December 18th brings with it the realization that we are now one week away from Christmas – start panicking! Why panic? Well, if you’ve been putting off your Christmas shopping you’re now in danger of missing out all together. This is the point where it’s risky to order anything online expecting it in time for Christmas unless you’re willing to spend a gross sum of money on next day air. If you’re the sort that prefers to shop in person you have one weekend left to venture forth and brave the crowds. They’re probably going to be at their worst this weekend, though probably not as bad as they would have been for Black Friday if you’re looking for a silver lining.

I tend to be an early shopper because I like getting it out of the way so for me December 18 brings a different kind of anxiety: we only have one more week for Christmas viewing! When I was a kid, I kind of extended the Christmas viewing season to New Year’s Day, but the older I get the less willing to do that I am. Once Christmas comes and goes so too does the magic. Even the night of Christmas can be a tough time to figure out what to watch. Sometimes I have too much left on my plate that it feels pointless, and with the actual festivities in the rear view mirror the holiday just feels over. That’s why I cram as much viewing into the days leading up to Christmas as I can. In a way, the day of Christmas doesn’t even present much of an opportunity to watch anything. I usually throw on The Christmas Tape in the morning and sometimes I end up just doing the same at night. Since we’re nearing the top 50 of our countdown, there’s still a lot to go over. These are all pretty great so if you’re watching along you have some serious work cut out for you!

63 – Robot Chicken’s Santa’s Dead (Spoiler Alert) Holiday Murder Thing Special

If you’ve seen one episode of Robot Chicken you may feel like you’ve seen them all. It’s essentially a stop-motion sketch comedy show that makes use of old toys in place of expensive puppets. Well, this episode is entirely different! Not in medium, it’s still stop-motion using repurposed action figures, but it’s not a sketch format. This is a standard length episode of Robot Chicken which is about 11 minutes, but it tells one cohesive story. As the title reveals, Santa is dead and the format is a murder mystery on a train. Only one person is up to the task of solving this one and his name is Jesus! The suspects? A reindeer with lash marks, a nutcracker who happens to be Jewish, MAGA Krampus, and a cookie looking for a sugar daddy, among others. It still contains a lot of the same brand of humor one expects of the show and actually has an impressive voice cast which includes a couple of Seinfeld alums. The format helps to make this the most memorable Robot Chicken Christmas special and, for now, it’s also the last one. Saving the best for last is always a good move.

62 – Aqua Teen Hunger Force – Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future

Do you like your Christmas specials to feature as little of the holiday as possible? Then Aqua Teen Hunger Force is the show for you! This is barely a Christmas special as a weird robot ghost claiming to be from the future shows up and starts haunting Carl’s house. He has a story to tell about the origins of Santa Claus, or Claws, which he does in very elaborate fashion for all who care (or don’t). That story takes up about half of the episode’s duration and once it’s over so is Christmas. It then pivots to a story about Carl trying to sell his haunted house and one person takes interest: Glenn Danzig. Yes, as a fan of the man’s music I am predisposed to like this, but it is genuinely funny if you like the sort of humor Adult Swim was going for in the early aughts. Danzig (playing himself) likes the house because the ghost makes the house bleed which nets Carl a cool million, but forces the ghost to take on a housemate he really doesn’t like. It’s pretty nonsensical and lacking in holiday cheer, but it’s also really brief and pretty funny so why not watch it every year?

61 – Regular Show – The Christmas Special

This appropriately titled episode of Regular Show sees the main cast try to celebrate the holiday with a low key party, but when the pair of Mordecai and Rigby discover a near death Santa in their friend’s garage they have a Christmas quest forced upon them. They basically are entrusted to destroy a MacGuffin and keep it from falling into the hands of an elf gone bad. Unfortunately, that elf has his own militia that the boys and their friends have to run from which takes them on a pretty gnarly journey. This is a fast-paced and surprisingly action-packed holiday episode that has a fair amount of real suspense, though I don’t think anyone expects the bad guy to win and for Christmas to be destroyed. It makes an attempt at creating some Christmas lore and it’s not bad and probably works for the show – if they revisit it (I didn’t watch further). The animation is mostly good, though the character designs are kind of intentionally ugly in places. It’s not as ugly as Bojack Horseman, but the two share a similar aesthetic only Regular Show has characters made out of inanimate objects as well as animals. It’s certainly a choice.

