NECA has gradually built out the ranks for Shredder’s Foot Clan via its line of action figures based on the pages of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as published by Mirage Studios. The clan got started way back in 2016 with a box set released in conjunction with New York Comic Con. That set featured Shredder, two Foot ninja, and a Foot Elite ninja. The sculpts were based on the original Eastman and Laird intended one-shot that became anything but. As the comic went on, the look of just about every character changed. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird grew as artists and refined some of the looks they had devised initially. Once TMNT became a marketing juggernaut, the pair stepped back allowed other artists such as Jim Lawson to work on the books which further moved the characters away from their initial looks. NECA has marked that with its re-release of the turtles which emulate the work of Lawson and now we’ve moved onto other characters like the Foot Elite Assassin.
He’s far more intimidating than the old Foot Elite.
I’m not sure if the Elite Assassin was ever intended to be different from the old Foot Elite. With Shredder dead, these guys basically assumed leadership of the Foot Clan and they were depicted as bigger and badder than what NECA gave us back in 2016. The design is more or less the same though as a regular Foot ninja with a faceguard like Shredder, a round hat resembling a conical sedge hat, and the remnants of a cape or cloak. Where this guy differs from the old look is in the proportions and overall size. He comes in at just about a full 7″ to the top of his head. His chest is much broader and there’s more meat front to back as well. His arms and legs are equally beefy, though not on the same level as the Foot Enforcer. He’s overall just way more imposing and shares none of his parts with the old figure.
He also has some size on the turtles.
The version of the figure I’m looking at today is the standard colors one. We already have seen two other colorways with the first one being an all red and black edition. I think that one is based on the IDW reissues, but there’s also a black and white one which was released around the same time as this standard one. The standard one follows the basic Foot coloring with a brownish-red tunic, gray pants, and brown wraps on the forearms and shins. There’s a big brown sash across the midsection and from the hat drapes a red hood of sorts that leaves the face visible. For the face, we have the faceguard which is done in silver and the flesh is painted all in shadow with two, beady, white eyes peering through. The hat can be removed and the red hood is attached to it. Doing so reveals a somewhat comically small head, but if the head was made any bigger it would probably look a little too big with the added hood. Plus, it’s not meant to be displayed without the hat since it leaves a big peg hole in the top of the head sort of like a Lego mini figure.
If you don’t like the cape it can easily be removed.
The paint is fairly simple, but clean, and has the usual NECA comic embellishments. There’s a lot of linework the emphasize the muscles and to outline all of the wraps. There it’s remarkably clean though if you get in close you’re likely to find some places where the linework doesn’t precisely match the carved-out groove. The faceguard is a nice, metallic, silver and the forearm armor contains a hit of light blue shading at the edges to create the illusion of a metallic surface. It’s a nice effect and so simple which makes it a shame that other companies don’t do the same with their figures often opting to just use bare, gray, plastic for metal parts. I do very much like the proportions on this guy so a tip of the hat to sculptor Gurjeet Singh. Nicole Falk is also credited, though I see her name most often credited with “fabrication” which makes me think she handled the cloak, which is also well-tailored and looks fabulous. Geoffrey Trapp and Mike Puzzo handled the paint for this guy.
OopsTime’s up, turtles!
The Elite Assassin comes with a fair amount of weapons and other assorted parts to do some assassinating. The hands available include sets of fists, gripping, chop, and open/style-posed hands. He also has an alternate portrait with no faceguard. According to the box, the face is supposed to be a clean-shaven face and there’s some shading applied to the lips, but some wires were crossed at the factory and the lip shading turned into a mustache. I’ll never use it so I don’t care, but it is kind of funny. For weapons, we have a short sword, a handheld sickle, a longer sword with a ball and chain attached to the hilt, and everyone’s favorite weapon, a pair of gray sticks. These guys may have been drawn with such weapons in a comic somewhere, but I don’t think it’s something we really need. He also has a time bomb which I’m sure is from the comics and it’s well sculpted and painted. The bladed weapons are all silver with some blue applied and it looks nice, though different from how they do metal with the turtles. For some reason the Foot get silver and the turtles get white. Makes sense to me!
“I’m not exactly feeling intimidated here, dude.”
Articulation is where these NECA figures often come up short and the Elite Assassin is no different. He does some things well, and some things not so well. The head is the unusual setup of a ball peg because the head is so small. This is the type of joint a lot of import companies utilize for wrists, too bad NECA doesn’t do the same. As a joint for a head, it’s fine, but the hood is going to limit rotation quite a bit. Shoulders are conventional hinged ball joints and we have bicep swivels, double elbows, and swivel and hinge wrists. The bicep swivels on mine are tight and when they do move they feel like they’re binding more than rotating as the bicep wants to kick back to where it was. Definitely something to be careful with. The hands all have a horizontal hinge, including the gripping hands, which is unfortunate and honestly quite annoying at this point. I’m thinking of just boycotting NECA figures that don’t come with the proper wrist articulation at this point because they’re so, maddeningly, inconsistent with it.
He’s not a total stiff, but some waist articulation would have really helped out.
The only articulation in the torso is a ball-joint in the upper diaphragm. It kicks forward and back a suitable amount and will rotate some as well. It’s not going to provide a true ab crunch though, but it would have with a ball-jointed waist. Given the large sash around the waist I don’t know why NECA didn’t just do this. A ball joint there would give him some nice forward and back and provide for more natural rotation. Hips are the typical ball and socket with a thigh swivel built in. There’s double-jointed knees and ankle hinges and rockers that work fine. Missing is a boot swivel and forearm swivel, even though there are natural places for such to exist. It’s annoying with the forearms since the armor continues onto the back of the hands so rotating the hands breaks that up. Lastly, we have a nice wire going through the cape which does allow for some dynamic posing of that.
I guess if he doesn’t want to get up close, this ball and chain thing will have to do as a ranged attack.
This is a solid figure that’s so close to being a great figure. The missing waist articulation is more of an annoyance for me than the wrists and I don’t know why NECA didn’t put that in. If he had that he’d move pretty damn well. I think much of this figure is utilized for the new Shredder currently available in a two-pack. I don’t know if that one has waist articulation and I don’t plan on finding out until it’s available as a single-packed figure (or it hits deep discount). And for an assassin, I do think this guy should have some kind of a ranged weapon. The sword with the ball and chain is pretty cool, but doesn’t seem very practical for an assassin. He looks cool though and isn’t a total stiff so if this is something you’re interested in based on the look of it you’ll probably be content. I found this guy at Target where it only set me back $35. He’ll probably be available in various other places eventually if he’s not already, though probably at a small markup.
If you feel like your Foot Elite Assassin needs some companions then these might interest you:
Back in 2008, when NECA was planning out a line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures that they hoped would run for a long time, they turned to the turtles’ most trusted ally when it came time to do a fifth figure. The line wasn’t long for this world, and that figure of April…
Where do you take your heroic comic book franchise when you kill your main villain in the first issue? Well, you first undo that rash decision by bringing him back! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird famously killed The Shredder in the first issue of their comic. They never intended to…
When a regular Foot Ninja just won’t cut it, The Shredder has to turn to the Foot Enforcer. This brute of a specimen is bigger, stronger, and comes packed to the gills with an assortment of weapons designed to reduce the turtles into a pile of flesh and shell. And they’re needed, because how often…
Technically a blast from the past, but these designs still feel new to me.
Who isn’t making Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures these days? It’s becoming a far easier thing to keep track of than just who is making them. For years, it was the domain of Playmates Toys and only Playmates Toys. NECA tried to get in on that TMNT action in 2008 and it ended prematurely either due to poor sales or because Playmates killed it. That is no longer the case as I sit in my toy room and look around I see TMNT figures made by Joy Toy, Bandai, Hasbro, Mattel, and Super7 to go along with an expansive collection of TMNT by NECA Toys. That, however, doesn’t mean the Playmates influence is dead.
There’s definitely some interesting stuff going on here.
When Super7 secured a license to produce TMNT toys around 2019, the company decided the brand would be a perfect fit for its young Ultimates! line of figures. These approximately 1:10 scale figures were created with a goal of mixing modern production methods with an old school aesthetic. For TMNT, that manifested as basically an upscaled recreation of the vintage Playmates line with more articulation, more paint, and more accessories (and more money). If you thought it seemed weird that Super7 could basically just recreate the work of another company then apparently your intuition was right. This business model worked for a time, but Playmates reportedly wasn’t crazy about it and as the master license holder for TMNT they have quite a bit of sway. For whatever reason, that influence didn’t really begin to manifest until somewhat recently, but it’s prevented Super7 from following the blueprint it crafted at the onset which is how we ended up where we are today.
The 2003 version of TMNT had previously only been brought to plastic by Playmates (right).
Perhaps Super7 saw just how many companies were getting in on the action where TMNT is concerned that they decided to be proactive. If the Playmates thing was going to create a significant barrier to creating more TMNT Ultimates!, then Super7 would need a new subject. In 2003, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a brand was on life support. The fad so many adults predicted would be over in a year or so had finally come to an end. Co-creator Kevin Eastman had moved on leaving Peter Laird to carry the torch. For Laird, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing as it presented an opportunity to start over. He was able to find some willing partners in 4kids Entertainment and the Fox Kids Network to craft a new entry point for the franchise in the form of a new cartoon series. The show, simply titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, had the freedom to be a little edgier than the silly former cartoon. It stayed much closer in spirit to the original comics by Eastman and Laird while also doing its own thing. The art style was more mature and more evocative of modern comics and really the only obvious step back was the bland theme song.
New line means new packaging.
The 2003 version of the show was a success. Maybe not the success of the ’87 series, but successful enough to run for years and 155 episodes plus a TV movie. For fans who had enjoyed the original cartoon series, it represented one of that generation’s earliest forms of nostalgia while new kids were able to start from the beginning. The show is remembered fondly in the TMNT fanbase and it’s no surprise that a company like Super7 would want to make action figures based on it. It’s one of the few eras of the turtles to not get a modern action figure as really the only plastic representation out there is the original Playmates companion line. And with Super7 simply basing their figures on the animation, there is basically nothing Playmates can do about it other than keep them out of the toy aisle at Walmart. The fact that Super7 landed this “license” and not NECA came as a bit of a surprise, but apparently it was Viacom that proposed the idea to Super7. Maybe they were sick of managing the Playmates/Super7 relationship and wanted to give Super7 something else to do. Plus it probably came about as the show turned 20.
