Tag Archives: neca

January 6, 2026

NECA TMNT 2012 The Shredder

By Joe
Every hero needs a villain.

Just about every iteration of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has its own Shredder. He’s the big bad villain of the franchise despite having the dubious honor of being killed off in the very first issue of the comic book series. For the 2012 series, Shredder was back as the head of a crime syndicate and portrayed as a brutal, ruthless, threat to the good guys. Gone are the days of the Shredder surrounded by moronic henchmen entrusted with far too much responsibility. This Shredder is violent and enjoys inflicting harm upon his adversaries, both physical and psychological. There is no redeeming quality to him and he’s quite good at what he does. And if you’re going to have a figure line based on this version of the franchise, you have to do him justice.

This Shredder is not the screwball these other two are.

The Shredder is the sixth figure in NECA’s line based on the 2012 animated series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Despite that distinction, he’s the fifth release and I suspect the only reason why he’s numbered six is because it worked better for the mural that’s being displayed via the spine of the box art. This is a sculpt attributed to a trio of individuals/entities: Daniel Katcher, Richard Force, and Kushwara Studios. Nicole Falk is credited with tailoring the soft goods cape and Ciro Nieli handled the box art. Paint is credited to Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo.

That’s a lot worse than a rat scratch.

Shredder towers over the turtles in this line coming in at approximately 7.125″ to the top of the dome of his helmet. He’s a broad shouldered, but somewhat slender, Shredder perhaps having more in common with the Mirage portrayals of the character than appears at first blush. He’s still adorned with armor and lots of bladed features. The blades of his shoulders jut out from his body as opposed to vertically and his gauntlets are almost ludicrously large. The garment he wears beneath his armor is a dark magenta while the armored bits are done with a shiny silver. Those spikes are all rigid and sharp. He looks pretty on-model, though as one of those characters often obscured by shadows in the show it can make it a touch hard to determine just how on-model he is without pulling out numerous stills and production art. If anything, his arms and chest might be a little larger in figure form than it is in the show, but since it adds to his presence I’m not considering that a negative.

He can also get angry. And stabby.

The paint on Shredder is fairly rudimentary not calling for a lot of pizzazz, with one exception. Underneath the removable helmet is the burned visage of Oroku Saki. He’s pretty ugly looking and NECA did a good job of capturing that. He has an alternate portrait which portrays him as more angry and it’s every bit as good, though won’t really change the look of the figure once the helmet is put back on. The colors all match well whether they’re painted or not and there’s no obvious paint slop anywhere on my figure. Some of the finer details are less than perfect, but certainly acceptable for a mass-produced item. The cape is pretty plain as most NECA capes tend to be. It’s just a thin, black, material though there is a wire through it, just probably not where you want it to be. The wire is merely at the top of the cape and used to hook the cape under the pauldrons. It’s easy to take on and off, but it’s a shame NECA won’t do fully wired capes for posing.

They have no chance one-on-one with Shredder.

Aside from the alternate portrait, Shredder comes with three sets of hands: fists, gripping, and relaxed. For weapons, he has six blades to make use of. In the show, Shredder had retractable blades built into his gauntlets which were his weapons of choice. He has two long ones and one central blade with a diamond-shaped point. You get four of the long blades and two of the center blades which just plug into his gauntlets. You can fit all three into each hand at once, but it is a little busy looking and I don’t think he ever went into battle in such a manner. He also comes with a lone Kraang alien. The little guy looks the part and is well-sculpted as well as well-painted, but not articulated. One set of tentacles is shaped into a curve while the other set is more flat which makes it a challenge to do much with if it’s not being held. I’m guessing we’ll be seeing this guy, or variations on him, quite a bit if this line endures.

I don’t like the B Team’s chances here.

Shredder’s articulation is fairly basic and likely what someone familiar with NECA would expect. The head is on a double ball peg, though it’s limited a bit by the helmet. The arms feature joints at the shoulders, biceps, elbows, and wrists while the torso just has a waist joint. That waist joint is a ball joint, but because of the shape of his breastplate it can’t do much. Range rotating is extremely limited and he can’t crunch forward much and only tilt back a little bit. The bicep swivels are a little odd looking, like his shoulders are a touch too small, which may limit their range as well if you don’t like how they look. Hips are standard ball-joints with a thigh swivel and they work fine. Knees are double-jointed and the ankles hinge and rock. My figure does have some stuck and stubborn joints. The top elbow hinge on both arms doesn’t want to do much while the left ankle was also problematic. The gauntlets can rotate which is nice and the boots swivel too so you can keep the armor lined up with your posing.

Shredder is proof that the good guys don’t always win.

Shredder is going to be pretty limited when it comes to posing. Mine also seems to have a loose right ankle and he’s a challenge to stand sometimes. He also already took a shelf dive and his right pauldron broke off which is irksome. I had him in a pretty vanilla pose too. The torso is aggravating because NECA could have tweaked his design just a little bit to keep that breastplate from causing a problem, but opted to just plow forward with it the way it is. I always make it a point to mention that NECA prioritizes the aesthetics over articulation as I think that’s their right as action figure makers, but sometimes they go too far. There are very minor sacrifices they could be making to improve the experience, but they choose not to do so. I have probably over a hundred NECA figures at this point and I suppose some NECA fatigue is setting in. Rarely am I impressed with what I get because so often the figures just meet my expectations as opposed to exceeding them. I don’t think it’s a requirement that every figure need to blow me away or anything, but it would be nice to be pleasantly surprised once in awhile.

Thankfully, Shredder doesn’t need incredible articulation to have shelf presence.

Shredder is a B+ entry in the line. He looks like the character and is pretty menacing, he’s just not at all fun to mess around with. Some of that is the character design as there are lots of sharp things to avoid and the blades have a tendency to fall out. And then some of that is just on the engineering for a figure that can’t do a whole lot. Most will likely just have him stand there on their shelf and that will be that. And that’s what I plan to do with him. I have no plans on going too deep with this line, but I knew I wanted a Shredder to go with the turtles. This mostly gets the job done.

If you missed the rest of the 2012 NECA TMNT toy line coverage then check these out:

NECA TMNT 2012 Michelangelo

After a bit of a hiatus due to the Christmas holiday, we have reached the last of the four brothers from NECA Toys’ line of action figures based on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the 2012 animated series that aired on Nickelodeon. And who better to save for last than the party dude himself: Michelangelo. Mikey…

Keep reading
by Joe

NECA TMNT 2012 Raphael

We are onto the third member of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and its everyone’s favorite hot head. Raphael got softened for the 1987 cartoon series to make him sarcastic and a bit of a goof-off. He didn’t take anything too seriously and had a certain dry wit about him. It’s quite different from his…

Keep reading
by Joe

NECA TMNT 2012 Donatello

We were able to get through some of the logistics of this line with Leonardo, so for this second review we can just get right to it. One of the best decisions the 2012 iteration of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles made was bringing back veteran voice actor Rob Paulsen. He’s voiced countless characters over the…

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by Joe

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December 30, 2025

NECA TMNT 2012 Michelangelo

By Joe
If Michelangelo is here then you know what time it is!

After a bit of a hiatus due to the Christmas holiday, we have reached the last of the four brothers from NECA Toys’ line of action figures based on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the 2012 animated series that aired on Nickelodeon. And who better to save for last than the party dude himself: Michelangelo. Mikey has always been the more carefree, happy-go-lucky, turtle. He doesn’t take anything too seriously and just wants to have a good time. He does have a big heart though and the 2012 version of the character was perhaps the most childlike one we’ve seen yet. He is a teenager like his brothers, but he is the smallest of the four and kind of the baby of the bunch. Maybe there’s a bit of arrested development there, growing up in a sewer probably isn’t the best for emotional growth, but he can throw down when he has to and proved himself shockingly competent when stranded in Dimension X.

Michelangelo is the only one Raph has bragging rights over when it comes to height.

Michelangelo is another sculpt by May Thamtarana with paint by Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo. He’s number two in the series and with four turtles you can almost complete the mural on the side of the boxes which was done by Ciro Nieli. Michelangelo stands at 5.25″ making him the shortest of the four, as he should be. He has a smiling, almost cherubic, portrait by default which suits the character. Like his brothers, he also has a battle portrait with whited-out eyes and a yelling expression. As perhaps the most expressive of the turtles in the show, it’s a shame we only get the two heads. I’d love a pizza scarfing head, an excited yell, or something even more cartoonish. NECA likely plans on selling us more Michelangelo figures though so they don’t want to give it all up on the first go even if the box does say “ultimate.”

All of the turtles come with a slice, but Michelangelo is the only one who definitely needs one.

Michelangelo’s proportions and coloring looks pretty accurate to the show. He has thin arms and a pear shape to his body as it widens the further down you go. The plastron and belt have some nice distress effects sculpted and painted in while the pouches for his weapons are also present. Paint is mostly clean and NECA made sure to capture the freckles on Mikey’s cheeks. I do have one bit of paint slop near the left knee where it looks like some of the brown from the kneepad transferred to the leg. He’s very pleasing to look at overall and he might be my second favorite in the aesthetics department behind Donatello.

