Tag Archives: teenage mutant ninja turtles

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…

Keep reading
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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October 1, 2024

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios Rat King

By Joe
RATS! Ahh-ooo-ahhh!

Rats! Is what Charlie Brown would say at the sight of today’s subject, the almighty king of the rats himself, the Rat King. Rat King has always been a favorite of mine when it comes to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles villains. Like a great many, I was introduced to the character via the cartoon series and the tie-in toy line, but like a lot of characters in the world of TMNT, Rat King has existed in many forms. When it comes to the original Mirage Studios line of comics, he was a bit more abstract than he was in the show. He’s basically shown to be a hallucination of Master Splinter – is he even real? Kind of, sort of. He first appeared in Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which seemed to have an on again/off again relationship with what was canon in TMNT. Tales was a series not written by creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird and it basically meant that the two could use it or not when doing the main comic line. Splinter, after his hallucinations have passed, stumbles upon a shuriken-filled corpse that sure looks like Rat King from his appearance in Tales so I guess he was canon all along.

Make some room on your shelf for the king of rats!

Regardless of all of that, Rat King is a fun design and it’s no surprise that NECA opted to include him in their line of action figures. First unveiled at San Diego Comic Con 2023, Rat King has started showing up in both Target and Walmart over the past few weeks and should be readily attainable for most. And if not, expect him to show up at other outlets in the not too distance future. NECA’s take on the monstrous character mostly follows his initial appearance in the Tales story, but also with a nod to his later appearance during the City at War arc of the main comic.

The monster who lurks in the sewers.

Rat King is a figure sculpted by Brodie Perkins with paint by Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo. The box art was handled by TMNT co-creator himself, Kevin Eastman, and is of the standard size and design for the line. His character is credited as a co-creation of Jim Lawson, Eastman, and Laird which probably explains why he was included in the City at War arc. The figure itself stands a tick under 7″ giving him some nice size relative to other figures in the line. His default portrait is the monstrous one from his debut which is a head wrapped in bandages with only the eyes and mouth visible. The rest of his flesh is mostly black save for the bridge of his nose. A tangled mess of red hair pokes through the gaps in the wraps with some of the spots of his scalp featuring hair that’s cropped close to the head. Either he shaved it or he’s fond of pulling his hair out..

The design of the comic Rat King is similar to that of the cartoon, just a whole lot grimier.

The body of the Rat King is a patchwork of green and black. There’s a rough texture to the clothing, like that of a burlap sack, with patches and stitch marks all over. The yellow-orange wraps are found in various places like the biceps, waist, and forearms. The suit covers his entire body save for the hands and there’s a black paint wash over everything giving this guy a real grime to the presentation. He actually looks like a creature that emerged from a sewer. The wraps on the upper body and arms are sculpted-in while the legs are separate, floating, pieces. I assume this was done because the placement of said wraps changed with his appearances in the comics, but they come across as more annoying than anything since they’re prone to falling down. This figure, unlike some recent additions, is not pin-less at the knees and elbows. Normally, this isn’t something I bother pointing out, but with Rat King it’s a bit of a shame because the pin on the left arm goes through the wraps and NECA opted not to paint it. Instead, he has green circles in the wraps which is unsightly in a similar manner to how Hasbro used to make Spider-Man figures in its Marvel Legends line.

“Sorry little buddy.”

Aside from that blemish, the figure is quite a sight to behold. It’s large and gangly in the limbs and really evokes the source material well. I love the broad shoulders and chest which gives him a presence beyond just scary, smelly, guy. He actually looks like he’d stand a chance in a brawl with our heroes, though he’s probably better off relying on his clever tricks and such because the only weapon he’s bringing to the fight is a stick. It’s shaped similar to a baseball bat and it will have to do. He also has an assortment of rats, but I don’t see how they’ll be of much use. They’re all brown rats and he has three of them: sitting, crawling, and grasping. As best I can tell, the grasping rat is intended to grab onto the end of the bat while the other two can be balanced on the figure as you see fit.

Someone felt we needed two styles of fists with this guy.

For optional parts, Rat King has an assortment of hands and a secondary portrait. With the hands, NECA made at least one curious choice. We get two sets of gripping hands with one being tighter than the other. The bat seems to work fine with both, so it’s a little odd, but not as odd as the fists. For those, we have two sets once again. One has the thumb coming over the fingers and the other features the thumb tucked under the fingers. Why two sets? I have no idea. It feels like they had room in the budget and didn’t know what to do with it or something. I’d have taken more rats, personally. He also has a set of open, clawing, hands. These are the most monstrous looking as they’re covered in warts and don’t have any wrappings on them. The alternate portrait is what I’d call handsome Rat King. It more resembles his City at War appearance as his jaw is visible and he has a smile. The eyes are also all white and more of his scalp is visible. It’s a more confident Rat King and it really gives this guy two worthwhile display options: as a monster of the sewers or the more cool and calculating villain he’s sometimes shown to be.

Seems like a bit of a mismatch, but looks can be deceiving.

Articulation for Rat King is pretty standard for the line. A double-ball peg in the neck gives his head nice range in all directions with the exception of range looking up as he has one of those necks that’s angled forward instead of straight up. There are ball-hinges at the shoulder, bicep swivels, double-jointed elbows, and hinges at the wrist. The bulkiness of the arms means the elbows won’t bend much past 90 degrees and even though he comes with two sets of gripping hands, none feature the preferred vertical hinge for melee weapon wielding. There’s a ball in the diaphragm that allows for some forward and back as well as rotation and tilt. There’s a basic waist cut, ball-jointed thighs that swivel and kick forward 90 degrees and go out to the side for splits. Knees are double-jointed, but like the biceps, won’t go much past 90 because of the thigh meat. Ankles swivel and hinge and they work just fine.

Get him, boys!

Rat King should do what Rat King needs to. The wrist hinges are unfortunate, but expected with NECA these days. Finding poses is no trouble, with or without the rats, and the only thing I don’t like about moving this guy around are those damn bandages on his legs. They’ll almost never stay where you want them to and I’m tempted to either glue them or take them off all together. I suppose once he’s on a shelf it won’t matter, but they really needed to be tighter.

Rat King is a great addition to the Mirage line of TMNT from NECA. While I find myself really drawn to the bright colors and cartoony nature of the toon and Archie lines more and more, these gritty Mirage figures feel like they’re more in NECA’s wheelhouse. I’ve always associated NECA with horror stuff and Rat King is a character that plays to NECA’s strengths. He’s also a great design from the books and a well-executed action figure with only a few nitpicks to draw attention to. Should you wish to add him to your collection, he’ll set you back about $37. It’s not cheap, but it feels like a better value than some of the other recent figures we’ve looked at so you won’t hear me complaining.

If you like Rat Kings and comic turtles then we’ve got you covered:

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios Splinter

When NECA started down the path of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with the 2008 release of the four titular characters, it didn’t go very far. After the turtles came April, but as a convention exclusive, and then nothing else. It would be years before their Shredder, which was shown off at the very same convention…

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by Joe

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…

Keep reading
by Joe

NECA TMNT Cartoon Rat King vs Vernon

When I last reviewed a NECA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles two-pack it was the Splinter vs Baxter Stockman set and I referred to it as potentially the last essential set for some. The key word there being “some” as I am not “some” and didn’t consider myself “some” when I wrote that, for there are…

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by Joe

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September 24, 2024

NECA TMNT Adventures Stump Wrestling Leatherhead

By Joe
I reckon he’s here to open a can of Whoop Ass!

We are rolling right along with more reviews of NECA’s TMNT Adventures line of action figures and we’re also staying within the realm of Stump Wrestling. When the turtles wound up in the intergalactic wrestling federation, they didn’t just encounter aliens, they also encountered an old foe. I don’t know how Leatherhead wound up as a wrestler in space when he debuted in the pages of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures as just another Earth dwelling mutant, and I’m not sure I want to know. It’s more fun to imagine how such a thing happened, though I’m guessing it’s more or less in-line with how the turtles ended up doing the same. Either way, if you ever watched the old cartoon and thought that Leatherhead would make for a good pro wrestler then consider your wish granted.

“I’m tagging in, brother!”