60 – American Dad! – The Best Christmas Story Never Told

American Dad! is perhaps the most reliable source of Christmas content year in and year out and this is the episode that started it all. Coming in the show’s third season is “The Best Christmas Story Never Told” which sees Stan and Francine travel through time to save Christmas. Because of the time travel story, it actually doesn’t take place at Christmas beyond the first act and briefly at the end of the episode to tie everything back together. As an early American Dad! episode, Stan’s hyper-conservative ideals are on full display as he basically has a meltdown over a clerk saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” which he irrationally blames on Jane Fonda. This puts him at odds with his family and triggers a Christmas tradition: a visit from a ghost. The Ghost of Christmas Past finds Stan that night and takes him back to the 1970s in a bid to teach him the true meaning of Christmas, only Stan goes AWOL to try and track down Jane Fonda to prevent the future he despises from coming true. Long story short, Stan screws up and makes the future a communist hell hole and the only way to save it is for him to shoot his idol: Ronald Reagan. It’s a complex plot, but one that pays off and basically tortures its protagonist, but since he’s kind of the villain of the show, we’re okay with the torture! It’s a hell of a Christmas debut for the now long-running series.

59 – Metalocalypse – Dethmas

Metalocalypse is the show I always say is one I should like more than I do. It’s just never “clicked” for me like some other shows, maybe because it came just a little too late for me? Had this premiered earlier in my life I probably would have watched it over and over like I did most Adult Swim shows, but alas, it did not. Still, when I do catch it I find it funny and this episode is a rather absurd look at the Christmas holiday through the lens of a death metal band. The boys, as the biggest band in the world, are tasked with putting on a Christmas show while also dealing with their own visiting mothers and a coked-out clown. They have so hard of a time finding a sponsor for their special that they’re forced to work with the Christian Church which nixes most of their ideas consisting of murder and tits. It naturally goes horribly wrong and the special is a disaster that pisses off the church, but at least the creepy clown gets a handjob! I guess it goes without saying that this probably isn’t the special to watch with your grandmother.

58 – King of the Hill – Pretty, Pretty Dresses

Oh Christmas, you are such a wonderful time of year for many, but for others you’re the worst. Take Bill, for instance. He’s an unhappily divorced, middle-aged, childless, man with little to live for. Christmas basically breaks him in this episode of King of the Hill that makes caring for your suicidal friend seem funny. The show is able to get away with it because Bill’s attempts at suicide are so clearly a cry for help and not serious. Or they are serious, but he’s just really bad at killing himself. Eventually his brain breaks and he starts believing that he’s his ex wife, Lenore, putting his buddy Hank in a tough spot when Bill shows up at his work Christmas party in a dress. Hank’s very conservative peers don’t take to that very well. It has a positive outcome, but watching Bill’s pathetic descent is where the real comedy lies. I will never forget the image of Bill eating his spaghetti dinner alone after he breaks his lone plate. He slaps the pasta on his counter, scoops it into his mouth, then takes a swig of sauce straight from the jar. It’s the perfect encapsulation of the Bill character.

57 – Bugs Bunny’s 24-Carrot Holiday Special

Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes have not had a great time when it comes to Christmas, but the most recent attempt is almost certainly the best. On its own, it’s plenty solid and quite entertaining, it just feels like a property as storied as Looney Tunes should have something truly monumental. This comes from the new Looney Tunes Cartoons which began life as an HBO Max exclusive, but have since jumped to Cartoon Network. This special is just a sequence of cartoons with one starring the duo of Porky and Daffy, another Sylvester and Tweety, and finally a Bugs and Elmer cartoon. In between are some segments of Taz attempting to go caroling and there is a wrap-around segment to set the mood. By far, the best of the bunch is the Porky and Daffy cartoon which sees the two perform as scabs in place of Santa’s striking elves with mostly disastrous results. The other two are solid, but if there’s one failing of this special it’s that the finale featuring Bugs and Elmer is barely a Christmas cartoon. It’s basically just a big snow fight, but there is a Christmas decoration on Elmer’s door. It’s silly, but if they just threw some lights on Elmer’s house and paid lip service to the holiday I’d probably elevate this one to at least the next day. Still, it’s funny and the animation is great so if you want Christmas with the Looney Tunes and only have time for one this might provide the most bang for your buck.