Mikey’s weapons got an upgrade in 2012.
Old reliable.
I feel like he needs a board to make proper use of these hands.

Michelangelo comes with a fairly substantial assortment of accessories. I already mentioned the second portrait, and for hands we have a set a gripping, pointing, hang loose, a relaxed left, and a C-grip right hand. The hang loose gesture is the same that came with Leo and it’s a much better fit here with Michelangelo. The C-grip hand continues to confound me to some degree as I’m not sure what accessory it’s intended to be used with. I guess the T-Phone, though you will have to heat the hand up first as it’s not quite wide enough to accommodate it. Which, yes, Mikey has a T-Phone as well as a slice of pizza and stink bomb, same as the other turtles. He also has his trusty nunchaku which are painted plastic handles joined by real chain link. The handles come apart where the chain meets them like the toon Michelangelo’s nunchaku, only here we’re not swapping to a spinning effect. Instead, Mikey comes with the longer chain with bladed weapon at the other end. In the show, Mikey’s ‘chuks could basically extend somehow and had a pop-out blade to make them just a little more formidable.

Aww, Icecream Kitty!

The last accessory is probably everyone’s favorite: Icecream Kitty. The mutated cat that lives in the freezer is included and she’s pretty well done. The figure doesn’t move, but it doesn’t really have to. It’s a nice spread of stuff, but with Mikey it feels like more could have been included. Some soft goods, pizza-stained, briefs would have been pretty funny. Some spinning effects would have also been much appreciated. I love the real chain look, but they don’t display well since gravity is always going to do its own thing. Like the other turtles, Mikey’s gripping hands are all really stiff so you may want to heat them up in order to get him to hold anything. With the handles of his weapons coming apart at the chain, they are easier to slip into his hands than some others. His second head also would not go on for me without heat, but your mileage may vary there.

Since we’ve looked at all of the turtles now feels like a good time to bust out the Playmates originals.

Michelangelo’s articulation is the same as the others, but with him the range is a little less. His upper body is so much smaller that getting much range out of the shoulders can be a challenge. The right shoulder on mine is a bit stubborn as well at the hinge. It’s not stuck, but it also doesn’t appear to enjoy being articulated. The hips seem more restrictive as well. The rest are fine and nothing required heat in order to function. He’s going to get into some basic poses, but likely won’t impress in that department.

Ninjas on the prowl.

Michelangelo is about as good as the rest of his brothers. In my book, that makes him pretty solid. This is a line that does a good job of capturing the aesthetics of the show in a very generic way. The characters are unmistakable for what they are, but the available portraits and articulation are limited enough that you likely won’t be able to recreate your favorite scene. That’s pretty par for the course with NECA though which is very much an aesthetics forward approach with articulation and accessory count secondary. Aside from the hands, there is no reuse between the turtles so this isn’t as cheap a line to produce as some which is also probably why a lot of accessories are repeated. NECA was able to keep the MSRP at $38, which while not exactly cheap, is also not horrendously overpriced. These are a much better likeness at a far friendlier price than what Super7 did with its 2003 line. All that is to say if you liked the other 2012 offerings from NECA then you’ll like Michelangelo. And if you bought the other brothers you’re probably not skipping this one anyway. They are the best looking figures based on the show thus far and likely will remain that way for a long time to come. We may be done with the turtles, but we’re not done with wave one just yet as we have one final figure to look at: the Shredder!

If you missed the other reviews of NECA’s 2012 turtles then look no further:

NECA TMNT 2012 Raphael

We are onto the third member of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and its everyone’s favorite hot head. Raphael got softened for the 1987 cartoon series to make him sarcastic and a bit of a goof-off. He didn’t take anything too seriously and had a certain dry wit about him. It’s quite different from his…

Keep reading
by Joe

NECA TMNT 2012 Donatello

We were able to get through some of the logistics of this line with Leonardo, so for this second review we can just get right to it. One of the best decisions the 2012 iteration of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles made was bringing back veteran voice actor Rob Paulsen. He’s voiced countless characters over the…

Keep reading
by Joe

NECA TMNT 2012 Leonardo

We’re going to start this one off with a question: When you order directly from a producer, do you expect to be first in line for product? NECA’s recent launch of its Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure line based on the 2012 Nickelodeon series raised this question. On September 16, NECA launched the line…

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by Joe

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December 29, 2025

The End of an Era – There Will be No More Playmates TMNT

By Joe

Before 2025 left us, it had one big piece of news to drop when it comes to action figures: Playmates Toys will no longer hold the master toy license for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If you’re into the action figure collecting hobby or have ever been a fan of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles then you’re likely aware of how big this is. Just in case though, without Playmates there would be no TMNT as we know it today. In the 1980s, the comic was a surprise hit and it attracted the attention of Marty Freedman and his Surge Licensing brand. At the time, there wasn’t much to Surge, but TMNT co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird decided to let Freedman sell the property as a potential toy franchise. The only problem was no one was biting.

Enter Playmates Toys which, at the time, was known mostly for dolls and such. The action figure market had been burning pretty hot in the 1980s and basically every toy maker wanted to find a way to penetrate it. There was definitely an element of oversaturation come the middle part of the decade. Kenner’s Star Wars line had basically created the modern action figure, but that line had slowed considerably following the completion of Lucas’s original trilogy with 1983’s The Return of the Jedi. Mattel had made huge in-roads with Masters of the Universe, and it paired with an animated series had basically created the modern blueprint for how to market toys to boys. Playmates was the only company interested in turtles and their involvement was contingent upon an animated series being created to accompany the line. The existing comic book just wasn’t going to cut it because of its limited reach, but also because it was not a book intended for kids. Playmates provided most of the financing for the original mini series that launched the TMNT franchise which debuted in late 1987. The first wave of figures followed in the summer of 1988 and the rest is history.

The source for the news that Playmates will not be continuing with TMNT.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has never been as popular as it was around 1988-1991. Still, it’s also never really gone away and alongside the franchise this whole time has been Playmates. Peter Laird stuck with them when it came time to reboot the franchise in 2003 and Viacom stuck with the company after acquiring it in 2009. That meant toys for a new film franchise, a new animated series, and then the successors to those. In 2025, Skydance stepped in and bought Paramount, which is the parent company of Viacom. With the master toy license apparently expiring at the end of 2026, Skydance has decided not to continue with Playmates for whatever comes next for TMNT ending a partnership that lasted nearly 40 years and is responsible for what the franchise is today.

As an adult collector, I won’t pretend like the mere fact that Playmates will no longer be making toys based on TMNT is a thing that upsets me. I long ago outgrew what Playmates was doing who remained committed to creating affordable toys for children even as the demographics of the action figure consumer skewed older and older over the years. Sure, they made some attempts at more collector focused toys and their reissues of vintage-era toys over the years likely hold more appeal for adults than kids, but Playmates wasn’t out here truly trying to compete with other companies producing adult collectibles. For that, we’ve had NECA, Bandai, and to a lesser extent, Super7. For years, the master license agreement Playmates held prevented other companies from making collector-focused toys based on TMNT, but that went away in the 2010s. Collectors may have still fumed at Playmates at times since they did have a hand in ending Super7’s line of vintage recreations, but I never personally blamed them for protecting their own designs. If Super7 wanted to recreate those old toys in 1:10 scale then they needed to get the legality of that all cleared up on day one and not figure it out as they went along.

This news is undoubtedly terrible for Playmates and those who work for the company. In the notice to investors announcing the decision, Playmates included the percentage of revenue TMNT had for the company over the past several years and it’s pretty staggering. I don’t know how they replace that. This year, Playmates has tried at bringing back Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, but I have no idea how well it’s performing (based on the toy aisles around me, not well). I know they had Godzilla and Voltron somewhat recently, but neither seemed to have made a big splash. Where they go from here is anyone’s guess and I hope this doesn’t put an end to them.

With the agreement with Playmates coming to an end, does that also mean NECA’s days are numbered?

From a collector standpoint, what this means for the other companies holds great interest to me. It is not uncommon for other licensing agreements to be tied to the master license. In other words, if the master license expires at the end of 2026 for Playmates then it’s possible the same is true NECA, McFarlane, Super7, and everyone else. TMNT has become the property that has the most cooks in the kitchen these days. It’s almost comical how many companies have made TMNT figures of late. The licenses for overseas production (like JoyToy) may not be impacted at all nor may a license for an odd scale like Mondo’s who is embarking on a new line of sixth scale turtles in 2026. Or maybe they are? We don’t know, and it likely depends on what comes next.

