I would wager that when it comes to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles character Ace Duck most fans will immediately go to the Playmates figure as their first frame of reference. His creation is credited to the trio of Jim Lawson, Steve Murphy, and Ryan Brown, but I don’t know if any had a hand in his original look. That version of Ace, who was an anthropomorphic duck dressed like an old fighter pilot, made one appearance in the 1987 cartoon series as basically a show within a show. He flashed across the screen of the TV in the sewer lair in the episode “Attack of Big MACC.” That was it for old Ace as he never got to be a featured guest like many other characters who first appeared in the toy line. The character wouldn’t get a substantial look until he showed in the pages of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures published by Archie, only there he wasn’t a fighter pilot, but a pro wrestler.
He’s one big duck.
NECA’s TMNT Adventures line of action figures has been committed to giving fans basically everyone associated with the fictional Stump Wrestling. We have the turtles, Leatherhead, and Cryin’ Houn’, and now we have Ace Duck. This version of Ace is quite different from his Playmates counterpart. The only things the two share are the fact that they’re both ducks and they both have wings. While the original Ace is of average build for a human, this duck is massive. The phrase beefcake comes to mind, but also feels inappropriate for the massive mallard since he’s not a mammal. He’s a big boy and would have fit right in with the WWF of the early 90s. Even the whole duck thing probably could have worked in the promotion that introduced the Gobbledy Gooker. He also has a bit of a Buddy Rogers thing going on as he’s kind of a pretty boy. Part of me wonders if this design was influenced by Daffy Duck’s foil in the short Muscle Tussle because even the trunks are the same to go along with the physique. As a character, he’s neither friend nor foe to the turtles and even though he’s depicted as champion, he sure seems to lose a lot.
Ace Duck with the Ace Duck most know him as.
Ace Duck from NECA comes in the usual packaging with new artwork by Ken Mitchroney. He’s a big figure and comes courtesy of Walmart Collector Con which actually took place several months ago where he was available as a preorder. NECA is now finally shipping the figure and it’s expected that he’s just first run at Walmart and will eventually be available from other outlets. This chiseled sculpt was handled by Tomasz Rozejowski with paint by Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo.
It might take two turtles to topple this guy.
Ace Duck stands right around the 7″ mark and as high as 7.25″ to the top of the curl of feathers on his head. I’m pretty sure the first impression most are likely to have when looking at this figure is that he sure is bulgy, in more ways than one. He is jacked as his shoulders are quite broad and his chest is puffed out like a man (or duck) of such musculature would be. He’s also quite bulgy down…there. It’s quite the comical look when compared with the old Ace and borders on ridiculous, but I mean that in a good way. Since this is just a big duck in a Speedo, there’s not much being asked of the paint department. He’s a pale yellow all over save for his beak and his feet, which are a light orange. There’s plenty of black linework on the figure to highlight the musculature and some of the feathers. He has a set of tiny wings on his back which are barely visible from the front. I guess he skips wing day when in the gym. The only other embellishments on the sculpt are the little feathers on his forearms.
I love this cocky expression.Itty, bitty, wings.
Ace is just a big muscle duck, but what helps sell the character in plastic form are the expressions. By default, Ace looks pretty angry and ready to get down to business in the ring. His teeth are showing and he’s got a legitimately intimidating glare. The head most (including me) are likely to find more enjoyable though is the cocky grin. For that, Ace’s eyes are partly closed and looking to his right and his beak is shaped in the form of a wry smile. This is him preening for the audience or just looking in a mirror. It just goes so well with the vibe of this figure. The third portrait features a squawking Ace. His mouth is open in a cartoonish shape with a big, red, tongue flopping out. His eyes are also all red with black circles in them indicating he’s dizzy. This is pulled straight from a panel in the comics where Leatherhead is swinging him around by the feet. This one also works for a punch drunk look or an impact which is definitely a worthwhile inclusion for a pro wrestler action figure.
This right hand is basically included just for this.
The rest of the items are in the box are reserved for hands and one accessory. For hands, Ace has a set of fists, relaxed, and gripping hands. He also has a left hand that’s somewhere in between a pointing gesture and a relaxed look and a right hand that’s puzzling to me. It’s almost like the start of a thumb’s up gesture or a guitar picking form. It looks so specific that I’m guessing it’s lifted from a panel, and sure enough, it is. There’s a panel where he’s basically posing after slamming Leatherhead and saying “later gator” where he’s making this gesture with his hand. The last item in the box is a folding chair. It’s the exact same accessory that came with the turtles and even the colors are the same. It’s a solid accessory to have for a wrestling figure and I like that we now have two in the collection instead of one.
He’s not above getting dirty.
The approach to articulation with Ace is pretty basic. While the turtles were used to show off NECA’s first attempts at traditional pinless double-joints, Ace is going more old school. There’s articulation at the head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, diaphragm, hips, knees, ankles, and wings. Both the elbows and knees are single-jointed, but they will swivel at the point of entry as well. There is a thigh swivel, but it’s pretty limited and I was surprised by the lack of a waist twist. You will need to use the diaphragm joint for that and it’s pretty limited. Mostly, the figure is just so bulky that the range in a lot of places is hampered. The shoulders aren’t going to get much use out of the hinge and the elbow swivel isn’t as good as a proper bicep swivel. The hinge for the gripping hands is of the horizontal variety which is unfortunate. The legs have very little range kicking forward, though they actually kick backwards a decent amount.
You’re gonna need a bigger chair, Leo.
Ace isn’t going to do a whole lot on your shelf. In that, he’s a lot like Leatherhead and Cryin’ Houn’ who I also felt were really limited in the articulation department. Ace is probably a littler better than the hound, but a little worse than Leatherhead. None of them are going to be celebrated for their articulation and the best articulated figures in this line so far are probably the turtles. With Ace it’s just a little disappointing because there’s not much that NECA had to work around. He’s practically naked and it’s just the bulk of the sculpt that impedes things. And while I do like the sculpt, I do think there was a happy medium some where to make this guy more articulated without having to jeopardize the aesthetics. The hips, in particular, stand out as an area where there’s no real reason for why they’re as limited as they are.
Or not.
Ace Duck is another solid entry in NECA’s Archie Comics inspired toy line. The articulation shortcomings are basically a feature of the line at this point and collectors likely know what they’re in for with that. The sculpt is on point and this is a figure that just puts a smile on my face because he’s so damn fun to look at. The accessory count is suitable with three portraits and a folding chair to go along with 8 hands. The only other thing I failed to mention so far is the price. Ace Duck will set you back $50 if you can find him at Walmart (currently available for order as I type this) and may cost a little more when he makes his way to specialty retailers. That’s certainly a steep price and I guess it’s owing to his size and potential for reuse. The sculpt is such that maybe NECA can reuse it for other muscle guys though none in this particular line come to mind. He’s the same price as Cryin’ Houn’ who was a little bigger, but came with less stuff, so he doesn’t feel like a lesser release. I just wasn’t crazy about the price tag with that figure either. I do like this figure a bit more and if you’re okay with the price and its shortcomings then I can safely recommend it. It has a premium feel in-hand and it’s a musclebound space duck in trunks – what’s there not to like?
That duck has a family!
If you missed our look at the other Stump Wrestling figures from NECA then check these out:
I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again, but no toy collector enjoys hearing the phrase “Walmart Exclusive.” Such was the case for today’s figure, and many others, around the time of San Diego Comic Con. Walmart had their own collector con which is just a marketing way to say that a bunch…
We are rolling right along with more reviews of NECA’s TMNT Adventures line of action figures and we’re also staying within the realm of Stump Wrestling. When the turtles wound up in the intergalactic wrestling federation, they didn’t just encounter aliens, they also encountered an old foe. I don’t know how Leatherhead wound up as…
When I was a kid, I didn’t really get a lot of comic books. I most often would encounter them at the grocery store and I always hoped my mom would end up in the check-out aisle with the comics instead of candy so I could maybe convince her to get me one. And when…
What drives my decision to buy an action figure can take on many forms. The most boring reason to get something is for the sake of completion. If you collect anything then you’re probably familiar with that impulse: you have everything else and you don’t want your collection to be incomplete. That can be a hard thing to shake and can lead one to buy something they don’t really enjoy for any other reason. Then there’s also matters of price and availability which can be an influence, but I think the best reason to buy an action figure (or really anything) is because you simply like it. When it comes to JoyToy’s line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures, I don’t feel that compulsion to have a complete set so I’m picking my spots. The four turtles, April, Shredder, Bebop, Rocksteady, and Krang feels like a pretty complete set, but then along come Slash and Tokka.
These two bring more bulk to the line.
Slash and Tokka are two characters that I certainly have some degree of affection for. They’re not Tattoo or Hot Spot, but characters I actually like and have enjoyed across various takes on the franchise. Still, neither felt essential to me so when JoyToy originally solicited the pair I felt content to pass them over. Then people started getting them in-hand, I watched some reviews, poured over some visuals, and suddenly found myself placing an order for the pair. They just looked damn fun and with these figures retailing in the $30-$40 range they don’t feel as overpriced as they would have 3 or 4 years ago. And with this line being in a smaller scale, I can delude myself into thinking I have space for more turtle figures.
Left to right: Super7, JoyToy, NECA.L to R: Playmates, JoyToy, NECA .The theme here seems to be familiar, but new. Slash even has a secondary head to better match the cartoon version of the character.
Slash and Tokka, both being mutated or alien turtles, are able to share some parts which is why they were sold together. From a production standpoint, it makes perfect sense even though from a thematic one it’s pretty odd to get a Tokka without a Rahzar (don’t worry, he’s coming). JoyToy decided to lessen that notion and appear to have made these two work as a pair, if you like. They have a pirate theme between the two of them and one could easily envision them as a pair of deviants patrolling the high seas for whatever it is they desire most. And it works! I like what JoyToy has done here and even once more logical pairings arrive via future figures I’ll probably still keep this pair close to each other in my display.
Be they friend or foe? I guess that’s for you to decide.
Both Slash and Tokka are loosely based on their appearance in the classic animated series. This means they also draw some inspiration from the vintage figure line by Playmates since they were influenced by the cartoon as well (or vice versa). Both characters stand a tick over the 4″ mark making them a little taller than the turtles, but a little shorter than Bebop and Rocksteady. Compared with the turtles, they’re not so much taller than them, but chunkier. They’re bigger boys and a bit more intimidating as a result. Tokka does come with the Foot logo stand while Slash gets them sewer one – does that mean Slash is intended to be more of a good guy and Tokka a bad guy? Maybe, though your head canon is as good as any here.
JoyToy really packs the box full of stuff with this line.
Let’s talk Slash first. This is a Slash based on his original appearance in Archie comics which was loosely adapted by Playmates. He has the black bandana and the skull belt buckle we know from the Playmates version. A lot of the other embellishments resemble that figure, but with an added degree of realism. The shoulder pauldrons resemble steel now, but are still bound by rope and fully painted. The elbow and knee pads are black and spiked and his shell features numerous spikes as well in a similar pattern. What’s new are the chains wrapped around his forearms and a harness around the chest. On the backs of his hands are some armor plates, but what’s missing are his blades which is a bit unusual, but the animated design did the same thing. His shell also has some handles bolted onto them that serve as weapon storage, similar to the other turtles. He also added some belt loops for additional weapon storage which is going to come in handy because he has a lot of stuff.
Even the shells are different.
The overall aesthetic for Slash is to take that old design and up the detail and realism. His skin is heavily textured with thick scaling. There’s a a lot of knicks and grooves cut into the plastron and there’s just a lot of added texture to every surface of this guy. The belt has a softer texture befitting a leather belt and the tassels on it and the bandana are frozen in a windswept look. Paint is pretty clean and crisp on this guy and it looks like a paint wash was utilized to really bring out those details. Like the turtles, Slash does have a belt that doesn’t wrap around the back of the shell. This is just part of the design JoyToy is going for and while it doesn’t make sense for turtle anatomy, it doesn’t really bother me personally. Your mileage may vary.
Not to be out done, here’s all the stuff Tokka comes with.
Tokka, as expected, uses a lot of the same parts. Between the two, they share shoulders, biceps, abdomen, thighs, and feet. In addition to that, the elbow pads, knee pads, and belt appear to be shared between the two with the belt buckle and tassels swapped out for Tokka. That’s a lot of shared parts, but there’s also a lot of unique stuff. I was surprised that JoyToy opted to do a different shell since the Playmates figures shared the same. Tokka’s lacks spikes and instead is more plated in appearance like an actual snapping turtle. His calves are also different as he has spikes along the sides of them. And in keeping with past versions of the character, Tokka has five digits on his hand as opposed to three like Slash and the other turtles. JoyToy could have easily decided to just give him the same hands as Slash and I doubt anyone would have really cared, but it’s cool they decided to sink more money into this figure than they had to.
They have plenty of implements of destruction.
Tokka has a very similar look to Slash in terms of approach. There’s a lot of detail here and the paint is kept pretty clean. His head sits lower than Slash owing to the fact that his neck is more forward than straight up. His beak is colored black like the Playmates and toon design while his overall complexion is darker than his cartoon counterpart and basically the same as Slash. He has two hooks attached to his shell for some weapon storage and instead of chains around his forearms he has rope. His shoulder pads are spiked like the old design, but the shape is more square than round as previously depicted. Of the two, I enjoy the Slash design a bit more, but that’s merely a subjective take on my part. Tokka is of the same quality and he fits in well with the rest of the line.
Slash is one of the few figures in the line to come with an extra portrait.
Both Slash and Tokka come with a ton of stuff. Some of it is shared and some of it isn’t. We’ll start with Slash who comes with four sets of hands: fists, gripping, wider gripping, and trigger finger. He also has a second head which is not typical of the line, but it features his metal headband from the cartoon so if you want a more toon-like appearance you have the option. In terms of the usual stuff, Slash has the City Sewer disc stand and a chunk of the white, marble, diorama piece. He also comes with a pre-mutated version of himself which is just a little slug figure. It stands on two feet so maybe it’s supposed to have been just exposed to mutagen? I don’t know. He also has his “binky,” the little palm tree forever associated with the character.
Are these blades a good enough stand-in for Slash’s usual ones?
