Tag Archives: neca

September 5, 2023

NECA Misfits Ultimate Fiend Action Figure

By Joe
The Fiend is back in Ultimate form.

When Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only reached a settlement over who owned the rights to The Misfits in the mid 90s (resolution: they both did), it set off a wave of new merchandise plus a new version of the band. What had once been a logo found mostly at punk and metal shows, the visage of the Crimson Ghost began showing up at malls all across the country. And not just on t-shirts, but shoelaces, lunchboxes, and even light switch covers. Within the anti-establishment culture of punk rock, this type of merchandizing could be seen as selling out. “Sell out” was the dirty name artists didn’t want to hear coming from its fanbase, but it almost always followed when a small act jumped from an indie label to a major one and started putting its name on everything and anything. Old fans mocked and looked down on the new ones, but usually the money would keep on rolling in so it’s hard to say if any of this licensing actually hurt a band’s reputation.

As a teenager, I would fall into those traps and look down on the “Newfits” fans with their American Psycho t-shirts and Jerry Only dolls. Not that it bothered me to buy a Misfits shirt with Glenn Danzig’s evilive logo in the fine print or a skull-printed wallet. I was applying a double standard at the time, one I can freely admit to now because as one gets older they tend to care less and less about that stuff. A guy’s gotta eat, and if your fanbase wants shoelaces and light switch covers with your band on it then why not give it to them? For a price, of course. And today, The Original Misfits is now a cash a cow for Danzig and Only. They can sell out a few large venues each year, play for a couple of hours, and laugh all the way to the bank until they’re ready to do it again. By not doing full tours, they even get to avoid waring out their welcome. I get the impression that once (if?) the well starts to run dry and these Misfits shows can’t support a large venue anymore then they’ll stop and I don’t begrudge them that at all.

The retro cloth is in a different scale, so while some parts look similar, they at least had to be re-tooled to make them smaller.

Because of my one-time avoidance and outright disdain for anything Misfits-related released by Jerry Only’s Cyclopian Music, I never acquired much in the way of toys and such baring the likeness of the band’s mascot: the Crimson Ghost. Or is it The Fiend? Or, as Danzig referred to it, simply the Misfits Ghost? Only goes with The Fiend, and I guess neither uses the character’s original name of The Crimson Ghost for legal reasons, even though there’s likely little chance of a lawsuit at this point. The character is from an old film serial shot in black and white, hence why it’s often shown as a black-robed skeleton, though in reality the robe was crimson and the face was more of a blue. I’m not sure if it was blue for stylistic reasons, or just to get it to show better on film. Regardless, most fans of the band were introduced to the character via the Horror Business 7″ which featured that smiling, skull, face with arms folded across its chest. From there, its appeared on other records and inserts and has been a major part of the band’s marketing and presentation.

Sometimes he get a little “stabby.”

NECA has done multiple versions of the character as an action figure, but up until now, they’ve been in the company’s retro cloth line. The retro cloth, as the name implies, is basically a throwback brand similar to Mego figures sporting soft goods clothing. Two standard versions of The Fiend (we’re going to go with that name for the rest of this post since that’s what is on the box) were released: one in black and one in red. I passed on both as the retro cloth line isn’t really my thing, but I could not resist the third version which was a Christmas variant with Santa hat and sack. It’s a fun display piece, though the quality of the figure did nothing to sell me on the retro cloth line. After only a year of owning the figure, displaying it Christmas time then putting it back into its box for the rest of the year, the ball joint in the neck basically deteriorated and crumbled like Play-Doh left out in the sun. It was bizarre, and the head just fell off when I put the figure out last Christmas. I glued it back on, but it was a bummer and now I’m afraid to touch it.

Other times he just needs the knife to feel safe when the power goes out.

NECA apparently decided that another retro cloth release would no longer suit the property, so it gave the figure an upgrade. NECA’s Ultimate line of action figures is basically their flagship format. A five-panel window box, upgraded articulation, and lots of accessories and optional parts. That was the format chosen for this new take on The Fiend and I figured I’d give it a whirl. It comes in a simple, but attractive, black box with the skull face dominating the front. The band’s logo plus The Fiend from the Horror Business cover are on both spines with product shots on the back and inner flap. The figure is viewable through the window as well as the accessories included. Did fans of the character need yet another version in plastic? Time to find out.

The head sits real low and it’s due to the jaw being far below the opening for the ball joint.

The Fiend stands a tick over 7″ and sports a soft goods hood and robe. The robe is sleeveless as the arms of the figure feature sculpted sleeves. The legs are sculpted to feature work pants and shoes while the torso is completely blank since its always hidden by the robe. The hood clasps under the figure’s chin and it’s a bit of a pain to undo, so I wouldn’t bother. By keeping the hood separate from the robe, it’s easy enough to pop the head off and remove it from the hood if desired. The hood and the material extended off of it that drapes over the shoulders is wired and poseable as is the hem of the robe. It feels like good quality soft goods, but is a bit frumpy. I don’t think anything is reused from the retro cloth figure, so it’s not an issue of NECA shoe-horning old soft goods to suit this figure, but the robes are so frumpy that the figure basically loses its neck. He looks like a shriveled up old guy, and maybe that’s what NECA was going for since it is a skeleton, but I wish the head appeared to sit higher.

The shaded portrait is basically the same as the retro cloth one, only smaller.

As for the face, NECA opted to exercise some of its creative license. They basically did it a full skull and retained the eyes recessed deep in the sockets. It’s scratched up and dingy looking and sculpted in a bone white covered in gray paint with a black wash. It’s certainly not bad looking, and the teeth and “smile” basically match the source material, but this is very much a “what would this character look like if it was real?” It juxtaposes with the hands, which still look like black gloves with bones painted on them, and I don’t know that this is the approach I wanted. As an alternate head – sure, but for a standard head I’d have preferred the retro cloth approach which is a black head with the face painted on in white. And if they were going for this more realistic approach, why not include boney hands? And it may only be me, but for some reason, when I look at this face I see Rudy Giuliani. I think it’s the eyes, I don’t know, but if you see it now then I apologize because what has been seen cannot be unseen.

There are additional heads and accessories to play off of them. The second head, is basically the same as the first, but with the eyes shifted to the right. It’s fine, but I’ll never use it. The third head is closer to what I wanted, but has some weird shading on it that ruins it for me. It’s very similar to the retro cloth head that came with the Christmas figure I have, just smaller to suit the scale of this release. It’s all black and the face is painted on with white, but it has gray and crimson shading over the left eye and in the teeth. I’d use it if it wasn’t for the shading which does nothing for me. The whole appeal of the character, for me, is how the white face appears to be floating in darkness in the hood and obscuring the face with shading destroys it. If you like it though, then it’s here.

“You’re getting a little too close to my likeness with that face paint, Papa!”

For hands, we get two sets: relaxed and gripping. The gripping hands have the superior vertical hinge which comes in handy for the two daggers included. The daggers are identical, except that one has some blood painted onto the tip. The blood is basically just there, it doesn’t stand out on a shelf, and I’m left wishing they had included a dripping effect piece instead. There’s also a lit candlelabra which looks fine, but it strikes me as a nod to American Psycho and I could not care less. Mine is also slightly warped, though I bet I could straighten it out with some hot water. The flames are painted on and I think it would have looked better if done with translucent plastic. We also get a tombstone with the Fiend’s face on it and the band’s logo plus their born year and Lodi, NJ. No death year yet. It’s fine, though it looks and feels like a 3D print so it feels a bit cheap in hand.

Who could have anticipated some cardboard inclusions would steal the show?

By far, the best accessories included with this figure are the LPs. NECA included three, cardstock, LPs that I guess The Fiend can just hold and admire. They are based on actual releases by the band and include Horror Business, Earth A.D./Wolfsblood, and Die Die My Darling. As a longtime fan of the band, I do feel it is my duty to point out that the Horror Business here is inaccurate. That was never released in a 12″ format, but I’m going to give NECA a pass because doing an in-scale 7″ jacket would be a lot harder. And what they did here turned out way better than I could have expected. The track-listing is even readable on the rear of the release and the little details pass the eye test. The only thing missing are the actual records which would have really put them over the top. Even without that, I still dig these and they render the other accessories irrelevant for me because there is no way my figure isn’t going to be holding one, or all, of these in my display.

By moving The Fiend to the Ultimate format, we should see a benefit to the articulation and that’s mostly true here. The head is on a double ball peg, and even with the hood, there’s little in the way of restrictions there. You won’t get a ton of range up and down, but there’s probably enough. The shoulders are hinged ball pegs and since the robe lacks sleeves they’re not hindered by the soft goods. The elbows are NECA’s special, unusual, double hinged peg that swivels above and below the elbow. They bend past 90, but the figure does lack the range in the arms to do a proper arms-crossed pose. I feel like that pose is so iconic and important to the character that NECA should have found a way to make that happen, maybe with a separate arms piece like the cross-arms pose we get from Bandai all of the time.

This is the shot you came here for.

The torso of the figure features a diaphragm joint that basically just allows for some rotation. Strangely, there’s no waist joint of any kind. The hips are ball and socket joints and since there is no need for a diaper piece the range is terrific and your Fiend can kick forward, back, and do splits. There’s a thigh twist as well and at the knees we get a single hinged joint that can swivel a bit. I have no idea why they decided not to use a double-joint. Is it something we’ll need? Probably not, but why not have it anyway? The ankles hinge and there is a rocker so standing this guy is easy enough. And we do have the aforementioned wired robe which does work well.

I don’t know if this figure is worthy of the term “ultimate,” but it sure isn’t bad.

Is NECA’s Ultimate take on The Fiend a much needed upgrade over the retro cloth release? Yes and no. I prefer this action figure to the Christmas one I have in almost every way, but I have to concede, if you just want a Fiend that looks like the character depicted on the box art then you may be better off with the retro cloth version. That’s entirely due to the approach taken with the figure’s head. It’s a shame NECA didn’t account for this. We get three heads, but not one of them is just a simple black and white? That aspect of the figure annoys me, but doesn’t entirely ruin it. It’s possible this is just capitalism at work and NECA plans on including such a visage with the next version of the figure that is almost guaranteed to come. It will probably have a red robe and maybe it will come with different record jackets. I don’t really want a red-robed version, but would I get one if it came with the accessory I want? That remains to be seen. For now, we have this one and it’s okay. To my surprise, I find myself liking the Super7 Ultimates! release of Papa Emeritus a little more so now I’m wondering if Super7 will give The Fiend the same treatment. At least this one is cheaper at around $36-$38 so even if Super7 does give it a shot, I don’t feel confident they’ll get $55 out of me.

Interested in more NECA or rock n’ roll stuff?

Misfits Holiday Fiend Figure from NECA

2020 will be remembered for a lot of things, many of them not good. One non-negative aspect of 2020 that will be memorable for me was that it was the year I really got back into toy collecting. Most of that was courtesy of NECA toys and their various Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lines. Those…

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by Joe

Super7 Ultimates! Ghost – Papa Emeritus I

I feel like I have a pretty interesting relationship with the band Ghost. They came to my attention in 2010 with their album Opus Eponymous and came at the recommendation of one of my friends. It wasn’t so much a recommendation based on quality, but more of a “You have to hear this,” because it…

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by Joe

The Misfits – Ultimate Song Ranking

Happy Halloween! I don’t know about you, but for me Halloween is synonymous with The Misfits – the horror punk band out of New Jersey fronted by Glenn Danzig from approximately 1977-1983. It has been that way ever since I discovered the band when I was in middle school thanks to a revival in the…

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by Joe

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August 15, 2023

NECA TMNT The Last Ronin Best Buy Exclusive Synja Patrol Bot

By Joe
He’s here to…patrol, and stuff.

I thought the string of Turtle Tuesday posts was going to end with last week’s item, but then I got a surprise email from Best Buy. The Synja Patrol Bot I had preordered months ago was actually getting moved up instead of bumped out, and to my surprise, it was going to be delivered in two days! I was pretty skeptical, but sure enough, two days later I had my action figure before I had even finished my morning coffee.

The Synja Patrol Bot is like the Foot ninja of The Last Ronin, the comic story about the very last Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle from IDW Publishing. These are the guys the titular character has to deal with upon his return to New York and they seem a bit more formidable than its predecessors. I read those books over a year ago at this point so my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I think they’re cybernetically enhanced humans. Either way, they have an aesthetic that I really like of the techy ninja. Think the Cyborg Ninja character from Metal Gear Solid. I’ve always liked that look, and since these guys have a blue and gray color scheme to them it makes me like them all the more.

Army builders need heads, and this figure has you covered. Plus it has this weird, white, robot, thing.

This figure is essentially an army builder and it’s the first release for this mold. There is a second on the way that’s mostly black and white and I’m not sure what the plan on that is as far as release goes. This one is exclusive to Best Buy and it’s one of three that went up in the spring. The other being Michelangelo as “The Wanderer” and a three-pack of IDW re-colored Shredder clones. I have never bought an action figure from Best Buy prior to today and I would have to say the experience is a bit mixed. On one hand, the order was fulfilled and in a very timely fashion which is better than some big box retailers. And then on the other hand, the box came smashed to shit. It was one oversized, empty, cardboard box and the figure was inside that without anything else. I am not an in-box collector, but if I was I’d be pretty unhappy because the figure box was beat up pretty well. If you are an in-box collector, I guess buyer beware.

Ninjas don’t always stick with swords.

