In the early days of mass market plastic toys, the action figure was all about branding. There wasn’t much aside from that name separating G.I. Joe from Barbie and it’s why a whole generation would come to view action figures as “dolls.” That feeling really started to change with the original Star Wars line from Kenner. Those were true, articulated, plastic men, women, and robots designed to be played with, put into vehicles, and were less reliant upon soft goods. The three and three-quarter inch line of figures was incredibly popular as well as incredibly influential. Other lines would spring up some of which were basically direct copies of what Kenner was doing while others went with a different scale or form factor. When it came time for Hasbro to update G.I. Joe for this new market hungry for action figures, it decided to go with something similar to what Kenner did. The Real American Hero line was a real step-up from what Kenner had done. It retained the same relative scale since it worked so well with vehicles which was a big part of the G.I. Joe line, but upgrades in articulation, sculpting, and paint were needed which gave rise to the O-Ring Joe: a 3.75″ figure that connects the torso to the hips via a small o-ring. The line was popular and G.I. Joe was reborn for the kids of the 1980s which ran into the 90s and even expanded to included popular video games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.
Now some forty years later, nostalgia for the o-ring figure is at an all-time high. Hasbro, which now owns Kenner, has kept the 3.75″ figure in rotation, but it’s either intentionally retro in nature like the Star Wars figures from the 70s or it’s a modern take at that smaller scale. Only recently has the company started doing new o-ring style figures and one of the other companies trying to champion it is Super7. Super7 has had its ReAction line, which is essentially styled after the old Kenner figures, for a long time now. Perhaps feeling that they got all they could out of it, they launched the ReAction+ line which is their take on the o-ring figures popularized by Hasbro in the 80s. The issue, as always, with Super7 is the high price. ReAction figures tend to retail for 20 or more dollars a pop so ReAction+ needs to come in higher, from a marketing standpoint (or they could have lowered ReAction, but I’m guessing that was never an option). A Super7 o-ring figure will set you back $25, but for the patient there are deals to be found which is how I ended up with their Raphael and Donatello from the ReAction+ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line.
Without question, one of the biggest action figure lines, if not the biggest, from the 1980s was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Launched in the summer of 1988, TMNT mania was intense and rivaled pretty much everything that came before it. Created by Playmates Toys, TMNT was its own thing in its own scale that was larger than G.I. Joe and felt more like an evolution on Mattel’s Masters of the Universe, but minus the obvious reuse. It meant for those who collected both lines, it required a pretty considerable sense of disbelief to mix the two brands. Coincidentally, Playmates recently launched a TMNT x G.I. Joe action figure line at the same time Super7 is putting the turtles into the old world of G.I. Joe. These figures from Super7 have appeal for those who were playing with action figures in the 80s. Had the two brands crossed-over then the turtles might have turned out like they have here. And since I already have an extensive assortment of TMNT toys, I felt like o-ring turtles were something close to a requirement for my collection.
The turtles come packaged like other ReAction figures with a flashy card back and a bubble. A lot of folks who collect ReAction leave them on card, but I’m an opener and I need the tactile experience of o-ring turtles. The actual figures are styled after the 87 cartoon series. They have a deep green colored skin tone and colored bandanas. It might just be my imagination, but Raphael seems slightly darker than Donatello where the belt and shell are concerned, but I don’t know if it’s intentional. The belts are simple and the shells brown as opposed to the green found with the licensing art. They’re also sporting aggressive expressions instead of big, dopey, smiles. The only liberties taken by Super7 here is with the included weapons which are done in colored plastic according to the turtle: red for Raph and purple for Donnie. Most of the figure is colored plastic, but paint was needed for the bandanas, pads, belts, and so on. Most of it is clean, but there are areas of slop or missing paint. The inner elbow lacks the paint of the elbow pad on both while the top of Donatello’s belt was left unpainted. The sculpts are simple and retain some of that ReAction flatness to them. The big bolts, or pins, are still visible in the shoulders which is probably by design. The elbows are a little odd looking as the cut for the joint goes right through the elbow pad. A lot of modern figures use overlays for the elbow pads which looks better, but usually interferes with articulation. This obviously won’t, but I’m left wishing they just put the elbow pad above the joint instead. Since the joint is so big it might have looked worse so this may have been the best they could do. They also stand shorter than the 3.75″ of standard ReAction figures as I have them at about 3.5″. Super7 refers to them as 4″ “scale” which makes me interested in acquiring other figures in the line to see if there is some actual scaling at play.
