Tag Archives: shredder

March 10, 2026

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios The Shredder – Worms of Madness

By Joe
Bring on the madness!

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

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

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

He’s imposing.
Shredder clones – assemble!

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

Back dat ass up!

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

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

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

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

Leonardo always wins.

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

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios Elite Foot Assassin

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

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios Shredder Clones

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

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by Joe

NECA Mirage Studios Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4-Pack

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

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by Joe

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January 6, 2026

NECA TMNT 2012 The Shredder

By Joe
Every hero needs a villain.

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

This Shredder is not the screwball these other two are.

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

That’s a lot worse than a rat scratch.

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

He can also get angry. And stabby.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NECA TMNT 2012 Michelangelo

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

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by Joe

NECA TMNT 2012 Raphael

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

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by Joe

NECA TMNT 2012 Donatello

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

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by Joe

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

April 15, 2025

NECA TMNT Toon “Start Shredding the News!” Ultimate Shredder

By Joe
Shredder is back, but is he better than ever?

I am back! If you’re a regular reader then you probably didn’t notice much as far as content goes, but I’ve been out of commission for weeks now due to my laptop crashing. I was able to fix it, but it took some time to get around to it and it’s been a really long time (for me) since I’ve talked about toys. I’ve been going a little crazy not being able to do so because it’s a compulsion – I like to voice my opinions on the stuff I buy. I wasn’t sure where to start when it came time to finally making a new entry, but I figured I should make it as topical as possible and talk about a new NECA drop from its mega popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line and that’s Ultimate Shredder.

Original NECA Shredder on the left with the new Archie Shredder on the right.

Shredder was included as part of the inaugural release for this line way back at San Diego Comic Con 2017. That Shredder was a reworked version of the original Mirage Shredder that was cancelled (but eventually released) and then repurposed for a set based on the 1989 arcade game. Because of that, the likeness to the cartoon version of the character wasn’t perfect, but it was still far and away the best representation of the character ever committed to plastic. Not that the competition was stiff. I didn’t go back and re-read my thoughts on the figure (I think I will after I write this), but I’m pretty sure I was pretty happy with it. It’s a very good representation of the character from the show and it was done with a level of quality we hadn’t seen before. In 2025, the figure is certainly showing some age, but it’s still not even close to being a bad figure. The thing that stands out the most to me when I look at it is just the torso. It’s lacking in articulation and the figure doesn’t have the same amount of paint figures in the line are prone to contain so it looks a little cheaper.

He scales pretty well with the good guys.

NECA seemed to think that was enough to warrant a redo. And since Shredder is THE villain from the show, it makes sense. Revealed last year is this “Ultimate” take on the character. It’s a noticeably chunkier Shredder that largely corrects all of the aspects of the original release that were inaccurate to the source material. And as I theorized when I looked at the recent Archie Shredder, it contains some of the parts used to craft that figure (but probably not as many as you would have expected). And by and large, it’s an improvement. If you opened this review wanting to know if this Shredder is better than the old one then the answer is yes, in almost every way. The real question when it concerns this figure is will most want to spend $35 on another Shredder?

And he fits in pretty well with his crew.

Shredder comes in the Ultimate style packaging designed to mimic the old f.h.e. home video releases. Titled “Start Shredding the News!”, this is a figure sculpted by Tomasz Rozejowski with a credit also going to Kushwara Studios. Paint was handled by the frequent duo of Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo and Susan Capone is credited with tailoring. The artwork for the box was done by Aaron Hazouri and it’s a fun image of Shredder in front of several villains from the show all of whom have been captured in plastic by NECA save for Mr. Ogg (and I’m fine if he never gets a figure). There are product shots of the figure and it’s all pretty nice. I will say that Shredder looks off model to me, but I also don’t save the packaging so it’s not something I care about. And if you enjoy reading the little blurbs they put on the boxes, then you’ll probably get a kick out of this one.

Many plots in 80s and 90s cartoons revolved around a very important floppy disc.

Shredder stands at approximately 6.875″ tall to the tip-top of his helmet. If we bring in the old Shredder, we find he’s closer to 6.5″ while Archie Shredder is basically right at 7″. I do like this height differential when we bring in a turtle. More than the height though, this Shredder is chunkier, thicker, and it fits in better with the turtles than the slender old one. The wraps on the forearms are now accurate to the show as are the spikes on the shoulder pauldrons. The sculpt is all new compared with the original so there’s not much else to compare aside from the paint job and overall approach. That original Shredder had some embellishments on it to give it a gritty feel. Maybe it was a holdover from the Mirage take, but he has little scuffs and marks on his armor. The blades are also painted gray where as they’re white on the new Shredder which is more in-line with the show.

“For book club this month, we have this diary by the Kojima brothers. No, Rocksteady, not the guy who created Metal Gear…”

The paint is what stands out the most as a change. The paint on the original Shredder has cel-shading with grays and blues on the armored parts. On this new Shredder it’s all light gray with white blades. There is no cel-shading. There’s black linework throughout, but not shading like we saw with most of the line. I’ve always been kind of torn when it comes to NECA’s cel-shading. I don’t think it’s bad, it’s just not that ambitious and the black outlines and such seem good enough to me. I do wish this new Shredder had some shading on the helmet, at least. Just a little hit of white in places would help to create that illusion of steel the cartoon often utilized. A black line in the center of the faceguard might have worked well too, but that’s something that may have been tried and was nixed because it didn’t look right. Both the old and new have a soft approach to the chest in contrast with the Archie Shredder which is pretty faithful to the show. NECA reused the abs from the Archie Shredder which isn’t accurate, but it doesn’t look bad. I would have preferred total accuracy, and maybe just not doing the black lines for the abs would have done it, but it’s not ruining my enjoyment of the figure or anything.

“Hah, Donatello, I have the device!”
“Looks like you’re missing an important part, bucket head!” “Blast!”

What is not different across all three figures is the cape and this cape kind of sucks. It’s a very cheap looking material and it’s an almost shiny purple. The cartoon Shredder had a softer purple color to his cape and the way this one bunches up around the neck also doesn’t look great. We should be able to see his neck, but it’s all swallowed up by the cape. And there’s no wire in it. There’s some tailoring around the neck to keep it in control, but it’s nothing extravagant. Capes are a weak area for this line with only Dark Turtle having a good one. It’s a shame that the big villain of the series couldn’t get a comparable one to the Loot Crate figure.

“Mommy…”
“Perhaps mother would enjoy this necklace?”

This Shredder comes with a whole bunch of new stuff as is befitting the Ultimate release model. For hands, we get fists, gripping, open, and a left hand with a tight grip. That hand is designed to hold some of his smaller accessories like a wad of bills which appear to be Shredder bucks and a little blue floppy disk. He also has an amulet which he can hold in that tighter hand or with basically any hand since it’s a necklace. The gripping hands are for use with the Medi-Laser, an item from the first episode of the third season. It’s a gun that heals things, so not exactly a dastardly villain weapon, but Shredder stole it in the episode so that’s why it’s here. And it’s a new sculpt. It’s painted really well and looks pretty nice. The gray piece in the handle is also removable which I think is intentional because it was pulled out in the episode as a way to deactivate the gun. It’s tiny, so don’t lose it, but that’s a cool touch. Shredder also has a yellow book which is the diary of the Kojima brothers. It’s from a season 5 episode and Shredder used the book to summon some dead guys. Shredder also comes with a picture of his mother (aww!) which is in the same style as other pictures in frames we’ve seen before. The image inside is a render of the character and it looks okay, but it’s obviously not a figure and I wouldn’t hold my breath on one coming in the future.

“At last! The power is mine!”
Useful for when he has to shave.

Lastly, we’ve got some extra heads to talk about. Shredder’s default portrait is what you would expect, but it has the creative inclusion of being able to remove the crest. This is useful for the other helmeted head which doesn’t have a faceguard. but has the crest with the completed Eye of Sarnath from the season two episode “Curse of the Evil Eye.” The face sculpt and paint looks nice and the crests swap easily so you can power-up Shredder if you want. It unfortunately doesn’t swap with the Baxter Stockman head with Shredder’s helm and I’m surprised the Eye wasn’t on that Baxter head. Removing the crest on either head allows for the use of the included chef’s hat. I think this is from “Pizza by the Shred” and it’s the kind of silly, goofy, inclusion I like. We need a proper delivery boy Michelangelo now. Lastly, there’s a completely unhelmeted head which is very well done. Swapping heads is, unfortunately, just as difficult with this release as it was with the Archie Shredder. Use heat and I guess try to keep the cape dry if using water. If you wanted to, you could also probably use any of these heads with the Archie Shredder, but I can’t get the head off of mine and I don’t want to heat it up and find out. The hands, at least, are pretty painless to work with. One note with my figure is the right gripping hand is really loose. All of the other hands are find, save for that one. A little coating of super glue on the post could possibly remedy that.

