POP! 8-bit – Raphael

Picking your favourite Ninja Turtle is like picking your favourite child – that is, people will judge you for it, but you should definitely know who it is in case you’re ever in a Sophie’s Choice situation. Who's mine? Well, as you may have guessed by the title and picture, Raphael is my favourite of the TMNT.

As a kid, I spent many hours at my friend Rohan’s place playing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game for the NES. If you have never played it, rest assured that it is a thoroughly frustrating experience. While not of the same difficulty as Battletoads, the game is still routinely unfair to the player – a deadly combination of the developers thinking they were making a game to suck quarters and flat-out bad design.

That said, we did have a lot of fun with it; we were too young to realise that some games were simply poorly made and we were both Turtle-obsessed. It had a cool soundtrack too! So when Funko announced that they were making the Turtles as part of their 8-Bit line, I thought I’d pick up Raph here as a tribute to those more innocent days.

Raph has a nice chunky feel. Though made up of more individual pieces than the average regular POP, the 8-bit figures have a real heft to them, and don’t feel quite as delicate as some of the newer POPs doing the rounds. While not an exact match for the look of the game, the style is great, too – it feels like a callback to the vinyl art toys that Funko was aping when it first came out with the POP line. I could see a few people who aren’t necessarily fans of the POP look picking this figure up.  

There’s not a lot of paint; most of the figure is simply cast in the appropriate colours. The only real paint is around the mouth and on his sais. It’s a little sloppy, but taken as a whole I’m quite happy with it.

In a world where there are literally hundreds of Turtles figures available, this isn’t particularly essential, but it is an amusing novelty. In my case, it’s a purchase driven out of a misplaced sense of nostalgia. Now if only it also glowed in the dark...    

Turtle Monster Pin Set – Junkship

Like many of you, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were a huge phenomenon during my childhood. They’re still popular now, but it really was a whole different level back then. The action figure line alone was huge, spawning all manner of wild spin-offs which spanned both awesome and totally crap – sometimes at the same time.

One of the more inspired was a Universal Monsters/TMNT crossover range of action figures. Two waves were released, covering The Mummy (Raphael), Dracula (Donatello), Frankenstein’s Monster (Michelangelo), The Wolfman (Leonardo), the Metaluna Mutant (Raphael), the Invisible Man (Michelangelo), the Creature from the Black Lagoon (Leonardo) and the Bride of Frankenstein (April).

To celebrate those heady days of the early 90s, Junkship have recently released a series of pins based on the first wave of those figures – The Mummy, Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster and The Wolfman. I missed the initial release of these pins last year, but fortunately they were re-released last month.

They showed up today, and they are excellent. Though I like all of the designs, my favourite is possibly Donatello. I think the combination of purple, green and black works most effectively out of all of them, with the glow in the dark elements adding a nice touch. Following close behind is Raph, who’s primarily glow-in-the-dark, which makes him an automatic favourite.

I don’t really collect pins as such, but last year I put together a battle vest – and along with the patches, quite a few have found their way onto the denim. So when I came across these pins combining my love of Universal Monsters and the Ninja Turtles, I knew that they were a must-buy. You can get your own set here – but be fast. After the success of the initial run, I imagine they’ll sell through pretty quickly.

Mikey TurtFLYtle -- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Series: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Company: Playmates

Year: 2015

Mikey TurFLYtle begins his buzz around the city to lure in Kirby Bat. Buzz! Buzz! With a homemade fly costume created from pizza boxes, etra tube arms, and glove hands, he flies around the city skyline. Buzz! Buzz! Attached to Raph's Glider, Mikey really puts himself out there to help the team, but he could be a sitting duck... or in this case, flying bat bait? Buzz! Buzz!

I love all four of the turtles, and Raphael has been my favourite since I was a little kid. So sometimes I forget how cool Mikey can be – it’s easy to write him off as the comic relief in a show that’s already fairly heavily based around humour, but he gets up to some genuinely strange stuff. Back in the ’03 series he spent some time as the Turtle Titan, which was one of my favourite episodes of that incarnation. And now he’s appeared as the TurFLYtle, an inspired piece of weirdness is apparently based on an episode of the current series, and is pretty darn cool as a toy on its own.  

SCULPT AND ARTICULATION

Mikey looks more like his Battle Shell incarnation than his original fig, which gives him a closer resemblance to the cartoon.He’s sculpted with a big goofy smile on his face, which is very Mikey. The base body looks to be the same as the Battle Shell toys, but I haven’t invested in them myself so I can’t confirm it. 

However, to befit his new status as TurFLYtle, the back of his belt has been cut off, and replaced with a yellow piece which attaches his four extra fly hands. His wings are detached in the box, and aren’t held in particularly tightly; but careful popping them off though, as you don’t want to damage the wings or the tabs that hold them in.  

Articulation is as follows:

*ball-jointed neck

*swivel-hinged shoulders

*swivel-hinged elbows

*cut wrists

*swivel-hinged hips

*swivel-hinged knees

It's standard for a regular turtles, really, though it’s a little more restricted given the giant wings and extra arms.  

While my figure didn’t have any issues, a friend of mine also bought his and the legs were super wonky, similar to the LARP Turtles that came out late last year. He also suspected that Mikey had been misassembled, with two left legs. You can’t check this in the store unfortunately, as both of his legs are concealed behind cardboard in the box.  

