Tag Archives: neca

April 14, 2026

NECA TMNT Usagi Yojimbo – Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael

By Joe
After ceding their spot to a rabbit last week, the turtles return to Tuesday.

Last week, we took a look at the first figure in a line of action figures based on the artwork of the legendary Stan Sakai, creator of the comic Usagi Yojimbo. That first figure was the rabbit himself, Miyamoto Usagi, and he was drawn from the latest crossover between the two franchises which took place in 2023. Now, we turn to the turtles. NECA has given us a lot of turtles over the years, but only a few can trace themselves back to a specific artist. And, like these ones, they’re usually found in the comic subline of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and this time we’re getting Sakai’s take on the heroic reptiles. It feels like more often than not it’s Usagi who is coming into the world of TMNT and his look is reinterpreted based on whatever the look of that medium happens to be so getting action figures based on Sakai’s artistry feels like something that has been long overdue.

Not a ton of stuff in the box, but I also don’t know what more is needed?

Now, you may be wondering why I decided to give Usagi his own write-up while mashing all four turtles into a single one. And if your assumption is because this is essentially the same figure times four then you are absolutely correct. Like most TMNT lines, the turtles all share the same body and the only distinguishing characteristic between the four are their belts, portraits, and weapons. And while Usagi got three heads and multiple accessories, the turtles mostly share all the same stuff and even their alternate portrait isn’t unique. It does lead me to assume that NECA budgeted more for Usagi and the savings in reusing tools for the turtles was put into his figure. I’m not entirely sure how the licensing works here. Sakai is obviously compensated for Usagi while Paramount is getting their money for turtles, but is Sakai getting anything for his design work on the turtle figures? Does Paramount get any money for the Usagi figure since it still says “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” on the box? I don’t know the answers to any of that, but one would assume a line with essentially two licensing fees would be more expensive to produce, but the cost to the consumer is essentially the same as most NECA products so I suppose that’s a good thing. The boxes are also all the same save for the main color and the credits for these guys are the same as those for Usagi which will be linked at the end of this entry.

For alt portraits, Leo and Don share an expression as do Mikey and Raph.

Sakai’s take on the turtles has proven quite popular. NECA indicated a lot of positive feedback to the reveal which happened over a year ago and in my own circle of collectors it seems everyone really likes them. Sakai’s approach is a somewhat boxy proportioned turtle, but one that retains a lot of soft, round, edges. The plastron is quite rectangular with a fang-like quality to the base. The limbs are chunky, but muscled, and the feet are a tad oversized. The shell is in the shape of an oval with a simplified pattern in the middle of a large, elongated, hexagon in the center flanked by six, soft, pentagons. I say “soft” because the two on the side barely feature a point in the center making them more like a quadrilateral. The turtles each have their own coloration which seems to correspond with the 2012 series. Donatello may be a touch more saturated and Raph more pale (he’s no where close to the shade of green of NECA’s 2012 Raphael, but that one also doesn’t match the source). The only color is reserved for the bandanas and Leo and Donnie’s are almost a pastel shade of blue and purple, respectively. The belts are all unique with both Leo and Don getting some pouches on the front. All of the turtles have weapon storage and Michelangelo rolls with the unique holsters on the front of his belt as opposed to the back. Leonardo’s scabbards are also arranged in a parallel fashion as opposed to an X.

Leo looks a little intense for this to be a sparring match.

The paint is in the same style as NECA’s other comic interpretations. The colors are nice and matte and there’s an abundance of black linework painted onto the figures. It’s everywhere and really adds to the comic vibe of the source. It’s very clean and crisp with very little paint slop to be found. There’s a fleck of orange on Mikey’s plastron that I assumed transfered from the bandana tails in the packaging. I can’t really find any imperfections on Raphael and Donatello while Leonardo may be missing a tiny bit of black in his teeth. And speaking of, each turtle comes with a unique portrait by default. I really like how the open mouthed expressions on both Leo and Raph accentuate that rounded-off look Sakai gave them via the curl of their lips. There’s also this excess of black lines in Raph’s brow that really captures his personality. Donatello has a very stoic, almost grumpy, expression by comparison and Mikey has a cheerful one. He has inverted “U” shapes to represent his closed eyes and his smile is flat white with no teeth lines sculpted or painted on. It’s adorable. I think it’s the personality captured by these portraits combined with the clean presentation that really sold the public on these designs. They’re inherently charming and I find it impossible not to love them.

“Hey dude, you don’t need to be so serious all the time. Have a pizza!”

As for the rest of the stuff, well that’s a little less exciting. Each turtle comes with a set of gripping hands and a set of fists. Donatello also gets a set of more relaxed gripping hands, Raphael a set of finger pointing/sai grip hands, while Leo and Mikey each get a set of open hands. For alternate portraits, each turtle has basically a frown with one side of their mouth baring teeth – the classic TMNT expression. Donatello and Leo share the same portrait with the right side of the mouth open while Raph and Mikey have their grimace to the left. Each turtle also has a throwing star if that’s something you value. What most actually do want and expect are the unique weapons for each turtle. Raph’s sai have some nice size and the brown handles match his padding. Leonardo’s swords have a black and gray diamond pattern on the hilt and slot into the scabbards seamlessly. Donatello’s bo is in one piece as opposed to the break-away model we often see, but it looks fine and the paint on the gray wrappings with black outlining is clean. Mikey is perhaps the laggard here as his nunchaku are all plastic. The handles are black with a blue line that I think is a nice touch, but the connecting plastic for each handle is just plastic. There’s no bendy wire and they’re quite rigid so there’s no posing here. They fit into his belt just fine, so that’s a plus. The gripping hands across the board are also reasonably soft so getting weapons into hands is not much of an issue. If you want Raph to hold his sai in a more unorthodox manner then you may want to soften the hands up a bit, but otherwise you should be good to go out of the box with these guys.

That’s as far as the hips are going to go out to the side.