In terms of weapons Slash is pretty well-stocked. If you felt he was missing the blades on his hand then JoyToy has you sort of covered via two bladed weapons he can hold in his hands. They’re like oversized Wolverine attachments as each has three, large, blades extending from them. They’re not quite the same as the more traditional setup, but it suits the character. In terms of bladed weapons, Slash has a pair of daggers which can fit in the loops on his belt and a pair of katana which can be stored in his shell. The katana feel like a callback to the cartoon as that version of the character carried two swords. He also has a large bladed weapon mounted to a pole. I guess it’s like a glaive and probably has a proper name that I don’t know. The blade is almost as large as the staff it’s affixed to and it’s pretty nasty looking as it’s all chipped. I certainly would not want to be on the receiving end there.
I’m starting to think of these guys as food monsters.
If melee combat is not how you feel your Slash should approach things then he also has a firearm. A small, old-fashioned, pistol that probably runs off of black powder and has a knife affixed to it for extra stabbing power. To keep Slash protected while he fires on his foes (or reloads) is a large, spiked, shield that can fit over his forearm and also has a handle for added stability. Slash can easily hide much of his bulk behind this thing and fire from behind it if he wants to. For when things slow down, Slash also has a big old mug of beer and a lobster roll sandwich to snack on. The mug is again of an old-fashioned design of wood with banded steel. There’s a froth effect that’s removable. The sandwich is basically a giant lobster between two pieces of bread and is a bit funny. I’m guessing a turtle like Slash has no issue just biting through the shell when he’s hungry. The roll also has a slot on the bottom of it so you can stick it on the end of a dagger which is a nice touch. I kind of like the idea of Slash and Tokka as a pair of gluttonous pirates who like to kick ass then settle down for some chow.
Awe!
Tokka is just about as stacked as Slash and shares some of the same accessories. He too comes with the same piece of the diorama base while his disc stand is the Foot branded one. He also comes with the mug, shield, and pistol as well as the same spread of hands though via different sculpts. There’s a baby Tokka as well, but it’s a different sculpt from the little Slash as it’s in a more neutral pose and has its own unique shell. Those represent the shared parts, but for the actual melee weapons Tokka is all new. He has two, curved, daggers which can slot into his belt and he also has two, larger, curved swords. They have a handguard so, if you want, you can hang them off of the hooks on his shell. However, I think those hooks are intended to house his massive anchor weapon. It’s just a big anchor with some wrappings around it to form a handle and a piece of sculpted chain attached to the end. It can go across the hooks when not being held, though it is a little finicky, but not likely to fall out on its own. Tokka also has two handheld bladed weapons similar to Slash’s only his feature one, big, blade as opposed to three smaller ones. Lastly, he has some food of his own in the form of a turkey leg with a big bite taken out of it. I find it amusing since NECA opted for the same with its cartoon Tokka. I guess he just really likes turkey.
The gun and shield combos is pretty cool.
The two figures share enough parts that articulation is basically the same for both. The approach is also basically in-line with what we saw out of JoyToy when it came to the other turtles. We have ball pegs at the head and wrists with hinged balls at the shoulders, bicep swivel, single-hinged elbows that swivel, a ball joint in the diaphragm, ball-jointed hips, thigh swivel, double-jointed knees, ankle hinges, and rockers. Tokka also has the added benefit of a hinged jaw. They’re pretty chunky so the range in places isn’t the best. Heads are always a bit limited with these turtle designs, though if you swap to the toon head for Slash you get a little more range since you won’t have to deal with the bandana tassels. The ball-jointed wrists work fine, but the hands pop off pretty easily and it is a mild annoyance when posing. Elbow pads and knee pads are floating so they can get out of the way to a point, but you’re basically only getting 90 degrees of movement at both spots. The shoulders are a bit restricted because of the pauldrons and I do wish we could get better range there for convincing two-handed poses. They can kind of do it, but it’s a very limited window.
Well done, boys!
The articulation is probably going to be enough for most people. The numerous accessories and hand options help to make these two pretty expressive even if the range isn’t the best in some places. The overall is aesthetic is damn sharp though and I really like how this pair turned out. As I said in the intro, I wasn’t planning on getting either figure, but once I saw how well they turned out and how fun they were I was unable to resist. JoyToy TMNT figures are not sold in North America so if you want to add this pair to your collection you will need to go through an import store. I got mine via LT Cave and it probably only took about 10 days for them to arrive. The constantly evolving tariff situation in the U.S. makes getting these a little trickier each day so if you want them my suggestion is to get them sooner than later because who knows what tomorrow will bring?
If this review has you considering more JoyToy for your TMNT collection then look below:
It’s been said before and it will be said again: everyone is making Ninja Turtles. It feels like the list of companies not making Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is smaller than the list of those who are. Viacom has not been shy about licensing the brand out to toy makers and it’s reaching a point…
No, that is not a typo you see in the title of this entry. This is a review of the JoyToy versions of classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles henchmen Beebop and Rocksteady. I don’t know why it says Beebop on the box, but this is a Chinese company and English is probably not the primary…
The surprise line of the past year has unleashed perhaps its very best with Krang. Krang dates back to the 1987 cartoon series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Because that show became such a household name, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of just how insane a character design Krang is. Krang was created by David…
When I was a kid, the only superheroes with any box office success to speak of were the biggest heroes from Detective Comics: Superman and Batman. The Superman films starring Christopher Reeve were probably the first superhero movies I ever saw. If not them then the honor would belong to Batman (1967). It wouldn’t be long until Tim Burton’s take on the Dark Knight rocked the box office and became a merchandizing juggernaut. It followed a tetralogy of Superman films that had really run out of steam. Batman was the new “It” hero for the film world and no one else mattered or could find success. Not until Fox and Sony started winning audiences over with their takes on X-Men and Spider-Man. The Marvel Cinematic Universe followed, and even though during that era there was a trilogy of very successful Batman movies from director Christopher Nolan, it feels like Warner Bros. and DC have been trying to emulate the Marvel method with its films with little to show for it.
Enter James Gunn. After entrusting the DC film universe to Zack Snyder to middling results, Warner Bros. searched for someone to spearhead a second attempt at a shared DC film universe. Gunn was known to them through work he had already done for the studio including including films The Suicide Squad and the HBO series Peacemaker. Gunn of course was the director for three very successful Guardians of the Galaxy films for Disney and Marvel and the prevailing thought at Warner must have been if Gunn can take a relatively unknown comic franchise like Guardians and turn it into a mega-successful film franchise then surely he can do the same for the already famous characters of DC? His first task: create a new franchise with Superman serving as the anchor character to kick things off.
Superman may be one of the most famous superheroes in the world, but it feels like his time as the most popular has long since past him by. Film attempts at reviving the character have not been received all that well and Batman has taken over as the face of Detective Comics. It almost feels like at some point in the 80s a rift developed between the two fictional characters that carried over into the fandom. If you were a Batman fan then you thought Superman was lame. If you were a Superman fan then Batman was a joyless, grim-dark, sadist. The talk of a Batman vs Superman movie became a thing that eventually happened and even when comic book royalty like Jim Lee took over the Batman books he made sure to work in a Batman vs. Superman scene into his Hush story. This can probably be traced back to Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns which contains probably the most famous and iconic physical stand-off between the two the atmosphere of which helped to influence Burton’s Batman which helped define the character for the next decade-plus.
The film begins with Superman looking less like his usual self and more like Yamcha.
All of this is to say that Superman arrives with a great deal of expectation. There’s expectation from the studio that this will be the catalyst for a mega-successful film franchise to follow, and not just for Superman himself. There’s the hope from fans of the character that this is the movie that will get him right and do justice for the character that many feel the previous films failed at. And then there’s the naysayers, the anti-Superman crowd and Snyder loyalists which has been stoked by recent cries that Superman is getting too political because Gunn dared to point out that he’s an immigrant and his story is an immigrant story. The film drops at a prescient time for such notions as currently immigration is the focal point of the current administration in the United States with ICE raids and protests against said raids often dominating the news. Can this film possibly serve both crowds and win over a large majority of move-goers this summer?
Despite how this looks, this is thankfully no “Trial of Superman” type of film.
No, probably not. Those who have decided that this new movie is too political and against their conservative leanings going into it are not going to be swayed. And those who thing Superman sucks of only Snyder’s portrayal mattes have made up their minds already so why bother convincing them otherwise? For that other crowd though, I do think many are going to leave the theater with some measure of satisfaction. This is the portrayal of Superman that they were likely looking for, and while the film is far from perfect, it’s also pretty far from terrible.
Superman (played by David Corenswet) opens at an interesting time for the character: his first defeat. Some text overlay is present to inform the audience that Superman has been on this world for 30 years and revealed himself to the public 3 years prior to the events of the movie. This is not an origin story, though if you know nothing about Superman going into it you’ll have the gaps filled in enough without a lot of direct exposition. Superman also gets to open the film in a Yamcha pose. If you are a Dragon Ball Z fan then you know what I am referring to as the character is laying in a fetal position in a crater in the arctic. If you saw the first trailer then you saw this scene. It’s an interesting way to introduce the audience to the character as it informs us that this is a Superman who can feel and experience pain. Some takes on the character make him basically invulnerable to all things not Kryptonite. This Superman is indeed a super-powered individual and no mortal man could ever hope to best him at any physical test, but other super-powered beings can perhaps stand a chance.
This film very much wants to remind you that Superman’s priority is safeguarding the people (and animals) of the planet he now calls home.
The Superman of this universe is an eternal optimist. He is here on this world to do good, as his biological parents instructed via a pre-recorded message, and that’s his goal. When a fictitious foreign power tries to invade a neighboring country, Superman puts a stop to it with his own brand of justice. That lays the foundation for one of the film’s central conflicts – can a man of his power who owes no allegiance to any nation be allowed to act in such a way? To Superman, he is doing right. The invasion would have cost lives and Superman prevented that. To an adult in the political world, there’s more nuance. The invading country (Boravia) claimed it was liberating the people of the country it invaded (Jarhanpur) from an oppressive regime. Lives would have been lost, but they would have better off in the end, or so they claim. Superman disagreed and since he holds the power it’s his opinion that supersedes all others. He consulted no political authority before acting as he did and the fear is what if he’s wrong?
Hoult’s cocky and obsessive Luthor is hopefully a villain with real staying power.
To a man like Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) this is a very scary proposition. He has some sympathizers in the US government, but none are eager to go toe-to-toe with Superman who is not only extremely powerful in his own right, but also extremely popular. Luthor is motivated by more than just fear though. He’s not a man out to make the world a better place, but a better place for him. He’s greedy and jealous and his jealousy towards Superman has been all-consuming. He wants to out Superman as someone the public should fear, and then he wants to kill him. He has been studying Superman these past three years and has used his considerable wealth to hire some very smart people to help him do that. Among his ranks are two creations: Ultraman and The Engineer. Ultraman is an incredibly strong creation of mysterious origins while The Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría Chacón) is some sort of techno-engineered human capable of breaking her body down into tiny nanobots.
The Justice Gang has a role to play, but not a sizeable one.
Other heroes, or metahumans, exist in the world including the Justice Gang (working title). This group consists of Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), and Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi). If you know nothing of those heroes from the comic books good luck understanding what their powers are beyond a superficial level. The film isn’t interested in sifting through lore and all one needs to know for the film and their presentation is they’re some pretty powerful people. There’s also the Daily Planet crew where Clark Kent is employed and we meet the usual suspects for a Superman film. Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) is the lead reporter and the one we’ll spend the most time with. Along with her is Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) who is traditionally a photographer, but in this film I don’t know what his role is. He’s not a reporter, even though he has the best sources, and he defers to others and operates like an assistant. Perry White (Wendell Pierce) serves in his customary role as the editor-in-chief.
The film is primarily concerned with presenting Superman as a force for good and what is morally right and just. Cronenswet is perfectly suited for such a role. He has an innocent charm about him as well as the physique. He doesn’t wrestle with his decisions of what is right and what is wrong because he feels he knows inherently the difference between the two. An interesting dichotomy is displayed when he and the Justice Gang take on a kaiju-like beast in Metropolis. Superman struggles with the beast because he wants to subdue it and take it to an intergalactic zoo of some kind while the other heroes see killing the creature as the quickest way to neutralize the threat. Superman, for all his power, doesn’t appear to subscribe to the theory that might makes right, he’ll use his considerable might as he deems necessary, but he’s not a killer. This juxtaposes with the cynical world around him. Lois, in particular, clashes with him because of her more jaded, but also typical, outlook for an adult woman in a modern day setting. She can raise these issues with Superman, but all they do is frustrate him because seemingly no one else sees the world as clearly as he does. The only thing I don’t like about this Superman is his costume. Yes, it’s pretty close to his classic look, but he has that texture and piping that has become commonplace in super hero movies and TV shows. It’s uninspired and overdone and looks like Superman through the lens of The Boys.
Holt definitely gets the most opportunity to steal some of the spotlight.
Hoult’s Luthor is a proper villain for Superman, one who can’t ever hope to match him physically, but can do so in other ways. He’s portrayed as a very smart, savvy, and even patient man since he’s been working to put his plans into motion for years at this point. He’s also prone to emotional outbursts and Hoult is able to straddle a fine line between lethal mastermind and over-the-top theatrics. The background conflict between the two warring nations feels like a clear proxy for conflict in the middle east. Gunn has been working on this film since 2022 so it’s hard to say if that conflict is meant to be a stand-in for something as politically charged as Israel and Palestine, but present day audiences are likely to go there.
If you were hoping to see a lot more of the reporters at The Daily Planet then you may be disappointed.
And that’s where Superman is likely going to come up short for some people. Those who want the movie to have a very clear stance on present day topics like the current one in Gaza are going to be left wanting more. The criticism, if there is any, is largely toothless. The moral questions of whether or not Superman is right or wrong is basically introduced, but mostly dropped. It serves as a catalyst for the plot which then quickly becomes just another sci-fi, comic booky, conflict where the fate of the world is at stake. The film provides a resolution to the plot, but not really any of the other stuff. And amidst the climax the human characters basically get swallowed up. If you’re someone who feels the Daily Planet staff is an integral part of the Superman experience then you too will be left underserved. The film literally puts the only important characters from that group (and even the non-important ones who get little face-time) in a bubble to ride the whole thing out. I won’t go so far as to say the Daily Planet stuff could have been stricken from the film without any loss, but it’s close. On the plus side, the film is at least confident with its sci-fi. It doesn’t get bogged down in the how or why these things can happen, they just can. For some viewers that may be frustrating while others are more apt to just accept the reality of the film for what it is.
