If you’re into collecting action figures then you’re likely familiar with the concept of a variant. Tooling action figures, the process of cutting steel into molds in which plastic is inserted to create the figure, is the most expensive part of creating an action figure. That’s why it’s in the manufacturer’s best interest to get as much use out of those tools as possible. Many action figure lines are dependent upon sales of variants, usually identical action figures with minor differences, to help keep the costs down as a whole. Sometimes these variants are used to poor results. Anyone who walked into a Kay Bee Toys in the 90s may remember the X-Men and Marvel Comics exclusive figures which were just bad repaints. There was a savage Wolverine that was just a repainted Sabretooth, for instance. Those are bad variants, but a good variant can be plenty fun and when it comes to Super7 you can basically bank on the company having an assortment of color-changing and glow-in-the-dark variants ready to go at any moment.
That’s what the Mutagen Ooze series is from Super7. It’s the four turtle figures they’ve already done, but cast in glow-in-the-dark plastic. They aren’t the first, nor are they the last, of Super7’s glow variants for TMNT. The first wave included a glow-in-the-dark Baxter Stockman as a convention exclusive and they have also done Mutagen Man, the Foot Soldier, Muckman, and have Slash on the way. Super7 loves glow-in-the-dark figures, and it’s easy to see why. They have their own, unique, aesthetic with the translucent plastic and often a different finish from a traditionally painted figure. And then, of course, there’s the glow which has been delighting kids and adults for decades. It’s silly, stupid, fun.
Unfortunately, that fun comes with the downside of added cost. It wasn’t always the case as the first few glow variants were the same price as the non-glow options, but with the Mutagen Ooze series there came a hike. Where the turtles cost $45 a piece in their first run, the glow versions were $65 and exclusive to Super7’s webstore which meant payment upfront and no free shipping. I took a look at that solicitation and liked what I saw, but there was no way I was going to pony up that kind of dough for a fun, but also silly, gimmick. I considered getting just one, my favorite turtle Leonardo, but after shipping that was going to total over 80 bucks for one figure! Sorry, Super7, it just wasn’t worth it. The reason offered up by Super7 co-founder Brian Flynn was that the cost for the glow additive for the plastic had gone way up and so they had to up the price significantly. I’m not going to call the man a liar, I do believe what he said is true, but it’s still hard for me to wrap my head around how a figure that’s already been tooled can warrant such a markup just for the cost of materials. And if this glow situation was only temporary, maybe just don’t do it? Wait it out. See if the price comes down. Maybe the factory will want the business later on and be willing to negotiate. I don’t know, but at the end of the day it’s not my problem. As a consumer, we see the product and the price and have to decide on the subjective worth of it all and, for me, it just wasn’t working.
Obviously, something had to change or else this post wouldn’t even exist. And that something was a sale. Super7 ran a Father’s Day sale that, for some reason, included the Mutagen Ooze Leonardo. Maybe they wanted to feature a glow-in-the-dark figure from this line, but since they have yet to do Splinter, they figured Leonardo made the next most sense for such a sale? I don’t know, but I was happy to see him included and happy to see him discounted to a little over 50 bucks. Throw in shipping, and he was still under the $65 MSRP. Perhaps still more than I wanted to pay, but at least at this level I could talk myself into it. And I’m glad I did because this figure is wonderful! It’s a real shame the wave wasn’t more affordable as I wouldn’t mind adding the rest, but not at the current asking price.
If you have the original Wave 2 Leonardo then you essentially have this figure. The sculpt is exactly the same which is a Playmates inspired mold, but with a modern approach. The default portrait is an almost exact recreation of the vintage figure except for the angle of Leo’s eyes. Where he once had a look of concern on his face he now has something a bit more intimidating. The same hands and the same swords are present and all of the same engineering is still in place. I’ll link to the original review at the bottom of this, but I’ll add that this figure is better engineered. The joints aren’t as loose, but nothing is overly tight either. What little paint was needed is applied well, and anything your old Leo can do this one can as well. The only new issue this figure presented for me was that swapping the heads is way harder than it should be. I couldn’t get the secondary head onto my figure, and since I didn’t plan on displaying him that way anyway, I gave up. If you get this figure and want to make use of the alternate portrait then I suggest heating it up first.