Typically, if a company is not renewing the master license it’s because another company came in and outbid them. So far, we don’t know that to be true as no one has come forward with such an announcement. This is curious as one would expect that whoever did land TMNT would be pretty excited about it and would want to make such information known to its own investors. With Toy Fair a mere two months away, it’s possible such news is being saved for the trade show, but in today’s world that rarely seems to happen. It’s possible this news that Playmates will not hold the license after 2026 was designed to drum-up bidding for it. If Playmates apparently can’t afford it any longer it begs the question who can? Most immediately assume Hasbro could be in play. As one of the biggest toy producers in the world they’re always going to be linked to any major property that comes loose. Mattel could be in play, but that company just laid out money for the DC license – can they take on TMNT too? McFarlane, who previously held the DC license and will be losing it this coming year, just started dabbling in TMNT in 2025 – maybe that relationship has worked well? Could they possibly afford it?

Whoever does get the license will likely want more control over the property like Hasbro does with its Disney properties and like Mattel will exercise with DC. This could very well be the end for NECA, Super7, and the rest as far as TMNT is concerned. Unless one of them can manage to afford the master license or if Skydance surprises everyone and elects not to pursue a traditional master license. It’s possible that with Mutant Mayhem 2 on the way in 2027 that Skydance just wants to license that brand out to someone to make toys geared towards children. Maybe they end the general license and instead put into actual agreements certain eras of the franchise. NECA gets ’87 and 2012, Super7 gets 2003, McFarlane keeps IDW, etc. I doubt it, but until we hear otherwise I suppose it’s possible.

And why do I doubt it? Because companies like Skydance are in this to make money. Playmates likely paid more money for the master license than any of these companies and it wouldn’t surprise me if their sales are still more profitable than the collector market. As new owners, Skydance holds no allegiance to these old agreements. In corporate acquisitions, it’s not at all uncommon to see the new owner end past agreements and forge ahead with its own. They like to be able to tell their shareholders that they’re responsible for whatever revenue they make and not attribute it to the old regime. It’s stupid, but that’s how these things often go. And eliminating these deals and obligations can also lead to something else: a potential sale of TMNT.

It’s probably not a good thing when your new owner doesn’t view you as a key part of the company’s future.

When Skydance acquired Paramount this summer, new chairman George Cheaks circulated a memo in which he named the key franchises for Paramount as SpongeBob Squarepants, PAW Patrol, RuPaul’s Drag Race, South Park, Ms. Pat, and The Daily Show. Notably absent was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and this memo was often brought up in news reports about the cancellation of the Paramount Plus series Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It begs the question that if Skydance doesn’t view TMNT as a key part of its present and future does that mean they want out of the turtle business? It’s certainly possible and if the franchise isn’t tied down by any other external agreements that might actually make it more attractive to potential buyers. The sequel to Mutant Mayhem is due to arrive in the fall of 2027 and how Skydance handles that could reveal a lot. If a delay is announced early on in 2026 that could be a bad sign. It feels like anything could be on the table there as Warner Bros. has recently shown the world these massive corporations do not care one bit about cancelling a movie for tax write-off purposes.

The only certainty right now is that Playmates will stop producing toys for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at some point in 2026. Where they cut things off remains to be seen. If they have more stuff planned for the current iteration of the franchise do they continue with it or just shut it all down? Do they just go all out with rereleases in 2026 as those are quicker to produce (assuming they still have the molds) and probably sell just as well as the new stuff? It seems like if they’re ever going to cash-in on the likes of Scratch and Hot Spot now would be the time do it. As someone who fell in love with TMNT back in the 80s when Playmates came onboard I’m definitely sad to see this era come to an end for no reason other than it’s just something that’s always been. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles no longer being associated with Playmates would be like Hasbro dropping Transformers or Mattel selling off Masters of the Universe. For me, this will be the biggest shake-up in toys since Marvel went to Hasbro ending the Toy Biz era. My hope for 2026 is that these other companies don’t take anything for granted. If they’ve been holding back on anything, now is the time to do it because tomorrow is promised to no one.

If you want to reflect on the Playmates output for TMNT then maybe these will interest you:

Rad Plastic

I think it was during the summer of 2020 while spending one of the many days of that year inside and isolated that I stumbled upon a Twitter post about an upcoming book titled Rad Plastic. I believe the tweet was from the account The Toys That Made Us, which is (was?) a Netflix series…

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by Joe

Playmates TMNT Original Sketch Turtles

Last week we took a Turtle Tuesday off which feels like a rarity for this blog. And that’s because there seems to be new stuff featuring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles branding coming out all of the time. And it’s only going to become more plentiful as the franchise celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.…

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by Joe

Playmates TMNT The Last Ronin PX Previews Exclusive (Chase)

A few years ago, Mattel launched a new subline of action figures based on their most famous IP: Masters of the Universe. The subline was titled Origins and it basically took the vintage toys of the 80s and updated them with more modern articulation while still preserving that vintage aesthetic. And ever since then, collectors…

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by Joe

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December 16, 2025

NECA The Nightmare Before Christmas Ultimate Santa Jack

By Joe
What’s this?! A skeleton Santa?

Today’s review has been a long time coming. It was on December 26th, 2024 that I received in the mail a NECA Ultimate Santa Jack action figure based on The Nightmare Before Christmas. Christmas had come and gone so it didn’t make much sense to post a review, so I waited. Nearly a year, in fact, but I’m finally going to take a look at this figure. When NECA returned to The Nightmare Before Christmas in 2024 it went the predictable route by doing two Jack figures and pairing him with Sally. They also did the Mayor, so I guess that part wasn’t typical, and based on how many of those figures I see hanging around store shelves I would assume most were content to just get Jack and Sally. For toy companies, doing two versions of Jack makes a lot of sense. He spends considerable time in the movie with both looks, but also they can conceivably use a lot of the same tools to create both figures. Only, NECA actually opted not to do that from what I can tell.

Santa Jack is actually a little bigger than standard Jack.

The sculpt for this one is credited to the trio of Kyle Windrix, Marty Henley, and Andrew Lawson which is the same trio that brought us the standard Jack. This one comes in the same style of packaging that’s just credited to Chris Longo. Usually NECA credits the artist who made the actual drawings that factor into the packaging, but since one isn’t present that either means Longo did it all or Disney supplied the artwork and declined to include the artist’s name. Regardless, it fits thematically with the other figures we already looked at and will make for a fine coffin for the figure eleven months out of the year.

The prior Jack came with a bunch of expressions while with this one we have to settle for three.

Santa Jack stands approximately 8 3/8″ to the top of his head which is actually a little taller than the standard Jack. Why is this? I’m not sure, but it would appear that most of this figure is new tooling. I was expecting a new upper torso that conforms to the Santa suit and maybe new forearms and shins, but I also thought NECA might add the trimmings of the suit in another fashion. The texture of the red, which is a nice, vibrant, shade, is a little bumpy and almost chalky. I wasn’t sure if this was achieved via paint or by sculpt, but considering the different size I’d guess it’s just all new. The only parts this figure appears to share with the regular Jack are the hands as even the included expressions are different. This one necessitates holes in the sides of each portrait for the beard as well as a port for the hat, but I thought they might be able to reuse the prior heads and just insert something into the mold to create the needed ports. What we end up with though is a very nice presentation of the character from the film in his Santa guise. The paint is clean and the red has a nice matte appearance while the black boots are appropriately shiny. The skull head is a touch off-white and has that cold appearance it has in the film. There are no soft goods present and I suppose some might have preferred actual faux fur trim or a soft goods beard, but I’m content with the all plastic approach.

As long as you can’t see the hole in the top of his head, hat-less displays are possible.

Perhaps because of all that new tooling we don’t get quite as much in the box this time around. That Ultimate Jack is perhaps the figure I own that best lives up to the billing as he came with a ton of different expressions. This Jack comes with just three: smile, wink, and a surprised look. The smile and surprised look are both slightly different from the same expressions found with the standard Jack. You can use the heads from that release with this one, but you won’t be able to make use of the hat or beard as both peg into the heads. The beard is on a double ball peg while the beard has a peg on each side. It’s a little bendy and forgiving, but also mushy. I could not get it into the alternate heads without first dunking them in a cup of hot water. Santa Jack also has an array of hands including sets of relaxed, clutching, pointing, and flat hands which are all repeated from the previous release. To complete the look, he has a plastic sack and three different, wrapped, presents to go along with a candy cane and his clipboard with a picture of himself in this Santa suit. The accessories are all quite fine and will help to build out a little scene on your shelf. He also has the same stand that came with the other figures and you will need it. In fact, I recommend borrowing a second one from another release if you have one. I put regular Jack and Sally away so I had another to make use of and it helps to keep him upright.

All of Jack’s accessories will contribute to your holiday display.