ACCESSORIES

Mikey comes with a headpiece (cool design, but a little small and prone to popping off), his four extra arms (all moulded in soft, Monsters in My Pocket-style plastic and unarticulated) and pizza-box wings. He also comes with two sets of his regular nunchaku, which is a nice bonus.  

PAINT

Playmates performs better in this category than usual, though it’s more so by absence than by brilliance. Playmates have made the wise decision to have the bandanna moulded as a separate piece, just like they did on the ’03 series. This means they don’t have to paint it, which cuts down on a lot of slop potential. As another plus, the wing decos are stickers, so they’re nice and crisp—you don’t even have to apply them yourself! Hooray!  

On the minus side, the prototype pic on the back of the box indicates that a couple of apps were cut from the final production piece, which is a shame – the hand bandages are the most obvious ones. However, it doesn’t affect the overall enjoyment of the figure; the design is fun enough to do the heavy lifting.

OVERALL

I got the four turtles for my birthday back in 2013 and loved them, but while most of the accompanying figures have been perfectly adequate as kid’s toys, they really haven’t served too well as collector’s pieces. Good sculpts with crap articulation and crap paint have really frustrated me, and Rustin Parr from over at OAFE.net had a few words to say on the subject back in February. I definitely share his frustrations with the line, though often about different figures.   

Fortunately, Mikey TurFLYtle is easily one of the most fun figures I’ve bought since those original four – it’s a huge pleasure to add him to the collection. He’s not perfect, but I would definitely suggest buying him. He seems to be packed one per case, so snap him up whenever you come across one.     

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Tiger Claw

 When I first started picking up the TMNT figures back in mid-2013, the villains were kind of hard to track down. There was a (rubbish) Shredder, a Foot Soldier (adequate) and a Kraang trooper (good but imperfect). The four turtles themselves dominated the store shelves, which is to be expected. But there’s no point in having them if you don’t have any villains for them to fight!

Fortunately things have picked up a little since then, and so today we look at one of the more recent additions to the line – Tiger Claw!

NB: I’m yet to watch the episodes in which Tiger Claw appears, so I’m purely basing my review here on his appearance, rather than the character. 

SCULPT AND ARTICULATION

Tiger Claw is some kind of half-man, half-tiger hybrid – a deadly assassin feared throughout Asia. Heavy stuff for a kid’s cartoon, but TMNT has never been afraid to shy away from the big issues.

His tail seems to have been docked – I’m not sure if this is a character trait or if a full tail just didn’t cost out for Playmates. Also, the image on the back of the card portrays him as having two eyes, but the toy has one eye and an eyepatch. Maybe this is something to do with the episodes he appears in – starts off with two and loses one to the turtles (edit: A review of the TMNT 2012 wiki suggests it’s never explained. However, the tail is a plot point and not a costing thing.  

The design of the character is much better than the actual execution, though this is more the fault of the paint than the sculpt. Most of the important details seem to have made it through to the sculpt -- such as his backpack and the ammo belt across his chest. Overall it looks great -- but as we'll see in the paint section, there's a lot left to be desired.  

Articulation is as follows:

*cut neck

*swivel-hinged shoulders

*swivel-hinged hips

*hinged knees

Not bad in comparison to some of the other figures in the range, but there is a lot of room for improvement. Truth be told, I would have picked up Tiger Claw the very first time I saw him if he had elbow joints. There are certainly other joints that would have been nice to have too – swivel wrists, ball-jointed neck, just to name a couple, but it’s a $15 kid’s line so we can’t expect miracles. It's acceptable, but in no way it win articulation of the year. 

PAINT

Every time I talk about TMNT, I talk about how the paint apps are crap. Tiger Claw is no exception. They’re certainly more numerous than many other of the figures in the line, but they’re on the sloppy side – his scarf in particular shows signs of chipping. The string on the back of his head for his eyepatch isn’t painted either…it brings to mind shades of Casey Jones and his “no back paint”. Perhaps worst of all is the huge difference in colour between the feet and the rest of his body. 

All of this wouldn’t be so annoying if we didn’t know that Playmates can do better, and has done better in the past. Look at the paint on the 2003 figures – for the most part, pretty clean and well-executed. Go back further to the 1980s series and you’ll see the same thing. But now half the figures in the line look like bootlegs because they’re not enough spent on apps or QC. I appreciate that toy manufacturing costs have risen significantly since the golden days of the 1980s/1990s – but I think we can safely say that Playmates is still making a mint on these bad boys, and some of that capital should be invested in the line.     

ACCESSORIES

Accessories-wise, he comes with two guns, both cast in a very soft plastic. They can be stored in his holsters (though the way they’re in the package is on the opposite sides to the holsters they fit in). 

OVERALL

There are two versions of Tiger Claw – the regular one reviewed here today (he does seems to be available on two different cardbacks, though) and the “Mutations” version, which allows you to pop off his limbs and swap them around with other Mutations characters. The sculpt looks to have been built from the same base, but it is slightly larger than this one.

Tiger Claw has some definite shortcomings, but I think his design is really cool, and it's made up for some of the shortcomings with the figure itself. He’s a great sculpt and worth the price of entry for that alone – it’s just a shame about the paint. I’ve only really found him on a “one in store” basis, but check him carefully if you have more than one to pick from.  