These being NECA figures, one likely has low expectations for the articulation and if so then expectations met. Though, in a way, NECA underperforms here and it’s related to one issue. The sidewalls, the tissue between the plastron and shell, is one, big, piece with these designs. It’s like the whole shell and plastron is one big overlay. Ordinarily, NECA doesn’t do that and you can see the hip joint when looking at a turtle figure from the side. The movie turtles do this as they had to match the movie, but those designs were less restricting and probably because actual people had to wear those things. With these figures, the plastic extends well past the hip and onto the thigh. It essentially takes away most of the hip range, one of the few spots where NECA’s turtle figures are ordinarily okay as they can get their legs out to the side for splits. These ones are limited to maybe 45 degrees there, and there’s no usable waist twist to take advantage of. Kicking forward is severely restrained by the placement of the plastron and the shell prevents the leg from going back. There’s also the slightly odd aesthetic of NECA utilizing pinned joints at the knees, but opting for pin-less at the elbow. It’s an all together odd double-joint as the top is like the old style NECA double jointed elbows where the top would peg into the thigh with a hinge below it and the bottom would do the same. Except here we get the peg and hinge on top, but just a hinge on the bottom thus necessitating the need for a pin through the calf. I think they did this with the movie Shredder/Foot, but I don’t know if I’ve seen it outside of that. As for the rest, the arms are fairly basic and the head range is probably what one would expect. Leonardo does get the preferred vertically hinged gripping hands, but for some reason no one else does.

If you think these guys all look pretty cool together then by all means go out and grab ’em, but don’t expect to be doing much posing.

The end result with the NECA Stan Sakai turtles is pretty much in-line with what I had to say about Miyamoto Usagi – if you love the look of these designs then that’s the only reason to get them. They’re not going to pose well and the value is less with the turtles than it was with Usagi because of all the shared parts. The design of these turtles was never going to lend itself well to articulation, but I do wish NECA had gone lighter on the sidewalls to free up the hips. Someone willing could probably trim that area and open these guys up a bit, but I’m not that someone. I do think they look great. On a technical level, they’re not as impressive as the Usagi figure, but the stylization is wonderful. NECA’s strength is in translating art to plastic and they certainly nailed it here. The execution of the paint is damn near flawless, and while this isn’t the most demanding paint job I’ve ever seen, it’s still impressive to see how clean it is on this scale. Based purely on aesthetics, these turtles are instant favorites for me. I think if I could only save one set of turtles in a fire it would likely be the NECA movie figures or maybe the Bandai ones, but these guys would be hard to ignore too. Though if I’m being practical I should probably put the original Mirage turtles ahead as they’d be the hardest to replace. At any rate, these guys look great and I am quite pleased just looking at them. They bring me joy, and in the end, isn’t that what this hobby is all about?

If you liked this one we have plenty of related topics to interest you here:

NECA TMNT Usagi Yojimbo – Miyamoto Usagi

Stan Sakai stumbled into a pretty good thing when he met the co-creators of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, and struck up a creative friendship. It would seem all liked and appreciated each others work with Eastman and Laird’s ninja turtles and Sakai’s samurai rabbit. The fateful little pairing would eventually…

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by Joe

NECA Mirage Studios Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4-Pack

When it comes to the popularity of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a lot of the credit goes to Playmates Toys. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created the characters born out of a joke. Credit them for having the vision to think this joke had appeal beyond their small circle as they self-published Teenage Mutant Ninja…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Toon The Adventures of Space Usagi

When it comes to NECA’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line of action figures based on the old cartoon, I’ve pretty much been all-in. The only figures I’ve passed on have been the style guide variants for the turtles. That will probably change in 2024 as the collection has grown quite large and has hit on…

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by Joe

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April 7, 2026

NECA TMNT Usagi Yojimbo – Miyamoto Usagi

By Joe
The samurai rabbit is back at it.

Stan Sakai stumbled into a pretty good thing when he met the co-creators of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, and struck up a creative friendship. It would seem all liked and appreciated each others work with Eastman and Laird’s ninja turtles and Sakai’s samurai rabbit. The fateful little pairing would eventually lead to Sakai’s rabbit and the turtles crossing over in each other’s works and even a publishing deal with Mirage Studios for a time. Likely more lucrative for Sakai was Usagi being included in both the Playmates toy line for TMNT and the 1987 series. Usagi Yojimbo, as the fanbase knew him, would go on to appear in other shows and toy lines and there’s a pretty good chance that most who know of the character know of him first and foremost via his interactions with the turtles.

If you have been around the fandom long enough then you probably know we have a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster thing going on with Usagi Yojimbo. The name of the books from where the rabbit comes is titled Usagi Yojimbo, while the character’s name is actually Miyamoto Usagi. I don’t know why he was credited as Usagi Yojimbo within the turtle franchise, but it has stuck with a lot of fans even as later incarnations of the franchise (like the 2012 series) corrected it. For its own TMNT toy line, NECA was smart to secure the licensing rights for Sakai’s samurai rabbit for inclusion in the company’s toon toy line. This apparently even boxed out other companies like Super7 who had a mock-up for their own version of the character that had to be trashed. NECA utilized the license to do the expected and release an action figure of the character based on his appearance in the old cartoon, but they’ve also done other variations like a space version, an armored one, and even a four-pack of different looks. For all of them, NECA stuck with their base design of the toon version with one of the four-pack versions sporting more of a Sakai likeness in the face. It’s only now that we’re getting a true Stan Sakai version of his classic character molded in plastic.

This is hardly NECA’s first dance with Usagi.

In 2023 the turtles once again crossed over with Usagi in a story written and illustrated by Sakai. NECA has used that series as the basis for its new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Usagi Yojimbo line consisting of Usagi and the four turtles. We’ll talk about the turtles next week, but for this one I felt like we should let the rabbit take the spotlight first. As I mentioned already, this is a version of Usagi that is unquestionably based on the artwork of Stan Sakai. He’s taller, more imposing, and all decked out in armor unlike the more simplified toon version many are used to. This is a line sculpted by Tomasz Rozejowski and Kushwara Studios with paint by the duo Mike Puzzo and Geoff Trapp. Each figure is sold separately, but not in the typical five-panel NECA Ultimates box. Instead it’s more of a standard window box like we’re accustomed to seeing with the retro cloth figures. Each release is numbered with Miyamoto Usagi being number 1 and the box is color-coded as well. There’s some scenery illustrated by Ben Seto, but most of the box art is reserved for photographs of the figures and they’re by Stephen Mazurek. I’m a little surprised there’s no art from Sakai like a mural for the side of the box, but such a thing would also be wasted on me since I’m going to throw these out. It’s probably a good thing that I planned to do that from the start as my Usagi box got pretty banged up in transit. I got these all direct from NECA via Target’s website when they went up for order on March 20th as part of the Haulathon event we all so love dearly.