DC and Warner are probably counting on this dog to move some merch and he probably will.
The other character I have to mention is the one likely to help offset some of the losses in the adult audience and that’s Krypto. The super canine was introduced in the initial trailer and you won’t have to wait long to see him on the big screen. I have never been a Krypto fan. Even as a kid it felt like pandering to a young audience that I saw through despite my enjoyment of dogs. He’s probably here to help pander to that younger audience once again and maybe win over some dog people who ordinarily wouldn’t care about Superman. His portrayal is better than expected as Krypto is not some well-trained companion, but a force of chaos. He’s a bit unruly and pup-like and it’s probably because he’s a bit neglected being forced to live in Superman’s Fortress of Solitude (it’s never actually called that in the film, but you get the idea). He has not been socialized with other dogs, probably because he’d accidentally destroy them, and Superman isn’t available to train him. He’s still a good boy though so the audience is probably going to enjoy him more than I did. I know my kids left the theater saying he was their favorite part.
John Murphy and David Fleming handled the score with liberal use of the Superman theme composed by John Williams. I was very happy to hear that theme returned as there’s no reason to ever craft a new Superman theme. The films makes use of it in different ways adjusting the tempo and intonations, but it’s unmistakable. I do wish at some point there was a performance a bit closer to the one from the 70s, even if just over the end credits, but the film denied us that. It’s also worth noting that even though this is a launching point for a new DC film universe, it doesn’t feel like one. Yes, there’s a mid-credits and a post credits scene, but they’re not teasers. There isn’t any obvious setup for a future film or story and the plot is self-contained. It may seem a bit ridiculous to praise a film for telling a story and committing to it, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become exhausting to follow and it’s nice to just sit and watch a film without wondering “What’s next?”
Okay, I’ll admit it, he’s a good boy.
Superman is a good film. It’s probably not the genre or character-defining moment some want it to be, but if you’re in the market for a good Superman story presented in a capable manner then there’s enough here to enjoy. Where the film comes up short is in its approach to plot points many would consider topical. If you wanted a strong denouncement of the immigration policies in the US or criticism of what’s going on in Gaza well you’re not really going to get it. Should the film have gone farther? Perhaps. I don’t think it would have hurt commercially as the people refusing to see the film because it’s “woke” have already made up their mind and aren’t going to give it a fair shake anyway. There’s always a danger in playing it safe because it can turn off the audience you were likely to have anyway and alienates the one you never were going to appeal to. And it’s never a bad thing to take a stand on what’s right, provided it’s truly the position of those making the art. Those who wanted to see more of Superman’s supporting cast might also be left disappointed. This isn’t a solo Superman story, but it’s also not one heavily reliant on others, but maybe we needed that after films and stories all too willing to place the character on the back burner. It’s also 129 minutes long and feels just about right so while there are things I might have liked to have seen included, I can’t say I wanted another bloated 150 minute comic book movie. Hopefully, Gunn and DC can stick with telling more Superman stories and be less concerned with telling the story of the Justice League or whatever else you know they want to build to. My fear is this is an outlier just to establish Superman and DC is going to just go back to trying to emulate what Marvel has done. Not every film needs to be building towards something bigger and better. There are plenty of Superman stories worth telling. We have the cast and hopefully we have vision at the top to usher in a new era for the character.
If you’re interested in more thoughts on Superman in film then perhaps you’ll find these worth your time:
It might be hard to convince younger people today that superhero movies were once huge financial risks for production companies. It might further surprise them to learn that only one comic book company seemed to figure the whole thing out, and it wasn’t Marvel. While Marvel struggled to get Hollywood interested in its characters, Detective…
Original Air Date: October 4, 1997 Directed by: Toshihiko Matsuda Written by: Paul Dini, Stan Berkowitz, Alan Burnett, Rich Fogel, Steve Gerber Animation: TMS – Kyuokoichi Corporation Running Time: 61 minutes Also Known As: Superman: The Animated Series episodes 39, 40, 41 “World’s Finest: Parts 1, 2, and 3” When Warner Bros. launched its own…
When the original Superman was conceived for a theatrical release, the producers on the project were ambitious. Convincing audiences that a man could fly sure seemed like enough ambition for one film, but not Superman. Alexander and Ilya Salkind decided it would be more prudent to shoot the film and its sequel at the same…
Since I was a young lad, I’ve always been drawn to “heavy” music. My dad was an oldies guy, which during my childhood was primarily music from the 50s and 60s. My mom was into modern rock and while her sensibilities weren’t exactly heavy, they definitely were compared to what my dad listened to (which back then was primarily Neil Diamond). As a result, I often tended to prefer the music my mom would put on compared with what my dad would select not truly realizing what it was I liked most about music. The first band I really gravitated towards was Aerosmith and my very first cassette tape was the album Pump. My first CD purchase would end up being Big Ones which I didn’t realize was just a compilation of songs I had been listening to for awhile, but at least they were all songs I enjoyed (even if my mom owned all of those CDs already). From there, I’d get my own “boom box” for my bedroom and my preferred radio station would become Worcester’s WAAF which skewed much heavier than my mom’s preferred Rock 101. By the time I was heading into middle school I found myself getting into bands I was hearing on the radio like Tool, Korn, and Worcester’s own beloved Godsmack. As I entered into high school my tastes went heavier thanks to friends and easily accessible mp3s traded in AOL chat rooms. Bands like Metallica would eventually come out and shit on mp3 files that were so accessible, but without those I may have never discovered bands like Children of Bodom, In Flames, and Opeth.
And without Black Sabbath, most of those bands wouldn’t exist. I don’t know if I truly appreciated that as a kid, but it certainly became apparent as I went on my heavy metal journey. Danzig would become my favorite band in high school and it’s hard to imagine that band existing without Sabbath (Glenn Danzig, as well as many other artists, was not shy about borrowing Sabbath riffs). As a kid, I was definitely aware of Black Sabbath, and as a child of the 80s I was very aware of Ozzy Osbourne. He had a reputation as a mad man and his songs were frequently featured on radio and MTV. Probably more so than Sabbath at that point, but it’s not as if one had to listen to the radio for very long to hear something like “Paranoid” or “War Pigs.”
My first Black Sabbath album would be the classic Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. There’s nothing I could say about that album that hasn’t been said before: it’s perfect. I’d also be lying if I said Black Sabbath was one of my favorite bands. It’s not as I tend to favor more up-tempo stuff, but I always liked the group and enjoy listening to it. I also think Black Sabbath is perhaps the most influential band ever. That’s not to say other acts haven’t been incredibly influential, but just in my little circle of music I indulge the most in, it’s Sabbath by a mile.
Few bands today could pull-off what Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne just did with the Back to the Beginning concert. Taking place at Villa Park in Birmingham, UK, Back to the Beginning is a giant celebration of Black Sabbath and its frontman Ozzy Osbourne who has been suffering with Parkinson’s disease which is forcing his retirement from the stage. This made the show both a celebration and a farewell and for a lot of artists and fans it might be the last time they get to express to the boys of Sabbath how much their music influenced them. Osbourne is of course not the only member of the band and joining him on stage for the finale was guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and for the first time in 20 years drummer Bill Ward. These four men came to define heavy metal and started something they likely could never have imagined back when they started, and though the band has not been without drama and controversy over its 50 years of existence, the guys of Black Sabbath have remained well-respected and much loved by their peers.
A lot of artists were on-hand to celebrate Ozzy and Black Sabbath.
Back to the Beginning was a non-profit all day concert played before 45,000 fans and an untold number of others watching at home. It featured performances by the bands Mastodon, Rival Sons, Anthrax, Halestorm, Lamb of God, Alice in Chains, Gojira, Pantera, Tool, Slayer, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, and concluding with a short set of solo Ozzy material and a set by Black Sabbath. Mixed into the bill were performances by super groups. Organized by Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, the super groups featured the talents of Jake E. Lee, Billy Corgan, K.K. Downing, Vernon Reid, Travis Barker, Ronnie Wood, Sammy Hagar, and many more. Artists appeared for free with the event offering travel reimbursements. I have no idea how many took advantage of that, but I hope a lot of the bigger acts flew on their own dime.
Because of the massive bill, set lists were kept pretty short. Most acts only had 15 minutes and change-overs were done quickly via a revolving stage. While one act performed, the crew could set up for the next one out of sight. In between acts, video messages were played alongside public service announcements for the charities the show was benefitting including Acorns Children’s Hospice, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Cure Parkinson’s. Despite the sadness of seeing Ozzy and the boys one final time, the mood was definitely celebratory. Other musicians could often be seen offstage watching and enjoying seeing their peers perform. The crowd certainly had favorites, but was responsive for pretty much all of the acts and especially so when they went into covers of classic Sabbath and Ozzy material.
Maynard James Keenan performing with Tool.
Being a dweller of the United States, attending this show was out of my budget, but I was able to watch the livestream. The show was almost always electric and Mastodon kicked things off in strong fashion. The format for most of the acts was to play about 3 songs (Slayer, who specializes in short, fast, songs managed to squeeze in 6 into 26 minutes) which took the form of two originals and one cover. Some of the choices for covers were great fits and some surprising too. Anthrax unleashed an excellent version of “Into the Void” during their set while Slayer kind of surprised with “Wicked World” which they wove their own song “South of Heaven” into. Alice in Chains did an excellent version of “Fairies Wear Boots” while my favorite on the day belonged to Tool and their cover of “Hand of Doom.” It just worked so well as a marriage of Tool and Sabbath and really drove home where the influence originated.
The super group performances also proved to be a ton of fun. The first such set included a really kick ass performance of Osbourne’s “The Ultimate Sin” with Lizzy Hale on vocals. That first super group performance concluded with perhaps the biggest surprise of the night with Yungblood on vocals for “Changes” proving that the Sabbath influence can run deeper than most would expect. The second super group performance included some of the biggest fireworks on the day. Just check out the lineup for the first song, the Judas Priest classic “Breaking the Law”: Billy Corgan, K.K. Downing, Tom Morello, Adam Jones, Danny Carey, Rudy Sarzo. Corgan is not exactly anyone’s idea of a Rob Halford stand-in (Priest couldn’t appear due to a prior commitment opening for The Scorpions that same day, but sent a pre-recorded message), but he did quite well. And that was just the start. Sammy Hagar took over for a couple of songs and his voice still sounded strong before giving way to Papa V Perpetua for a performance of “Bark at the Moon.” That’s not the song I would have chosen for Papa, but he brought fantastic energy and delivered a great performance that had the crowd popping. The biggest surprise appearance of the show followed when Steven Tyler took the stage for “Train Kept A-Rollin,” “Walk this Way,” and “Whole Lotta Love.” It was nice to see Led Zeppelin get featured as they’re certainly up there as influential acts in the world of rock and metal. Tyler, at 77 years young, sounded fantastic and moved well on stage. I was left thinking if any other band is going to attempt their own version of Back to the Beginning in the near future it’s Aerosmith who had to call off their own farewell tour due to a vocal injury to Tyler.
Papa V Perpetua performing “Bark at the Moon” in front of 45,000 screaming metal heads.
Following the second of two super group performances it was time for the more noteworthy acts to take the stage. Among them were Guns N’ Roses and Metallica. It’s hard to overstate the influence both acts have had on the world of heavy metal, but their performances left me more in awe of the elder statesmen performing on the day by comparison. It surprised me that Hagar and Tyler both sound better today than Axl Rose and James Hetfield, but I guess that’s just life and in fairness to Hetfield I don’t know if anyone has toured as much as Metallica has.
Parkinson’s disease may have forced Ozzy into a chair, but it’s a throne befitting The Prince of Darkness.
Perhaps it’s a good thing I found those two acts a bit underwhelming because it helped lower expectations for the Ozz-man himself. Ozzy, being left unable to walk thanks to Parkinson’s, was raised from below in the stage in a thrown befitting a heavy metal king. At age 76 and following a pretty hard life, I’m not going to lie to you and say Ozzy looked like a man younger than that, but he definitely sounded like something close to his old self. I think he sounded better than the last time I saw him back in 2005 and perhaps not running around like a mad man on stage contributed to that. Joining him on stage for a set of his solo material was Tommy Clufetos, Zakk Wylde, Mike Inez, and Adam Wakeman. They kicked things off with “I Don’t Know” and followed with “Mr. Crowley,” “Suicide Solution,” “Mama, I’m Coming Home,” and ending with “Crazy Train.” All through-out the performance Ozzy frequently thanked the crowd and extended blessings like a man truly grateful to be there. He would also drink water and hit his throat with a spray. There was also an old English tea cup beside his chair, though I never saw him drink from it.
After the set of Ozzy material came Black Sabbath. Perhaps knowing that Osbourne could only handle so much, their set was brief consisting of “War Pigs,” N.I.B,” “Iron Man,” and concluding with “Paranoid.” Before going into “Paranoid,” Ozzy noted it would be their last song ever and took time once again to thank the crowd. It was hard not to get choked up by that admission and perhaps the emotion of the moment also affected Ozzy’s vocals as it was the only time he faltered. Or maybe he was just at the end of what he could handle at his age. When the song was over there was a long, loud, ovation followed by fireworks. The broadcast focused on the fireworks, but onstage the band presented Ozzy with a cake and amateur footage captured this. It did appear more celebratory than mournful and everyone just looks really happy and content.
Black Sabbath performing for what is likely the final time.
And that was really the whole vibe of the show. This was a bunch of artists putting on a big show over their shared love and appreciation of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath. The only similar thing I can recall seeing was the concert for Freddie Mercury. That one occurred after the singer’s death and while it wanted to celebrate the life of Mercury, it did wind up feeling a bit sad in the end. It was nice that this show didn’t wait until then. The guys are still around and even able to perform. Ozzy can’t run around on stage like he used to, but who cares? He was there, he sounded great, and most of all he got to feel the love and appreciation from the crowd and his peers. Before his performance, a video was shared of all of the artists showing up earlier in the day many of whom were eager to see Ozzy and tell him what he meant to them. There were a lot of shots of Ozzy and others posing for a big group photo and I bet a lot of the people in that photo will display it prominently in their own home. They’ll probably hunt down autographs for years of everyone in the picture whenever their paths cross. It was a great show, and while it wasn’t without the occasional hiccup (Tyler kind of blew the surprise thinking his mic wasn’t on before taking the stage) there wasn’t any moment where a performance felt ruined or anything. If you’re a metal head and didn’t see this one then I urge you to check out the rebroadcast. At over 8 hours, it’s definitely worth the money and I think you’ll have a good time.