Raph the Barbarian (LARP TMNT)

Series: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Company: Playmates
Year: 2014

THE BACKGROUND

I love Dungeons and Dragons, and a number of other associated pen-and-paper roleplaying games. So earlier this year when I found out that the Playmates TMNT line was going to do a “Raph the Barbarian” figure and other, similarly-themed Turtles, I was over the moon. My love of Dungeons and Dragons, combined with my love of fiction of Robert E. Howard and the Turtles meant that Playmates were onto a guaranteed winner.

Except in Donnie’s case, the result was less than stellar. Mikey was not all that hard for me to skip – though he’s growing on me – and I haven’t come across Leo in the wild as yet. But Raph was always going to be an essential purchase. I was thrilled to find him, but definitely had some trepidation as I picked him up. How did he compare?   

SCULPT AND ARTICULATION

This figure is apparently based on an episode of the current series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, in which they play a game called “Mazes & Mutants” – however, the game rapidly becomes real and our reptilian heroes need to don some LARP gear to battle evil. I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m keen to, particularly after the awesome DnD-themed episodes of Community that have seen release in the last couple of years.

(Fun fact: the TMNT themselves used to have a pen-and-paper RPG too!)

As with Donnie, I initially expected Raph the Barbarian to essentially be a Raphael figure with some soft plastic overlays – the tunic, the furry shinpads and the furry gauntlets, specifically. But as with Donnie, the main body actually is the furry tunic, and the forearms and lower legs are all new pieces (possibly retooled), so any thoughts of getting a two-in-one figure quickly went out the window. But that doesn’t matter, because he looks fantastic!

Looking at him side by side the original figure Playmates did in 2012, it’s clear that Raph is now a little taller, and they have made a number of other changes to make him look much more like his animation model. His face is sculpted with a barbarian-appropriate snarl, though it also would have worked for pretty much any Raphael figure ever. The fur is well-detailed, and there’s lots of little details like chains and spikes dotted about the place (though some are a bit obscured by the paint; more on that later).

Here’s the articulation breakdown:   

*swivel neck

*swivel-hinged elbows

*swivel-hinged elbows

*swivel wrists

*swivel-hinged hips

*swivel-hinged knees

Though it would have been nice to get a ball-jointed neck, I’m glad to trade it for the elbows. This was a cut they shouldn’t have made on Donnie, and Raph is all the better for having them. The hip joints are a little looser than they should be, but aside from that everything works very well.

ACCESSORIES

Raph comes with two accessories – a battle-axe and a barbarian helmet. It’s not a lot, but it’s all he needs. The helmet stays in place really well, and with a little careful manoeuvring you can get him to hold the axe with both hands, which makes for a much better barbarian pose.

PAINT

Paint is not great, but it’s still one of the better paint jobs in the line. Less apps have been cut between the prototype and the finished product, and those that have gone aren’t especially noticeable. Some of the details are a little obscured by being painted straight black, such as the spikes and chains, but the most irritating thing is that of the two exposed sections of his shell, one has been left completely unpainted. Casey Jones had similar problems, and though I can appreciate cost vs profit margins, it does look a little lazy.  

Basically, he needs to be fixed in a few areas – but if I don’t get around it, it won’t bother me as much as it will with Donnie.  

OVERALL

Much to my relief, Raph turned out much better than Donnie. As tributes to Conan go, it’s a fun one – and the back of the packaging specifically describes him as a “Dwarf Barbarian”, so it’s a fun tribute to Gilius Thunderhead of Golden Axe fame too. After being prepared to be disappointed, I’m pleased to say that Raph is one of the best figures in the line. Highly recommended to Turtles and Conan fans alike.  

Donnie the Wizard (LARP TMNT)

 

Series: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Company: Playmates

Year: 2014

BACKGROUND

I love Dungeons and Dragons, and a number of other associated pen-and-paper roleplaying games. So earlier this year when I found out that the Playmates TMNT line was going to do a “Raph the Barbarian” figure and other, similarly-themed Turtles, I was over the moon. My love of Dungeons and Dragons, combined with my love of the Turtles meant that Playmates were onto a surefire winner.

Now I have the first of these figures in my hands – Donnie the Wizard. How does he match up to the expectations? Well, he’s pretty cool idea, but there are definitely some problems here. Read on to see more.

SCULPT AND ARTICULATION

This figure is apparently based on an episode of the current series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, in which they play a game called “Mazes & Mutants” (wink, wink) – however, the game rapidly becomes real and our reptilian heroes need to don some LARP gear to battle evil. I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m keen to, particularly after the awesome DnD-themed episodes of Community that have seen release in the last couple of years.

(Fun fact: the TMNT themselves used to have a pen-and-paper RPG too!)

Somewhat surprisingly, this isn’t just a regular Donnie with soft plastics layered over the top to create a robe – rather, most of the body actually is the robe, with arms, legs and head stuck in. This is a decision I have mixed feelings about; though the robe is nicely detailed with a belt and hood, it makes him look kind of pudgy, rather than the gangly Ninja Turtle the current series shows him to be.

Here’s the articulation breakdown.   

*ball-jointed neck (inexplicably cast in purple)

*swivel-hinged elbows

*cut wrists

*swivel-hinged hips

*swivel-hinged knees

Given that the cape is made of hard plastic and actually forms most of the body, rather than being a soft plastic overlay, leg articulation is more restricted than many would like – and the knees are kind of on the loose side. But for me, the main problem is that there are no elbows – though both are preferable, I always take elbows over knees. This is further compounded by the right arm also being quite wonky.   