His posing is going to be limited, but he can get his hand onto the hilt of his blade while it’s still partially sheathed.

Usagi stands at about 5.25″ to the top of his head not factoring in the ears. Out of the box he sports a rather grim expression and his hears are bound together as they so often are like a ponytail which is sculpted to appear to be blowing in the wind. He has that trademark arc over his left eye Sakai so often illustrates and there’s some fur sculpted to the edges of his cheeks, but that’s it as far as textured fur goes. Usagi is decked out in a lovely blue suit of armor which includes a lighter blue undershirt that is covered with a checker pattern on the sleeves. The armor is textured and fully-painted and looks absolutely gorgeous. I am a sucker for blue so I’m predisposed to like this design, but I am really blown away with the accuracy of the paint applications. There’s rivets of red and panels of black and gold and if you’ve ever painted something black and gold then you know how ugly that can get with an unsteady hand. The paintwork continues onto the rear of the figure, no skimping out here, and there are subtle embellishments of black linework to give the figure that comic look. The pants are all black and he’s sporting brown sandals. The paint job isn’t perfect, there’s a little bleed in spots on the shoulder pauldrons and the left foot has a faint yellow mark on the otherwise white foot, but for a mass-released item at $38 I have no complaints. This figure looks spectacular.

Ears are swappable, and easily so.

Usagi comes loaded with accessories – more than the turtles. For portraits, we get the previously mentioned grim expression as well as a smirk and a gritting teeth expression. Each head has a set of ears which can be moved from portrait to portrait. We have the windswept ears plus down ears and a more neutral look. Swapping ears is painless while swapping heads is a bit troublesome. I had to use heat to get the stock head off. The hands are much easier to swap and for those we get a set of fists, gripping, and open hands. Other accessories include a pouch, and having not read the story I have no idea what’s in it. Usagi can hold it, but there’s no place to store the pouch on his belt which is a bit unfortunate. He also has his sword which features a lime green wrap and yellow trim. Paint rub can happen if you’re not careful when inserting it into his hand, but the hands are a bit softer than usual for NECA so it’s not too hard to get it in place. Usagi also has a scabbard permanently affixed to his belt and the sword slides into that just fine. There’s also an included Tokage decked out in armor similar to Usagi’s. If you don’t know what a Tokage is, they’re little dinosaur-like creatures from the book. It’s a slug figure so no articulation, but the paint app is nice and he’s a fun, cute, addition.

I feel like the ears down look is best suited for things like hoods, which this figure does not have.

NECA usually impresses with the aesthetics when it comes to action figures and not so much with articulation. Usagi here is, unfortunately, no exception to that rule. He’s pretty limited and the intricate armor isn’t going to make things easier, but believe it or not, he’s better than the turtles we’ll be talking about next week. For articulation points we have the ears, head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees, and ankles. The elbows and knees are both single joints. You won’t get a 90 degree angle at either and the knees don’t seem to want to swivel on mine. This is a bit irksome as the left leg isn’t centered, but it thankfully is only visible from the back. Since I can’t line the hinge up with the opening in the thigh it means the range on my left leg is even worse than the right. The ankles and range at the head are at least a plus, and in a surprise move NECA actually included vertical hinges on the gripping hands! This is something they didn’t include in the original toon Usagi and I honestly almost forgot to check here as I had given up on NECA going back to this method after they declined to do this for the 2012 Leonardo. I should add that the shoulder pauldrons are mounted with pliable plastic so they do a decent job of getting out of the way when articulating the shoulders, though I’d be hesitant to leave them posed in such a fashion for fear of them permanently assuming an unflattering position.

That Stan Sakai fellow does good work.

Miyamoto Usagi looks absolutely resplendent in his samurai armor and the portraits and overall vibe really do a tremendous job of capturing Stan Sakai’s artwork. He has enough stuff while the articulation is going to severely limit the ability to pose him like a proper samurai. NECA’s articulation shortcomings have started to ware on me over the past year or so, but here I’m more forgiving because I am absolutely in love with how this guy looks. He doesn’t need to assume an elaborate pose to have presence on a shelf. I considered passing on this release at first thinking I could just be happy with the turtles, but once I got a good look at it I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I currently have no idea where I’m going to display this mini collection in my home, but I consider it a good problem to have. This is the best figure of Usagi we’ve ever received and it’s unlikely we’ll get a better one anytime soon.

If you’re a fan of the samurai rabbit and TMNT then you may appreciate these figure reviews:

NECA Cartoon TMNT The Tale of Usagi Yojimbo

The early issues of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles released by Mirage Studios include a few guest stars here and there. One of them comes from the pages of Usagi Yojimbo, the samurai rabbit by the name of Miyamoto Usagi. The pairing of samurai rabbit and ninja turtles was a big enough success that it migrated…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Toon The Adventures of Space Usagi

When it comes to NECA’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line of action figures based on the old cartoon, I’ve pretty much been all-in. The only figures I’ve passed on have been the style guide variants for the turtles. That will probably change in 2024 as the collection has grown quite large and has hit on…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Toon Granny Bebop and Baby Rocksteady

When 2025 is all said and done I think we’ll look back on it in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collector sphere as the year the NECA toon toyline started showing its age. For some, that probably already happened. Jersey Red, Chakahachi, Lotus Blossom – who the heck are these characters? They are pretty deep…

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by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, toys

March 10, 2026

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios The Shredder – Worms of Madness

By Joe
Bring on the madness!

