NECA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) + Shredder Review and Images

It's Wednesday and you know what that means: ToyFarce review!

This week, we're having a look at the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Shredder figures from the 2012 animated series by NECA! I loved the 2012 animated series from Nickelodeon so much, it was a really fresh, fun take on the turtles and I bought the Playmates Toys figures immediately when they came out, so when NECA announced they would dive into those at NYCC last year, I was very excited about it. Seeing how good they take care of all the other TMNT lines, I'm looking forward to see how deep they go in that line! 

First of all, let's get in the mood...



The packaging for those figures looks pretty radical, with art by TMNT artist Ciro Nieli. Just like the TMNT:The Last Ronin figures, the packaging also have art on the side which lines up with the other boxes.



The 4 turtles figures all come with 2 head sculpts, 3 to 4 pairs of hands, their respective weapons, a turtlecom, a smoke bomb (made with eggs!) and a slice of pizza. Additionally, Leonardo also has a Microfission Omni-Disintegrator, Raphael comes with Chompy, the Volcanthian fire tortoise and a spy bug, Donatello has a tracking device of his own invention, his goggles and Dr. Cluckingsworth M.D., the mutant chicken, and Michelangelo comes with the BEST CHARACTER OF ALL TIME, Ice Cream Kitty, an anthropomorphic Mutant cat/ice cream hybrid. Yep. This is a pretty big deal since it's the first time we get a figure of that fan-favorite character. 






































The figures look pretty darn amazing, but are unfortunately not without their issues. The elbows feel very gummy and some of the articulations can be pretty stiff (knees, feet, shoulders). The extra parts are easy to swap, though. They have a rather low range of articulations, most likely not to have cuts all over the sculpt, with some interesting ones (the shoulder and neck part can move inside the shell, allowing for a bit more movement). The 'grabby' hands are very tight also, and you really have to force them open to fit the weapons. I do love the matte finish of the paint, and the heads with pupils look very much like the cartoon, especially Mikey. I'd have loved a head with the pupils for Leonardo as well instead of the closed eyes, for consistency, but I have a feeling we'll get one down the line. I remember Mikey having a skateboard as well in the displays at NYCC, which didn't make it to the final product. They will still look AWESOME on our shelves!


































Shredder also looks great, but moves even less than the turtles. He comes with 2 heads, 3 pairs of hands, removable blades and a Krang figure. His soft goods cape is fine, but doesn't really add much since it just hangs behind. A wire might have helped? The articulations on this Shredder are... questionable. He's tall but doesn't have thigh swivels or boot cut, so his feet are always in the same angle under the shin guard. The armor parts are pretty big too and hinder articulation a bit. However, he looks very good and exactly like in the show. The helmet is removable with 2 heads to swap under it. The Krang mini figure is a nice addition. 


















Comparison pics with the Playmates Toys 2012 TMNT figures:






Comparison pics with the Super7 original TMNT figures (Leonardo), NECA Cartoon TMNT figures (Raphael), Mezco TMNT figures (Donatello) and Super7 2003 TMNT figures (Michelangelo):






NECA has since announced a Foot Soldier figure and revealed a Tiger Claw figure at SDCC this year, and hopefully there are a lot more to come. You can get some of those NECA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) figures from our sponsor BigBadToyStore (they pop up every now and then, so do keep an eye if you need them).



More news at 11:00... BOOYAKASHA!