I think of these as the more heroic of the turtles.
Super7’s inaugural wave of 2003 TMNT figures went up for preorder last spring and are just now making their way out to customers. The first wave is both a surprise and predictable as it contains the characters Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Yes, all four turtles are being offered right out of the gate as opposed to the one per wave approach Super7 initially took with the license. Perhaps with this aspect of the franchise being untested Super7 felt they needed to show fans that they would get all four turtles and have a complete set. They could have split them up, but maybe they feared customers would doubt their ability to deliver additional waves (and they’d be forgiven for such since Super7 has run into that problem a lot lately) and hold out until all four brothers were available. This approach undoubtedly worked to extract the maximum amount of interest they’re likely to see. Hopefully the drop-off for wave two (Splinter, Casey Jones, Shredder, and a Foot Ninja) wasn’t precipitous.
These new ones are just a touch smaller than the original turtles by Super7.
Lead designer at Super7 for the TMNT license is Kyle Wlodyga who explained in various interviews that these are the turtles he grew up with and thus some care has been taken to get these figures to match the visual style of the show. He gets into it in great detail in this interview posted by the show Turtle Tracks. And it appears that’s the approach as they look to be pretty screen accurate. This contrasts slightly with the companion art for the show and some of the more lavish sequences created for the show’s intro. In both, the turtles had a more traditional superhero shape to their body with a torso that tapers in towards the abdominal region and limbs that appear a bit longer than usual. The turtles of the show were more stocky, like most iterations of the characters, with rounded shells. They all have blank, white, eyes like the comics, but feature unique skin tones like the Playmates toys (though the colors aren’t the same) and their expected colored bandanas. The elbow and kneepads are brown like the turtles from the big screen, so we really do have a mix of influences coming together to create these new (old) look turtles.
The rear of each turtle features a hard, bulbous, green shell. It’s not super shiny, but it does cheapen the look.
Packaging for this wave is pretty typical of the Ultimates! brand with a big window box adorned with artwork of the characters and a bio on the back. The brown shipper also made its return to better protect the contents. It’s a bit evocative of the Playmates blister card, which may have been the one minor hurdle to getting these figures to market. The artwork across the front and back looks to be stock licensing art for the show. There’s also no longer any sort of bio on the back while the plastic for the window feels thinner than usual. The style for each box is the same from turtle to turtle while the insert is color-coded for each brother. If you’re an in-box collector then this is probably fine, though they still take up quite a bit of space. And if you’re an opener like me, these boxes aren’t so nice that you will feel compelled to keep them. Plus the blisters inside are so damn tight you’re likely to mangle them getting the figures and their accessories out.
As is commonplace these days, Michelangelo does have real chain link ‘chuks.
Once freed from their rather tight confines, the turtles will stand around 5.75″ on whatever surface you place them on. They’re actually a smidge shorter than the other Super7 turtles, but I have no idea how tall Super7 envisioned those characters to be. Super7 kind of did its own thing with that line. These new turtles do look a lot different though as they’re bulkier which makes them look stockier. They have smaller heads by comparison, but those older turtles have some pretty large domes. Aside from something very obvious that we’ll get to in a bit, the approach Super7 took is still pretty consistent. These new figures are mostly bare plastic with just a touch of shading applied to the green. It helps to cut down on that plastic sheen, but it also draws attention to the areas of the figures where no shading exists like the kneepads. The rear of the shell is the biggest offender as it’s just a light shade of green. It’s also very bulbous, but this is pretty screen accurate. It’s the most plastic looking of the figures and looks very cheap by comparison. It is on the rear of the figure, but these are premium collectibles and it’s definitely an eyesore. The figures at least appear to have a matte clear coat applied to the entirety of the figures. Strangely, it doesn’t come across as well in pictures. I tried going with a low light setup as harsh lighting can make them shine more than they will in natural light.
I don’t remember Donatello having a birth mark.
Even though paint is kept to a minimum, what little is there can still be messed up. My Donatello has a big, green, spot on the side of his face that I may reach out to Super7 about. That’s the worst looking part, but the paint around the bandanas on all of the heads leaves a little something to be desired. Michelangelo also has a speck of white on one of his cheeks. Normally, I’d get out the Magic Eraser to try to get rid of such, but I’m worried it will mess up the clear coat. Instead, I’ll either learn to live with the shortcomings or just go with the neatest head for each figure and call it a day.
Those who bought all four from Super7 got a bonus head pack on a blister card.
These versions of the turtles are quite chunky, more so than I remembered. It presents a tough order for a sculptor as there’s an inelegance to the silhouette that belies the fact that these characters are trained martial artists. It’s something that can thankfully be posed away, but just standing straight up and down they look awkward. The turtles do share the same body across all four figures with the only differences being the heads and belts. Leo has his scabbards and Donatello his loop for his bo staff while Raph and Mikey are just supposed to cram their weapons into the sides of their belts. These guys also dropped the belt buckles in favor of plain knots which makes it even easier on Super7 when it comes to molds.
None of these heads are bad, but there sure could have been more variety. Two of Leonardo’s you need to really look close to notice a difference.
The default portraits across the four are pretty typical for the characters and each comes with a secondary option. Leonardo has a smirk and a teeth-baring smirk that reminds me of the Playmates figure. Donatello has an old school TMNT expression with his teeth showing on both sides of his beak as well as a smiling portrait. Michelangelo has a very similar smile to Donnie as well as an open mouthed smile embodying his party boy nature. Raph is the only one who doesn’t get to be happy as he has a pair of angry portraits. One features him baring his teeth while the other is a yell. That one is one of the best of the bunch as one eye is noticeably larger, and rounder, than the other which adds some more personality to the mix. And if you purchased direct from Super7, you got a bonus pack of heads with the following expressions: Leonardo (smile), Raphael ( full teeth gritting), Michelangelo (winking and smiling), and Donatello (a side smile taken from when he mugs for the camera in the show’s intro, also very similar to his Playmates counterpart). The extras are all fine in their own way, but there’s a severe lack of imagination on display. Why does Leonardo have 3 smiling portraits? Raph is all angry, which I guess is on brand, while Michelangelo is also nothing but happy. I would have liked a grim expression for Leo and a smile for Raph, even if it was more of a sinister one. Donatello is the only turtle who gets a wide range of emotions.
The Shell Cell is a downgrade from the Turtle Com.
For additional accessories the turtles share a lot of stuff plus feature their own weapons. For hands we have a set of fists, gripping, and open hands. Each turtle also has a Turtle Com or “Shell Cell.” It’s a bit of a throwaway accessory as the turtles can’t hold it convincingly. It’s in an open state too and it would have been more interesting to get an opened and a closed one. Donatello also comes with a set of goggles. They’re a little tricky to get on either head, but they also look a bit cheap so I’m not sure it’s worth it. This was kind of the start of Donatello always getting headgear of some kind which I’ve never been a fan of.
Donatello comes with some headgear. It’s nothing special, but better than what Leo and Raph get (which is nothing).
The rest of the accessories are the weapons and they’re what you would expect: swords for Leo, sai for Raph, a bo staff for Donnie, and nunchaku for Michelangelo. These versions of the turtles may have ditched the initialed belt buckles, but they did like color-coded weapons. This means colored wraps for Leo, Raph, and Mikey on the handles of their weapons while Donatello has purple tape in the middle of his bo. Unfortunately, this represents most of the paint on the weapons as the steel portions for Leo and Raph were left as bare plastic. The plastic is a very pale gray with the the sais almost looking slightly transparent and milky. As a result, their weapons look very cheap especially compared with past offerings from Super7. Raph’s sais are also puny and I can’t find any art, be it key art or from the show itself, backing this up. When stored his sai in his belt they tended to shrink, but in hand they look to be much bigger. Mikey does have real chain on his ‘chuks so they look fine while the brown plastic of Donnie’s staff looks more convincing. Michelangelo apparently was the favorite turtle at Super7 because he also gets effect parts. Like the NECA Michelangelo, you can detach one handle of his nunchaku from the chain and replace it with a whirling effect. He gets one for each weapon and it looks great, I just wish the other turtles received a similar effect part for their weapons like we saw with JoyToy.
A gathering of RaphsA sai comparison (left to right): NECA ’08, NECA toon, Super7 2k3, JoyToy 1:18 scale, Super7 original, NECA Mirage (Lawson)Raph got short-changed when it comes to sai size.
When these figures were announced last year the big talking point was double knees and elbows. For the first time in the line, Super7 decided to give the turtles double-joints at both spots. In the past, Super7 co-founder Brian Flynn has expressed a dislike for the aesthetic qualities of such joints. His background seems to largely be in soft vinyl figures and retro stuff so it’s not that surprising he’d feel that way. I think most modern collectors are fine with the trade-off and have always been since we’ve had double joints since the Toy Biz Marvel days. Super7 decided to change things up here, either because they felt the kids who grew up on this version of the turtles wouldn’t accept single joints, or because they caved to pressure that was both internal and external. Whatever the reason, the joints are here and they’re fine. Both are pin-less, but both also need to contend with what all turtle figures have to contend with and that’s the knee and elbow pads. To combat this, Super7 used a style of joint similar to what NECA used to use on some figures where you have a hinge ball above and below the joint. This creates two additional pivot points as well as the double-hinged bend. It works okay and certainly better than what we had. The aesthetics are a downgrade, but probably worth the trade-off to most.
Sais does matter.
Aside from that, most of the articulation should seem familiar. The head is on a double-ball peg and there’s also a ball joint at the base of the neck. These turtles have good range, but the shell prevents them from looking up effortlessly. The shoulders feature ball hinges and we have bicep swivels, the double elbows, and wrists that hinge and swivel. The gripping hands feature the proper hinge orientation for melee wielders while the elbows will bend past 90 degrees, but not far beyond that. There is a waist joint under the shell that mostly works as a pivot point than a full rotation. Hips are still ball-hinges, but the hinge seems much bigger and sturdier than typical Ultimates! figures. There’s a thigh swivel, double knees, and ankles that hinge and rock side to side. The knees bend past 90 degrees and the hip range out to the side allows for full splits. Kicking forward is a little limited since the shell forces the leg out to the side, but the range is there.
We’ll have Mikey demonstrate the new elbow and knee range.