Leatherhead comes via the new, massive, TMNT drop that NECA unleashed upon Target. I believe it was dubbed the Cowabunga Collection, but think of it as basically another Haulathon type of deal where a lot of stuff was released in a small window of time. Leatherhead was shipped in pretty substantial quantities and may even still be available online when this post goes live. If not, worry not as it’s expected that all of these Archie figures will see release across online retail spots at some point. It just may mean having to wait for a second production run or something. I think the figure has already been spotted at Walmart as well, along with some of the other non-toon releases that hit Target.

Here comes the fallaway slam!

Leatherhead is packaged in the standard Archie box with new artwork by comic artist Ken Mitchroney. The sculpt was handled by Tomasz Rozejowski and Kushwara Studios with paint by Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo. And right off the bat, I am confused. The artwork depicts Leatherhead with a bandana style black mask on. The figure features some black paint around the eyes, but there’s clearly no mask as there’s nothing wrapping around his head. Most of the interior artwork I’ve been able to find from the comics seems to include the mask. I found one cover, issue #13, which takes place a little later, but seems to include Leatherhead in his wrestling attire without a mask. I’m not enough of an expert to know what is correct, but if they’re commissioning artwork that includes a mask then I think the figure should as well. Maybe this is a cost saving measure to make it easier to do a Mutanimals Leatherhead later? Or maybe the factory was supposed to do a mask, either via paint or some sort of overlay, and it got missed? The top of his head is almost squared-off like you could put something there, but I don’t know.

Leatherhead stands at right around 6.25″ to the top of his head. This is a much shorter, squatter, Leatherhead than we’re used to seeing. The toon Leatherhead, by comparison, is around 7″ tall. This guy is really not much taller than the turtles with only a little more girth. Again, I don’t have comics to compare so I’m just going to assume that NECA got it right when it comes to scale for the Archie line. His attire is pretty simple compared with his usual getup. We have just some purple trunks with white stripes and wrestling boots that are in the same style as what we saw with Cryin’ Houn’. The exposed flesh is all textured with lots of little bumps and such and like most Leatherhead figures the tail comes detached in the box.

If a snake can master the DDT, then so can a gator!

Paint for Leatherhead is a little less intense than it may be on some other characters, but no less effective. Most of the body is a dark green with a slight blue hue to it. The chest and neck region is painted more of a lime green. There’s lots of black linework on the throat to highlight the scales and additional linework for some of the muscles and random scales here and there. The interior of the mouth is painted really well including black outlines at the base of the teeth. There’s a hit of orange for his big, bushy, eyebrows and the trunks and boots are all painted very cleanly. I basically have to hunt for paint blemishes on this figure and even then the only things I can find are a black line here and there that’s maybe just a bit too thick. It’s really an impressive paint application for a mass-produced figure like this.

Or perhaps you prefer the vertical suplex?
Wait! This gator can fly?!

And maybe that’s what makes him expensive, because it’s certainly not the plastic. Leatherhead doesn’t come with much in the box, just two extra sets of hands leaving us with fists, gripping, and open. Why does he have gripping hands? I don’t know because it’s certainly not to hold any included items because there are none. He only has the one portrait, which is a bit of a bummer since he seems to have a pretty expressive few panels in the comics. My criticism of this release is basically the same as Cryin’ Houn’ which is to say I think NECA could do better. They already have tooled some wrestling weapons, so why not stick them here? We could always use more chairs. A break-away table would have been pretty rad, even if no such thing took place in the books. Wrestling figures should be fun to design because of all or the shenanigans that can go on in and out of the squared-circle so it’s disappointing to not see NECA take advantage of suck.

At least he can manage a big boot.

Articulation for Leatherhead is not particularly impressive, though it’s not really a strength of the line either. He does have a double-ball peg for the head, but since it sits so low on the chest there’s not a lot he can do with it. He can look side to side okay as well as down. There’s a little range looking up, but the head has a tendency to pop off of the ball peg when doing so. The mouth does open and close which helps to make the figure a bit more expressive. Shoulders are simple ball hinges which rotate fine, but can’t quite raise out to a “T” pose or come all the way down at the sides of the figure. There is a biceps swivel as well as a swivel and single hinge at the elbow. Leatherhead can straighten his arms out there and just about hit a 90 degree bend. Wrists swivel and hinge horizontally.

Let’s get hardcore!
Oh! That’s gotta hurt!

In the torso, we get a big ball jointed diaphragm. It really doesn’t offer a whole lot. There’s a little tilt there and rotation, but forward and back articulation is so minimal that it’s hardly worth counting. There’s a standard waist twist below that and ball-jointed hips. There’s a little play on the hips as far as a thigh swivel goes, but mostly they kick forward pretty well, back a little, and out to the side. The crotch does feature a “diaper” overlay which will limit the range and keep Leatherhead from hitting a full split, but if you wanted to force the issue you could probably do so. The knees are poor, they’re pegged into the thighs and feature a hinge that maybe bends 45 degrees. The ankle hinges aren’t much better as he can’t go forward and back very far. The ankle rocker is fine. The tail connects via a peg and hinge so it will move up and down and rotate. It also has a heavy gauge wire running through it for a little extra poseability, but it’s a thick tail so don’t expect much.

“And the crowd, angered at the victory, rains debris upon the champ.”

Leatherhead, by virtue of NECA knocking it out of the park with some of their other figures in the line, comes across a little ho-hum. This is a figure for those who have an attachment to the character from this era or for those who just really want to fill out their wrestling TMNT display. The character design isn’t particularly eye-catching and the subpar articulation and lack of accessories reduces the potential fun factor here. Aside from the mask component, the figure is a nice representation of this version of Leatherhead and it’s not the fault of the figure that the design isn’t more elaborate. I am curious to hear what dedicated TMNT Adventures fans think of this release and how well it represents the source material, particularly when it comes to scale. For me, I waffled on weather or not to get this one ultimately deciding to just because there figures to only be a handful of wrestling characters (Ace Duck is coming in 2025) and I want my wrestling turtles to have some foes. At the MSRP of $37, I definitely wouldn’t blame those who just don’t see enough value in the box to take the plunge on Leatherhead.

We have more from NECA’s line of TMNT Adventures if you’re looking at starting a collection or adding to one:

NECA TMNT Adventures Cryin’ Houn’

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again, but no toy collector enjoys hearing the phrase “Walmart Exclusive.” Such was the case for today’s figure, and many others, around the time of San Diego Comic Con. Walmart had their own collector con which is just a marketing way to say that a bunch…

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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

NECA TMNT Adventures Series Slash

As NECA continues to find success with its Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lines of action figures, the company has sought to branch out beyond the usual source material in an effort to give collectors more of what they want and also likely to just keep the hype train rolling. NECA started first with doing figures…

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by Joe

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September 17, 2024

NECA TMNT Adventures Cryin’ Houn’

By Joe
Can the turtles hope to withstand the might of Cryin’ Houn’?!

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again, but no toy collector enjoys hearing the phrase “Walmart Exclusive.” Such was the case for today’s figure, and many others, around the time of San Diego Comic Con. Walmart had their own collector con which is just a marketing way to say that a bunch of exclusives and first run figures would be made available on their website. It got off to a rocky start as the listings went up hours before they were supposed to causing them to switch to “Sold Out.” Naturally, a lot of people took to social media to vent their frustrations, but when the actual, intended, sale time came all of those items went back up. All in all, it actually ended up being fairly smooth with lots of actual exclusives lasting into the weekend. Some even beyond that! I personally wasn’t after much, but one figure I did want to get was NECA’s take on Cryin’ Houn’, an intergalactic four-armed dog from the pages of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures. He wasn’t a true exclusive, just a first available type of deal (you can now buy the figure at Target as well as Walmart), so I wouldn’t have been bothered much had I missed out. I didn’t though, and since we have now examined the Stump Wrestling turtles, it’s time to look at their chief rival in the squared circle.

He’s not so much tall as he is chunky when compared to other figures in the line.
And we’ll throw in a comparison with a pretty standard sized Marvel Legends figure and a 1:10 Super7 figure.