ACCESSORIES

Donnie comes with two accessories – his bo staff, which looks to have been turned into a wizard’s staff via the judicious application of bandages and tape, and his wizard’s hat and beard. Both are cast in soft plastic, so you may experience some warping, particularly on the staff.

As for the hat/beard combo, it stays on reasonably well, but you won’t be able to turn his head while he’s wearing it.   

PAINT

Paint has far and away been the weakest aspect of the current TMNT line, and this Donnie is unfortunately no exception. Though the prototype looked quite good, a considerable number of apps have been removed from the final product – most notably the stars that decorate his cape. They’re still sculpted details, but now they just look kind of awkward. This is one issue I think I will actually take the time to fix, as it’s a real shame to see it  almost ruined because of lax paintwork.    

OVERALL

Donnie the Wizard is a great concept, an excellent novelty addition to the TMNT collection, and a nice throwback to the more bizarre days of the 1980s/1990s line (I’m holding out for an updated Universal Monsters series, unlikely as it may be). However, the execution is sorely lacking, with some questionable sculptural choices, minimal paint, and loose joints. I was excited on initial purchase, but in practice it's quite underwhelming. I’m just hoping Raph the Barbarian is a better figure.

   

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- 1988 Raphael

Company: Playmates
Year: 2013
RRP: $15AUD

THE BACKGROUND

Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were just about the biggest kid’s phenomenon on the planet. They had a wildly successful TV show, which had spawned an obscene amount of merchandise in its wake. To provide a more contemporary reference, for those who weren’t born back then, just reflect on how big Gangnam Style was about two years ago – then triple it.

At the forefront of this Reagan-era excess was the action figure line, which generated more in sales than the economies of some small nations. Just about every kid had a plethora of TMNT stuff in and about their house. You’ll note that I said “just about every kid”, and the reason is not insignificant. As a child, I was not allowed much of anything to do with the Turtles, largely because of the violent content of the show. This will probably seem pretty silly to some, but the level of violence was actually quite controversial in its day. Some of you reading probably experienced this with your own parents.

Before I go on, I should add that my parents are great parents. They have bought me an absolute plethora of TMNT-related products in the years that have followed. And no I will no doubt have idiosyncratic rules for my kids one day too. So don’t make the mistake of thinking I was terribly deprived or treated poorly by my folks; nothing could be further from the truth.

However, I was obsessed with the Turtles and eyed the action figures of others with not inconsiderable envy. Some people, including myself, may even speculate that this lack of Turtles during my childhood has led to me spending an inordinate amount of money on various toys as an adult. I think there’s probably something to that – there definitely was when the ’03 TMNT series came out – but I think nowadays I also just appreciate a good action figure.

So today’s article is not just the simple purchase of a toy – this is the fulfilment of a childhood dream. Be warned, this is going to be much more of a gush than an objective review.

THE PACKAGING

I don’t often mention packaging these days. I am an opener, not an MOCer, and packaging often goes straight in the bin before I even bother to take a photograph of it.

Also, a lot of it just isn’t that interesting. I think that I can say without too much rose tinting on my glasses that toy packaging was often much better in the 1980s and 1990s. There were a lot of original illustrations and paintings, and seemingly more emphasis on grabbing a kid’s attention. Plenty of it was gaudy and horrible – just check out G.I. Joe’s Ninja Force subset for a great but dreadful example – but it has stuck with me over the years nonetheless. 

The TMNT boxes of the 1980s and 1990s are a prime example of great toy art. A lot of the illustrations on the box look positively amateurish, but they still have a very distinctive and awesome style nonetheless – particularly the comic on the back that relays their origins. .

This one appears to be an amalgamation of several different boxes. If you go and look at the original boxes, they are turtle-specific, with each character’s packaging directly related to them. However, this one features all four turtles. There are also a number of additional features to distinguish it from the original 1980s or 2009 re-release boxes, which is good. No doubt unscrupulous types would be trying to flog them off as the real deal if they could.

SCULPT AND ARTICULATION

If you owned one of these guys as a kid, you more or less know what you’re in for. These have apparently been made using the original moulds from the 1980s – and it is quite impressive that those moulds have lasted this long, I might add – so there’s no real surprises.

As for the design of the figure itself, the toy strikes a good balance between the comic and cartoon version of the character, but doesn’t look quite like either. I have read – though I’m not sure how true it is – that the turtle action figures were first prototyped before the cartoon had debuted. Getting the TV series signed off was part of getting the figures released and greater exposure for the initial comics. Of course, the show became a much bigger phenomenon than anyone could have predicted, and the 1980s cartoon and related merchandise are what most people tend to think of when they think of the Turtles.

Raph is slightly more articulated than I remember. He has the five points you’d expect from a toy of this era – neck, shoulders and hips – but his forearms are also cut joints. This allows him a little more motion than He-Man and co had, but not quite as much as G.I. Joe offered. Of course, these 7 points are not a great deal by today’s standards, but back in 1988 we didn’t have the same expectations.  

He seems to be cast out of two different plastics. His torso and shell are both quite hard, but are two hollow pieces. The head and limbs are much softer – almost rubbery, but not quite. Raph has also been stamped with a “2013” copyright on the back of his shell.

Like any toy, Raphael is not quite perfect, of course. His green is a little bit different to how it’s depicted on the packaging, and I’m not sure he’s been assembled with the greatest of care – moving his left shoulder seems to move the shoulder seam apart a little. Nonetheless, this is the Raphael I always wanted but never had.