Where this design deviates from a line like Real American Hero is in the sculpt and texture. It’s probably due to the character designs, but I always associated those old G.I. Joe figures with a busy presentation. There would be lots of stuff sculpted onto the body which is not unlike what Playmates would do with a lot of its figures too. These turtles are boring by comparison. I suppose they could have upped the texture a bit or maybe sculpted ninja stars on the belt or something. Had Super7 gone that route there’s an equally good chance people like me would have complained so I don’t think of this as so much a criticism, as just an observation. I don’t have any old G.I. Joe figures on-hand, but I assume these would fit in with those figures as well as giant turtles do fit-in with somewhat realistic looking humans. The sculpt is a bit soft. The feet are not well defined and the fingers are fused together. The heads also appear to be shinier than the rest of the figure, but they’re also rounded so it could just be they throw light back in a more dramatic fashion. The plastron is painted and thus matte in comparison which is also likely contributing to the shiny appearance of the head. There’s no paint on the shell so it does look a bit cheap compared with the rest of the figure. The belt buckle does not feature a sculpted-in initial so the bodies are essentially 100% reuse. The only difference rests with the head. The weapons are well-sculpted, but the monochrome presentation is pretty lackluster. I suppose one could paint them, but I probably won’t. The hands are really tight and I had to heat Raph’s to get the sai into them. Since the fingers are fused together, he also can’t do his more stylized sai grip with the center prong going through the fingers. There’s also no weapon storage sculpted onto the body which I’m torn on if I like or not. They’re going to always hold their weapons, most likely, so I suppose it doesn’t bother me. The option would have been nice to have though.
Since these figures are modeled after ones from the 1980s, it’s probably no surprise that the articulation with these turtles is pretty basic. The listing states that they have nine points of articulation, but I think Super7 is selling itself a little short. I note head, shoulders, bicep, elbow, hip, and knees. Not listed is the classic o-ring waist which does provide a little bit of crunch forward, but it’s minimal. Since it’s a rubber o-ring, twisting the figure at that spot just causes it to snap back into place. The shell is also pegged into the back so it swivels a little, but doesn’t provide any real utility. Head range is really limited as they can’t rotate very far or look up, but there is a slight tilt down to them. These are an obvious improvement over standard ReAction figures, but the actual posing is still pretty limited. Largely, that’s a result of no ankle joints so it’s hard to manipulate the legs into anything other than a closed, straight up and down pose to get the figure to stand. The hips are pretty restricted too. The legs kick forward maybe 70 degrees while they don’t come close to being able to do splits in either direction. The arms are the best part, but no wrist or forearm articulation means Donatello can’t really hold his bo staff with two hands naturally which kind of sucks. This is all mostly intentional as Super7 looks to emulate an old, flawed, design for action figures. It’s still hard not to wonder how much better they could be with some modern tweaks. The Hasbro Vintage Collection for Star Wars mostly does that and they’re quite fun to handle while these are just fun to look at, not handle.
Super7 is looking to be retro with these ReAction+ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. These are the figures you may have wanted in the 80s if you were into both G.I. Joe and TMNT, but never had. Either to keep costs down or as a way to remain rigid with the retro approach, they’re very limited as action figures by modern standards. I do wish the sculpting was sharper and that’s not something that really reflects the old figures. The standard ReAction turtles have more pronounced toes than these do. And for $25, I wish the paint was a little better. I also, personally, would prefer painted weapons, but I’m assuming these are more in-line with what a hypothetical Real American Hero turtle would have come with. These are basically novelty figures. If you like how they look then you can probably overlook the obvious shortcomings. I just think an intentionally limited figure should cost less and at $25 these really aren’t worth it. Super7, like every company not named Mattel, is losing the TMNT license at year-end so these particular figures could go either way when it comes to pricing. I got mine at a modest discount, but there could just as easily be a little run on them that keeps the price at MSRP and at some point could rise above that. We’re not there yet though so waiting may pay off. Michelangelo and Leonardo also have yet to be released, but they’re coming along with Bebop and Rocksteady. Shredder and the Foot Soldier round out this first wave and I may grab them if they get cheap enough. I’m in for the turtles though and hopefully the last two can also dip below 20 bucks to get me to bite.
More turtles, more retro, more 1:18 scale:
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