Cryin’ Houn’ debuted in issue number seven of the Archie TMNT Adventures line of comics. I’ve never actually read the issue (I know, I need to get on that), but I’ve been familiar with the character for a long time since the cover image is pretty iconic for the line. Cryin’ Houn’ took on all four members of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the same time because he has four arms. Never mind that collectively the turtles have eight, but we’ll go with it. The TMNT wiki website has him listed at 7′ 16″ which I don’t know if that’s a typo or a goof on how wrestlers overstate their height routinely. He’s also listed at 275lbs so if this beast is really over eight feet tall then he’s actually a bit light for his size. Especially considering how bulky he is.

The sledgehammer is probably a sound strategy, Michelangelo.

Cryin’ Houn’ comes in the standard TMNT Adventures box with new artwork from Ken Mitchroney, only the box is noticeably larger than most. It’s probably similar in size to the Man Ray box, but deeper. Cryin’ Houn’ was sculpted by Tony Cipriano with Kushwara Studios also credited. I need to find out what the role of Kushwara is in the sculpt, I’m guessing they’re responsible for creating the physical sculpt from a digital file created by the sculptor, but I don’t know that for certain. Paint is credited to Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo.

A super kick, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to phase him.
Nor does whatever this is by Raphael.

Cryin’ Houn’ follows the apparent rules of this subline of TMNT figures from NECA. He stands at approximately 7.125″ to the top of his head and about 7.5″ to the top of what I assume are his ears. Cryin’ Houn’ is a dog-like creature that would look at home among the Beagle Boys of the Disney comics, save for the whole four-armed thing. He’s painted all over with liberal use of black lines near his muscles and in the folds of his wrestling uniform. I like the contrasting colors as his flesh, or fur (there’s no fur texture), is a muted brown while the uniform is a bright pink with purple striping. The black and white wrestling boots look nice and he has a logo on his abdominal region that appears to be a skeletal cat. His eyes are outlined all in black which helps them stand out and his face is sporting a cocky smirk. The paint is all really clean with the only problem area being right where the boots meet the calves. It’s very minimal though. I also have a dot of light brown around the chin that’s barely noticeable. Unlike the turtles, this figure does feature pins in the knee, but NECA painted over the pins so they don’t stand out so bad.

A chop block? That seems more likely to work.

Cryin’ Houn’ is a chunky sculpt. He is heavy in the hand and quite a bit of fun to behold. And it’s important that you like the sculpt because it’s the main selling point. He’s not a figure that does much or comes with a lot. The articulation is very basic and also pretty limited. The head is on a double ball joint, but this is one of those characters where the neck is basically coming out of the top of the chest as opposed to sitting on top of the body. That means he can look side to side well enough, but he can’t really look up or down much. And the tilt afforded by the joint isn’t the most useful. He does indeed possess four arms and all four are attached to the body by a simple hinged ball. Rotation is fine at all four shoulders, but the hinge range is maybe 45 degrees at all four spots. There is no biceps swivel and all of the elbows are a simple pegged hinge. Because of how the back of the elbow is sculpted, the figure can’t quite straighten its arms out all the way, but the elbow hinge will allow for a 90 degree bend. And since it’s a peg, there’s a swivel there as well, but the cut of the joint isn’t the prettiest so the swivel has limited use. All of the hands rotate and feature a standard horizontal hinge.

Oh but it didn’t. Now Cryin’ Houn’ has poor Donatello setup for the Doggy Bomb.

The torso does feature some kind of ball joint in the diaphragm, but it’s of limited use. The singlet the character is wearing was done with an overlay so there’s no cut going through it. Forward and back at the joint is functionally useless and really it just provides for a minor amount of rotation, though the singlet will raise up when doing so and might not be as visually appealing. If there’s a waist joint it’s rendered totally useless by the overlay. The hips connect via a ball and socket joint and since the character design here calls for a huge upper body with comparatively tiny legs, the range is pretty limited. He kicks back a little, and forward just a little. I don’t think he can even kick 45 degrees forward. The legs will go out to the side a bit, but not enough for splits. There is a little twist at the thigh for adjustment posing. The knees are double-jointed, but they’re only going to bend about 90 degrees. The ankles are one of the few places not compromised by the sculpt as they’ll hinge forward and back a generous amount with a solid ankle rocker.

The impact was brutal, but at least our turtle friend has a sense of humor about it.

Cryin’ Houn’ is not going to do much on your shelf beside stand there and look imposing. As such, he’s like a true monster wrestler, the sort of big man that really didn’t do a whole lot in the ring either. He’s meant to remain vertical when going on the offensive with punches, elbows, some eye pokes, and little else. He can’t even get his leg up for an effective big boot and his arms can’t cross his chest at all so no chokeslams. I guess he can do a one-handed chokeslam. He’s also not designed to take abuse either so he’s basically one of those big guys who doesn’t sell his opponent’s offense. A tough draw for the turtles.

Now he’s just showboating.

If you were looking for Cryin’ Houn’ to feature some accessories to make up for the lack of articulation, well then I’m afraid you’re going to be let down again. This figure just comes with some alternate hands. In total, he has a set of open hands, fists, clenching hands, hang 10 hands, and a lone devil horns hand and an “Ok” hand. I would have liked to have seen some pointing hands or maybe even thumb’s up hands, but otherwise I’m fine with the selection. What I really miss is an alternate portrait. An angry one would have been nice for when he’s engaged with an opponent or something fun like a portrait with swirling eyes in case you want him on your shelf getting obliterated by a steel chair. Mostly though, I wish we got some more wrestling accessories. How about a championship belt? If one didn’t exist in the pages on Archie comics then another chair would have been nice. Some different refuse for the ring like what the turtles came with, a ring mic, or just some other kind of wrestling weapon. Only hands is just a bit of a letdown.

When all else fails, hit him with the chair!

And that letdown stems in part from the list price of this guy. Cryin’ Houn’ will set you back 50 bucks which is pretty steep. That’s close to the price of a NECA TMNT two-pack. Is there a two-pack’s worth of value in this box? Certainly not. There’s a lot less in the package than what came with a figure like REX-1 and this one is set to be sold in more places than that figure. Plus, just like REX-1, NECA already has plans to reuse the tools created for this figure to do an El Mysterio, a masked version of Cryin’ Houn’ who showed up later in the comics.

Now that’s more like it!

At the end of the day, I don’t have any real insight into the economics of toy production. I can only judge a product like this one against others being sold by NECA or by other toy companies. And that comparison has this figure coming up short. Given the articulation limits and the lack of accessories, Cryin’ Houn’ is a tough recommend at 50 bucks. And that’s coming from someone who is content to own this figure. I think he’ll look good in my makeshift ring display with the other Stump characters, I just wish I didn’t have to pay 50 bucks to add him to the collection.

I may need a bigger “ring.”

We have plenty more reviews from NECA’s TMNT Adventures line of toys:

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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NECA TMNT Adventures Man Ray

Back when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ruled the world, there was a lot of brand synergy between all of the various media being generated by this one mega popular piece of intellectual property. The comics came first followed by a toyline which necessitated the creation of an animated mini series to basically serve as a…

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NECA TMNT Adventures Dreadmon

We’re almost done with all of these NECA Haulathon drops from March and up today is the last of the single-packed figures, the Mighty Mutanimal Dreadmon! Technically, he’s the third figure in NECA’s line of figures from the pages of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures since he’s listed as number 3 on the box. However,…

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September 10, 2024

NECA TMNT Adventures Stump Wrestling Four-Pack

By Joe
Coming to a Monday night near you!

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 I was a kid, we also had an old hunting camp in my family for hunting and fishing. It was purchased by my great grandfather in the 1940s and it was basically a two-room dwelling not much better than a shack, but I was a kid and liked smelly, dirty, places where I could pee off the porch so it was awesome! My dad would take me up on occasion and when he would it often meant stopping at a convenience store where I was allowed to pick out snacks and such. On one occasion, my dad let me get a comic book too and I selected TMNT Adventures #10. Being that I wasn’t a comic reader, I was really confused when I opened it up and saw Raph in an all black costume. It would be years later that I would find out this costume was a wrestling costume the character just chose to keep wearing. It was cool though and something I wanted in toy form almost immediately.

These new Archie turtles share nothing in common with the toon line.