The articulation for Santa Jack is exactly the same as it was for the standard Jack (linked at the end of this post). The only difference is we now have the hat and beard. The beard, since it just pegs into each side of the face, can swivel forward and back which helps a little with adjustment posing. The hat is a double ball peg so it can rotate, but also slide around a bit to be posed at slightly different angles. It’s a nice touch and obviously the only downside here is it means the hat isn’t usable with the standard Jack heads. I do wish NECA had found a solution there. A magnet makes the most sense, but maybe they couldn’t get one into the heads without putting an ugly seam on the top. It also wouldn’t solve the beard issue. If the beard could have just pressure fit to the heads somehow that would have been great, but probably tough to get right. Even something like sunglasses on a figure or the faceguard on the movie Shredder still has tabs to click onto and there’s just no way to do such here without making them visible. Or we could have just got more heads like we did with the regular Jack. I’d have loved more expressions, but it wasn’t in the cards here.

Sally may have been returned to her box, but not Zero. He gets to stay.

Santa Jack is perhaps a little less “ultimate” compared with the standard Jack Skellington, but it’s still a nice figure. The likeness is terrific and the articulation is just enough to make him rather expressive, provided you can keep him standing. That’s my one lingering critique of this line as the disc stand we get just isn’t quite enough in this case. It’s a nice holiday decoration though and if you like the film and this version of Jack it’s an easy recommend. To my surprise, I have not seen a single copy of this figure at stores this year. I’m guessing NECA has been shipping them, but apparently not in tremendous numbers. He can be found online though with hopefully enough time to arrive before Christmas.

If you like The Nightmare Before Christmas or just Christmas toys in general then take a look at these other reviews:

NECA The Nightmare Before Christmas Ultimate Jack Skellington

When Tim Burton created The Nightmare Before Christmas while working for Disney I don’t think the powers that be had any idea what kind of a gift he had just given them. Obviously they didn’t since they didn’t even believe enough in the film to release it as a Disney film instead opting to put…

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by Joe

NECA The Nightmare Before Christmas Ultimate Sally

If you buy a Jack Skellington action figure, then you almost have to get him a Sally. That’s exactly what I did, though it proved mildly difficult to track down. I have seen NECA’s Ultimate Jack Skellington around throughout the year as I head into stores that carry NECA products, but Sally had proved elusive.…

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by Joe

Jada Toys Frosty the Snowman

There are a number of Christmas specials out there that are basically known by all and I’ve written about most of them here. Some have been annual traditions especially when we had more of a monoculture in the US, but the slow death of cable television has made those annual traditions fade away. One holiday…

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by Joe

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November 25, 2025

NECA TMNT 2012 Raphael

By Joe
He’s got the most attitude on the team.

We are onto the third member of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and its everyone’s favorite hot head. Raphael got softened for the 1987 cartoon series to make him sarcastic and a bit of a goof-off. He didn’t take anything too seriously and had a certain dry wit about him. It’s quite different from his comic book portrayal where he was emotional, easily angered, and often confrontational not just with his enemies, but even his family. That Raphael was immortalized on the big screen and seemed to convert a lot of viewers into Raph fans. Perhaps that’s why his personality has mostly been kept the same for future iterations of the character, though with both Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Mutant Mayhem, his character has once again seen a softening.

Sort of like Wolverine, Raph is a bit of a short king.

For the 2012 show, Raphael was confidently in angry teen mode. He could clash with his brothers, in particular Leonardo, and was often irritated by Mikey, but his love for them is never in doubt. And since it was a Nickelodeon show, he had to keep the potty mouth in check. NECA’s take on the character is another sculpt by May Thamtarana with paint by Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo. Box art is by Ciro Nieli and Raph is number 3 in the wave making him the first being reviewed by me in proper order. Out of the box, Raph stands at about 5.375″ and unlike the previous two he’s sporting his non battle mode portrait, though since it’s Raph it still presents as a scowl.

As good as he looks, something’s off with that green.

Raph is another excellent sculpt by Thamtarana. His proportions are well captured as are the little details that make Raph, Raph. His neck and limbs are just slightly larger than his brothers as he is the more brawny turtle. There are some harder edges to the shape of his thighs and biceps and his wrist and foot wraps are the proper color. Like Donatello, there appears to be no shared parts between Raph and Leonardo, or Raph and Don for that matter. The only parts the turtles continue to share are hands. Raph has a more battle-damaged shell and his plastron has that lightning bolt like crack in the top left. He looks great, except for one thing.

I thought it might help to get an array of Raphs to illustrate my point as well as a picture from the source material.

Raphael is just not the correct shade of green. He’s a deep green similar to his Playmates counterpart. In the show, his complexion was far more pale and hued very close to Michelangelo. This darker green appears to be more common in licensing art and some of the offshoots of the show, like the Half Shell Heroes. The question here is did NECA have this color forced upon them based on the reference material Viacom supplied? Or did they just mess it up? Considering how detail-focused director Trevor Zammit is with the ’87 toon line it’s hard to imagine him not knowing what color Raphael is supposed to be. And if your first thought is, “Well, since it’s a newer show maybe he’s not that familiar with it,” know that he is on record as saying the 2012 series is his favorite depiction of the turtles. The prototypes on display at New York Toy Fair showed the same so the only thing I’m willing to rule out is that this wasn’t a factory error NECA had to roll with. It just is what it is and collectors will have to decide for themselves if it’s a deal breaker or not.

Raph comes with a buddy and a not-buddy.

Obviously, for me Raph’s complexion was not a deal breaker since I bought it knowing full well it was wrong. I can’t say I dislike this color, but I would have definitely preferred him to be screen accurate. To go along with the figure we get a secondary portrait featuring his whited-out eyes and a yell. For hands, we get the usual gripping hands, fists, and a set of the relaxed open hands Leo came with. Raph also has the slice of pizza, smoke bomb, and T-phone. For unique accessories, there’s Chompy, the baby space turtle Raph took in for a little while. You may be wondering why he didn’t come with Spike, his first pet turtle, but he’s coming with someone else. Raph also comes with his nemesis: a tiny cockroach with a tracking device. Raph hates cockroaches and this little guy would go on to become the Cockroach Terminator. He looks good, but there’s almost too much paint and it gets a little messy. Lastly, Raph has his trusty sai. They’re very thin and rigid with zero give so they’re a little scary. Do be careful with them. Because of the thinness, you may be tempted to try and fit them into the tight gripping hands, but I would still advise to just play it safe and heat those hands first. He has his weapon storage on the rear of his shell which works well.

“Want this last slice I found under my bed?”
Weapon storage.

Raph’s articulation is exactly the same as Leonardo and Donatello. His range is no better or worse than either as well, though Donnie’s thinner arms seem to get a little more range at the elbow. Like Donatello, my Raph did not have any stuck or stubborn joints. He has been pretty free and easy since coming out of his box. He does present his own frustrations, but they’re not really articulation related. The sai handles are so thin that he doesn’t get a great grip on them. They won’t really fall out, but they’ll spin around a lot when handling him. And if you’re the sort who likes to have their Raph hold his sai with the middle blade between his fingers then you will definitely want to heat the hands first. And I would reheat them to remove the sai as well. It certainly looks cool to display him this way, but I’m hesitant to leave him for too long like this out of fear it might warp the sai.

Too bad Leo has to remain eyes-out.

Raph is another solid entry in NECA’s 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy line. He is structurally the same as his brothers so if you like them you’re probably going to enjoy Raphael as well. He just comes with the unfortunate caveat that he’s not the right shade of green. And we’re not talking about a minor difference here, but a pretty obvious one. Like I said in the write-up, if that doesn’t bother you then you’re sure to like this figure. If it does, well, it might be the only thing you can see. I confess, it does bother me and it’s in the back of my mind every time I look at the figure, but I wasn’t going to not get Raphael. This isn’t a line I plan to go deep on with variants and such, but if NECA ever does a corrected Raph I might have to bite at that.

Miss any of our TMNT 2012 coverage? Check these out:

NECA TMNT 2012 Donatello

We were able to get through some of the logistics of this line with Leonardo, so for this second review we can just get right to it. One of the best decisions the 2012 iteration of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles made was bringing back veteran voice actor Rob Paulsen. He’s voiced countless characters over the…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT 2012 Leonardo

We’re going to start this one off with a question: When you order directly from a producer, do you expect to be first in line for product? NECA’s recent launch of its Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure line based on the 2012 Nickelodeon series raised this question. On September 16, NECA launched the line…

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by Joe

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November 18, 2025

NECA TMNT 2012 Donatello

By Joe
He has a way with machines.

We were able to get through some of the logistics of this line with Leonardo, so for this second review we can just get right to it. One of the best decisions the 2012 iteration of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles made was bringing back veteran voice actor Rob Paulsen. He’s voiced countless characters over the years, but many know him as Raphael from the original TMNT cartoon. For the 2012 show, the decision was made to have Paulsen play a different turtle: Donatello. It made sense to move him off Raph who is almost never portrayed in the same manner as he was in that cartoon. He’s more aggressive, frequently angry, and not the wise-cracking fellow from the old show. Not that Paulsen couldn’t adapt to a different style, but hearing his take on another turtle was an opportunity for something different.

It felt like it made sense to show Donnie with the shortest and tallest figures from wave one.

