Triceraton Warrior

Given the new Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line is in a 5" scale, I've decided to augment the latest TMNT figures with offerings from Playmates' similarly-scaled toy that accompanied the 4Kids animated series that aired over the last decade. I always like to have my villains outnumber the heroes, so scoring this Triceraton Warrior off eBay for a reasonable price was a boon for me.

Like most of the figures that accompanied the 2003 series, the Triceraton has a very model sheet-accurate sculpt with very basic articulation. Six points, actually -- neck, shoulders, hips, and tail. The Triceratons are big bruiser types, so the minimal number of joints isn't the biggest loss in the world to me. I do wish the figure was slightly larger to more accurately reflect the Triceratons' proper size in comparison to other characters from the show -- the limits of toy line budgets, I suppose. The toy comes with two-and-a-half accessories, a shoulder-mounted missle launcher (with accompanying missile) and a space mask. I'm oddly fascinatied by how snugly the launcher is designed to sit on the figure's shoulder -- if you held the toy entirely upside down, the gun wouldn't move even the slightest. The mask is pretty nifty too, with holes that allow the Triceraton's horns to poke through.

The Triceraton Warrior is great to look at, but his range of movement will be lacking for hardcore collectors.  Still, damn if it doesn't look cool.