Last summer, NECA unveiled their take on the Stump Wrestling turtles from the pages of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures. They looked great even though they were just early paint masters. No articulation, just sculpts and paint. At the time of showing, I wanted them and figured it wouldn’t be too long, but that wait turned into 13 months. Now hitting Targets, this four-pack features all four turtles from issue 7 in their wrestling attire. No surprise, they look great, but they also feature some surprises too.

Check it out, dudes, new shells!

I think when NECA started wading into the Archie universe most assumed the turtles would come and when they did they would feature some similarities with the cartoon turtles. We were wrong. These first Archie turtles are entirely new sculpts. Nothing has been recycled from those cartoon turtles which are coming up on being ten years old going back to their original release. They have featured some modifications along the way, but it’s always fun to get new stuff. Especially as NECA seems more interested in wading into more stylized interpretations of the licenses they hold. These turtles, which are based on the artwork of Ken Mitchroney (who also supplied art for the box), look like they stepped right off the page. Assuming, of course, that page was illustrated by Mitchroney. Other artists worked on the book and while they all went for a toon aesthetic, they also all had their own signature look. I love Mitchroney’s work so these look terrific to me and the paint applications (credited to Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo) really bring them to life.

“This is some bullshit right here, turtle!”

For these new Archie turtles, NECA turned to the team of Tony Cipriano, Tomasz Rozejowski, and Kushwara Studios to craft the sculpt. That’s a pretty big deal for all involved because these figures will likely be repeated again and again for other versions of the characters. In comparing them to the toon figures, these Archie ones are noticeably chunkier. They stand right around 5.75″ which makes them just a hair taller than the original toon figures. What stands out more is that the proportions are different as they have bigger hands and feet than the toon figures. The headshape is different and the shell is very different. There is more of a horizontal approach to the panels on the shell where the toon guys have a shell composed around a center hexagon. The plastron doesn’t have that little, center, diamond and the limbs are also thicker. I like the toon turtles, but these new Archie figures probably do a better job of really capturing the style of the source material. They’re just fun to look at, and it doesn’t hurt that they have some pretty interesting attire.

“He’s got evil intentions with that sledgehammer!”

But wait! There’s more! This may be a detail more interesting for characters going forward, but NECA is making some engineering changes on their end in a lot of the waves they work on. And as far as I know, these new turtles are just the start. These figures are pin-less at the elbows and knees which also means these turtles also feature double-jointed elbows, something the toon turtles lack. Pin-less joints have become something that toy collectors pay a lot more attention to these days as Hasbro made it a selling point of their Marvel Legends line. Most import companies have been doing them a lot longer. They’re technically not pin-less, the pins just aren’t visible which is the whole point. For me personally, I don’t care that much as long as the visible portion of the pin doesn’t create an eyesore. For Hasbro, that happened a lot with Spider-Man as the outer arm and inner arm are different colors which meant the pin was often red giving him a red dot in the middle of a sea of blue. With the turtles, it’s never been an issue since they’re green so the pin could be green. Pin-less joints can also create an eyesore all their own because the joining piece for the knees and elbows is often cast in a firmer plastic which can lead to discoloration. With these figures, it’s fine and this may be less an issue with NECA since they paint everything. Hasbro does not, so it’s not uncommon to end up with shiny knees or elbows that are a different color from the rest of the arm.

Yes, that is Donatello on the left.

This post is already getting long so let’s get into it since we have four figures to talk about. To no one’s surprise, the base figure is essentially the same across all four turtles with only minor differences. They have different overlays and heads and share most of the accessories as well. It’s also a fun set to show someone who is not familiar with this version of the turtles because they may have a hard time figuring out who is who. Donatello is especially confusing since he’s wearing a mask that’s mostly red with some yellow. His knee pads and elbow pads are also yellow and if you were playing arcade games in the 80s then you know Michelangelo often ended up being yellow for some reason. Leonardo and Michelangelo feature their signature colors while Raph is in his all-black. The all-black looks really cool as it’s a matte finish with blue highlights. The paint across all four is really clean. The only issues I have is Michelangelo has a green dot on the wraps of his right forearm and there’s a little bit of paint rub/stick around Leonardo’s knees related to the kneepads he has on.

These guys are going to pose better than any of your other NECA turtles.

We’ll talk articulation now and my demo figure for this is going to be Raph because he’s essentially a blank body. The others have some impediments, but stuff like Leo’s shoulder pads is designed to move out of the way, but there’s no denying that Raph is going to have the absolute most range because he’s basically naked. The head is on a double ball peg with a ball joint at the base of neck. This gives you basically all of the range you could want at the head. Going back, the head will eventually hit the shell, but they’re still capable of looking up. The shoulders and hips are the same as the toons and have about the same range as well. The new double-jointed elbows look solid and will bend past 90 degrees. Not way past, but it’s an improvement. There is a diaphragm joint and the plastron is glued in around the pectoral region so the bottom will move out of the way. This mostly allows for rotation, but there is a little crunch forward and back. The other joints work as expected. Some of the knees and elbows will probably be stuck at one hinge or another, but I was able to free them all up without heat. The figures feel sturdy.

I guess you have to have a ring bell and fire extinguisher.

A box set of turtles styled around pro wrestling should lend itself well to accessories. For starters, we get some hands. All of the turtles come with gripping hands by default which, unfortunately, have horizontal hinges. For the brothers in green, we get a set of pointing hands, thumb’s up hands, flat hands, and wider gripping hands. For Raph, he has some open, style posed hands and a set of fists. We also get some things for the characters to wield. Up first is a sledgehammer which looks like a sledgehammer. There’s a fire extinguisher that appears to be a new sculpt when compared with past fire extinguishers (we’ve had a few at this point across various lines). The nozzle is hard plastic so it sadly can’t be articulated, but it looks fine. There’s also an ice cream cone, a can of not Pepsi, and a red cup with a straw. I guess this is stuff for the audience to throw at the boys in displeasure?

Lining him up…

Two items that are very much in the world of pro wrestling include the ring bell and a chair. The ring bell features a little dinosaur guy who I assume is the one who strikes the bell in the comic. It’s a very Flintstones-esque design. He doesn’t move or anything so it’s more for show. The folding chair is definitely more of a true weapon. It can open and close if your turtles need a seat, but it’s better utilized as a weapon. It’s a worthy addition and by far the best accessory of the bunch. Of note is what’s not included which would be the signature weapons of the turtles themselves. The larger hands mean that the older weapons from the toon line won’t work quite as well here, but I assume NECA is just delaying a set of Archie weapons until they do more generic turtles. I really only miss them with Raph since he would wear this costume for several issues so a set of sai would have been nice. An alternate portrait for each turtle would have been nice too.

Good God, almighty!

Which takes us to probably the only major negative here – the price. This set retails for $150 at Target. Based on how last year’s Mirage Turtles were sold, it’s entirely possible these guys get broken up into single releases for a wider distribution. Though given that they’re variants, maybe they won’t? I’ve often said that NECA puts a “Turtle Tax” on all of their actual turtle figures. Two-packs typically cost between $55-$60 and single, “ultimate,” releases are hovering around $36 now. The Pizza Club single toon turtles were priced at $38 and included less stuff than a typical ultimate figure. This is now the fourth or fifth four-pack to go for $150 so it’s not a surprise anymore, but it’s a bit of a bummer that these things seem to be coming with less and less.

This Stump Wrestling mini-universe is going to get even bigger!

If the price doesn’t bother you then I can give these figures a hearty recommend. I am having a lot of fun with them in a way I never did with the toon ones. They’re just fun to hold and pose. NECA is also really building out this Stump Wrestling setting with a lot of characters so these guys figure to occupy a space in one’s collection all their own. If you like turtles and have ever been amused by the world of pro wrestling then you’ll probably like these whether you read the comics or not. I’m pretty much all-in and this Archie subline is becoming my new favorite so expect plenty more from me.