ACCESSORIES

Raphael comes with a bunch of accessories, all of them weapons. Be warned that I’m not 100% on what all of them are; please feel free to give their correct names in the comments below.

*2 sais – his signature weapon

*2 shuriken

*a bladed knuckleduster

*an even bigger bladed knuckleduster

*something that looks like a bo staff, with a hook attached

All of them are cast in a caramel brown plastic, just like the old days. They’re attached to a sprue, which is somewhat styled to look like a weapons rack. I’d suggest using nail scissors to cut them out, rather than trying to twist them off. The weapons are cast in reasonably solid plastic, but you’re likely to leave white stress marks all over them if you go for the twisting option.

PAINT

I got this Raph via eBay, so I wasn’t able to examine him in person. Most of his paint is fine, but the tampoing on one side of his teeth is quite misaligned, riding up onto the underside of his snout. It’s more than a little annoying, so I may actually fix this with some paint in the future.

Also, as a side note: when the Ninja Turtles first debuted in 1984, they all wore red bandannas. However, when the comic was turned into a TV show, the turtles adopted their distinctive colours to better distinguish them for viewers. However, in the (now-sporadically published) modern Mirage comics, they seem to have retained the red bandannas to this day.

OVERALL

I've had numerous opportunities to buy vintage Raphael (and other TMNT) figures over the years, but I've always been a bit funny about it -- they were someone else's toys, not my own. Likewise, I didn't have the inclination or the money when these guys got a re-release in 2009 to coincide with the 25 anniversary of the comic.

I’ve had some regrets about that decision, so when I found out about these figures, I was thrilled. It’s taken some time, but I finally have an “original” Raphael of my very own. Taken as an action figure in comparison to more modern counterparts, he’s not so great. He’s a product of his time, quite primitive – if stylish – by the standards of today. But owning him is literally a childhood dream come true, and that’s not something many of us have happen very often. So in spite of his flaws, I consider this purchase a tremendous success – it’s extremely satisfying on an emotional level.

Will I go on to buy the other turtles? I don’t know. Purchasing all four would be a not-inconsiderable amount of money to sink into something like that at the moment. But a Shredder might be cool…   

April O'Neil (TMNT 2012)

Company: Playmates
Year: 2012
RRP: (See “Availability”)

BACKGROUND

April seems to be far and away the rarest of the TMNT figures out there. She currently resells online for a ridiculous price. She seemed to be pretty readily available when I first bought the four turtles just over a year ago – but while every other character from that first wave still seems readily available, April is nowhere to be found on shelves.  

Why is she so rare?

Well, the smart money is on the “girls don’t sell in a boy’s toyline” theory, and she’s just been produced in smaller numbers than the other characters. In turn, this makes her substantially harder to find. A lot of boys do go through a phase where they shy away from “girl’s things”, but I would strongly debate that “I hate Barbie” does not necessarily equal “I hate April O’Neil.” But here we move into deeper waters, territory that demands an article of its own. Onto the review!

SCULPT AND ARTICULATION

April’s sculpt seems to follow the animation model reasonably closely but this does mean that her proportions end up looking a little odd. Her legs are disproportionately large compared to the rest of her, and her head looks particularly small. Fine on film, not great when rendered in plastic. Given that the turtle toys look little to nothing like they do in the show (at least until the Battle Shell ones came out), I think it would have been fine to go off-model a little.  

Articulation is not great.

*ball-jointed neck

*swivel-hinged shoulders

*cut forearms

*swivel hinged thighs

I think the lack of elbows and knees is particularly disappointing. This alone will be a reason not to buy for many of you reading – and I don’t have much to say to try and dissuade you from that.  

ACCESSORIES

The one really great thing about April is her accessories. She comes with a particularly long bo staff – longer than Donnie’s – as well as a rack of weapons which includes the following:

*2 shuriken
*a bokken (wooden practice sword)
*a shinai (bamboo practice sword)

*a tonfa                                                                                                                                                                     

*2 round objects which I assume are some kind of smoke grenades.

I’ve seen one reviewer speculate that April’s weapons rack was actually meant to come with Splinter, and this is quite possible this is the case. It’s possibly telling that the picture of her on the back of the box depicts her sans accessories.   

PAINT

April doesn’t have a huge amount of paint, but she does have a lot more than most of the characters in the line. Most of it is pretty cleanly executed, though she somehow ended up with some black slop on the back of her head.  

Based on the box art, there’s one app that’s missing on the actual figure – her mouth. The finished toy just leaves it as the sculpted line. This is a minor detail, but I think it’s significant. April is quite cute and endearing on the show, but this lack of painted smile leaves her looking a little odd. I may end up fixing it myself, with an artline pen or something.  

AVAILABILITY

In theory, April should only set you back around $AUD15. But she’s difficult to find in-store, and you’re likely to pay a considerable premium for her if you get her from a third-party reseller. I don’t recommend this, for reasons which I’ll go into in the next section. Buying stuff just because “it’s rare” is often not a wise move when you’re interested in something purely for play value, rather than resale value, and this is a classic example.

It should be noted that I found her in a Hawaiian Wal-Mart while on holiday a few months ago, and have not seen her again since. So if you are still keen, and you’ve got the opportunity to buy her for a reasonable price, take it.