Perhaps most important to all who have interest in this line is that the joints are all nice and tight. That doesn’t mean it’s all sunshine and roses though. While I wouldn’t say any joints are too tight, there is an issue with binding and scraping. The hinges in both the shoulders and hips function like ratcheted joints. There’s no smoothness to them at all. Most of these figures are also composed of a very soft plastic, but at the joints we have hard plastic. This causes scraping, cutting, and scuffing even if you’re careful. You’re also bound to have a stuck joint or two across the four figures in either the elbows or knees. The rotation in these double knees can aid in posing, but also drive you nuts as they keep spinning out of position during handling and become misaligned for using the hinge. The design and approach isn’t terrible, and this is better than the often floppy hips we get from Super7, but it still needed another pass before going into production. It feels like Super7 just looks at a test shot once and thinks they don’t need to review anything again or something. Hinged shoulders and hips aren’t anything knee and lots of companies do them without issue, but Super7 would have you believe those toys are freakin’ miracles. Or they could just finally ditch the hinged hips and go with ball sockets. That would make me happy, though I’m sure there would be growing pains there as well.
Splits are also on the table.
Perhaps this is all coming to a head. I do not like to kick someone when they’re down, but things have not been great for Super7 of late. Some of their lines appear to be dead, licenses have been pulled, and a major release like the Cat’s Lair was plagued with quality control issues that Super7 had to rectify at some cost to the company. And now we have tariffs to deal with. This wave apparently arrived at port during that brief window when tariffs on products imported from China were at 140%. In response, Super7 laid off about half of its workforce including 75% of the designers they employed. Among them was Kyle Wlodyga who has been the head designer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other licenses and was responsible for some really terrific stuff. I’ve always assumed TMNT was one of Super7’s best performing licenses so to see him laid off came as a shock. He also was vocally pushing for the company to tackle 2003 TMNT for awhile, but they didn’t do it until Viacom basically forced their hand. And what do you know, it was a big seller! At least, according to Super7. How shitty is that? The guy pushed for this, it finally happens, it’s a success, and he’s the one who gets shit-canned? Something smells there.
Thanks, Mikey – have a slice!
While I have sympathy for those at Super7 and I don’t want to see the company fold, as a reviewer, I’m not going to tell you to go out and buy an inferior product out of the kindness of your heart. I have to review these action figures as they are independent of the climate surrounding them and I’m forced to conclude that they’re just not worth the asking price. Super7 wants $55 each for these figures, perhaps more now that tariffs are involved, and they just don’t measure up to other figures in that price range. The appearance is too cheap in places and the articulation can literally damage your figures. They also don’t come with much and look especially light when compared with the other turtle figures Super7 has released over the years. If these were $35 then I could overlook most of that. The quality control would still be unacceptable to some degree, but also easier to swallow at that price.
These guys are a mixed bag, but if your standards are simply that you want something that looks like the show for your shelf then you’ll probably be content.
Objectively, I can say these figures aren’t worth the ask, but subjectively I can also say I don’t hate them. I don’t even dislike them. These are solid representations for an underserved era of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If you want a set of 2k3 turtles for your shelf you’ll probably be content with these once they’re in place. I do wonder how deep Super7 can go with this line. Personally, I’m in for Shredder out of wave two, but no one else. If Super7 wants to give me Christmas variants I’d be interested in that, but I don’t plan on going deep at all on 2k3. Unfortunately, it sounds like Super7 is. In another interview with Turtle Tracks posted at the same time, Wlodyga said the vintage-inspired stuff was “on pause.” Rarely does “on pause” ever mean anything good. That’s really frustrating as we’re still missing key figures in that line, most notably Undercover Don and Heavy Metal Raph, two figures keeping collectors from a complete set of Playmates remakes. Even if Viacom is really pushing for Super7 to move away from that stuff, the company should go to bat for its consumer and tell Viacom that people really want and expect those figures from them. They basically did it for Rat King, they can do it again. I’m so irritated by that decision that it makes me want to boycott the 2003 subline. I guess don’t expect a ton of Super7 stuff from me going forward.
We may be light on Super7 coverage from here on out, but there’s no shortage of historical coverage:
Is Super7 going to finish a set of variant Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?! Maybe, as we’re now three-fourths of the way through the rock n’ roll turtles as released by Playmates. Punker Don, Classic Rock Leo, and now Rapper Mike make 3 with only Heavy Metal Raph remaining. As of this writing, Raph hasn’t been…
It’s been awhile since we last took a look at a figure from a wave of Super7 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimates! It was back in July 2024 that I gave a rather glowing review of the first of a presumed four turtle figures based on the old Playmates Rock n’ Roll Turtles – Classic…
When I was a kid, I had parents with divergent musical tastes. Dad likes oldies from the 50s and 60s while mom was more into modern rock (then 80s). One area where their tastes overlapped was Bruce Springsteen. We had several of his records in my house and I distinctly remember that cover to Born…
Back in 2008, when NECA was planning out a line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures that they hoped would run for a long time, they turned to the turtles’ most trusted ally when it came time to do a fifth figure. The line wasn’t long for this world, and that figure of April O’Neil from issue two of the Mirage Studios run of comics ended up as a convention exclusive. She had a couple of variants, and came packaged with Mousers as well, but she was also the end of the line. Be it poor sales or issues with the master license holder, NECA’s Mirage run of turtles was brief, but has since been resurrected. We’re almost nearing a point where it feels like NECA, not Playmates, is releasing more unique sculpts per year when it comes to this franchise and it’s no surprise that in 2025, in the month of April no less, NECA has decided to return to the character once looked to as the most logical release after the turtles themselves.
An updated April for your updated turtles and newish Casey.
Version 2 of April is presently shipping as part of the Target Haulathon, that oh so expensive time of year for those who collect NECA TMNT. The old figure is one I never bought. April was a little rough in her debut appearance and creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were not too proud to admit that it took them awhile to really learn how to draw April. That figure fits in well with those early TMNT figures NECA produced as they’re based on the first issue, but for those looking for an April that vibes with the more recent output from NECA a new figure was needed. For inspiration, NECA turned to issue #11 which has become somewhat infamous online over the years. Namely, for those who want to champion that April was originally conceived as being black or at least mixed race. While it was true that her name came from April Fisher, a woman who is of a mixed race, Eastman and Laird have always been pretty clear over the years they envisioned her as a white woman. In issue 4, she received a new hair style – a perm. Combine that with the name thing and the fact that Eastman and Laird often used people in their orbit to base April’s looks on and you can see why this became such a big thing.
April’s got a new look.The inspiration for this figure.
Apparently, Eastman has at least embraced this retcon of sorts as this new April from NECA depicts her as a black woman. And why not? NECA already did a white April (well, many if you count the cartoon and movie lines) and people seem to like this idea. Some don’t, which is often the case when you start talking about race because there are racist assholes out there, but this is Kevin and Peter’s baby and if they like this depiction of April then that’s good enough for me. We know Kevin at least does since he did the artwork for the box. I guess Peter could hate it, or he could be fine, or indifferent, it doesn’t matter. It’s an April action figure and all that really matters to most would be is it any good?
“You know, I’m something of an artist myself.”
April is a figure sculpted by Richard Force and Tim Miller. Or I should say, April and her boxmate are sculpted by the duo. I’m not sure if one sculpted April and one sculpted her pack-in, but at least we know they both contributed where as most toy companies don’t give us that much info. Paint is credited to Geoff Trapp, Mike Puzzo, and Holly Knevelbaard. April stands at around 6″ to the top of her hair. She’s depicted in her outfit from issue 4 of a pink shirt, blue jeans, sneakers, and a brown jacket. At least those were the colors in the earliest color versions I have seen, though for me I’m most accustomed to seeing April and everyone else in black and white.
Not a figure made for the classic (and probably sexist) female pose.
The presentation for April is fairly basic. That’s not necessarily a negative, it’s just the reality of an action figure based on a normal woman. There’s no crazy super powers to capture or outlandish costume, it’s just a woman in casual attire. She has her poofy hair which is done in brown with some light brown brushed over it. Her expression is serious, but fairly neutral. There’s some linework on her cheekbones and her lips are red and outlined in black. She has a simple gold necklace sculpted around her neck and some big hoop earrings which appear to be part of the sculpt for the hair. The jacket and shirt feel like they’re an overlay, but the material is more firm than usual. There’s a lot of black linework on the clothing and the paint job on the sneakers is pretty complex and mostly clean. The paint is sharp and the appearance of the figure is too. My only critiques would be it looks like they missed a paint app on the zipper of her coat as it’s just left brown. They also gave April a serious case of “flat butt,” why did you do her dirty like that NECA?
This little guy gets all the stuff.
April comes with three sets of hands: open, fists, and gripping. That’s it. I wish we got a second portrait from the panel where she shows off her new haircut as she just looks really happy in that shot and it would be nice to give her the option of being happy on the shelf. Her articulation is pretty basic for the line as well. If you have Kirby or Baxter then you should have a pretty good idea of how April moves. Her hair really limits the range at the head to basically a swivel. The shoulders, elbows, wrists, and knees all work well and as expected. The range at the hips is good, but she can’t quite hit a split. Ankles are a bit limited and for some reason the left ankle on mine doesn’t want to pivot (it’s gummy and just snaps back into a neutral position). The waist is a ball joint, but it just swivels for the most part because of the size of the overlay. The torso isn’t going to do anything and the gripping hands have the wrong hinge, not that she has anything to hold. Her feet being relatively small, she can be a deceptively difficult figure to stand. I’ve had her topple over numerous times already in the short while I’ve had her.
I think I’ll keep the hat on him.Plenty of Utroms these days, and I didn’t even bother with the little one from the robot.
That’s April, but she’s technically not alone. Joining her is Professor Obligado, an Utrom ally with a series of short stories by Stephen Murphy. He’s very similar to other Utrom characters we’ve received in that he’s a little more than a slug figure as he has two articulated tentacles. He also gets the bulk of the accessories as he has a fedora, pipe, pick axe, paint brush, can of ink, and two extra tentacles one of which has a can of some spray molded to it. He looks fine and the swapping features are fun, but I would have liked something for April. It’s almost like NECA saw doing another April as an obligation, but rather than make her as much fun as they could, they threw in another character after doing the bare minimum.
At least Casey has weapons to spare.