The patrol bot was sculpted by Paul Harding and comes in NECA’s Ultimates packaging with artwork from IDW’s Ben Bishop. The box is numbered “6” though this is the third figure based on The Last Ronin to see release thus far. Out of the box, the figure stands at approximately 6.375″ in height. The sculpt is largely a mixture of turquoise and black plastic with gray and silver paint as needed. There’s also a lot of black paint to fill some of the gaps in the character’s circuitry and linework customary of NECA’s comic-inspired offerings. It’s a very nice sculpt all around with lots of detail and great proportioning. The paint is applied fairly well, though there’s some spots here and there that are imperfect. The only one that bothers me is this tiny dot of silver almost dead center on the figure’s chest. There’s also a little scuff mark on the front flap which covers the crotch, but overall it feels acceptable for a mass-produced item.

“He killed my buddy!”

The accessory load-out with this figure makes it clear that NECA wants you to buy more than one. The default head features a metallic visor with a red grill over the mouth. I’m not certain on the hierarchy of the patrol bots, but there’s another head that features a large, red, visor and antennae. Both look pretty nice and the paint is quite sharp. I love the lens flash on the antennae head, though that head is really hard to get onto the ball joint and will require heat. There’s also a third head that’s a battle-damaged version of the default head. It has an exposed, left, eye and the look of shock implies this guy has taken his last breath. Part of the skull is also missing exposing some wiring and what appears to be a socket of some kind. It comes in the box affixed to a stump of a neck with wiring hanging out of the bottom of it. Getting the head off of such a small piece was a little bit of a challenge, but do-able. And since it came on a ball socket of its own, getting it onto the figure is a piece of cake. To further differentiate any additional patrol bots you may add to your collection, NECA also included a small sticker sheet. It has just two stickers and they both appear to be a badge or symbol signifying rank. They go on the left breast, if you want to use them. I’m not sure that I will.

I don’t know if I’ll use the stickers, but this is from the back of the box and shows you where they go. Photo by Stephen Mazurek.

In addition to the heads and stickers, the patrol bot also comes with three sets of hands and a pair of weapons. For hands, we get these open, clenching, hands by default plus a pair of fists and trigger/gripping hands. The clenching hands are a bit odd as they don’t really work with anything. He can hold one of the extra heads with it to a point, but they’re mostly of the style-posed variety. The trigger hands are intended to be used with the included handgun and sword. The handgun is painted with a gun metal finish and looks pretty nice and slots into the hands easily or can be stored on the right thigh. The sword comes with a scabbard that plugs into a peg hole on the left shoulder blade. The blade has a metallic finish and the handle is done in gray with a little black paint on the design. The black isn’t the cleanest, but it’s not terribly applied either. Lastly, we get this creepy looking head that looks like an evil version of the Fugitoid. I don’t really remember it, but the Baxter Stockman of this universe made more than just Mousers so I think it’s something like that. It’s all white with red eyes and some black linework. There is a peg hole on the underside so maybe it will have a use down the road. I don’t know what to do with it though, and I imagine it’s the one accessory army-builders won’t be excited about.

He can kick high, though his slender feet mean you’ll probably need a stand of some kind to keep him upright in such a pose.

For articulation, the Synja does some things different, and some things as expected. The head is on a double-ball peg so you get plenty of range there, especially because the neck is on a ball peg as well. The shoulders are the standard hinged-ball pegs and they rotate fine, but can’t quite hit a horizontal pose out to the side without some help. That’s because the shoulder pads get in the way, but you can pop the arms off relatively easily and re-insert the peg so that the shoulder pad is tucked into the shoulder joint to get that full “T” pose, if you desire. There’s a biceps swivel and single jointed elbows, which is a bummer. You will get a 90 degree bend out of the joint, plus a swivel, but I don’t know why NECA felt like it couldn’t do a double-joint here. The wrists swivel and hinge and, unfortunately, all of the wrist hinges are of the horizontal variety. The gripping hands, at least, should have vertical hinges. This is a freaking ninja robot that also has a sidearm, it’s begging for vertical hinges!

The diaphragm joint allows for some nice nuance.

In the diaphragm, we have a double-ball peg setup. It allows the figure to rotate there as well as bend forward and back and get some side-to-side tilt as well. The amount it bends forward isn’t terrific, but it’s better than we’re used to with NECA. It does get gappy though. At the waist is a standard swivel joint which is a little bit of a bummer. Another ball peg here would probably give us that forward and back crunch we’re really looking for, but oh well. The hips are the ball and socket joints NECA is known for and since NECA decided to forego a “diaper” piece over the crotch we get some nice, unobstructed, range here. Full splits and the ability to kick forward and back. The little flap in the front hanging off of the belt as well as the butt cheeks on the rear are both soft plastic that don’t offer much resistance at all, a very wise decision on NECA’s part. There’s a full thigh swivel on this guy where the ball pegs into the thigh and double-jointed knees below that. The knees are a tad gummy though and getting both hinges to work is more challenging than it should be, but get them both going and you will get better than a 90 degree bend. Be warned, it looks like the hinge is turquoise plastic painted black so it will probably flake eventually, though it’s holding better than usual on my figure. It’s also possible the turquoise I’m seeing is paint rub from the kneecap. At the ankles, we have a hinged ball peg which pegs into the shin. This lets you rotate at the joint as well as make use of the hinge which has good range going forward and back. There’s also a rocker which works great.

A vertical wrist hinge would help a whole lot even with the sidearm.
Even with some of the figure’s limitations, two-handed sword poses are still possible.

You’re not going to confuse the Synja Patrol Bot with an S.H.Figuarts release, but it does articulate better than most NECA releases. I really like how the diaphragm joint turned out, and even though I wish it had double elbows, it is possible to get the figure to grip the sword with both hands. The lower half is pretty fantastic with my only issue there being the overall gummy feel to the knees. If this figure had a ball-jointed waist it would really take it up a notch, and the missing vertical hinges at the wrists continue to be a sore spot for me when it comes to NECA’s TMNT releases.

Sorry pal, but you’re on your own.

The Synja Patrol Bot is a nice release from NECA. It’s definitely going for that army builder crowd with the extra heads and even the added stickers to differentiate the figures from each other in your display. The only slip-up there might be with the included white, Mouser, thing, head as another battle-damaged part would have been more useful for the army builder crowd. For those who want even more variety though, the white version will provide for that. As for me, I don’t intend to get more than one. I sort of forgot I had even pre-ordered this figure and since doing so I’ve come to the decision that I’m likely not going to continue with The Last Ronin. The figures are great and all, it’s just an issue of resources. And it’s not just the money needed to acquire the whole collection, it’s the space. I’m not the type who wants to just buy stuff and toss it in a closet. I want it out and in the open, but that’s just not possible with so much TMNT coming from not just NECA, but other places as well. The figure of the Last Ronin is a great stand-alone piece and now it has a friend too. I still intend to continue buying the toon, Mirage, and even the Archie stuff so rest assured there will be no shortage of TMNT on this blog.

Interested in more Last Ronin coverage? Look no further:

NECA The Last Ronin (Armored)

When it comes to multimedia based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, we find ourselves in a rare dry spell when it comes to television and movies. The final episode of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles aired in 2020 with no new television series announced since. The show did receive a long-delayed finale…

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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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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – The Last Ronin

I don’t read a lot of comics these days. Actually, I suppose I never truly read a lot of comics even when I was very much into X-Men and Spider-Man. Back in the 90s, I received most of my comic lore from trading cards. They were cheaper and fun to collect. When it came to…

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by Joe

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August 8, 2023

NECA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III SDCC Four-Pack

By Joe
NECA did it. Those crazy, sons of bitches, actually did it.

2023 marked the 30th anniversary of the much maligned third entrant in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film franchise and you just had to know that NECA Toys would mark the occasion. It was almost too obvious that I thought maybe the company would zig when everyone was expecting a zag, but they didn’t and for San Diego Comic Con we got yet another four-pack of action figures in an oversized, VHS, inspired package.

Not only did everyone expect this set, but we all expected it to arrive just like this too.

It’s amusing that we’re here, since back when NECA first dipped its toe into the TMNT film franchise the director of product development at NECA, Randy Falk, basically scoffed at the idea of doing figures based on the sequel films. I don’t say that to throw shade at him or anything, it was a totally defensible position as the only good movie of those three 90s films was the original. What Falk couldn’t have predicted was just how well TMNT would sell for NECA. The popularity made it too much to ignore and fans wanted figures based on the sequels so NECA delivered. Kudos to them for listening to their fans.

Just a turtle looking to migrate.

Now, the third movie is mostly shunned because it has little to do with the first two movies and New Line Cinema no longer employed the services of The Jim Henson Company. That meant lower quality suits that looked pretty terrible. Where I could believe that the turtles were real when I first saw the original film, come the third the illusion was shot. Their suits looked like rubber, the head flapped with little nuance, and the turtles had a far more uniform look now. What was really bad though were those eyes: giant, lifeless, sunken-in eyes. They looked off back in 1993, and now with HD you can really see how they had eyeholes right underneath the bandanas for the suit actors. All that said, I am on record as saying the third movie is actually a better watch than the second. The only thing the Secret of the Ooze has over the third film is Henson, everything else sucks. The third movie has some of that “So bad it’s good,” charm going for it. I still have no interest in revisiting either film these days, but if I had to pick one I’d pick the third. And I’d probably pre-game with a few beers before watching it.

“Man, you dudes are ugly!”
“Hah! You need to look in a mirror, dude!”

Because the third is so non-essential to me from a visual standpoint, I wasn’t sure if I was going to get the action figures when they were eventually announced. I would say that to anyone who asked, but in my heart I think I knew I’d cave the second they were made available. I have the first two therefore I need to complete the set. And since it’s another VHS box I basically had to do it – so I did. No, I did not attend San Diego Comic Con this year, instead, I bought this off of NECA’s website as they made the set available through there just as they have over the past several years. It wasn’t super hard to get, and their shipping was actually really cheap for a change, and they also sold more during the con both physically and online. I’m guessing they made a ton of these things so my guess is everyone who wanted one was able to get it. It was $150, basically the new standard for their four-packs, and it was also sold alongside a Keno from Secret of the Ooze. I passed on Keno, so apologies if you were looking for a review from me. NECA wanted $100 for Keno and his scooter and tossed in a bunch of “swag” to basically bring it up to that price. That’s too much for a Keno. If the set makes it to retail at a more manageable price I’ll reconsider it then.

I pretty much had to do this one.

Before we get to the toys, lets talk about that box. Just like the convention exclusives for the first two movies, this one comes in a box that looks almost exactly like the original home video release. That means we get the four turtles on the cover with their helmets from the film. There’s some shots on the back as well and even a flashy quote from the Yes, Have Some podcast group. Where this set is different though is that NECA had to “cheat” to do the cover. The figures on the front of the box are not the ones in it. That’s because the turtles were sans clothing on the VHS box, but these figures place them in their samurai costumes. NECA does have a disclaimer on the front of the box letting you know that you’re looking at the Secret of the Ooze figures with the movie three heads. Am I mad about that? No, but I felt it was warranted to point out in case anyone was hoping for maybe soft goods in the box that could strip-down for this look.

As usual, NECA’s sculpt and paint is exceptional. These figures were done by Brodie Perkins.

With that out of the way, lets get down to business. The turtles are all essentially the same figure with minor differences. They stand around 6.5″ in height which puts them pretty much on par with the past movie figures which exist in more of a 1:10 scale as opposed to 1:12. As mentioned previously, the clothing and armor is all part of the sculpt, and it’s pretty impressively done. There’s a ton of detail on the chest especially with a wash applied to the softer materials to bring out the sculpted folds. There’s some nice trim work on the shins and gloves, and if you spin the figure around you’ll see a bit of the shell poking through. Since they’re fully clothed, NECA didn’t actually sculpt and affix a shell to each figure which will pay off when we get to the articulation.

I’m less impressed by the soft goods. They’re just okay.

The heads on these guys are what will attract the most attention. They have that pretty dead-eye stare going with some deep recesses where those eyeholes would have been. There’s also a bit of green visible around their eyes and the expressions are fairly neutral. Donnie has a bit of an open mouth with a hint of a smile and Mikey’s mouth is a bit more relaxed as well. Leo and Raph look almost bored which is pretty on-model for the film. And if you don’t like these faces, they have their masks to cover them up. They slide on rather easily and fit snug enough. There’s some nice weathering applied via the paintjob and the sculpted mustache and beard is color-coded for each turtle. Leo and Don get blue and purple, respectively, while Mikey gets a light brown and Raph a darker one. I have no idea if they were like that in the movie, but this is NECA, so the answer is “probably.”

You can put the new heads on an older body if you want an unclothed look. On the left, is movie 1 Mikey and on the right is SotO Mikey’s body with the TMNT III head.

To complete the look, each turtle has a helmet and cloak. The helmets are all the same and they slot onto the bandana knot on the back of the figure’s head. They were pretty snug in the box and I haven’t been able to get them back on to that degree with the masks on, but they sit fine either way. The cloaks are soft goods with a wire running through the front. As far as soft goods go, they’re not NECA’s best. They feel thin and kind of cheap. If there was a bit more substance to them, and in turn more weight as a result, I would like them a lot more. Three of them are the same, while the fourth is for Leonardo and it has some slits cut into it to accommodate his sword holsters. It’s a little tricky getting his on as a result, and it looks kind of bunched up and messy once done. I’m left thinking just a pair of long slits would have worked better, but this is probably more film accurate. Regardless, it’s on the figure’s back so it’s not that big of an issue.