56 – Peace on Earth

The MGM short Peace on Earth is a favorite of those who like their Christmas specials to be preachy, but not about Jesus. In this classic short, an old squirrel tells a story to his grand kids on Christmas Eve about how humanity came to an end. Arriving at the cusp of the second world war, this anti-war cartoon makes the bold prediction that humanity will only destroy itself with more war. Obviously it didn’t, but the second world war certainly lead to many deaths and casualties as well as apocalyptic creations like the atom bomb so they weren’t entirely wrong. Plus, there’s still time! I wouldn’t say there’s anything particularly profound in this one and its message is probably going to land more with children than adults. Not that adults are too cynical for the message, it’s just not subtle about anything nor does it offer any real solutions apart from an idealized version of how a new society could rise from the ashes if we only took the ten commandments more seriously. What is not in doubt though is that the animation is gorgeous and if all we saw was the squirrel walk through the snow it would still be worth watching this holiday season.

55 – SpongeBob Squarepants – SpongeBob’s Road to Christmas

SpongeBob Squarepants may have arrived well past my Nicktoons viewing era, but it’s a show I’ve been able to get in touch with via its Christmas specials. This is one of the most recent ones, if not the most recent (they did a clip show one the next year) and it’s kind of the most straight-forward. There’s no live-action stuff and the plot involves SpongeBob finding a gift he left for Santa that Santa apparently missed when he visited on Christmas. The problem is it’s now months later, but SpongeBob can’t wait until next Christmas to give Santa his present so he sets off on the road to the North Pole to deliver it in person. Along for the ride is Patrick, which makes sense, but also Plankton, which does not. He has nefarious intentions, but also he has the means to travel to Santa. There’s a brief detour, but the trio does eventually make it and we get to see what the North Pole looks like in the offseason. And since Santa is actually away on vacation when the trio get there we get to see elves behaving badly. At least as bad as they can be on Nickelodeon. The elves are in no mood to entertain the little fellas though so they basically shut the door in their face forcing SpongeBob and Patrick to sneak in. When they’re caught, the elves mistake them for thieves which sets off a huge confrontation until Santa is able to show up and set things right. It’s amusing and quite entertaining. Whenever I sit down to watch a new episode of SpongeBob Squarepants I expect to not like it, but I pretty much always am proven wrong so I don’t know why I don’t adjust my attitude going in. This is a great addition to the Christmas catalog, just not quite as good as the other two I’ve seen.

54 – Bob’s Burgers – Bob Rest Ye Merry Gentle-Mannequins

Bob’s Burgers is a pretty reliable source for Christmas each year and it’s also pretty good. Is it as good as American Dad? That’s a tough question as the only thing they really share in common is that they’re both, at their core, animated sitcoms. Bob is far more low key and in this first Christmas episode for the show the family winds up in a really odd situation where a homeless man moves into their restaurant’s basement and uses his talents to create elaborate window displays. The catch? He claims to be a mannequin turned human and he longs to be reunited with his estranged wife who is also a mannequin. That is presumably still a mannequin. The kids buy into this story because they want to and Bob’s agreeable wife Linda seems to eventually get onboard as well. Bob does not because it’s absurd and even though this is a cartoon, it’s not a fanciful one. There are no magic mannequins in the world of Bob’s Burgers just like there are none in our world. Still, the man is good for business so Bob is forced to tolerate it but when he insults the guy he goes dark and the only way for Bob to make amends is to track down his mannequin wife, which happens to be modeling fetish gear in a sex store. Bob’s Burgers isn’t the most subversive of animated shows, but it finds a way. This obviously is not my favorite Christmas episode from this show, but it is funny and includes one of the best Christmas songs of all-time, “Father Christmas” by The Kinks so that scores it some bonus points.

