Well Playmates has finally gotten around to showing off their sculpts for the next round of Classics figures. It’s Rocksteady and Bebop. Two of the most requested and popular figures in the toy line’s history. When Peter Laird gained control of the TMNT property fully a few years back, he took a very hardline stance against Rocksteady & Bebop. He couldn’t see them reinvented in any fashion as serious characters. As a result, Playmates never made any new toys of them, despite wanting to at times.
However, Nickelodeon doesn’t have such restrictions on Playmates and we knew that eventually a Classics line would have to include Shredder’s favorite mutant cretins. And they’re finally here in the plastic. After the success of the regular Turtles, we’ve all had high hopes that these goons would look just as good.
And look at that image. Perfect in just about every way. Man, I would pay $50 or more for these figures. Don’t they just look perfect?! I can’t wait to have these figures from Playmates… Oh, right… I almost forgot. These AREN’T the figures that Playmates is giving us, but rather a Photoshop manipulation from a guy on the forum named “grungethemovie”. So what are we getting? Take a look behind the cut…
It was just the other day I was talking about the leaked info on the New Ninja Turtle Figures for 2013 and now I can show you detailed photos of all the speculated characters. Although Toy Fair is a few weeks away, the Hong Kong Toy Fair is already producing some information, including our first look at all the new Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles product.
Much to my surprise, the Mousers are not a retread of the 2K3 sculpt, but in fact the most comic accurate Mouser sculpt ever done by ANY company. They look to have articulated heads, jaws and legs, but not knees. Playmates could have easily re-released their stellar 2K3 sculpt, but I have to give them props for this new Mouser sculpt. Even if I actually think the 2K3 sculpt is more accurate to the Nickelodeon source material. These Mousers will be super popular, and although it’s a 7 pack, it appears that half the Mousers are black. I’m not sure what that’s about.
Our first look at the new Shredder and Splinter is sort of disappointing. On one hand, Shredder comes with a cape now and a second unmasked head. He also may have knee joints, or at least knee bends in his sculpt. Splinter, on the other hand, is in some sort of training suit and he looks pretty terrible. Also in the lineup is our first look at some new unannounced figures, like the Toddler Turtles and special mission suit Turtles. The Toddler Turtles look fun, but don’t look better than the 2K3 versions. I’ll probably still pick them up, though.
Our good friend Jeff sent along some photos of the new Ninja Turtles ooze. Has this actually been called mutagen on the Nick show? I can’t recall it being referred to as such. I really love the look and texture of the new ooze and the containers are nice too. I’ve heard that these are showing up in Toys R Us locations mostly (none at my local TRU) but Jeff found these at Meijers.
Playmates could have easily just repacked classic mutagen and containers and probably got away with it. However this new formula looks more accurate to the show and gives us some new ooze to look at. Oddly enough, I’ve never been much of an ooze guy. I still have some MOC mutagen from 2K3, but none of the classic stuff anymore.
So a poster over at 4Chan has leaked some internal purchasing screens from Walmart that give us a good idea of what’s coming up in the next batch of Ninja Turtle toy releases. Historically these Walmart computer charts have been quite accurate, although there have been odd things here or there through the years. However, these TMNT figures sound pretty succinct and make sense with what has been shown in the TV show to this point.
One of the new items is Ooze/Mutagen. This is already hitting shelves at Toys R Us across the country, giving us some confirmation that this list is accurate but also that these products may not be that far away. Also on the list is Baxter, Snakeweed, Leatherhead and Rat King. No surprise to any of those, although Rat King hasn’t yet debuted in the cartoon.
Perhaps more interesting is the listing for “Cockroach” which I can only assume is a work in progress name for an as of yet unseen mutant. Also on the list is something called the Newtralizer, which we also don’t know anything about yet. Rounding things out is Spider Bytes and two new versions of Shredder and Splinter, simply listed as 2. One would hope that these are improved versions from the first Shredder and Splinter figures. I’d love some more articulation and such, but for all we know these could be some sort of “wacky action” versions. There’s also potential for them to Hamato Yoshi or Saki, but if that were true, I’d assume they’d be listed as such.
Of course the big news for most folks is the listing for a 7 pack of Mousers. Or M.O.U.S.E.R.S. as they were in the new Nickelodeon show. This isn’t too much of a surprise to me and we’ll have to wait and see if they actually hit shelves. Remember that a 6 pack of Mousers was advertised for the 2K2 line, but never ended up making shelves. Speaking of which, I fully expect these new Mousers to be repaints, if not complete retreads of those figures. I don’t really need anymore of them, as you can see from the photo above… But at $8 a pop, it might be hard to resist.