This review has taken on a negative tone, but I should stress that this figure of April isn’t a bad one. It’s just fine. There’s nothing special about it, it does what you would expect, and the execution when it comes to the sculpt and paint is up to NECA’s standards. The articulation isn’t great, but still what one would expect of the line. It just lacks imagination. Obligado is fine, and those who really dig the Utrom characters will enjoy adding him to the mix. That doesn’t shake the feeling that I only bought this figure because I want an April and I would have bought anything. At least she turned out far better than the cartoon one. If you’re feeling inclined to pick this one up, April sold out online, but can be found at Target. If you don’t want to shop there for any reason, know that she’ll eventually show up elsewhere, but with the current state of things who knows what she’ll cost? Right now, the MSRP is $35 and hopefully it stays that way.
There are plenty more heroes and villains from NECA’s TMNT line of figures based on the original comics:
Where do you take your heroic comic book franchise when you kill your main villain in the first issue? Well, you first undo that rash decision by bringing him back! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird famously killed The Shredder in the first issue of their comic. They never intended to…
Rats! Is what Charlie Brown would say at the sight of today’s subject, the almighty king of the rats himself, the Rat King. Rat King has always been a favorite of mine when it comes to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles villains. Like a great many, I was introduced to the character via the cartoon series…
Say the name “The King” to a comic book fan and they will immediately know of whom you speak. Jack Kirby is a titan in the world of comics. Creator or co-creator of a great many characters known throughout the world today, it’s hard to imagine what a comic book would look like without his…
Where do you take your heroic comic book franchise when you kill your main villain in the first issue? Well, you first undo that rash decision by bringing him back! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird famously killed The Shredder in the first issue of their comic. They never intended to do a second so there wasn’t much thought given to the character, but it was The Shredder that would be selected to be the main foe for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as they made the leap to other forms of media. The comics basically followed suit by bringing Shredder back first as a clone, or rather, various clones. Once that was exhausted, the two had a new solution: offspring.
The daughter is a little more trim, but nearly as tall as daddy.
Credit to Eastman and Laird for selecting Karai as the successor to The Shredder. Most creators would probably turn to the son, but they decided to go with a daughter. Karai entered the picture during the City at War arc, a sort of grand finale to the Mirage era of TMNT. She, not surprisingly, set out to avenge her father who was murdered by the turtles. She decked herself out in traditional Foot ninja garb while also taking on the armor of her father, including his rather famous helm. Karai has since made the leap to other TMNT media and is pretty well known at this point, but for a time, she was basically only known to fans of the comic books.
Karai slots in pretty well with other figures in the line.
NECA’s take on Karai, dubbed Karai as The Shredder, depicts her as she first appeared as basically the new Shredder. She comes in the standard Mirage Studios box with brand new artwork by Kevin Eastman. The figure is a sculpt by May Thamtarana with paint by the usual duo of Geoffrey (no longer Geoff?) Trapp and Mike Puzzo. The figure is currently shipping to Target as part of the latest TMNT promotion there, but it’s expected this figure will see a wide release in the not too distant future.
Karai is depicted in her Shredder disguise which is not much different from the Foot ninja or the other versions of Shredder we’ve seen from NECA. She stands about 6.5″ tall and out of the box she comes unhelmed. She is understandably more slight than those Foot ninja or her father, but she does feature comic style muscle tone on her bare arms. The figure is predominantly a dark red with sculpted linework and painted details in black. Her skin has a slight olive tone to it which adds to the overall darker presentation of the figure versus the old Shredder. She features a pretty angry looking face with a somewhat messy head of hair like she’s either in battle or perhaps just discarded her helm. The painted details are all quite sharp and the armored portions of her attire are painted a lustrous silver with black detailing.
Realize your destiny, Karai.
Karai’s appearance gets kicked up a notch when the standard head is swapped with the helmed one. Not because there is anything wrong with the default look, but because the helmed head is just done so well. It’s the same silvery color as the bladed bits, but with a liberal use of black shading. Her eyes are just white slits in blackness and I love the shading on the mouthguard portion. The black around her eyes almost looks like it doesn’t quite fill the entire area though, but I think it’s intentional and not a defect of my figure. She absolutely looks like someone who would emerge from the darkness and take your life before you even knew what happened. Standing her beside NECA’s original Mirage Shredder also highlights how far the company has come with its paint applications. The old figure looks downright bland by comparison as there’s a lot of bare plastic and less shading. I suspect we’ll eventually get a new Shredder on an all new body (like we are with the cartoon line) to replace this one some day because it’s definitely fallen behind the newer releases when it comes to shelf presence.
If she doesn’t want to wear it she could always use it as a trick or treat bucket.
Karai also features an assortment of hands and weapons. For hands, she has a set of fists, gripping hands, and open hands. The gripping hands feature the much preferred vertical hinge, a change I’ve been calling for with NECA figures for awhile now, though unfortunately the hinge on my left hand is stuck. No amount of heat or messing with a blade has been able to get it to budge for me and it looks like the disc portion is protruding ever so slightly more than it is with the right hand so I’m thinking it’s a factory defect. The hands in general did feature tight hinges because they’re painted silver so you may need to break the seal, so to speak, to get them moving.
That’s a pretty nasty looking weapon.
While I love the vertical hinge, I do have to say that the gripping hands could have been executed better. Or maybe it’s the fault of the weapons, but Karai struggles to get a tight grip on most of them. She has a long, bladed, staff which features a shaft that’s just a little too thick for how her hands are molded. She can hold it, but it will fall out a lot and probably drive you nuts as you work her into a pose. Her long sword is basically the same and I believe it’s a weapon we’ve seen with the Foot Enforcer. She does have two, smaller, swords which both feature knuckle-guards. These work much better with her hands and maybe it’s because they’re the only newly tooled weapons in the set? She also has an empty mask she can hold or have placed on a shelf beside her. It’s all one piece and, no, it won’t fit over her unmasked portrait. It’s a fun inclusion and will probably be appreciated by toy photographers.
You can kind of see how chunky that sword handle is even in this shot.
Articulation for Karai is pretty much standard for the line. The head is on a double-ball peg and moves around pretty well. The helmeted head actually has better range as the hair of the standard portrait limits the range looking up. Shoulders are your standard ball hinge and the shoulder pauldrons will get in the way a bit when rotating or trying to raise the arms out all the way to the side. There is a biceps swivel, double-jointed elbows, and the wrists swivel and hinge. This figure is not pin-less, which ordinarily wouldn’t bother me, but her arms are so thin that I do find myself wishing they were pin-less. There is no forearm swivel with the armor that I can find which does disappoint me. I like being able to line them up with the hand blades, but the only way to do so is via the bicep swivel.
She wields these a lot better than the larger weapons.
In the torso there’s a ball joint just under her bust. This provides for a little back, a little forward, and a generous amount of tilt as well as rotation. There’s a ball joint in the waist as well, though her sash comes up pretty high over her abdomen and will limit the forward and back movement there making it mostly just a swivel point. The ball-jointed hips will allow the figure to hit full splits out to the side and swivel at the inner thigh. She does have a “diaper” covering on the crotch which limits her forward kicking. She can be forced into a 90 degree kick forward while kicking back is minimal. Double-jointed knees follow and the ankles feature the standard hinge and rocker. Because of the shin guards, I would have welcomed a boot cut, but NECA declined to give us one. Karai also has pretty small feet so she can be a little challenging to stand, but overall her articulation is fine and she’s likely more dynamic than most of the figures in the line given that she’s not nearly as bulky as most.
Karai was basically a no-brainer for the Mirage line and presenting her in her Shredder attire made the most sense. She does feature some other looks in the comics, but this is really the only one I need. I’m curious if NECA will do more variants of her to get more out of these molds. It seems like they’re committed to doing IDW color variants of all of the figures so it certainly wouldn’t shock me to see the same take place with Karai. I do think she turned out well, I just wish she could wield her weapons a bit better. It’s also a shame I have a seized wrist hinge, but hopefully that’s not a widespread issue. At approximately $37, she’s not a cheap figure, but a bit better value than some of the others currently out there by NECA. Karai should make for a nice addition to your TMNT Mirage Studios display, now hopefully we can get a better Shredder to join her.
We have plenty more from NECA and Mirage Studios Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
When a regular Foot Ninja just won’t cut it, The Shredder has to turn to the Foot Enforcer. This brute of a specimen is bigger, stronger, and comes packed to the gills with an assortment of weapons designed to reduce the turtles into a pile of flesh and shell. And they’re needed, because how often…
The Shredder had a rough go at things for awhile when it came to plastic. He was featured rather prominently in the old Playmates line, though perhaps not as prominently as one would expect. Playmates never did do a movie version of him, aside from Super Shredder, and his figure was arguably the worst from…
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…
As the story goes, one night Kevin Eastman was drawing with his friend and partner-in-comics Peter Laird when the idea to doodle a ninja, anthropomorphized, turtle entered his brain. Laird was so amused by this drawing that he too drew his own take on it. What was done just to amuse each other eventually turned into something that would change both of their lives as well as the lives of many others.
Kevin Eastman was commissioned to do the packaging and it’s appropriately “special.”
In 1984, the first issue of Mirage Studios’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hit shelves and became an indie darling. That comic would go on to inspire a toyline, which beget a cartoon series, and a phenom was born. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, once thought of as a fad, are still relevant today now more than 40 years from their inauspicious beginnings. To celebrate the milestone, NECA partnered with co-creator Kevin Eastman to create an action figure two-pack of those inaugural turtles. Sculpted by Paul Harding with paint by Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo, the set was sold as a two-pack at San Diego Comic Con as well as a presale on NECA’s own website. The First Turtles are just the latest in what are sure to be more celebratory figures to come. It’s on the heels of Playmates’ own Original Sketch Turtles which can currently be found at Target and on Amazon. Those turtles were the more refined, second pass, versions of the characters which bare a strong resemblance to what would be featured in that first comic, where as these originals are quite crude by comparison.
The original Eastman pose, as best as I can recreate it here.
The set sold by NECA comes in a rather large box adorned with new artwork by Eastman. It also features a lenticular slipcover depicting the drawings changing from black and white to color. The rear of the slipcover is almost bare white as the idea here was for convention goers to be able to have Eastman sign or even doodle on the box for them. I suppose that is still possible for other convention appearances to come. The interior box is a fairly typical NECA window box that displays both figures and their accessories quite well. The only thing missing is the actual original drawings which I’m surprised by, but maybe there were legal reasons. This really is a pretty nice display item, but I’m no in-box collector so let’s rip into this one.
