Tag Archives: archie

October 22, 2024

NECA TMNT Adventures Mondo Gecko

By Joe
Whoa man, it’s like a lizard dude

.The NECA Cowbunga Collection is a content creator’s dream. Here we are deep into October still talking about figures that dropped in August. This time it’s another Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures action figure and it’s fan-favorite Mondo Gecko. Most TMNT fans probably know Mondo from the Playmates action figure line. He also made the jump to the cartoon series and he’s shown up quite a bit in other TMNT media ever since. Like a lot of those old toys though, Mondo is a Mirage Studios creation. Ryan Brown is the credited creator and Mondo would go on to appear in the Archie Comics Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures books where he would be an ally of the turtles. He would then go on to become a member of the Mighty Mutanimals alongside the likes of Man Ray, Dreadmon, and others.

When it comes to NECA’s subline of figures based on TMNT Adventures, it would seem they have two priorities: Stump wrestling and Mighty Mutanimals. The first few figures started building out the Mutanimals before pivoting to the wrestling stuff. Mondo is a reminder that more Mutanimals are needed and likely coming. First unveiled at San Diego Comic Con 2023, Mondo arrives in the standard TMNT Adventures packaging with new artwork by artist Ken Mitchroney. He’s a sculpt by Tomasz Rozejowski and Kushwara Studios with paint by Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo. Because Mondo’s appearance in the comics is so close to his vintage toy, which also inspired his cartoon design, this figure is perhaps the least exciting one in the line so far. That’s just because he’s so familiar, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a worthwhile release.

This is NECA’s second run at Mondo. As you can see, there’s a lot of similarities between his Archie and toon design, though no parts are shared.

Mondo stands at around 5.5″ to the top of his head and tack on another quarter of an inch for the hat. His design is almost exactly like the old Playmates toy with one obvious exception. He has the torn yellow shirt with skull emblem on the chest, the asymmetrical gloves and knee pads, high top shoes, and purple shorts and hat. The main difference is the long, black, hair. The old toy had it tied back in a ponytail while this Mondo just lets his hair down. His eyes are partially closed and his mouth is in an open position with a big smile which helps to expose those braces. It gives him a bit of a stoner look and there’s a toon quality to the face that’s appropriate for the line. I know some who aren’t crazy about the expression, but it works for me.

The little guy partly responsible for why Mondo looks the way he does.

Paint on Mondo is a little sparse compared with some releases, but I’d stop short at calling it lacking. The body is a rather bright, almost neon, green textured like a basketball to impart scaling. There’s some black curves painted on to highlight the scales as well and a lot of linework on the figure’s face. The teeth, eyes, and tongue are painted cleanly as are the gloves and shoes. The shirt is an overlay and the print on that is clean. The bare plastic in use for the green is not glossy or cheap, but the figure doesn’t pop as much as say Man Ray. The only area I don’t love are the hands. He has sculpted claws, but everything is green. His nails weren’t painted in the books from what I’ve seen, but this could be an odd spot where the sculpt should have been a little softer to make for pointed fingers as opposed to fingers with claws. In another deviation from the Playmates/toon design, there’s no blue on the character’s belly or the underside of the tail. The bright green also doesn’t match the box art nor does it match the comic. He should be a more olive green, very close to the turtles, and I’m guessing this was a creative choice by NECA to brighten the figure up. Perhaps to differentiate him from Slash too.

What do you think is in the cup? My guess is Mountain Dew.

Mondo comes with an assortment of accessories, most of which are expected. For hands, he has a set of gripping hands and open ones. He comes with a right hand in a devil horns gesture and a left in a hang 10 one. There’s also another right gripping hand that’s wider which is for holding his soft drink. It’s an all white cup with a straw that has a red diamond on it. There’s some black linework on it as well and it’s sharp looking. There’s also a microphone which is done all in black and is taken right from the books as he was a human musician who got mutated into this gecko man. There’s also an included gecko who is pretty cute and has his little tongue sticking out. He’s mostly green with some linework and yellow eyes. I wish they had painted the inner mouth black rather than leaving it green as it looks a little funky with the red tongue poking out, but it’s fine.