With the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being bar none, the hottest boy’s toy on the market today, I suspect that the releases will begin to flood the market fast and furious within the new year. I couldn’t be more excited and I hope that Playmates is up to the task. Hopefully they don’t get greedy and put out quality product, which will help secure the Turtles a strong foothold in the marketplace for years to come.
Think you’re seeing double? Think again.
It has come to my attention that Playmates has released a variant of the April O’Neil figure in the new Nickelodeon Ninja Turtles line. The variant is a simple paint variant and I have no idea if this is as a result of a simple factory error or change in material or if this is a “correction” as the first batch of Aprils were slightly off color model.
The changes are minor, but you’ll notice that in my April O’Neil Review that my April had reddish orange hair and a slightly dark, muted yellow shirt. The newer Aprils that are shipping out have a more brown color hair and a brighter yellow plastic shirt.
Given that the color of the shirt has changed (and that requires more than just simply swapping paint) I’m going to assume that Playmates felt that the first run of April O’Neil figures were off model. There are several other changes to the figure that seem to confirm that as well.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Nickelodeon
Splinter
5 Inch Scale
By: Playmates
$8.99
Splinter is the Turtle’s father and sensei. He’s the wise old rat who not only taught them to be ninja teens (presumably just the ninja part), but helps to guide them through the world. He’s sort of like Mister Miyagi, but you know, furrier. Splinter has historically had two origins, but now technically has three thanks to IDW’s newest take. The original Mirage story is that Splinter was the pet rat of Hamato Yoshi and learned everything he knows by watching Yoshi. After The Shredder kills Yoshi, Splinter ends up accidentally mutated and swears revenge for his master.
In the Fred Wolf cartoon, that most TMNT fans were first introduced to, the story is slightly different. In this version, Hamato Yoshi IS Splinter and was mutated as a result of Shredder trying to kill him. Nickelodeon’s new take on Splinter seems to be in line with that, although we don’t know the particulars. We just know that Hamato Yoshi is Splinter.
Confession time… It’s sacrilege to some Turtles fans, but I always preferred the concept of Splinter being Hamato Yoshi. It makes more sense as to why he’s so adept at the ways of the ninja and it also gives him a slightly more immediate reason for revenge. The Mirage story is a case of revenge for revenge for revenge, which gets a bit complicated. Also it’s more plausible to me that a man can turn into a rat than a normal rat can learn martial arts… But it’s hard to argue “logic” in a property that’s heavily reliant on suspension of disbelief.
Anywho, Splinter is back in the fold as usual and he’s back to being Hamato Yoshi. So does Nickelodeon really knock it out of the park with this Splinter, or is this toy a rat trap for your wallet?
Packaging:
This colorful package is a lot of fun and it definitely stands out in the toy aisles. One thing I haven’t mentioned up to this point is that the blister card has a nice shell design around the top and edges. See, I’m still finding new stuff to talk about!
The back shows off the other figures in the series and gives a pretty basic bio on Splinter. We don’t learn how he got turned into a rat, but it does mention that he was once Hamato Yoshi. It doesn’t talk much about his more “stern” sensibilities in this incarnation of the Turtles, but it certainly seems as though Nick is trying to make him a bit more serious this go around.
Sculpt/Paint:
Probably of all the Nickelodeon Ninja Turtles figures I’ve reviewed thus far, Splinter probably has the most paint. Everyone else pretty much has a few painted parts here or there, but Splinter has a bit more. His design is more colorful than Splinter has ever been before.
Sometimes the Mirage Splinter was referred to as a big brown raisin (or worse brown things) because of his sort of clunky design. The vintage Ninja Turtles figure from Playmates was a fairly good recreation of that. However, the folks at Nickelodeon have decided to give Splinter a bit of a facelift (literally and figuratively) as he’s a younger version of the character and more colorful than before.
Typically rats are a brown or gray color and Splinter would follow suit, but this new version of the Turtles’ sensei is a reddish brown with black and white stripes on him. Some have said he looks a bit like a badger due to the coloring. He looks a bit darker in the cartoon than in this figure, but it’s a neat design regardless.
The paint is actually pretty sharp considering he’s got more than most the figures in this line. However there are a couple of areas where Playmates cheaped out. Specifically, his feet, which are wrapped in gray bandages and then should either be pink or furry. Instead they’re just gray. You can see the difference in the sculpting where they were supposed to be painted. Underneath his kimono, the whole leg is gray.