“How ’bout some pizza, dudes?”
“The only currency that matters! Shredder bucks!”

Shredder looks pretty good and he comes with a lot of stuff, but can the thing move? As is often the case with NECA, the answer is “Ehh, for the most part.” NECA never sells out for articulation and this Shredder is basically the same as the Archie one when it comes to articulation. It’s completely pinless and the elbows and knees were lubricated at the factory so they move pretty freely. Nothing is loose or overly tight. With Archie Shredder, I couldn’t get the waist to do anything, but this one has a waist swivel that is unencumbered and moves fine, but it’s just a swivel. There’s no ball peg so all of your crunch is going to come from the diaphragm joint, and like Archie Shredder, it’s not very effective. It rotates and tilts a bit, but it barely moves forward and back. The posing is very basic. It’s better than the original Shredder from 2017, but not by a lot. It did drop the toe joint though, but since that old Shredder has a bad toe joint I don’t consider it a loss.

He’s a pretty handsome devil.
“Get back here with my helmet you imbecile!”

And that’s NECA’s “Ultimate” take on the Shredder. Does it live up to that name? For the most part. It looks like the character from the show which is what the line places the greatest amount of importance on. There’s no real quality control issues and it comes with a lot of stuff for $35. I have seen some people complaining that he doesn’t come with a sword and I suppose that’s valid. If you have been collecting this line for awhile then you probably have no shortage of swords laying around so I don’t personally care, but if you’re going to call a Shredder release the ultimate version then I don’t blame you for thinking it should have a sword. The same could be said of the lack of a communicator, but again, that’s another thing I personally don’t need more of. My only real complaint is just the cape. I don’t like this cape, I’ve never liked it, and I know NECA can do better.

The battle that will never end.

If this release is something that interests you then you can currently find this guy at Target stores. As of this writing, the first online drop has not happened and I don’t know when Shredder is going to be made available there. I found this guy in stores and there were a lot of them. It’s part of yet another Haulathon and this time the figures are being stocked in a cardboard display stand which, from my experience, could be literally anywhere. I nearly missed it in my store because it was in a little opening between sporting equipment and home lighting. Yeah, really odd placement. He was stocked with Dark Leonardo, Hunter Leonardo, and the Mirage Battle Damaged Shredder. This is the only release I personally wanted and I’m not sure how much I’ll be buying from this latest round of releases (a pair of two-packs are expected, Panda Khan, and more Mirage figures), but this is the one I had to have. And since it’s Shredder, I’m guessing it will be the most sought after, but also the most plentiful so don’t panic if you haven’t found it yet and keep looking out. And help each other out, if need be. Good luck!

If you’re interested in more Shredders and all things turtles, we got you covered:

NECA TMNT Adventures Shredder

Conventions are always a great time, even from home, because lots of toy companies use them to show off their latest and greatest. Last year had a number of surprises from NECA where Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were concerned. And some of those surprises were pretty damn big. When those conventions end, it’s always fun…

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by Joe

NECA Cartoon TMNT Accessory Set

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

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by Joe

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February 25, 2025

NECA TMNT Adventures Shredder

By Joe
Shredder and Krang together at last!

Conventions are always a great time, even from home, because lots of toy companies use them to show off their latest and greatest. Last year had a number of surprises from NECA where Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were concerned. And some of those surprises were pretty damn big. When those conventions end, it’s always fun to rearrange the list in my head of what I’m looking forward to the most. Vaulting to near the top of that list was a figure I hadn’t even really considered would be shown: Shredder. Not just any Shredder, but the Shredder from the Archie Comics run of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures.

I have detailed in several of these figure reviews that I wasn’t a regular reader of the Archie run of TMNT. I should rectify that some day, but I had honestly forgotten what Shredder looked like in those books. I mostly saw those issues via the covers and covers alone and on those he was often depicted as he was in the cartoon. In the books themselves, Shredder was usually colored with a blue body suit and purple cape. The metallic portions of his traditional outfit was colored white with blue highlights. This isn’t that unusual as if you take a look at just about any depiction of Wolverine in a comic his claws are often white. We know they’re steel and probably wouldn’t be white in reality, but that’s comic book coloring logic. The cartoon went with gray for Shredder with minimal shading. The toy went with blue. Shredder was all over the place, but this white and blue look was certainly unique and something about it works. It’s classy!

I could have easily filled this with a bunch of NECA Shredders, but most probably just want to compare this one to the toon Shredder.

NECA is rounding out its line of TMNT Adventures slowly but surely. There’s basically a three-issue arc or so in the comic that NECA has focused on. In it, we meet Slash who comes into contact with Krang. They meet Bellybomb and he in turn helps Krang take over Shredder’s body. Yeah, it’s a bit weird, but since Krang is a brain I guess it makes sense that he can take over the body of other people. He doesn’t have to always ride around in an android’s stomach. That’s why if you come cross this Shredder in a store you may be surprised to see Krang on his shoulders. This figure is Krang as Shredder (Kredder?), but NECA wisely included a traditional Shredder head in the box. It’s a little more eye-catching with Krang in place and likely to get some double-takes by people unfamiliar with this depiction. I suppose NECA is taking a risk with impulse buyers in that the Shredder head isn’t front and center, but I’m guessing most people into this line basically know what they’re in for.

“There, there, Krang, you’ll have a body some day. Just not mine!”

This Shredder, or Krang, comes in the same style of window box as other figures in the line. It’s adorned with original artwork by Ken Mitchroney which all features the Krang head in place. The figure is an entirely new sculpt by Tomasz Rozejowski with a credit to Kushwara Studios. Paint is once again handled by the duo of Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo. And following in the footsteps of the Stump Wrestling turtles, this Shredder is pinless. NECA is gradually making the move to a pinless approach with the elbows and knees of its future figures and the results have been smooth. I’m not exactly offended by the presence of pins, but the ones NECA has used in the past can be a bit on the large side. They’re usually good about using the proper color and painting over them when necessary, but there have been a few where they stick out a bit too much (mostly their Bebop and Rocksteady figures, for some reason) so I’m happy to see them gone. Especially because we’re not losing any function, and as we’ll see when we get to the articulation, we’re not running into any new issues either.

Shredder has enough chunk to compete with the turtles.

This Shredder is a much beefier version of the character than we’ve received in the past. The NECA Shredder mold is getting quite long in the tooth. It’s been used for multiple versions of the Mirage Shredder as well as toon and video game versions. It’s not terrible, but it’s a very lanky Shredder. This new sculpt is likely also the base for the new Ultimate Toon Shredder that should start showing up any day now (unless it’s being held back for another Target event that everyone will surely love) and I think fans are going to be pleased. He’s big in the arms and broad in the chest and stands at a commanding 6.75″ and should look formidable beside the turtles. The sculpt has that slightly soft, rounded, but muscled look to it that was featured in the comics. The body is a dark, flat, blue with basically all of the muscles outlined with black. The details on the white portions of the costume are also brought out with black linework with a hit of light blue for shading. The face guard is dark blue with a nice swash of white and the visible portion of his face is a warm flesh tone and the detail work is impressive.

“Ha! You may have fancy black pajamas, but no weapons to save you!”

There’s almost nothing for me to critique when it comes to the presentation, but I’ll do my best. The linework is exceptionally clean. Given the presence of white surfaces, it could have gone off the rails in places, but it does not. I had to hunt for paint imperfections and I found one, black, speck on the right forearm band. That’s basically it. Aside from that, my criticisms are more subjective. There’s a cut in the abdomen that goes through the top of Shredder’s abs. I wish the cut went above the abs instead and followed the rib cage, but maybe that wouldn’t move as well. He also still has a soft goods cape that’s very basic. I’m fine with the choice of soft goods over plastic, but it’s very thin and there’s no wire. It’s basically the same cape as what’s included with the toon Shredder which is a pretty basic cape with just some minor tailoring around the neck. With the exception of Dark Turtle, capes in the toon TMNT line have been pretty weak and that has apparently carried over to the Archie line.

