October has arrived which means we have officially entered “Spooky Season.” Why not mark the occasion with a look at a set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures from NECA Toys? After all, NECA made its name with horror before becoming something close to a household name when it acquired the TMNT license almost ten years ago. Now, that time with the license is coming to an end with only one outstanding release to go. As a result, it has caused me to survey my own NECA collection – what I have, and what I passed on. There really isn’t a whole lot that I decided not to get. I passed on both versions of the licensing colors turtles because it just wasn’t something I needed. I also passed on two of the Pizza Club releases (Leonardo and Michelangelo) because they’re just re-releases of stuff I already have with a few new accessories. One of the only “big” sets I had passed on was Creepy Eddie and Shibano-Sama. Part of my reason for passing on the set was I just didn’t really remember either. Sure, hearing the names or seeing an image stirs something in the back of my mind, but these two hailed from episodes I probably didn’t really care for (and that was true upon a rewatch). The pair also arrived at a time when NECA upped the price of its two-packs from $55 to $65 and that’s a steep price to pay for two characters I have no attachment to. Well, obviously I went back on that so let’s see if I should have let this set continue to rot on Target’s shelf or if I stumbled upon a diamond in the rough.
Creepy Eddie comes from the episode “Nightmare in the Lair” from the show’s sixth season. By then, the episode orders were up and the show was featured on Saturday mornings as well as in syndication. I’ve had the entire series for a long time so I went back to rewatch the episode Eddie is featured in and the funny thing is I barely remember it, but all of the episodes around it? Yup, saw them. Probably more than once. This one didn’t stick and probably because the episode is pretty bad. There’s no Shredder, a terrible Channel 6 B plot, and the resolution is kind of a joke. Oh well. Eddie is an obvious parody of Freddy Krueger from The Nightmare on Elm Street film series. He has the striped shirt, hook nose, and wears a hat though his is more of a bowler derby vs Krueger’s fedora. He also doesn’t have a burn victim texture to his skin (probably would be too complicated for animation) nor does he have Freddy’s famous claws. That last part is kind of a bummer, but this was season six when the presence of weapons had been turned way down so maybe a villain with big knives for fingers was a nonstarter? Creepy Eddie dwells in something called the Nightmare World and the turtles access it via some new gizmo Donatello invented. It’s a helmet that’s like a really good VR, only it drags others along with the wearer into another world even though it’s all supposed to take place in the wearer’s mind. When Michelangelo uses it against Donatello’s wishes, Eddie attacks and traps Michelangelo there and when Leonardo goes to check on him he gets sucked in too allowing Eddie to escape into the real world.
Action figure Eddie looks a lot like the show version. This is a sculpt from Richard Force with paint by Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo (they are also responsible for Shibano-Sama). He has all of his features in place, though he comes as a bipedal individual with a pair of stylish suspenders. In the cartoon, Eddie spends most of his time without legs instead featuring this more ghost-like bottom half. The suspenders also come and go, but mostly are not present. To capture that, Eddie has a swappable lower half as well with his ghost bottom a separate part. It’s basically hollow plastic with some nice paint work. The box shows an image of Eddie in this form without his suspenders and I suspect they can come off, but they’re very thin, soft, plastic and since they don’t just come off nice and easy I decided not to push it. I’ll display him with legs anyway since it’s a lot easier that way, though if you want to have him floating around NECA did include one of its awful flight stands. This one seems worse than usual as I can’t get the claw to come off. Did they glue it or is it just stuck? I don’t know, but it’s clunky and the angle of the claw has always been terrible because it keys in on a hexagon shape and can’t simply be parallel with the ground. It’s also the lesser version of the stand which has no additional elbow in it. Usually, when they bundle a stand with a figure that’s the one they use as opposed to this one which is the standard retail version. It does have an optional suction cup base, but I’ve never been able to get that to work well enough to actually use it.
In addition to his little tail form and stand, Eddie also comes with extra hands and a portrait. For hands we get a set of fists, gripping, open, and pointing. The pointing fingers are kind of warped out of the box or maybe they were going for something more exaggerated. The extra portrait features a closed mouth and it’s fine, but I’ll probably never swap it out in favor of the default open mouthed look. In fact, I couldn’t get the head to come off. I’m sure if I heated it up that would do the trick, but why bother if I’m not going to use it? All of these figures are getting harder to replace. Eddie also has one additional accessory and it’s his time bomb. It’s a little stack of red dynamite with an alarm clock affixed to it and it’s pretty much taken right from the show. Since he doesn’t do much in his episode, this is about the only accessory for him that makes sense. For the turtles, there’s Donatello’s helmet. It has a peg on the back so it’s designed to plug into a bandana port on the back of a turtle head. It works okay. I was able to get it into a standard Turtles in Disguise head. I wasn’t able to get it into the heads that came with Samurai Michelangelo nor was I able to get it to properly plug into the beach Michelangelo portrait. It looks good, but I don’t know how many people will want to display a turtle with it on. It’s more of a snap a pic and be done with it kind of thing.