NECA’s dance with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles began way back in 2008 with a set of four turtles based on the first issue of the comic series. That set would then have other figures crafted around it of which most were cancelled, but when the license opened up and TMNT proved a hot seller they all found their way into the hands of collectors. A couple of years ago, NECA went back to the well and produced a new set of turtles based on their later look in the Mirage Studios run of comics based on the artwork of Jim Lawson. Those bigger, bulkier, turtles looked out of place with the old Shredder NECA produced based on his first appearance so it was all but assumed that an update would follow at some point. That update arrived in 2025 in the form of the Worms of Madness Shredder two-pack which was released at Walmart and also offered up to online retailers for the low, low, price of $60. More in some places. Despite my desire for a new Shredder based on his return appearance, I was not interested in this two-pack at that price. And that’s because the second figure in the set is basically a repaint of the initial one only shirtless and maskless so I played the waiting game. I knew it was only a matter of time before Walmart put this on clearance because they have a tendency to do just that, sometimes very quickly too. When the set was dropped to $30, I placed an online order and picked it up from my local store later that day. Mission accomplished!

2025 was really the Year of Shredder for NECA, and this isn’t even all of them!
He’s going to fit in well with your Lawson turtles.

This set probably looks weird to someone not familiar with the Mirage run of comics and the name Worms of Madness isn’t helping. What most TMNT fans are likely aware of is that the Shredder was never intended to be some evergreen opponent for the turtles. Truly, I don’t think co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird ever expected to do multiple issue of what was ostensibly a gag comic which is probably why the Shredder was killed-off in that inaugural issue. When the franchise made the leap to children’s television and the toy aisle, the desire for a standard rival was created and the Shredder was the best fit. Perhaps Eastman and Laird felt the same for they laid the genesis for Shredder’s return in the Leonardo one-shot published in 1986. Considering that Shredder was literally blown up, it was going to be a hard sell to the reader for him to be alive all of a sudden. Enter the worms! I don’t know if I ever quite understood where these things came from, but essentially the Foot mystics had access to some special worm that could take on the form of whatever it ate. They basically gathered up whatever remained of the original Shredder, fed it to some worms, and from that we got a new Shredder (as well as the malformed clones NECA has already immortalized in plastic). The only truly relevant thing to know here is that when Shredder was brought back he took on a different look that was more reflective of the evolving art style in the books. He was taller, broader, and all together just more imposing to look at. This is a Shredder that will fit in with your Lawson turtles, and considering that NECA never reissued those first appearance turtles, this is likely the Shredder most will want in their collection over what has been made available up to now which makes this two-pack all the more frustrating since the other figure may not be something most people want.

He’s imposing.
Shredder clones – assemble!

Shredder stands at a full 7″ and is another sculpt by Gurjeet Singh who previously sculpted the Foot Elite Assassin. The two are very similar stylistically and I would have expected them to share parts, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Yes, they likely share some as the musculature of the abs on both is pretty much the same, but the sash is different. Shredder is also pin-less at the knees and elbows so while the arms appear to be more or less the same, some updates had to be made for Shredder in order for him to be pin-less. That must have been a driver for NECA with this figure as they probably could have just reused the arms, legs, and maybe even the chest and called it a day, but opted not to. Shredder is mostly clad in a skin-tight, dark red outfit that has a vague hint of purple to it. It’s more purple than the Elite and the browns on the sash, boots, and gauntlets are a more Earthy brown than the Elite. The metal portions are all a shiny silver with an ever so slight hint of blue. There’s also some sculpted distress details like this is a guy who has seen his share of battles. The black linework is frequent throughout and I continue to love the completely black-out flesh beneath the helm as that’s how the character was colored in the comics. He’s long of leg with a slightly undersized head which really conveys that comic look. This is definitely a more intimidating Shredder and I’m content with the looks of it.

Back dat ass up!

For accessories, Shredder has multiple sets of hands: fists, gripping, chop, and open. For weapons, he has a pair of swords that you’ve probably seen before as well as the smaller version of the bladed polearm (I think this came with Karai too). There’s also a tiny worm since you can’t have a Worms of Madness set without the worm. And then there’s the other Shredder. He’s his own figure, but in a way feels like an accessory. In the books, the turtles tangle with Shredder and eventually he removes his shirt and all of the armor on his head and arms to reveal his weird, wormy, body. It’s basically just a textured body with lots of lines carved into it. I’m thinking maybe to mimic the look of an earth worm? I don’t know, but for the figure you get a duplicate sculpt with different forearms to remove the wraps and armor. There are lots of subtle grooves in the torso with a paint wash applied to bring them out. I don’t know enough about toy making to know if this necessitated new molds or if this distress could be added to the sculpt without cutting into steel. The head is certainly new as it’s an unmasked Oroku Saki and it looks fine with clean paints. He does lose part of his sash, the bit that hangs over the crotch and rear, which exposes the odd sculpt of the bum area. Shredder has a big, droopy, butt that has a lot of area around the thigh hollowed out presumably to allow for more movement forward and back. It looks fine on the regular Shredder since he has a way to hide it, on the second figure it’s just out in the open and kind of funny looking. I guess be mindful of how you leave him on the shelf, unless you want to accentuate the buttocks then by all means do so. This figure also has the same assortment of optional hands as the other Shredder.

Worm.
This diaphragm joint is no substitute for a proper waist joint.

Since we’re dealing with two identical figures from a structural standpoint, the articulation is going to be the same across both. We get: double ball head, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, diaphragm, hips, knees, and ankles. To my surprise, there is no glove or boot cut like we’ve seen with toon versions of the character from NECA. There’s also no vertical hinge for the gripping hands, something I’ve basically come to expect with NECA as much as it irritates me. As previously mentioned, the elbows and knees are pin-less and work just fine. Range at the head is acceptable while the standard Shredder has the shoulder pauldrons which interfere with the shoulders. I don’t know why they don’t either pin them to the shoulder itself or use a loop through the shoulder peg. The diaphragm joint gets a little forward and back and rotates easily, but there’s no waist cut. I don’t know why NECA has been omitting waist articulation of late with its Shredders, but I don’t like it. Hide a ball-joint behind that sash and let us get this figure into more natural poses. The diaphragm joint isn’t a great substitute because the figure looks ridiculous if turned more than 45 degrees. He does get decent range at the hips though I find the ankles to be a bit tough to work with. The left bicep on my Shredder is also binding and not rotating. The right arm is fine as are both on the Saki figure. I’m not sure if heating it would do much good as that could make shearing it off easier. It’s at least the only trouble spot between the two figures as nothing is too tight or too loose. It’s still pretty basic articulation by today’s standards so don’t expect import-level posing or even Marvel Legends caliber. For this line, it’s mostly as one would expect.