Recently I took a look at the NECA Gargoyles release “Vows” which featured Goliath and Demona repackaged with a small upgrade for Goliath and some new accessories. It was a purchase brought on by news that NECA had cancelled the Gargoyles line of action figures which motivated me to reconsider some releases I had passed on. Today is another such release and quite possibly the last Gargoyles release from NECA that I’ll ever buy. The only figures I did not purchase are the Steel Clan robot gargoyle and the video game Goliath variant. There’s also a toon variant of Goliath that was sold with a copy of the Sega Genesis Gargoyles rerelease on modern consoles from Limited Run Games and I have no idea if that was ever fulfilled or not (looks like it was as it’s available to order right now from their website). It’s also likely to be the most expensive missing figure so there’s little or no chance I’ll ever go for that one.
“I’ll trade you these snacks for those wings.”“Done!”
This release, titled NECA Presents The Silver Falcon starring Broadway, is just the previous Broadway figure in a trench coat. The selling point is a new portrait and some new accessories as well as the much coveted caped wings. All of the other gargoyles to receive the caped wings accessory had them bundled with a new figure making Broadway the one and only gargoyle collectors were expected to re-buy in order to get this accessory. It basically went against how NECA had previously indicated these wings would be distributed when they said the wings would be packed with human characters and smaller ones like Bronx and Lexington. Lexington would eventually come out without any such wings. Perhaps he ended up costing more than originally thought? We were also supposed to get MacBeth who I am guessing would have come with Hudson’s wings. Instead, Hudson has to go without and so does Angela and Thailog while Broadway only gets them if you really want to see him in a coat.
If you want to use the old wings with this guy you certainly can.
Because of that, I initially passed on this one. I was hoping it would eventually wind up on sale somewhere, but NECA doesn’t clearance their items at Target and I couldn’t find this one on sale anywhere. It’s possible there are a lot of folks like me looking to buy now that the line is done. I also grew sick of the amount of opened wings on my shelf and felt like I just needed to tidy things up and getting these wings for Broadway would definitely help there as it leaves just Hudson and Angela (who I hope to actually outfit with Demona’s caped wings now that I have two sets) as the lone gargoyles with their wings extended on my “good guys” shelf. I also don’t hate the idea of Broadway sporting a trench coat on my shelf, but will he actually keep it? Let’s find out.
Those wings! Those are the style everyone wanted, but NECA never delivered.
This version of Broadway comes in an attractive box with a black and white interpretation of the figure on the cover. It is by Djordje Djokovic with paint by Emiliano Santalucia and features some nice, silver, embossed lettering. The profile shot of Broadway is the most toon-like illustration associated with this line and if I cared about packaging I’d probably hang onto this one, but I don’t. Broadway the figure is exactly the same figure as previously released a couple of years ago. The only difference is the default portrait is a new one where he has a closed, but full, mouth and looks pretty happy. It’s a good, light-hearted, take on a pretty light-hearted character and is meant to pair with the numerous food accessories included here and with the original release.
This new portrait is for stuffing his face.The stitching on the coat is pretty sloppy all over.
The look here is inspired by the episode of the same name, “The Silver Falcon,” featured early in the show’s second season. In that episode, we see Broadway’s love for old detective, noir, type films manifest in this look. Elisa’s partner, Matt, has gone missing and Broadway has volunteered his services in finding the missing detective. The trench coat starts off looking rather sharp, but gradually deteriorates throughout the course of the episode until it’s nothing but rags in the end. He also loses the hat. For this release, NECA is using a plastic hat and a soft goods coat. The hat is shaped to fit in between Broadway’s ears and it has indents inside it that fit over the spikes on his head making it useable with all three portraits. The coat itself is pretty basic. There’s a wire in the collar which allows for some posing as well as a wire running through the sash. The wire protrudes from one end on my release which is annoying and something to watch out for. The coat is not very accurate to the show as it’s missing buttons on the back and a belt buckle on the front. It’s also poor quality as it contains numerous loose strings along the seems. I have soft goods trench coats from multiple NECA releases and this is by far the worst of them all. I’ve left them in place for this review, but I’ll probably try to clean this thing up with some scissors when I’m done.
“Did I ever tell you I love a gargoyle in uniform?”
The big inclusion is obviously the caped wings. They’re styled like Goliath’s where they’re molded together in both the front and the back so the only way to put it on is by removing Broadway’s head first. In the episode, the trench coat hides his wings until he needs them at which point they rip out the back of the coat. He never drapes them over his coat, but should you wish to NECA did cut out two holes in the back of the jacket to allow the pegs to slot into the wing holes. It’s more trouble than it’s worth as trying to find the holes in the coat followed by the ones in the figure is more than a little frustrating. You can just get away with dropping them over his neck if you want, but it’s probably just best to use them without the coat. And they’ll work fine in that fashion. The wings are painted to match Broadway’s other wings, though there’s some sloppy linework right on the front of mine which bugs me. It involves the teal bleeding over the black outer wing membrane and I can’t tell if that black is the base color of the plastic or not so I’m hesitant to try and remove it. I think it’s safe, but I’d need to test it.
You can count on Broadway to bring the snacks.“Why are these jars impossible to open?!”
The other accessories included are the two original Broadway portraits we’ve seen already as well as some hands: open, fists, and a gripping left hand. The gripping hand is quite wide and seems to be intended to hold the sandwich he comes with. It looks to be a ham and cheese with some lettuce and tomato on wheat bread. There’s a bite missing and, as far as little plastic sandwiches go, this looks pretty damn good. Broadway also has a pot of chili, a takeout container with what appears to be lo mein, and a jar of jalapeno peppers. Everything looks pretty good. The pot has some nice dry brushing on it to make it resemble cast iron and there’s a ladle sticking out of the top. The contents are also molded like it’s boiling which makes me think it’s based on a specific shot from the show. The lo mein is convincing as well and the pepper jar is probably as good as it can be. There’s some paint spray inside of it that creates a cloudy appearance. I don’t know if it’s intentional or just a result of how the peppers were painted. He does not come with a lone pepper, but if you have Goliath then you’ll have one. My only disappointment here is I wish he had a biting portrait. NECA may have been able to get away with just doing eyeballs on the roaring portrait. Yeah, he still would have looked angry, but he could really use a head where he’s taking a bite and not just a mouthful.
“Hey Demona!” “Ugh, you repugnant ape!”
And that’s kind of it. The figure itself is exactly the same so it articulates the same only now he doesn’t have any open wings to get in the way. That makes him a little easier to pose, but he’s still pretty limited. I do think, out of all of the Gargoyles, this figure is the most toon-like as his face retains that look. As a result, it is one of the better looking figures in the line perhaps second to Hudson. From that perspective, I suppose if fans were expected to buy multiples of a figure then Broadway isn’t the worst one to have to rebuy, though it’s still unnecessary. I’ll probably just toss this in a drawer and leave my original Broadway on display with the updated wings. The trench coat looks like crap so I have little incentive to keep it on my shelf. The extra food accessories are fine, but hardly worth the asking price. As a result, it’s hard not to look at a release like this one and conclude that it was part of the problem with the line as opposed to a benefit. It’s a shame NECA never found a good solution for the wing issue and instead turned to low effort variants like this one. They set a bad precedent and discourage the fanbase. I doubt this specific release killed the line, but it certainly didn’t save it.
“Don’t worry partner, I’ve got your back!”
Does this conclude my journey with NECA and Gargoyles? Perhaps. As I mentioned earlier, the only figure I didn’t buy that wasn’t a variant is the Steel Clan robot and the only reason why I didn’t is because it’s more like an army builder. I have the armored Xanatos which is basically the same figure with only minor changes and a different deco. Perhaps I’ll go back and review figures like that as well as the others that I didn’t bother to post a review of. We’ll see. It’s a shame the line had to end though. I was looking forward to MacBeth and Coldstone, though I honestly didn’t need anything beyond them. It’s a solid assortment that we have right now, it just stinks knowing it would have felt that much more complete with those two (well, mostly MacBeth, but Coldstone is a kick ass design and the prototype looked awesome so it would have made for an interesting release). As for the future of Gargoyles – who knows? The comics from Dynamite are still going with the Demona mini series launching in July (after several delays thanks to the fiasco with Diamond Comics going bankrupt) and Mondo is working on their own figures, but in sixth scale. These figures are a chore to cram onto a shelf in 1:10 scale, imagine sixth scale? I’d love to see a company try Gargoyles again with a more toon aesthetic, but NECA giving up on the line probably isn’t tempting other companies to want to try their hand. As long as the franchise is still around and producing new content though, there’s always chance.
It’s been awhile since I last took a look at a Gargoyles release from NECA and there’s a good reason for that. While I was super pumped when NECA announced it had acquired the license for Gargoyles back in 2021, I found the figures to be a case of diminishing returns. Goliath, the first figure…
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a review on an action figure from NECA’s line of figures based on the Disney Afternoon animated series Gargoyles. That’s not due to me not getting any figures, it’s more just me not having a ton to say. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that I…
We are getting oh so very close to assembling the original Manhattan Clan in action figure form! Disney’s take on gothic beasts originally included the following gargoyles: Goliath, Hudson, Bronx, Brooklyn, Broadway, and Lexington. The clan would grow from there, but those six are still the first that come to mind for me when I…
It’s been awhile since I last took a look at a Gargoyles release from NECA and there’s a good reason for that. While I was super pumped when NECA announced it had acquired the license for Gargoyles back in 2021, I found the figures to be a case of diminishing returns. Goliath, the first figure released, was promising, but had some notable flaws. The flaws would then be shared by just about every figure to follow and while fans practically begged NECA to address the main issue, the company failed to do so. Instead, it quietly cancelled the line after releasing over a dozen characters and a few variants. What was that issue? Wings. Big, honkin’, wings. These things came packaged with their wings spread wide open sucking up tremendous shelf space. The only solution NECA came up with was to include the caped or folded wings with other releases. To get Goliath’s, you had to get Bronx. Brooklyn’s came with Elisa while Demona’s were packaged with Xanatos. If you wanted Broadway’s you had to re-buy Broadway in his detective guise and if you wanted the same for Angela, Hudson, or Thailog, well – you were just plain out of luck as none of them received the wings they were looking for.
Is that why the line came to a premature end? I don’t know. Sales initially were said to be hot. NECA boasted that its Goliath was one of the fastest selling figures they ever had for a new product line. Things must have cooled following that. Perhaps momentum was stunted a bit when the second figure was Thailog, essentially a Goliath repaint. Demona and Bronx followed roughly six months later as part of the inaugrual Target Haulathon which made the pair perhaps harder to acquire than it should have been. They eventually made it to other retailers and by the end of the year we had Hudson. There was a pretty wide gap in releases between Hudson and Brooklyn/Broadway who arrived basically at the same time. Did that slow sales down? Maybe, only NECA knows. The property was untested in this collector space and it’s possible a lot of folks were just happy to get Goliath and didn’t necessarily need anymore. Maybe they didn’t like Goliath after they got him and dropped the line? There weren’t any drastic quality control changes and most of the figures turned out roughly the same. Deciding which figure was best ended up being a fairly subjective exercise. There were a lot of unique sculpts so it wasn’t a low cost line. The boxes were fairly large as well and swallowed up almost as much retail shelf space as they did collector shelf space. Allegedly, Walmart was the first to sour on the brand and stopped ordering it and I guess other retailers must have followed suit. This means the other figures shown off – Coldstone, MacBeth, and Gabriel, are likely to never see the light of day which is a shame.
If you were curious what a Best Buy Open Box item might refer to, this seems to be the extent of it.
For me, my number one issue definitely were those wings. The wide open wings were the most dramatic, but not practical. The caped wings solved the space issue, but their design really hinders articulation and posing too. What I really wanted were just some relaxed wings. Collectors started referring to them as the A wings since they kind of make an A shape when at rest. They didn’t have to be articulated, just more manageable. In addition to that though was the articulation in general. NECA rarely prioritizes articulation with its figures. They tend to have an acceptable amount of articulation points and styles, but NECA is very much an aesthetics forward company. And the gargoyles are basically big, naked, monsters so they don’t present too much options for hiding articulation as well. Even so, almost all of them have their necks at a forward angle that really limits how their heads can be positioned. The torso joints offer little and these guys can’t hit most of their signature poses. Plus you add in their anatomy which makes them hard to stand to begin with and you can see how we might have some issues. My collection is largely a bunch of characters in vanilla poses as a result. They’re not very fun to handle and as a result I kind of stopped wanting to talk about them. I didn’t even review every figure I have for that reason.
Goliath gets 3 new expressions with the neutral one being a holdover. The hair is also new.
With the line’s cancellation, it has me rethinking where I left off. When I found myself losing interest in the line it made it easier to pass on some releases, especially variants. I passed on the Steel Clan and instead just got the armored Xanatos. I passed on the video game variant of Goliath as well as the Detective Broadway. I also passed on the subject of today’s post (I swear I’m getting to it), the Goliath and Demona two-pack, but when a Best Buy open box option popped up I decided to grab it since it was nearly 50% off.
Demona also gets 3 new expressions, but sadly no new hair.
This set, dubbed Vows, contains the same figures we’ve already looked at before of Goliath and Demona, but with one change. That change rests solely with Goliath who has had his head replaced with two new hairsculpts that function like Demona’s. The original release of Goliath just had two portraits with the same hairsculpt: neutral and angry. This one makes use of swap-able face plates so you end up with four expressions and two stylized pieces of hair giving you eight total display options. It’s the approach I thought NECA would have taken from the start and I’m surprised they didn’t, but at least it’s been remedied here. And the expressions packaged in this set for Goliath feel a little more alive to me and more evocative of what we saw out of the character in the show. There’s a stern expression that’s pretty much the same as the one that came in the first release, a smile, a teeth baring expression, and an angry yell. The yell doesn’t feature the whited out eyes so he’s not on the attack rather he’s probably pleading with Demona to not do something evil. His default hair sculpt is the same as the original release and it’s basically his normal look. The second has the hair more spread out and over his shoulders. It’s not exactly wind blown, but it’s a little messy. I call it his sexy hair.