“Donnie, what are you doing?!” “What?! We need horses and Barbie is HUGE right now. We’d be stupid not to get in on this!”

Once you get everything on, the turtles do look pretty cool and like they stepped out of the film. All of the details I remember from the movie are present and I like the proportioning on these guys too. I agree that it was the right move to just sculpt all of the clothing because the samurai look is the one most associated with the movie. I know they did ditch the outfits fairly quickly, but if they had come with soft goods there’s no way I’d display them unclothed. Unless the soft goods turned out frumpy and bad, which is likely given they’re wearing armor over clothing. There is one subtle difference between the four and it’s the belt. Again, I’m not sure if it was different for each turtle in the movie or not, but it probably was and I’m glad NECA didn’t skimp on such a minor detail when they probably could have.

The accessories for this set are mostly as expected. In keeping with past four-packs, all four figures come equipped with gripping hands in the box and there are five additional sets of hands for the guys to share. This is actually better than the Mirage four-pack which only had four extra sets. And those extra sets are relaxed hands, wide open hands, pointing hands, fists, and a set of tighter gripping hands. The tighter hands work well with some of the thinner weapons in the set while the pointing hands also function well as specialty sai hands. The regular gripping hands can also manage to grip a sai with the center blade through them. All of the hands feature horizontal hinges which is a continued bummer for NECA and TMNT.

This thing had to be included.
“Ohh man, I’m never time-traveling again.”

To go with those hands, the turtles have their expected weapons. Raph has a pair of sai, Mikey his nunchaku, Donnie his bo staff, and Leo his set of katana. The sai, ‘chuks, and bo are the same as past versions of those weapons while Leo’s swords are new. I’m guessing they decided his swords were different enough onscreen to warrant a re-sculpt, but it may have also been to make them a bit more durable. The prior swords are thin and some have complained that they’re too brittle. I haven’t had an issue with them, but these new ones are fine too. The handle is pretty thick as well and they slot into the scabbards with ease. Mike and Raph can store their weapons by just fitting them between the belt and body. Donnie could too, but not really while wearing the cloak.

“Donnie, is this thing really going to work?” “Of course it is!”
Say what you want about the third movie, but at least it didn’t have Mikey running around with hot dogs for weapons.

We’ve got hands and the usual weapons so what else do we need from the movie? How about a time scepter? How about 3?! Yes, we get three versions of the magical, time-traveling, device: the standard version, the broken version, and the homemade version. All three look pretty damn great. There’s some nice, transparent, plastic used for glass and the sculpt and paint looks great, especially on the standard one. The busted one has sculpted breaks in the glass and a darker paint job as if it had a bunch of smoke just pour out. The homemade one is appropriately plain, but cool to have, I suppose. The little, hourglass shaped thing in the center doesn’t actually spin, but they look cool and obviously we had to get the scepter. I don’t know if we needed all three, but credit NECA for covering their bases. We also get a pair of sabers from the scene where Michelangelo finds them in a barn. I didn’t remember that they were actually two different swords in the movie, but of course NECA did. They look great as well and it’s a good pull from the film.

The extra heads are a nice idea, but they don’t really match the movie 1 bodies and bandana tails.
The blue on the new head is quite a bit different from the original with Leo.

Lastly, we get some interesting bonus parts in the form of four additional heads. These heads though are not for these figures, necessarily, but are actually based on the first movie. All four are basically angry, almost snarling, expressions and I think they’re from the scene where the turtles find Danny hiding in their old sewer lair. At least, the shape of Michelangelo’s mouth looks to be from that quick shot. It’s an interesting addition for this set though and tells me that maybe NECA was unsure of whether or not figures based on the third movie would sell so they sweetened the deal with these. And that’s fine, but the problem is that the paintjob doesn’t really match those figures. The color of the bandanas is a bit different and the shade of green of the skin is too. As a result, I can’t really see myself using any of these. There were some variations in those first four figures so maybe they’ll match other sets better than they do mine.

Raph and Donnie’s extra heads, if you’re interested.
Leo’s got some new swords.

That’s all that’s in the box, so how do these heroes on the half shell move? Well, not great. These figures are definitely going for aesthetic over function, but I do wish they could do a bit more. Especially considering we have some clothing to hide joints. The head is on a double ball peg and that’s fine. You will get plenty of range so long as the figure is without helmet. The shoulders are hinged ball pegs and they raise out to the side just fine and rotate easily. NECA also snuck a little butterfly joint into the shoulder which is uncharacteristic of them. I’m not sure why they did it, but that’s cool. It unfortunately doesn’t add a whole lot though, but it’s not useless. The elbows are hinged pegs as well so you get a swivel and a bend that goes about 90 degrees. I was surprised that NECA didn’t use their unique double-jointed elbow setup which I think would have worked fine here. The wrists swivel and hinge and all of the hinges are horizontal ones which sucks.

If there is a diaphragm joint, I can’t tell. It would be useless, if so. The waist is a ball joint so you get a little play forward, back, and to the side, but it’s quite minimal. No shell means you get full rotation, at least. The hips are ball-jointed and raise out to the side to almost a full split. They, unfortunately, don’t kick forward much at all due to the presence of a “diaper” piece. Given how the armor has these flaps that hang down, I wish NECA had not gone with the diaper over the hips or had cut away a bunch of it for more range. The thigh swivel is pretty non-existent as well. The knees are double-jointed with a pair of hinged pegs similar to some of the elbows NECA does. Unfortunately, the sculpt of the pants basically covers the top hinge and it can’t do anything. The bottom hinge and peg will let the figures bend about 90 degrees and also swivel. At the ankle, we have the usual hinge and rocker which work okay. Lastly, there’s the wire in the cloak. It’s more for positioning, but if you want your figure to look like it’s getting blasted in the face with a leaf blower it can do that too. The wire is only in the front though and doesn’t run through the entire hem.

The pizza from the Musical Mutagen Tour set was the closest thing I had to Mikey’s attempt at pizza in the film.

These figures aren’t going to bust out with the cool ninja moves, they’re intended to just look neat on your shelf with some minor degree of posing. I think they mostly look good enough to make up for that lack of articulation, but I also think NECA could have done a little better and sacrificed some of that aesthetic for better range, particularly in the hips and knees. It probably doesn’t matter that much though as if you have ever wanted figures based on the third Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie then you’re probably not passing on this set. I can see some folks out there wanting base turtles from that movie, maybe with different expressions, but for me this is perfect. It’s the turtles from the movie in their most recognizable look. The set isn’t the home run it could have been given how the extra heads turned out, but the figures look the part and that’s what is most important. And if you’re into the novelty packaging, then NECA has you covered there as well. Now, let’s all thank Moe for being such a good sport!

If you want to read about more turtle toys, I can’t imagine a more robust place on the internet than here:

NECA 1990 TMNT Movie SDCC Set

For the past several years, the folks over at NECA have been making San Diego Comic Con an annual event for fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I mean, it’s always an event, but it’s been especially fun for TMNT fans because NECA has been able to release limited action figure sets based on…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Secret of the Ooze 4-Pack and Accessory Set

It’s that time of year when a lot of folks are reflecting on the past year and all of the things that happened. This usually coincides with list-making for favorites and worst of the year in basically every category you can dream of. And for action figure enthusiasts, there’s definitely a lot of list making.…

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by Joe

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III

When I was a child, going to the movies was a pretty big deal. It didn’t happen often so when it did it felt like a special occasion. Most of the Disney films of the late 80s and 90s were seen by me at home. Batman, Ghostbusters, every Back to the Future movie- all films…

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by Joe

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July 27, 2023

The 2023 San Diego Comic Con Reaction Post

By Joe
It’s the second most wonderful time of the year!

You probably heard, but Hollywood is essentially on strike right now. Two large unions are fighting for better pay, benefits, and assurances that they won’t be replaced by artificial intelligence while major studio heads like Bob Iger are tossing stones from their golden mansions. I am firmly on the side of labor when it comes to most strikes, but this isn’t a strike post. It’s a comic con one as the just recently wrapped San Diego Comic Con of 2023 had a decidedly different feel to it in light of the work stoppage. Unions frown upon any of their members even promoting their projects right now, and with good reason. Without the glitz of Hollywood, it meant Comic Con could go back to being about comics for at least one year. Though for me, every year is all about the toys!

I don’t know when it started, but Comic Con has become a huge spot for toy producers to show off what’s coming in the next few months to a year and 2023 was no exception. I sat glued to my phone once preview night started and fought with myself to put it down all weekend since I couldn’t be there in person. Now that it’s over, I’m going to tell you what I think because my opinions are very, very, important and the fate of the companies involved, nigh the entire industry, is dependent upon securing my approval.

NECA TMNT

That is one big ass Krang! Photo: Pixel Dan

Let’s start with the old standby – NECA and their many versions of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In some respects, this year’s display felt slightly subdued, but I think that’s because NECA has really branched out beyond just the cartoon and movies. They basically showed off a little bit of everything and undoubtedly they’ve held stuff back for the conventions to come. And that’s fine by me, I was kind of happy that I took one look at the new TMNT toon stuff and didn’t feel like I necessarily needed any of it. And some of that is tempered by the fact that I know I have a major expense in the sewer lair diorama to look forward to. On the toon side though, I’m definitely in for the street turtles. While I prefer the season one street looks to these, I’m still happy to have what they showed. That’s it though. I’m probably going to get more, and the giant Krang was certainly the show-stealer, but I’m definitely in more of a wait and see how I feel mode when some of this stuff starts becoming available.

These wrestling turtles so perfectly nail that Archie aesthetic I love. Photo: The Fwoosh

On the movie end, we just had some new Secret of the Ooze figures to look at. There was kick-boxing Keno, some new Foot, and two versions of Professor Jordan Perry. Is that too much of the professor? For me, yeah, and I can probably ignore all of these. Oh, and there was a pretty neat Shredder throne on display, but that’s another thing I don’t need. The comics end was far more exciting with a bunch of new figures based on The Last Ronin shown. They all look pretty damn good, but I may be out on that subline for the simple reason that I can’t buy, and display, everything TMNT from NECA. The Mirage line is getting some new figures as well, with the big one being Rat King who looked fantastic. That is definitely going on the “must buy” list. As for Archie, that may have stolen the show with a brand new Mondo Gecko unveiled and the much demanded Wrestling Turtles! Even if the models shown for the turtles were so early that they didn’t feature any articulation, I couldn’t have been more excited! I’ve wanted that black suit Raph ever since I was a kid and my dad bought me TMNT Adventures #10. I must have read that thing cover-to-cover at least a dozen times.

As for disappointments, there wasn’t much to be found. All of the new stuff looked good, so any disappointment was likely just the result of something not being shown. And the big one, for me, is Tempestra. I thought there was a very good chance we would see her from the toon line, especially after the profile boost given to the character thanks to Shredder’s Revenge, but she remains the elusive final member from the Night of the Rogues. I feel confident she’s coming though, so I’m not that broken up about it. I’d also like to see a new toon Shredder, or an Archie one, but again that’s probably coming, we just don’t know when. And hey, that Turtle Van is looking pretty sweet!

Super7

All right, when can I have them?! Photo: The Fwoosh

Super7 has cast such a wide net these days that maybe I should break their display up, but then again, there wasn’t a ton for me. The biggest though, by far, was the official unveiling of the new line of Misfits figures. These are being done in a retro, Masters of the Universe, style which is pretty cool. It means they won’t be as expensive as Ultimates, but definitely better than ReAction. I’ve felt for awhile that Super7 needed something in between those two lines, and maybe this is it. Would I like an Ultimate Glenn Danzig some day? Sure, as long as it’s good, and some of the figures Super7 has done of real people haven’t turned out so hot. This line, which features Skeleton Danzig, Jerry Only, The Fiend (aka Crimson Ghost), Samhain Danzig, and early 90s Danzig, already has hit on some great designs. We just need a Doyle to round things out. I’m also amused by how Super7 is basically just following the Medicom blueprint when it comes to Glenn Danzig.

On the disappointing side, well, there just wasn’t anything from the other lines I care about at Super7. Well, they did have TMNT Wave 8 on display and that’s looking fine, but there was nothing from the Disney or Simpsons Ultimates or even any new ReAction that I saw for either. Super7 usually doesn’t unveil new Ultimates at Comic Con, and they also don’t always go with a robust display. If they have something anticipated that they just got from the factory or something, they may bring that, but not always. I’m just concerned for both of those lines. The most recent Disney wave based on The Rescuers failed to secure enough preorders to go into production. Is the line in jeopardy? Sort of similar is that The Simpsons Wave 4 is still listed with an ambiguous “TBD” on the pre-order status page. It could be an oversight and they just haven’t updated it, or it could mean that no progress is being made and until it goes into production it should be considered as “in jeopardy,” as far as I’m concerned. It’s not exactly a star-studded wave and features two figures at $65 so nothing would surprise me.