Here’s more from the world of NECA and TMNT Adventures:

NECA TMNT Adventures Jagwar

The next figure in NECA’s line based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comic series is a much anticipated one for fans of those books and its spin-off The Mighty Mutanimals. And that’s because this character is making his debut in plastic. Previously, we looked at Slash who has been pretty well-represented in some…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Adventures Man Ray

Back when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ruled the world, there was a lot of brand synergy between all of the various media being generated by this one mega popular piece of intellectual property. The comics came first followed by a toyline which necessitated the creation of an animated mini series to basically serve as a…

Keep reading
by Joe

NECA TMNT Adventures Dreadmon

We’re almost done with all of these NECA Haulathon drops from March and up today is the last of the single-packed figures, the Mighty Mutanimal Dreadmon! Technically, he’s the third figure in NECA’s line of figures from the pages of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures since he’s listed as number 3 on the box. However,…

Keep reading
by Joe

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September 3, 2024

MOTU Turtles of Grayskull Splinter-Skull

By Joe
Things are getting out of hand so here comes Splinter to lay down the law.

A couple week back I bemoaned the Walmart exclusive Krang from Mattel’s Masters of the Universe Origins – Turtles of Grayskull line for being particularly troublesome to track down. I couldn’t even find one in store or online to purchase at MSRP and had to buy it from a third party – on Walmart’s website no less. Contrast that to today’s review of the Splinter-Skull figure (from here on just referred to as Splinter) that’s exclusive to Target. It went up for preorder probably six or eight weeks ago with an actual release date. I missed the preorder, but when release date rolled around there it was online and in-store. No problem.

There’s a lot more sculpted detail than usual with this figure.

Splinter is the third deluxe figure in this line released at Target. The deluxe tag doesn’t really refer to the figure itself, more the fact that it comes with a build-a-figure part for Metal-Boto, the Metalhead Roboto mashup. Aside from that, Splinter is not much different from the rest of the line in that you get a figure and an accessory. The difference with Splinter is while he’s on the MOTU Origins body, he’s a rat so he needs a little added texture. I don’t think what’s here is anything new, there are other beast men in this line that likely benefited from a furry sculpt, but it is new to me.

If you want something closer to a vintage Splinter you can ditch the cape and even the harness.

Splinter is basically the sensei we know and love from TMNT crossed with King Grayskull. That means he gets to wear a harness over his usual kimono and has a big, fur-trimmed, cape and spear. The head portrait seems to very much be drawing from the classic Playmates Splinter as he has a very large nose with his teeth poking out. The kimono is in the same color as it was in the ’87 animated series and is done with soft plastic that clasps in the front. The torso piece is separate from the portion that covers his thighs which is basically done as a belt. The cape is cumbersome, but stays on. It just clips around his neck somewhat loosely, but certainly adds a regal quality to the presentation. Splinter is also rocking some braids this time and the typical MOTU bracers and leg wraps.

Welcome to Hot Rat Summer.

What really stands out though is the physique. We’re just not used to seeing Splinter as anything but a somewhat frail, old, rat-man. This Splinter is positively jacked and it’s almost funny to behold. He looks great and Splinter can be a big, tough, guy if he wants, but it is very different for the character. I don’t know if that is something that will bother anyone, but it’s the first thing I see when I look at him. He’s a big, beefy, rat boy and I’m tempted to display him shirtless for maximum effect.

“Whoa Sensei, have you been workin’ out?”

Splinter actually comes with two accessories: a spear and an extra hand. The extra hand is a left hand and it’s in a clawing pose, I suppose. The default hands are standard gripping hands. The spear has a translucent blue tip and bronze handle. It feels just a tad short and I wish there was an extra half inch to the handle, but it’s fine. The spearhead can separate from the handle and be held like a sword as well, if you so choose. Articulation for Splinter is the same as always with the only addition here being the tail which connects via a hinged ball peg. It’s slightly preposed to begin with so it has limited use. A bendy wire would have been neat, but I wasn’t expecting one either.

Some assembly required.

The other accessories are the build-a-figure pieces. Splinter comes with the torso and shell of Metal-Boto which is welcomed since we previously received the right arm, hips, thighs, and head. Now we have something to connect those stray parts to and the only pieces missing now are both feet and the left arm. He also has a few more weapons expected too. Since this is a modular line, you can assemble the figure with parts from other previously released characters for a Frankenstein approach. Before, that couldn’t be done because the head joint is unique in that it has an action feature. Turning Metal-Boto at the waist causes the red cover for the jaw to move up and down. It’s kind of cool, I guess. The rest of the figure will be included with the upcoming Two-Bopsteady expected in October.

It’s not hard to find some parts to make this guy both complete and creepy.

Splinter is a figure I wasn’t that excited for initially and was only planning on buying to get the Metal-Boto pieces. I’m happy to say I have been pleasantly surprised by what Mattel did here. I dig this look for Splinter and there’s enough of the original character preserved in this version to make him feel familiar as well. His weapon is more interesting than most and his armor pieces have actual utility. I think this figure looks pretty cool with everything on or everything off and even some mix in between. He’s a nice addition to the collection and I’m really looking forward to assembling Metal-Boto in the near future.

And this will continue to go on forever.

Check out more from Mattel’s MOTU Origins Turtles of Grayskull line:

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

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

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

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August 27, 2024

Transformers x Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Party Wallop

By Joe
A collaboration 40 years in the making.

The list of properties the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles haven’t crossed over with gets shorter by the day. When I look back to the 1980s, I view the big action figure lines as Star Wars, Masters of the Universe, Transformers, The Real Ghostbusters, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. TMNT has crossed over with Ghostbusters in the past and we’ve covered much of the current TMNT x MOTU releases from the past year as well. We also know, thanks to the book Rad Plastic, that Playmates wanted to do a TMNT x Star Wars line, but it didn’t come to fruition. They did get to touch on Star Trek, and the turtles have also had releases with the likes of Batman, Stranger Things, Cobra Kai and Street Fighter.

Now the turtles can aid the Autobots in their never-ending fight against the Decepticons. And I guess save Christmas.

Well, scratch another off the list as 2024 is the year that TMNT and Transformers got together to make a baby. A robot baby. Transformers are no stranger to a bit of cross-promotion. That franchise has collaborated with Back to the Future and Ghostbusters as well as current Hasbro property G.I. Joe. Transformers has even collaborated with Pepsi and Target, so that’s a brand that’s pretty much up for anything. It’s actually surprising that it’s taken this long for TMNT to get the Transformers treatment. Hasbro already did some work with the brand via the Power Rangers cross-over so a relationship was already established. Plus, the turtles have their own iconic vehicle to contribute to Transformers just like BTTF and Ghostbusters which is precisely why we have Party Wallop.

Turtle Vans – Assemble!

TMNT fans know that the turtles drive around in a battle van of sorts. In the 1987 animated series, it’s known as the Turtle Van. When it made the jump to toys, it became the Party Wagon though the name was never altered in the cartoon. The two are similar, but different. The Party Wagon is a little closer in style to a VW Microbus without being so close to it that a license was required. The Turtle Van is more of its own thing. It’s armored and boxy while both incarnations of the vehicle include a turtle shell pattern on the roof, twin laser canons, a spare tire on the front with the group’s logo, and a front bumper fashioned to resemble a turtle beak. For the Transformers collaboration, Hasbro (or Takara, I don’t know who makes the call) opted to match the look of the vehicle from the show, while referencing the Party Wagon name via the robot’s name of Party Wallop. There’s a TMNT x Transformers logo on the packaging which uses an image of the Party Wagon, so if you’re confused I guess you have every right to be.

Of course, he’s not going to be to scale with your 1:12 or 1:10 figures.

Party Wallop comes in a somewhat complicated blister package. It’s adorned with licensing art from the TMNT franchise and the Transformers logo across the top. There’s images of the toy in both vehicle and robot mode on the back as well as a call out to the fact that this toy can function as a robot version of each of the four turtles so make sure you go out and buy 3 more. There’s also a call-out to how both franchises are celebrating 40 years this year so I guess 2024 was just the perfect time for this collaboration to happen.

Party Wallop can resemble whichever turtle you please, like the best turtle: Leonardo.