Donatello in the 2012 show is similar to past versions of the character. He’s the brains, able to come up with clever gadgets and such, but he’s also pretty introspective, insecure, and about as confused about his place in the world as most teenagers. It was fun seeing an episode where Donatello questions the worth of his bo staff. As a kid, I always saw that weapon as decidedly lame compared with what the other turtles had. Combine that with the more feminine purple of his bandana and it made Donatello the lamest turtle to my six-year-old brain. This Donatello is one I can appreciate and he has more nuance than perhaps any of his brothers. His affection for April is a long-running story and a bit tragic in some ways.

This thing can be fiddly.
“All right, a real weapon!”

NECA’s interpretation of Donatello comes courtesy of sculptor May Thamtarana with paint by Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo. Ciro Nieli did the illustrations on the box just as they did for Leonardo. Donatello stands a tick under 5.875″ giving him considerable height over his brothers, but leaving him shorter than Shredder. As the tallest turtle in the show, this strikes me as appropriate. His sculpt is almost entirely different from Leonardo’s and that’s going to be true of his brothers as well. From what I can tell, the only parts shared between the turtles are the hands. Everything else is unique which is pretty impressive and can also be a sign of variants to come.

You know Donatello is always going to have gadgets.

Donatello is very well built for not only is he taller his proportions are pretty on-model. His limbs are longer and compared to some of his brothers thicker, or thinner, depending on the turtle. His belt and plastron have the same weathered approach as Leonardo and by default he’s sporting his battle portrait. NECA and Thamtarana really nailed the shape of Donnie’s head which is smaller and rounder than the others and sits pretty high. Like Leo, he’s the most on-model interpretation of this character we have seen yet cast in plastic. He also comes with some minor assembly required. The holster for his bo is a separate piece which plugs into his shell. There’s a hole in the shoulder strap to accommodate this. The actual part is a softer plastic than basically everything else in the box and I saw some people express frustration with getting it in place. Mine went in without issue, but I also got to it shortly after it was delivered in a fairly cool climate which may have helped. If it were warm and more pliable it might have been a different story.

“Having a chicken around really pays off!”

Donatello comes with gripping hands by default as well as a set of open hands and a set of pointing hands. The right open hand is more of a C-grip hand and I assume it’s for his other accessories. He does have an alternate portrait with his pupils visible and a big, open-mouthed, smile which exposes the gap between his front teeth, a hallmark of the character. It’s a great likeness and it’s exactly the kind of portrait we want to see with these figures. He also has his trusty bo staff which can separate at the tape. This makes it a little easier to slot into his holster, but also allows for it to be switched with the included bladed end creating a naginata. Donnie’s lame weapon got a little upgrade in the show. He also has more unique accessories in the form of his microscope goggles and a homemade tracking device that appears to be made out of a Game Boy and egg beater. The goggles don’t get a snug fit on either head, but will probably stay if placed on a shelf. Donnie also has the same T-phone, smoke bomb, and pizza slice as the rest. His last accessory is Dr. Cluckenstein, the big-brained chicken. She looks good, though is just a slug figure with no articulation. Mine also came with one of the toes broken off which is a bummer. It’s the only real quality control issue I had with the wave.

Poor little fella has a broken toe.

Donatello has the same articulation as Leonardo with the only difference being his shape provides for more range in places. He can look up much better than Leo and his shoulders are easier to engage with. He’s also the figure I had the least amount of issues with out of the box as far as stuck joints are concerned. Knees and elbows all worked fine as well as the ankles. He has the same horizontal wrist hinges as Leonardo, though it’s less of an issue with his chosen melee weapon. His gripping hands are just as rigid though so you’ll want to heat them up before trying to get him to hold his staff. Even the C-grip hand isn’t particularly good for anything without some heat if you want him to actually grip something with any authority. I did have issues swapping heads again, though in this case the default portrait came off fine, it’s just the alternate didn’t want to go on. I just heated it up and that was that.

They’re a lovable bunch.

Donatello is an overall better release than Leonardo and might be the best in the line. I’ll reserve judgement for that until I’ve spent more time with the rest of wave one, but I think he just comes together in a nicer package. His articulation is slightly more forgiving, his accessories more purposeful, and best of all he has two worthy portraits for your display. He’s still not as articulated as he could be, but if you just want an on-model Donatello from the 2012 series you’ll be hard pressed to do better than this.

We have plenty more from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to refer you to:

NECA TMNT 2012 Leonardo

We’re going to start this one off with a question: When you order directly from a producer, do you expect to be first in line for product? NECA’s recent launch of its Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure line based on the 2012 Nickelodeon series raised this question. On September 16, NECA launched the line…

Keep reading
by Joe

NECA TMNT Toon Donatello’s Portable Portal Generator

Is this it? Have I finally hit the point where my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toy collecting is out of control? It just might be, for today we have Donatello’s Portable Portal Generator, the latest piece from NECA’s line of toys based on the vintage cartoon series. And it’s not that this is a bad…

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by Joe

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November 11, 2025

NECA TMNT 2012 Leonardo

By Joe
He’s the leader in blue.

We’re going to start this one off with a question: When you order directly from a producer, do you expect to be first in line for product? NECA’s recent launch of its Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure line based on the 2012 Nickelodeon series raised this question. On September 16, NECA launched the line on its own webstore where their fans could purchase the four turtles as a bundle. If they wanted to add Shredder, then the order would qualify for free shipping. It seemed like a solid deal. Then on September 28th, the same selection of characters appeared on Walmart’s website as in-stock. Those who took advantage of the NECA sale were still waiting for their order to ship, but someone who waited it out could order from Walmart that weekend and get their figures a few days later. A bit of a raw deal, but it’s just toys, right?

It’s another installment of turtles from NECA.

It gets a little more complicated when the reality that NECA fulfills all its own orders is introduced. In other words, whether you order through NECA direct or Walmart, you’re just ordering from NECA. It all gets packaged and shipped by NECA, and even though the people who ordered directly from them were charged upfront, the people who ordered through Walmart essentially jumped the line. And then following that came the shipping woes. Numerous reports of wrong orders, wrong tracking numbers, duplicate tracking numbers, and partial shipments. Several people who ordered from NECA ended up getting shipments of just Michelangelo and Shredder with an assurance the rest would ship later. This on top of NECA’s well publicized shipping woes of the prior year just added to an overall bad experience. I got my set through NECA. I ordered on the 16th of September and didn’t receive a partial shipment. I got the whole thing on October 29th. I don’t really care about when I get stuff, as long as I get it, but it is annoying to see the same company prioritize different orders. Just better communication would solve most of the issues, but apparently that’s too hard.

The likeness is pretty damn good here.

It’s a shame there was such consternation in the collector sphere for this line because I think it had a lot of positive buzz leading up to release. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Nickelodeon show was a hit both commercially and critically. It’s held in high regard by old and new TMNT fans for its successful melding of the classic comic book tales and some new stuff. It’s really one of, if not the, best takes on the franchise. As part of the 40th anniversary, Nickelodeon wanted to celebrate a lot of eras of TMNT and do so by merchandizing the hell out of it. Super7 had the 2003 cartoon shopped to them while NECA got 2012. And while I grew up on the 87 toon, the 2012 series was the one I watched with my kids. They loved it and for them it’s “their” Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles so this franchise holds a special place in my heart. When NECA announced they were doing figures from this show I was very much onboard.

He comes with a decent assortment of stuff, but I’m guessing most will just rock the swords.

And up first is the leader in blue – Leonardo. Unlike other iterations of the turtles, this is a property that can’t get by with one sculpt for four boys. The turtles from this show all had a unique appearance. It wasn’t just a different colored bandana or a belt with a shoulder strap. As a result, it feels more appropriate to give each turtle his own review. I did get Shredder as well, so we’re going to have a lot of TMNT content for a little while. I’m not sure how quickly I’ll get these reviews out because we also have Christmas to talk about, but we’ll see how it goes.

I don’t really know what these hands are for, but he comes with them.

Each turtle is sold as an “Ultimate” version with the standard five-panel packaging. It’s adorned with artwork by Ciro Nieli. The sculpt is by a name new to me, May Thamtarana, with paint by the usual NECA duo Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo. There’s no photography on the box which is a bit unusual, but it does have some spine art which will create a mural for those saving boxes. Leonardo, despite being the leader, is actually numbered 4 in the series which is just wrong. Everyone knows it goes Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, then Michelangelo. That’s the only order I’ll accept.

Scale on this line is going to be pretty interesting.

Leonardo stands at right around 5.5″. If you’re curious about scale, that would put him at a height of 5’6″ in 1:12 scale, 4’7″ in 1:10 scale. I think it’s safe to say that NECA is going for 1:12 with this line based on that. I tried to find an official height chart for the show, but came up empty. I saw lots of unsourced claims that Leonardo is supposed to be between 5’4″ and 5’6″ with one outlier saying he was a mere 5’1″. I did see one piece of production art for Leatherhead that placed Michelangelo at an even 5′ while NECA has the figure at about 5.125″ tall. In other words, I think this is close enough.