A guitar strap or microphone stand would have gone a long way here.

The two big accessories are Mondo’s instrument of choice and mode of transportation. Mondo has his trusty six string which is mostly teal with white accents. The paint on the fretboard is really clean and there’s volume and tone knobs sculpted in as well. I do have to point out that there are only five strings sculpted onto it even though there are six knobs at the end clearly indicating that this should be a typical guitar. It’s also lacking a strap so Mondo is forced to hold it if you want to display him with it which seems like an odd oversight. Mondo also has his skateboard which is all purple with a sting ray on the underside. It’s not as flashy as the cartoon board and it’s also not equipped with a motor. The wheels do turn and it has a single peg on the rear. My board did come with the front truck not glued on. There’s a sculpted tab on the underside for it that it slides onto and I’ll have to glue it myself if I want it to stay in place. Otherwise, it’s a skateboard and it does what it’s supposed to, we’ve just received a lot of boards from NECA at this point so it’s a little hard to be impressed by it.

Looks like the factory missed a spot of glue.

Articulation for Mondo is pretty much the norm for the line. We have a ball joint at the head, but the presence of the hair and open jaw is going to severely limit what he can do there. It’s primarily a swivel point and even that is limited. Shoudlers are ball-hinged and he has a biceps swivel past that. The bicep on the left arm of my figure doesn’t want to seat properly on the peg for the joint. I’ll have to try heating it to see if that works as right now the joint is basically working itself out when I mess with it. Elbows are double-jointed and this figure does feature pins. They don’t create much of an eyesore, but your mileage may vary. Hands rotate and hinge horizontally on all hands. No vertical hinges anywhere. The gloves are painted on, so repeated use of these hinges may expose the green plastic underneath so do be mindful.

It’s an easy fix.

In the torso is a ball joint in the diaphragm which rotates and tilts in all directions. Nothing crazy, but it’s there. There doesn’t appear to be anything at the waist while the hips are ball sockets that go out to the side for splits, but will be limited by the crotch overlay kicking forward and back as the legs will want to go off to the side. Forcing the issue will likely just result in the leg popping off. There is a thigh pivot built into that joint which works fine and the double-jointed knees bend a little past 90 degrees. The ankles feature the customary hinge and rocker setup and NECA wisely put the hinge right in the middle of the sneaker so it’s not really hindered by anything. It also appears to be smartly engineered so that paint rub or flaking won’t present an issue. Mondo is also rocking a tail and that’s connected via a ball hinge. There are no segments in the tail or a wire or anything so it’s pretty basic, but can be posed a bit. It’s also fairly short so it’s not the most useful third leg, but it can be utilized for added stability in certain poses.

The Mighty Mutanimals are nearly assembled with the addition of Mondo and it’s a natural way to display him, but…

Mondo Gecko is a solid release. The figure doesn’t possess much of a wow factor and part of that is due to it just being so similar to the toon figure and the vintage one, which has in recent years received an update via Super7. The articulation is okay and most of the accessories are solid. He’s not really the right shade of green, but I don’t think that’s really impacting my enjoyment of the figure at all. I do think he should have at least another head for those who aren’t crazy about the expression. I’m also surprised that the jaw isn’t hinged. This is definitely a figure for those who want to assemble the Mighty Mutanimals on their shelf. If you’re a more casual TMNT toy collector then you may feel like you’re covered when it comes to Mondo with one of the other releases.

…this also kind of rocks!

If this figure is to your liking and you want to add it to your TMNT Adventures collection then head to Target. There Mondo will run you $37. The figure is likely to see release at other retailers in the not too distant future as well. Adding Mondo means we’re just missing a proper Mutanimals Leatherhead as well as Wingnut. Once they’re out, the team is basically complete (some will claim they need Ninjara as well, but I don’t think of her as part of the core team) and I would imagine that NECA is already planning on a release for both. They may string us along a bit first, but I have faith that the full team will at long last be immortalized in plastic.