And the original Laird pose.
First of all, the figures here are presented fully painted in color that’s basically a match for what NECA did with the Jim Lawson turtles released in 2023. The original drawings were never colored by Eastman and Laird, but since Eastman worked closely with NECA on this release it can be assumed that this is how he and Peter likely would color them today. We also don’t really know how tall they envisioned these guys to be or if any consideration was really given. Eastman probably had input there, but I don’t know if Laird had any involvement (he’s essentially retired after having sold the property to Viacom over a decade ago). Based on interviews Trevor Zammit of NECA has given, it sounds like NECA had some freedom to figure out how to present these two. Eastman’s turtle, which was really more tortoise-like in some respects, was made bigger and chunkier while the more lithe version Laird came up with is shorter and thinner.
These pair pretty well with the Playmates Original Sketch Turtles, which were like the second version of the property.
We might as well discuss the Eastman turtle first since it was the one said to be created first. The figure stands roughly 5.75″ to the top of its head. He may not be the tallest figure in the line, but he’s definitely a big boy. This turtle is quite chunky and there’s a nice heft to the figure. The shell is quite large and another area where NECA had to exercise some creative freedom since the drawing depicted the character from the front. Now, these turtles are not intended to be any, one, turtle from what followed. This isn’t Michelangelo or Raphael, it’s just a ninja turtle. Still, he has some recognizable traits from the turtles that followed. He’s sporting the red bandana along with brown elbow and knee pads and wrist wraps. There is no belt, but there is a tail. The original turtle also did not hold any weapons, but did have nunchaku affixed to both forearms which this figure does as well. The weapons are fused together, but do have real chain links affixed to them. They tab into a slot on the inner wrist band and are quite easy to work with.
A little too Raph.
What really stands out about the first turtle is the portrait and proportions. The head is more egg-shaped with barely any sort of beak. The eyes also feature pupils and areas of green around the eyes are visible through the eyeholes on the bandana. The hands and feet are large and more closely match that of an actual turtle. The hands look more like flippers for swimming through the water while the feet are quite tortoise-like. He has five digits on each limb as opposed to the three and two that would follow. The paint job is truly exquisite as there is tons of black hatch lines all over. The articulation cuts are not very prominent making this figure look almost like a statue. While subjectively many may find this turtle to be crude and even a bit ugly, objectively the figure is nothing short of a work of art when compared with the original sketch.
A lot of Michelangelo can be found in these original designs.
The same is true of the Laird turtle. This one clocks in at around 5.375″ and is far less substantial in mass when compared to the Eastman turtle. Laird’s turtle is similar to Eastman’s in style, but different. There’s a mask in place, but on this turtle it extends over a pronounced beak essentially wrapping around where the nose would be. It does feature the nunchaku on the forearms, but there are no chain links present this time and the straps holding them on are the only other garments on the turtle. There are no pads or belts, and the hands and feet feature four digits instead of five. He still is more turtle-like than the finished design, but the leaner proportions make him a bit more convincing as a ninja, even if still comically implausible. The paint job here is just as good as it is on the Eastman turtle, and despite the smaller size, this figure still has substantial weight to it.
The Lawson turtles were like the advancement of the original Mirage style.
Where the two figures also differ concerns the articulation. The more slender Laird turtle was likely easier to work with and articulates slightly better than the Eastman variety, though neither turtle is intended to be placed in poses many would consider “dynamic.” Both feature neck and head articulation with basic arm articulation. There are no double joints on either figure and the range at the hinge joints is probably going to be less than 90 degrees for most. The bandana knot and tail swivel while the hips are ball sockets with thigh swivels engineered into them. Neither turtle is going to be able to hit a split or kick forward all that far. The Laird turtle gets to have hinges at the knees and ankles with an ankle rocker. The Eastman turtle, who has big stumps for legs, just has one set of hinges below the kneepads. There is basically no ankle to be found on this guy so that’s it.
And, of course, it was the ’87 version of the property that launched a phenomenon.
Safe to say, if it’s articulation that you prioritize in your action figures then these are not for you. I think for most, they’ll pose them like the original drawing and call it a day. And that’s definitely a viable display option, but it would mean ignoring all of the goodies in the box. NECA decided to load this pair up with all of the weapons you would expect and more. That means we get a set of katana, nunchaku, sai, and a bo staff. There’s also a nunchaku with a whirling effect that even spins and looks really nice. There’s a tonfa as well if you prefer more of a Last Ronin vibe. All of the weapons are fully painted and look great. There’s a slight crudeness baked into some of them as well such as a chip in the blades of the katana and the wraps of the bo being off-center. They also appear to be based off of the original sketch of the four that followed which, if so, is a logical choice.
The tonfa has to nod to this guy, right?
In order to properly wield such weapons each turtle comes with an alternate set of gripping hands. The standard hands are an open style and the gripping are just that. They feature horizontal hinges, unfortunately, but at least they work with the clip-on nunchaku just fine. Both turtle can adequately wield any of the included, though aside from those clip-on ‘chuks there’s no weapon storage to be found. NECA also decided to give each figure one optional portrait. The default ones from the drawings are what I would deem stoic, while the alternate ones are angrier and feature exposed teeth, something we would be most accustomed to seeing out of the TMNT. It’s an appropriate alternate, for sure.
A fun set that feels like a real piece of TMNT history. Track it down if that’s something that appeals to you.
NECA’s send-up to the origin of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a worthy inclusion in the year-long 40th anniversary celebration. It’s cool to see both of the co-creator’s original vision celebrated here in action figure form. While they don’t exactly put the “action” in action figure, they make for a great display piece and it’s something that I think diehard TMNT collectors will want to add. Since this was a San Diego Comic Con exclusive, it’s now unfortunately sold out and only available on the after market. NECA sometimes sells remaining stock online and at future conventions, but the likely easiest path to owning this set for those that missed out is to keep an eye on retail. It’s expected that some stores are going to be home to an another version of this set where the figures will be painted in black and white, but with red bandanas and weapon handles. It looks like it’s going to contain everything from this set as well, though the slipcover will probably be dropped. The SDCC version was priced at $70 so expect something similar for the retail version. Listings for it have already been spotted at Walmart, but NECA’s own solicitation did not mention any store by name so I don’t think this will be exclusive to Walmart. Needless to say, I really dig this set for what it is and I think every TMNT collector should try to pick up the version they like best.
More from the world of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
Last week we took a Turtle Tuesday off which feels like a rarity for this blog. And that’s because there seems to be new stuff featuring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles branding coming out all of the time. And it’s only going to become more plentiful as the franchise celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.…
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…
When I was a kid, I had parents with divergent musical tastes. Dad likes oldies from the 50s and 60s while mom was more into modern rock (then 80s). One area where their tastes overlapped was Bruce Springsteen. We had several of his records in my house and I distinctly remember that cover to Born…
Last week we took a Turtle Tuesday off which feels like a rarity for this blog. And that’s because there seems to be new stuff featuring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles branding coming out all of the time. And it’s only going to become more plentiful as the franchise celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. I’ve made quite a few TMNT purchases already this year, but this is the first featuring a 40th anniversary logo and it’s appropriate that it comes from Playmates Toys.
Expect to see that 40th logo on many more TMNT products going forward.
Most likely know by now that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were co-created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman as basically a gag amongst the two. They gave birth to this franchise, but perhaps the entity most responsible for a little comic book becoming a global phenomenon is Playmates. Those toys released in 1988 set the world on fire in their target demographic. Playmates was basically a doll maker before it decided to take a chance on TMNT after more noteworthy action figure producers had said “No thanks.” And even though it seems like everyone is making TMNT toys these days, it’s still Playmates that is the primary master license holder when it comes to TMNT.
The original sketches are featured rather prominently on the packaging.
The legend goes, that one night while drawing together in Dover, New Hampshire, Kevin Eastman came up with the idea of a ninja turtle. He passed the doodle onto his partner in art, Peter Laird, who was amused enough by the concept to do his own interpretation. Sometime later, the idea of a group of four anthropomorphic, ninja, turtles was fleshed out in greater detail and committed to paper. This version of the turtles is now referred to as the “Original Sketch” turtles. Truthfully, I had never heard of this image referred to in that way until recently. The actual image has been less celebrated than the original drawings and the Mirage Studios version that followed for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1. Playmates has chosen to celebrate this sketch in action figure form. It makes sense since the original drawings were of a singular turtle which most resembled Michelangelo. Playmates has already made Mirage versions of the characters and even recently re-released them. This set of sketch turtles is basically untapped, but I doubt it will be the last we see of them.
Weapon storage, baby!
Shipping now to Target stores, the original sketch turtles come in window boxes adorned with recreations of original Eastman and Laird TMNT art. It has a black and white deco for the most part with a green “The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” logo in a font similar to the original sketch. On the top flap and rear of the box are Laird and Eastman’s original take on a ninja turtle as well as a print of the original sketch itself. There’s a brief blurb about the origin of these fighting teens and the sides of the box are reserved for images of the toys themselves.
Each turtle comes with an ooze canister which doubles as a standee for the original sketch recreation.
Each turtle is released separately and in the box you will find a turtle, a broken canister of ooze, weapons, holsters (if necessary) and a piece of a diorama to recreate the original sketch posing when all are purchased. Each character retails for $15, though I was able to take advantage of a sale going on at Target and got them for around $10.50 a piece. There was only one of each character and they were stocked in the toy aisle with the other Playmates products. Some Targets appear to be stocking them towards the back of the store with the collectibles so you may have to hunt them down. It does seem like stores are only getting one set initially, but since it’s a Target exclusive item there are likely to be restocks. So far there has been no online drop, but one could still come.
You also get a street diorama piece with each figure. Mikey also comes with the detachable box and board.