OVERALL

Though I’m pleased to have gotten April for the collection, she’s not actually that great a toy on her own merits. I like the figure and can overlook her shortcomings on the basis of wanting her to complete a set, but taken purely on her own merits she is an easy pass. Hopefully, now that Casey Jones has been released we will soon see a new version of April on the market, with improved articulation. I don’t know that one is on the way, but I would advise waiting anyway. She’s an integral part of the franchise and it’s a shame she hasn’t received better treatment in plastic form.  

Kidrobot TMNT Ooze Action (Glow in the Dark) Raphael

Company: Kidrobot

Year: 2014

Price: $15AUD

THE BACKGROUND

Kidrobot have been producing vinyl toys since 2002, and are well-known within the art/designer toy community, a scene which I know very little about myself. I’ve never bought any of their stuff previously, as it’s an aesthetic I have mixed feelings about, and I could never quite justify the price even when I did see something I liked.

 

However, I have noticed that in the last few years – and it’s quite possible it’s been going on even longer overseas – they seem to have developed a number of products at a lower price point and with greater availability, presumably to appeal to the more casual collector. I suspect this has something to do with the growing popularity of Funko, a brand that has traded on the designer vinyl aesthetic very effectively, managing to snag a huge number of licenses and bring the whole scene a little more mainstream in the process, all while doing it at a very affordable pricepoint. 

Your own thoughts on this will vary of course – as with any underground scene there are always those loath to see things become “mainstream” or to have things “ruined” by “casual fans”. I’ve had many a moan about things over the years myself! But as someone who enjoys Funko’s work, I’m pretty happy to see the style gaining wider acceptance.   

Anyway, Kidrobot recently picked up the TMNT license, and have produced a number of products based on the 1980s TV series. The shop I picked this up from also had keyrings (approx. 1”), these “Ooze Action” figures (3”) and blind-boxed figures (also 3”), which cover all of the same characters in the Ooze Action set, plus a few more. Online I've also discovered that there are 7" Bebop and Rocksteady figures, and I suspect there may be more in future. Time will tell.  

Today’s figure, Raphael, comes from the Ooze Action subset. These guys are in the same scale as the blind-boxed figures, but have slightly different paint apps – including ooze splattered on their weapons or bodies, which is depicted via glow in the dark paint. Additionally, they’re not blind-boxed, which makes it much easier to get the character/s you want. Being a huge sucker for anything glow in the dark or TMNT related, I decided that I was going to make the investment. How did that pay off for me? Well, read on to find out!

PACKAGING

I don’t often talk about the packaging much these days, but I thought this one was worth a mention. It fits with the 1980s TMNT blister packs, modernising the “green on brick” aesthetic, all printed on nice thick card with a j-hook. It’s printed with an open sewer pipe, over which the figure in its blister is positioned, as though he’s bursting out of a pipe to say hello, or attack. For a brief period I did consider keeping him MOC, but that brief period lasted only a few minutes. A second one to keep MOC would be good though…

The back of the card depicts the other characters available in this line – Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Splinter and Shredder – while also including a few lines of flavour text about the ooze, which mutated the turtles and Splinter into their current form.

However, in spite of all the character designs being clearly based on the 1980s cartoon, it uses the logo from the 2012 TV series. Not wanting to create confusion among the (presumably) younger audience that this release is targeting, perhaps?

More strangely, the text on the back of the pack specifically states “this is not a toy”. This seems a little strange – if it’s not a toy, what is it?  But perhaps this is as a legal protection against some of the safety requirements that toys need to adhere to – types of paint, sharp edges, etc.

But these curiosities aside, the packaging really enhances the overall product. It’s not essential to enjoying it, but it’s a great bonus for those who want to keep it mint.

SCULPT AND ARTICULATION

Kidrobot seem to use a base body for most of their creations, which can be seen on their rabbit-like “Dunny” and monkey-like “Munny”. Their products do cover a broader range, of course, but for the purposes of this review that’s all you need to know about.  

(Incidentally, “dunny” is Australian slang for “toilet”, so it gives me a childish little giggle every time I see Kidrobot stuff being sold around the place.)

For this range, that means all four turtles use the same body and head, with the differences coming in paint app form. Likewise, Shredder and Splinter use the same body, but have different heads. Splinter…did not turn out so well. The sculpt is not poorly done, but it just doesn’t look like Splinter – he looks more like a dog than a rat.  

Raph (and all of them) is articulated at 3 points – his neck and at both shoulders. All are cut joints, and the articulation on the arms is a little restricted due to the shell on his back. But this isn’t necessarily a minus; these figures are bought for their overall aesthetic as opposed to their Marvel Legends-esque contorting ability.

It’s a very basic, kiddie-looking thing, somewhat like a bath toy. Once upon a time, I really disliked the vinyl toy look, particularly during my prime comic buying days of 2006-2007. It seemed so pretentious – who would pay insane amounts of money for a toyish, under-articulated piece of crap?  Why not get a real action figure?

With the benefit of a little bit of exposure to stuff that was more to my taste – and a bit of general growing up on my part – I’ve come to appreciate it more. And of course, in this case the license definitely does a lot of the heavy lifting. Being inherently cartoony, the 1980s TMNT lend themselves to the aesthetic much better than say, Cthulhu does. But of course there’s a market for that too.

ACCESSORIES

Raph comes with his two sais, which are spattered with “ooze”, which is actually glow in the dark paint.  Both of these fit neatly in his hands and will stay in place, though you’ll want to consider arm and head position before clicking them in – otherwise they’ll just poke straight into his face.