Hasbro

Now that’s a figure worthy of the Master of Magnetism. Photo: The Fwoosh

I am certainly not the biggest Hasbro fan, but the company had my attention going into the convention because we knew that Marvel Legends based on the highly-anticipated X-Men ’97 were likely to be shown. And they were! Coming in Wave 1 is Wolverine, Rogue, Gambit, Storm, Bishop, and Magneto all with new sculpting to make them better resemble the upcoming show. For me, someone who collected the VHS line of X-Men based on the 1992 cartoon, I wanted to see if some of these could be fudged into that line. We have no assurances that Hasbro intends to come back and finish that team, so plucking Gambit and Rogue from this one might be our best option. And, for the most part, they look okay. Rogue has her green jacket and black headband and Gambit has a more “toon” appearance to his face. Neither face-sculpt looks truly like the ’92 show, but Hasbro was unlikely to give us that in the VHS line anyway. There is no cel-shading though, so that might throw off the display a bit, but given how half-assed Hasbro’s approach to that style was maybe it’s for the best? Wolverine is essentially the same as that release too, just now he has an unmasked portrait and pin-less limbs, so collectors waiting on a non-cel-shaded version of that figure should be happy. I personally don’t need it. And with Storm and Bishop featuring new hairstyles, I can pass on them as well. That Magneto though is a must have and I’m happy to see that Hasbro shaded his face. He could use some accessories, but this is Hasbro we’re talking about so that’s hardly a surprise.

I don’t know if I’m as happy as Pixel Dan is about this Crystar, but I’m definitely in “gimme gimme gimme” mode! Photo: Pixel Dan

Hasbro also gets credit for one of the biggest surprises as they showed off a figure of Crystar! Yes, Crystar The Crystal Warrior is coming to Marvel Legends and the figure looks pretty sweet. It’s all done in translucent plastic with a blue hue and he has his sword and shield to round things out. The comic he hails from is pretty forgettable, except for the fact that the iconic Danzig skull was lifted from the cover of issue 8. Naturally, this is one I need for the Danzig collection more than anything.

And that’s pretty much it for me. I did see other great stuff like Jada’s Mega Man line and NECA had some new Gargoyles to show, but the above stuff is what really stood out for me and got me excited. Mondo also unveiled an Omega Red in their sixth scale line based on the X-Men animated series and he looks unsurprisingly spectacular, I just wish they’d slow down a bit as that line is killing me financially. Special shout out to all of those working hard during the convention covering this stuff for people like me who can’t go. I’m talking about The Fwoosh, Pixel Dan, Toy Shiz, Toy Bro, and loads of others. The excitement is now over, we have lots to look forward to, and the next convention or show lurks on the horizon. This golden age of toy collecting appears to be going strong, weap for my wallet!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

In the late 1980s the arcade scene in the US was still going strong. Classic style arcade games like Donkey Kong and Pac-Man were being overtaken by a new genre of quarter-munching pain: the brawler. Or the beat-em-up. If you’ve played one, then you can picture what I’m talking about. It was usually a one…

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by Joe

The Saga of Crystar – Crystal Warrior #8

There’s been a hole in my Danzig collection for quite some time. It was a hole that was easy to fill and actually quite cheap considering most Danzig records fetch well over $100 these days, but an important piece was missing. And that piece is not what one would necessarily expect, but I would assume…

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by Joe

Super7 is Heading to Springfield!

Wednesday, August 18th, ended up being quite an eventful little day in the world of toy collecting. There were some reveals from major toy companies, leaks, and even those long neglected Street Sharks fans got something to get excited about late in the day. Personally, it was a good day for me too as I…

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July 18, 2023

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios Splinter

By Joe
Splinter has arrived and he didn’t arrive alone.

When NECA started down the path of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with the 2008 release of the four titular characters, it didn’t go very far. After the turtles came April, but as a convention exclusive, and then nothing else. It would be years before their Shredder, which was shown off at the very same convention April was released at, was released as a con exclusive himself along with three of his henchmen. And it seemed to take the success of the eventual cartoon and movie lines that pushed NECA to go back to the original comics. It’s been an interesting line as it started with perhaps less-requested characters with the Fugitoid and Renet, but now we’re getting to those heavy hitters fans were dreaming of fifteen years ago. And some of those heavy hitters come in pint-sized packages like the beloved Master Splinter.

He’s a little guy.

Splinter sets the bar as shortest figure in the line. Coming in at a tidy 3.5″, he’s very much a little guy. Especially when placed with the recently released turtle four-pack who are taller and bulkier than the 2008 figures. I said he comes in a pint-sized package, but that was an embelleshment on my part as the actual box he’s in is the same as most of the other single releases. It features new art by Kevin Eastman which matches the look of the figure pretty well. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I do believe first appearance Splinter in the books was a bit more fuzzy and frayed looking than the figure here, but that would be very hard to pull-off in plastic.

If you prefer your Splinter with the 08 versions.
He apparently got a boost in size when making the leap to animation.
“You have got to be kidding me.”

I noted Splinter is 3.5″ tall, but I should add that is in his neutral stance which features bent knees. It’s basically how he came out of the box and how he likely should be posed, but someone who wanted him to be taller for the sake of being taller could get a little more out of him. He’s sculpted all in brown plastic with a lot of black dry brushing over him. The black is heaviest on the top of his snout and extends to around his eyes which creates a striking portrait. It’s a solid approximation of the comic art and if there’s anything I think could have been done better with the sculpt and paint it’s the claws on Splinter’s hands and feet. They’re a bit soft in sculpt and all brown so they just blend into the fingers and toes. It matches the art on the box so I can’t knock the figure for its accuracy, it’s just one of those design choices that works better in print than sculpt.

This is probably a better foe for the sensei.

The shading on the figure covers the entire body, but it’s almost irrelevant since Splinter features a soft goods robe. Just like his cartoon and movie counterpart, the robe is wrapped around him and fastened with a brown ribbon. It’s a maroon color and it looks fine. It’s a lot of material and a little frumpy looking. It might have been neat to see it look a little more worn since this is a rat who lives in the sewer. I don’t like the ribbon used for the belt as it just doesn’t look like any belt one would expect a robe to fastened with. It’s a criticism I had for the movie and cartoon Splinter. A piece of stretchy material, like the additional belt on the Foot and Shredder movie figures, with a knot glued onto it would have been my preference, but it’s fine.

Since he doesn’t have much, Splinter gets all of the pre-mutated guys and some ooze too.

The figure, despite being small, has most of the same articulation one would expect of a NECA figure. The head feels like it’s on a double ball peg and it has great range in all directions. The shoulders are ball-hinged and can raise out to the side fine, but rotation is going to be limited by the robe. It’s something that can be worked around though as that’s the benefit of the robe being slightly oversized. The elbows are single-hinged with a swivel and will bend to 90 degrees. The wrists swivel and hinge horizontally as well. In the torso is a diaphragm joint that feels like a ball-joint, it could be a double, but you get rotation, a little forward “crunch,” and some tilt. The hips are ball-jointed and can go out to the side for splits. They kick back rather far, but not really forward a whole lot. There’s a little thigh pivot and the knees are single-hinged and swivel. You do get about a 90 degree bend at the knee, but again, he’s meant to stand with his knees bent to about 45 degrees so the practical range is limited. The ankles hinge and pivot with the ankle rocker being a bit flat, but functional. The tail is connected via a hinged ball peg so you get rotation and the hinge can direct it a bit. The tail itself is also bendy, though the wire only goes about halfway through it so it’s a bit limited.

And he also comes with this guy.

Splinter has decent articulation, though it’s hard to argue that he’s not meant to mostly just stand there on your shelf. He can hit a few battle ready poses and also stand on one foot if you want to place him in a side-kicking pose. I’m a little surprised that NECA did not include an articulated jaw as they did with the cartoon Splinter, but I don’t hate the exclusion. The profile looks good so if they felt they couldn’t get that joint in there without harming the presentation then that’s a decision I support. I only mention it as some may have expected it based on past versions of the character and may miss it.

The old and the new. The Utrom on the left came in the Foot four-pack and the turtle on the far right came with the 08 figures.

Since Splinter is such a small figure, he does come with a pretty robust assortment of accessories to justify his price tag. Big figures cost more money for both NECA and the consumer, but that rarely applies to small figures. To get more plastic into this, Splinter comes with three sets of hands: relaxed, gripping, and pointing. The gripping hands have the less desireable horizontal hinge. I’m surprised we didn’t get flat, chop, styled hands as well. Splinter also has his walking stick and that he can grasp with the gripping hands or the relaxed hands. The relaxed hands can also rest on top of the stick too so you have some options when posing him with it. There’s a small tea kettle with articulated handle and a little cup to go with it. The kettle has some nice black linework on it while the cup is blank. Splinter can hold the kettle by the handle and palm the cup well and it’s a nice little pair of accessories. I do wish NECA had ripped-off Super7 and included a steaming effect for the cup, but it’s fine as-is.

Cartoon Splinter is bigger than comic Splinter, but the opposite is true for the Mouser.

Those are the accessories for Splinter, the rest are basically extra characters. Up first is a brand new Mouser. It’s painted all in gray with some light blue shading on it to create a metallic effect that looks really nice. It’s also covered in the usual black linework and looks rather sharp. As far as I know, the entire sculpt is brand new as it doesn’t share any parts with the cartoon Mouser. If it shares any parts with the Mouser released back in 2008 I’m not sure as I don’t have any of those. It functions just like the toon one with an articulated jaw that features a fully-sculpted interior, hinge at the base of the head, ball-jointed neck which allows for a lot of rotation and tilt, leg swivel, hinged knee, and hinged ankle. The hinged joints in the legs are plenty tight so the figure has no trouble standing and overall it’s a nice addition that I’m sure collectors will want more of.

Who’s for tea?

Splinter also comes with an assortment of slug figures for accessories. We get a new Utrom that has more of a surprised expression on its face. It’s very close in size to the previously released stand-alone Utrom that came in the Shredder convention set, it just drops the articulation entirely. It’s well-painted with a lot of dry-brushing that makes it look dirty and gross. We also get a pre-mutated Splinter that’s in sort of a martial arts pose. To go with him are four, baby, turtles. Stylistically, they’re very similar to the pre-mutated turtles the 2008 figures came with, but they’re all new sculpts and noticeably smaller. They’re nicely painted and they almost look like they’re smiling so they bring a cute factor to the package. The last item is the broken cannister of ooze. It’s a new sculpt and it’s basically upside down with a big puddle of the stuff spreading out from it. It serves to create a nice little display with the other slug characters and I prefer it to just a plain cannister.

“Michelangelo! You have neglected your training for too long!”

And that’s NECA’s take on Splinter. It’s a small figure with a bunch of stuff that NECA hopes will offset the price of the figure. I got my figure at Target where it retails for $37 which is about the same price as figures like Jagwar and Dreadmon, but less than Zog and the Shredder clones. Is $37 too much? It’s hard to blame folks who feel like it is. The added accessories are nice, but would I trade some of them to knock this release down to $30? Sure. As for the figure itself, I think it gets the job done. I think it could have more hands and a better belt, but this Splinter will look nice on your Mirage Studios shelf which is rapidly becoming shelves in many collections. It’s an essential release if you’re a TMNT Mirage collector, and if you can stomach the price I think you’ll be happy enough.

Fancy yourself a collector of NECA’s TMNT Mirage line? Here’s some more reviews to take a look at:

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios Triceraton Zog

Haulathon 2023 has brought some pretty big releases to NECA’s line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures. And I mean big in a literal sense. REX-1 was tall and hefty and the multi-armed clone of Shredder was no slouch either. Those two seem to pale in comparison to Zog, the Triceraton warrior from NECA’s…

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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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NECA Mirage Studios TMNT Casey Jones

Where there be turtles, there be Casey Jones – the bad ass vigilante of New York City! Casey was an early addition to the comics and he’s basically been included with every iteration of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles since. And in all of them he tends to wear a hockey mask and bludgeons bad guys…

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by Joe

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

July 11, 2023

NECA Mirage Studios Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4-Pack

By Joe
The turtles are back…in red!

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 Turtles in 1984. It was basically perfect timing from there as the product quickly got the attention of Mark Freedman and his Surge Licensing brand which, much like Mirage Studios, existed largely in name only. He saw the property’s potential as a kid’s product and was able to get Eastman and Laird to grant him permission to shop the IP to toy companies. Aside from a prototype created for Mattel, no major producer bit, except for Playmates. Known more as a doll company, Playmates wanted to get into the action figure business and took a chance on the franchise. They co-developed a television mini series with Fred Wolf to help sell the toys, and the rest is history.

New artwork from TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman!
A nice window box to show you what’s inside.

Because of that early involvement and ridiculous level of success, Playmates has been intertwined with the TMNT franchise ever since. And for a long time, they were the only ones to make action figures based on the property. Then, in 2008, NECA Toys released it’s own version of the brothers. Marketed to collectors and sold outside the usual avenues occupied by Playmates, NECA sent to market a version of the turtles that had never really been done before in toy form. Based on their original appearance in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1, the turtles hit retail with hopes of more Mirage inspired characters to follow. Then, it stopped. Details are murky, but some have blamed Playmates for stepping in and essentially squashing the toy line by exercising its contractual rights as the master toy license holder. It also could have just been poor sales. NECA’s Randy Falk indicated years ago that the comic turtles weren’t big sellers. Anecdotal evidence suggests he may be correct as I personally can recall seeing both the standard issue and black and white variants hanging around comic shops for years and only finally vanishing after hitting clearance. It’s possible NECA was just a little too early and TMNT nostalgia just wasn’t ready to take off in 2008. Only a select few know for sure why the line was ultimately cancelled.

The biggest weakness of this set is the amount of stuff in the box.