The Phoenix Gate is sort of the main attraction as far as the accessories go.
As for Demona, she is also the same figure as before. And since she already had the face plate technology, there’s basically no change to her. We don’t even get another hair piece. What we do get are more expressions. Her default one is the same as the default one from before, but she adds to it a surprised look, a smile where her teeth are visible, and an angry look that also has a hint of surprise to it. It sort of looks like she smelled a fart. I like them, though the surprised face features a right eye that’s not in alignment with the left. It’s a little higher and tilted which is a bummer because I kind of like this expression the best. Since it’s an issue with the sculpt I’m assuming they’re all like this too.
Demona! No!
The rest of the accessories contain the usual mix of hands and a couple of unique items. For both we get fists and open hands. Both also have a gripping right hand and a trigger right hand. Demona also has a clawing left hand. I think of it as a spell-casting hand or a gesture where she’s reaching for something. Goliath’s gripping hand seems to be intended to work with the mace he comes with. I’m assuming this is another throwback accessory to the original Kenner line since the first Goliath didn’t feature such an item (Broadway, Brooklyn, and Lexington all did), or it’s the mace used to smash the gargoyles in the first or second episode. That would truly be a morbid inclusion. Demona has a new laser rifle that’s mostly blue plastic with a little black paint. It’s probably a direct pull from the show, but I don’t recognize it immediately. I was hoping the effect part that came with Xanatos would work with it, but the opening is too small. They also come with two versions of the Phoenix Gate item from the show: one fully formed and one broken in half. That’s where the whole vows theme comes into play as they each took half of the magical artifact for safekeeping when the two trusted each other. My how times have changed.
Goliath gets a mace, even though he has no real need for one.
What I have not yet mentioned are wings and with this set each figure comes with the caped wings and that’s all. It’s an odd choice because this set came out so long after the single releases of each character. Why wouldn’t NECA include both wing options? It seemed like this was a way to get newcomers to the line to jump on with two of the most popular characters in the franchise, but to not include the other wings is an odd choice. I do realize I spent quite a bit of time complaining about those wings, but my issue isn’t with the wings themself, just that they’re the only default option for every character. At the time this set came out, both Demona and Goliath were still fairly easy to come by. It wasn’t like they had sold out and become sought after by newcomers to the line. NECA gave the fanbase that had been collecting this whole time little incentive to double dip here. The accessories are fine, I like the new portraits, but enough to rebuy the pair? Goliath’s caped wings also came with Bronx, a character I doubt many would pass on. Demona’s previously came with Xanators and I guess some collectors may have passed on him if they were only interested in the gargoyles. I didn’t review that figure, but I did buy it, so I had no need for either wings in this set.
Demona has some new firepower which is always appreciated.
Is all of that enough? Bare in mind that I didn’t even mention the MSRP on this set yet. This thing was $70. Gargoyles fans were expected to drop seventy bucks for a few new portraits and the Phoenix Gate. That’s nuts. I don’t know what NECA was thinking with this one. Yes, it’s reuse of existing molds so that naturally makes the cost lower, but who did they think would buy this? I got it for $40 and honestly that’s even too much considering I already owned both figures and the wing options within. I only was willing to do it for a few reasons. One, I did like the new expressions. I’ve never been satisfied with Goliath’s default expressions and these seemed much better. Two, my original Demona wasn’t great. Her wings were floppy and the factory didn’t paint the claws on her right foot. And, after a few years standing on my shelf, her shin has become warped and I was hoping this one would be less gummy. And three, we never got caped wings for Angela. She and Demona share the same body and can share the same wings. Of course, Angela is shaped like Demona, but colored like Goliath, so I’m going to have to try to paint a set of wings to match. I honestly don’t know if I’m up to the task, but I have two sets of caped Demona wings so I might as well try.
These wings should work fine with the Angela figure, provided they’re re-painted.
As for the figures themself, they’re exactly the same as before. Same pros, same cons. Goliath is hard to pose, but with his tail he’s not that hard to stand at least. The caped wings mean his arms can’t do much though so he’s just going to stand there. The open wings work fine as well, provided you have them. Demona is also the same. Her caped wings really don’t want to plug into her back, or rather, the right peg doesn’t want to. I can probably get it in if I heat it up, but I have yet to try. I didn’t have any issues with the other caped wings and my first release. Demona is still really frustrating though because she’s basically always looking down slightly. I wish NECA had given her a second hair sculpt with her ponytail up or articulated or something. The angle of her face just drives me crazy. She’s also hard to stand because female gargoyles in the show keep their knees straight and stand on their toes while the males bend at the knees, making weight distribution simpler. A stand for the women would have been nice. These figures also really needed a neck joint or alternate portraits that allowed them to look forward while flying gliding parallel with the ground. NECA got some great sculpts out of Djordje Djokovic, but they really needed their engineers to do something more with them. They probably thought they were doing him a favor by not cutting them up more, but really they did him a disservice since these things just don’t pose well.
And the old wings will work just fine as well.
Should you buy this set? No, probably not. If you have been admiring the line from afar and want to try and get into it before it disappears forever, then I guess, yeah, this is probably preferable to buying the figures individually. It’s $70 and Demona alone costs $36 while Goliath was $32, I want to say. I think NECA charged a little less with him on purpose to lure fans in. Right now on Big Bad Toy Store, you can get Goliath for $26 and Demona for $42. They also have the Vows set, but priced at $80 which is crazy. If that set came with both sets of wings then I could see going for that, but you can also find it cheaper. It mostly comes down to preference. If you prefer these caped wings then definitely go Vows. If you like the big, open, dramatic wings then get the individual releases. You’ll get more expressions with this set though. For Goliath, I don’t think anyone is really missing the book and jalapeno pepper, though the first Demona had two guns that turned out pretty nice plus her grimoire. She’s a bit more of a toss-up. Wouldn’t it have been nice if NECA just made this two-pack the ultimate release of both characters like the box suggests? There’s a balancing act to doing reissues like this where you want to put enough new in the box to entice existing customers, but also make it a good jumping on point for newcomers. I don’t think NECA satisfied either group here which seems like a shorthand way to describe the Gargoyles line in general – so close to being great, but oh so painfully short.
“How dare you turn our daughter against me, Goliath!”
If you’re curious what I thought of these figures the first time around see below:
It was nearly 6 months ago that NECA unveiled one of its newest licenses for 2021: Gargoyles! I was incredibly pumped at the time to see that NECA had acquired Gargoyles because the license had so much potential. The show was basically a cult hit in the 90s often characterized as Disney’s answer to Batman:…
When NECA launched it’s line of action figures based on Disney’s Gargoyles, it seemed to imply that Demona would be figure number 2. She was not. That honor went to Thailog, the Goliath clone, and that might have had something to do with the many factory delays and shipping woes that were impacting the entire…
Well, here’s something different. Bronx, the good gargoyle dog, is NECA’s fourth entry in its relatively young line of action figures based on the beloved Disney Afternoon series Gargoyles. And not only is Bronx here all on his own, he’s also got something for his buddy Goliath that collectors of this line have been begging…
The last Super7 review I did was for the wave of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles based on the 2003 cartoon and I concluded it by speculating it would be awhile before I found a reason to review another figure from Super7. That turned out to be a lie. With it being revealed that Super7 has put its TMNT action figure line “on pause” that references the vintage, Playmates, toy line it left me in a reflective mood. I have not been a completist with this line and I’d say I average about two figures per wave that comes out. Most of the figures I have I paid full price for, but I have a growing collection of those that I did not. I looked over my collection and the stuff I didn’t have and considered if there were any holes I wanted to fill, and there’s a couple of characters I had some interest in. One of them was the more recently released battle damaged Foot Soldier variant. It came as part of wave 11 with Rat King, Rapper Mike, and Ninja Nomad Leonardo. The figure looked good, but it wasn’t something I needed. Now that the line may be dead, it had me looking at current prices online. I found one for $40, and figured “Why not?”
He’s got some size to him.
The Foot Soldier figure from Super7 originally arrived as part of the very first wave back in 2020 alongside Raphael, Baxter Stockman, and Splinter. It was a very faithful recreation of the Playmates figure and its accessories with the much welcomed addition of modern articulation so the character wasn’t always in its weird gorilla pose. Working against it at the time was the asking price and the fact that most collectors will want more than one. I wasn’t interested in army-building $45 figures. Plus, I saw numerous accounts of quality control issues with this one where the elbow joints were snapping and I just didn’t want to bother. The figure was re-released along with the rest of wave 1 within a year and I don’t know if the quality control was improved or not. The memory of that issue was part of the reason why I was able to pass on this battle damaged variant (there has also been a glow-in-the-dark variant of the original figure) and did I really need a $55 Foot Soldier? I guess at $40 the answer is, “Yes.”
He’s pretty similar to the wave one figure (that I don’t own), just now charred and slashed.
The battle damaged Foot Soldier sources a lot of parts from the wave one figure as well as introduces a smattering of new ones. Some of this figure’s design can be credited to Super7, while a lot of it rests with the cartoon and Playmates. The figure stands right around that 7″ mark giving it some pretty decent size compared with the turtles. The figure is taller, but slighter, and the colors and designs are pulled right from that Playmates original. That means this is a Foot Soldier with a purple mask, gray tunic, and blue pants. It was a design the animated series carried over almost exactly except switching the colors to black and purple. The sculpt, which the original figure was handled by Four Horsemen, features some nice details with lots of creasing and folds in the material and texturing to the wraps on the shins and forearm straps.
Now your turtles have some Feet to trash.And trash them they shall.
When it comes to differences with the original release, Super7 sculpted some new parts here and there. The bottom of the cowl is now tattered at the edges while the right shoulder, torso, and left shin are new. For those, Super7 sculpted in the battle damage which consists of the material being torn and the bionic insides exposed. The metal innards are painted a nice, lustrous, silver with black detail work. The torso is really well-defined and I like the little screws present on the shin. The forearm piece for the left arm is also sculpted to be broken. The rest of the battle damage is done with paint with most of it reduced to a black overspray indicating this guy was in a firefight. I suppose it’s unusual considering the turtles fight with martial weapons, but maybe other Foot Soldiers were exploding around this one. There’s also some silver slashes painted on which look okay. From a shelf, this will get the job done, but in-hand it looks a little silly to not have these slashes sculpted in.
A sai is meant for this.Inferior Foot craftsmanship.
I maintain that army builder types should have alternate looks packaged into the box to encourage multiple purchases and here Super7 satisfies that request. The first Foot Soldier had just the one head while this one has three. It has a new neck joint, from what I understand, so I’m not sure if these new ones would work on the old release since I don’t have that one. The default head is the same portrait as the old one with just new paint effects to imply battle damage. The second one has been freed from the bonds of its hood. This sculpt is pulled from the Playmates mutating Foot Soldier action figure only now it’s presented in silver instead of gold. He has these evil looking eyes that are all red with yellow dots in the middle and the foot logo is raised on its forehead behind where it would appear on the hood. I like the look of this one which is decidedly far more frightening than the normal look. The wires sculpted in are all painted red and if I have one criticism it’s that the sculpt work on the neck is a bit soft. And if you want to nitpick this head it’s also a little bigger than the default one so it would never fit under that hood.
“Rise up, my brothers, and fight back against our oppressors!”These two are a lot closer in height than I would have guessed.
The third head is inspired by the cartoon series and the Alpha-1 character. That was a foot soldier that was damaged causing the face underneath the hood to be exposed. It gained sentience in the repair process and rose up to challenge Shredder’s authority over the Foot. Super7 also utilized this look for the ReAction version of this character. It looks fine and features some more silver paint which adds some color. If you have a bunch of Foot Soldiers already and want them to have a leader then this head will definitely have some appeal. I much prefer the other battle damaged head to this one so I can’t see myself using it, but as an alternate head it makes sense to include.
This portrait is by far the most menacing.“Whoa dude, I’m not Sara Connor!”
The other accessories include the usual alternate hands and weapons. Returning from the original release are gripping hands, fists, chop hands, and a two-finger point gesture. Other releases had some wide gripping hands which have been dropped in favor of two new ones: a right, gloveless hand and a left stump. The stump could actually be used on either side and it looks like a collection of wires and metal with some silver, red, and gold paint. It looks like his hand was bashed more than slashed, but it gets the job done and adds to the battle damaged theme. The right, gloveless hand is basically your typical Terminator style sculpt. It’s painted silver and looks okay, but the sculpt is a little soft. There should be spaces between the fingers, but they’re just filled with silver. I wish they had picked a different gesture if they didn’t want to carve out those gaps. It’s in a relaxed position with some of the fingers curled so it’s purely a style posed hand as it can’t handle anything.
This rifle is in need of more paint.
For weapons, the Foot has some reused ones and one that’s sort-of new. Returning from the first release are the rifle, pistol, and twin shurikens. The shurikens are painted silver while the pistol is just all black now (the old one is gray). It looks a lot like the pistol Shredder and his goons would wield in the show which was often white with black or gray detailing. I think this one is supposed to have been charred, though it’s just bare plastic. The rifle is gray, but the end of the barrel has been hit with a black spray like it was caught in a blast. It’s an okay effect, but the rest of the gun looks cheap since it’s unpainted. It’s basically not an improvement over what Playmates did over 30 years ago. The knife returns and that at least has some silver painted onto the blade while the end of the knife has also been charred. And borrowed from Leonardo (and I think Shredder) are two katana. For the Foot, the hilt is purple and black and the blade matches the knife in terms of paint job. The second katana is broken about halfway along the blade which is an economical way to incorporate more battle damage. Unfortunately, the figure only has gripping hands so no trigger hands and they’re very stiff so you may need to heat them up to get a good grip on anything.
“All right, robot, hit them toitles with that grenade!”