Is this the update people were hoping for out of NECA where Shredder is concerned? I think so as it looks the part based on his appearance in the comic and he definitely looks like he can hang with the updated turtles. Did anyone want to pay $60+ to get this and the shirtless variant? That is probably less of a slam dunk. I know personally I did not want this other figure. At all. I assume NECA added it to the mix to basically make a cheap (for them) two-pack since it’s two figures using essentially the same tooling. It’s too bad they didn’t pair him with the Foot Elite instead. And I say $60, but a lot of places have this set at $70 which is an even worse deal. I do have to wonder if NECA had gone with a swap-able torso instead could they have convinced more people to pay $50 for the release than what they sold at the two-pack price? Would it really make a difference compared with the actual costs? I can’t answer that, but I feel like there was an opportunity to up the perceived value of the package, but maybe dropping half a figure from the set isn’t as big a cost savings as I would imagine. All I know is that their basic, single pack figure is $35-$42 depending on where you get it. I wouldn’t pay that for the extra figure in this set so I needed to wait for it to be essentially free to feel comfortable buying this one. And I was fortunate that I ended up getting Shredder for even less than that. If you think this figure looks neat and can get it for the same price then I think it’s an easy recommend. As a two-pack with mostly ho-hum accessories, it’s a much harder sell. You have to really want shirtless, wormy, Shredder and place considerable value on him to make it worth your while. Maybe if they had included something fun with the set, like a wormy stump for his neck, that could have made a difference. Instead, I could never shake the perception that this set was a money grab and we were being forced to pay extra just to get the new Shredder we wanted, but sometimes that’s how the toy industry works.

Leonardo always wins.

If you enjoyed this look at Shredder then here are some Shredder-adjacent reviews you may find informative:

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios Elite Foot Assassin

NECA has gradually built out the ranks for Shredder’s Foot Clan via its line of action figures based on the pages of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as published by Mirage Studios. The clan got started way back in 2016 with a box set released in conjunction with New York Comic Con. That set featured Shredder,…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios Shredder Clones

NECA and Target’s Haulathon event which has seen a vast assortment of product dumped onto shelves recently was not content to limit the products to just the cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Far from it, as an assortment of comic book based characters were also released and today we’re going to look at the first…

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by Joe

NECA Mirage Studios Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4-Pack

When it comes to the popularity of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a lot of the credit goes to Playmates Toys. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created the characters born out of a joke. Credit them for having the vision to think this joke had appeal beyond their small circle as they self-published Teenage Mutant Ninja…

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by Joe

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February 12, 2026

2026 – The Year in Figures to Come

By Joe
Toy Fair is coming which basically means the start of the year in toy reveals for 2026!

2025 is history. We’re done talking about it. Well, sort of. I have written-up posts for the last of the 2025 action figures I received, but they haven’t gone live just yet so I’m done looking back, but dear reader you are not. Attention turns to 2026 and we’re coming up on the eve of New York Toy Fair. Last year, Toy Fair ended up being perhaps the biggest show of the year for many toy producers. Some of the more collector-focused companies weren’t there, but for basically anyone selling toys at big box stores it was a big event. I don’t know if that was necessarily by design for it was shortly after Toy Fair the industry got slammed by tariffs which probably caused many companies to reevaluate what they were doing. Traditionally, Toy Fair is for the year to come. In the old days, this was where producers would exhibit their products in hopes of driving up orders for the fall holiday shopping season. Now, it’s more of an antiquated model and Toy Fair has even struggled some to justify its existence. The Pandemic caused it to get cancelled and the organizers tried moving to the fall which didn’t really work and lead to yet another long layoff as you’re not going to have an event in the fall and then come back in February with another. They even tried moving it out of New York, but basically no one wanted that.

Still, Toy Fair is happening and there will be new product shown soon that will delight and enrage toy collectors, because that’s what tends to happen. I have ideas of what will be shown there and at the conventions to come during the year, but this post is less about predictions and more about my hopes and dreams for the various lines and companies I’m interested in. Some of the motivation here is to consolidate my own collecting. I am running out of room in these parts and it would be highly beneficial to my home and wallet if I were to become more selective. I probably bought too many “cheap” figures in 2025 and I do think I’d probably be better off getting fewer toys, but higher quality ones that I’ll enjoy more. That’s perhaps a topic for another day (and I say this after impulse buying a Marvel Legends figure so I’m off to a shaky start), for now I want to think about the potential 2026 has in store for us as action figure enthusiasts.

Playmates Toys – Bring Back Monty Moose!

The one that got away (photo from Hollywoodheroes.com)

The biggest news to close out the year in the toy world was the revelation that Playmates Toys was losing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles license. It’s still almost hard to wrap one’s head around that, but it’s gone and the new company is already in place, but keeping quiet at the time of this writing (Update – It’s Mattel). Playmates does have all of 2026 to release TMNT figures plus another relief period following that to unload whatever stock is left. Recently, Playmates has been releasing product from the newer Mutant Mayhem film and spin-off show while also supplementing those releases with its remastered line, some Last Ronin, and reissues from the vintage line. My hope is that Playmates goes hard into the reissues this year now that the end is in sight. Monty Moose is the one I highlighted here because he’s the one I want most, but Playmates should use this as an opportunity to cash-in on the hard to find figures like Scratch, Hothead, Hot Spot, that dinosaur Shredder, and other figures. It’s been a bit of a surprise they have yet to go to this well yet, but maybe they were holding out for some reason? I don’t think they care about crashing the collector market. It’s possible they don’t have the molds anymore, but it’s probably worth it to them to recreate them like they’ve done with vehicles like the Foot Cruiser. And the same should apply to hard-to-find vehicles and play sets as well.