Flash-forward 15 years later and NECA is back with a new iteration of the Mirage Studios Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If fans weren’t ready for turtle nostalgia in 2008, they certainly are now. The property is now owned by Viacom who has wielded its mighty powers to loosen the toy license and we’re basically swimming in TMNT action figures from various companies. And since then, those 2008 figures have become far more sought after. Where once they could be had for clearance prices, they now command over 100 dollars a piece on the secondary market. This helped turn them into a magnet for bootleggers and some have even suggested that the physical molds were swiped from whatever factory NECA had been using. If NECA felt their dance with TMNT was over, it’s possible they let them go. Either way, because of a desire to do something different or because the figures have been bootlegged to hell and back, NECA decided to forego ever reissuing them. Instead, they opted to do new turtles based on later issues and for fans who have been dying to get ahold of some affordable Mirage turtles their wait is finally over.

If you’re wondering the answer is “No,” the arm, blaster, thing does not fit on the new turtles.
These old figures have some outdated engineering, but still look pretty damn cool.

The original 2008 figures have commonly been referred to as the Peter Laird turtles by fans. That’s likely due to Laird being the one who worked with NECA at the time when they were in development. They also seem to clearly be based on a singular image from the first issue which has been credited to Laird over the years. I have no idea how much of that is true as Eastman and Laird had a unique drawing style in which the two literally drew the same issue switching off in an unconventional manner as they passed papers back and forth. That’s why it’s just easier to consider them first appearance turtles. As the franchise took off, Eastman and Laird moved to the business side and away from doing the actual art which allowed for other artists to come into the fold. One such artist was Jim Lawson, who would go on to do pencils for a number of TMNT books. Initially, his take on the turtles was to emulate what Eastman and Laird had settled on when he stepped in while adding a little of his own influence. Eastman and Laird both loved Lawson’s work and have heaped praise upon it over the years. With their encouragement, he brought more of his own style into the books which can easily be seen during the City at War arc. His turtles were rather blocky, their heads almost resembling inverted mushrooms, and it’s that style that I think most comic book fans associate with the name Jim Lawson.

My attempt at recreating the TMNT #4 cover. Most know that as the cover to the first NES game.

For this release, NECA hired Paul Harding as the sculptor and directed him to design the turtles based on Lawson’s art, but not his later work as seen with City at War, but his earlier stuff when he first started on the book. Because of that, this set is being marketed as the Return to New York Turtles, though Harding clarified on Twitter that he didn’t expressly design them based on that story. It’s an appropriate shorthand though to place these figures into an era of the original comics. NECA’s approach to comic figures, unlike some companies, is to be very stylized and to try and emulate a certain artist’s approach rather than adapt a character from a generic model sheet or reference material. American comics have almost always allowed for an artist to imprint their own style onto established characters and such can be seen across basically all of the major comic books published by the likes of Marvel and DC. It’s both a cool approach for fans and a wise one for a toy producer since it opens up the possibility to re-release popular characters like the turtles over and over with slightly different looks.

I love how NECA handled the deco on Leo’s swords.

With all of that background out of the way, lets finally talk toys! This long-awaited NECA four-pack has recently started showing up at Target and was even sold online via Target’s website on June 25th. It seems like Target may have actually purchased stock from NECA for this release in contrast with the usual vendor-driven system they usually have in place for NECA. That’s likely due to this being timed with the drop of new toys by Playmates for the upcoming Mutant Mayhem film and because this release is the actual turtles, not some obscure side character that could possibly shelf-warm. This set will sell, even at the steep price of $150. The real question is – is this worth that steep price? If you’ve been waiting years to get a set of official Mirage turtles, that answer might be an easy “Yes” regardless of how this set turned out. If you are like me and have those 08 figures, or maybe even bootlegs you’re happy with, do you need to drop a bunch of money on yet another set of turtles? Read on.

Don’t mess with this pair.

The turtles come packaged in what is essentially NECA’s standard four-pack box. It’s an oversized version of the Ultimates, or Deluxe, releases with a front flap and window on the package. It’s adorned with new artwork by Kevin Eastman which looks great. This is the type of box that will display well for you in-box collectors. For the rest of you, you probably only care about the contents. Each turtle is on the same buck so you basically have four nearly identical figures inside. The main difference between each is the headsculpt which just features a different expression for each turtle. Since this is a Mirage set, they’re all in red bandanas with brown straps and pads giving them a very uniform look. There’s also a different deco applied to the plastron of each figure with Raph’s featuring the most “scuffs” than the other three. They’re done with black lines as opposed to being sculpted in.

The Mirage line has been rapidly expanding over the past year.

The turtles stand at approximately 5.875″ in height. They’re quite chunky in appearance and fully-painted in a fairly neutral shade of green with lots of black linework to emulate the comic art. The linework is present on the pads, bandana, and belt and really sells the look well. It’s all relatively clean and consistent across the board. The only area I see as being a bit uneven is the linework around the bandanas. On a shelf, it’s fine, but up close there are some parts where there’s a smidge of green in-between the black line and the start of the red mask. My Michelangelo also has what looks like a scuff behind his right eye so there’s a little green showing. My Leonardo also has a speck of brown on his right bicep, but in general, I don’t see much in the way of color transfer throughout the four figures.

The paint is acceptable as is the level of quality control present throughout my set. Harding did a really good job of honing in on a design style for the turtles and capturing that with his sculpt. The only thing I personally would have changed are the legs which look really chunky. I think they could have been shrunk as the calf muscles basically extend outside the profile of the thigh muscles. That’s more of a subjective critique though than an objective one as these look quite close to the source material from what I can tell.

Shredder is looking a bit dated by comparison.

I think these figures are pretty much a homerun from a presentation point-of-view and that’s definitely where NECA’s strong suit lies. Where it often does not is with articulation, and these guys aren’t necessarily bad, but they’re not likely to wow anyone. Since the figures are essentially the same, they articulate the same as well. The heads are on a double ball peg (and in case you ever mix-up the heads, they’re stamped with the character’s initial inside) and the range is solid looking up, down, and all around. The shoulders are hinged-ball pegs and they can’t quite raise out to the side all the way. They rotate fine until they hit the shell, and past that is a biceps swivel. This joint was the only joint I had any issues with as 7 out of the 9 biceps joints in my set were stuck. I used the hot water to cold water method to get all of them working. The peg for the joint is pretty snug so I also pulled out a little before twisting and it required a pretty forceful twist. The peg is rather thick, so it should be pretty durable, but if you leave the joint in a hot water bath for too long and then try to twist it you could shear it off, so be careful. Once I essentially broke the seal on the joint it was fine.

Despite that, he still looks pretty good opposite these figures.

With that out of the way, the elbows are the next spot and NECA opted for double-joints this time. This is a welcomed addition as the cartoon turtles feature hinged pegs for the elbows and I wasn’t sure what to expect with these. The addition is worthwhile too as they can bend past 90 degrees at the joint. The wrists swivel and feature horizontal hinges. There are no vertical hinged hands in this set at all. That’s disappointing as the toon turtles had vertical hinges for the hands. The Turtles in Disguise set I believe came with two sets of vertical gripping hands, and this continues to be a problem with NECA. Where they once did a decent job of including the proper hinge, they seem to have essentially abandoned it for TMNT. Gargoyles characters get it, so I don’t understand the oversight. This is a set where essentially one set of tools creates four figures and it’s also something they’re likely to reissue many times so the fact that they couldn’t find it in the budget is absurd to me. It’s my biggest pet peeve with NECA of late.

For those who would like a more direct comparison.

At least at the waist we get an improvement over the 2008 turtles. NECA included a waist twist which they set fairly high behind the plastron to conceal it. It’s not going to provide the same amount of range a waist twist would with a non-shelled character, but it works all right. NECA added a “diaper” over the hips as well, but it doesn’t seem to get in the way. It does have the tendency to shift a bit though and my Leonardo has more of the part visible on his right leg than his left by quite a bit. The legs can kick forward past 90 degrees before the leg wants to go off to the side while the shell keeps them from kicking back. They also can hit a split. After that it’s pretty typical as we get a pivot point for the thighs where the ball connects with double-jointed knees past that which bend just a touch beyond 90 degrees. The ankles have the hinge and rocker setup, though the chunky nature of the ankles does restrict some of the range, but there should be enough to keep your figures flat-footed in most stances. These guys also have tails and there is a swivel point there if you want it. The bandana tassel also pegs in, and while it doesn’t really spin freely, you can reposition it if you want by removing it and re-inserting it even if you can’t get it to swivel.

Nothing is stopping you from swapping heads, but the default is (Clockwise from top left): Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael.

The level of articulation is acceptable, aside from the lack of proper hinges for the gripping hands. Where this set surprises in the wrong way is with the accessories. If you have the Turtles in Disguise set or most of the other four-packs NECA has done over the past few years then you’re accustomed to getting a bunch of stuff in these boxes. With these turtles, despite the amount of tooling needed to produce these guys, we don’t really have much. Each turtle comes with a set of gripping hands out of the box, and then there is one set of fists, open hands, style pose hands, and gripping hands with more space between the fingers. Those hands are intended for use with Raphael when he grips his sai with the middle blade going through his fingers. Since it’s four sets the boys have to share, you can’t have all four turtles with their hands in a style pose or chop. There’s at least an entire set of four alternate bandana tassels that can be swapped in and out. The figures come with the bandana draped over their right shoulder and each one has a straight bandana piece to swap to.

There may not be a ton in the box, but at least they didn’t screw up the weapons.

Of course, the main accessories are the weapons. Each turtle has his signature weapons and they all appear to be new sculpts. For Leo and Raph, the metal portions of their weapons are painted the way I’ve wanted metal to be done for a long time now: white with light blue shading. It looks so good and is much better than the flat gray so many companies use. Even the very expensive Mondo sixth scale Wolverine has flat gray claws. I attribute it to the idea of metal being white as “wrong” since we know it isn’t white in real life, but that’s how it often looks in print or in animation. With Leo, the effect is perfect, though with Raph the blue shading is basically all over. I think if they did it exactly how they did Leo’s katana it would have turned out better, but it’s minor. Mikey’s nunchaku are done similar to the movie figures with brown, plastic, handles connected via black thread. Donnie’s bo is done in an orange-brown with a slightly lighter brown wrap, which is an interesting choice. Perhaps an off-white would have contrasted more, but basically every Donatello figure does that with his signature weapon so I don’t mind the difference. There’s also three gear-like throwing weapons included painted in the same light blue as Raph’s sai and the shading on Leo’s katana. Why three instead of four? It’s an odd choice, but one I can’t get too worked up over since I’m not going to use these anyway.

You get three of these buzz saw things, if that’s something that interests you.

Lastly, we get a couple of accessories that are specific to Raph from the comics. His bandaged right arm is included as a swappable piece, but since all four turtles are the same mold, it can actually work with any turtle. The right arm pops off easily (the left does not) to facilitate swapping. The bicep was stuck on this arm as well, but I was able to free it up. Also included is Raph’s hood which is done in a soft plastic. It slides over his head easily after you remove the bandana piece and it’s a cool look for him. There’s a texture to the hood that helps sell the illusion it’s made from a rough fabric and it has some black linework as well. It looks good enough that I think I’m going to use this for my display since it does break things up a bit.

Raph’s sneaking outfit is the most substantial accessory. Since all four turtles are essentially the same, they can all wear this thing and the right arm on all four pops off with ease.

That’s it though. Four extra sets of hands for four figures, an extra set of bandana pieces, three throwing weapons, and Raph’s hood and arm. The melee weapons are a given because every set of turtles needs to include those, but why so skimpy on the hands? How about an extra head for each turtle? Especially since they’d function as an extra head for any turtle given they all look the same. With so many shared parts and the high price tag of $150, it feels light. It’s like we’re paying an undisclosed “Turtle Tax” since this is a set NECA knows will be in high demand and can make a larger profit on. Maybe I’m completely wrong and the profit margin is unchanged from past four-packs. And maybe I’m just still salty about the lack of vertically hinged hands.

“All right, Round Head, let’s go bust some skulls!”

Basically, what I said several paragraphs ago is what applies most here: if you’ve been waiting years for a set of Mirage turtles then you’re going to get this set. And you’re probably going to be relatively happy with the outcome. The figures are fun to handle and pose and look great together. I think they pair well with most of the other Mirage releases, though placing them with Shredder does make me wish we had a beefier Shredder for them to fight. They’ll look great with Zog though or the Shredder clones or even just off on their own. In spite of the inflated price point, I do think they’re worth getting even for those who have the original Mirage turtles given the difference in style.

I figured I’d end on a pic of these two, for no particular reason…

If you’re on the hunt for these boys you can keep an eye on Target’s website. Set alerts for if they come back in stock as you never know. They also have shipped in waves to Target stores so keep checking there. If your store is like mine, they’re being stocked on an endcap in the toys section rather than in the usual NECA section. Since these are a Mirage release, it also stands to reason they’ll be sold in other places after this initial Target run is over. NECA hasn’t come out and said that, but it would be crazy for them not to make the actual turtles available to as many customers as possible.

Interested in more NECA Mirage Studios releases?

NECA Mirage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

A dozen years ago, toy company NECA dipped its toe into the world of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the first time, and shockingly it failed to stick around. That’s incredible to hear for collectors currently chasing down Bebop and Rocksteady at Target, but it’s the truth. There are a lot of folks at NECA…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios Triceraton Zog

Haulathon 2023 has brought some pretty big releases to NECA’s line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures. And I mean big in a literal sense. REX-1 was tall and hefty and the multi-armed clone of Shredder was no slouch either. Those two seem to pale in comparison to Zog, the Triceraton warrior from NECA’s…

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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

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

July 4, 2023

NECA TMNT Toon Donatello’s Portable Portal Generator

By Joe
Hokum Hare not included.

