2007 Playmates
TMNT (Movie)
Leonardo
Donatello
Michaelangelo
Raphael
MSRP: $7.99
Packaging
The TMNT Movie line features nice big brilliant vibrant energetic packaging. The graphics used are of a darker tone and do not resemble the super bright kid-friendly cartoonish packaging that we've been used to since the recent relaunch of those lines. The bubble features a few card inserts, creating a two dimensional look at the figure's feet as well as a small unique "collectible bio booklet", giving us a nice bit of info on our favorite hero in a half-shell.
General
TMNT figures stand about 6" tall and are usefully articulated, each with a 17 points of articulation featuring ball-joint shoulders, bicep swivel, shoulder hinge, wrist swivel, ball-joint legs, knee hinges and head on a ball. I love the change in design with the eyes being spread farther apart on these turtles. The masks wrapped around the turtles heads are separate more rubbery pieces and flow off the back of their heads in a dramatic wind blown effect. The belts, elbow pads, knee pads and wrist straps are all detailed nicely and colored properly. The plastron (the tan colored under-shell on their torsos) on every turtle has an especially detailed porous look and feel. Which brings me to my one gripe about these figures. The overall skin tone is a bit too bright, vibrant, glossy and perfectly smooth. These mutants would have been that much cooler had their skin provided a slightly more realistic tone and texture. Do any of you remember the very first line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle The Movie figures back in the early 90's? I loved the texture of those, but I'm sure it would be dated nowadays. Other than the skin tone, I love these figures and makes me even more excited about the upcoming cgi movie "TMNT" coming to theaters March 23rd, 2007.
Leonardo
Each Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle features a unique head sculpt. Leo's is a cool, calm focus, fitting for the leader of the quartet. He comes equipped with two Kitanas that fit perfectly into both his hands and sheaths strapped to his back, err, shell. Leo also comes with a hang glider that snaps on nice and snug to his shell.
Donatello
Immediately when looking at Donatello, you're thinking, wait, isn't his mask supposed to be purple? The mask looks more blue than purple until you stand him next to Leonardo. Don's head sculpt features a more fierce expression with some teeth showing in the corners of his mouth and some wrinkles on his brow. His bo staff fits well into his hands as well as the loop provided in the back of his belt for holstering. Donatello comes with the typical tech gear including, goggles, grappling hook and handheld electronic sensor-like gadget.
Michaelangelo
Mike looks high. Both of his eyes are much larger than the other three turtles and are looking opposite directions up and out. When I bought these, the guy at the store said he almost bought the set, but he disliked the Michaelangelo figure because of his eyes alone. Mike also has a huge grin showing both rows of teeth. Mike has the nunchucks and again with a belt that has the capacity to holster them in place on the back. The nunchucks are a thick medium-stiff plastic from one end to the other including the chain. These nunchucks would have been much better having an actual chain, wire, string or anything else allowing them to hang and swing around naturally. Finally Michaelangelo has a working skate board with peg that you can insert into his foot and send him flying off of the dinner table.
Raphael
Raph is the most unique in the set with a much more opaque, darker, duller finished skin tone. I wish all of the turtles were more like this tone. Raph has another serious expression with some teeth showing in one corner of his mouth and not the other. Raphael's two sai are monstrous, way out of scale. These sai holster into his belt on the sides instead of the back this time. Raph also comes equipped with two worn makeshift dumbbells for that special kind of Raphael, leave me alone attitude.
I hope that my enthusiasm for the upcoming TMNT movie isn't allowing me to judge these figures objectively, but aside from my skin tone and texture quibble, they are almost perfect. Michaelangelo's eyes don't bother me too much being that the wacky-ness seems to fit his character as we've seen in the trailers for the movie.
Score: 8 out of 10