We now have two Archie Krangs. Left is old, right is new.

This edition of Shredder has a pretty solid assortment of accessories. I’ve been reviewing this as if it’s a Shredder, but the actual, default, head is Krang. Krang follows the same styling as the one included with Bellybomb only this time he has an angrier expression. Or rather, he’s showing more teeth and his eyes aren’t as asymmetrical as the prior one. His tentacles are on little ball joints so they can move a little bit, but he plugs onto the ball joint like any other portrait would. Which is why it’s a shame that the Krang that came with Bellybomb wasn’t equipped to do the same. Did they not want to tip their hand that this was coming? Maybe, but that’s a silly reason not to do it. It would have been a great way to get multiple portraits for Krang into the mix so it feels like a missed opportunity. Krang is very well painted though and if you’re only going to have one Krang head for a figure at least it’s a good one. You may notice there are no pictures of Shredder with Krang for a head. That’s because once I swapped heads I couldn’t get the Shredder one off. I actually had the whole neck apparatus come out, and since I’m not going to display this figure as Krang, I wasn’t going to go through the trouble of getting this head off.

This polearm looks like it would hurt.

The rest of the accessories are a mix of obvious and perhaps not so obvious. For hands, Shredder has a set of fists, open, gripping, and fists with his signature blades on them. The blades kind of come and go in the comics and it was pretty important to have an array of hands without them. Still, I do wish we got a set of open and gripping hands with the blades in place too. For the gripping hands, Shredder has this big poleaxe of sorts. It basically looks like a bo staff topped with a bladed head that’s serrated on one side while the other side almost looks like a giant bottle opener. It’s cool though and I like the size. It’s also pulled right from the comic and if this Shredder was only going to have one weapon then they picked the right one. Shredder also has his little banzai tree which, sort of like Slash from the cartoon and his “binky,” is an important item to Shredder so it’s a fun thing to have even if it’s not the most exciting. It’s really well painted and I might just keep it on my desk.

Now Shredder has his own binky.

Shredder features a new articulation scheme in some respects, but the end result is mostly the same as usual. He has a double ball joint for his head, hinged shoulder pegs, bicep swivels, double-jointed elbows, forearm swivel, wrist swivel and hinge, diaphragm ball joint, ball-socket hips, swivels at the hips, double-jointed knees, shin swivels, hinged ankles and an ankle rocker. The elbows and knees both have no trouble bending past 90. They’re a little stiff out of the box, but not exceptionally so and I didn’t have to heat anything with this figure. The diaphragm joint swivels side to side with a decent arch back and a slight crunch forward. There’s no waist articulation, which is odd, but maybe it’s not present because the oversized sash would negate its use. The forearm and shin swivels are really well integrated into the sculpt to basically be seamless. At first, I couldn’t even tell where the shin was swiveling as it’s not at the very top of the boot. The gripping hands also feature vertical hinges, finally, which is great to see. More of that please, NECA. Though it is a bit ironic that the pole weapon doesn’t get much use out of them, but if you want to give him a sword or gun it will work well. Nothing is loose, nothing is floppy, and nothing was so tight I felt like it was going to break. The only joint that’s being stubborn for me is the right shin swivel. The factory generously lubricated the elbows and knees, which I’ve actually never seen before, and it certainly seemed to help.

“You freaks will never have my body!”

This Shredder is just a fantastic figure to behold. I just keep finding my eyes drawn to this guy and he’s been on my desk for weeks because I don’t want to place him on my shelf and then rarely touch him. If this is how the new toon Shredder is going to turn out, then folks are going to be very happy. I doubt it tops this one though because I just love this color combo. The white and dark blue just pop well and in such a different manner than other figures in the line. I’ve grown accustomed to a lot of bright colors with this group, but Shredder proves you can pop with dark. This Archie line has really become the most exciting TMNT line for me. Maybe NECA’s 2012 line will top it eventually, but for now I am far more excited to see what’s next from TMNT Adventures than I am from the cartoon or comic lines. Only thing we really need now are proper Archie turtles. Those wrestling ones are great fun and were maybe the best figures I got in 2024, but I think the people want some more conventional looks as well. I’m sure they’re coming, as are more Mutanimals and familiar foes and they’ll all have a hard time topping this Shredder. If you’re looking to add him to your collection, he’s currently shipping to Walmart stores in the US. Since it’s TMNT Adventures, he should eventually make his way to other places, but if you don’t want to wait you’ll have to brave your nearest Walmart. Good luck!

Check out these other figures from NECA’s line of figures based on TMNT Adventures:

NECA TMNT Adventures Bellybomb

Sometimes, a character design so fun and outrageous can be enough to motivate one into dropping $35 on an action figure. Such was the case with NECA Toys’ Bellybomb figure from its subline of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures based on the characters from the Archie Comics series. Of course, in this case it…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Adventures Mondo Gecko

.The NECA Cowbunga Collection is a content creator’s dream. Here we are deep into October still talking about figures that dropped in August. This time it’s another Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures action figure and it’s fan-favorite Mondo Gecko. Most TMNT fans probably know Mondo from the Playmates action figure line. He also made the…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Adventures Stump Wrestling Four-Pack

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

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by Joe

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January 7, 2025

JoyToy TMNT Shredder

By Joe
Enter the Shredder.

Every hero needs a villain, and for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that number one villain is The Shredder. Setup as a foil in his original appearance, Shredder really became the main guy when the cartoon series was put into development. That show needed a villain who was always around and Shredder was the best choice. Ever since, he’s basically remained in that role with few exceptions so whenever a new company steps in to put their stamp on the franchise they usually bring old Shred-head along with them.

He’s a little Shredder.

JoyToy’s 1:18 scale line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures got off to a strong start with the four turtle boys. Whenever I approach a new take on the property, I always like to start with the turtles and Shredder. If I really like what I’m seeing then I’ll start to fill in my collection. Shredder is the seventh character in this line to go up for order and my fifth addition. Though technically I committed to Bebop and Rocksteady first, but they haven’t shipped (I think I’m going to have to change vendors). I’m fine with that though as when I first saw JoyToy’s take on the turtles I really wanted to see their Shredder. And once he was unveiled it turns out he looks pretty familiar.

These turtles scale much bigger than typical turtles.

Shredder arrives in the same style of box as the turtles. His design is that of a heavily armored Shredder and, for me, it’s impossible not to get 2k3 vibes from this figure. He has huge shoulder pads, a slim face, and a sash fashioned with the red Shredder logo from that show. He’s basically all silver and black and his eyes are little white points in the blackness of his helm. The main difference between the two designs is the texture of the armor of this figure is a bit more realistic and also weathered, to a degree. And his eyes aren’t red. The number of blades on the shins and forearms is different and this Shredder has a fashionable, purple, cape and sash.

And if JoyToy is indeed going to copy that 2003 look of the villain then that’s a pretty good one to copy. I love Shredder in that show and I was really impressed with his portrayal back then so this is a great foundation for this figure. It’s a lot of colored plastic, but there’s a dark wash applied to grime the figure up a bit. There is some white on the sleeves which is oddly placed, but the metallic armor does a decent job of selling the illusion of metal. The one aspect of the presentation I’m a little down on is the height. At 4.25″ this Shredder isn’t much taller than the turtles who stood right around 4″. This puts Shredder at about 6.375′ if he were a real person. That’s well above average and seems about right for Shredder so I guess my issue is more with the height of the turtles, not Shredder.

I don’t know what these weapons are, but they’re pretty gnarly.
Ninja stars? Why not?

Shredder comes with a bunch of stuff, some expected, some familiar, and plenty new. For hands, Shredder has gripping, tighter gripping, and bladed. The bladed hands are fists with his customary blades that are held affixed to a band that slide over his fingers. They look cool, but if you want to utilize his weapons then you’ll have to go with the gripping hands. And for weapons, Shredder has a katana, a short sword, and a pair of double-bladed weapons. The curved nature of the bladed portions makes me think of the weapon included with the Playmates turtles that resembled a hook of sorts, even though it’s a different shape this time around. Shredder does not have storage for those, or technically any weapons. He has a pair of scabbards on his belt, but they have dummy handles that plug into them. The scabbards are a bit warped from the package so maybe that’s why? I’m surprised they don’t just function as intended. There’s also a pair of throwing stars which work well with the tighter gripping hands and Shredder also comes with a disc stand with his own logo on it. Like the turtles, he has a quadrant of a larger display stand. This one is made of white “stone” with a center manhole so it’s different from what the turtles came with which is cool. I’ll need more figures if I want to make a whole base.