Is this it? Have I finally hit the point where my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toy collecting is out of control? It just might be, for today we have Donatello’s Portable Portal Generator, the latest piece from NECA’s line of toys based on the vintage cartoon series. And it’s not that this is a bad release or anything, it’s just the sort of thing that I don’t think I would have ever asked for when this line was in its infancy, but here we are.

NECA’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure lines have been hugely successful, especially the one based on the cartoon. TMNT is hot right now and it’s fixing to get even hotter with a new movie on the way. NECA has released basically all of the major characters from the show and now we’re onto the obscure like Bugman and Jersey Red. More are expected to follow, but as the roster of characters fills out even further the company has started to turn its attention towards releases that enhance the display of the collection. We first saw NECA re-release its street diorama, but with a new paint job to accentuate the cartoon world these characters inhabit. The company also last year solicited a Turtle Van which is due out later this year and we also got a peek at a multi-part sewer lair diorama. That was expected to go on-sale last fall, but did not. We’re likely in for an update at San Diego Comic Con on that item, if not sooner.

This is what comes in the box: 3 lenticular images and the frame.

An item that would seemingly exist to complement that diorama release is Donatello’s portable portal generator. If you recall from the show, Donatello was able to reverse engineer the portal Krang possessed and make it smaller leading to various confrontations with extra-dimensional beings. It was probably a pretty easy thing to rely on for story pitches since a number of stories could begin with the premise “Donatello’s portal generator goes haywire and this weird mutant enters their world.” NECA first unveiled this item in promotional shots for other figures and it wasn’t long before collectors were asking how they could get one of their own. Some may have expected it to be a pack-in with a lair set, or maybe even something to include in the recently released accessory set, but for NECA it apparently made more sense to go the stand-alone route. Since it is a bit of an odd item, NECA sold it as a preorder on their website last winter and it’s now arriving in the hands of collectors, so just what is this thing and is it something every TMNT collection needs?

“Donatello! What have you done?!”

The portal (it’s just easier to call it that than by it’s official, very long, name) is really just a lump of sculpted plastic with room for a lenticular insert. It’s roughly 7.5″ tall and nearly a foot long. The maximum depth on the unit is only 2.5″ though so it’s not the space hog it could be. It comes in its own special packaging with artwork from Daniel Elson and Merle Mustard which is evocative of the old VHS releases. The actual piece is well-sculpted and painted all over. It looks just as I remember it from the show. It just doesn’t do anything. There’s a handle on the far side of it that is articulated, but the wheel near the opening for the portal image is non-functioning. It’s just basically a plastic frame with a spot for an insert.

Here is your articulation.

And those inserts number 3. They are lenticular so there’s two images per insert and I assume they’re taken directly from the show. There’s some samurai pigs, sentient vending machines, some odd looking aliens, a tropical setting with Technodrome, Japanese house, and a foreign planet. They all have a third layer on-top that’s the wavy lines the portal would generate before an image of another dimension would appear. I’m surprised we don’t have the option for a screen that’s just those waves. I’m also surprised that there’s only three. It seems like there was a lot of room to create some fun cameos here, but NECA opted not to.

There is no detail on the rear of the unit. I don’t know that there needs to be, but it might matter to some.

That’s it though. One plastic frame and three pieces of lenticular cardstock. The price for this set was $45 plus NECA’s $15 flat-rate shipping. And since this is a NECA store exclusive, you might as well consider the price of the item $60. Ouch. For what it is, it’s nice. It looks the part and will enhance Donatello’s sewer lab should it ever see release. It’s just pretty pricey and there’s no added incentive to get it. I’m surprised NECA didn’t toss-in any trinkets or just something fun into the set or even another Mouser. There’s really no creativity here like an insert with a hand coming through or something more interactive. This is really a case of what you see is what you get and if it’s too much for you then so be it. It’s also admittedly an odd thing to have without the sewer lair as it feels like it has no home. I will do something with it until then, but I don’t know what just yet.

Yeah, that’s not going to work. It’s a shame that NECA wasn’t able to come up with a way for collectors to display figures in the portal.

Since this was solicited quite awhile ago, there’s no option to buy-in any longer. I don’t know if NECA made extra to sell on their website or at conventions, but if you want your very own portable portal generator you’re going to have to head to the secondary market. I have no idea what this will be like there, but I bet some people bought two with the hope of flipping one. There may be an initial surge in price, but I could see this being a losing investment for those hoping to do such a thing as it’s extremely niche. At the same time, it wouldn’t shock me if this is the oddball thing that does end up being pricey a year from now. I definitely don’t expect multiple production runs unless NECA wants to pair it with Donatello’s eventual laboratory so don’t wait too long if you think this is something you need.

Can’t get enough NECA TMNT or think this would work well with other releases then maybe check these out:

NECA Cartoon TMNT Accessory Set

We’re well into the cold of winter and spring feels like it’s just around the corner which means it must be time for another NECA Haulathon. Haulathon, if you don’t recall from last year, is basically a tandem promotion between NECA and Target which was just an excuse to get NECA some more visibility in…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Cartoon Street Scene Diorama

It was early last September that NECA made available for pre-order a redesigned version of their Street Scene diorama tailored specifically to fit-in with the company’s growing assortment of action figures based on the animated series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Fans had been asking for this set for even longer as NECA had been featuring…

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NECA Cartoon TMNT Mousers Pack

It’s been a little while since we had a Turtle Tuesday around here. NECA was keeping me quite busy in March with release after release and really putting a hurting on my wallet. Not only were sets hitting stores, but items were going up on NECA’s website for preorder, all of which require payment upfront.…

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by Joe

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

June 27, 2023

NECA TMNT Toon Bugman and Electrozapper

By Joe
Come for the Bugman and Electrozapper review, stay for the frog butt photo bombs.

No, that is not a typo in the subject line as this latest two-pack from NECA Toys features the incomparable Bugman, defender of justice, and Electrozapper. Not versus, but an and. I don’t know why since a lot of these hero and villain two-packs from NECA have gone with a versus in the middle, but this time they chose not to. Whatever, it’s just a box. What’s inside the box is what matters most as we have two characters who many may not even remember from the old cartoon, but for me, I’ve been hoping for this set for a long time.

When I reflect back on the original cartoon series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I find I mostly remember the characters that also appeared in the toy line. A majority of the time I watched that show I think I just shut my brain off and stared at the TV like a zombie. When the show was over, I’d go play with my figures and if nothing I saw on TV made it into my roleplay then it faded away pretty quickly. Bugman, on the other hand, did not. He was not featured in the toyline at all which is a bit of a surprise because he has a very “toyetic” design. He’s basically the show’s version of Spider-Man, but with the body horror element of The Fly (he also transforms via anger, so toss in a dash of Hulk too). I think it’s that body horror part that made him memorable for me as the sounds his body made when his antennae popped out of his head and his mouth elongated into the pincers of an ant just stuck with me. They were kind of gross, a bit unsettling, but also cool?

This is looking like it’s going to be quite the set.

It certainly made an impression, and I made sure to go rewatch the episode “Michaelangelo meets Bugman” before doing this review to re-familiarize myself with the character and his foil, Electrozapper. It’s actually a pretty entertaining episode of the show. Bugman is clearly a parody of many superheroes. To drive that point home, the show even got Dan Gilvezan to voice the character. Gilvezan was best know to kids of the era as the voice of Spider-Man himself on Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. Meanwhile, Electrozapper is a fairly straight parody of Spider-Man’s villain Electro, but with some elements of The Shocker tossed-in too via the design of his gloves. He looks like a cheesy 60s comic book villain and was a suitable choice for the episode. In it, the two are characters in a comic book series Michelangelo enjoys, but the book was apparently based on real people or something (it’s not explained). It’s worth a look even if you, like me, mostly think of the old cartoon as pretty bad.

The hero you want, right?

This two-pack comes way of Target once again and is currently showing up in stores in fairly substantial quantities. Most stores seem to be getting anywhere between 4 and 6 units, and for two obscure characters, those numbers are probably pretty healthy. In other words, I don’t think this one will be too hard to come by once the initial mad rush to get anything new dies down. And unlike some of the other recent releases, the price tag isn’t too bad at $55, pretty much the new standard for two-packs. That’s cheaper than some of the other two-packs we’ve received over the past year and these figures feature a lot of new sculpting and plenty of accessories.

The tail looks fine, but I wish it had more function.

We’ll talk Bugman first. He’s in his heroic form which means he looks like a bug…man. Sculpted by Josh Sutton, Bugman stands at around 6.75″ to the top of his head and a full 7″ to the top of his hair (and even taller if you factor in the antennae). His face is appropriately hideous with the elongated mandibles and giant, red, eyes. His hair is blond and streaked with brown which is quite similar to how it was shaded in the cartoon. His wings are new and painted a very light brown. He has his large, extra, legs poking out of his shoulders and the big, red, scorpion tail protruding from his back. He has a green bodysuit with his bug logo painted onto the chest. The toon shading NECA often relies upon is in place with a darker green on the rear of the figure. That’s the only shading though which is a bit odd. The boots and flesh bits lack the same approach. This one relies on the linework to help give it that “pop” and the linework in place is pretty clean.

Time to fly.

Bugman looks the part, and he mostly looks pretty good. His bracers around his forearms feature spikes on them which may get warped in the package. The left arm on my figure is fine, but the right arm does have a bent, middle, spike. I’m guessing some hot water can cure that though. NECA also chose to paint them gray when they look pretty white to me in the show, but it’s a minor inaccuracy as far as I’m concerned. Visually, I only have one real issue with Bugman and it’s that bulbous tail coming off his back. It plays into the articulation, but I’ll just mention it now that I feel like it needs more range. It looks like it just pegs into the figure’s back so it really only swivels. I’m surprised it’s not a hinged peg to move it off of his back or even a ball peg would get a little more range. Instead, it’s kind of stuck against his back. You can move it off to the side, or have it dangle between his legs, and neither option is great.

“Oh, wow, thanks for the save, Bugman.” “Don’t mention, Ms. O’Neil. By the way, would you like to have dinner sometime.” “Umm…no.”

We might as well go into that articulation now. The tail just swivels all the way around. A bendy tail would have been neat, but it’s just solid plastic. His head is on a ball peg as is the base of the neck so he gets great range in basically all directions. This also allows him to look forward when in a flying pose, something a lot of figures struggle with. The shoulders are standard hinged ball-pegs, but the shoulder pads plus the leg things protruding from the shoulders limit what they can do. He can rotate his arm as long as it’s out to the side enough to clear the shoulder pad, but the antennae or whatever won’t let him raise his arms out to the side. Those leg-things can rotate, maybe a hinge would have helped, but would have hurt the aesthetics, I think. There is a biceps swivel and the double-jointed elbows will bend past 90 degrees.

“Oh no! These…chain…coated in…leestanite…my one weakness!”

In the torso, Bugman has a diaphragm joint that lets him rotate, tilt, and bend forward and back a bit. More forward than back, which is good. He also has a waist twist that works, but is a little unsightly once you rotate too far. The hips are the standard ball-socket hips and Bugman gets great range there. He can do full splits and kick forward past horizontal. He can’t really kick back because of the diaper piece, but I’ll take it. The thighs pivot a bit and the double-jointed knees go past 90 degrees without issue. The ankles are the typical hinge and rocker and they work fine. The wings are hinged ball-pegs so they rotate and move in and out. All of the joints are nice and tight, not stuck, but comfortably tight and secure. This torso, with the diaphragm joint added, has me dreaming of a Shredder 2.0 with the same.

“Muahahahaha! There’s more where that came from, Bugman!”

For accessories, it can sometimes be hard to figure out with two-packs, but Bugman appears to have two plus the usual assortment of hands. And for hands, he has fists which come on him in the box, trigger hands, and gripping hands. His hands all appear to be reuse from Dirk Savage which might be why he gets trigger finger hands despite not using a gun. There’s also a lump of blue plastic that may confound a few, it certainly confused me, but it’s meant to be a lump of “Leestanite” which is his Kryptonite, if you couldn’t figure that out on your own. It looks exactly like it did in the show, so it’s not exciting, but suitable. He also has the leestanite coated chains that Michelangelo finds him in during the episode. It’s a plastic chain cast in transparent, green, plastic. It’s fine, though the chain in the show was gray. Maybe some wires got crossed or NECA just thought this was cooler. If so, I can’t disagree. It’s not an exciting array of accessories, but there’s not much else he could have. I suppose I would have preferred some style posed hands instead of trigger ones that will never see use. A flight stand would be cool too, but I don’t really like NECA’s flight stands so I suppose I don’t need another one of those.

Here comes the zapper!

And now for the villain, Electrozapper! Sculpted by Tomasz Rozejowski, Electrozapper stands at about 6.25″ to the top of his head and is featured in his show-accurate battery suit. This thing is goofy as hell and I love it. He’s got the emblem of a battery on his chest and then what look like D batteries strapped to his belt and biceps. It’s something I thought was funny as a kid that I kind of forgot about until I held this figure in my hands. He has a rather unique physique in the show and this figure captures that. His shoulders are just massive relative to his body which has a figure 8 shape to the torso. The legs are long and skinny and he’s got some pretty beefy arms as well. The look and shape of his head is dead-on with that almost beak-like mouth. If anything, I would have liked a little more size to his head as it’s pretty big in the show, but that’s a minor quibble on my part. I love the silly lightning bolts on his head.