If you’ve handled a Super7 Ultimates! figure before, then you probably know the articulation is fairly basic for a modern toy line. Comparing it with Playmates, it’s a noticeable improvement and I think that’s what Super7 has always counted on. The head articulates above and below the neck, but the lower joint does the heavy lifting. Despite the hunched posture, the Foot Soldier can look up and down just fine and gets good range all around. Shoulders are ball-hinged and can raise out to a horizontal position and rotate just fine. There is a bicep swivel, hinged elbow, swivel at the elbow, and wrist swivel and hinge. All of the hands feature a horizontal hinge so no vertical hinges for the sword wielding Foot. Elbows seem fine this time around. In the torso is just a waist twist while the ball-hinged hips provide for full splits and a leg that can kick forward better than 90 degrees, but little back. There is a thigh twist, but it’s pretty limited. The knees are single-hinged and bend just shy of 90 degrees. There’s also a swivel at the knee and the ankles hinge forward and back and also rock side-to-side.
“You piece of junk! You’re supposed to throw it!”
It’s a satisfactory spread of articulation and by the standards of the line this is probably one of the better figures in that regard. I’m also happy to report that nothing is loose and floppy nor is anything overly tight. Whatever issues the original release may have had the factory ironed out. My only gripe is the lack of a forearm swivel. This design has exaggerated forearms that are really long and I’d like to be able to better position the armor present there. The straps on the forearms mean there was an easy place to sneak it in. The elbow swivel doesn’t function as a substitute, in this case. And, of course, the lack of the proper wrist hinge is annoying. It’s also surprising since they made sure to include such with the turtles so I don’t know why that didn’t extend that to the Foot. They also overlooked the same with Baxter back in the first wave. It’s just a shame they didn’t fix it with one of the re-releases or introduce proper trigger hands.
“Hmm…fascinating design, despite its ineffectiveness.”
This isn’t a perfect release, but the battle damaged Foot Soldier from Super7 is a pretty good one. I don’t know if it’s $55 good, but it is $40 good so if you can find a similar discount then I suggest grabbing it. And if price isn’t an issue and you were just concerned with the quality of the figure then I can safely recommend this one. Adding this figure to a collection of other Foot (Feet?) will help introduce some variety into your display and the different heads and hands will help set it apart. I’m glad I went back and picked this one up. I don’t know if I’ll get any other ones as nothing really stands out for me as a necessity. Or, in the case of a figure like Slam-Dunkin’ Don, I doubt the companion figures will ever happen and I don’t want an incomplete set. For now, I guess my Super7 TMNT collection is basically complete. Until I change my mind again.
If you’re interested in more Super7 or Foot Soldier action figures then check these out:
Who isn’t making Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures these days? It’s becoming a far easier thing to keep track of than just who is making them. For years, it was the domain of Playmates Toys and only Playmates Toys. NECA tried to get in on that TMNT action in 2008 and it ended prematurely…
When Super7 unveiled their tenth wave of Ultimates! action figures for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles they learned an important lesson: don’t mess with the classics. For years, Super7’s line of figures has essentially focused on remaking the vintage figures first released by Playmates Toys in a new scale with updated articulation, sculpting, and paint. Fans…
I’m back after a much needed break, and wouldn’t ya know, I’m back with another NECA toy review from its mega popular line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures! Today’s subject may not be the sexiest release from this line, but it’s one that is still worth talking about. The lowly Foot Soldier from…
The surprise line of the past year has unleashed perhaps its very best with Krang. Krang dates back to the 1987 cartoon series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Because that show became such a household name, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of just how insane a character design Krang is. Krang was created by David Wise who, by far, wrote the most episodes of that cartoon series. I’ve seen some people share online in the TMNT community that Wise claims to have come up with Krang all on his own. If so, I’m calling bullshit on that claim because TMNT co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird came up with the Utrom, a race of aliens that basically resemble brains with faces who ride around in the abdominal cavities of android bodies. Krang (who was brought to life by Pat Fraley, who is integral to the character’s longevity) is an alien that resembles a brain with a face who also rides around in the abdominal cavity of an android body.
And that is a crazy concept for a character. An alien brain with tentacles and teeth from another dimension who needs a robot body to get around. He could have resided in the head, or maybe even in the chest like a Gundam, but no, Krang sits right in the belly of his body. In the cartoon, Vernon calls attention to the absurdity when he first lays eyes on the gargantuan Krang and, honestly, without that I may have never given it much thought. I was a kid, a lot of cartoons had weird looking characters in them, so I thought nothing of it. Now, I appreciate the lunacy of the whole thing. And the fact that his body looks like a bald, potato-headed, pasty man in red underwear and suspenders just makes it even more funny. This thing is goofy, to put it mildly. I wonder if Playmates first saw this concept and thought no way would any kid want such a figure?
JoyToy’s take on Krang is pretty big by the line’s standards, but comes up short against the NECA beast.
We’re almost 40 years removed from that debut so the design of Krang has been immortalized and normalized. He’s essential to the TMNT story especially if you’re referencing that original show so I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see that JoyToy was adding him to their assortment of 1:18 turtle figures. And the second I saw him I wanted him. JoyToy’s line has been a real joy to collect so far. It’s a bit of a pain to get ahold of, and the tariff situation in this country hasn’t made it any easier, but it’s been well worth it. The aesthetics of the line have been this mix of the ’87 show, the 2003 show, and a dash of realism and reimagining. Krang follows that same path, and since he basically only exists in the 1987show, the figure draws from that design quite liberally while adding a few new flourishes to the mix.
I do wonder what that handle is for. And that port.
The JoyToy line may be the smallest of the modern TMNT action figure lines, but that doesn’t mean Krang is a little guy. Krang, in his body, stands at a height of about 6.5″ making him by far the tallest figure in the line so far. This is a 1:18 scale line so that makes the character 9.75′ tall which is pretty damn massive. He was pretty damn big in the show, but probably not quite that big. Shredder, at 4.5″, is nearly 7′ himself so it’s probably safe to say that JoyToy is fudging things a bit, but there’s no getting around that this is a big figure amongst the rest.
I’m not trying to get the other Krang out of the NECA body, so here’s Archie Krang.Krang’s less popular mode of conveyance.
Before we dive into it, we should probably talk about the actual character that is Krang. Krang is obviously a little guy since he fits in the stomach of the body, but he’s hardly tiny. He’s about the size of Shredder’s torso and he’s been given an appropriately grumpy face sculpt. He’s molded in pink with a liberal amount of dry brushing over him to take off some of that plastic sheen and help him blend stylistically with the rest of the line. I love his expression and his little teeth and eyes are painted very well. He has his two tentacles which are ball-jointed so there’s a little bit of posing there, but otherwise it’s a slug figure which is about all anyone expected out of Krang. He’s quite possibly the most on-model character from the show, aside from maybe the Mousers, and that makes sense since there’s not a whole lot JoyToy could do with this design. And there isn’t really anything I’d personally want them to do. They could have tried to make him look grosser with veins or even a sheen like he’s wet, but considering he’s going to spend most of his days inside another figure I think this is plenty good.
JoyToy didn’t have to include the walker, but it’s cool that they did.
Krang actually comes with two modes of transportation. The less interesting of the two is what most refer to as Krang’s bubble walker. I think part of the reason why it earned such a name is because other versions had a dome on it, but this one does not. It’s basically a small, bipedal, mode of transportation. It has a very utilitarian look to it as it’s a brushed steel color with exposed rivets. There’s some piping of gold around the compartment and hits of red where I assume lights would be as well as a metallic blue for I guess more lights on the back. The sculpt is a little soft in the legs, but still detailed. The legs contain hinge joints at the top, the knee, and the ankle, sort of like the Mousers. There’s also a twin turret below the bubble portion that swivels. Krang just sits in this thing, there’s no little trick to make his tentacles poke out of it or any flourishes like that. The dangly bits on his chin make it so he needs to sit pretty far forward in the walker if you want him flush with the seat. It’s fine, but I’m guessing most won’t display the character in this fashion.
The turtles will have their hands full with this guy.
And that’s because we have the big boy for Krang to ride around in. We already mentioned the size of this guy, but now we get to talk about the sculpt. If you have some reference art from the show, or maybe the NECA figure of the same, you’ll notice that a lot of the details made it into the JoyToy version. He has the big shoulder pads, the suspenders, the red undies, the vents on his chest, the handle on his lower back, that oddly placed port in the middle of his ass, and even that tuning fork on his head. The flesh tone is rather warm in appearance while the metallic parts have been given a metallic coat of paint. The character on the show had a lot of black linework which would outline certain areas, like the knees and these patches on his thighs. For those, JoyToy decided to fill them in with silver paint to give the character a slightly more mechanical look. There’s also some sculpt work over his spine that looks like an external skeleton and they also added a little gray to the edges of his trunks, which I think looks pretty sharp. The proportions are also less humorous compared with the show design. He has appropriately long legs and there’s even some muscle tone there and with his arms. He’s still a big, mostly naked, guy in suspenders and trunks, but he’s ever so less dorky than his ’87 counterpart.
The head is where I see the most change with this look. The cartoon featured a head that was barely human. This version maintains that same, basic, potato shape, but the facial details are far more realistic. He has a pronounced nose and his mouth is curled into a sour expression like he’s either mad about something or just smelled a particularly ripe fart. It’s not the vacant expression of the old body as, even though his eyes are covered by the glasses, this one almost looks like it would have its own personality. The antenna on his head also doesn’t move or come off, so don’t try anything with it or else it will end like many a Playmates Krang back in the day.
He even makes Bebop and Rocksteady look small.
There’s quite a bit of paint here and even some shading. There’s warm tones on the arms and legs which helped evoke that realistic feeling while there also appears to be some black wash added to grime him up a little. On the chest, it borders a little bit on sloppy as it got a little heavy around those vents. There’s even a black dot on mine right beside the left suspenders. The compartment that Krang sits in is painted a metallic gold with green and red lights and it looks pretty clean. Most of the detail work is very sharp as well. If you get in real close you find an edge here and there that’s not as crisp as it could be, but nothing stands out as sloppy in that regard. The only real criticism I have for the paint is it feels like the shoes need a little something. They’re just red plastic with some design work sculpted in. The hands feature silver knuckles and it just feels like the feet needed something similar. Some silver trim would have looked nice, but maybe they blew the budget on the rest of the figure.
He may be as tall or taller than some figures in larger scales, but playing Krang beside such highlights that there’s more to scale than just height.
I’m going to jump to the articulation now as it does impact the accessories we have to talk about. Krang isn’t usually a character known for having great articulation, but JoyToy is apparently trying to change that perception. The head is fairly basic. As a man with no neck, this guy can only really turn, look down, and can only look up if turned to the side first. The shoulders are typical hinged balls, but they go up beyond your conventional T pose. The elbows are single-hinged with a swivel in place of a true bicep swivel. They’ll bend about 90 degrees. Wrists are ball-hinged so they’ll go in whatever direction you want, but he does have these big cuffs on his wrists that do limit things. They are removable, but he looks kind of dumb without them.
It’s too bad there wasn’t more tension at the arm end for swinging poses.
In the torso, the plate on the front is removable which allows Krang to be slotted inside with ease, but there’s no articulation there. The only joint is a ball joint at the waist which mostly allows for rotation, but there’s a little tilt in all directions as well. The hips are where things get really interesting. Krang has a double-ball peg setup for his hips which I don’t know that I’ve ever seen that before. Plenty of figures connect the to the thigh with a ball socket, but few then connect to the pelvis with another ball socket. Also of note, the double ball (or dumbbell joint) is metal. I don’t know why JoyToy felt the need to use metal here, but it does make for a really smooth joint. And by putting a double-ball peg here, it’s basically like creating a drop-down hinge function. I’ve never really liked drop-down hips because they can be both finicky and feel fragile. If you’re going to do one though, this is definitely the optimal way. It’s easy to work with and the hips don’t look ridiculous in the down position. If you just want a teeny bit more height out of your Krang you can certainly do so with this joint. He doesn’t kick that far forward no matter what you do though, but he can almost hit splits out to the side. The leg will also move on that ball like a swivel and given that it’s metal you’re not likely to ever break it.
This gun attachment might be my favorite.
Beyond the hips, we have a pretty standard allotment. There is a thigh cut if you feel you can’t get enough swivel at the ball joint. The sculpt does feature some sculpted-in linework down the outside of the leg so using the swivel breaks that up, but it’s there if you want it. The knees are double-jointed and will bend past 90 degrees. They get a little gappy, especially below the kneecap if you do push it past 90, but that maybe that can be excused since he is a robot. The ankle features a hinge and ankle rocker. The hinge goes forward a little and back almost all the way. The ankle rocker is a bit steep, but functional. I haven’t had any issues getting him to stand and stay standing and I’m glad he doesn’t have little tiny feet like the NECA version.
He’s a robot TMNT villain: gotta have a drill and axe!
The articulation on Krang isn’t amazing, but it’s better than I anticipated. His accessories are also pretty damn generous. In some way, the figure itself is an accessory since Krang is just the little guy inside. We already mentioned the walker, while the body comes with a whole bunch of hand attachments. For actual hands, there’s a set of fists and a set of open hands. They connect to a hinged ball peg which is connected to the arm via another straight peg. Normally, one of these would have a mushroomed end to keep them in place, either in the hand or the forearm, but Krang features neither. That’s because you need to pull the whole joint out if you want to use one of the other weapon attachments. This is thankfully not as hard as it could have been and removing the cuff makes it a lot easier to grab the ball and pull.
Watch out for the saw blade, Raph!
The weapon attachments should seem pretty familiar if you have the NECA figure. First up is an axe head that is surprisingly ornate. This looks like a ceremonial axe from a D&D game or something. It’s painted a metallic silver and it snaps into place easily. He also has a drill bit attachment, because everyone does with TMNT for some reason, and that looks fine. For something a bit more violent, there’s the circular saw attachment with actual spinning blade. There’s not a battery or anything so you have to manually spin it, but it still looks pretty neat and it’s very similar to the circular saw attachment the NECA Krang came with. There’s also a hit of blue paint on it which breaks up the all silver and gray look. There’s a laser canon, or minigun, attachment. It doesn’t move or feature any blast effects, but it can separate in the middle if you want, though there’s no real reason to do so that I can see. Lastly, there’s the old spiked ball and chain. JoyToy went with a solid plastic chain and it almost works really well. The ball just hooks onto the end and it’s nice and snug so you can kind of pose it. Unfortunately, the other end that hooks onto the peg is very loose. If it was as snug as the ball end then you’d be able to position this for more dynamic poses. Instead, it hangs there limp like an actual chain would which is a bummer.