He has better range going out to the sides at the hips than the turtles, but kicking forward is still an issue.

Articulation for Shredder is similar to the turtles, but also different. The head feels like a double ball peg and the softness of the helm allows for a decent range of motion. The ball hinge shoulders work fine and the shoulder pads are soft and can be dealt with there. Peg and hinge elbows allow for swivel and 90 degrees of bend. Wrists are ball-hinges, rather than double-ball pegs, and they work as intended. The diaphragm features a ball joint with another at the waist. Between the two, Shredder gets good rotation and even decent forward and back “crunching” motion. It can get a little gappy, but it’s not too bad. Hips continue to be a problem for JoyToy though. Shredder can almost hit a split, so that is much improved over the turtles. He can kick back an okay amount, but kicking forward is dreadful. I don’t know what they’re doing to so severely limit the forward movement of the legs, but they need to correct that. There’s just not enough room between the top of the leg and the abdomen so if you push it beyond what it wants to do you’ll probably separate the figure at the waist. Since it’s a ball joint, this isn’t a scary thing, but it makes it easy to see what’s going on. There is a thigh swivel which does what thigh swivels do. Double-jointed knees go a little beyond 90 and the ankles work well with a hinge and rocker setup.

Shredder triumphant!

I really like this Shredder. It’s not perfect, but for a 1:18 Shredder it’s pretty much all we have in this scale. And that by no means is an indication that I’m settling here. This is a nice figure. The upper body poses really well and you should have no trouble finding some intimidating poses for this figure. And I think it’s a better overall figure than the turtles and I really like those figures. If you’re into this scale and took the plunge on those turtles, then you owe it to yourself to add this Shredder to your collection. He’s great and it makes me want to see more from this line. Maybe I should get the Foot Soldiers I passed on? Can I continue to hold out hope that BBTS will get Bebop and Rocksteady? I’d hate to miss out.

We’ve got more Shredders and more JoyToy Turtles for you to check out:

JoyToy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

It’s been said before and it will be said again: everyone is making Ninja Turtles. It feels like the list of companies not making Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is smaller than the list of those who are. Viacom has not been shy about licensing the brand out to toy makers and it’s reaching a point…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios Karai as The Shredder

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…

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by Joe

MOTU – Turtles of Grayskull Shredder

For today’s latest Turtle Tuesday action figure review, I think we can go a little light. That’s because I am looking at yet another action figure release from the Mattel Masters of the Universe Origins – Turtles of Grayskull crossover line between the heroes and villains of MOTU and those of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.…

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by Joe

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October 8, 2024

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios Karai as The Shredder

By Joe
There’s a new Shredder in town.

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:

NECA TMNT Mirage Foot Enforcer

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…

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by Joe

NECA Mirage Shredder and Foot Clan NYCC Exclusive Set

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…

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by Joe

NECA Mirage Studios Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4-Pack

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

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by Joe

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August 20, 2024

MOTU – Turtles of Grayskull Shredder

By Joe
Shredder has entered the fray.

For today’s latest Turtle Tuesday action figure review, I think we can go a little light. That’s because I am looking at yet another action figure release from the Mattel Masters of the Universe Origins – Turtles of Grayskull crossover line between the heroes and villains of MOTU and those of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. These figures are essentially all the same. They have the same build, engineering, and some even have the same weapons. The differences are mainly in the head sculpts and whatever additional clip-on armor is provided. And for today’s release we are looking at the chief villain of TMNT: The Shredder!

Looks like this Shredder chooses to bring an axe to a sword fight.

When I first saw this MOTU-ified Shredder I wasn’t 100% sold on it. Even though Shredder figures are usually among my favorite in a given TMNT line, this one wasn’t an instant hit. It evokes memories of the original Playmates Shredder, one of the few Shredder figures I don’t care for, with its bare chested approach and black pants. It is, of course, on a MOTU Origins body so it’s not in that ridiculous preposed position of that figure, nor does it have any soft goods or blue metal. Instead, we have Shredder with a full helm and a Shredder/Foot-themed harness across his chest with a blue, plastic, cape affixed to it. The promo images made the armored pieces on his arms, shins, and helm look very plasticky. I am happy to say that in-hand it looks noticeably better.

I suppose he looks menacing enough.

That’s not to say I’m in love with what I see here. And it starts with the helm. Mattel gave Shredder a full helm that basically just has some eye holes in it. The eyes are red with black surrounding them. The fins atop the helm are a little different in that the two going around the helm connect in the back, which looks fine. It’s textured like crudely smithed steel with impact marks and the rear of the helmet which surrounds the head has a texture similar to that of movie Shredder, specifically Secret of the Ooze just without the gold coloring. That stuff is all fine, but what I don’t really care for is the face. Mattel sculpted the mouth area like it has an actual opening mechanism. And the shape of that mouth is like that of a crudely made robot with a severe underbite. I don’t like it and it makes him look like a dinosaur to me.

This duo looks rather formidable.

The rest of the figure is mostly fine. The pauldrons at the shoulders and forearm guards basically slide on while the shin armor clips on. It’s all snug and stays in place and it all has the same color and dented texture of the helm. What I don’t like is that the blades which go on the backs of Shredder’s hands are part of the forearm piece. You basically position that armor so that it appears to be affixed to the back of his hand. It probably would have been too cumbersome to have the blades slide onto the hands, but I think this is the rare spot were uniquely sculpted hands were called for.

I’m told this is a Horde Crossbow.

And speaking of hands, Shredder features one gripping hand and one open hand, which is pretty unique from my limited interactions with this line. It’s just like the old Playmates figure with the right hand for gripping and the left open and I’m guessing it’s a nod to that figure, because why else would Shredder need an open hand? For slapping jerks? The gripping hand is useful for his included axe accessory. It appears to be new since it has a 2003 era Foot symbol stamped into it. It has a serrated edge and looks pretty nasty, though it’s just the one color which matches the other “metal” parts of the figure. Shredder’s other weapon is a crossbow which can snap onto a forearm. It’s a dark gray with what I guess is a dragon head in the center of the bow itself? There are two tabs inside the apparatus that look like they have a purpose, but I don’t know what that could be. It’s possible this weapon is reused from some other release that had a clip-on arrow or something for it that is not included here.

He has enough articulation to, more or less, achieve his “classic” pose.

Articulation for Shredder is exactly like the other figures in the line so there’s not much to discuss. The added armor at the shoulders doesn’t hinder movement there, nor do the armored parts on his forearms and shins. The ankle rocker continues to be a sore spot with this line. I felt it worked fine with the turtles, but most of the other figures have more of a swivel than a true ankle rocker. The angle of the pin going into the foot isn’t severe enough for it to function properly which is a bummer. Shredder at least has fairly wide feet relative to his body and even with the added weight of the cape coming off of his back he’s fairly painless to stand, unlike Skeletor which has fallen over multiple times since entering my shelf space.

“You guys look like a couple of dorks.”

This Shredder is fine. Nothing really spectacular going on here or anything unbecoming of the character. It’s a fairly unimaginative take on Shredder and the few, subtle, changes made to his design to fit into this MOTU aesthetic offer little. The axe accessory, while a little unusual for Shredder, is at least fine and looks pretty violent. The crossbow kind of sucks though. At the end of the day, I bought this figure because he is Shredder and my Turtles of Grayskull collection is large enough that Shredder felt like a necessity. He’ll likely end up being one of my least favorites though and I’m holding out hope for a Super Shredder deluxe figure to make up for this one (Note: since writing this Mattel has shown off a mutated, snake, Shredder for this line that might be interesting).

Shredder vs Splinter. The cosmic ballet goes on.