This guy is all about stuff.

Like Bugman, Electrozapper has a lot of new parts. I don’t see any obvious reuse with him except whatever is under the shirt. The shirt is a soft plastic overlay so there’s probably just a skeleton of sorts beneath it. It looks good, but will limit articulation. The paint is very clean on my figure and basically every inch of this guy is indeed painted. The linework is crisp and I’m very impressed with the yellow piping on the thigh high boots he’s rocking. Yellow can go bad when applied in such a fashion, but it’s done very well here. The toon shading is featured fairly prominently. The only surfaces not shaded is the flesh of his arms, the gray of his thighs, belt, and his gloves. They also didn’t bother to shade the yellow piping, which I think is fine. Really, the only thing I don’t care for is the cape. It’s a very plain, gray, cape. It at least features the ties in the front, but the texture and feel is cheap and not like most NECA capes. And after getting that really nice, wired, cape with Dark Turtle I was hoping that would be the standard for capes going forward, but this is probably the worst NECA cape I own.

The fist blast might be my favorite of the bunch.

Electrozapper isn’t as well-articulated as Bugman, but he’s pretty much par for the course with this line. The head is on a double-ball peg and he can look up, down, rotate, and gets some nice tilt. The shoulders are ball-hinged and he can raise his arms out to the side to a horizontal position and rotate. The biceps swivel and the double-jointed elbows can sneak past 90 degrees. The gloves do rotate and the wrists swivel and hinge. In the torso, I can’t seem to find anything in the diaphragm, though the overlay probably would render anything there moot anyway. The waist feels like a ball peg so he can rotate and tilt and bend forward and back a bit. The ball-socket hips can nearly achieve a full split, but kicking forward they tend to go off to the side. There’s some twist at the thigh, and the double-jointed knees are fine. The ankle hinge is really nice though as his foot can go all the way back and forward quite a bit with a solid ankle rocker.

It’s a pretty standard assortment of articulation on Electrozapper and I think it’s fine for the figure. The only omissions for me are the wired cape and no diaphragm joint. After seeing NECA more open to that approach with the likes of Dirk Savage and this guy’s box-mate, it’s a bit of a bummer to see a step back here. Especially because his shape lends itself well to such a joint and the only complication is the chest logo, but oh well. If someone were to make a custom, wired, cape for this guy I’d have to seriously consider it as he’d likely be a homerun with such a simple addition.

“Come on, Bugman, let’s teach this jerk a lesson!”

Articulation may be ho-hum, but Electrozapper absolutely brings it when it comes to the accessories. He has a secondary head with an angry, open-mouthed expression which I think is much more appropriate than the neutral one he comes equipped with. It’s so much more appropriate to me that I don’t know why they bothered with the neutral one. For hands, Elextrozapper has a set of fists, pointing hands, open hands, and gripping hands. Two of those hands have peg holes in the rings he wears on his fingers: the open left hand and the right fist. They can accept his effect parts which are really neat. They’re done in a semi-transparent pink, plastic. He has a small, blast, effect which I believe is to simulate his hand glowing. It’s for the open hand and slots onto it with ease. The long, lightning bolt effect clips into the fist and looks great. I absolutely love this type of effect. There’s a skinny lightning bolt which clips onto the pointing fingers and that looks great too. Lastly, he he has two orbs with crackling lightning on them that peg onto the index fingers as well. I suppose you could also slot them onto the fingers of the open hands if you wanted, or have him palm them. I kind of wish the hole for the finger was on the bottom though, or at least in both places. Instead it’s on the back so they look best when he’s pointing his finger forward as opposed to up.

“Thank you for your assist, Michelangelo.” “Like, are you looking for a sidekick?”

These effect parts really make the figure for me. It’s wonderful to get a figure like this where there’s almost too much to do. I like all of these, so which do I actually display?! It makes Electrozapper a very fun figure to just mess around with because you can keep changing things up. I almost wish we had more! I would have scrapped that neutral head to just double-up on the two lightning bolt effects. I may have even traded the gripping hands for the same because I’m always going to have him posed with the effects, what need of gripping hands do I have? As is, it’s still a great spread and much better than some recent releases from NECA so I’m pretty happy with what we have here.

It’s a gathering of bug people!

The Bugman and Electrozapper two-pack is low key one of the strongest two-packs in the line. It’s up there with the likes of Antrax and Scumbug and the Groundchuck and Dirtbag set. I really like how these guys turned out. Bugman is pretty much spot-on with the show and looks great. The only gripe I really had with him is the tail articulation. Electrozapper is right there with him and the only thing really bugging me about him is the cheap looking cape. It’s a shame that cape prevents this set from being an all-timer, but it’s still damn good and I think anyone who gets it will have a lot of fun with it. Perhaps best of all, the price feels right so while I haven’t been crazy about the price creep with other TMNT releases from NECA, at least we still have sets like this one that just leave us feeling pretty damn good about it when all is said and done.

If you like bugs and TMNT, there’s plenty more to see:

NECA TMNT Cartoon Antrax and Scumbug

I’ve been looking forward to this one for awhile. Antrax and Scumbug only appeared in the cartoon series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles once, but like last week’s figure review, they were present in the toy line long before their animated debut. And these later period episodes, such as “Night of the Rogues,” tended to just…

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by Joe

NECA Turtles in Time Baxter Stockman

When NECA finally received access to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles license to release product at retail, the company decided to focus on three pillars: cartoon, movie, video game. The cartoon product, being the most sought after, was exclusively sold at Target stores in the United States. The movie line, probably nearly as desirable as…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Cartoon Splinter vs Baxter

I didn’t intend for so many TMNT reviews to hit one after the other, but Christmas pushed a bunch of stuff into the final week of December and then some surprise difficulties with another review has moved this one up. So be it. 2020 had a final surprise in store for collectors of Teenage Mutant…

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by Joe

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June 20, 2023

NECA TMNT Toon “Colossus of the Swamps!” Deluxe Napoleon Bonafrog

By Joe
Napoleon smash!

NECA’s line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures based on the animated series which debuted in 1987 has had some big figures. Most of these are what NECA terms “deluxe” releases and have included the likes of Krang in his android body, Chrome Dome, and the more recently released REX-1. The latest addition to this cast of characters is the one that caught me by surprise the most. Napoleon Bonafrog had the misfortune of getting mutated into a rampaging beast in a one-off episode of the show. A version of this character was unveiled last year at San Diego Comic Con. I saw the images, but for whatever reason I didn’t truly process his size. Then my lovely wife, who found this figure along with the other latest toon releases, handed me the box and I was aghast at how heavy it was and at just how much real estate the figure took up inside it.

That’s one big frog.

Napoleon is not the tallest figure in the line, but I think he’s the new heaviest. And prior to him, that honor probably went to REX-1 who was released earlier in the spring, but Napoleon is like a brick. This is a figure you can keep by your bedside and use to scare prowlers in the night who are foolish enough to invade your home. I don’t have a scale suitable for weighing this guy, but height-wise he stands at 8.25″. This makes him rather close in height to REX-1, but a lot shorter than Chrome Dome who gets to continue its reign as tallest in the line. That weight though is something, and the circumference of the shoulders is quite massive. Picking him up, he feels most similar to one of the quarter scale figures in the line as opposed to any of the standard or deluxe figures. It’s certainly an experience and adds an undeniable “fun” factor to the package.

“Looks like frog legs are on the menu tonight!”

And that package comes at a cost. Napoleon rang-up a shocking $55 at Target. I had not given it much thought prior to release, but with REX-1 being $50 I certainly wouldn’t have been surprised at that, but another 5 bucks? That was unexpected. And sure, 5 bucks isn’t exactly a lot in a vacuum, but it does suck to keep seeing the price go up with this line. And this one may not even be the worst offender, but we’ll get to that when we do. At any rate, is this guy really worth it? That’s a tall ask especially for a very obscure version of an already reasonably obscure character. If it weren’t for the fact that Napoleon did get a figure in the Playmates line (albeit, a totally different interpretation of the character) few would likely remember him by name.

“WHAT?! You’re just in time – looks like I’m makin’ my mama a new luggage set!”

We already covered the size, but the sculpt overall for this one is also pretty damn fun. Even though he’s a hell of a lot bigger than his previous figure, he actually has the same basic construction and outfit. The skin is a very dark green with some freckles done in black outlines in places. He still has the toon shading so his skin is lighter on the front, and darker on the back. The shirt is a soft plastic overlay that basically floats on him. If you were to pull out his arms from the socket, you could easily remove it as it’s not glued down anywhere. It’s yellow on the front, and an ever so more saturated yellow on the back that’s barely noticeable. The single orange strip runs around the shirt and it’s painted fairly well. Rather than make it a darker orange on the rear of the figure, NECA painted it red which looks a bit off. Dark orange and bright red aren’t exactly interchangeable. The necklace is glued in place and the shorts are painted a light purple on the front, dark on the rear. The edges are tattered and I wonder if Napoleon was chosen by the show for this mutation because he wore shorts that reminded the writers of the Hulk? Where the shorts separate at the fly is painted purple, which looks a bit odd. Even the smaller figure got that detail right as it’s painted green. There’s some sloppy paint on the left bracelet as well, and a smudge or scuff on the back of the shirt on my figure. Nothing that will show on a shelf, but worth mentioning.

“Rocksteady! Use that muta ray to make me a colossal frog!”

There’s not a whole lot of room with this guy for the paint to truly “wow” the holder, so it’s going to have to do that with the overall sculpt. And in that respect, it’s got a good argument as being a “wow” piece for the shelf. The default portrait is this angry, snarling, expression. The eyes are set a bit deep in his skull with black rings around them to give off an enraged vibe. He’s got this massive underbite with his teeth jutting out. They’re huge, chunky, blocky, cartoon teeth and they’re outlined in black and it all came out very clean. NECA sculpted and painted a pink tongue within the mouth and it’s a head with a lot of personality. The biceps on Napoleon are just plain massive and I love the exaggerated proportions of his upper body vs his abdomen. Sculptor Brodie Perkins did a tremendous job here. He’s going to command attention no matter where he’s placed in your collection and I think that’s what most want out of these deluxe releases.

“Put me down you idiot!”

Because the figure’s anatomy is essentially the same as his smaller counterpart, so is the articulation. There’s really only one difference between the two. The head is on a double-ball peg which lets the figure look up and rotate. Because it sits so deep in his shoulders, he can’t really look down and there’s little room for tilt. He also has a hinged jaw, but it’s range is very limited. It basically goes from closed to just open enough to see his tongue. The shoulders are standard hinged ball-pegs and the figure can raise its arms out just past horizontal. Rotation is fine and there’s a biceps swivel past that. The big change from the smaller frogs is the introduction of double-jointed elbows. Because his biceps are so massive, he can only bend there a little past 90 degrees. The wrists swivel and hinge horizontally.

“Gee Napoleon, what happened to you?!”

In the diaphragm we get a ball joint of some kind. It’s probably a double as he can lean back a solid amount, forward a little, and he gets good tilt to either side plus rotation. There is a standard waist twist below that and then the hips are connected via the ball and socket setup so many NECA figures utilize. There is a little bit of pivot action at the joint, but mostly it’s for kicking forward and back which he can do very well. The leg will go out to the front all the way and back pretty far. They also go out to the side almost to the point of full splits. Plus, they’re not loose which is definitely important for such a large figure. My regular Napoleon’s hips were so loose that he couldn’t even stand without sliding into a split. I had to apply super glue to the joints to finally fix that. The knees on this guy are double-jointed and will bend past 90 degrees. The ankles feature a hinge and rocker combo. The range forward and back on the hinge isn’t great, but it should be enough. The rocker works fine. And also, it’s very snug which is, again, super important for such a heavy figure.

He’s also capable of being a gentle soul.

So far so good, but where this figure does start to come up short rests with the accessories. There just isn’t much a colossal frog needs so there isn’t much he gets. For hands, he comes with a set of fists in the box plus a set of open hands and a set of gripping hands. He also has a second head which features a calm, almost befuddled, expression. It’s sort of cute, I suppose, but I’m guessing most will want their giant, hulking, frog to look a little more angry. The second head also drops the articulated jaw.

He has a gun, but it isn’t really for him, or anyone for that matter.

And that’s it! Well, that’s it for the main figure. NECA did throw a couple of other items into the box to try and sweeten the package. There’s the included muta-shooter which is the weapon that did this to Napoleon. It’s mostly gray with some linework and darker bits painted on, but the most striking aspect is the green “liquid” inside the barrel. It’s basically transparent plastic with a semi-transparent green insert. It looks fine, but only from certain angles because the green piece inside isn’t solid. From the top, the illusion of it being an actual liquid is ruined and it’s kind of crummy looking. I don’t know why they didn’t just make it a solid piece of green plastic, but oh well. It’s also not really conducive to being properly held. It’s a very weird shape and I couldn’t really get anyone with a trigger hand to properly hold it. I was able to basically balance it in Rocksteady’s hands to fake it for a pic, but it’s probably getting the bin treatment after this is done.

I do like these extra heads for Napoleon and Genghis. The Napoleon head has a shape more representative of how the frogs were actually drawn for the show while the Genghis head is just outrageous.

The last accessories are two new heads for the previously released Napoleon and Genghis figures. The new Napoleon head features a scared, or concerned, expression like he’s about to shit a brick. It’s very similar to the box art expression and I like it well enough. The Genghis head is a more exagerrated, screaming in terror expression that makes me think of the video game Battletoads. It’s pretty silly looking, but I confess that I do love it. Mostly, it’s nice to be able to break up the expressions of the Punk Frogs as they all had the same two expressions to choose from. Now they can all have a different expression, so I do like that.