Oof! I guess it’s time for a new strategy.
The somewhat limited articulation combined with the unique proportions of the character does make posing the weapons a little difficult. If you want Krang to look like he’s really swinging that axe it’s going to be rather hard. His arms are short for his body and there’s not enough range in the torso for him to be almost striking the ground, for instance. He can certainly jab at turtles with the drill bit or just stand there looking menacing with the circular saw. The arm cannon is easy to pose as well while the ball and chain is about as useful as similar accessories with other Krang figures. That’s not the end of what’s in the box though. Krang also has his own circular Foot stand with the 2003 symbol on it. And since he’s such a big fella, he comes with all four pieces of the villains diorama stand. That’s the white brick version with a manhole cover in the middle. JoyToy didn’t need to do that, but it’s pretty cool.
The only thing left to say is that this Krang figure from JoyToy is awesome. He looks great, moves about as well as he could, and he comes loaded with extra goodies. The fact that we got the walker and body in the same package is pretty incredible. As far as I know, that’s never happened with a Krang before. And he doesn’t have all that much of a markup compared with the rest of the figures in the line. I got this figure for $45 while the other figures are often available for $40, give or take a buck or two. That’s an incredible value. There’s also quite a few places with this one in stock that do ship to the US. I am not affiliated with any of them, but I have purchased JoyToy from both LT Cave and Cool Toys Club and had great experiences with both. I wasn’t hit with a surprise tariff charge or anything so at least, for now, you should be able to buy with relative confidence. This has become one of my favorite lines to collect. I enjoyed this Krang so much that I went back and grabbed Slash and Tokka. I was originally planning to be done at Krang, but they pulled me back in. Look for reviews on those turtle boys in the coming weeks!
Two words that are much hated in the toy collecting community are “Store Exclusive.” Add a “Walmart” in front of that phrase and you get something akin to a worst nightmare. The world of “collectibles” has always relied on same degree of scarcity. The 90s saw a collector boom across various mediums which created a…
We’re back for 2021, and right now it looks like a lot like 2020 as we have a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure to talk about – Android Krang! Hopefully, this doesn’t mean 2021 is a lot like 2020 going forward, but if it’s going to copy anything from 2020 then let it…
Every hero needs a villain, and for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that number one villain is The Shredder. Setup as a foil in his original appearance, Shredder really became the main guy when the cartoon series was put into development. That show needed a villain who was always around and Shredder was the best…
Goku is back for a new adventure which includes a literal downgrade for him.
When Akira Toriyama sadly passed away in 2024 it shocked the world of manga and anime. While his passing was sudden to those confined to the fandom, he at least had one more adventure to deliver in the world of Dragon Ball that would be unveiled later in the year: Dragon Ball Daima. I’ll talk more about the series when I finally finish it (I had to wait for the English dub so I could enjoy it with my kids), but I definitely don’t need to see it all before I can talk about the toys. Daima figures were unveiled well before the series debuted and some of them have actually been out for a little while. I wasn’t sure how deep I wanted to go with the toy line, but when I saw the subject of today’s post on sale at a discount I figured “Why not?”
He’s a little fella.
The only thing you need to know about Dragon Ball Daima to enjoy this figure of a wee little Goku is that in the very first episode a wish is made that turns all of the main cast into children. If it sounds a little like the beginning of Dragon Ball GT then just you wait until you get deeper into the series. The inaugural wave of figures from the show in the Bandai/Tamashii Nations S.H.Figuarts line is three of the main characters in child form: Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo. The Saiyan boys were released at the wallet-friendly price of $35 while Piccolo was a much more expensive $60 (I guess that’s one expensive cape he’s wearing). I was pretty smitten with the Goku, but not entirely sure I needed it. I figured I’d hold out for Bandai to revisit Dragon Ball era Goku with a similar approach as this new figure is far more appropriate in size, but obviously things changed.
This just makes me really want a new Dragon Ball era Goku.His head gets smaller the taller he gets.
This version of Goku is titled Goku (Mini) and he sure lives up to it. He comes in a standard sized box and there’s a lot of blank space around him. Take him out and he stands at approximately 2.75″ to the top of where his head likely is and only stretches to about 3.325 at the highest point of his hair. This is a little guy, but make no mistake about it this is still an SHF release. The styling is very much evocative of Daima so if you did want this Goku for a Dragon Ball display it won’t exactly work unless you’re willing to overlook the differences. His gi is a pale orange and the top extends past the sash in the middle which is atypical for Goku (his end of Z attire is similar, but that’s in blue and gray). The boots are a bit simplified as well as they’re now all blue with rope around the lower part which is now white instead of red. The faces in the show are illustrated in a slightly different style. To me, it looks more like a conventional “toon” approach and the figure reflects that. All in all, it’s a fine looking figure it’s just very much pulled from Dragon Ball Daima so if you’re not into the look of that series then it might not do much for you.
I love this little scrunched up expression. He looks like a toddler who just had his juice supply cut-off.
In typical Bandai fashion, paint is kept to a minimum with Goku. It’s basically reserved for the details of the face, the blue undershirt, the blue wristbands, the white ropes on the boots, and the soles of the boots. The paint is cleanly applied and the blue painted parts match well with the blue plastic parts. There’s no shading on any of the orange parts of the figure. While that does mimic the show fairly well which is bright in its approach, it can’t hide the fact that the orange plastic has a cheap appearance to it. Now, maybe one might argue that it should since this is a relatively inexpensive action figure for the line, but a low price does not mean it need look like a cheap product. It would be nice if they just hit the figure with a matte coat to cut down on that plastic look. The boots have a nice, almost satin, finish and if the pants did too that might improve the look of the figure. Given that it’s so small, the cheap appearance isn’t as detrimental as it would be on a five or six inch figure, but it’s not something that’s completely unnoticeable.
The power pole is back!
The low price point does not equate to a low accessory count. And even though this Goku is quite tiny, he has some pretty familiar accessories when it comes to the hands. Goku has a set of fists, gripping, martial arts posed, and Kamehameha hands. They may be tiny, but they aren’t hard to swap, just don’t drop one on a carpeted floor or you may have a hard time finding it. Goku also has four different portraits to swap between: smile, yelling, side eyed teeth gritting, and a frowny face that is kind of adorable. In atypical fashion, this Goku also comes with a second hair piece. He has his default look and a wind swept look which is becoming a little more common. Super Saiyan Gohan came packed with the same, though he wasn’t $35, and the new Lowest Born Saiyan Goku also has a windswept option. Since Goku goes back to his roots, so to speak, with Daima he also decided he needs to arm himself with his trusty Power Pole once again. Similar to the Dragon Ball Goku figures, this one comes with a sling and holster for the Power Pole that can be easily equipped. He also has a little nub of the power pole to slot into the holster, or you can remove it and arm him with an extended version. It’s shorter than previous Power Pole accessories and is kind of cheap looking since it’s just a red cylinder of plastic, but it gets the job done. It’s about 3″ and I think it could stand to be a bit longer, but I guess he can always wield an older model if you have one. Lastly, there’s an optional lower shirt piece that’s more dynamic and should give the hips more range when it comes to articulation.
That’s a better charge pose than a lot of adult Gokus.He can get his arms extended pretty effortlessly too.
The accessories are plentiful and Tamashii Nations also tried to make sure the articulation was up to par as well. Mini Goku has the standard double-ball setup in the head that lets him look around in all directions except for up. This is a bit of an issue for a little guy and it’s one largely caused by his hair. The shoulders are done pretty well as they’re ball pegs inside the figure giving him a butterfly joint then the usual ball-hinge on the outside. The small torso means the butterfly works pretty well and it also looks good as it’s similar to how they did Krillin and Super Hero Gohan. There’s a bicep swivel at the end of the sleeve and then single-hinged elbows that bend a little past 90 degrees with typical SHF ball-hinge wrists.
Kicks are a bit of a challenge since we’re dealing with tiny parts here.
The torso is where the figure feels more limited. Goku has a ball peg at the waist that lets him rock back a little, but not much forward. You also won’t get much tilt, but it rotates freely. The hips are ball pegs and even with the more dynamic lower shirt piece the figure can’t go out to the side for full splits. He is largely unimpeded kicking forward and back while the single-hinged knees allow for a 90 degree bend. The ankles have the hinge and ankle rocker combo we’re used to seeing on newer figures from Bandai. The hinge is pretty restricted, especially going forward, but the ankle rocker is surprisingly generous. There’s also a toe hinge for good measure.
He’s surprisingly easy to stand even with these tiny feet.
The articulation is probably enough. The single-hinged joints in the knees and elbows are not as restricting as one may expect and they do come with the added benefit of being more aesthetically pleasing than most double joints. I do wish the figure could look up better and I don’t see a good reason as to why it can’t raise the legs out to the side all the way. The shirt hides the hips so the designers were able to go bare bones in that region and yet the articulation is still impeded somewhat. A little tweaking there to give the figure more dynamic kicks would have really helped sell this one, but even so, it’s pretty good.
This is a fun little figure, I just wish I didn’t have to buy Goma to get Goku’s power pole effect piece.
Goku (Mini) is a fun little figure to mess with. It comes with a lot for the price point and those who like Daima and want a kid Goku from the show will likely be pretty content here. I do think some articulation tweaks would have gone a long way, and given that he’s so small, a flight stand feels almost like a necessity. If you want him posed on your shelf fighting adults or larger beings you’re going to need to get him on a stand. Given the $35 price tag, I’m not surprised at the lack of a stand, but I would have paid another 5 bucks to get one. Or rather, I wouldn’t have waited for a discount. Like I said though at the start, my initial pass on the figure wasn’t because I thought it was a bad deal, I just wasn’t sure if I needed anything from Daima. What i really want is an updated kid Goku from Dragon Ball as the ones Bandai already released are just way too big. A new one in this size with some styling evocative of the original manga/anime is quickly shooting up to the top of my personal “Most Wanted” list. Even if that never comes to be, this tidy Goku figure is still pretty damn good all on its own.
There’s plenty more Dragon Ball around these parts if you’re interested:
I was so happy with my Super Saiyan Vegeta from SH Figuarts that the very next day I purchased a second figure: Kid Goku. Now I’ve mentioned more than once here that I prefer Dragon Ball to Dragon Ball Z. It’s just a tighter and more fun series with better action sequences. The characters become…
My Dragon Ball collecting was once simply focused on the original series, Dragon Ball, but has been expanding over the years. I’ve definitely leaned more towards Dragon Ball Super of late, but one of my Dragon Ball Z purchases last year was the event exclusive Nappa. I don’t know why I like Nappa so much.…
When Goku shattered his ceiling and became the Super Saiyan of legend to topple the seemingly unbeatable Frieza, the story could have come to an end. Where could the hero go after attaining this awesome power and vanquishing the ultimate evil? The being responsible for not just the death of his father, but the destruction…
Technically a blast from the past, but these designs still feel new to me.
Who isn’t making Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures these days? It’s becoming a far easier thing to keep track of than just who is making them. For years, it was the domain of Playmates Toys and only Playmates Toys. NECA tried to get in on that TMNT action in 2008 and it ended prematurely either due to poor sales or because Playmates killed it. That is no longer the case as I sit in my toy room and look around I see TMNT figures made by Joy Toy, Bandai, Hasbro, Mattel, and Super7 to go along with an expansive collection of TMNT by NECA Toys. That, however, doesn’t mean the Playmates influence is dead.
There’s definitely some interesting stuff going on here.
When Super7 secured a license to produce TMNT toys around 2019, the company decided the brand would be a perfect fit for its young Ultimates! line of figures. These approximately 1:10 scale figures were created with a goal of mixing modern production methods with an old school aesthetic. For TMNT, that manifested as basically an upscaled recreation of the vintage Playmates line with more articulation, more paint, and more accessories (and more money). If you thought it seemed weird that Super7 could basically just recreate the work of another company then apparently your intuition was right. This business model worked for a time, but Playmates reportedly wasn’t crazy about it and as the master license holder for TMNT they have quite a bit of sway. For whatever reason, that influence didn’t really begin to manifest until somewhat recently, but it’s prevented Super7 from following the blueprint it crafted at the onset which is how we ended up where we are today.
The 2003 version of TMNT had previously only been brought to plastic by Playmates (right).
Perhaps Super7 saw just how many companies were getting in on the action where TMNT is concerned that they decided to be proactive. If the Playmates thing was going to create a significant barrier to creating more TMNT Ultimates!, then Super7 would need a new subject. In 2003, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a brand was on life support. The fad so many adults predicted would be over in a year or so had finally come to an end. Co-creator Kevin Eastman had moved on leaving Peter Laird to carry the torch. For Laird, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing as it presented an opportunity to start over. He was able to find some willing partners in 4kids Entertainment and the Fox Kids Network to craft a new entry point for the franchise in the form of a new cartoon series. The show, simply titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, had the freedom to be a little edgier than the silly former cartoon. It stayed much closer in spirit to the original comics by Eastman and Laird while also doing its own thing. The art style was more mature and more evocative of modern comics and really the only obvious step back was the bland theme song.
New line means new packaging.
The 2003 version of the show was a success. Maybe not the success of the ’87 series, but successful enough to run for years and 155 episodes plus a TV movie. For fans who had enjoyed the original cartoon series, it represented one of that generation’s earliest forms of nostalgia while new kids were able to start from the beginning. The show is remembered fondly in the TMNT fanbase and it’s no surprise that a company like Super7 would want to make action figures based on it. It’s one of the few eras of the turtles to not get a modern action figure as really the only plastic representation out there is the original Playmates companion line. And with Super7 simply basing their figures on the animation, there is basically nothing Playmates can do about it other than keep them out of the toy aisle at Walmart. The fact that Super7 landed this “license” and not NECA came as a bit of a surprise, but apparently it was Viacom that proposed the idea to Super7. Maybe they were sick of managing the Playmates/Super7 relationship and wanted to give Super7 something else to do. Plus it probably came about as the show turned 20.