Check out these other reviews from Mattel’s Turtles of Grayskull line:

MOTU – Turtles of Grayskull Deluxe Sla’ker

It’s a Tuesday, and I have a new Turtles product to talk about, so let’s make it another Turtle Tuesday! And today brings us the second in the line of deluxe Masters of the Universe Origins – Turtles of Grayskull line exclusive to Target – Sla’ker: The evil cybernetic snapping turtle! This is Slash, the…

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by Joe

MOTU – Turtles of Grayskull Skeletor

When it’s come to the Turtles of Grayskull line by Mattel, I have mostly stayed in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles side of the pool. I have all four turtle boys plus Sla’ker, who is more Slash than Faker if you ask me. The one exception has been Mouse-Jaw, but the classic Masters of the…

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by Joe

MOTU Turtles of Grayskull Krang

Two words that are much hated in the toy collecting community are “Store Exclusive.” Add a “Walmart” in front of that phrase and you get something akin to a worst nightmare. The world of “collectibles” has always relied on same degree of scarcity. The 90s saw a collector boom across various mediums which created a…

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by Joe

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March 9, 2023

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios Shredder Clones

By Joe
From the pages of Mirage Studios come the Shredder clones!

NECA and Target’s Haulathon event which has seen a vast assortment of product dumped onto shelves recently was not content to limit the products to just the cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Far from it, as an assortment of comic book based characters were also released and today we’re going to look at the first of 5 such releases: the Mirage Studios Shredder clones. In the original comic series, Shredder was unceremoniously killed off in the very first issue. He was never supposed to be a reocurring villain and really no one likely expected to even do a second issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but the comic sold well so another had to follow. Co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird had no trouble coming up with other adventures for the boys, but the popularity of the Shredder character meant that he had to come back in some way. And he would, eventually, but first we got the clones.

“You ready to mess shit up, little buddy?”

Issue #20 of the original run saw the debut of the clones when they showed up and killed off the Triceraton warrior Zog (more on him in the coming weeks), though their full debut came in the following issue when the turtles actually did battle with them. The clones were essentially an attempt by the Foot to bring back the Shredder, but something must have gone wrong. They needed a few tries, and it would seem this trio of clones represented those first few failed attempts. One such clone is known as the Claw Shredder. A figure of him was released as part of the latest round of Loot Crates and it was basically a slender Shredder with big claws for arms. The other two clones are the subject of today’s post as they’ve been released together: Multi-armed Shredder and Mini Shredder or Shrimp Shredder. I don’t know if they necessarily have official names as these clones have now appeared in multiple iterations of the franchise and even in toy form. I suppose their official name isn’t important and all you need to know is we get a big, beefy, version of Shredder with four arms and a small Shredder. These two have been released as a two-pack and come in an oversized version of NECA’s Mirage packaging featuring new artwork by Kevin Eastman.

He may be little, but don’t turn your back on him.

I suppose we can start with the Shrimp Shredder, my preferred name for him. He’s more like an accessory, but since the box does say “Shredder Clones” with a plural, we can treat him like a figure. And this will be quick because there isn’t much to him. He stands at roughly 2.75″ to the top of his helmet, but his true height would probably add another half inch to him. That’s because he’s in a permanent crouch since his legs are prepositioned and lack knee articulation. His color scheme is like that of the standard Mirage Shredder so he has a red outfit with brown wraps at the forearms, waist, and boots. He looks like a tiny Shredder with the only difference being his skin tone is an earthy brown and he has red, glowing, eyes from behind his mask. He has just a single blade on each hand as opposed to two and features no spikes at the shin. The figure has the cutomary black line work this line is known for and it’s all really clean. The helmet and other “metal” parts have a luster to them. They’re painted in silver with hits of light blue to create the illusion of metal and it looks really sharp. It’s really impressive how much detail is packed into such a small figure and the lack of paint slop is to be commended.

“Destroy them, my clone! Take no prisoners!”

Where the little guy does come up short is in the articulation department. He’s not a slug figure, but he also doesn’t do a whole lot and it’s very similar to the baby turtles we saw in the recently released accessory set. The head is on a ball peg, but it’s pretty large relative to the creature’s body so turning it will result in it coming into contact with the spiked shoulder pauldrons. He can look down, but he can’t look up, and there’s really little in the way of nuance posing. The shoulders rotate and hinge, but they can only go so far because the elbows are bent. Eventually, the spikes on the hands will hit something when rotating and the pauldrons obstruct the figures abilito raise its arms out to the side. The hips are ball-jointed and they’re mostly unrestricted. They do kick out to the side more than forward, but his bent knees mean he wasn’t going to do kicks anyway. They pivot and can go forward and back and are easily the most accessible of the joints. The ankles feature hinges and an ankle rocker. He’s not really going to do much. You get a few options in how the arms can be positions and the legs being bent means you can’t really take advantage of all of the articulation down there. He can basically crouch, sit, kneel, or be on one knee. He’s not too hard to stand, easier than the baby turtles, so mostly he’s fine. If they could have given us knee and elbow articulation that would have been nice, or maybe just swappable legs and arms? He gets the job done though and he’s not the main attraction.

“See, dude? I told you this would be way more fun than fighting.”
Is that you, Goro?

That’s because the big guy is. We’re talking about the multi-armed Shredder, or Shiva Shredder in some parts, and he’s definitely the more impressive of the pair. Standing at around 6.75″, he’s the tallest in the Mirage line so far, or would be if he wasn’t being released at the same time as Zog. More so than the height, he feels big because he’s very broad in the chest and he needs to be because he has four, beefy, arms that need to attach to that trunk. Everything about his design is broad as even his head is practically square-shaped compared with the more rounded features of Shredder. His chin is squared-off behind the metal plate and the color scheme for this guy is the same as Shrimpy. Also similar to the little guy is that he only has one blade on each hand, but since he has four hands he has the same number of blades as Shredder. The paint is all the same so same flesh color, same approach for the steel, and so on. And like the little guy, it’s all applied exceptionally well and is mostly free of defects. The actual spikes on hims are quite firm and pretty sharp too so keep this one away from your little ones. I kind of have a “thing” for designs with four arms so I am especially taken with how this guy turned out. He’s going to look awesome in your display whether you have a ton of releases or just a few.

This guy might require both swords to take down, Leo.

Now when it comes to the articulation there’s a lot to work with, but this clone still feels like most releases from NECA. The head is on a ball peg and there’s also a ball peg in the base of the neck. He gets good rotation there with plenty of room for nuance posing. He can look up only a little due to the shape of the helm, but he can look down rather well. There’s nothing in the torso and I’m guessing that’s because of the arms. Each one is articulated as expected. We get a shoulder hinge with rotation at the peg insert, there’s a biceps swivel, double-jointed elbow, and wrists that swivel and hinge. Rotating the arms is a bit cumbersome because they conflict with each other or the pauldrons, but it can be done to a certain degree. The elbows, even though they’re double-jointed, really only give 90 degrees of bend because the gauntlets on each arm ride up so far and the biceps on this guy are pretty massive. You can rotate at the gauntlet as well which I like because it allows you to keep the forearm blades in-line with the hands. There is a waist twist, but it’s just that and doesn’t feel like a ball-joint. The hips are the standard ball hips and this big boy can almost do full splits as a result. He doesn’t kick forward very far, and the legs tend to go out to the side more than forward. There is rotation at the thigh and the knees are double-jointed and can bend past 90. There is no boot cut, but the ankles hinge and have a rocker which works well enough. In terms of stuck joints, I had a little trouble with the left knee, but I was able to get it going without having to resort to hot water or a hair dryer. Some of the biceps and elbows were a bit stubborn, but again, nothing that required heat. His a big, brawler, type so I think the articulation here is good enough and he stands easily so that’s a plus.

“My arm! The filthy reptile slashed off my arm!”

When it comes to the accessories, this set is somewhat lacking. Unless you consider the little clone an accessory, then I guess it’s better. He has no accessories, but the big guy gets some extra hands. He has, in total, two fists, two clenching hands, two gripping hands, and two chop hands. I guess if you wanted four fists you’ll be disappointed, but I’m good with the variety. He also comes with some battle damage accessories. In the comic, these guys were made up of some weird worms. They’re like a hive mind and whatever they eat they can replicate, or something. It’s not important, but when they get damaged the purple worms become visible which is pretty gross. What you can do is pop off each forearm just behind the gauntlet, which is why you get a swivel point there. With that removed, you have a cap that can go over the stump which makes it look like a bunch of purple worms are visible. And for the discarded limb, there’s another purple cap that can attach to the that making it look like the worms are spreading out from it. It’s pretty cool and certainly helps for those into toy photography or want to stage a fight on their shelf. The pieces work fine and look fine as well, but that’s it for accessories. Is it pretty slim? Yeah, but I don’t know what else we could really ask for. I guess more battle damaged parts if that’s your thing, but I’m more or less content with this.