Even though the original sketch was in black and white, these turtles are depicted in their Playmates colors. That means a different shade of green (or brown, in the case of Donatello) for each turtle plus colored bandanas and pads. These are basically prototype turtles so they look just as funky as the original art. They’re more like tortoises, and if Cecil from Looney Tunes got together with three of his buddies to cosplay as ninjas they might look something like these guys. As expected, there’s a lot of shared parts between the four brothers, but also more differences than folks are accustomed to. A lot of that is due to the four not having a uniform look to start. Leonardo, for example, is the only turtle with kneepads while Michelangelo doesn’t even have a belt. They’re little guys too standing at about 4.5″ in height. The bodies are practically spherical while the legs widen as they go ending in rather large feet. Leo and Donnie feature expressions that are mirror images of each other while Raph and Mikey use the same portrait.
The hollow feet are definitely not great.
The round body on these guys might be fairly hollow, but there’s a nice weight to each figure. The paint is sparse, but where it’s applied it’s fairly clean. It looks nice around the bandanas and it’s pretty good on the elbow pads. Michelangelo and Leonardo both have a blemish on their right eye, while Mikey’s paint at the elbow pads is noticeably sloppy compared with his brothers. If this were a $35 turtle I’d be more critical, but at this price range it’s acceptable. The black linework in the teeth is a surprising touch and there are a few painted hashmarks on the plastrons of each figure. Someone willing to fully paint these to tone down that plastic sheen could probably make these look really impressive. The only other thing about them I don’t care for are the hollow feet. Sure, you can’t see such a detail when they’re on a shelf so long as both feet are on the surface, but it looks pretty cheap and does remove the option for kick displays.
These turtles are quite diminutive, but not really out of place with other Playmates turtles.
As expected, each turtle comes with their signature weapons. Even in this early stage, Eastman and Laird knew how they wanted to arm their creations, with only one slight change. Donatello is the skimpiest since he has just his bo staff. It’s fine. The wraps are painted and there’s a little blackwash so it’s about as nice as a bo can look at this price range. Leonardo has two katana and they feature wavy, distorted, handles and blades. This is in-line with the original sketch and not a defect of the product. He has two detachable sheaths which plug into the rear of his belt. The sketch has them going sideways, but they’re on pegs so you can orientate them however you wish. Mikey has his two nunchaku and they’re done with real chains. In a departure from most versions of the character, his weapons storage is on his forearms. The handles of the ‘chuks slot into them and it’s something I think Mikey should do more often. Raph has his sai and I like the shape of them compared with most versions of the character. He also has a sword because the original depiction of the character had one. He comes with the same sheath as Leo and it plugs into the rear of his belt. The weapons are all either painted or make use of colored plastic so they look rather nice and the figures have no trouble holding them.
Of course, they look downright tiny beside a Super7 turtle.
You can probably take one look at these guys and figure that articulation isn’t going to be anything special, and you would be right. It’s pretty much standard Playmates for their modern TMNT toy lines. Hinged pegs are used for the neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, and hips and they get solid range, but I personally hate the approach for hips. The shoulders actually have really good range because of where they’re placed. There’s no ankle articulation and the wrists just swivel. Some of the joints are a little tight, but nothing is loose. They can basically do the poses they’re supposed to so you can recreate the original sketch or do your own thing. My only real gripe is I wish the wrist cut could have been better blended into the sculpt and the same is true for the knee. Leo has the benefit of knee pads to hide the knee cut, but none of the others do.
It’s getting a little nuts how many versions of these characters we’ve seen over the years.
Each turtle also comes with a diorama piece and the previously mentioned ooze canister. The canister is broken and there’s a sculpted puddle to go with it. It’s not something that was present in the original picture, but it’s obviously a big part of the origin story of the turtles. It looks okay with the canister bits painted. It serves another purpose though as there’s a slot in it to hold the included image of the original sketch. It’s printed on a thick piece of cardstock and it works as intended. A fun inclusion and it comes with each figure. The diorama pieces are part of a city street. Leonardo’s piece includes a manhole cover that is non-removable while Mikey also comes with a box and board so he can be positioned above his brothers to recreate the sketch. The board and box are surprisingly nice with a little dry-brushing on them. Raph and Donatello come with the same piece and all four can clip together to form a display. It’s fun, and better yet, it works as these guys can basically nail the pose from the drawing. The only shortcoming is Mikey was depicted spinning one of his ‘chuks, but Playmates didn’t include a spinning accessory. It’s the one detail I feel like they missed.
There are numerous ways to display these boys, but obviously this is the money shot. It’s not a perfect 1:1 recreation, but it’s pretty damn neat.
For 10-15 bucks, depending on your luck with Target sales, these are pretty solid and fun figures to own. No one has done turtles based on this sketch before and it’s cool to see Playmates tackle it. I’m sure others will follow and we already know that NECA is at least planning on doing the original two turtle sketches in figure form, though neither has been formally announced as of this writing. This is likely just the first of many 40th anniversary celebrations for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and it’s something I think most fans will want to add to their collection. It’s presently only available at Target, but Playmates stuff seems to rarely stay exclusive. I would not be surprised to see it offered later at online shops, or maybe even as a black and white variant (you know that’s coming) so don’t fret if you’re having a hard time tracking it down. Patience will be rewarded in the end.
Want to keep celebrating TMNT’s big milestone? Look no further:
With a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie on the way this week that can only mean one thing: new action figures from Playmates Toys! With the license to produce toys based on TMNT becoming easier to obtain in recent years, Playmates has become a bit of a punching bag in the toy community. Some…
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…
Playmates Toys has been the master toy license holder for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for as long as I’ve been aware of TMNT. In the 80s, the toy line produced by Playmates was excellent: fun sculpts, imaginative characters, crazy set pieces, and tons of vehicles. It was a great companion to the animated series airing…
Say the name “The King” to a comic book fan and they will immediately know of whom you speak. Jack Kirby is a titan in the world of comics. Creator or co-creator of a great many characters known throughout the world today, it’s hard to imagine what a comic book would look like without his influence. It was probably around the 1980s when the kids who grew up reading his work themselves broke into comics when his legacy and influence really started to shine. Two of his biggest fans also happened to be the co-creators of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Such big fans of Kirby were they that they essentially wrote him into an issue of one of their comics. The Donatello one-shot, “Kirby and the Warp Crystal,” sees the brainy turtle pulled into an another dimension where he has to work with a comic book artist by the name of Kirby to save the native inhabitants of this world and make it home. Kirby, with his pencil that has a magic stone affixed to it, is able to bring to life whatever he draws on his pad of paper. The issue has been re-released multiple times and included in trade paperbacks and was even adapted into an episode of the 2003 cartoon series where it was simply titled “The King.”
It’s impressive how detailed the sketch of Donatello turned out.
Through NECA’s line of action figures based on the Mirage Studios version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles we now have Jack Kirby – the action figure. Technically, it’s just Kirby and he is based on Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s caricature of Jack Kirby himself. It’s a release done with the blessing of Kirby’s estate and the credits on the bottom of the box reference the Kirby for Hero’s program and The Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center. Jack Kirby is mostly known for being an incredible artist, but he’s also known as a strong advocate for creator’s rights. Kirby, like a great many comic book artists, created their work under work-for-hire contracts that gave the publisher sole, creative, control over anything the artist came up with. It’s an unjust and unfair practice that has at least improved since the 1960s, but is hardly perfect.
“Thanks for the hardware, Kirby!”
The Kirby action figure isn’t one that is necessarily meant to “wow” those who buy it. It is, after all, an action figure of a middle-aged man with a pencil and paper, but it’s Jack Kirby! It comes in the standard trapezoidal box with brand new artwork on the front and sides by Kevin Eastman with product shots featured on the back. There is a cross-sell that would seem to indicate a new Triceraton infantryman character is on the way which makes sense since it would allow NECA to get more use out of the tools created for Zog. The other characters on the cross-sell are the Mirage-colors Foot Enforcer (coming soon) and the much awaited Rat King, a figure that was shown off last year at San Diego Comic Con.
“Ok, I’ll give it a try, but I can only draw stick figures.”
Out of the box, Kirby stands just a tick over the 6″ mark. He’s featured in a green sweater over a pale yellow, collared, shirt with blue slacks and brown loafers. It’s a simple figure, but it’s brightly painted with liberal use of black linework to give it that comic “pop” the line is known for. Kirby’s face is a mixture of excitement and concentration like his mind is working in overdrive to come up with something imaginative to capture on his pad of paper. The likeness to the artwork is very well done and, in turn, the likeness to the actual Jack Kirby is pretty solid as well. It’s a comic book version of Kirby and I think it works pretty well to capture how he probably looked in the 60s and 70s. There aren’t any obvious paint blemishes on my figure and everything appears to be in order.
The blaster doesn’t really fit the new turtle bodies all that well. It gets hung-up on the elbow pad.
What do you give an action figure of a comic book artist for accessories? Why, a pencil and paper, of course! Kirby has his pencil affixed with the magic stone. It’s this teeny, tiny, little item that is exceptionally painted for something so small. I’m not seeing any slop on the black thread holding the purple stone in place which is really impressive. Kirby has a set of fists, but he also has a right hand that is fixed into a pencil holding position to accept the accessory. I do question the wisdom of doing it this way. While it’s impressive how well the little pencil turned out, making it part of the hand mold might have made more sense as I fear this item getting lost. Kirby also has a wide gripping, left, hand and he’ll need it to hold his pad of paper. It’s a spiral-bound notebook and on one side is a sketch of Donatello from that issue with the special arm canon Kirby conjures up for him and on the rear is a demonic-looking character. Kirby also has a set of more standard gripping hands should you wish to give him some weapons or something, but I don’t know why you would.
This new version of the Gravitic Equalizer also lacks a lot of the paint hits as the one that came with the Fugitoid.
Also included in the box is a familiar accessory. It’s the blue arm canon (dubbed the Gravitic Equalizer by Kirby) from the Donatello one-shot which was previously released with Fugitoid. This time it has considerably less paint as it’s just all blue with black linework. The back of the box shows Kirby paired with the more recent, Jim Lawson, Donatello, but this accessory is meant for the original Eastman/Laird turtles that NECA did way back in 2008. I had no success getting this thing onto the newer turtles as they have bigger arms. Maybe some heat and persistence could cure that? The biggest accessory though is this little, red and gray demon from that very same issue. This little guy was created by Eastman and Laird, but very much looks like something Jack Kirby would have dreamt up. He’s about 3.125″ tall and features basic articulation at the head, shoulders, and hips. There’s more paint on this guy than a whole wave of Marvel Legends and he has this little hammer accessory. It’s gray with black shading and looks pretty neat. His hands aren’t the most pliable so you may want to heat them up if you want him to get a real good grip on it.