Today’s installment of the Christmas Special Countdown basically ends at the halfway mark. After four days in a row of countdown installments, tomorrow’s solo entry comes at a pretty good time. Though in looking ahead, we’re not going to have another one for a week! I guess that’s the problem when you integrate those solo entries into an overall ranking system because they have to post where they rank. I could have taken liberties with the rankings to prevent that, but I have integrity! That integrity forced me to also break-up yesterday’s final entry with today’s first one. I think the two pair well when it comes to discussing the pros and cons of a Christmas special, but I couldn’t figure out a way to make that happen. Especially considering that yesterday’s post included 11 entries and today’s does as well. Had one included 10 it would have been easy enough, but that’s just the way things ended up. Without further adieu, here’s number 115:

115 – Toy Story That Time Forgot

I feel this one pairs well with Yes, Virginia because it overcomes the weaknesses of that special, while somewhat lacking its strengths. In case you forgot, Yes, Virginia is a nice little Christmas story with some unfortunate CG animation. It’s not good. This being a Pixar television special, it looks fantastic! It’s just very light on Christmas. Toy Story That Time Forgot is really a post Christmas special. Originally, I even considered doing it as a gag December 26th post. It takes place after the holiday has come and new toys have been bestowed upon young Bonnie, but none appear poised to push out her old favorites (wait until they meet the spork later on). As for her friend, on the other hand, he got something way more interesting: video games. On a playdate, Bonnie gets to experience the same while the toys are left to peruse this other kid’s playroom which has been filled with a new dinosaur product line. This kid got a ton of stuff for Christmas and it kind of takes me back to when my son got into Paw Patrol. As a dad who grew up adoring toys (and still does), I had to get him everything Paw Patrol I could get my hands on and I probably went a little overboard. The same happened for this kid and it’s overwhelming. He doesn’t seem to care and the toys are left to fend for themselves and they’re basically all a bunch of Buzz Lightyears. Woody and the gang have to prove to them they’re actually toys and while it feels a bit familiar, it’s still pretty fun. It’s just not very Christmassy.

114 – The Real Ghostbusters – XMas Marks the Spot

This is our second Christmas special (though chronologically, it came first) where the Dickens tale A Christmas Carol is treated like a historical reality. In this holiday themed episode of The Real Ghostbusters, our favorite busters somehow travel back in time and accidentally bust the ghosts that were supposed to show Ebenezer Scrooge the error of his ways. Now, I’ve been pretty vocal about my disinterest in adaptations of A Christmas Carol here, but this one is legitimately clever. Especially when your main characters are known for fighting ghosts. And apparently, that night was extremely important for the world as busting those ghosts changes the future for the worse forcing the Ghostbusters to try and set things right. First, by taking the place of the ghosts, and then by actually springing them from the containment unit. Longtime viewers get to enjoy a trip into where all of the ghosts they’ve been capturing all series long are held and there’s some fun cameos. This one is ranked this high because the premise is fun and this era of the show had some pretty nice animation and vocal performances. If you’ve never cared about Ghostbusters or The Real Ghostbusters then you might not enjoy it as much as I, who was raised on this stuff. Let’s hope Mondo never makes X-Mas variants of their Ghostbusters figures because my wallet may never recover.

113 – Johnny Bravo – ‘Twas the Night

Johnny Bravo was another early Cartoon Network original that found success. He’s basically a meat head with an Elvis obsession and this short Christmas cartoon puts that on display. It’s a bit like The Santa Clause, or “Christmas Flintstone,” in that Johnny takes over for Santa because the jolly old elf has become incapacitated. The twist here is Johnny is the one who incapacitated him. I guess Tim Allen did the same when he startled the Santa on his roof, but Johnny literally beats him up. Santa then demands he take over and Johnny reluctantly complies. There’s some good gags as Johnny pops in on characters featured in the show and some who are not, including a famous cameo. Perhaps the best part though is it’s all narrated by Adam West. His dry, yet earnest, delivery is perfect for this sort of thing. The segment is one of three from a half hour show so it’s extremely brief compared to most of the specials on this list which works to his advantage. I can only handle the character of Johnny Bravo in small doses and this is perfect.

112 – The Legend of Prince Valiant – Peace on Earth

This episode of The Legend of Prince Valiant was a tough one to rank. On one hand, it gets a little preachy and the episode’s resolution is perhaps too tidy for the weighty material leading up to it. On the other hand, it’s a more serious addition to the Christmas special lineage which makes it refreshing and the weighty material is handled pretty well, for the most part. It’s all about seeking peace in a war-torn land. A local lord has been killed and his son is expected to rule in his place. His followers want vengeance, but he just wants an end to the long-running feud. Our titular character, Prince Valiant, is politically bound to defend his allies so if a battle is to be waged then he and his knights are duty bound to join in when they want nothing more than to go home for Christmas without bloodshed. It’s not afraid to show some violence and death, it’s just not gratuitous. And such subjects are spoken of plainly. It’s also a relic of the original The Family Channel so, yeah, there’s a religious component to it as well. The plot even centers on a book, though to my shock the book was not the Bible. The animation is solid and if you want something non-comical for your Christmas viewing then this might be worth a look.