Full disclosure, I am not a big Transformers fan. I think they’re wonderful toys, it’s just a rabbit hole I never went down wholeheartedly. I had maybe one or two toys from Gen 1, and a few from Gen 2. On this blog, I’ve looked at the RED Soundwave, the Super7 Optimus Prime, and the Christmas themed Optimus Prime released in 2022. Of those three, only the Christmas figure is one that actually transforms. I do have the first Masterpiece Optimus Prime and Megatron because when they came out I was flush with money from graduating college and needed something dumb to spend it on. I missed my window to sell both as there are better Transformers toys out there now. All this is to say that I don’t know the ins and outs of Transformers. I can’t speak to how complicated this figure is compared to others or if the quality is noticeably better or worse.

If it needs to do machines, there’s Donatello.

Party Wallop, in robot mode, stands right around 6.5″ to the top of its head and 7″ to the top of its “shell.” The figure is primarily constructed in colored plastic featuring yellow, green, and gray. The painted areas are sparse. There’s the teeth on the robot’s head and the dark green linework on the rear of the shell. The front of the crotch is painted yellow and it’s over a hard plastic that I initially mistook for diecast. The plastron, or chest, is also painted a slightly darker yellow than the colored parts. There’s blue paint for the windows of the vehicle and some other minor paint hits for metallic parts and lights. The paint is all applied well, it’s just limited, but that makes sense for a complex, transforming, action figure such as this one.

When Party Wallop is feeling rude, there’s Raph!

As for the actual look of the figure, it’s pretty solid. It looks like a robotic turtle and the designers did a good job of incorporating some finer details into this figure. The head of the figure by default is just a generic turtle head, though shaped like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle head. The figure also comes with four extra skull tops that feature a colored bandana for each turtle. You simply pop one off to slide your preferred turtle into place. The front belt buckle also folds down and can rotate to display either a blank, gray, circle or a circle with the initial of your chosen turtle. The chest looks like a Ninja Turtle chest, or you can clip-on the front of the Turtle Van for a different look, or have that clipped to a forearm like a shield. The proportioning is good with full formed arms and legs.

And when it’s time to party, there’s Michelangelo.

Aspects of the presentation that don’t work quite as well is just the overall look of the mostly plastic approach. There’s no getting around how a lot of the yellow and gray plastic imparts a cheap look to what is not exactly a cheap figure ($50 MSRP). There’s not a whole lot that can be done to change that though, yellow plastic especially has a tendency to not look premium, but you’re not going to fully paint a transforming toy. It would just be a mess after a few transformations because of all of the parts rubbing together. The shell, which is basically the roof of the Turtle Van, is a little awkward looking too. From the front, it’s fine, but from the side it’s clear that the figure has no back. It’s just an open cavity that the shell is supposed to hide, but since the shell isn’t curved, it doesn’t really accomplish that as well as it could. The one thing that does bother me that probably could have been fixed are the tires. They’re done with hollow, plastic, wheels and they just look like crap. Some actual rubber tires would have been nice, but I’m guessing such things aren’t as common today as they were 35-40 years ago when it comes to a Transformers toy.

Every turtle, robot or organic, requires pizza.

Party Wallop does come with a few accessories. Out of the box, the spoiler of the vehicle needs to be attached along with the front of the van. The nose of the van is basically an accessory too as it’s removable and the reverse side features a pizza pattern. Do robots eat pizza? This one does, apparently. Also included are the weapons you would expect: twin katana, nunchaku, sai, and a single bo staff. The weapons are done in gray plastic with the nunchaku being connected by actual chain links, though they’re made of plastic. They’ve been redesigned to have a more techno appearance befitting that of a Transformer. There’s also storage for the weapons and extra head-toppers on the figure which is appreciated. There are slots on the underside of the shell for the heads and bo (which has two hinges in it so it can collapse into a rectangle) while the other weapons all have tabs on them to slot onto the hips, the sides of the shell, and under the shoulder pads.

There’s storage under the shell for the extra head parts and the staff.
The swords and sai have spots to plug into while the ‘chuks slot in under the shoulder pads.

As an action figure, Party Wallop articulates rather well. I am used to older Transformers that basically swiveled at the head and shoulder and often not much else, but this figure can do quite a bit. It has a ball-jointed head so there’s tilt and some rotation with a little up and down. The shoulders rotate and go out to the side just fine while the elbows bend a full 90 degrees. The wrists can tilt in like a horizontal hinge and they also rotate. There is a waist twist, and the hips go out to the side almost all the way for splits while kicking forward and back a full 90 degrees. The knees bend 90 degrees and there is a thigh swivel. The ankles can pivot in and can hinge up as well, but not back. The shell is basically on an armature so you can move and position that if you need to, mostly for adjustment posing. It’s a pretty damn good spread though and all that’s truly missing is an ab crunch or butterfly shoulders. Having that ankle rocker is a pretty big deal for stances all by itself.

Party Wallop has a twenty step transformation process to convert it into the Turtle Van. For someone who doesn’t buy a lot of these, I found the process almost intuitive enough to transform it without referring to the instructions. And most of the stuff I did have to turn to the instructions for was just to confirm I was doing it right as the joints are all very tight and I didn’t want to break something. It does not feel fragile though, it’s just firm to prevent loosening overtime. There are portions that need to clip together and those can be a pain, but I didn’t find it overly annoying.

If you have some TMNT minifigures (I don’t) in need of a Turtle Van, this might work okay.

The completed Turtle Van looks the part in that no one would mistake it for something else. No one is also likely to confuse it for a non-Transformer as there are some unsightly seam lines on it, mostly on the side windows. I guess that couldn’t be avoided. I also wish the shell lines on the nose of the vehicle were painted like they are on the roof because that piece looks especially cheap. There are also two large hinges on the side of the vehicle that are unsightly, but also somewhat blend in with the texture of the van. In order for the front plate to function as a shield for the robot, the rear windows required peg holes for it to slot into and they look awful. I feel like they could have figured out a better way to do that which didn’t require unnecessary holes. The weapon storage for the sai and swords also switch to the bottom of the vehicle. The sai work fine, but the katana (if you can even get them into the slot properly) stick out of the front of the vehicle a little and it looks silly. They were so close to getting it right with the storage options – oh well.

As a vehicle for your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles display, this Turtle Van won’t scale with anything. It’s way too small to fit in with any prior toy line. I suppose if you bought a set of those World’s Smallest Toys Turtles they would scale okay. It’s almost big enough that you could fake it with some Lego turtles, but probably still a tad undersized for that. That’s, of course, fine as this isn’t designed to scale with anything other than Transformers. Compared with my Christmas Prime, it seems fine so if you are someone who just collects these Transformers collaborations and prefers to display them in alt mode it should hopefully work out okay. I am guessing most will display it in robot mode though as their chosen turtle.

Party on, dudes.

For someone who is not really into Transformers toys, I do like this figure. I think it achieved what it wanted to do in creating a robot version of a Ninja Turtle that transforms into the Turtle Van. The details are all there and the van is fairly on model. If you’re someone who has a whole bunch of Turtle Vans at this point, it’s fun to slot into a collection as it’s bigger than both Hot Wheels versions, but smaller than the Jada one (which I don’t have). Having the robot be able to represent whichever turtle one chooses is a genius idea. It adds a fun factor to the package and also encourages people to buy multiples. At $50 a pop, I don’t have any desire to buy more than one, but it was a nice try on Hasbro’s part. If you’re into these Transformers collaborations then I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t find enjoyment with this release too. And if you’re a TMNT collector primarily, this is a unique item to add to the collection.

If you read and enjoyed this review then here’s some other items you may want to check out:

Rad Plastic

I think it was during the summer of 2020 while spending one of the many days of that year inside and isolated that I stumbled upon a Twitter post about an upcoming book titled Rad Plastic. I believe the tweet was from the account The Toys That Made Us, which is (was?) a Netflix series…

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Transformers R.E.D. Generation 1 Soundwave

Full disclosure here: I’m not much of a Transformers guy. Transformers took off when I was a wee one and I kind of missed the boat. I had some friends and cousins really into it, and I even had a few myself that were gifted to me, but it was nothing I gravitated towards. And…

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Transformers Generations Holiday Optimus Prime

We interrupt our regularly scheduled holiday posts with something very familiar to this blog: a toy review! Yes, we have ourselves another Christmas toy to talk about and it too comes from Hasbro. We already looked at a Star Wars toy at the end of November, and now we’re turning to what I suppose is…

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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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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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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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August 13, 2024

NECA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) Tatsu Ultimate Action Figure

By Joe
“I, Tatsu, now lead! Let any who challenge, step forward…”

NECA’s line of action figures based on the 1990 film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles might be my favorite part of my collection. The figures have just been so good at capturing the likeness of a film that is my favorite iteration of the beloved franchise. Over the years, we’ve received lots of action figures from this line including the turtles, April, multiple versions of Casey, Shredder, and more. It’s a nice selection of characters from the film, but one guy has been missing. Well, NECA kept at it and almost stealthily released the latest addition to the film toy line in the form of Master Tatsu.