Kirby also comes with a little buddy.
Articulation for Kirby is pretty solid and typical of the more human characters we see in NECA’s cartoon TMNT line. He’s got a ball-jointed head, hinged pegs at the shoulders, double-elbows that feature a hinged ball peg at the top and bottom, forearm swivel, wrists that swivel and hinge horizontally, ball-jointed waist, ball-socket hips, thigh swivel, double-jointed knees, ankle swivel, ball-hinged feet, and an ankle rocker. The shirt overlay will limit his movement in the torso, but his arm range is a plus and he won’t have any issue sketching on that notepad. The NECA double elbows are in effect and I know some people hate how these look. I’ve always maintained I think they look okay on sleeved arms like this so I’m fine with their use here. I like the extra forearm swivel they provide and I like that the hinged ball at the ankle pegs into the shin so we get a little extra swivel there. The only thing I don’t love is the “diaper” at the crotch which restricts leg movement. I can see a lot of collectors wanting to pair this figure with a 1:12 scale chair and desk and getting him to sit might be a problem.
And when I say little I do mean little.
A figure of a comic book artist isn’t as exciting as that of a ninja or a cyborg, but the fact that it’s Jack Kirby certainly adds a tantalizing layer to it. I can’t tell if this is a figure NECA will have a hard time moving a lot of units for or if it’s the type of figure that’s going to do very well as non-TMNT collectors may jump at the chance of owning a small version of The King. It’s a tremendously fun homage and I think my only true critique is I do wish it could have come with a chair and drafting table. Even if it upped the cost or we had to drop the little demon guy, I would have done it. I can see people creating displays of Kirby at a desk drawing away with a shelf over his head of his many creations in dramatic action poses. This is a fun one and I’m sure it was a dream come true for Kevin Eastman to make this figure a reality.
Kirby is going to hang out on my shelf with the O.G. turtles
Kirby is currently hitting Target stores as part of the NECA Haulathon event, but expect him to be made available at other retailers in the not too distant future. At Target, he’ll set you back $35 which I think is a pretty good price for this one.
Check out more from NECA’s line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pulled from the pages of Mirage Studios:
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…
I’m having a hard time coming up with an action figure line that has had retail releases separated by more than a decade. I don’t mean long-running lines of figures like G.I. Joe or Marvel Legends which have been around for decades, I mean a line that was started, ended, then re-started like NECA’s line…
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…
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been around long enough that I think we can officially declare it wasn’t a fad. Back in the early 90s, that was the prevailing thought which is how we ended up with 3 films in 4 years. Since then, the movies have come far more sporadically. The original comic and television show have come and gone, and the concept of a reboot is nothing the franchise is unfamiliar with. And with each reboot that comes, you can pretty much count on a bunch of stuff carrying over. The turtles begin life as four, ordinary, baby, turtles mutated by some ooze. They’re raised by their rat-dad, Splinter, who is sometimes Hamato Yoshi or sometimes just his pet. And they’re always tied to the Shredder and the Foot Clan in some fashion. Early on, it was a revenge story, and then later versions usually preserved some tragedy in there, but didn’t make the turtles as bloodthirsty as originally portrayed back in 1984.
Sometimes, the status quo needs to be changed. How many times can the same story be retold with only minor modifications? That seems to be the issue facing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the modern age. When the show that began in 2012 came to an end, Nickelodeon was willing to try something new and that’s how we got Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It wasn’t the success that 2012 was, so it’s hard to say if Nickelodeon was rewarded for such a drastic change. Now, it’s the film franchise’s turn for something new. No, this isn’t Rise, but spiritually it’s more similar to that show than any of the shows and films that came before it. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is (what Nickelodeon hopes) the start of a new era for the heroes in a half shell in which they’re given a much different look. Not so much design-wise, but in approach. That word “teenage” has been in the title ever since the beginning, but prior to Mutant Mayhem it’s rarely applied.
Mutant Mayhem is being talked about as the Seth Rogen Turtles in the same way that the previous film franchise was thought of as the Bay Turtles. Only this time, it’s a little more true. Rogen is a credited screenplay writer on this film, along with his usual writing partner Evan Goldberg, Jeff Rowe, Dan Hernandez, and Benji Samit. It’s true that Rogen has played a large role in shaping this film, but he’s not doing it alone, obviously. The story is credited to Rogen, Goldberg, Row, and Brendan O’Brien with Rowe directing.
There’s a new version of the heroes four on the scene, but they’re hardly unrecognizable.
The film takes our four heroes, Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), Donatello (Micah Abbey), Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.) and Raphael (Brady Noon) out of the sewers and into the streets of New York City. Only this time, they’re not seasoned crime fighters. Instead, they’re errand boys for their father Splinter (Jackie Chan) who have been trained as ninja purely for self-defense and stealing (in this version, they don’t inexplicably have money for pizza). Yes, Splinter is not out for revenge in this one. He’s just a New York City rat who happened to get mutated along with the turtles and had to learn martial arts via video tapes he was able to track down. He decided to teach his boys in the same discipline when it became apparent to him that they could never hope to be accepted by humanity. As a result, he’s a bit controlling and forbids his sons from interacting with any humans. Meanwhile, the turtles are all teenaged and looking for an outlet. They seek acceptance and companionship as they have the usual social needs all teens have. They want to go to high school, Leo dreams of a girlfriend, Donnie wants to share in his interests with other geeks, Mikey yearns for the stage, while Raph just wants to fight people.
Early in the film, we’re shown the turtles getting created by accident. This time, the ooze is attributed to Baxter Stockman (Giancarlo Esposito), who as a social outcast (which seems to a be running theme with this film), saw his mutagen as a way to create a family for himself. His prized pupil is a fly, who we’ll come to know as Superfly (Ice Cube), but he has a lot of other creations brewing (literally). He’s being dogged by Cynthia Utrom (Maya Rudolph) who heads-up the mysterious TCRI and seeks to gain control of all of the ooze out there and the creations it’s spawned. As for the turtles, their forays in New York put them in contact with April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri), a teenager herself and aspiring journalist. She’s an outcast herself, but hopes to uncover the secrets of Superfly’s crime wave to get her foot in the door as a bonafide journalist, and to gain acceptance from her peers. The turtles view stopping Superfly similarly and hope to have April paint them as heroes in a bid to gain acceptance from humanity and that’s essentially the basis for our story.
There’s a lot different in Mutant Mayhem, but one thing left largely unchanged is that a reporter named April is their connection to the human world. Only now, April is a teen hoping to save prom.
The story moves at an okay pace starting with relatively low stakes and getting progressively greater. We get a pretty good look at our main heroes, but the film doesn’t have much time for the supporting cast. April gets just enough time for us to see why she doesn’t exactly fit in, but we don’t know anything about her homelife, for example. The cast of mutants working with Superfly get almost no character development. They’re just designs with a few one-liners. And as for those designs, much has been made of how some of the characters look. Some of the mutants could use a bit more imagination to their design for my taste, but as for the rest, I’m fine. The film has its own style and none of the humans look especially human. There’s unnatural proportions and odd shapes, which works for the film. The turtles themselves look fairly conventional. Leonardo, especially, looks like he could be from almost any era. Raphael is sporting a skull cap like he did in Rise, while Michelangelo gets an unusually shaped head and braces. Donatello, being the smart one, gets glasses which is kind of boring. Maybe he’ll get contacts later.
Splinter’s design appears to be a mix of TMNT co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. The Eastman influence is very obvious in the flashback scenes.
The voice cast is a mix of stars and newcomers. The turtles are voiced all by kids, or actual teens, and they all do a great job. I don’t like picking on young people, but I will say that Donatello sounds a bit too young for my tastes. With Splinter no longer being from Japan, it basically allowed the film to cast Jackie Chan in the role and he does a great job. Edibiri is fantastic as April, and even though she’s a lot older than her turtle cast-mates, she doesn’t sound out of place as a high schooler. Perhaps more impressive than the voice cast though, is the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. This thing kicks way harder than I bet many would have expected. Superfly’s theme is especially awesome as it has a humming quality to it which conveys a sense of unease. The film doesn’t rely on nostalgia-bait with the soundtrack, though we do get a quick cut of an old song at one point. I do kind of wish they snuck something in for the closing credits, but I get it. Not everything needs to be loaded with fan-service. There are a few instances of licensed music, but the film manages to avoid the most overused of song selections.
The animation for this film is credited to Mikros Animation and Cinesite and it’s probably the true star of the film. For only the second time in the franchise’s history, a film released to theaters featuring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is fully animated. It’s clearly borrowing some from Into the Spider-Verse, but that’s not a bad thing. The characters have a very sketch quality with lots of linework and scribbles over it. The animation itself isn’t as intentionally jumpy as Spider-Verse, while the soft approach sometimes makes this film look like claymation. The action is fluid and easy to follow and the animation is able to allow characters with non-traditional faces to emote as well as they need to. It’s a total feast for the eyes and I could not stop admiring this picture for a moment while I watched it.
No Shredder? No problem! Superfly, portrayed excellently by Ice Cube, is a pretty solid villain. The other mutants, unfortunately, get a little lost in the massive cast.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a visual treat with a great voice cast and soundtrack. Where it falls a little flat is with the plot. As I mentioned before, we don’t get much character development outside of the main four. It feels very crowded as more mutants are thrown in and there’s an element to the plot where it feels like it’s being made up on the spot. Perhaps that’s the intent as the turtles are basically doing the same, but I found it hard to get invested into it. I cared about the characters, just not so much the stakes. The film is able to make up for that to a point by being very funny. The plot somewhat suffers because the first half of the film does feel like it just wants to make you laugh. There’s some terrific pacing to some of the gags where you think the joke is over, and then it continues. Splinter has a very specific fear for his sons which gets to be paid off (and has the benefit of Rogen getting to slip a masturbation joke into what is otherwise a kid’s movie) and the rest of the mutants basically have a line or two designed to produce a laugh.
