TMNT poster

Anyone else notice what's weird about this 3D poster?

Yup, it's a poster of TMNT action figures. So that's a thing they're doing now.

Kra'ang

I only seek out a Kmart these days for exclusive toys I really want. That isn't very often since, y'know, it's Kmart. That place imploded in the mid90s when it suddenly found its niche taken over by WalMart and realized it couldn't compete on price, customer service, or store design so they alienated their existing customer base to try and capture the upmarket Target crowd which didn't want anything to do with Kmart's stigma as a store for poor people.

But hey, minimate Kra'ang! Kmart is the only non-specialty store to carry the blind bags and Kra'ang is only available in the non-specialty store sets. He comes as giant brain in the torso of a robot, but the pack also comes with a minimate version of the disembodied giant brain version. You can pretend he's 80's cartoon Krang!

Minimate Monday: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

I wasn't eager to get my hands on the TMNT minimates, but I found some packs at Toys R Us, so why not? 

The first thing you notice when you open them is that these are marketed as keychains, but they're really not. There are key rings included, but they're attached to the minimates by a thin string around the neck which isn't looped or tied with a not. They're relying on the permanence of a neck joint in a toy designed to have the head come off. Oh and the string can be removed without taking the head off I you're trying hard enough. So I'm expecting some kid is going to lose their minimate if they do something like attach it to a bag zipper.  I'm going to assume this whole keychain thing is a workaround so that Diamond can license toys in this scale.

The toys themselves are nicer than I anticipated. I was afraid the Turtles would end up as glorified Battle Beast minimates with extra parts slipping over the minimate base humanoid body. But these are more sophisticated, with the animal body parts and ninja padding sculpted onto the body base. This means the feet aren't removable, but that's a small price to pay for slightly more stability in the figure.

Interestingly, Michelangelo's nunchucks are connected with metal chains. 

Oh and all the turtles have weapon holders sculpted onto their shells. And really the heads and shells are the unique bits since aside from color, the turtle bodies are identical, but they're minimates so you have to expect stuff like that. And I like that the figure stands for the turtles are sewer lids.

The human/robot figures that come with the figures are serviceable. The four arms of the robot foot soldier is pretty cool, and Shredder has a scarred face under his mask, but I'm not getting these figures for the humans. 

Couldn't find a Leonardo figure, which is odd. These 3 sets were the only ones onthe shelves so I snatched them up.

Mousers

Mousers! Because Mousers!

Each one has 4 points of articulation, and their Center of gravity means they can only stand with both legs, but that ball joint head allows for some cool poses and ARTICULATED JAW!

So awesome. I bought 2 packs, one of which I'll probably give as a gift to someone I know will appreciate Mousers as much as I do. Or maybe I'll open it and give 7 people 1 Mouser each.

Kraaaaaaaaaang!

So the weird thing about the Kra'ang figure is that it's a weird plastic mask piece that goes over a minifigure head. It's not even its own minifigure head. I do bot understand that decision. At all.

But then again, I'm not a Norwegian toy designer.

Oh yeah, these

I found the TMNT Legos at Toys R Us this weekend. I keep forgetting that any Nickelodeon property is fodder for Legos.... Clarissa Explains it All Lego Friends sets, people. Make it happen.

Actually, even if there were no turtles, I might pick up the set for a Giant Alien brain driving a space ship.

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.

Michelangelo (Nickelodeon TMNT)

As mentioned in my review of the new Dontatello five-inch scale figure, I was so wowed by it that I was gripped by a mighty hankering for more Turtles from Playmates' recently-inaugurated Nickelodeon-based line. With very few exceptions, to this day I tend not to get the same figures as my brother (old childhood habits die hard). I had already picked up a Nickelodeon Leonardo for him, and since Leo and Raphael are average-sized and Don is the tallest of the Turtles in this incarnation, it seemed only fair for me to opt for the smallest of the four terrapin heroes: Michelangelo.