Including the original Shredder with them highlights the strides NECA has made in painting the metal bits.

The Shredder Clones two-pack is another very specific release and one that unfortunately is limited in value by the presence of a Loot Crate figure. If you have the Claw Shredder then you probably want these guys and if you don’t then you might not see the point. The good news is, the Claw Shredder really hasn’t been that sought after and aftermarket prices haven’t been terrible. They might go up now that these guys are out, but he’s certainly easier to get than Scrag. I have that figure so I wanted this pair and I’m happy to have them. I’m also happy to say that they came in at $40 which doesn’t seem terrible. With online retailers charging $38 for Casey Jones and the Utrom, $40 for this pair feels like a pretty damn good price. That’s the Target price though and when this gets sent to specialty retail he may very well cost more. We’ll have to wait and see. For now, this pair is only available at Target stores for the month of March and it remains to be seen if it will be refreshed or if it was a one and done affair. If you’re into the Mirage stuff and you come across this one then I definitely recommend it. You can never have too many four-armed figures and apparently you can never have too many Shredders.

Here’s some more TMNT goodness that might interest you:

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios Utrom

We’ve become so accustomed to having the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in our lives that the name of the franchise has almost lost all meaning. Well, maybe not all, but I feel we mostly have lost sight of how ridiculous a concept this franchise is. And it extends to other characters in the franchise and…

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by Joe

NECA Cartoon TMNT Accessory Set

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

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by Joe

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July 12, 2022

NECA TMNT Secret of the Ooze Ultimate Shredder

By Joe
“There is only one thing next…”

For the first time in a long time we went a week without a blog entry here. That’s because I took a much needed vacation and didn’t schedule anything. I’ll probably be backing off a little bit as we dig deeper into 2022 since there’s a certain holiday I need to get crackin’ on if I don’t want to be chained to this blog in December. I’m still committed to reviewing all of the fun toys I buy and today we’re going full Turtle Tuesday with a look at the latest from NECA Toys: The Secret of the Ooze Ultimate Shredder!

NECA’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles family of products has expanded exponentially over the past few years, but the movie line has been far more steady. The company has pretty much exhausted product for the first film which means it’s time to dig a little deeper into the 1991 sequel The Secret of the Ooze. The Secret of the Ooze is definitely one of those films many loved as children, but upon a revisit in adulthood it doesn’t hold up particularly well. That’s largely due to the shift in direction to pivot away from the gritty format of the comic book and more into the Wacky Town antics of the cartoon that really launched the TMNT franchise into the stratosphere. Many parental groups took issue with the violence of the first film and supposedly actress Judith Hoag wasn’t really onboard for it either nor was Jim Henson whose Creature Shop provided the sophisticated costumes to bring the turtles to life. Golden Harvest and New Line Cinema were able to convince Henson to return for the sequel (he would unfortunately pass away before the film’s release) while Hoag was replaced with actress Paige Turco and the sequel was fast-tracked for a 1991 release to capture on the fad before it burned out.

Considering we never see his face in the film, NECA really didn’t have to go after the likeness of actor François Chau, but it did and as usual completely knocked it out of the park.

A less obvious recast for the sequel was actor James Saito in favor of François Chau. I don’t think there was any real reason for such a decision beyond the sequel being put together quickly and some actors likely having other commitments. Like Saito, Chau is just asked to put on a costume and emote while the voice of the character was actually dubbed later. I guess neither was able to do a menacing Shredder voice. As a kid, it was not a surprise to see Shredder return for a sequel since he was the big bad guy in the cartoon, but when viewing the film franchise on its own it’s a bit surprising to see him back since his defeat at the conclusion of the first film seemed pretty final. The guy fell off of a building into the back of a garbage truck. Maybe the fall didn’t kill him, but Casey Jones (who also didn’t return because some felt his character was too violent) activating the crushing function of the truck surely would have! No matter, this is a story about mutated turtles after all, so Shredder is back and he’s got a new look to show off as well, hence why we need a proper action figure.

There’s a lot of old with this figure, but also some new including something I would not have expected.

Ultimate Shredder is the fourth “Ultimate” release in NECA’s movie line and just the second release for The Secret of the Ooze at retail, not counting the Super Shredder variants. Tokka and Rahzar were released as a web exclusive while the actual Secret of the Ooze turtles were put up for preorder earlier this year and are not expected to arrive until early 2023. Considering how turtle-heavy so many lines associated with TMNT have been, it’s pretty cool to see Shredder be the first one out of the gate here and not just once, but twice! This Shredder follows the release of the same character from the first film and utilizes quite a few parts from that figure. And even though Shredder just basically storms around a garbage dump screaming about babies for most of the film, NECA still crammed the box full of accessories to make this a worthwhile release.

Of course, the biggest change is in the design of the helmet.

Shredder comes in the standard five-panel window box packaging that’s largely adorned by photographs of the figure itself. He stands right around 7″ to the top of the head and beyond that if you factor in the entirety of the helmet. Shredder is depicted in his film-accurate costume which featured a purple suit and swanky new helmet. Like the first Shredder, the paint job on the costume has a slight shimmer to it which bounces light very nicely. The black belt returns with the fabric strip over it to make it sort of functional if you want to stash a weapon or accessory in it. The arms and legs are reused from the first Shredder release as are the bladed bits on the forearms, shoulders, and shins. What’s new is obviously the head as this Shredder helmet featured serrated blades while the helmet portion has gold-tinted panels affixed to it (I think this was supposed to make the helmet look repaired in the film). The faceguard is the same, but underneath that is Chau’s likeness and it’s far more beat up than previous. NECA did a fantastic job with the painting of the face and for trying to piece together what Shredder’s face was supposed to look like now given that we never see it, we just see hints of the damage in the few closeups we get. Also new is the torso which is a bit of a surprise. I’m not sure why they felt the need to sculpt a new one, but I’m not complaining.

Shredder and his super form(s).

Shredder looks good placed among the few other Secret of the Ooze releases we have. He’s well-sized and the appearance of the figure looks very screen accurate. There isn’t much to find fault with from an aesthetic point-of-view, but I can find something. The blades on the helmet look like they could be angled down a bit more to better match the film and the box cover image. The only other very minor criticism I can levy at this one is that when viewing the figure from the side it’s clear there’s flesh-colored plastic in use inside the torso, which should be purple. The shoulder pads basically hide this when posing the figure and it’s only something one notices when inspecting the shoulder articulation, but this is a review and it’s something I noticed. Otherwise, I am quite satisfied with how this guy looks.

“Mama!”

And it’s good that I’m happy with the visuals here because they do come at a cost. NECA always prioritizes the aesthetics of the figures in this line when it comes to adding articulation. The company usually includes a lot of joints, but it’s loathe to cut into the sculpt in some places if it will result in the figure looking “off.” And since this Shredder is very similar to the past one (and the Foot Soldier), it has the same limitations. The head is pretty locked-down because of the cumbersome helmet, but he can look down and gets some side-to-side rotation, but he doesn’t really look up much or feature much tilt. The shoulders are able to come out to the side fine, but the shoulder pads have to be worked around when rotating them. The elbows are the same, funky, double elbows NECA uses from time-to-time that few seem to like. As is always the case with these, they looks passable for sleeved characters and Shredder’s loose fitting attire works even better than some others. The joint features two hinges with a swivel point at each one so he can bend past 90 degrees. The wrist also swivels and all of the included hands have a horizontal hinge, a bummer when it comes to gripping hands and melee weapons. The waist just features a twist with nothing in the torso, the biggest shortcoming this figure has. The legs are the old-model ball-hinge that pegs into the crotch. They feel surprisingly loose on my figure and he can nearly do a full split. There’s a thigh twist there that’s rather tight with double-jointed knees below that. On both legs, the lower hinge is pretty tight, but I got both to move with just force. The ankles are hinged and can pivot, though the feet are pretty small so he doesn’t always stand as well as I’d like him to in more dynamic poses, but that’s what stands are for.

Remember Shredder, stupid babies need the most attention.