He has a gun. Cool?

What is going to be this line’s strong suit is the overall look and proportions of these characters. From the unique proportions to the shape of the limbs it’s all very evocative of the show. NECA, as usual, utilized a liberal amount of paint to bring Leo to life. The body may be molded in green plastic, but it’s coated with paint as well to give it a rich, matte, finish. There’s some nice dry-brushing on the wraps present on the wrists and ankles and some weathering to the shell. He comes ready for battle with whited-out eyes and a little slit of teeth visible which was applied cleanly. The only shortcoming I’m noticing in the presentation department are the knee pads, which while textured very nicely, do give off a shiny appearance like they’re not painted. The right-most scabbard also has some sloppy, white, paint inside it and I’m not sure why they bothered as it seems to interfere with the swords as well. On one hand, it’s some nice attention to detail if that was always visible in the show, but I’d also rather be able to insert a sword into it easily.

If it wasn’t already useless, I can’t even get this alternate head onto the figure because the ball joint keeps popping out of the neck.

Where we are going to run into some issues is with the accessory load-out. When NECA debuted these figures at Toy Fair earlier this year each turtle appeared to have the battle portrait and a more casual one. When it came time to ship them, that was still true of 3 of the 4 turtles, but not Leonardo. His alternate portrait has his eyes closed like he’s meditating. I know there was a storyline where he was unconscious a few episodes, but literally no one wanted this portrait in place of one where his eyes are open with visible pupils. It’s either really bad judgement on NECA’s part or a naked attempt at making a future accessory pack or variant figure more enticing. I usually have to reserve this mini rant for Super7, but if NECA is going to call this the “Ultimate” Leonardo figure, then he needs a portrait where his damn eyes are open. As for the portrait itself – it’s fine. If that’s what you want for your Leonardo. I can’t see myself ever using it and that’s especially true since I can’t get his default head off without having the neck joint come out with it.

This scabbard keeps falling off, which is really annoying.

Aside from that major boner, the rest of what’s in the box is pretty solid. Leonardo has his two katana, and in keeping true to the show, one is shorter than the other. Maybe it’s hard to find matching swords when you live in a sewer? It’s funny that they bothered to add this detail to the show since it’s not an obvious or dramatic difference, but it’s represented here. The swords are well-painted, but the hands he has to hold them are extremely rigid. Heat them up, don’t try to shove them into his hands, no good will come of that. In addition to those gripping hands, Leo also has a set of fists, relaxed open hands, and these odd looking hands that kind of look like a “hang loose” gesture. He also comes with a smoke bomb (basically a little egg), T-phone, and a slice of pepperoni pizza. Those three things are included with each turtle. His unique accessory is a gun that I think he acquires from The Kraang in an episode. I don’t remember it, and NECA doesn’t list out the accessories on the box, but it looks pretty cool. It’s just as hard for him to hold as his swords if you don’t heat up a hand, but he can support it with an open hand for a two-handed pose.

Everybody comes with a T-Phone, pizza, and smoke bomb.

I was curious how these turtles would pose given their more slender profile vs other iterations of the gang. For the most part though, these are NECA figures and they handle like NECA figures. The head is a double ball-joint with decent range. The neck is angled though so Leo doesn’t look up very well, but aiding that is a diaphragm joint that basically just allows the entire shoulder and neck area to rock back and forth a bit. It’s not dramatic, but it’s also not nothing. Arms are fairly basic: shoulder ball-hinge, bicep swivel, double elbows, wrist swivel and hinge. The gripping hinge is the wrong one as once again NECA failed to provide a vertical hinge for a sword-wielding character. It’s perhaps my biggest pet peeve with the company as they’re incredibly inconsistent about it. Most of the Ultimate releases in the toon get the correct hands, but we’re starting off on the wrong foot with the 2012 line. Seriously, I’d trade the stupid gun for better hands. Or a better alternate portrait.

You can pose him with the smoke bomb if you really want to.

The rest of the articulation is also pretty standard. There’s a waist twist, but the shell really limits it. The side panels seem to extend a lot lower than usual too which cuts it off further. Ball-socket hips, thigh swivel, double-jointed knees, and ankle hinges and rocker round it out. The shell/plastron interferes with range at the hips. The plastron is soft, but not that soft. He won’t kick out a full 90 degrees nor can he do splits. The ankle rockers gave me some trouble out of the box, but I seem to have them moving now without having to heat them up. I didn’t have any issues with the usual trouble spots of knees and elbows, but the shoulders are pretty tight. And since the arms are so thin, they can be a bit harrowing to manipulate. It’s hard to engage the shoulder hinge without putting strain on the bicep peg. If you’re used to NECA articulation, then I don’t think he’s necessarily much better or worse than we typically see. I do wish we would get some real innovation at this point when it comes to TMNT figures because the same old articulation schemes are getting hold. I feel like we should have ab crunches by now. If Hasbro can make a Hulk clap than surely someone can make a turtle bend over.

To match eyes or not?

Leonardo isn’t the lead-off homerun I was hoping for with NECA’s new TMNT 2012 toyline. He looks great, but the little issues with things like his scabbard, the way too tight gripping hands, the wrong hinge articulation, and that lame alternate portrait really put a damper on him. He’s also the only figure in this first wave, including Shredder, to not come with a little buddy character and that’s a bummer. The gun accessory is really well done for what it is, but it’s just so useless. I’ll never display Leonardo with a gun, which just puts more of a spotlight on what’s missing. He’s the best looking 2012 Leonardo we’ve received provided you want to display him in battle mode and that’s going to have to be good enough if you’re into this version of the franchise.

We don’t have a lot of TMNT 2012 toy talk here, but we have some plus a lot of Leonardo:

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Classic Rocker Leonardo

When I was a kid, I had parents with divergent musical tastes. Dad likes oldies from the 50s and 60s while mom was more into modern rock (then 80s). One area where their tastes overlapped was Bruce Springsteen. We had several of his records in my house and I distinctly remember that cover to Born…

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by Joe

JoyToy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

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…

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by Joe

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October 28, 2025

NECA TMNT Adventures Wingnut and Screwloose

By Joe
More characters for your Mighty Mutanimals display have arrived courtesy of NECA Toys.

NECA started down the Archie-verse of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 2022 with the Mighty Mutanimals-adjacent Slash. For most, The Mighty Mutanimals team of heroes consists of Man-Ray, Jagwar, Leatherhead, Dreadmon, Mondo Gecko, Wingnut, and Screwloose. For those folks, NECA began that team in 2023 releasing the trio of Man-Ray, Jagwar, and Dreadmon all within about a month of each other. Following that, the team has been slow to complete as 2024 saw only the release of Mondo Gecko and 2025 will only be adding the subject of today’s post, Wingnut and Screwloose.

Wingnut has some decent size to him. As for Screwloose, well he’s a little guy.

Wingnut had an inglorious debut in the companion comic to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cereal. At least, it feels like an inglorious debut, but how many kids bought a box of cereal and saw him vs how many may have picked up the Playmates toy or an issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures? I’m willing to bet Ralston-Purina sold a whole bunch of cereal boxes that year. Wingnut was a villain there and he’d be a villain (along with Screwloose) in the cartoon series, but in the Archie books he and Screwloose are heroes with an obvious Batman and Robin motif. They’re aliens and hail from a world that Krang has destroyed making them both the last of their kind. Their creation is credited to Ryan Brown, and like a lot of the Archie versions of toyline characters, their appearance here is stylistically pretty different from other sources even if the same, general, vibe remains the same.

I never thought I’d have this many versions of this duo.

NECA’s version of Wingnut and Screwloose comes courtesy of sculptors Tomasz Rozejowski and Brodie Perkins. Paint, as always, is credited to the duo of Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo and the box art is by TMNT veteran artist Ken Mitchroney. The duo has that Batman and Robin vibe most are looking for, but the dominant color with Wingnut is purple. Most of his body is a dark purple while his gloves, boots, and thigh straps are a lighter, more red, purple. He has some gray armor on his chest and shoulders and the ever-present Not Batman logo in yellow on the chest. The combo of yellow and purple makes me think of ’66 Batgirl more than Batman. He has a big, yellow, utility, belt and his mechanical wings. Unlike every other Wingnut figure I own or have owned, there are no tiny, organic, wings present in the mechanical ones. I don’t know if he lacked them or if they’re inside these ones. These wings do give him even more of a Batman silhouette because of the shape.

That is some nose you’ve got there, Wingnut.

The sculpt and the paint is the star of the show here. Wingnut has a wild expression on his face with his saliva-coated tongue flailing about. There’s some black on the top of his head which plays off of the deep purple and the pink of his inner ears very well. The sculpt is very much reminiscent of an actual bat, but there’s a slight softening to it via the more cartoonish approach of the design vs what Playmates did with the vintage figure. He does retain that…unfortunate…nose shape and it’s big, veiny, and gross. There’s some nice details sculpted and painted into the shoulder pauldrons as well as the wings. There’s the usual abundance of black linework that helps make the figure “pop” with nary a touch of paint slop.