Looks like he was worth the wait.

Tatsu, portrayed on the screen by Toshishiro Obata (with Michael McConnohie providing the voice for some reason), was Shredder’s right hand man and field general for the Foot. He was an all new creation for the film as in the comics Shredder didn’t really have a named lieutenant and in the cartoon there was an assortment of characters that would not have fit in with the spirit of that film. There wasn’t a whole lot to Tatsu’s character. He mostly stalked around and grunted often sporting an expression like he just smelled a fart. In short bursts we saw he was tolerant of the children around him, but also vicious in the dojo. He seemed like a tough, capable, guy for the job, but he took Casey lightly and took a driver to the face on account of that. In the sequel film, things went even worse for him and following that he was never heard from again.

Tatsu may lead the Foot into battle, but he’s also in charge of the clan’s laundry.

Tatsu may not have been a superstar in the films, but he played a large enough role that his absence from the toy line has been felt. He’s been the missing link, but despite repeated attempts, it seemed like NECA was never going to be able to get Obata onboard. I don’t know what changed, but obviously something did and now we finally have Tatsu in all his glory. My assumption is this version of the character is based on his appearance in the first movie, though I don’t think there was much difference in his costume for the sequel. The sculpt and fabrication of the figure is credited to some new names for me in May Thamtarana and Trevor Grove. If they do sculpts for NECA’s other lines I don’t know, but it’s always nice to see new names on the box.

Tatsu comes with a bunch of stuff, but he may just look to be at his best when armed only with his fists.

Tatsu stands at approximately 6.5″ tall. His default portrait is that scowl we all know and love from the film and it’s quite a good likeness for Obata. The body is an interesting mixture of sculpted and soft goods. That “flap” over his shoulders with his insignia on the back is plastic, while he has soft goods for his robes which he wears underneath. There’s a sculpted sash across the waist with the usual (for this line) spandex belt for weapon storage. The pants Velcro in the back and I suppose the soft goods could be removed if you were determined, but I’m content to leave as-is. The body is sculpted underneath and he appears to have black pants and boots similar to that of the Foot Soldier, though I don’t think the parts have been reused. The arms are bare so it’s possible you could create a bare-chested Tatsu if you wished, though he may not have any sculpt in his abdomen. I suppose it’s possible the torso is reused from the Shadow Warriors set, though I didn’t inspect it close enough to determine that for certain.

Channeling his inner Steve Blackman.

We’ll jump to the articulation as there’s always a concern there when it comes to soft goods. I’m happy to say that the pants and sleeves are pretty loose-fitting and don’t hinder the articulation much. The head is on a double-ball joint and works fine while the arms can raise out to the side without hindrance. Rotation will be a little bit of an issue with the soft goods, but probably not to the degree where it will prevent you from achieving a certain pose. The elbows are just single-hinges with a swivel and the wrists swivel and hinge. All are horizontal, which is a bummer. There is a joint in the torso, but it’s limited as it is with most of the figures in this line. There’s a waist twist and ball-socket hips which work well for splits, but kicking forward will be a small issue with the soft goods, though it can be worked around. The knees are double-jointed and the ankles hinge and rock very well. He’s pretty much standard for the line. Could it be better? Yes, but there’s nothing surprising here for good or bad.

I kind of like the fan, though I concede it doesn’t really fit his character.

Tatsu does have quite a bit of stuff in the box which is amusing since he didn’t wield weapons in the films. For hands, Tatsu has a set of fists, chop, and gripping hands. There’s also an additional right gripping hand that’s in more of a pinching gesture. It seems intended to work with his fan, of which he has two. One is open and one is closed. The closed fan is a pretty boring accessory since it’s just a black stick with a little white paint, but the open one looks nice. I believe it’s from a Tatsu trading card associated with the movie and was a prop that never made it to screen. I think the same may be true for the red, demon, mask he comes with. There was a version of Tatsu in the 2012 series that wore one so it could be a reference to that. It’s really well painted and looks awesome, but I don’t know what to do with it. Tatsu can wear it if his mug upsets you, but this may upset you more.

I don’t know why this is here, but it looks pretty cool.
Swing and a miss.

Tatsu does have an extra portrait which is him yelling. It’s not great. The scowl face is great and the perfect expression for the character so I don’t know if there’s a portrait I’d have wanted over it, but this yelling one is poor. I’ll never display it. Tatsu can just look grumpy as he wields his other weapons which include a katana and a kendo stick. The katana looks lovely and has a sheath with some ties on it. It also slides into the elastic sash with little effort. The kendo stick is well-sculpted and painted just as well. I don’t know what to do with it, but it looks nice. Tatsu also has a Foot mask if you want to recreate the scene where he passes it on to Shredder for a graduation ceremony. It’s all sculpted plastic so it’s not an actual makes any character can wear. It’s fine, but it’s pretty odd that Tatsu doesn’t come with the one weapon we see him brandish in the film – a knife. At least Shredder came with one, though the handle is so thin that the gripping hands won’t work with it very well.

We’ll just stick with this face.

How do we feel about having Tatsu finally in the collection? Pretty damn good, if you ask me. I think as a figure, it looks great. I was surprised by the soft goods, but they seem to work fine. A more cut-up, all sculpted, Tatsu might have looked unsightly so I get why NECA chose this route. The likeness is terrific where the standard head is concerned and there’s certainly plenty in the box. Is it anything you’re likely to display Tatsu with? That I don’t know since I’m used to just seeing him stand around looking pissed. NECA did a good job, and I credit Trevor Zammit with this, of digging for some worthwhile accessories to fill the box. The fan is a fun cut, and I love how the Oni mask turned out even if I’ll never place it on the figure. It makes me wish we learned a little bit more about Tatsu in the films. We were deprived of him having some crazy alter ego or something.

He may be armed with sports equipment, Tatsu, but I’m betting a driver to the noggin doesn’t feel very good.

If you would like to add Tatsu to your collection, he’s currently shipping out to Walmart. Some people have been able to get him off the website, but I had no such luck. Finding nothing but empty pegs all over my area, a fellow collector stepped in to help so a very special shout out of thanks to fellow Danzig fan @adamoverboard who sent me this figure all the way from Texas. Without his help, I’d still be making too many fruitless trips to Walmart, which I’m still doing anyway since I know other people still on the hunt and I’d love to pay it forward. Hopefully, Walmart gets more stock soon or NECA just puts this guy on their website. Too many people have been waiting a long time for Tatsu and it would be nice to see everyone be able to get him without much fuss. It does leave me wondering though if this is it for the 1990 movie line for me? I don’t need a Charles or Chief Stearns and I’m really happy with the figures we already have. I’m sure NECA will find something to do that will give me pause (there appears to be a new Casey in Foot disguise on the way), but if my collection ends here then I won’t be disappointed.

Some parting words of advice from Master Tatsu: Never lower your eyes to an enemy.

We have plenty more figure reviews from NECA’s TMNT movie line:

NECA 1990 TMNT Movie SDCC Set

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

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NECA TMNT Secret of the Ooze Ultimate Shredder

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…

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NECA TMNT Secret of the Ooze Keno and Foot Soldier

I’ve been spending parts of the past month or so ducking in and out of any Walmart I come across in search of the Masters of the Universe Origins Turtles of Grayskull Krang. You see, it’s a store exclusive and if you know anything about toy collecting it’s that toy collectors hate store exclusives. Especially…

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by Joe

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August 6, 2024

NECA Mirage TMNT – The First Turtles SDCC 2024 40th Anniversary Edition

By Joe
Today belongs to the originals.