NECA Toys Needs to Get Out Tempestra

The purple lady with the glowing eyes is the only one missing from the NECA toy collection.

Keeping things to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for a moment, the threat of a new master license holder really puts a lot of what we’re accustomed to getting into some jeopardy. It could all work out and be fine, but it could also go away like Playmates. We don’t know. If there’s even a chance of that though then the companies in the TMNT game need to push out the most sought after characters and figures and number one for NECA’s line of TMNT cartoon figures is Tempestra. She is a bit of an obscure character who first appeared in the season four episode “Leonardo Versus Tempestra.” In it, the character Tempestra is a boss character in a video game that eventually breaks out and does battle with the turtles. It’s not particularly memorable on its own, but the character would make a return in the episode “Night of the Rogues.” There she was joined by the villains who are actually pretty popular hence why they all have received figures in the line already. Tempestra is the lone holdout so people want her to complete that set. She’s also unique in that she’s a rare female villain for the show and has a good look. I have a feeling NECA has already mocked her up at least, if not tooled, as they revealed an April figure years ago that was going to come with an arcade cabinet. It was from the movie line and it would have put actress Judith Hoag in a yellow jumpsuit like the cartoon character (or actress on the old arcade cabinet), but it may have been cancelled. My suspicion is that NECA did not develop the in-scale arcade cabinet for that figure, but for Tempestra and this was just another application for it. I guess we shall see, but I think NECA finally reveals her this year.

Mattel Brings Back Batman: The Animated Series

This property deserves better.

Mattel surprised a lot of folks when it announced in 2025 that it had reacquired the DC license. It wasn’t quite the shock that we experienced several years prior when McFarlane snatched it away from Mattel, but it’s always a surprise when a major license changes hands. McFarlane will see its ability to release DC figures come to an end at some point this year. The gates open for Mattel in the second half of 2026 and we’re probably going to start seeing what they have planned very soon. Most expect a Marvel Legends type of approach with action figures and that’s probably a safe bet, but for me personally I’m hoping we get a brand new line for Batman: The Animated Series. The DC Direct stuff looked pretty good, but the articulation and construction was terrible. McFarlane has been re-releasing a lot of those figures, but with reduced quality, bad paint apps, and an absurd price point. The best version of Batman deserves better. Let’s hope Mattel can be the one to deliver the definitive take on the show.

We See What’s to come for The Tick

It’s unlikely, but imagine if we could get all of these guys in plastic?!

Big Bad Work Shop announced it had the license to produce figures based on The Tick last year. Actually, they seemed to have the license going back a little ways as they did a 5 POA version of the character already. Last year was just when we found out they were going to bring us a fully-articulated, seemingly 1:10 scale version of the big blue guy. I love the old Tick cartoon so I would love to see a figure line based on that. Unfortunately, that show is owned by Disney and apparently most of the characters created for that show are in licensing purgatory. Maybe they can work something out, but Disney is a notoriously difficult company to work with when it comes to licensing so I’m not holding my breath. We do know there is a Tick and a variant beach Tick on the way this year and we have seen a prototype for Chairface Chippendale. I’m hopeful that we’ll see Arthur and I think the chances are pretty good that we do. This line is going to be a very slow moving one, but I’m okay with that. I don’t think I need an expansive collection, but I may have to attempt to customize a Naughty or Nice Santa into a Multiple Santa.

Mondo Gives us The Venture Bros.

A terrible, blurry, photo from one of my oldest entries on this blog of my old Venture Bros. dolls. Check out that iPod!

Speaking of The Tick, a related series to that show is The Venture Bros. I love The Venture Bros. It is one of my favorite television series of all time. Back when the show was still in production, Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer were approached about doing toys and the two picked a specific lane. Not being toy boys, they felt any toys based on the show should be intentionally lame. That would also fit with the vibe of the show where it’s modern, but it has an aesthetic from the 70s. That’s how we ended up with those Mego style dolls. There were some 5 POA figures that followed, but that’s mostly been it aside from a Kid Robot vinyl here and there. I want something that’s at least on-model. I don’t think the show needs a super articulated approach which is why I’m hoping we see Mondo get the license for their Squads line. These are basically statue or 5 POA type of figures, but in a 9″ scale, fully painted, and they have swappable limbs, portraits, and so forth to create different displays. It gives them a very clean look. Of course, if someone wanted to do proper figures that would work for me too, the Mondo Squads just seem like something that might work for both collectors and creators, though if they want to knock the scale down I’d be okay with that too. I don’t need Hank Venture to be 9″ tall.

To Celebrate 40 years of The Real Ghostbusters, Mondo does Stay Puft

Sticking with Mondo, we have this want for a Stay Puft based on his appearance in The Real Ghostbusters. Mondo released it’s first figures in its line of roughly 1:12 scale The Real Ghostbusters which have been pretty well received by most. They could use a Stay Puft, but I think the best way to release the big guy is to do what Mondo does best and make him a sofubi. A sofubi is a soft vinyl figure with limited articulation and it would likely be easier to make Stay Puft big in this format. He just doesn’t need a true action figure form. Just give me arms pre-posed like they are in the intro and I’ll be happy. It will really tie together a truly awesome RGB display.

Bandai returns to Dragon Ball!

The scale is so bizarre with this line.

I love the Dragon Ball franchise. Dragon Ball Z hooked me in during the 90s and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed its return via Dragon Ball Super, but my favorite era for the franchise will always be the original Dragon Ball. When Bandai got rolling with the Tamashii Nations line S.H.Figuarts there were almost equal parts Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, but over the years the Dragon Ball figures have been all but phased out. The last one released was Lunch back in 2022. Last year, Bandai did release a 40th anniversary Goku as seen on the first cover of the manga with him riding the dragon in an orange gi so that kind of counts, but as of right now they haven’t made it available to folks in the US (I think it’s being sold at their very limited pop-up locations). The new figure isn’t exactly what I want, but put that Goku in blue and I am there! The old figures were always way too big to scale with the adult characters. They kind of work with Master Roshi who is sort of in his own scale, but not with Bulma and the others. The new, smaller, body is a huge improvement and I would happily replace my kid Goku and Krillin with new ones. Plus we never got Yamcha, Tien, Cyborg Tao, and many others that would be great to add to the shelf.

