My son has become a huge TMNT fan over the last couple months, and that's gotten me back into the franchise as well.
Reissue 90s Party Wagon
We found a bunch of my old TMNT toys when we were cleaning out my parents' house after they died, enough that my son immediately had a full lineup of Turtles and a decent supporting cast (albeit, somewhat the worse for wear) to play with when he decided that he loved the franchise. But one thing we
didn't find were any of the old vehicles and playsets. It was pure happenstance that we stumbled on this at Walmart during a shopping trip right after he pulled the old Turtles out. I had one as a kid and loved it, and since my son and I share almost zero taste in toys I just figured that he wouldn't have any interest in it at all. But in fact, he's spent most of the last 36 hours zipping it around and driving it over "Foot Soldiers" that he's made out of Play-Doh.
So I guess it's his now instead of mine, but I'm just happy that we've finally figured out some toys that we
both think are cool.
I've also tried to wrap my head around into the modern Turtle figure market. To be perfectly honest I'm finding the entire thing opaque, confusing and not very consumer-friendly. I feel like there are about five different companies making Turtles merch in ten different styles, and even after spending some time trying to decipher it over the last few weeks I'm still not sure who's made what when, or how available anything aside from the latest waves are. But I've picked up a few things and my opinions are pretty mixed so far.
NECA TMNT Adventures Slash
I know that I watched the Turtles show
a lot for at least a year or so when I was a kid, but I honestly have to say that it didn't make that much of an impression. I remembered most of the "season five" Transformers episodes, the movie and all the home-video episodes that I rented as a kid. Batman TAS, X-Men, some of Thundercats, various older shows like Looney-Tunes...but when I tried to watch a bit of Turtles a decade or so ago I realized that I didn't remember it
at all. The toys, the movies and the video games?
Those are permanently imprinted on my brain. But when I think "Turtles", the first thing that comes to mind for me are the Adventures comics. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only person who remembers them, but it turns out there's enough of us that NECA thinks we can support an entire sub-line.
The natural choice would be to kick it off with a set of Turtles, but TBH there are
so many Turtles that I don't think that would have caught as many eyes as what they actually did. Although to be fair, they did start with
a turtle...
Oh yes.
The visual design for TMNT was all over the place in the 80s and 90s, even more so than Transformers in that same period. Slash has probably four different designs, but this one has always been my favourite simply because, well, he actually has a personality in these comics. And NECA captures him perfectly.
The sculpting on this figure is amazing. The head sculpt looks like it jumped right off of the page. The 90s comic-print shading is subtle enough that it doesn't look weird on a 3-D object, too, which is something that comic/cartoon-accurate figures from all sorts of companies seem to struggle with. It's probably been half a decade since I bought a non-transforming action figure that looked this cool.
The articulation doesn't quite keep up with the sculpt and paint. Slash has a lot of joints but he's also a huge chunk of turtle, and the bulky torso and limbs definitely hamper his range of motion. I wish he could move just a bit more, but everything else about the figure is cool enough that it doesn't bring me down.
It looks like the second and third entries in this line were Jagwar and Dreadmon. I think it's pretty likely that I pick those dudes up too.
Playmates Ninja Elite Triceraton
On the other hand,
this toy does nothing to convince me to keep following the Playmates stuff.
I had the original Triceraton figure when I was a kid. In fact, it was one of the figures that we found when my son started going through boxes looking for Turtles stuff! That was a figure with a ton of personality, all hulking and angry and aggressive.
This one, on the other hand? It just doesn't capture the same spark.
It's basically unposeable below the waist, which doesn't help. It has joints, but the hips barely move so it really doesn't matter that he's got double knees or decent ankles. The arms move better, but the elbows look weirdly unnatural when you pose him. And the head sculpt has nothing on the vintage figure...it looks more derpy than intimidating.
The last set of collector-targeted Turtles from Playmates (the Classic Collection ones that are guest-starring in both of my pics) felt a little bit dated a decade ago when they came out. But they were also the only accessible option for TMNT figures at the time, so they could get away with it. But the game has changed in the intervening years, fans are spoiled with options, and this figure actually feels even
more dated than the ones from a decade ago. I wouldn't recommend it
at all.
I have a few other figures en route from a few other companies...hopefully those ones are more Slash than Triceraton.