For the most part it’s not too distracting, because you barely see the legs and he’s got the gray bandages on his arms. But it’s a shame that they didn’t paint more. The paint work on the fingers is nice and it’s kind of neat to see Splinter finally get more rat-like hands than furry ones, but it’s nothing amazing. The kimono is devoid of any paint either aside from the buckle on the front, but that’s true to the design in the cartoon.
Someone call pest controll.
Splinter has actually had quite a few decent figures through the years. Most people’s default favorite version is probably the Movie Star version that was repainted three times in total. I really liked the TMNT version, whilst this new Nick version is a completely different take on the character. The design was so strange at first, but it’s grown on me.
There are a couple of annoying parts that don’t relate to the design so much as the figure itself. For starters, although he has a plastic robe and it’s a nice pliable rubber, it’s sort of clunky in the back. There are a few spots on the overall figure where you can see it’s pieced together. I don’t know how Playmates could have avoided that, but it shows you why they’ve typically done cloth kimonos before.
He also has difficulty standing. He’s not as finicky as the Kraang I don’t think, but he’s pretty close. Splinter has the benefit of a tail that honestly seems designed to hold him up. Of course he can stand without the aid of his tail, but the semi pre-posed legs and heavy robe seem to be the culprit in making him lean backwards.
It’s strange because there are some seriously frustrating parts of this figure and yet, the more I mess with him, the more I like him. This seems to be the case with all of these figures and I honestly can’t quite put my finger on why.
Articulation:
Splinter’s articulation is kind of wonky because he’s more or less as articulated as the 2K3 Splinter, but he feels less articulated because of the way his robe restricts movement. If the kimono was cloth, Splinter would move better.
The biggest issue is that robe, but if Playmates had given Splinter some of those “Hasbrows” that the TMNT have, he could really do some neat things with his arms. Instead he’s got good movement at the shoulders, but a swivel at the elbows that don’t do much for him. I’m not sure why it’s more restrictive on him, but it is.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t get him in a few good poses. Like I said, for all intents and purposes, he’s just as articulated as the 2K3 Splinter and certainly much more articulated than the last Splinter from Playmates. Of course if your intents and purposes are lots of wild poses, you’ll be disappointed.
To a lot of folks, Splinter need not do more than stand there and hold his cane. Maybe occasionally, point at something. He’s pretty great at doing that.
Accessories:
This is where Splinter is the biggest disappointment of the entire line thus far and that’s a shame.
Since the very first Splinter figure, he’s almost always came with some of the same weapons. A cane that turns into a sword and a bow and arrow. While there have been some variations, these are pretty much a given for Splinter.
Except for now… This Splinter comes with ONE accessory and that’s his cane. Nothing more. The cane itself is pretty cool as it’s made of a translucent, almost blue-green color. He carries this cane in the cartoon as well, so presumably we’ll learn why it looks the way it does. Some have speculated that maybe it’s made of mutagen or something, but it seems if that was the case it would be more green in hue.
I certainly don’t need anymore Splinter cane swords and I’m actually GLAD that he comes with this new cane as it’s something different and he looks great holding it.
But as my buddy Tokka pointed out, he looks so great with the 2K3 bow and quiver, that it’s a real shame he didn’t get one. Splinter’s archery skills aren’t often seen, but they are a part of the character and Playmates could have just reused the molds.
The good news is that April comes with enough training supplies that Splinter can borrow some, but it’s not really an excuse for this figure not to come with much. However up to this point everyone has come with a bunch of various instruments of destruction, so it’s not as big of a deal. I do think the “ninja arsenal” sticker might have been omitted from this package though!
Value:
At $8.99 Splinter isn’t as strong of a value as the Turtles. Not only is his articulation a bit weak (but we’ve seen worse for Splinter) he’s lacking some serious accessories. He’s also got a few missing paint applications and all those things combined make Splinter one of the weakest figures of the whole assortment. Yet, I actually don’t think he’s THAT bad of a figure. He’s got a neat design and he’s a fresh take on an otherwise stale character. I’m happy with my purchase, but you might not be.
Score Recap:
Packaging – 8
Sculpting – 8
Paint – 6
Articulation – 5
Accessories – Cane
Value – 6
Overall – 6 out of 10
Some of these auxiliary characters in the Turtles line just aren’t as good as the main guys. For the most part I think all of the figures are great values, but Splinter is definitely a bit weak. I really like him the more I have him, but I’m going to still give him a pretty average score. He’s just not as good as I know Playmates could have made him.
I still think he’s worth grabbing and is a solid pick up overall, especially because he goes so well with the Turtles. But if you have another old favorite Splinter, you could just as easily use that one with the new guys.
What is a rat’s favorite game?
Hide and go SQUEAK!
I made a funny!