If TMNT Adventures is your thing then check out some of these reviews:

NECA TMNT Adventures Man Ray

Back when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ruled the world, there was a lot of brand synergy between all of the various media being generated by this one mega popular piece of intellectual property. The comics came first followed by a toyline which necessitated the creation of an animated mini series to basically serve as a…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Adventures Jagwar

The next figure in NECA’s line based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comic series is a much anticipated one for fans of those books and its spin-off The Mighty Mutanimals. And that’s because this character is making his debut in plastic. Previously, we looked at Slash who has been pretty well-represented in some…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Adventures Dreadmon

We’re almost done with all of these NECA Haulathon drops from March and up today is the last of the single-packed figures, the Mighty Mutanimal Dreadmon! Technically, he’s the third figure in NECA’s line of figures from the pages of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures since he’s listed as number 3 on the box. However,…

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by Joe

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December 31, 2022

TMNT Loot Crate Series 2 Vol. 2 – Pixelated Shark Boy

By Joe
Wow, it’s actually full this time.

2022 is nearly in the books. As we countdown the final hours and minutes until 2023, it feels good to say that the new year will begin with no further Loot Crate obligations. That’s because after a delay of more than a year, the second crate in Loot Crate’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series of crates is finally here. It may be the second crate, but it’s arriving fourth due to…who knows? Loot Crate basically went silent to start 2022 and stopped providing updates on where things were. This crate was supposedly ready to rock 10 months ago, but obviously that wasn’t the case. I ranted and raved a bit in the other crate reviews so if you want more background info I’d say go give those a peek, but let’s relax and be happy that it’s all over now.

If you’re new to the scam, each crate in a series of four is based on a different pillar of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles media empire: comics, movies, television, and video games. This final crate is the video game one, which in the first series was themed around Turtles in Time. The same could be said for NECA’s line of action figures released to comic shops, but this one is a mix of two different video games: Turtles in Time and Tournament Fighters. Like past crates, you get a bunch of junk and a t-shirt with the real selling point being an exclusive action figure from NECA. And in this one it’s Armaggon from Tournament Fighters, a character that I’m not particularly attached to, but I know a lot of other collectors out there who are really excited to get this one. And not because they’re huge fans of Tournament Fighters, but because Armaggon was a character in the Archie comics. He’s basically a mutant shark from the future and he’s quite the badass. The Armaggon from the video game was a mostly faithful adaptation of the comic character making this figure a pretty faithful adaptation of the same. Well, except for that pixel deco NECA uses for its video game line.

They call them “juice” glasses, but you can put whatever you want in them.
There’s more pixelation on the pin than the figure.

Before we get to the main event though, we should probably talk about the junk. As I mentioned in the prior paragraph, some of this is from Turtles in Time and some from Tournament Fighters. From Turtles in Time, we get a pair of socks. They have some graphics on them from the game (turtles on one sock, villains on the other) and…they’re socks. They’re fine. We also get a pin, as every crate has included a pin so far. This one features Leatherhead’s head and…it’s fine. We also get a boxed set of two glasses featuring Tokka and Rahzar from the game. When I picked the box up and saw the image of the glassware inside, I assumed they were shot glasses, but they’re actually bigger. I guess these are whiskey glasses? Bourbon glass? Loot Crate calls them juice glasses. Either way, the graphics are more like decals so if you decide to use these you will want to hand wash them because a dishwasher will likely obliterate the images. Some of the decals on mine are crooked, which is a shame. At least the images look, in a running theme for this crate so far, fine.

Well, there can’t be too many Tournament Fighters shirts out there.
Shredder! I am back and I’m huge!

Tournament Fighters, in case you forgot, was a TMNT fighting game released exclusively for consoles. It’s odd that it wasn’t released to arcades, but maybe that’s how late it was to arrive. It’s also a Konami fighter, and now that I think about it, Konami really didn’t tackle the genre much and I can’t think of a single Konami fighting game released in arcades (Martial Champion, anyone?). They mostly specialized in brawlers, but I guess they felt they could not ignore the hype generated by the likes of Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. The game was released for the Super Nintendo, Genesis, and Nintendo Entertainment System. In what is an example of a bygone era for game development, each version of the game was completely different from the other. The Super Nintendo one is the version that featured Armaggon, so it’s from that game that the theme for the t-shirt is pulled. In what can only be described as a Christmas miracle (I got my crate before Christmas), Loot Crate actually sent me the proper sized shirt. The shirt itself is just black with the turtles fighting Shredder with some very 90s colors in the background. It’s…fine. Lastly, and it’s not really from any game, is a Krang stress ball. He has more of a toon look to him, but a licensing art toon look. It’s pretty fun though, I’ll give it that. We also get a summary card of the stuff in the crate, something the last one omitted.

