric and it has some black linework as well. It looks good enough that I think I’m going to use this for my display since it does break things up a bit.

Raph’s sneaking outfit is the most substantial accessory. Since all four turtles are essentially the same, they can all wear this thing and the right arm on all four pops off with ease.

That’s it though. Four extra sets of hands for four figures, an extra set of bandana pieces, three throwing weapons, and Raph’s hood and arm. The melee weapons are a given because every set of turtles needs to include those, but why so skimpy on the hands? How about an extra head for each turtle? Especially since they’d function as an extra head for any turtle given they all look the same. With so many shared parts and the high price tag of $150, it feels light. It’s like we’re paying an undisclosed “Turtle Tax” since this is a set NECA knows will be in high demand and can make a larger profit on. Maybe I’m completely wrong and the profit margin is unchanged from past four-packs. And maybe I’m just still salty about the lack of vertically hinged hands.

“All right, Round Head, let’s go bust some skulls!”

Basically, what I said several paragraphs ago is what applies most here: if you’ve been waiting years for a set of Mirage turtles then you’re going to get this set. And you’re probably going to be relatively happy with the outcome. The figures are fun to handle and pose and look great together. I think they pair well with most of the other Mirage releases, though placing them with Shredder does make me wish we had a beefier Shredder for them to fight. They’ll look great with Zog though or the Shredder clones or even just off on their own. In spite of the inflated price point, I do think they’re worth getting even for those who have the original Mirage turtles given the difference in style.

I figured I’d end on a pic of these two, for no particular reason…

If you’re on the hunt for these boys you can keep an eye on Target’s website. Set alerts for if they come back in stock as you never know. They also have shipped in waves to Target stores so keep checking there. If your store is like mine, they’re being stocked on an endcap in the toys section rather than in the usual NECA section. Since these are a Mirage release, it also stands to reason they’ll be sold in other places after this initial Target run is over. NECA hasn’t come out and said that, but it would be crazy for them not to make the actual turtles available to as many customers as possible.

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