The articulation is passable and this particular Shredder really doesn’t need to do much. As mentioned before, he doesn’t really do anything in the second film. He doesn’t fight the turtles or even handle a weapon. Still, if you prefer to do something more dynamic with the figure it’s certainly possible it’s just not great at doing sword-swinging poses or two-handed poses beyond just holding a staff in front. It was something more frustrating with the first Shredder as I tried to recreate certain shots from the first film from the rooftop scene, but with this figure I’m left feeling more content and satisfied and I’m glad that NECA didn’t cut a diaphragm joint into this guy.

This version of Shredder doesn’t call for many accessories, so of course he’s going to get this flower.

Even though Shredder has little to do in the film, NECA still stuffed the box full of accessories. For starters, Shredder’s faceguard can be removed and it just snaps into place. It’s a little tight and tricky to get in there, but once seated it looks great and it’s not going to move on you. The figure also has a removable cape which comes attached in the box. It has that wonderfully, ludicrous, swirly pattern from the film and it affixes to the figure via a wire that just wraps around the shoulder pauldrons. It’s a clever way to do it and less messy and bulky than the first film Shredder though I fear that I won’t be able to get it back on as neatly as the factory so I have yet to actually take it off (just watch one of the many video reviews likely floating around if you’re curious). Plus, I like how the figure looks while wearing it. In addition to those attachments, Shredder has three sets of hands: fists, open, and gripping. As stated previously, they all feature a horizontal hinge which is a bummer for the gripping hands.

This is the only accessory he truly needs, though unfortunately, his grip isn’t very tight on it.

NECA made sure to include some fun accessories as well giving Shredder all that he needs, and even some stuff he does not. Shredder comes with a TGRI canister of ooze, the same canister we’ve seen come with all of the Secret of the Ooze releases up to this point. I guess it didn’t cost much to include again, so I now have a bunch of these things. He also comes with arguably the only accessory the figure needs: the last vial of ooze. This is from the scene in the night club when he pulls out a little test tube of ooze to threaten some woman with. This is the ooze he eventually consumes to becomes Super Shredder. It can be stored neatly in the fabric belt or held in a gripping hand. A word of caution though, I placed one of the larger gripping accessories in the figure’s hands overnight which stretch them out a bit and now the vial doesn’t fit well as the grip is too loose. The hand might return to its tighter shape with time, but if you want to display Shredder holding this, maybe keep one hand reserved for it. In addition to that he comes with two weapons. These may not even exist in the film, and if they do, they were held by other members of the Foot or seen in the background. The first one is a short sword that fits into a sheath. The sheath could be wedged into Shredder’s belt, but it’s pretty bulky and would probably look dumb. The sword is the same one that was included in the Shadow Warriors pack making it a katana, per Splinter’s flashback, though it doesn’t really look like one. The second weapon is a large spear. It’s different from both the Super Shredder release and first film Shredder. It looks fine, but again, the character never used this so I don’t plan to display him with it. Lastly, we get the mutated dandelion that Freddy delivers to Shredder as proof of the existence of ooze. It’s fun and appropriate, though I can’t see myself displaying Shredder holding a massive flower.

NECA’s Ultimate Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze is an excellent release in what is arguably the best subline from NECA. Just about every release in the movie line has been a knockout and Shredder is no exception. Considering the company is running out of character’s to do, this one feels like an essential figure for the collection for those collecting the figures from The Secret of the Ooze. And we know it won’t be the last as we have the turtles to look forward to and Keno has been confirmed as well with a full reveal expected soon (probably at San Diego Comic Con). I was able to import my figure for this review from a seller on AliExpress as it showed up in China first, but it’s also currently shipping out to Walmart stores in the US with some already finding it. Like Ultimate Casey Jones, it appears to be shipping in frustratingly low numbers for now, but hopefully that changes or NECA just makes it available on its website for those who can’t find it (the company has yet to do that for Ultimate Casey Jones). Even with shipping factored in, the total I paid to import the figure was less than what I would have paid if I had purchased it from NECA’s webstore, so if you want it and don’t want to stalk Walmart, keep your eye out. You’ll have to wait a few weeks for delivery in the US, but it is convenient. The price has likely climbed though and so far the secondary market is rather high here in the US making Walmart potentially the preferred option. It’s a pain, but hopefully everyone that wants this figure is able to find it for retail. Resist the scalpers and good luck!

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

June 30, 2022

TMNT Loot Crate Series 2 Vol. 3 – Unfriendly Shredder Crustacean

By Joe
At long last, it’s Crate #2! Crate #3!

It was October 12, 2021 when I last posted a review of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themed Loot Crate. It did not go well, but the review closed with some optimism for the future. I made mention of the delays impacting the latest series of TMNT themed crates from Loot Crate and NECA, but I made sure to praise the communication we were receiving from Loot Crate about said delays. 2021 was full of them, so it wasn’t exactly a surprise these things were impacted as well. All a supplier can do is keep the consumer informed and offer a reasonable timeframe for delivery. And Loot Crate was doing just that, until it wasn’t.

When that October review concluded the expected ship date for Crate #2 was December. If you look at the title of this one, you will notice this is not a review of the second crate. We still don’t know when that is coming, but we have Crate #3! The last update we received from Loot Crate was via the company’s Twitter account on January 25th. I’m shocked the Tweet is still up, but in it the author acknowledged the frustrations of fans, but shared some good news: the items for crates 2 and 3 were in the warehouse and should ship in February! Hallelujah! Obviously, that didn’t happen since this post is going live on the last day of June. I can handle a missed shipping date, what I don’t like is being lied to. Those items clearly were not in warehouse and if the social media person simply made a mistake it should have been corrected, but that didn’t happen.

Loot Crate’s Twitter handle has basically gone dark since March. Rumors have swirled around the company since that there have been layoffs, missed payments, and pending litigation. A Facebook user claiming to work at a factory in China even shared an image of a bunch of apparent product for Loot Crate that was allegedly being held hostage at a factory because Loot Crate had yet to pay for it. I don’t know how much of that is true, or if any of it is, but I do know that their customer service has gone to shit and when responses have been made to emails (and for a while, customers were getting automated responses that the recipient’s inbox was full) they’ve been coming from reps that seem to represent Costumes.com and NECA.

I know this is what everyone wants to hear about, but we do have to talk about the other “loot” first.

Which brings us to NECA. NECA and Loot Crate are both owned by Joel Weinshanker, but they aren’t the same company. Whenever NECA’s social media has responded to questions from collectors about where their Loot Crates are they’ve been quick to point out that fact. And it’s not a lie, but NECA obviously knows more about the situation than we do. And when it comes to consumers conflating the two, they only have themselves to blame since they partnered with Loot Crate to offer exclusive figures. And the two companies are clearly intertwined since my NECA Mousers, purchased directly through NECA’s website, was shipped to me by The Loot Company. NECA can scream from the mountaintops that they’re separate from Loot Crate and be absolutely correct, but there’s no denying that this relationship with Loot Crate is hurting their reputation just as much as it is Loot Crate.

The packaging for the Claw Shredder fits in with the recently released Fugitoid.

I couldn’t talk about this crate without talking about the drama surrounding Loot Crate, but with that out of the way, how about we actually talk about this crate? Like the title says, this is actually Crate #3 which is the Mirage Studios themed crate. Like last year’s movie themed crate, this one is rather small compared with the 2020 crates. It seems clear to me now that rather than raise the price on these that Loot Crate opted to put fewer items in the crate. That’s fine by me so long as the figure isn’t compromised. Unfortunately, that was not the case with the first crate as the Danny Pennington figure is the worst NECA figure I own. It was bad and that crate felt like a real rip-off. I suppose the counter to that is “If you hated it so much, why don’t you sell it for more than 50 bucks?” and the answer is “Because I’m too much of a completist.” The movie line is rather small and the Danny figure is a unique character as opposed to a variant, so it is what it is.

Hey look! A pin! Normally these crates come with a little card that details the contents which probably would have told us which turtle this is supposed to be. This crate did not.

Let’s get the extraneous stuff out of the way first. This crate comes with two standard items that have appeared in every crate thus far: a pin and a shirt. The pin is of everyone’s favorite turtle. I say “everyone” because the comic turtles are indistinguishable from each other and the pin is of just the turtle’s head. Yes, it’s probably lifted from existing art so if you really must know which turtle the pin is of that’s probably do-able, but I don’t recognize the image to that degree and a cursory look through the first few issues of the comic didn’t turn up anything for me.

I would very much like to wear this shirt, but it’s a bit snug.