“We just love our new, giant, brother!”

That’s all though. It definitely doesn’t feel as substantial as past deluxe releases. We just looked at April who came with a ton of stuff and REX-1 before this release also had quite a bit. One could argue that this figure didn’t need anymore than what it comes with, but for added cost it’s a bit of a tough pill to swallow. If he came with additional heads for the other two frogs that would have gone a long way to sweetening the package. I also wish he had another set of gripping hands, something wider, for grabbing other figures around the waist. His existing ones are too tight for that, and they’re way too big to handle really any of the weapons in the whole line. I’m surprised NECA didn’t toss-in the rhin-bug that was featured in the episode as a gag and also appears on the back of the box. Napoleon also shot his tongue out in the episode and that could have been a fun extra head or accessory. I definitely feel a bit short-changed as is which isn’t typical of NECA.

Is Napoleon “The Colossus of the Swamps” Bonafrog worth the pretty steep asking price of $55? It’s hard to say. It’s definitely a case where I look at the figure, then consider the price, and my immediate reaction is, “No.” On the other hand, now that I have him and that money is gone, I do like him. He’s a really cool figure and I like that his existence makes my Genghis and smaller Napoleon a little more interesting, but I do hate that I gave NECA $55 for it as I’m endorsing the price at that point. He’s an obscure character, and if you never cared about getting this version of Napoleon in figure from then maybe continue living your Napoleon-free life. On the other hand, I never really desired this character in figure from, but it does make me happy so it’s not the end of the world that I overpaid for it. I would suggest finding this one in store and seeing what your reaction to holding it in hand is. If it makes you giddy like a little kid and losing $55 won’t hurt you, then go for it. If it doesn’t stir anything within you and you’d only be buying it because it’s new, then don’t be afraid to put it back on the shelf. Chances are, if you reconsider you’ll see it again.

Want some more frog content or are you just into big action figures?

NECA TMNT Cartoon Napoleon and Attila

It took almost five months, but the Punk Frogs are now complete. NECA, recognizing that they were about to release the same sculpt four times, decided to space out the frog two-packs in its Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line of cartoon action figures. Genghis and Rasputin arrived back in May, while Napoleon and Attila started…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Cartoon Rasputin and Genghis

During Season Two of the classic cartoon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the world was introduced to the Punk Frogs. Despite their name, there was nothing particularly punk about these mutated amphibians as they all dressed like they were going to a Jimmy Buffett concert. They make a few return appearances in the show, and given…

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by Joe

NECA Cartoon TMNT From the Files of Pizza Squad (Deluxe Rex-1)

When you’re doing a syndicated cartoon expected to air basically every day, you need to pull story ideas from anywhere you can. I think that’s why parodies are so popular in the cartoons of the 80s to the point where it didn’t matter if the show was parodying something kids would actually know. Take REX-1,…

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by Joe

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June 11, 2023

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

By Joe
The long-awaited April O’Neil update has finally arrived!

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 of someone like Scrag can only go so far because how many people really care about Scrag? Similarly, if NECA were to whiff on an integral character, say April O’Neil, that’s going to get a lot more attention than a subpar Screwloose. And NECA did whiff on April and my disatisfaction with that figure has earned it the dubious honor of worst in the series. NECA must have seen my rankings (I kid) because they decided to take another stab at April and the long anticipated redo is now hitting Target stores across the US. Is it a real improvement and is it worth the wait?

New on the left, old on the right, you tell me which is better.

NECA’s been seemingly so disatisfied with their April figure that they’ve never even re-released it up until now. And it makes sense if you think the figure is bad. Unfortunately, that original one was released during the summer of 2020 during that time when TMNT figures were just so hard to come by. Many never found one and the aftermarket prices have been ridiculous for what is a pretty mediocre action figure. A lot of collectors have had a pretty big hole in their collection as a result, but it looks like this new April is hitting stores in pretty substantial quantities.

There’s a ton of interest in this figure so I’m going to throw a bunch of comparison shots at you. Here she is with Zach and Casey Jones.
With Usagi and Hamato Yoshi.
With Bebop and Smash and the Triceratons always watching. Always watching…

This time around, April is getting the deluxe, or ultimate, treatment. She is single-packed in a box featuring artwork by Dan Elson designed to mimic the f.h.e. VHS releases from the 80s and 90s. It looks great and the window flap provides for a look at the figure itself before making a purchasing decision. Now, the problems with the previous April were that her scaling was off leaving her way too short and just overall small compared with the turtles. And her headsculpt was just bad. It was oversized, too round, and just soft in appearance. The opinion of me was that the body looked fine, but needed to be scaled up, while the head was the right scale, but just not well-executed from a sculpting standpoint.

“Hah hah, I can’t believe they thought you were good enough to be me!”
Here’s the figure alongside some reference art from an early episode of the show. You can decide for yourself how it looks.

NECA’s new April stands at just a tick under 5.75″ while the former stood at…5.5″. Okay, so we didn’t get much height out of this new one and that’s because…it’s basically the same figure. NECA reused almost the entire figure from before replacing only the upper torso and the head. The good news is the head looks much better. This actually looks like April and has her features. It’s tough to translate female characters from cartoons like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles because they usually have slim features with no markings on their face. It’s all about getting the shape of the eyes right and their size, really. This April looks fine and sculptor Tomasz Rozejowski did a good job. What some people seem to dislike about this new April is her neck. To say that April has a swan-like neck would be an understatement. And she often was drawn that way so it’s a feature that I think she should have. Did NECA go too far? I don’t think so. And the more I look at it and reference art from the ’87 mini series (which should be the template for every character that made an appearance in the first five episodes) I really see no issue with it. Maybe if her collarbone was a little higher it lessen the illusion? Mostly, it seems a lot of the promo shots didn’t have her head seated all the way (the collar of her jumpsuit should come up just past her hair) which made it look worse, but in hand, this looks good and I’m happy.

“This is April O’Neil – Happy Hour news!”
“Come on, Vernon! I know where we can find a great story!” “Ohh, April, do we have to go back into the sewers?!”

As for the rest, well, the sculpt is fine. It’s just very slight. She looks fine on her own, but put her next to a turtle and she starts to look like the cosplayer from the old MGM Studios parade because the turtles just look so big by comparison. Height-wise, she’s a touch taller than them, but needs a little more. It’s unfortunate and I have to assume it was done this way just to save money. They could have taken the digital files, just upped them 10 percent, and cut new molds based off of that, but that was obviously deemed too expensive. She’s retailing for $37 with mostly old stuff (which we’ll get to) so she definitely doesn’t feel like the best value in the bunch, but it’s April and people will buy her. Scale with this line definitely isn’t its strong suit anyway, so I think this will be a case of your mileage may vary. Some will see this April as totally fine, others will want more size. I would like to see her bigger overall, but admittedly it’s mostly a nitpick on my part.

“Come on, April, I need you dig up some dirt on those so-called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!” “Oh come on, chief, I keep telling you they’re the heroes!”
“April, maybe you should just do what the boss tells you.” “Never, Irma, out there are the real stories that I was born to tell!”

The paint is still mostly the toon shading with a golden yellow on the front and a more mustard on the back. In comparison with the original release and cat April, the yellow is darker as the old one looks practically neon by comparison. Interestingly, the boots are no longer shaded gray on the backside. And actually, they’re not painted well either. The plastic underneath must be yellow as there’s a lot of yellow coming through the boot. The hinges are at least the right color and the feet are fine, but the main part of the boot is not. There’s still an abundance of black linework on the figure and it’s mostly clean. It’s a little messy around the belt, but otherwise okay. The flesh part of her chest has no linework on it, which is in contrast to the first version which had some lines for her clavicle and neck. I don’t know why they opted not to do it this time as I think it would have looked fine. The other area that’s a little messy are the elbows. NECA paints the joints and the paint flakes off because it just doesn’t adhere to that type of plastic. The hinge is flesh colored on that portion of the elbow and yellow on the other, which is fine, but it looks almost gross when it has pieces just flaking off.

“Nice kitty…”
“Whoa! Not nice kitty!”

The articulation for April is also the same as the past one, but we do have one, not great, difference. And that’s the head. NECA is using a double ball peg, which it did with the previous April, but it sits pretty low in the neck. That means you don’t get much play. She gets very little tilt and very little up and down. Her head also fights the ball peg when trying to rotate it. I think that’s because it’s designed to seat pretty deep into her head. It wants to snap back to a neutral position so I think it’s just not sliding nicely on the peg. Aside from that annoyance, the rest is the same. Diaphragm joint in the torso works well for rotation and some forward and back. Arms hinge out to the side just fine and the unusual NECA double elbows are in place which go way past 90 degrees. They’re a little stiff to rotate though, and her arms are very thin so do be cautious. Hips can do splits, kick forward and back, and the double-jointed knees work great. The feet hinge forward and back with an ankle rocker. Her feet are pretty small though so she can be a little tough to stand. This April should be able to handle just about any pose the character needs with the only real bummer being the stubborn neck articulation.

April has a lot of stuff, most of which is rather familiar.
“Wow, you guys REALLY like this story!”

As for accessories, well, April is pretty loaded. Unfortunately, most of her accessories are just rehash from the first release with very little new. For hands, we get a set of gripping hands that come on her in the box as well as sets of open hands, pointing hands, “peace” hands, thumbs up hands, and wide open hands. All of her hands have a standard, horizontal, hinge which you might think is fine for April, but vertical hinged gripping hands would work better for a microphone and hand camera. And she does have a microphone and hand camera and they’re the same as before. As is the tape recorder with wired mic. She still comes with the hamster statue, a baby pizza monster, and her turtle communicator. She also has another copy of The Hare and the Tortoise. And there’s also the doku plant. It’s a little darker than the previous one, so I guess you could treat one as the gazai plant if you also have the Splinter and Baxter two-pack.

The new heads will fit the old body just fine.
“Whose sick idea was this?!” “Uhh, umm, certainly not Master Splinter’s!”

As for new stuff, well we get some extra heads. April has a fairly neutral head by default and also comes with a smiling portrait and a blindfolded head. The smiling head looks lovely while the blindfolded one pairs well with the same headsculpt we got for Vernon. Unfortunately, they all fight that head peg just the same so the articulation isn’t any better. And if you’re wondering, yes, the new heads do fit on the old figure and make that figure look noticeably better. April also comes with the capture clamp/body manacle (it’s listed as both on the box) which is a metal restraining device that can lock around her. This may have been on her when she was blindfolded? I don’t remember, but it’s relatively neat and well-painted. Getting it on her isn’t the easiest thing, but it can be done. April also has a potted venus fly trap, mutated of course, that looks cool. And lastly, she has a photo frame of dear Aunt Aggie. Aggie, like other characters who have appeared in photo frames, is done as a digital render of a would-be action figure. Will she actually get immortalized in plastic? That seems doubtful, but never say never with this line.

“So Donatello, do you think my dear Aunt Aggie deserves her own action figure?!” “Don’t take this the wrong way, April, but no.”
“Sorry Irma, I couldn’t find you a date for tonight, but I saw this adorable house plant that I thought you’d like!” “How pathetic do you think I am April?! …I’ll take the plant.”

Was April 2.0 worth the wait? I don’t know. I guess if you didn’t have an April at all, then yeah, absolutely. Even if you did, like me, this feels like getting the character for the first time in some ways. I kept my April inside the street scene diorama out of view because I just didn’t like it very much and space is a precious resource. While I do wish this figure corrected the issue of April’s size vs the rest of the line, I do think this is a much better interpretation of the character. And if you have the other figure, it’s especially great that this one has multiple headsculpts so that old one can be tossed into a bin and never spoken of again. Is this April perfect? No, but it comfortably fits into the line and is a worthy entrant. I like the updated colors and some of the new accessories are fun. Just be mindful of the boots. Hopefully mine are just off and most of the rest feature better paint there, but otherwise, yeah, go get her.

At long last, the real fifth turtle is here and she’s good!

NECA’s deluxe version of April is sold exclusively at Target. She just started showing up and in pretty substantial quantities so if you haven’t come across this figure yet, just keep looking. Target is also planning on doing online drops for the next several Fridays at 9 AM EST as part of their Summer Geek Con. As of this writing, there’s no confirmation of what will actually be part of that drop, but it definitely wouldn’t be a surprise to see this figure included. Good luck!

Interested in more April O’Neil figures? Here’s a few more you can check out:

NECA TMNT Cartoon April O’Neil and Bashed Foot

There’s a line from one of my favorite Christmas movies, Bad Santa, in which the main character, Willy, says to The Kid, “Well, they can’t all be winners,” when The Kid pulls a candy corn out of his advent calendar. Bad Santa isn’t a movie for everyone, but the sentiment expressed by Willy in that…

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NECA TMNT Movie Ultimate April O’Neil – Signature Edition

NECA’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line has so been so successful that it’s allowed the company to branch out. It wasn’t that long ago that Playmates was the only game in town when it came to TMNT action figures and the company showed little to no interest in releasing anything other than the turtles themselves.…

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Hasbro MMPR x TMNT April O’Neil and Michelangelo

We have arrived at the last two-pack in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers x Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line of action figures from Hasbro and it’s that bodacious dude, Michelangelo, along with the ravishing reporter April O’Neil. There’s not going to be a whole lot to say about these figures at this point as, if…

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