111 – Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas

Mickey’s first animated Christmas special in years is a bit of a mixed bag, hence why it’s here in the middle. The animation and overall look of this one is great, some of Disney’s best television animation for the era. The special is an hour and a half broken up into three segments making it essentially three half-hour specials in one. The sequel special kept the running time, but broke it up into more segments which is about the only thing that special got right. This one kind of struggles with each segment getting long and repetitive. It doesn’t help that the first one is a “Christmas Everyday” story with Donald’s nephews in the lead role. That one is repetitive by design. The middle segment, which stars Goofy and a younger version of Max than we saw in Goof Troop, is probably my favorite and it’s just all about Goofy trying to get his son to believe in Santa Claus. The third is a telling of The Gift of the Magi starring Mickey and Minnie and it’s as satisfying as most adaptations of that story – which is to say not very. Each segment has its moments, but this one falls short of being a true Christmas classic despite its pedigree.

110 – The New Batman Adventures – Holiday Knights

Oh yes, we’re including the Batman episodes! Years ago, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Batman: The Animated Series, I did a weekly rundown of each episode in the show as well as its sequel show, The New Batman Adventures. As such, these existed outside of the usual Christmas Spot countdown, but since there are two Christmas episodes among them it only felt right to include them here. This one is the series premiere for The New Batman Adventures and it’s like an anthology episode. The first segment features Harley and Ivy going on a shopping spree with a drugged-out Bruce Wayne, the middle segment features Batgirl stopping Clayface at a shopping mall, and the third and final segment actually takes place on New Year’s Eve where the Joker is up to no good and it falls on Batman and Robin to stop him. It’s a weird one for the show because it comes first in production order despite the Robin character getting introduced later on in the series, but we don’t really care about that for this purpose. All you need to know is this is a perfectly fine episode of the show that takes place at Christmas. The segmented nature of it does prevent it from being able to lock-on and tell one cohesive, satisfying, story instead opting more for the Looney Tunes approach. It’s entertaining, and the final scene is a nice piece of Batman lore for this universe, and overall I just find it more enjoyable than what The Justice League did.

109 – Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice

I am a big fan of the original Prep & Landing holiday special. I hope to be a big fan of the new one coming this year. I am not that big of a fan of Naughty vs. Nice. It obviously isn’t bad since I’m placing it roughly in the middle of my countdown, and by virtue of its association with the better special I tend to watch it annually, but it does some things I don’t like. Namely, it makes the lead, Wayne, just completely unlikable. The first one flirts with that idea, but it’s a bit more reasonable and relatable. This one just gives Wayne a case of sibling rivalry where he comes across as extremely petty, self-serving, and really just an asshole. Can you have a successful Christmas special where the lead is an asshole? Sure, but probably not when it’s ultimately trying to be a wholesome take on the holiday. It’s not all bad as there’s some humorous bits and the presentation is still fantastic, it’s just way less enjoyable.

108 – Popeye the Sailor – Mister and Mistletoe

Another old school holiday short, and one I deemed much better than the collection of old shorts featured further back in this countdown. Popeye is one of the original stars of black and white cartoons, but this Christmas short comes after that when he was in color and no longer part of Fleischer. That was the best era for Popeye, but these color ones from Famous Studios aren’t all bad. And this mad cap Christmas short is pretty fun and what most probably want out of a Popeye short. Olive and Popeye have put his nephews to bed when Bluto shows up dressed as Santa Claus to try and steal Popeye’s girl. Only Popeye thinks he’s the real deal and is probably more captivated by this rather bulky Santa than Olive seems to be. There’s some funny bits where Popeye is basically throwing himself at Santa until the big guy finally gets rid of him for good. Once the cat is out of the bag, Popeye can get to kicking some ass and eventually Bluto gets his due and violence solves everything. Popeye ends the short in the Santa suit because how could he not?