I think of these as the more heroic of the turtles.
Super7’s inaugural wave of 2003 TMNT figures went up for preorder last spring and are just now making their way out to customers. The first wave is both a surprise and predictable as it contains the characters Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Yes, all four turtles are being offered right out of the gate as opposed to the one per wave approach Super7 initially took with the license. Perhaps with this aspect of the franchise being untested Super7 felt they needed to show fans that they would get all four turtles and have a complete set. They could have split them up, but maybe they feared customers would doubt their ability to deliver additional waves (and they’d be forgiven for such since Super7 has run into that problem a lot lately) and hold out until all four brothers were available. This approach undoubtedly worked to extract the maximum amount of interest they’re likely to see. Hopefully the drop-off for wave two (Splinter, Casey Jones, Shredder, and a Foot Ninja) wasn’t precipitous.
These new ones are just a touch smaller than the original turtles by Super7.
Lead designer at Super7 for the TMNT license is Kyle Wlodyga who explained in various interviews that these are the turtles he grew up with and thus some care has been taken to get these figures to match the visual style of the show. He gets into it in great detail in this interview posted by the show Turtle Tracks. And it appears that’s the approach as they look to be pretty screen accurate. This contrasts slightly with the companion art for the show and some of the more lavish sequences created for the show’s intro. In both, the turtles had a more traditional superhero shape to their body with a torso that tapers in towards the abdominal region and limbs that appear a bit longer than usual. The turtles of the show were more stocky, like most iterations of the characters, with rounded shells. They all have blank, white, eyes like the comics, but feature unique skin tones like the Playmates toys (though the colors aren’t the same) and their expected colored bandanas. The elbow and kneepads are brown like the turtles from the big screen, so we really do have a mix of influences coming together to create these new (old) look turtles.
The rear of each turtle features a hard, bulbous, green shell. It’s not super shiny, but it does cheapen the look.
Packaging for this wave is pretty typical of the Ultimates! brand with a big window box adorned with artwork of the characters and a bio on the back. The brown shipper also made its return to better protect the contents. It’s a bit evocative of the Playmates blister card, which may have been the one minor hurdle to getting these figures to market. The artwork across the front and back looks to be stock licensing art for the show. There’s also no longer any sort of bio on the back while the plastic for the window feels thinner than usual. The style for each box is the same from turtle to turtle while the insert is color-coded for each brother. If you’re an in-box collector then this is probably fine, though they still take up quite a bit of space. And if you’re an opener like me, these boxes aren’t so nice that you will feel compelled to keep them. Plus the blisters inside are so damn tight you’re likely to mangle them getting the figures and their accessories out.
As is commonplace these days, Michelangelo does have real chain link ‘chuks.
Once freed from their rather tight confines, the turtles will stand around 5.75″ on whatever surface you place them on. They’re actually a smidge shorter than the other Super7 turtles, but I have no idea how tall Super7 envisioned those characters to be. Super7 kind of did its own thing with that line. These new turtles do look a lot different though as they’re bulkier which makes them look stockier. They have smaller heads by comparison, but those older turtles have some pretty large domes. Aside from something very obvious that we’ll get to in a bit, the approach Super7 took is still pretty consistent. These new figures are mostly bare plastic with just a touch of shading applied to the green. It helps to cut down on that plastic sheen, but it also draws attention to the areas of the figures where no shading exists like the kneepads. The rear of the shell is the biggest offender as it’s just a light shade of green. It’s also very bulbous, but this is pretty screen accurate. It’s the most plastic looking of the figures and looks very cheap by comparison. It is on the rear of the figure, but these are premium collectibles and it’s definitely an eyesore. The figures at least appear to have a matte clear coat applied to the entirety of the figures. Strangely, it doesn’t come across as well in pictures. I tried going with a low light setup as harsh lighting can make them shine more than they will in natural light.
I don’t remember Donatello having a birth mark.
Even though paint is kept to a minimum, what little is there can still be messed up. My Donatello has a big, green, spot on the side of his face that I may reach out to Super7 about. That’s the worst looking part, but the paint around the bandanas on all of the heads leaves a little something to be desired. Michelangelo also has a speck of white on one of his cheeks. Normally, I’d get out the Magic Eraser to try to get rid of such, but I’m worried it will mess up the clear coat. Instead, I’ll either learn to live with the shortcomings or just go with the neatest head for each figure and call it a day.
Those who bought all four from Super7 got a bonus head pack on a blister card.
These versions of the turtles are quite chunky, more so than I remembered. It presents a tough order for a sculptor as there’s an inelegance to the silhouette that belies the fact that these characters are trained martial artists. It’s something that can thankfully be posed away, but just standing straight up and down they look awkward. The turtles do share the same body across all four figures with the only differences being the heads and belts. Leo has his scabbards and Donatello his loop for his bo staff while Raph and Mikey are just supposed to cram their weapons into the sides of their belts. These guys also dropped the belt buckles in favor of plain knots which makes it even easier on Super7 when it comes to molds.
None of these heads are bad, but there sure could have been more variety. Two of Leonardo’s you need to really look close to notice a difference.
The default portraits across the four are pretty typical for the characters and each comes with a secondary option. Leonardo has a smirk and a teeth-baring smirk that reminds me of the Playmates figure. Donatello has an old school TMNT expression with his teeth showing on both sides of his beak as well as a smiling portrait. Michelangelo has a very similar smile to Donnie as well as an open mouthed smile embodying his party boy nature. Raph is the only one who doesn’t get to be happy as he has a pair of angry portraits. One features him baring his teeth while the other is a yell. That one is one of the best of the bunch as one eye is noticeably larger, and rounder, than the other which adds some more personality to the mix. And if you purchased direct from Super7, you got a bonus pack of heads with the following expressions: Leonardo (smile), Raphael ( full teeth gritting), Michelangelo (winking and smiling), and Donatello (a side smile taken from when he mugs for the camera in the show’s intro, also very similar to his Playmates counterpart). The extras are all fine in their own way, but there’s a severe lack of imagination on display. Why does Leonardo have 3 smiling portraits? Raph is all angry, which I guess is on brand, while Michelangelo is also nothing but happy. I would have liked a grim expression for Leo and a smile for Raph, even if it was more of a sinister one. Donatello is the only turtle who gets a wide range of emotions.
The Shell Cell is a downgrade from the Turtle Com.
For additional accessories the turtles share a lot of stuff plus feature their own weapons. For hands we have a set of fists, gripping, and open hands. Each turtle also has a Turtle Com or “Shell Cell.” It’s a bit of a throwaway accessory as the turtles can’t hold it convincingly. It’s in an open state too and it would have been more interesting to get an opened and a closed one. Donatello also comes with a set of goggles. They’re a little tricky to get on either head, but they also look a bit cheap so I’m not sure it’s worth it. This was kind of the start of Donatello always getting headgear of some kind which I’ve never been a fan of.
Donatello comes with some headgear. It’s nothing special, but better than what Leo and Raph get (which is nothing).
The rest of the accessories are the weapons and they’re what you would expect: swords for Leo, sai for Raph, a bo staff for Donnie, and nunchaku for Michelangelo. These versions of the turtles may have ditched the initialed belt buckles, but they did like color-coded weapons. This means colored wraps for Leo, Raph, and Mikey on the handles of their weapons while Donatello has purple tape in the middle of his bo. Unfortunately, this represents most of the paint on the weapons as the steel portions for Leo and Raph were left as bare plastic. The plastic is a very pale gray with the the sais almost looking slightly transparent and milky. As a result, their weapons look very cheap especially compared with past offerings from Super7. Raph’s sais are also puny and I can’t find any art, be it key art or from the show itself, backing this up. When stored his sai in his belt they tended to shrink, but in hand they look to be much bigger. Mikey does have real chain on his ‘chuks so they look fine while the brown plastic of Donnie’s staff looks more convincing. Michelangelo apparently was the favorite turtle at Super7 because he also gets effect parts. Like the NECA Michelangelo, you can detach one handle of his nunchaku from the chain and replace it with a whirling effect. He gets one for each weapon and it looks great, I just wish the other turtles received a similar effect part for their weapons like we saw with JoyToy.
A gathering of RaphsA sai comparison (left to right): NECA ’08, NECA toon, Super7 2k3, JoyToy 1:18 scale, Super7 original, NECA Mirage (Lawson)Raph got short-changed when it comes to sai size.
When these figures were announced last year the big talking point was double knees and elbows. For the first time in the line, Super7 decided to give the turtles double-joints at both spots. In the past, Super7 co-founder Brian Flynn has expressed a dislike for the aesthetic qualities of such joints. His background seems to largely be in soft vinyl figures and retro stuff so it’s not that surprising he’d feel that way. I think most modern collectors are fine with the trade-off and have always been since we’ve had double joints since the Toy Biz Marvel days. Super7 decided to change things up here, either because they felt the kids who grew up on this version of the turtles wouldn’t accept single joints, or because they caved to pressure that was both internal and external. Whatever the reason, the joints are here and they’re fine. Both are pin-less, but both also need to contend with what all turtle figures have to contend with and that’s the knee and elbow pads. To combat this, Super7 used a style of joint similar to what NECA used to use on some figures where you have a hinge ball above and below the joint. This creates two additional pivot points as well as the double-hinged bend. It works okay and certainly better than what we had. The aesthetics are a downgrade, but probably worth the trade-off to most.
Sais does matter.
Aside from that, most of the articulation should seem familiar. The head is on a double-ball peg and there’s also a ball joint at the base of the neck. These turtles have good range, but the shell prevents them from looking up effortlessly. The shoulders feature ball hinges and we have bicep swivels, the double elbows, and wrists that hinge and swivel. The gripping hands feature the proper hinge orientation for melee wielders while the elbows will bend past 90 degrees, but not far beyond that. There is a waist joint under the shell that mostly works as a pivot point than a full rotation. Hips are still ball-hinges, but the hinge seems much bigger and sturdier than typical Ultimates! figures. There’s a thigh swivel, double knees, and ankles that hinge and rock side to side. The knees bend past 90 degrees and the hip range out to the side allows for full splits. Kicking forward is a little limited since the shell forces the leg out to the side, but the range is there.
We’ll have Mikey demonstrate the new elbow and knee range.
Perhaps most important to all who have interest in this line is that the joints are all nice and tight. That doesn’t mean it’s all sunshine and roses though. While I wouldn’t say any joints are too tight, there is an issue with binding and scraping. The hinges in both the shoulders and hips function like ratcheted joints. There’s no smoothness to them at all. Most of these figures are also composed of a very soft plastic, but at the joints we have hard plastic. This causes scraping, cutting, and scuffing even if you’re careful. You’re also bound to have a stuck joint or two across the four figures in either the elbows or knees. The rotation in these double knees can aid in posing, but also drive you nuts as they keep spinning out of position during handling and become misaligned for using the hinge. The design and approach isn’t terrible, and this is better than the often floppy hips we get from Super7, but it still needed another pass before going into production. It feels like Super7 just looks at a test shot once and thinks they don’t need to review anything again or something. Hinged shoulders and hips aren’t anything knee and lots of companies do them without issue, but Super7 would have you believe those toys are freakin’ miracles. Or they could just finally ditch the hinged hips and go with ball sockets. That would make me happy, though I’m sure there would be growing pains there as well.
Splits are also on the table.
Perhaps this is all coming to a head. I do not like to kick someone when they’re down, but things have not been great for Super7 of late. Some of their lines appear to be dead, licenses have been pulled, and a major release like the Cat’s Lair was plagued with quality control issues that Super7 had to rectify at some cost to the company. And now we have tariffs to deal with. This wave apparently arrived at port during that brief window when tariffs on products imported from China were at 140%. In response, Super7 laid off about half of its workforce including 75% of the designers they employed. Among them was Kyle Wlodyga who has been the head designer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other licenses and was responsible for some really terrific stuff. I’ve always assumed TMNT was one of Super7’s best performing licenses so to see him laid off came as a shock. He also was vocally pushing for the company to tackle 2003 TMNT for awhile, but they didn’t do it until Viacom basically forced their hand. And what do you know, it was a big seller! At least, according to Super7. How shitty is that? The guy pushed for this, it finally happens, it’s a success, and he’s the one who gets shit-canned? Something smells there.
Thanks, Mikey – have a slice!
While I have sympathy for those at Super7 and I don’t want to see the company fold, as a reviewer, I’m not going to tell you to go out and buy an inferior product out of the kindness of your heart. I have to review these action figures as they are independent of the climate surrounding them and I’m forced to conclude that they’re just not worth the asking price. Super7 wants $55 each for these figures, perhaps more now that tariffs are involved, and they just don’t measure up to other figures in that price range. The appearance is too cheap in places and the articulation can literally damage your figures. They also don’t come with much and look especially light when compared with the other turtle figures Super7 has released over the years. If these were $35 then I could overlook most of that. The quality control would still be unacceptable to some degree, but also easier to swallow at that price.
These guys are a mixed bag, but if your standards are simply that you want something that looks like the show for your shelf then you’ll probably be content.
Objectively, I can say these figures aren’t worth the ask, but subjectively I can also say I don’t hate them. I don’t even dislike them. These are solid representations for an underserved era of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If you want a set of 2k3 turtles for your shelf you’ll probably be content with these once they’re in place. I do wonder how deep Super7 can go with this line. Personally, I’m in for Shredder out of wave two, but no one else. If Super7 wants to give me Christmas variants I’d be interested in that, but I don’t plan on going deep at all on 2k3. Unfortunately, it sounds like Super7 is. In another interview with Turtle Tracks posted at the same time, Wlodyga said the vintage-inspired stuff was “on pause.” Rarely does “on pause” ever mean anything good. That’s really frustrating as we’re still missing key figures in that line, most notably Undercover Don and Heavy Metal Raph, two figures keeping collectors from a complete set of Playmates remakes. Even if Viacom is really pushing for Super7 to move away from that stuff, the company should go to bat for its consumer and tell Viacom that people really want and expect those figures from them. They basically did it for Rat King, they can do it again. I’m so irritated by that decision that it makes me want to boycott the 2003 subline. I guess don’t expect a ton of Super7 stuff from me going forward.
We may be light on Super7 coverage from here on out, but there’s no shortage of historical coverage:
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