The obvious selling point here is the glow and the minor deco changes made to accommodate that. The entire figure is cast in a slightly translucent, green, plastic. Even without the “glow” in effect, the figure has an almost glow quality about it because the green is practically neon. Stick him under some lights and then move to a dark area and the glow works without issue. The plastron is painted yellow and it’s a bright yellow which accommodates the green well. The pads and belt are all in Leo’s signature blue and I love the choice to make the belt blue. It’s an homage, intentional or not, to the storage shell series from Playmates and I always liked that aspect of the line. The blue just looks so good and it’s probably my favorite aspect of the figure. The eyes and nails are painted yellow and I think it works since they play off of the plastron. The shell is still painted a fairly dark green, but the rim around it is painted in a lighter shade of green and I really like that contrast to the point where I wouldn’t mind seeing it in use on the standard figures. This is a really fun looking figure and if you like glow stuff then you’ll probably fall in love with it.
The accessories are mostly rehash from the prior release, but with a couple of differences. Leo has the following sets of hands: gripping with vertical hinge, gripping with horizontal hinge, style posed open hands, and fists. There’s an open and closed communicator and the pizza slice also returns. He has his trusty katanas, and the handles are painted blue to match his belt which looks nice, though do be careful not to scratch the paint when inserting them into his hands. He also has the same alternate portrait which is a very similar expression to his default one, but done in a more realistic style. The new accessories are an unmutated turtle which is from the Splinter release and a leaking canister of ooze. All of the accessories are cast in the same glow-in-the-dark green plastic as the figure with little in the way of paint hits. You basically just have the eyes of the baby turtle, the caution stripes on the canister, and the screen and buttons of the open communicator for paint apps. All of the paint apps are done in yellow.
This is a short post because this figure is what it is: the same figure released before, only now it glows in the dark! For what it is, I love it. I also like the Super7 turtles in this line so it should go without saying that if you do not then you won’t like this release. It’s just a shame that the MSRP had to be so high since Super7 is essentially asking us to pay 20 bucks a figure to make it glow-in-the-dark. Is that gimmick worth 20 bucks to you? It sure isn’t for me, but with a discount it was for at least my favorite turtle. Even if I could get the other 3 for the approximately $52 a piece price this one cost, I’m not sure if I’d jump in. That’s still over $150 to complete the set. If I could get them for $45 each then, yeah, I’d probably do it, but I don’t know if we’ll see such a steep discount.
If you would like to add this Leonardo to your collection, or any of the other glow-in-the-dark turtles, then you can head on over to Super7’s website where they’re still available. Big Bad Toy Store also has them on-hand, but they’re asking for $70 a turtle and I cannot recommend them at this price. BBTS does offer $4 shipping so it’s possible, maybe even likely, that a set from them would cost less in the end than a set from Super7 direct, but both are bad deals. My advice is to wait it out because if this is something you absolutely had to have then you probably already bought them when they went up for sale last year.
UPDATE – Due to a combination of store credits and clearance events, I was able to complete my set of Mutagen Ooze Turtles by adding Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo. I considered doing a review for each, but since each figure is essentially the same (and is already just a variant of figures I already reviewed) I figured a simple update was warranted. In short, if you like one of these then you’ll like all four. They come with the same accessories and hands and the only thing separating the figures is the unique weapon, head sculpts, and colored belts and pads. Pretty standard stuff.
Worth noting, all of my figures have tight heads and getting the secondary heads on will likely require heat. My Raphael has a stuck, left, knee joint as well which is interesting since my Wave 1 Raphael had the exact same issue. Michelangelo only comes with his plastic nunchaku, not the ones with real chain links, which I get, but is a bummer. Maybe they could have done a plastic chain in glow-in-the-dark plastic instead? The plastic ones are very rigid and don’t pose well. That’s really the only differences worth pointing out though. My only other gripe with these would be that Raph’s accents look more red-orange than red to me, but also see what they were going for with the shades used. At $75, these aren’t worth it, but absent the cost they do look pretty cool. If you can find some on-sale (I scored two of them at Macy’s, of all places) and you think they look cool then I say go for it. Big Bad Toy Store still has these and did not make them part of a huge clearance event in November 2023, but maybe that will happen eventually? Some other smaller shops (like ecollectibles) also were allowed to stock these and have them discounted so shop around, see what you can find, and grab ’em if you want ’em.
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