The shirt is more specific and features Raphael with the comic logo above. The word “Turtles” is printed in white with an image of Leo’s blood-soaked sword within it colored in red. The shirt is fine, but it lacks the creativity of some of the others we’ve seen. Loot Crate also sent me a size small shirt despite the fact that I ordered a medium. This seems to be happening to a lot of people and an informal Twitter poll turned up several instances of people receiving a size smaller than what was ordered. I have yet to see the inverse, which is annoying because collectors could at least swap with each other if that was the case. A few people did receive what they ordered, but they appear to be in the minority for now. I can at least pull off most small sizes, but this one definitely feels a bit tight especially at the neck so I don’t know if I’ll ever wear it. Maybe my daughter, who has a newfound love of the 2012 show, will welcome a new Raphael “nightgown.”

That explains the fit. It seems this is a common problem that Loot Crate is unlikely to remedy.

Lastly, we have a gimmick item in the form of an Utrom fanny pack. If you’re not familiar with the Utrom, they’re basically Krang in other iterations of the property. By printing the image of the alien on a fanny pack it simulates the wearer being controlled by a brain alien much like the robot bodies inhabited by the Utrom. It’s impractical in this day and age to sport a fanny pack, but cute, I suppose. Would I buy any of these items if sold separately? No, but I’m at least willing to wear the t-shirt so long as it fits. The rest is going in a drawer or something.

Ok, this I like for the sheer lunacy of it.

Which brings us to the main attraction: Claw Shredder. Shredder was rather famously killed-off in the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Despite that, he would be made the central villain of the cartoon and film series of the franchise and basically every version of the turtles that’s followed. Naturally, TMNT co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird felt they needed to bring him back and they first did so by way of a trio of failed clones. Claw Shredder, or Crab Shredder, is one of those failed clones and he’s pretty grotesque looking. He’s basically Shredder, but with an elongated face and arms that end in massive, hideous, claws. His legs are also mutated as well and he’s just an all together abomination. The figure comes in the new style of comic packaging we first saw with Fugitoid so in-box collectors should be happy to see he’ll fit in with that release and the ones to come. It’s numbered “LC01” which could signal an intent for future Loot Crate figures. It also ignores the previously released First Appearance Shredder Loot Crate figure which I suppose might bother some.

He looks like a hugger.

Claw Shredder stands at approximately 6.625″ to the top of his head and slightly taller depending on how high that middle tine on the helmet rises above the dome. The figure is a mixture of old and new parts. The torso, shoulders, and biceps are reused from the previous Mirage Shredder figure while the hips and thighs are from the updated Turtles in Time Shredder and Stern Pinball Shredder that featured the newer style ball and socket joint. What’s new is obviously the head which is largely distinguished from regular Shredder by the elongated mouth guard. The lower part of the legs and feet are new as this character has oversized feet wrapped in brown bandages and then the most noticeable difference are the monstrous, clawed, forearms. In addition to all of that, the shoulder pauldrons also feature new, longer, spikes.

Who needs Foot Soldiers when you have 3 Shredders?

I’m happy to report that this figure looks and feels like a standard NECA release. The plastic and the figure as a whole has a nice weight to it, there’s a good mixture of painted parts and bare plastic, and the presentation is just very good. I love the comic deco that NECA does which includes a lot of black linework, dots, and cross-hatches on the “metal” parts. It looks like the character from the comic and the paint applications are all very clean. There were some stuck portions due to all of the paint, namely the ankles, but no joints are cast in the wrong color so when some paint flakes off it’s not leaving behind a mis-matched color. Interestingly, the lower part of the shirt that hangs over the crotch and part of the thighs is a floating piece and isn’t locked down. The left and right forearms appear to be exactly the same, but the source art appears to illustrate them as being identical too. One could argue this figure should be more spindly, or thinner, than it is when compared with the comic, but I don’t think it would work very well as an action figure if done that way given how large and heavy the claws are.

I really like the scale of the Mirage line. These turtles are just the perfect size and all of the figures to follow have been sized appropriately.

Being that this figure shares a lot of parts with previous Shredder figures, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that it largely articulates the same way. Basically, the only joint this one omits is something at the wrist since it doesn’t really have wrists. The head is on a ball and the neck is independently articulated via a swivel and hinge at the base. It’s a little tricky to work that neck joint, but it does allow the figure to look up and down an acceptable amount. The shoulders are standard ball-hinges. The pauldrons will obstruct some movement, but you get what you expect there. The biceps swivel is intact and the elbows are still double-jointed. The elbows feel a bit gummy on my figure so I would caution doing too much there. In a rare feeling for me, I actually wish NECA had used those odd double-joints we sometimes see (like the first movie Casey) so we could get a swivel point there as the actual claws can’t rotate at all. The big, “thumb” claw does feature a hinge so it can kind of pinch though it’s not big enough to grab a turtle by the throat or anything. The waist swivels and on mine it was partially separated out of the box, but seems fine now. The legs are the previously mentioned ball and socket and you get some twist there along with the usual forward, back, and out to the side motion. They are very loose and floppy though similar to the cartoon Deluxe Foot Solider which is a bummer. Fortunately, the giant feet help alleviate any standing issues. The knees are double-jointed, and the ankles hinge and pivot. Initially, the ankle rocker didn’t really want to do much on my figure, but a little persistence cured that. It’s always a bit stressful to force the issue with a joint and even more so with these exclusive Loot Crate ones. I probably should have played it safe and hit the joint with some hot water, but I got away with it and the pivot points work well now.

Raph, meet the lord of the crab people.

The articulation is solid and about what I expected. I do wish his legs weren’t so floppy, but as I said above, he stands just fine. I only run into stability problems if I try to position his claws too close together as their weight will cause the figure to topple. And while the shoulders, biceps, and elbows are fairly tight, there are “slip points” in the shoulders and elbows that won’t hold a pose due to the weight of the claws. It makes the figure a bit finicky to pose, but the nature of the character’s design was always going to limit the posing somewhat. I wish there was a way to position the claws via a swivel somewhere other than the biceps, but otherwise I’m not crying out for more articulation here. Or at least, no more than I would a standard NECA release as I would like them to switch to a ball-peg system in the torso to allow for some more forward and back posing.

Claw Shredder is thankfully a much better release than the figure in the last Loot Crate. It doesn’t feel like a downgrade from a standard retail figure and the only shortcoming is the complete and total lack of accessories. However, this isn’t a figure that really needs accessories which is partly what makes it an appropriate selection for just such a thing. The figure looks good in or out of the box, the quality is there, and it’s not just a repaint. Does it and the included “loot” add up to a $50 value? No, not really, but that’s apparent from the beginning as these sorts of things rarely feel like they’re worth the money. The good thing is if someone truly feels they’ve been had, the figure and items can probably be flipped for a small profit. I don’t know if this particular figure will be as in-demand as some of the others, and I suspect this time around more people ordered multiple crates with the idea of flipping some than before, so don’t expect to send your kid to college via Loot Crate. Ignoring the terrible consumer experience that has become Loot Crate, I am satisfied with what I got here. Hopefully we get a chance to add the other Shredder clones to our collections via a different delivery method. That four-armed clone would definitely make for an interesting figure.

I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get this new figure onto this crowded shelf, but somehow I did. I don’t think it can handle any more so I guess it’s time to build another shelf.

Don’t confuse that sentiment for me breathing a sigh of relief or anything. I am still owed two crates plus a bonus figure and I won’t feel any sense of relief until all of those are in my possession. We have seen the figure for Crate #2, Armaggon, and the bonus figure, Scrag, show up in the hands of some people in China and at least one comic book store in New Jersey located suspiciously close to NECA’s headquarters. That at least tells me that those figures are done and hopefully in Loot Crate’s possession, but it’s also possible they haven’t left China. Again, no one is saying anything and we only have one Tweet from January saying that stuff had been received into the warehouse. We have yet to see the figure for Crate #4, Dark Turtle, in anyone’s hands. Is that the figure supposedly being held hostage by the factory? Considering that’s the figure I was most excited about, I’m going to remain anxious until we have some confirmation it’s actually done and manufactured as that one did not make an appearance in the NJ comic store like the rest. Maybe that’s because the owner of the store, or an employee, kept it for themself? That’s possible, but at this point nothing would surprise me. I just want my stuff and I look forward to a day when I can say that I am done with Loot Crate and I really hope NECA is too.

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