“I got a guitar!” “I got a gun!” “I got a rock…”

The accessory load-out for Wingnut is a bit on the minimal side, especially if you’re used to this character coming with a bunch of Batman-like gadgets. There is no alternate portrait, but we do get three sets of hands: fists, gripping, and open. There’s also an extra right hand with a much wider grip so he can hold his lone weapon: a rock. It is a pretty big rock. I’m sure it would hurt, especially if thrown from above. Wingnut’s number one accessory though is Screwloose. Sculpt and paint-wise, Screwloose is every bit as good as Wingnut just much smaller. He stands a little over 3″ which feels about right and has a maroon and green color scheme with his usual black mask. He’s minimally articulated with a swivel at the head, ball-hinge shoulders, wrist swivels, ball-jointed waist, ball-socket hips, ankle hinge, ankle rocker, and ball-jointed wings. He also has his own accessory in the form of a swappable lower half. It’s permanently molded in a sitting position so he can sit in the little seat built into the back of Wingnut’s wings. His tail pokes through the seat and kind of locks him in place. Separating him at the waist is a bit tricky and required some heat to accomplish. I may have been able to force it without heating, but there’s not a lot of room to grip this little guy and I was worried about breaking the wings in the process.

Screwloose is the rare character who can smell his own ass.

Wingnut’s articulation is fairly standard for the line. You get a ball-jointed head, ball-hinge shoulders, bicep, double-elbows, wrist hinge and swivel, diaphragm joint, waist swivel, ball-socket hips, thigh swivel, double-jointed knees, and ankle hinge and rocker. The pain points continue to pretty much be the same from release-to-release with NECA. The range at the head looking up is only okay, but the diaphragm joint doesn’t help the situation really at all as it doesn’t go forward and back much. At least with this figure, the point of the armor stops it form going forward so there’s an obvious obstruction one can see that would have been hard to work around where as Archie Shredder just kind of sucked at that joint “just because.” With Wingnut, it’s just unfortunate because if you want to have him flying parallel with the ground he won’t be able to look forward. He just doesn’t have the required range to do it. He can grip the handles on his wings, though it’s a little tricky since the wings don’t always want to stay in place. The right handle popped off on mine trying to get him in place, but it appears to be engineered to do. Though I think it’s supposed to be glued. The elbows and knees were pretty tight out of the box, but I didn’t have to heat anything. And the joints are pin-less, if that’s something you value.

I wish NECA made better flight stands.

With Wingnut and Screwloose it’s pretty simple: NECA is killing it with the sculpt and overall presentation. We miss out a little when it comes to articulation as a result, and while I’d like to see them make more of an effort in that area, Wingnut is not their biggest offender. He does come at an inflated price-point of $45 currently. Thus far, he’s only been solicited at Walmart so he may even go up when offered by online retailers. It’s not a great price, but we’re also entering a world of $30 Marvel Legends figures so at least from that standpoint it certainly could be worse. I’d have liked to see NECA include a flight stand with this release since he so clearly needs it, but aside from that I’m largely okay with what we got. This release features all unique and purposeful tooling with no obvious reuse potential available. Maybe there are different colorways they can do? Perhaps a Tournament Fighters edition? NECA has mostly abandoned the video game stuff, but that would be an easy re-release. He certainly looks good on the shelf along with Screwloose and the rest of the Mutanimals. Now we just need Leatherhead and the team will largely be complete. Perhaps in 2026?

Just missing Leatherhead now.

Looking to assemble your own Mighty Mutanimals shelf? Here’s a few reviews you may have missed:

NECA TMNT Adventures Mondo Gecko

.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…

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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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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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October 23, 2025

NECA The Nightmare Before Christmas Ultimate Sally

By Joe
What’s a Jack without a Sally?

If you buy a Jack Skellington action figure, then you almost have to get him a Sally. That’s exactly what I did, though it proved mildly difficult to track down. I have seen NECA’s Ultimate Jack Skellington around throughout the year as I head into stores that carry NECA products, but Sally had proved elusive. I’m sure I could have ordered her at some point from somewhere, but I wanted to find it in store. And if I didn’t, then it wasn’t made to be. Coming in midway through the Halloween season is that NECA Ultimate Sally which I finally encountered at retail. I wasted little time in selecting my figure as they all looked pretty good and now she’s on my shelf with my Jack enjoying the fall decorations.

Sally comes in the same style of packaging as Jack. It’s an all black box with some artwork done in white. Chris Longo is credited with packaging, but I don’t know if he’s responsible for the illustration or not. Sculpt is credited to Kyle Windrix, Marty Henley, and Andrew Lawson with fabrication credited to Marty Henley. Jon Wardell and Geoff Trapp handled the paint duties.

They look good together.

Sally stands right at the 7″ mark making her noticeably shorter than Jack. The size disparity between the two looks appropriate to me. She only had one look in the film and that’s what she has here. Proportions look really nice as she has a long, slender, physique with tiny hands and feet. Her dress features sculpted stitchwork as does her flesh and a muted color palette. Her skin tone has a blueish tint to it that might be a touch too saturated for my taste. I always had the impression the lighting in the film was more responsible for the blue hue than her actual composition. Or perhaps I have it backwards and it’s the lighting that make her appear more pale in the film. Either way, it looks nice enough. The paint is clean and better than my Jack in that regard. The only thing about the appearance of the figure that is unfortunate is the tie in the packaging left behind a slight crease in her dress. I hate those god damn ties NECA uses and I would outlaw that practice if I could.

Sally is not as expressive as Jack, but still pretty damn expressive.

Sally’s articulation is pretty basic as well as pretty restricted given the character design. She’s composed entirely of plastic, no soft goods, so the dress is going to prevent her hips from doing anything. She does have a ball joint at the head and at the base of her neck so she gets decent range there. Her hair is a long sheet of plastic so it gets in the way a bit, but not enough to stop her from being able to look her beau in the eye…sockets. Shoulders feature ball-hinges, elbows are single hinged with a swivel, wrists rotate and hinge. There’s a diaphragm joint that offers a little tilt, but it mostly works for rotation. Knees are single-hinges and the ankles are hinged and do feature an ankle rocker, but her feet are so tiny it can be hard to use. Articulating her feet feels like wiggling a loose tooth.

I’m not sure if these accessories are essential, but I enjoy them.

Sally isn’t going to do much aside from stand there, but she doesn’t do much in the film nor does she come with a ton of accessories that require her to do anything. For portraits, she comes with five: neutral/smile, open mouth smile looking to the side, concerned looking ahead, concerned side eye, and an angry expression with her eyes narrowed. I like them all, though I wish she had an open-mouth smile without the side eye as well. Her expressions swap via face plates and it’s easy to utilize. She also has two sets of hands which are easy to swap: open palms and gripping. It’s a light assortment of hands, but I can’t think of any gesture she needs to be able to perform not covered by the options included.

NECA is doing a good job of making these NBX figures earn that “ultimate” label.

Sally’s other accessories are mostly tailored to her time in her tower and some other odds and ends. She comes with the basket she brought to Jack when she worried he wasn’t taking care of himself (does a skeleton really need to?). For contents, there are two white bottles one marked with an S and the other P which makes me think salt and pepper, but it would be odd to have those in bottles, no? There’s also a translucent green bottle which is from the movie. Sally also comes with her slotted spoon and the jar of deadly night shade. The jar has some really nice texture and paint work on it to the point where I expect it to feel like a true ceramic every time I pick it up. The black cat is also along for the ride and he has a little plate with fish bones on it. The cat is articulated at the head and no where else. Sally also has a jack-in-the-box with a black cat theme to it as well as a smiling jack-o-lantern. Lastly, she has a stand just like Jack’s which you will need since her feet are so tiny. She stands okay with it, but I did have her take a shelf dive the first night so do be careful.

She’s not sold on this whole Christmas thing.

Sally is a fine addition to NECA’s Nightmare Before Christmas collection. I don’t think she looks quite as good as Jack, but that’s not a slight against this figure as I think that Jack looks pretty damn amazing. This collection should be the final say on this film in plastic form. I can’t imagine ever needing to upgrade on either Jack or Sally. Some might prefer soft goods to the all-plastic approach NECA took, but I am not one of those people. I think this looks great, I don’t need her to come with anything else, and I don’t need her to articulate any better than she does here. I guess she can’t really kneel on the ground as she did in her omen scene, but maybe that’s also why NECA didn’t include a little Christmas tree or burned one. She’s on my shelf with Jack where I suspect she’ll be for many Halloweens to come and I may even let her hang around for Christmas. If you’re a fan of the film I think you’ll be pleased.

Simply meant to be.