107 – Nerds and Monsters – Zanti-Clops

This is one I wanted to rank lower. It’s a 2014 cartoon I had never heard of with only so-so animation, but each time I went back to it for this ranking I was reminded that, “Hey, it’s pretty good!” Now, it’s not sentimental or anything and is just about some kids stuck on a monster-infested island. It’s got some gross-out humor. Poop plays a pretty central role to the monster version of Santa, the aforementioned Zanti-Clops, who takes old junk from kids and leaves behind a steaming pile of green, jewel-encrusted, dung. One of the nerds, Dudley, is anti-Santa or whatever and takes it upon himself to find out the truth, which nearly gets him killed. See, Zanti-Clops eats all who see him, but it turns out he’s not such a bad guy. He still inflicts some terror upon the kids before this one is over and we get even more poop jokes. If you can look past so many poop jokes then you’ll probably be entertained by this. It’s another short one too with some solid character work.

106 – Prep & Landing: Operation: Secret Santa

Yeah, we’re doubling-up on Prep & Landing today with this one being the short the franchise has produced. As the title implies, this one is more like a spy mission and it’s a pretty simple one: infiltrate Santa’s work shop and retrieve something for Mrs. Claus. The stakes are a bit undefined. We can clearly see that Lanny and Wayne fear Santa and what might happen should they be caught snooping around, but he’s also Santa. What’s he really going to do? Despite the stakes seeming awfully small, it still manages to create some solid tension while the elves are on their mission. There’s some nice set pieces and stunt shots and the item they’re after leads to a solid enough conclusion. It’s brief, but benign. I usually watch it out of habit at this point after I watch the truly special original.

105 – A Muppet Family Christmas

This is a popular one I tend to enjoy less than most. Maybe it’s because I grew up with this one on VHS so it didn’t have that unobtainable quality it had for a lot of people. Now it’s far easier to see thanks to streaming and there have been some physical releases, though some stuff had to be cut for copywrite reasons. The special is great on paper: the Muppets gather at the home of Fozzy’s mom and get snowed in with the gang from Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock. It’s all of the major Jim Henson properties literally under one roof. It just runs out of steam for me. A lot of the setup is fun and seeing the Muppets interact with the cast of Sesame Street is surprisingly entertaining. The Fraggles though are kind of wasted and the back half gets bogged down by concern for Miss Piggy and songs. So many songs. It’s as if they couldn’t fill an hour, so they decided to just have everyone sit around and sing Christmas carols. It’s really not good. Still, some people love The Muppets so much that it’s worth sitting through, but this is the rare special you can turn off about halfway through and not have really missed out on anything. Well, except that Jim Henson cameo at the very end which is pretty sweet. And it’s made all the more so by him no longer being with us.

Conventions are always a great time, even from home, because lots of toy companies use them to show off their latest and greatest. Last year had a number of surprises from NECA where Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were concerned. And some of those surprises were pretty damn big. When those conventions end, it’s always fun to rearrange the list in my head of what I’m looking forward to the most. Vaulting to near the top of that list was a figure I hadn’t even really considered would be shown: Shredder. Not just any Shredder, but the Shredder from the Archie Comics run of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures.

I have detailed in several of these figure reviews that I wasn’t a regular reader of the Archie run of TMNT. I should rectify that some day, but I had honestly forgotten what Shredder looked like in those books. I mostly saw those issues via the covers and covers alone and on those he was often depicted as he was in the cartoon. In the books themselves, Shredder was usually colored with a blue body suit and purple cape. The metallic portions of his traditional outfit was colored white with blue highlights. This isn’t that unusual as if you take a look at just about any depiction of Wolverine in a comic his claws are often white. We know they’re steel and probably wouldn’t be white in reality, but that’s comic book coloring logic. The cartoon went with gray for Shredder with minimal shading. The toy went with blue. Shredder was all over the place, but this white and blue look was certainly unique and something about it works. It’s classy!