PAINT

There isn’t a great deal of straight paintwork on Raphael – as far as I can see it’s restricted to his bandanna, the belt across his shell and possibly his sais. Everything else is tampographed, and they’ve done an exceptional job. Just about everything looks neat and clean, and doesn’t look likely to rub off anytime soon. However, the glow in the dark paint scratches quite easily, so be careful with it. I scraped a little bit off just by my thumbnail banging against it accidentally.

My only real disappointment is that Raph himself doesn’t glow. Given that the turtles are all primarily green, it seems like they could have done it reasonably easy – but perhaps a future series or variant/ComicCon/online only exclusive release will do this. And it’s certainly a viable project for any keen customisers out there.

OVERALL

I’m really happy to have picked Raphael up from this range. I have no real quibbles about the execution or the price, and as my perennial favourite turtle, Raph will make a fine addition to the existing TMNT collection. Nonetheless, I don’t plan on picking up any more Kidrobot TMNT anytime soon. Not because the figures are bad quality, but I collect enough stuff already and don’t want to funnel hundreds of dollars into completing a set of the blind-boxed figures – which I can definitely see myself doing, if I don’t nip it in the bud now!

But for TMNT and designer toy fans alike, these toys come highly recommended.   

Casey Jones 2014 (Playmates Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Year: 2014

Scale: 4”

Company: Playmates

RRP: TBC (probably $AUD15)

BACKGROUND

Casey Jones has been one of the Turtles’ human allies since the days of the original Eastman & Laird comics. Originally created as a parody of characters like the Punisher who take “justice” into their own hands, he’s gone on to attract a fairly large cult following among TMNT fans. He only appeared in the original 1980s cartoon a handful of times, but he was a fairly major character (and love interest for April) in the 2003 revival. 

I first saw this figure previewed late last year and was immediately intrigued. However, we seem to be a wave or two behind America at the moment, and a lot of the stuff like the Ninjas in Training is only really just seeing a wide release over here. So rather than wait – and potentially miss out – I decided to order Mr Jones from Amazon.com

I haven’t seen any of the episodes featuring him as yet – but I do know that, like April, he’s been turned into a teenager for this series. I assume he’ll follow the usual pattern of being buds with Raph and a love interest for April – but this time around, he may well be a love rival for April with Donnie. I daresay I’ll get to watching it all eventually.

SCULPT AND ARTICULATION

The sculpt is a good one. It includes some nice little details, such as the keys on his right hip, the bandanna hanging out of his back pocket. A lot of time and care has gone into the detailing, which is more disappointing when you consider the below-average paintwork (see below).

The main downside is that he’s been given rollerblades on his feet. They make it a little awkward to get him to stand properly, so while it’s probably pretty cool in the cartoon, I think it probably should have been left off the toy – or maybe interchangeable feet?

Here’s what he offers from an articulation perspective:

*cut neck

*swivel-hinged shoulders

*hinged elbows

*cut wrists (at the glove)

*cut waist

*swivel-hinged hips

*swivel-hinged knees.

Not a lot by, say, Marvel Legends standards, but pretty good for TMNT. The motion on the elbows is a little restricted due to the sculpt, but pretty much everything else moves quite well. It’d be nice if he had a ball-jointed head and could look up and down, but I suspect the hood would have got in the way anyway.

ACCESSORIES

Casey comes with three accessories – a baseball bat, a hockey stick and his hockey mask. The mask is the best of the three, with his trademark skull painted on the front. His sports equipment/weapons are cast in light beige plastic – the picture on the box depicts them with paint apps, but these have been removed from the final item, which is a bummer.

PAINT

As with all the other TMNT figures, paintwork on Casey is minimal, with most pieces being moulded in the appropriate colour. The box depicts a number of paint apps on the prototype which didn;t make it to the final stages e.g. the spikes on his left arm.

The notable exception is his face, which has skull facepaint – almost Immortal-esque. It’s a little sloppy, but the artwork on the back of the box also makes it look quite sloppy too. I prefer his masked look anyway, so the point becomes moot really.

More irritating, only the front half of Casey’s body is painted. As you can see in the pic at the end of the review, they’ve painted the front section of his pouches – but the back half has been left completely blank! I understand cutting back on paint apps for cost saving, but this is just lazy. I’m giving serious consideration to getting out some Citadel Paints and fixing up some of his finer details myself. With all the cool little details on this figure, it’s particularly disappointing that he’s been given such shabby paint treatment.   

OVERALL

Anyone who’s been collecting the new TMNT figures knows that they’re pretty hit and miss. There’s been some great stuff, but there’s been a lot of junk as well.  Aside from his paint, Casey is a good figure, and I’d like to hope he indicates future improvements for the line. Unfortunately, there have already been too many cool characters with lame figures, and I’d like to see that stop. I’ve said it at least once and will probably continue to say it in future – the Playmates TMNT line has been a great line as far as kid’s toys go, but not so fantastic for collectors.

Shredder 2 Review (TMNT)

A couple of days before putting this review online, I learned that James Avery, the original voice of Shredder on the 1980s TMNT series and Uncle Phil of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air had passed away, apparently as a result of complications during heart surgery. His distinctive voice and comic stylings will be much missed, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time.

