Playmates Toys Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1988 Remastered 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 1988 Remastered figures by Playmates Toys. Yes, finally! The TMNT are back! Did you miss them? This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Ninja Turtles, and Playmates Toys decided to give the TMNT line the same thing that Mattel did to the Master of the Universe franchise with the Origins line... well, sort of.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles turn 40 this year (Can we still call them 'teenage'?) and Playmates Toys decided to give us new and improved versions of the figures of the 4 brothers from the very first wave from 1988. On the paper, that sounds awesome, right? The TMNT line getting their own 'Origins' treatment, what more could a TMNT fan ask for? Well, how about a diorama base with each turtles? Sure! How about unnecessary extra weapons? I... I don't know, I was fine with just the original ones. Okay, then how about we give them orange peel skin that make them look like pickles? What? No... They'll be $12! Okay, I guess...



The packaging is really eye catching, with elements from the classic ones from the past. The 'battle bases' connect to each other and each turtle comes with 2 different accessories to put on them, to differentiate them from each other (otherwise, it's pretty much the same mould 4 times). The parts that attach to the wall have a peg, but the other ones (window, chimney, vent,...) do not attach to them and are just...there. Still, a fun addition to the sets.





The turtles themselves are fine, they do have more articulations than the original ones (elbows and knees, wrist and ankle swivels - aka "super articulations!"). They're pretty fun in hand, and what you'd expect of a $12 toy. They all come with a base, their signature weapons (which are painted!), 2 shurikens, katar and fist dagger, along with random weapons. The nostalgia alone makes them worth it (if you didn't grab one of the 724 reissues and re-releases they did in the last 36 years). Playmates Toys just had a few questionable decisions when it comes to those: mainly, the orange peel / pickle skin (aka "enhanced scultpted details and deco"), switching Leonardo and Donatello's heads (why?), the extra weapons that don't make a lot of sense. Apart from that, they're great, I swear! ^^










"What is that thing?"









"How am I supposed to use this?"











"I have never seen anything like this before..."









"What is even that?"





"Let's agree to never mention those ever again..."

Playmates Toys also recently released the TMNT Original sketch versions of the 4 brothers, which I will review next week!





More news at 11:00... 40 years of Cowabunga, dudes!