And that takes us to Eddie’s box-mate: Shibano-Sama. Shibano is from the season three episode “Blast from the Past” where Shredder looks to call upon the ancient founder of the Foot Clan to teach his lackeys in the ways of the ninja. When Splinter and the turtles arrive on the scene, Shredder hits them with knock-out gas which has the unexpected side effect of giving Splinter amnesia. This is a problem because Shibano, who is sort of like a ghost-genie, will only obey the true leader of the Foot which is in fact Splinter, or more accurately, Hamato Yoshi. Splinter would be able to prove himself with the special Curly Technique (yes, it’s a Three Stooges joke, sorry to spoil a 36 year old cartoon) if only he could remember it or anything at all. This is all an elaborate setup for the dreaded clip show episode as the turtles then tell tales of their heroic past to freshen his memory. It seems I only had a faint memory of this character because he’s in possibly the worst episode of the season. It’s funny because Trevor Zammit, the director at NECA who oversees the TMNT line, referenced this character years ago as one he’d love to do. I can only assume he just liked the look or concept of the character because the episode sucks.
When I first saw this set I assumed Eddie and Shibano shared a lot of parts, but now that I have them in-hand I see I was pretty wrong. Shibano comes out of the box in his ghost form with a tail instead of legs. That part is shared with Eddie and so are the hands, but that appears to be it. Well, the elbow is probably the same as it’s that odd style of NECA double joint with a pin and hinge at the top and bottom which is likely shared with many. Unlike Eddie, Shibano is more ghost-like in his appearance on the show so NECA did him in transparent plastic. It has a slight cloudiness to it and some paint in places, most notably the face, but it’s largely see-through. It has a nice feel, but it does make swapping hands difficult. They don’t really like to come out so do be careful. I like the look of this guy though so I see why Trevor wanted to do him even if he likely wasn’t high on the wish lists of many collectors. The look works for an action figure and the paint on the face is really well done.
To go with the figure, NECA included his sword. It’s pretty basic, but appears to be all new. I don’t have another sword in my collection that looks exactly like it which is a surprise. He also has the same array of hands as Eddie, but no alternate head. To display him with his ghost tail, NECA included the cauldron or urn that his spirit rests in. Shredder summons him with a scroll and he emerges like a genie. Shibano plugs into the top and it supports him just fine. I half-expected him to topple or be a little unstable. It’s also usable with Eddie if you prefer. His only other accessory are his legs. He assembles just like Eddie and his legs are also new sculpt with a translucent appearance. In the show, he’s always floating, but his legs are present and they basically fade into the tail which means this figure is never quite screen accurate, but this is a good approximation. Unlike Eddie, I’ll probably keep him in his floaty form since he has a way to stand without the use of the awful NECA flight stand. I was surprised the legs were new sculpt, but I can’t find a match to anything in my collection. They’re similar to the Foot, but the fit of the pants is looser and the feet are different. They also don’t match Shredder’s legs nor do they match something like Crooked Ninja Turtle gang member. Maybe they’re from something that’s buried in the back of my collection, or maybe they were going to be reused later? There was going to be a ninja Splinter that has now been cancelled. He’s much shorter than Shibano, but maybe they were going to fudge it?
Articulation for both characters is pretty much the same, but the execution is a bit different. They both have: double ball head, hinged shoulders, double-elbows, hinge and swivel wrists, waist twist, ball-socket hips, double knees, hinge and rocker ankles. The knees and elbows work well enough, but the gripping hands feature the horizontal hinge as opposed to the superior vertical one. It doesn’t really matter for Eddie, but for Shibano it sucks since he comes with a sword. The hips are restricted by the soft diaper piece that fits over them and the swivel at that joint is pretty minimal. By far though, the biggest trouble spot are the shoulders. Both characters have these high shoulders that break the silhouette. For Shibano, it goes much higher and since the hinge doesn’t cut through the top he can’t raise his arms to the side farther than a 45 degree angle. For Eddie, it’s even worse as I think his suspenders are getting in the way. I can’t get any movement on that hinge. The look of the character didn’t clearly call out for this need either, but I think it was sculpted this way to help keep the suspenders in place. Regardless, they should have just cut through the top of the shoulder to expose the hinge and force more range because this kind of sucks. I don’t expect much out of NECA when it comes to articulation, but I do expect better than this.
The Creepy Eddie and Shibano-Sama set is largely what I expected. Both are good representations of a pair of characters likely forgotten by most, but if you want some ghostly characters in your TMNT display they do accomplish that much. I like the creativity on display to make the figures separate at the waist. It’s a nice, big, peg too so the risk of breaking the figures is pretty minimal – just watch out for Eddie’s suspenders. I wish swapping the hands on Shibano-Sama and the head on Eddie was a smoother process and the terrible shoulders are a bummer. Is the set worth $65? No, probably not unless you just have really fond memories of the episodes these two hail from. This stuff rarely hits clearance though so if you want them you may have to suck it up. On the other hand, with NECA losing the license there may be some opportunities for cheaper turtles before the year is up. Or, NECA will recall these from Target stores to sell in their blind boxed bundles in which you’ll also likely end up with some beach turtles, Universal Monsters, and other assorted poor sellers you may already have in your collection or passed on for a reason. This set also came out over a year ago so your luck may vary when it comes to finding it in stores right now. There seems to be plenty available on eBay and other places for around retail so, for now, it should be a hard one to come by if it’s something you desire.
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