If you like this Sally figure, then you may be interested in these ones as well:

Marvel Legends Gamerverse Captain America vs Venom

We’re going to be doing a lot of 2025 catch-up here as Christmas always slows things down. Toy producers also like to push product for the holidays so I seem to always end up with a backlog at the end of the year. Especially when stores are doing generous sales and convincing me to buy…

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NECA TMNT 2012 The Shredder

Just about every iteration of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has its own Shredder. He’s the big bad villain of the franchise despite having the dubious honor of being killed off in the very first issue of the comic book series. For the 2012 series, Shredder was back as the head of a crime syndicate…

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The 2025 Action Figure Round-Up

It’s the end of the year so that means it’s time for year-end awards and accolades. It’s easy content and who doesn’t enjoy reflecting on another year gone by? Unless, of course, that year was a bad one. I don’t think 2025 is going to go down in history as a particularly good year, but…

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October 21, 2025

NECA The Nightmare Before Christmas Ultimate Jack Skellington

By Joe
All hail the Pumpkin King!

When Tim Burton created The Nightmare Before Christmas while working for Disney I don’t think the powers that be had any idea what kind of a gift he had just given them. Obviously they didn’t since they didn’t even believe enough in the film to release it as a Disney film instead opting to put it on the company’s Touchstone brand. In creating what is now a beloved film, Burton gifted Disney something it values more than art itself: merchandizing. In particular, a product that could be sold and tied into the two most commercialized holidays on the planet: Halloween and Christmas. It’s a film that stars Halloween characters creating their own Christmas special. Or, to perhaps put it simpler, it’s a Christmas movie with a Halloween aesthetic.

With the Halloween season upon us it felt like a good time to take a look at a figure that I’ve had in my possession for a little while now: NECA’s Ultimate Jack Skellington. NECA released action figures based on The Nightmare Before Christmas many years back, but in 2024 the company decided to return to the franchise with some all new sculpts. There isn’t much shortage for merch based on the film these days, but NECA felt like it had something to say where the characters are concerned. Those old toys were okay for their time, but could use an update. Super7, Diamond Select, Beast Kingdom, and more have all tried to put their stamp on the franchise as well in recent years to varying degrees of success and failure. NECA, always being more of a horror brand when not making Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, must have felt like it could top them all and they may have done just that.

I feel like it only makes sense to compare him to a Halloween-type figure and a Christmas one.

Jack Skellington was one of four figures released by NECA at the end of 2024. Missing Halloween, but arriving in time for Christmas was Jack, Sally, the mayor, and a Santa variant of Jack. I had planned on reviewing at least some of those figures for Christmas last year, but I never had an opportunity to buy this particular figure during that window. And that’s fine, because as a standard Jack this is firmly in the Halloween part of the film and a better figure for this very moment.

There are so many expressions included.

Jack comes in the standard Ultimates style box with artwork on the front and photography on the sides and back. There’s no credit for the artwork so I assume it’s from Disney. It certainly looks nice if you’re an in-box collector, but I am not. Once Jack is removed from the box he’ll stand around 8.25″ to the top of his head. He’s composed entirely of plastic with no soft goods at all. The plastic is also fairly rigid including the tails on his coat and his bow tie. The proportions look spot-on to the source material with incredibly thin, long, limbs. The body looks like it’s all black plastic with white lines painted onto it for his tuxedo. There’s an intentional wiggle to those lines reflecting the look in the film and I almost wish I had two figures to compare each other to see if there’s a random element to the shape of the lines or if this is taken from the film. The application isn’t perfect. There’s some messy paint on the right thigh of my figure that I lament not noticing at the store when I picked this guy up as I had a few to choose from. The backside of the coat tails also aren’t painted, or if they are it’s a touch glossy and I wish it were matte. The white of the hands and the chest are clean as is the head.

And speaking of, that head is magnificent. They all are, actually. NECA really captured the look of Jack with each and every portrait in this box and it’s what sells the figure. By default, we have a smiling Jack portrait but there’s also a mischievous grin, an open mouthed smile, angry smile, a look of wonderment, an “Ooo” mouth, a scared portrait, and a howling one. That’s eight total portraits, if you weren’t counting, and you practically have enough to do your own stop-motion with this figure. There’s also four sets of hands to add to the expressive nature of the figure and they are relaxed, pointing, gripping, and I guess what I’d consider clawing. He doesn’t have a tight gripping hand, but aside from that I can’t think of anything that’s really missing. Some of the heads are better than others when it comes to paint, but mostly to how the head was extracted from the mold. My howling head has a blemish by the left eye and a couple of them have little divots in the top of the skull. They should hopefully be visible in the pictures.

He’s a good boy.
For ambience.
Something’s missing…

We have a few other accessories to talk about including the best, little, ghost dog around: Zero. He’s sculpted in this milky, translucent, plastic with a nicely painted jack-o-lantern nose. His head rotates, but that’s all for articulation. He does come with a transparent ball-socket stand that gets the top of his head about 3.5″ off the surface if you’re keeping him parallel with the ground. You can tilt and move him about on the stand and it’s a solid way to pull off Zero. I wish the plastic had more of a blueish hue to it instead of a yellowish one, but I’m happy we got a Zero with Jack. The other accessories include a pair of jack-o-lanterns, the jack-o-lantern jack-in-the-box (that’s a lot of hyphens), and the framed picture of Jack holding yet another jack-o-lantern (he is the Pumpkin King, after all). Lastly, there’s a clear, oval, stand for Jack that works only so well. It has two pegs on it, but I’ve found if I actually use both pegs that Jack will fall over eventually. The jack-o-lanterns help here because they have some weight to them so you can plop on the stand to help stabilize things. I think it works best to only use one foot peg on the stand and turn it so it’s pointing out from Jack for a little more coverage that way, though given the proportions and tiny feet in play here, this is a figure that’s never going to be 100% secure on your shelf. He really needs more of a doll stand to grab him at the waist. Just be mindful with where you leave this guy on a shelf.

Articulation for Jack is basic, but also pretty substantial given what’s here. He has a simple ball joint at the head and another at the base of the neck. Since there’s really nothing to get in the way, Jack can look up and down pretty well even with the neck joint having minimal range. From there, we get ball-hinge shoulders, hinged elbows, hinged wrists that swivel, ball-jointed diaphragm, ball-socket hips, hinged knees, hinged ankles, and ankle rockers. Even though the knees and elbows are single hinges, they bend well past 90 degrees because there’s just nothing to impede them. You can swivel at both points as well, but the pins are tiny and I can’t say I like the feel there. The diaphragm joint rotates pretty well, but doesn’t move forward and back much. The hips will let Jack do splits while the angle of the pelvis won’t let him kick out straight, but the leg will go off to the side and pretty high. He’ll pretty much do what you need him to do, but there’s no getting around that his limbs are all very thin and slender. There’s a fear element to working some of these joints out of the box. Bending the knees the first time was one of those moments where I just had to take a deep breath and see how it goes. Everything has been fine so I’m not saying there’s any issues with the durability or quality control, but the design of the character is going to lead to at least the perception that this is a fragile figure. And I don’t think there’s any getting around that, but from what I’ve experienced the figure is structurally sound.

This is a really satisfying figure to own.

If you have ever wanted an action figure of Jack Skellington then I think you’ll be very happy with this NECA figure. NECA captured the look and personality of the character to near perfection. If it can be helped, I just recommend finding him in store where you can cherry pick the best paint job available and mind those lines. I was caught up in making sure the heads looked as pristine as possible and didn’t even look at the legs, not that I should have to, but I wish I had. Otherwise, I love the look of this one and he looks like a puppet from the film. You could probably substitute this figure into a shot of the movie without anyone noticing. Getting Zero included is a great perk while the other accessories help for a festive, Halloween, display. And if you want to leave him up all the way through Christmas then you’re more than welcome to, though NECA also has a solution there as well.

If you liked reading about this Jack Skellington then here’s some more seasonal fare that may interest you:

12 Films of Christmas #8: The Nightmare Before Christmas

Is it a Christmas movie? Is it a Halloween movie? Can a film be both? That seems to be the big question surrounding Tim Burton’s multi-holiday classic The Nightmare Before Christmas. Released on Disney’s Touchstone label (because the company was too scared to be directly associated with the film at first) around Halloween 1993, The…

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by Joe

Funko Pop! Halloween Huey, Dewey, and Louie

There’s a scourge taking over our local record stores, clothing outlets, and gaming boutiques. It comes in mass quantities dominating its chosen territory at the expense of other merch. It swears no allegiance to anyone and will even place mortal enemies side by side as it amasses an army of licensed property of yesterday and…

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Dec. 12 – Teen Titans Go! – “Halloween vs. Christmas”

  It’s a battle for the hearts of children around the world! What is the superior holiday:  Halloween or Christmas? Today’s entrant is founded on the premise that Halloween is the only holiday to rival Christmas as far as what children look forward to most. This feels more or less on point as a kid…

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by Joe

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