They put a lot of effort into this packaging.

So yeah, the junk in this crate is all fine. Nothing is terrible, nothing is really a surprise, and nothing is really all that welcomed. I guess it’s nice to have another shirt, and I definitely prefer it to the apron from the last crate, and I’ll wear it and probably the socks because why not? I’ll find a home for the silly stress ball, and the rest will probably end up in a drawer or behind my bar. In comparison with the other crates, it’s way better simply by virtue of getting the shirt size correct, but it’s still a bunch of stuff I never would have purchased individually. The real attraction is and always has been the action figure. And in order to get the bonus figure of Scrag in the last crate, I had to get all of them. If I could have picked and choosed what crates I wanted and still got Scrag I may have passed on Armaggon. Nothing against him, I just have no affection for Tournament Fighters. It was a middling fighting game that was also brutally difficult and I wasted a rental on it as a kid. It wasn’t one of my worst rental decisions, but it was a game I never contemplated renting again or actually buying. And if I’m going to get an Armaggon, I’d prefer a true comic one. That said, I was still curious about this figure. I could tell from early solicitations that it was going to reuse some components from Bebop and Rocksteady, but it was also hard to tell just how much. And to a lesser extent, I was curious how the figure would be packaged and if NECA was intending to do more from the game.

And here’s good old shark boy, free from his box!

Armaggon comes bundled in a box that is essentially the same shape as the other Loot Crate figures. The graphics on it though are tailored to the Tournament Fighters SNES game and they did a really good job. Almost too good considering this isn’t a figure that will show up on shelves at a store near you. The box graphics are designed to mimic the packaging of a Super Nintendo game and NECA even put it’s own logo on there in the same style as the Nintendo logo of old. There’s shots of the arcade Donatello on it designed to emulate the same posings from the artwork of the Tournament Fighters game and they whited out the eyes on him and updated the figure to look a bit more like the Donatello from the game. He doesn’t look quite like the source though since those sprites were designed to resemble the 1990 movie suits. It would have been interesting to see NECA try to do the same just to see how that figure would have looked, but eh, it’s fine.

The tail has to be put on, but it’s not too bad.
I think I like it.

Once removed from his cardboard prison, Armaggon cuts a pretty intimidating pose on a shelf. He’s fairly tall coming in at a tick under 7″ (not counting his fin which puts him closer to 7.5″) or so which makes him one of the largest figures in the video game line. The first thing that jumps out though is the head. He looks pretty crazed with those red eyes and red gums to go with a lot of sharp teeth. It’s a nice sculpt and one that’s obviously all new. It sits on the torso of Bebop and I’m guessing the biceps and shoulders are recycled as well. The forearms needed to be re-tooled because Armaggon has some red fins there and they give his arms the added length they need. The hands are straight from the other release though as are the thighs which have the clothing wrinkles still sculpted in which is a bit annoying, but NECA did the same for the Triceratons so it’s hardly a surprise. The lower legs and the feet are all new since Armaggon has flippers. The other new part appears to be the crotch as his belt is part of the same piece. On the rear of the figure is a shark tail and that’s all new as well. To summarize, the only old parts are the torso, upper arm, hands, and thighs which is less than I expected.

He has the same gripping hands as Rocksteady, with one being a trigger finger. I’m not sure he needs them.