Someone Gets the Futurama License

It sure would be nice if someone made some good Futurama figures…

The Simpsons have changed hands the last couple of years and had a pretty strong presence in the world of toys, but what about Futurama? We just have the old toyline from the early 2000s which was honestly kind of bad. I sold all of my figures except Fry and Bender and I feel like it’s high time someone took a whack at these characters again. Jakks could always do it as a companion line for The Simpsons, but they’ve frustrated me with their distribution so I don’t really want that, per say. Mondo Squads would be another decent landing spot, though I’d prefer they aren’t in that 9″ scale as that’s just too big. I don’t really expect this one to come true, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Super7 Returns to Vintage-style TMNT

Super7 had a bad 2025. I even named them the worst toy company of the year, but I don’t want to have to do that for 2026. One way they could climb back into my good graces is to return to the vintage inspired TMNT line that went on hiatus with the arrival of the 2003 line. Now, I realize some of this is out of their control. There are reports that Viacom basically ended that line and forced 2003 upon them and most assume that was the result of pressure from Playmates. No, I don’t think Playmates losing the license really means much for Super7, but I do think Super7 has at least some sway here. When fans responded negatively to their Rat King based on Shredder’s Revenge Viacom relented and let them do a figure inspired by the Playmates original. Who’s to say they can’t get one more waves out of Viacom to finish off their vintage stuff? I need Heavy Metal Raph!

Jada Toys Announces More Christmas Figures

Frosty could really use HIS Santa to join him on the shelf.

Hey, I love Christmas! And I love toys based on Christmas things. Last year, Jada gave us a figure of Frosty the Snowman and I was pretty damn happy about that. No, the figure isn’t anything amazing, but it’s Frosty the Snowman! I would love to see more of that from Jada and I have a few ideas how they could go about that. The easy path is to do more Frosty. He could use a Karen, Professor Hinkle, and a Santa Claus just to name a few. I don’t think we really need all of those other kids, but if they sell really well I guess there’s room to expand. I think it would also be neat if each figure came with another version of the rabbit, Hocus Pocus, with swappable heads and bodies to let us build out a fun little display. If they think Frosty (and Hocus) stands on his own just fine, then how about parlaying that Flintstones license into a Santa Barney? Yes, I’m referencing the classic Fruity Pebbles commercial where Barney tries to impersonate Santa to get his hands on some delicious sugar cereal. And if they could do a Santa as well that would just be ::chef’s kiss:: It might be more likely they tackle more Rankin Bass which, perhaps to the surprise of many, doesn’t thrill me nearly as much. Now, if they shock the world and announce a Chuck Jones Grinch figure I just might explode.

Bucky O’Hare Makes a Shocking Comeback!

I refuse to say good bye to this crew!

I love Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars. It broke my heart on multiple occasions: the end of the cartoon, the cancellation of the original toy line, the cancellation of the Boss Fight Studio line. No, I don’t think he’s going to make another comeback because those Boss Fight figures are still out there and pretty damn cheap (well, most of them). However, I can’t stop wishing and hoping for a revival. The Cowboys of Moo Mesa are getting figures right now as we speak, why can’t Bucky get another shot? Maybe the entire IP could be bought at this point making it a target for someone like Nacelle. Larry Hama could probably use the payday and it’s not like Continuity even makes comics anymore. Per Boss Fight, it was Continuity that lost interest in licensing it out. I guess the return just wasn’t worth the work. I did speak in person with another individual from the company who seemed to suggest the sales just weren’t there either. That the license was just too obscure. I don’t know the real deal here, but I’m sure the license excites few. In a recent episode of the YouTube show Geek. Dad. Life., Peter Santa-Maria of Mondo expressed some love for Bucky so maybe there’s a glimmer of hope there? Another recommendation for the Mondo Squads makes sense here as both Hasbro and Boss Fight Studio were unable to deliver the full crew of the Righteous Indignation (Hasbro left out Jenny, Boss Fight left out Blinky and Willy). I’m going to keep hoping for that Blinky figure though until the day I die so maybe 2026 can be the year?

While you ponder the year to come, here’s some current stuff to tide you over:

JoyToy TMNT Leatherhead

It was in my year-end wrap-up post on 2025 where I mentioned how awful the tariffs instituted by the US during the year made action figure collecting. The added cost is a given, but also the shipping. Importing a figure from overseas became a bigger issue as understaffed sorting centers were ill-equipped for figuring out…

by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Daima Super Saiyan 4 Son Goku (Mini)

It’s no great secret that the black sheep of the Dragon Ball universe is the anime Dragon Ball GT. Created in-house by Toei animation, Dragon Ball GT was a continuation of Dragon Ball Z without creator Akira Toriyama. While Toriyama had to grant approval to many aspects of the series, he wasn’t directly involved with…

by Joe

NECA TMNT Adventures April – The Fifth Turtle

NECA’s line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures based on the pages Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures by Archie Comics is like the little engine that could. It’s not a fast-moving line, the releases aren’t always heavy hitters, but when they land they’re usually pretty damn good. And NECA appears to be slow-walking this…

by Joe

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January 20, 2026

NECA TMNT Adventures April – The Fifth Turtle

By Joe
Is this the turtle you’re looking for?

NECA’s line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures based on the pages Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures by Archie Comics is like the little engine that could. It’s not a fast-moving line, the releases aren’t always heavy hitters, but when they land they’re usually pretty damn good. And NECA appears to be slow-walking this line since they have yet to release the actual turtles in the line. We got wrestling variants of the boys, and now we’re getting a version of their ally April O’Neil, only she’s in her seldom seen look as the fifth turtle.

Or maybe it’s the April you’re looking for?