NECA is rounding out its line of TMNT Adventures slowly but surely. There’s basically a three-issue arc or so in the comic that NECA has focused on. In it, we meet Slash who comes into contact with Krang. They meet Bellybomb and he in turn helps Krang take over Shredder’s body. Yeah, it’s a bit weird, but since Krang is a brain I guess it makes sense that he can take over the body of other people. He doesn’t have to always ride around in an android’s stomach. That’s why if you come cross this Shredder in a store you may be surprised to see Krang on his shoulders. This figure is Krang as Shredder (Kredder?), but NECA wisely included a traditional Shredder head in the box. It’s a little more eye-catching with Krang in place and likely to get some double-takes by people unfamiliar with this depiction. I suppose NECA is taking a risk with impulse buyers in that the Shredder head isn’t front and center, but I’m guessing most people into this line basically know what they’re in for.

This Shredder, or Krang, comes in the same style of window box as other figures in the line. It’s adorned with original artwork by Ken Mitchroney which all features the Krang head in place. The figure is an entirely new sculpt by Tomasz Rozejowski with a credit to Kushwara Studios. Paint is once again handled by the duo of Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo. And following in the footsteps of the Stump Wrestling turtles, this Shredder is pinless. NECA is gradually making the move to a pinless approach with the elbows and knees of its future figures and the results have been smooth. I’m not exactly offended by the presence of pins, but the ones NECA has used in the past can be a bit on the large side. They’re usually good about using the proper color and painting over them when necessary, but there have been a few where they stick out a bit too much (mostly their Bebop and Rocksteady figures, for some reason) so I’m happy to see them gone. Especially because we’re not losing any function, and as we’ll see when we get to the articulation, we’re not running into any new issues either.

This Shredder is a much beefier version of the character than we’ve received in the past. The NECA Shredder mold is getting quite long in the tooth. It’s been used for multiple versions of the Mirage Shredder as well as toon and video game versions. It’s not terrible, but it’s a very lanky Shredder. This new sculpt is likely also the base for the new Ultimate Toon Shredder that should start showing up any day now (unless it’s being held back for another Target event that everyone will surely love) and I think fans are going to be pleased. He’s big in the arms and broad in the chest and stands at a commanding 6.75″ and should look formidable beside the turtles. The sculpt has that slightly soft, rounded, but muscled look to it that was featured in the comics. The body is a dark, flat, blue with basically all of the muscles outlined with black. The details on the white portions of the costume are also brought out with black linework with a hit of light blue for shading. The face guard is dark blue with a nice swash of white and the visible portion of his face is a warm flesh tone and the detail work is impressive.

There’s almost nothing for me to critique when it comes to the presentation, but I’ll do my best. The linework is exceptionally clean. Given the presence of white surfaces, it could have gone off the rails in places, but it does not. I had to hunt for paint imperfections and I found one, black, speck on the right forearm band. That’s basically it. Aside from that, my criticisms are more subjective. There’s a cut in the abdomen that goes through the top of Shredder’s abs. I wish the cut went above the abs instead and followed the rib cage, but maybe that wouldn’t move as well. He also still has a soft goods cape that’s very basic. I’m fine with the choice of soft goods over plastic, but it’s very thin and there’s no wire. It’s basically the same cape as what’s included with the toon Shredder which is a pretty basic cape with just some minor tailoring around the neck. With the exception of Dark Turtle, capes in the toon TMNT line have been pretty weak and that has apparently carried over to the Archie line.

This edition of Shredder has a pretty solid assortment of accessories. I’ve been reviewing this as if it’s a Shredder, but the actual, default, head is Krang. Krang follows the same styling as the one included with Bellybomb only this time he has an angrier expression. Or rather, he’s showing more teeth and his eyes aren’t as asymmetrical as the prior one. His tentacles are on little ball joints so they can move a little bit, but he plugs onto the ball joint like any other portrait would. Which is why it’s a shame that the Krang that came with Bellybomb wasn’t equipped to do the same. Did they not want to tip their hand that this was coming? Maybe, but that’s a silly reason not to do it. It would have been a great way to get multiple portraits for Krang into the mix so it feels like a missed opportunity. Krang is very well painted though and if you’re only going to have one Krang head for a figure at least it’s a good one. You may notice there are no pictures of Shredder with Krang for a head. That’s because once I swapped heads I couldn’t get the Shredder one off. I actually had the whole neck apparatus come out, and since I’m not going to display this figure as Krang, I wasn’t going to go through the trouble of getting this head off.