What stands out with the figure is the paint and his cybernetic bits. The pixel deco is one of NECA’s best applications of it. There are parts of the figure, like the right thigh and shoulders, that really blend like a sprite should when viewing it from the shelf. It’s a neat effect, and while some don’t like it, at least it’s done well. The cybernetic stuff is basically all of the yellow around the head area. It’s sort of like a harness, I don’t really know the function of it, but it’s very intricately done. He has lots of tubes and straps and while they look good, it does give the figure a fragile appearance. And considering it’s a limited edition figure that’s not supposed to ever be sold at retail, it makes it even scarier to handle. He also has his missiles sculpted into his traps and they’re colored gray like the game. They don’t do anything, but it’s obviously something the character needed. Overall, I’d call the sculpt and paint pretty damn good all things considered. The reuse present is appropriate and there’s plenty of new stuff to justify the cost. Well, if we’re applying a cost of 25 bucks or so to the figure since the crate costs $50.

Closed…
…open!

In terms of articulation, well, there isn’t a lot to talk about. As hinted at earlier, this guy is scary to pose. The head is locked down, but he does have a hinged jaw which is cool. The arms though are connected to those tubes and harness contraption and I hesitate to do much with them. They bend, but I can see them getting stressed and I personally will pose this guy in as unstressful a position as I can get. Which is probably straight up and down, but we’ll see. He does have hinged shoulders though and a biceps swivel. The elbows are double-jointed and the wrists swivel and hinge. There’s a torso joint that basically just provides a tiny bit of rotation and little else. If the waist does anything, I can’t tell. At the hips, we have ball and socket joints like the Triceratons which I am very happy about as I feared we’d get the old style Bebop and Rocksteady hips. There’s a slight thigh twist at the ball and the knees are double-jointed. The ankles hinge and have a rocker and move fine. The tail is on a ball peg, but it does very little. This guy is pretty stiff out of the box so be gentle. Maybe just be extra cautious and heat anything up that feels stuck. The lower half of the figure is the stronger part when it comes to articulation and it’s okay. I feel fine posing him down there. It’s the arms and upper torso that scare me the most, and really it’s the upper arm. The elbows and hands are fine. He’s not going to pose very well though, unfortunately.

These three all share some parts between them.

As has been the case with basically all of the Loot Crate figures, the accessories are rather weak. In fairness, I don’t know that Armaggon needs anything from the game. Maybe an effect? He just has extra hands though and they’re all recycled from Bebop and Rocksteady. He has a set of fists and open hands plus a trigger finger right hand and a gripping left. He has nothing to grasp, but if you want to give him a gun or something at least you can. I’ll probably just go with the open, style posed, hands and leave it that way.

Will NECA ever do proper Tournament Fighter turtles? I wouldn’t rule it out.

Well, that’s it! The second, and hopefully final, series of Loot Crates based on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are history and it feels good to be done. I’ve had plenty of preorders over the past two years that went long so it’s not the delays that bothered me. It’s the lack of communication and the outright lying that came out of The Loot Company that ticked me off. Plus, we’re not talking about a preorder that took two years to be delivered. This was paid for back in early 2021 and it was supposed to ship in September of the same year! That’s nuts! At the end of 2021 they were saying it was going to ship imminently – there’s no way that was ever true! And they screwed up a ton of the orders, went really light on the stuff in crate 3, and just all around delivered a bad consumer experience. Hopefully, Loot Crate is allowed to die for good this time and never return, because if another round of these things is announced I’m staying away. Unless they change their business model to not require payment upfront, because this stuff felt super shady. If I’m allowed to ignore the consumer experience and just judge the whole thing on what we got, it still was a subpar experience. The Danny figure stunk, and there was nothing of value in 2 of the remaining three crates outside of the figures. At least those figures were done well enough, but why do they need to be sold this way? Collectors will happily just buy these figures from NECA direct and there’s really no character too obscure for release at this point. Now, it’s just my opinion, but I don’t think NECA liked the experience of partnering with Loot Crate either so it’s my hope that they have enough pull with their owner, who owns Loot Crate, to put an end to the partnership because it really hurt their brand more than it helped. For now, let’s just be happy it’s over and try to enjoy the figures we got. Here’s to a new year free of Loot Crate!

TMNT Loot Crate Series 2 Vol. 1 – The “It’s Dan now” Crate

Loot Crate’s first series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crates in 2020 were a massive success. The crates sold out and anyone who missed out found out acquiring them on the secondhand market would be most expensive, and that’s because each crate came bundled with a NECA exclusive action figure. NECA’s parent company rescued Loot…

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by Joe

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