In the pages of TMNT Adventures there was a one-shot winter special where April O’Neil was mutated into a turtle. It didn’t last very long, but for at least a few pages she was essentially the fifth ninja turtle. And she looked how you might expect in that she has the same mask and pads, a belt, she’s armed with a single katana, and she has a big “A” on her belt. You may have expected her to go with yellow for her color of choice, but she actually had to settle for white instead. This figure was teased quite a while ago in April of 2023, but it didn’t actually see release until fall 2025. She is basically the first basic turtle in the Archie subline and one imagines that whenever NECA gets around to doing standard versions of the boys this is the buck they’ll be on. In that, it’s like a preview of things to come so even if you’re not interested in this obscure version of April this figure might be of some interest to you.

With Archie Raph and toon Raph.

April comes in the standard Archie packaging with new artwork by series regular Ken Mitchroney. I like his very stylized take on the character with the accentuated beak and angled eyes. The figure dials that down a little, but a lot of those traits are still present. April stands at about 5.625″ to the top of her head. I have her as slightly shorter than Archie Raph and it appears to be due to her head sitting lower on the neck. Her head and plastron are actually wider which gives her a slightly stockier look compared with Raph, who is basically a blank turtle body. April has new forearms which are slightly thicker as well and her shell is different, having a more angled approach to the different panels. It’s hard to tell if anything below the waist is new. The knee pads create a thicker look, but it might just be an optical illusion. If I get out my grandfather’s old machinist gauge for measuring thickness it tells me their legs are the same, but confirms what I suspected with the forearms.

I don’t think this is how April wanted to present herself.

The stylization with April might be different from what some might expect. If you’re primary frame of reference for a female ninja turtle is Venus DeMilo from The Next Mutation then this April will look pretty different. That’s because they didn’t give her those odd plastron boobs that character had and instead she pretty much just looks like a turtle – kind of like how male and female turtles in the wild pretty much look the same. Her only embellishment is a slightly curvier plastron silhouette and clawed fingers. I thought at first the fingers might be reuse from the Archie Slash, but they are unique to April. Her portraits have that pronounced beak though, and while her eyes aren’t comically feminine, they have that Archie personality we’ve grown accustomed to with NECA’s figures. I love the little “t” shape they paint onto the beaks as that is pulled right from the books. The figure is a very matte yellowish green that is accentuated very nicely by the white wraps that have a touch of light blue shading. The shell is deep green and all of the grooves are filled with clean, black, paint. There’s black linework to accentuate the muscles and overall this is another homerun from NECA in the aesthetics department for this line.

“Where do you get off calling yourself the fifth turtle?!”

April’s accessories are quite numerous for a general release in this line. She has four distinct portraits: unmasked, grin, yelling, and a classic TMNT angry side sneer. The bandana knot is transferable between the masked portraits and while it’s a little snug, it works fine. The unmasked portrait features a sad expression and there’s even some tears painted on which helps to make it quite scene specific. For hands, April has gripping, fists, and open clawing hands. She comes with a single katana which is what she utilized in the book which features a brown hilt and blue pommel and guard. The blade itself is white which I love because metal is often done in white in comic books. I’m a little surprised they didn’t hit it with a touch of blue shading like the weapons that came with the Mirage turtles, but it looks pretty good as-is. To store it she has a large, white, scabbard that is shaded with blue that simply slots onto her belt. It’s not a super secure connection, but it will stay in place once she’s posed. Just expect it to fall out a lot when posing her. The sword does store effortlessly in the scabbard which is nice to see after my experience with the 2012 Leonardo and his stubborn blades.

She’s got the look, but does she have the skill to take on the Shredder?

April’s articulation is basically the same as the Archie wrestling turtles only she has some elbow and knee pads to obstruct things. She has joints at the head, base of the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees, and ankles. There are built-in thigh swivels into the ball-joints at the hips and her gripping hands have the proper vertical hinge for wielding a sword. She has the pinless knee and elbow joints, but the presence of the pads will limit the range. Her elbows are pretty much only good for a 90 degree bend while the knees extend a little past that. They’re also very tight at both spots and I haven’t noticed any lubricating oil in those places like I did with the wrestling turtles. The shell will limit her hip range, but the plastron is soft so she can kick forward about 90 degrees if you want to push it. Going out to the side for splits is no problem and the oversized feet with solid ankle rockers make getting her to stand pretty easy. The waist isn’t going to do much owing to the turtle anatomy and range at the shoulders is not good enough for two-handed sword poses. It would be nice to see NECA integrate a butterfly joint there since one would think the shell would hide some of the ugliness of said joint, but I don’t know if they’ve ever done such with any release, turtle or otherwise.

“Geez April, think you might reconsider going back to the news reporter look?”

Perhaps the best thing about April is she should retail for the reasonable price of $35. Some places have her as high as $41 but she is shipping to big box retail which is likely to have the cheapest price on her. She comes with plenty of stuff and the sculpt and paint are fantastic. Yes, the articulation is just okay, though it is better than some of NECA’s other TMNT figures. That’s what they’re known for though and if your primary interest is in the figure’s presentation then this April should please you, provided you ever felt the need to own a figure of April as the Fifth Turtle.

If you’re looking for more Archie inspired TMNT figures or more April then check these out:

NECA TMNT Adventures Stump Wrestling Four-Pack

When I was a kid, I didn’t really get a lot of comic books. I most often would encounter them at the grocery store and I always hoped my mom would end up in the check-out aisle with the comics instead of candy so I could maybe convince her to get me one. And when…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Toon “Mutant Interest Story” – Deluxe April O’Neil

Whenever I approach my rankings for NECA’s now long-running action figure series based on the 1987 cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I don’t always just pick the objectively best or worst toy in the line to slot them into the rankings. It’s a combination of the figure’s quality and the character’s importance. A great figure…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Cartoon Channel 6 Newsroom SDCC Exclusive Set

Remember San Diego Comic Con? You would be forgiven if you did not since, like last year’s edition, the event was a virtual one once again. Only unlike the 2020 version, this one came with the expectation it would be virtual. It also coincided with a global shipping crisis, so combine that with the expectation…

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by Joe

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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…

Keep reading
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…

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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

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , | posted in Television, toys

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

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in toys

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

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , | posted in christmas, Film, toys

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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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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