Mutant Mayhem is an imperfect film, but it manages to be suitably entertaining for its modest run time. Nickelodeon has already revealed plans for an animated series for the property which will serve as a bridge to a sequel so the company has a lot riding on this film. There is a mid credits scene that sets up a future conflict, so all that remains to be seen is if the film is successful enough to warrant another. Outside of the very first film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hasn’t really made huge waves at the box office during its life and Mutant Mayhem is off to a lukewarm start. If you want to see more out this group, then definitely go check it out. Bring your kids! If they’re anything like mine then they’ll love it and already ask you when they can own it. It’s a good family movie, and a sub 2 hour one at that, and those are in short supply. Accepting that this is a new version of the old team intended for kids, I think this film is plenty enjoyable even for adults. It very much feels like a foundational type of movie so I do hope we get to see more out of this team because I believe the best is yet to come.
Hollywood loves to go after us folks who are suckers for nostalgia. We’re easy targets as it doesn’t take much to lure someone in with a touch of nostalgia. Especially today. We live in a world of 24 hour news networks and the internet puts information at our fingertips at all times. The media’s tactics…
Cowabunga dudes, it’s the 30th anniversary of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie! On March 30, 1990, New Line Cinema together with Golden Harvest released a film to theaters that seemingly no one wanted to make. This isn’t that surprising considering when Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird first started soliciting offers for a toy-line…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
Welcome to the first Turtle Tuesday of 2023! 2022 is the year that NECA returned to the Mirage Studios subline of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures it started way back in 2008. When the line was announced to return, it was essentially taking the place of the Turtles in Time figures that had been sold through specialty shops over the past two years or so. These figures would be sold in a similar fashion as it was the small shops that would be able to place orders after being shutout of the more popular movie and cartoon sublines of TMNT. What NECA didn’t clarify at the time was that the Mirage figures (and Archie) would not be exclusive to those places, just available. When the company released Fugitoid earlier this year, it was via Target with the specialty shop places not getting the figure until months later. Since then, more has been revealed and for collectors it’s been a mixed bag as far as the experience goes. Specialty shops were given the figures Renet, Casey Jones, and the Utrom to solicit, but in the case of Renet and Jones, they were getting a variant based on the IDW re-colored issues. Renet is normally clothed in blue and Casey red, but the figures up for order featured a Renet in red and a Casey in gray. Is that a big deal? It depends on who you ask. A Blue Renet would eventually surface as a Walmart exclusive attached to some weird, NFT-like, distribution in which the consumer places an order either online (it has since sold out) or in-store that just gives them a code. They then go home and enter that code into a different website to take digital ownership of the figure at which point the collector can either “store” it or ship it. The turn-around on shipping was promised to be around two weeks, but turned into a month or more for those who participated. Oh, and the figures sold in this fashion (which also included black and white variants of the Mirage Foot Soldier and Shredder) retailed for 40 bucks, five more than the other versions.
Renet is no damsel in distress.
I personally wanted nothing to do with that arrangement. It sounds needlessly complicated, plus the toys are more expensive. Unfortunately, I did want the blue version of Renet, but I’m too stubborn to give in and jump through those hoops so when I eventually found the standard version at Target I just grabbed it. My experience with the character has mostly been in black and white anyway, so I’m not that attached to the blue color scheme, I just prefer it. It looks nicer. For others who grew up reading the colorized version of the old books they understandable have more attachment to the blue costume and I do not blame them one bit that the easy to order version of the character is essentially a variant with the true version locked behind an exclusive arrangement. That is, frankly speaking, bullshit and not the way I think NECA should be approaching this line. If part of the selling point of the Mirage line is to feature it at actual comic shops then it should be those places that get the standard version and send the IDW colors to Walmart. Instead it feels like NECA is admitting that variants of these characters aren’t going to be that popular so they’re making the more desirable version both exclusive and more expensive. It’s not a good look and given that NECA’s reputation has already taken a hit in 2022 thanks to the Loot Crate fiasco, it feels like another self-inflicted wound.
She can also go hoodless, if that’s your preference.
All that aside, Renet is pretty damn good figure. That’s the frustrating part as it would be nice to just voice with the wallet and skip the release all together, but the product is good and it’s not like sculptor Jon Matthews is responsible for how the thing is sold. Renet, if you’re unfamiliar with the character, debuted in issue number 8 or the Mirage Studios run. She is the Mistress of Time and carries the Sceptre of the Sands of Time which, as you probably could have guessed, affords her the ability to manipulate time. This leads to a time-hopping adventure with our heroes which would be adapted in both the 2003 cartoon series and the 2012 one (she kept her blue clothing in both, by the way). Given that there are so few female characters associated with the brand, it makes sense to turn to Renet fairly early in the relaunch to provide some variety out of the gate.
And if you want to go hoodless, she has this little piece to go over her neck that resembles the hood.
The figure arrives in the trapezoid styled box that Fugitoid came in complete with new artwork from Kevin Eastman. Renet stands approximately 6″ in height and feature the unfamiliar color combo or red and brown. Her default portrait features a red hood with a removable helmet that’s also red and accented with yellow. Her actual costume, which is essentially a one-pieced bathing suit, is brown and adorned with numerous clockfaces which are all sculpted details, and not decals. There’s some black linework to make the suit appear to be armored and she has gray shoulder pads, brown gloves, and brown boots. Every inch of this figure is painted and given the numerous clockfaces on the costume it’s really impressive that there’s little in the way of paint slop. If you go hunting for it you’ll probably find a clockface that isn’t perfect, but it’s rather remarkable how well the paint turned out. And I can say I saw three figures at Target and all three looked great. There’s the customary linework as well on the clothing and even some of the flesh portions like the knees and elbows. The only detail I don’t care for is the black line under her mouth which I just don’t think needs to be there. Otherwise, the paint is terrific.
The sculpt all around on this figure is exceptional for what is a mass produced item.
The sculpt for Renet is equally wonderful. The clocks I already mentioned and they’re a nice touch. The clock hands on each face are painted on so I guess if you have exceptionally high standards you can take NECA to task for not sculpting those, but I think they look good. Renet’s face and hair looks very true to the source material which was a bit rugged back in the day. Eastman will readily admit that he felt they had a hard time drawing females in the early days and it was something they worked hard to refine. I think she looks good though and her body certainly isn’t lacking for curves as she’s rather buxom. I like that her legs and arms have some shape to them though like she is strong and capable. This is in contrast to a lot of Marvel Legends where I feel their females tend to be too thin and lacking in muscle definition. Other sculpted details on the figure include wrinkles and creases in the gloves and boots which simulate the look of leather very well. The shoulder pads have sculpted indents in them too. Renet’s unusual helmet is also handled well with sculpted ridges and those weird ovals on the side.
And it’s not just the figure, the accessories are well-sculpted and well-painted too.
This scroll contains basically the only paint imperfections in the set. I can live with it.
Renet also comes packed with the standard assortment of articulation we’ve come to expect from NECA. The head is on a double-ball peg that allows her to look up, down, rotate, and tilt. Her shoulders are ball hinged and she can raise her arms out to the side to a horizontal position and rotate around. The shoulder pads flex so they don’t get in the way much, but I would recommend not rotating all the way around to not damage them. There is a biceps swivel plus double-jointed elbows which is great to see. NECA has, in the past, seemed resistance to double double-hinged elbows on characters without sleeves and I’m glad to see they’ve moved on from that fear. The wrists rotate and hinge horizontally. In the torso, there is a diaphragm joint, but it basically just affords some rotation with no forward and back. You will want to be mindful of doing much here too since the sculpted timepieces could get damaged. Because of that fear, I consider the joint functionally useless. At the hips are ball and socket joints that allow Renet to do splits. The crotch is a soft plastic so you do want to watch out for paint rub there, though mine seems okay. The thigh can rotate on that ball a bit and the knees are double-jointed. There is no boot swivel, and the ankles hinge and rock side-to-side. Lastly, we have the wired cape which is basically part of the articulation. It works very well and will allow you to position it as you see fit. My only issue with it is that it doesn’t always want to sit flush with her chest. The articulation here is serviceable. I wish she had some vertical hinges on her gripping hands and it would have been nice to get something out of the diaphragm joint. I like how the legs turned out though as they look terrific since the only visible joints are the knees. It’s a very clean looking figure so if the articulation isn’t going to amaze then at least it’s not contributing to some ugly cuts in the plastic.
This head looks awesome too, I just wish I had a place for it in my display.
Renet also comes with a pretty solid assortment of accessories. For hands, she has a set of open hands, fists, and gripping hands. For those gripping hands she has a scroll she can hold loosely. It’s brown and a yellow-gold on the parchment and is really the only instance of paint slop on my set as there’s a black blob on the yellow. She also has a dagger which is painted rather well and easily slips into her gripping hands as the fingers are fairly flexible on both. She also has her sceptre which looks terrific. The top of it is a monstrous, clawed, hand gripping an hourglass and it’s incredibly well-painted. The only thing that would make it look even better would be if it had an actual hourglass in it. The bottom of the staff also features another claw gripping a gold ball. Just a really cool accessory. Renet also have an alternate portrait with her hood down. There’s a piece of red plastic that serves as the hood which can be placed between her head and cape and the illusion is well conveyed. Her expression on the alternate head is one of concern which is contrast to the strong, stoic, default portrait. She’s also sporting a mullet, which is amusing. I don’t know if I’ll ever use this other head, but it looks good. Lastly, she has a third head which is actually not of her, but Lord Simultaneous. It’s done in transparent red plastic and is accentuated with some black linework and yellow eyes. It looks really cool as the face is screaming, I just don’t know what to do with it. I wish NECA had included a transparent stand for it, just a tall post, for display purposes. The head can be placed on the figure, but I can’t imagine many using this head for their display in such a fashion.
Never would I have imagined Renet serving as the centerpiece of Mirage shelf. Also, I need another shelf.
Renet the character is not one I have ever been particularly attached to, and the wrong color presentation initially lead me to believe I could pass on this release. Then I saw it in-store and found myself giving in, and that’s because this is a really well done figure. The sculpt is terrific and the paint somehow even better. I love the inclusion of the wired cape and she comes packed with plenty of accessories. And if you find her at retail, she should only cost you around $35. Some places tack on a few bucks, but if you shop around you can probably find a good deal on this one. Ignoring the garbage that is the release model for the blue version, this is worth your while if you want to add Renet to your Mirage Studios TMNT collection. The relative obscurity of the character means that Renet will likely be the favorite release in this line of few, but she might be the best overall figure that NECA has done so far in the Mirage line and that’s some pretty high praise.
The Nostalgia Spot 