Figure: Shredder (with removable mask and cape aka “Shredder 2”)
Year: 2013
Series: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Scale: 4"

Company: Playmates
RRP: $15AUD

BACKGROUND



It’s no secret that the new Turtles toyline has had some issues – this is why I hadn’t yet picked up a Shredder, who is the most necessary character after the four main turtles. The Turtles have a lot of villains over their various iterations, but my favourite is definitely Shredder.
Though the Shredder that was released in 2012 is not a bad figure, he just isn’t tall enough. People tend to forget that the turtles are actually quite short, and that Shredder is (generally) depicted as unusually tall for a Japanese man. Additionally, he looks a little too different from his depiction in the cartoon. The same charge could be levelled at the turtles themselves, of course, but I find that easier to let slide.

These are all relatively small nitpicks individually, but combined they left the figure missing that X-factor that would have justified the purchase. As such, I was quite pleased when I found out that there was going to be an updated version of Shredder that featured a removable mask, and a cape. First showing up at San Diego Comic-Con as an exclusive for 2013, this looked like the figure that the original Shredder should have been.

The mass-market version isn’t drastically different from the SDCC version. You don’t get the stand, the fancy box or the vac-metallized paint apps, but it’s otherwise identical, from what I can tell. I’ve already seen some of the special edition in stores, but he’s about twice the price of the regular version.

PACKAGING

This packaging isn’t different to any of the others in the range – just the usual purple and green styles. The only notable difference is that the “original” Shredder figure is no longer depicted on the back, instead replaced by this new version. Whether the original will be discontinued completely remains to be seen – at time of writing, he still seems to be popping up around the place.

SCULPT AND ARTICULATION

This version Shredder doesn’t seem to reuse a great deal from the original 2012 release. The only things that seem to have made the transition are the movable shoulder pads, and possibly the lower legs. The overall style is still quite similar, but now he looks much more like he does in the cartoon.

My favourite thing about this new figure is that he now looks in scale with the turtles. He towers over them, giving him an intimidating presence. I’ve heard some complaints about his thighs being a disproportionately long, but it doesn’t really bother me. The overall effect is what’s important, and he looks like much more of a serious threat to the turtles now.  

Though the sculpt looks great as a display piece, it’s definitely cut corners with articulation. Shredder should be just as articulated as the turtles, if not even more so. He’s a formidable martial artist, and he should be able to move as such. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case.  

For his head, he has a cut neck – it can turn from side to side, but that’s it. I’m a bit disappointed it wasn’t a balljoint, as this would have made it much easier for him to look like he’s gazing down on his enemies. The knees are hinged, but the enormous boots do get in the way of their movement, and they won’t turn quite as far as you might like.

But the main disappointment for me was that he doesn’t have moveable elbows. He’s got swivel-hinged shoulders and cut wrists, but no moveable elbows. This is especially irritating when you consider that the original version did have hinged elbows. I suppose this may be a cost-cutting measure to incorporate the large amount of new tooling, but it’s annoying nonetheless.

As a side note, one of my co-workers pointed out that Shredder doesn’t really look “Asian” – more “Russian.” I can definitely see what he means, though on closer inspection he makes me think of Yul Brynner made up as Two-Face. More disturbingly, although he clearly has a nose when viewed front on, when you turn his head to the side it almost looks like it’s disappeared.

PAINT

There’s not a huge amount of paint on Shredder. The main area is his face, which has a serviceable, if not amazing paint job. I think an extra highlight or two in there would have made it pop a little more, though I can appreciate that having more realistic facial burns might be a little frightening for kids. However, I was impressed with the paint job on the eyes. There doesn’t appear to be any slop there, and they do look menacing, even with the helmet on.  



The only real area I think that could have used paint was on the helmet. It’s moulded in a silvery-grey plastic, and is quite plain. I think if the spikes on it had been picked out in a slightly different colour it would have stood out much more nicely.

ACCESSORIES

Shredder comes with two accessories – his mask and his cape. The removable mask is a big selling point for the figure. Unfortunately, the mask’s faceplate is just slightly too small to completely cover the face properly. It’s not really noticeable when you look at it front-on, but once you start turning his head from side to side, you may have a few more issues.

People will debate the various merits of fabric vs rubber capes till the end of time, but rubber was the right call on this occasion. It fits the style of the toys more appropriately, and looks more accurate to the cartoon, and its torn and pre-posed look makes for some good action shots. The cape is held into Shredder’s back by a peg, which sticks into a hole in his back. It’s a clever solution that I haven’t encountered before, but of course leaves him with a big hole in his back when it’s off.

I’d originally thought that the arm claws would be removable, but closer inspection reveals that they attached via pins piercing through the arms themselves. This is a little disappointing – the claws can get in the way a little – but it’s not a dealbreaker.

The lack of other accessories is a bit disappointing. I think a katana of some sort would have been nice, given that his left hand is sculpted in a “holding” position. Leo came with a spare one on his sprue that I hadn’t found a use for, so Shredder subsequently acquired it for his own nefarious purposes.

The special edition version that was at SDCC also comes with a base shaped like a sewer lid. It’s a cool piece, but I couldn’t justify the premium price for it.  

OVERALL

In terms of sculpt and scale, this new version of Shredder is probably one of the best figures that the TMNT line has yet seen. In terms of articulation…well, this will be the big turn off for some. With this said, I’m still glad I bought this version. I can deal with less articulation on an action figure if it looks good, and I don’t think there’s any real question that this one looks a lot better than the original.

I picked Shredder up on sale for $10, and he usually retails for about $15. The special edition runs at about $30 – considering the only difference is some vac-metallized plastic and a base, I’d say that the “regular” version is a better investment overall.