As the story goes, one night Kevin Eastman was drawing with his friend and partner-in-comics Peter Laird when the idea to doodle a ninja, anthropomorphized, turtle entered his brain. Laird was so amused by this drawing that he too drew his own take on it. What was done just to amuse each other eventually turned into something that would change both of their lives as well as the lives of many others.

Kevin Eastman was commissioned to do the packaging and it’s appropriately “special.”

In 1984, the first issue of Mirage Studios’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hit shelves and became an indie darling. That comic would go on to inspire a toyline, which beget a cartoon series, and a phenom was born. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, once thought of as a fad, are still relevant today now more than 40 years from their inauspicious beginnings. To celebrate the milestone, NECA partnered with co-creator Kevin Eastman to create an action figure two-pack of those inaugural turtles. Sculpted by Paul Harding with paint by Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo, the set was sold as a two-pack at San Diego Comic Con as well as a presale on NECA’s own website. The First Turtles are just the latest in what are sure to be more celebratory figures to come. It’s on the heels of Playmates’ own Original Sketch Turtles which can currently be found at Target and on Amazon. Those turtles were the more refined, second pass, versions of the characters which bare a strong resemblance to what would be featured in that first comic, where as these originals are quite crude by comparison.

The original Eastman pose, as best as I can recreate it here.

The set sold by NECA comes in a rather large box adorned with new artwork by Eastman. It also features a lenticular slipcover depicting the drawings changing from black and white to color. The rear of the slipcover is almost bare white as the idea here was for convention goers to be able to have Eastman sign or even doodle on the box for them. I suppose that is still possible for other convention appearances to come. The interior box is a fairly typical NECA window box that displays both figures and their accessories quite well. The only thing missing is the actual original drawings which I’m surprised by, but maybe there were legal reasons. This really is a pretty nice display item, but I’m no in-box collector so let’s rip into this one.

And the original Laird pose.

First of all, the figures here are presented fully painted in color that’s basically a match for what NECA did with the Jim Lawson turtles released in 2023. The original drawings were never colored by Eastman and Laird, but since Eastman worked closely with NECA on this release it can be assumed that this is how he and Peter likely would color them today. We also don’t really know how tall they envisioned these guys to be or if any consideration was really given. Eastman probably had input there, but I don’t know if Laird had any involvement (he’s essentially retired after having sold the property to Viacom over a decade ago). Based on interviews Trevor Zammit of NECA has given, it sounds like NECA had some freedom to figure out how to present these two. Eastman’s turtle, which was really more tortoise-like in some respects, was made bigger and chunkier while the more lithe version Laird came up with is shorter and thinner.

These pair pretty well with the Playmates Original Sketch Turtles, which were like the second version of the property.

We might as well discuss the Eastman turtle first since it was the one said to be created first. The figure stands roughly 5.75″ to the top of its head. He may not be the tallest figure in the line, but he’s definitely a big boy. This turtle is quite chunky and there’s a nice heft to the figure. The shell is quite large and another area where NECA had to exercise some creative freedom since the drawing depicted the character from the front. Now, these turtles are not intended to be any, one, turtle from what followed. This isn’t Michelangelo or Raphael, it’s just a ninja turtle. Still, he has some recognizable traits from the turtles that followed. He’s sporting the red bandana along with brown elbow and knee pads and wrist wraps. There is no belt, but there is a tail. The original turtle also did not hold any weapons, but did have nunchaku affixed to both forearms which this figure does as well. The weapons are fused together, but do have real chain links affixed to them. They tab into a slot on the inner wrist band and are quite easy to work with.

A little too Raph.

What really stands out about the first turtle is the portrait and proportions. The head is more egg-shaped with barely any sort of beak. The eyes also feature pupils and areas of green around the eyes are visible through the eyeholes on the bandana. The hands and feet are large and more closely match that of an actual turtle. The hands look more like flippers for swimming through the water while the feet are quite tortoise-like. He has five digits on each limb as opposed to the three and two that would follow. The paint job is truly exquisite as there is tons of black hatch lines all over. The articulation cuts are not very prominent making this figure look almost like a statue. While subjectively many may find this turtle to be crude and even a bit ugly, objectively the figure is nothing short of a work of art when compared with the original sketch.

A lot of Michelangelo can be found in these original designs.

The same is true of the Laird turtle. This one clocks in at around 5.375″ and is far less substantial in mass when compared to the Eastman turtle. Laird’s turtle is similar to Eastman’s in style, but different. There’s a mask in place, but on this turtle it extends over a pronounced beak essentially wrapping around where the nose would be. It does feature the nunchaku on the forearms, but there are no chain links present this time and the straps holding them on are the only other garments on the turtle. There are no pads or belts, and the hands and feet feature four digits instead of five. He still is more turtle-like than the finished design, but the leaner proportions make him a bit more convincing as a ninja, even if still comically implausible. The paint job here is just as good as it is on the Eastman turtle, and despite the smaller size, this figure still has substantial weight to it.

The Lawson turtles were like the advancement of the original Mirage style.

Where the two figures also differ concerns the articulation. The more slender Laird turtle was likely easier to work with and articulates slightly better than the Eastman variety, though neither turtle is intended to be placed in poses many would consider “dynamic.” Both feature neck and head articulation with basic arm articulation. There are no double joints on either figure and the range at the hinge joints is probably going to be less than 90 degrees for most. The bandana knot and tail swivel while the hips are ball sockets with thigh swivels engineered into them. Neither turtle is going to be able to hit a split or kick forward all that far. The Laird turtle gets to have hinges at the knees and ankles with an ankle rocker. The Eastman turtle, who has big stumps for legs, just has one set of hinges below the kneepads. There is basically no ankle to be found on this guy so that’s it.

And, of course, it was the ’87 version of the property that launched a phenomenon.

Safe to say, if it’s articulation that you prioritize in your action figures then these are not for you. I think for most, they’ll pose them like the original drawing and call it a day. And that’s definitely a viable display option, but it would mean ignoring all of the goodies in the box. NECA decided to load this pair up with all of the weapons you would expect and more. That means we get a set of katana, nunchaku, sai, and a bo staff. There’s also a nunchaku with a whirling effect that even spins and looks really nice. There’s a tonfa as well if you prefer more of a Last Ronin vibe. All of the weapons are fully painted and look great. There’s a slight crudeness baked into some of them as well such as a chip in the blades of the katana and the wraps of the bo being off-center. They also appear to be based off of the original sketch of the four that followed which, if so, is a logical choice.

The tonfa has to nod to this guy, right?

In order to properly wield such weapons each turtle comes with an alternate set of gripping hands. The standard hands are an open style and the gripping are just that. They feature horizontal hinges, unfortunately, but at least they work with the clip-on nunchaku just fine. Both turtle can adequately wield any of the included, though aside from those clip-on ‘chuks there’s no weapon storage to be found. NECA also decided to give each figure one optional portrait. The default ones from the drawings are what I would deem stoic, while the alternate ones are angrier and feature exposed teeth, something we would be most accustomed to seeing out of the TMNT. It’s an appropriate alternate, for sure.

A fun set that feels like a real piece of TMNT history. Track it down if that’s something that appeals to you.

NECA’s send-up to the origin of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a worthy inclusion in the year-long 40th anniversary celebration. It’s cool to see both of the co-creator’s original vision celebrated here in action figure form. While they don’t exactly put the “action” in action figure, they make for a great display piece and it’s something that I think diehard TMNT collectors will want to add. Since this was a San Diego Comic Con exclusive, it’s now unfortunately sold out and only available on the after market. NECA sometimes sells remaining stock online and at future conventions, but the likely easiest path to owning this set for those that missed out is to keep an eye on retail. It’s expected that some stores are going to be home to an another version of this set where the figures will be painted in black and white, but with red bandanas and weapon handles. It looks like it’s going to contain everything from this set as well, though the slipcover will probably be dropped. The SDCC version was priced at $70 so expect something similar for the retail version. Listings for it have already been spotted at Walmart, but NECA’s own solicitation did not mention any store by name so I don’t think this will be exclusive to Walmart. Needless to say, I really dig this set for what it is and I think every TMNT collector should try to pick up the version they like best.

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