The rest of the accessories are a mix of obvious and perhaps not so obvious. For hands, Shredder has a set of fists, open, gripping, and fists with his signature blades on them. The blades kind of come and go in the comics and it was pretty important to have an array of hands without them. Still, I do wish we got a set of open and gripping hands with the blades in place too. For the gripping hands, Shredder has this big poleaxe of sorts. It basically looks like a bo staff topped with a bladed head that’s serrated on one side while the other side almost looks like a giant bottle opener. It’s cool though and I like the size. It’s also pulled right from the comic and if this Shredder was only going to have one weapon then they picked the right one. Shredder also has his little banzai tree which, sort of like Slash from the cartoon and his “binky,” is an important item to Shredder so it’s a fun thing to have even if it’s not the most exciting. It’s really well painted and I might just keep it on my desk.

Shredder features a new articulation scheme in some respects, but the end result is mostly the same as usual. He has a double ball joint for his head, hinged shoulder pegs, bicep swivels, double-jointed elbows, forearm swivel, wrist swivel and hinge, diaphragm ball joint, ball-socket hips, swivels at the hips, double-jointed knees, shin swivels, hinged ankles and an ankle rocker. The elbows and knees both have no trouble bending past 90. They’re a little stiff out of the box, but not exceptionally so and I didn’t have to heat anything with this figure. The diaphragm joint swivels side to side with a decent arch back and a slight crunch forward. There’s no waist articulation, which is odd, but maybe it’s not present because the oversized sash would negate its use. The forearm and shin swivels are really well integrated into the sculpt to basically be seamless. At first, I couldn’t even tell where the shin was swiveling as it’s not at the very top of the boot. The gripping hands also feature vertical hinges, finally, which is great to see. More of that please, NECA. Though it is a bit ironic that the pole weapon doesn’t get much use out of them, but if you want to give him a sword or gun it will work well. Nothing is loose, nothing is floppy, and nothing was so tight I felt like it was going to break. The only joint that’s being stubborn for me is the right shin swivel. The factory generously lubricated the elbows and knees, which I’ve actually never seen before, and it certainly seemed to help.

This Shredder is just a fantastic figure to behold. I just keep finding my eyes drawn to this guy and he’s been on my desk for weeks because I don’t want to place him on my shelf and then rarely touch him. If this is how the new toon Shredder is going to turn out, then folks are going to be very happy. I doubt it tops this one though because I just love this color combo. The white and dark blue just pop well and in such a different manner than other figures in the line. I’ve grown accustomed to a lot of bright colors with this group, but Shredder proves you can pop with dark. This Archie line has really become the most exciting TMNT line for me. Maybe NECA’s 2012 line will top it eventually, but for now I am far more excited to see what’s next from TMNT Adventures than I am from the cartoon or comic lines. Only thing we really need now are proper Archie turtles. Those wrestling ones are great fun and were maybe the best figures I got in 2024, but I think the people want some more conventional looks as well. I’m sure they’re coming, as are more Mutanimals and familiar foes and they’ll all have a hard time topping this Shredder. If you’re looking to add him to your collection, he’s currently shipping to Walmart stores in the US. Since it’s TMNT Adventures, he should eventually make his way to other places, but if you don’t want to wait you’ll have to brave your nearest Walmart. Good luck!

This blog is about nothing.  It’s just my thoughts and whatever is compelling me to write in a given moment.  I often have subjects on my mind that just don’t lend themselves to conversation.  Or that is, they would in the right company but really how many people care about the merits of the Bucky O’Hare cartoon and how it relates to the comic form?

I am blessed, or cursed, with an affinity for things from my childhood.  Not blindly, but I’m the kind of guy that can wander around a gimmicky store like Newbury Comics and be delighted by the novelty items.  A lego-styled representation of Marvel’s The Beast from 1990 – awesome!  As a result, my home is full of things most would label as junk.  DVD’s of the Super Mario Bros. cartoon, a Batman doll beside my TV, Optimus Prime guarding my laptop.  I’m rational about my compulsions, more so now than in my youth, but am prone to the occasional impulse buy.  I once sought an action figure simply because as a kid I could never find it in stores and always wanted it (Marvel Super Heroes Venom II, if anyone is wondering), so I bought it as a 20 year old just because I could.

That’s not all that fuels me.  I have a lot to say about music, specifically metal, and I never seem to tire of a good baseball debate.  It’s just sometimes I find that my best conversation partner for the more obscure or fanatical things is myself, which makes a blog a pretty natural thing for me.