Mikey here is a value- and entertainment-packed toy, despite his diminutive stature (he's nearly a head shorter than Donatello). Like his brothers, he includes his main weapon--a pair of nunchuks--as well as some bonus accessories attached to a plastic sprue. He isn't in quite the same league of outright awesomeness as Donnie: his stockier frame makes posing less dynamic, the length of his limbs (particular the arms) are more outsized compared to the rest of his body, and his solid-plastic nunchuks will develop stress marks in the middle of the sculpted chain portion if placed in the figure's belt holsters as intended. His compact size does possess a certain charm, however; he's like a little articulated ball, and that adolescent grin on his face is a nice dash of personality that's merely the crowning flourish on an already fantastically rendered sculpt.

Like Donatello, the new 5" cartoon Michelangelo is one of the coolest mass-market action figures of the year thus far. I've had both for weeks now and I still can't put them down. At this point I can't want to see what Playmates has in store for future assortments. How many of the 2012 Turtles have you bought so far?

Raphael

I hated playing as Raphael in the TMNT video games because his sais had the worst reach. But think about it, Raph had the least advantage when Splinter handed out weapons so he had to be the toughest and most skilled. He's in your face because he has to be. It's no Raphael's fault that he's rude, he had to be in order to survive.

Unless he picked the sais himself, in which case, yes, you can blame him for being something of a dick.

Anyone else notice that these things are $7.77 at Wal-mart? I bought it with a clearance Hot Wheels Batmobile and after tax it cost less than getting one at Target, with the 5% off you get with the Target card. Just saying, if anything was going to convince me to get one of these figures, being really inexpensive was the thing to do it.

Donatello (Nickelodeon TMNT)

Long one of indie comic's biggest mainstream successes, about a year ago the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise changed hands from Mirage Studios to new corporate owner Nickelodeon. Naturally, the kids network wanted a new cartoon to cash in on its new acquisition, so now this summer action figure fans are being treated to a brand-new deluge of Turtles product to sync with that forthcoming media tie-in. And I for one am not complaining, for between the new animated line and the larger-scale Classics assortment, longtime toy license holder Playmates is producing some of the best TMNT figures ever. And though collector prejudices would favor the six-inch line, I want to make it clear that it's the smaller figures that are the real must-haves.

Donatello (TMNT)

Why did I buy this?

I still remember when I got my first Ninja Turtles figure in 1988. My mom took my older brother and I to KB Toys, where she promised to buy us something. We had some Galoob Star Trek: The Next Generation toys in our hands ready to go when we noticed the display for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures. Holy crap! We didn't even know there were toys! My brother got Leonardo while I got Donatello. I don't even remember why I chose Donatello; I'm a fan of the character now, but I don't recall if I had a special attachment to him back then. That day began a four-year stretch of assembling a ridiculous amount of Turtles figures and vehicles with whatever money I could get my hands on. It was the first toyline I truly collected. Still, one thing that got to me was that the Turtles didn't really look like they did on TV. I think that's the first time I noticed action figures not adhering to character models from the media that spawned them.

Around 2003, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise made a comeback, which included a new cartoon series and a new toyline from stalwart Turtles toy manufacturer Playmates. I still had several of my old figures, so I only got a few from the new line. This is not include Donatello; I had replaced my original broken figure with a new one in 1992, and that one was still in pretty good shape.

Things changed when the CGI-animated TMNT film came out. These figures basically looked the way I always wanted Turtles figures to look. This figure is tall and lithe, recalling the design model from the 1980s cartoon, and is loaded with more articulation than even the originals had. I knew I had to get Donatello. Don here comes with his bo staff, of course, but also comes with tech gadget (because he's a nerd, see?) and some other junk that I put somewhere that I can't remember. But really, you don't need it. It's just a great figure, either standing in a neutral pose, brandishing the bo staff, or kicking and punching. The accessories are just icing on the cake.

Any regrets?

Unlike most Turtles figures, the four protagonists do not get their own unique body sculpts in the TMNT line. So if you own one figure, you pretty much don't need to get any others. Isn't it insane that Playmates actually gave their original figures of Leo, Raph, Mike, and Don (characters who share the exact same body and are only differentiated by their bandana colors and weapons) unique molds?

Am I happy with my purchase?

Yes. This might be my favorite Turtles figure ever.