Donatello
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Classic Cartoon (Neca) - 2012 Cartoon
Rated 4.55 stars by Toasted Brains
In every adaptation of TMNT, Donatello serves as the inventor of the group, just like how Leo's the leader, Raph's the tough guy, and Mikey's the fun-loving one. In the 2012 series, he was nerdier than previous versions, but he and his brothers all shared the same love for old cartoons, video games, comic books… the usual stuff teenagers and nerds like. Plus, he was voiced by Rob Paulsen, the voice of Raphael from the original cartoon (inevitably leading to a same-voice joke when both generations of Turtles met). Although he's number #1 in NECA's 2012 line, he's the fourth figure I got, and the third I'll be reviewing. Again, May Thamtarana sculpted these versions of the turtles, and Donatello looks just as good as Leo and Mikey. His default portrait is a serious one, with blank white...[See More]

Robot Tokka and Robo Rahzar
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Classic Cartoon (Neca) - Multi-Packs
Rated 4.30 stars by Toasted Brains
For a line that's been going on for a few years now, NECA's TMNT '87 line has included plenty of characters and outfits from the show, and some that aren't. We got made-up outfits for existing characters (like Space Usagi and Samurai Michelangelo), a character from post-series material (Dark Leonardo from the IDW Saturday Morning Adventures comics), a character that wasn't in the show (Panda Khan), and now robotic versions of characters. Bebop and Rocksteady's robotic doppelgängers were released as part of Target's first Haulathon, and the latest event gives Tokka and Rahzar the cybernetic treatment. The pair here were designed by Sylvain Plantier, a.k.a. SNZ Toys, and sculpted by Tomasz Rozejowski (with Jay Kushwara tooling articulation, I believe). Their designs are based more off the...[See More]

Adventures of Space Usagi
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Classic Cartoon (Neca) - Basic Series
Rated 4.75 stars by Toasted Brains
While NECA doing a Miyamoto Usagi/Usagi Yojimbo for their '87 TMNT line was expected, giving him a variant was not. Sure, character variants are to be expected out of a cartoon toyline, but how could a character who only appeared in two episodes get another version besides a black-and-white repaint more associated with his comic origins? Simple, they made up their own, and that's where Space Usagi came from. There was a pilot for a potential Space Usagi series by the same company behind the original TMNT cartoon, but this figure has nothing to do with that. Compared to the rest of the Ultimates, the art style used for the packaging has a different aesthetic, being done by Ben Seto instead of Dan Elson and/or Aaron Hazouri, with a bolder, airbrushed look as opposed to making it look like...[See More]

Garfello (Garfield and Odie)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Classic Cartoon (Neca) - Garfield
Rated 4.85 stars by Toasted Brains
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has crossed over with a lot of other properties over the years, but one of the earliest ones is Garfield, who's as just as big of a name in newspaper comics as Turtles are to indie comics. Aside from that Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue special, issue #7 of the lesser-known TMNT Magazine featured a comic where the fat cat attempted to infiltrate the Turtles to eat all their pizza, to little success. Many years later, "Garfello" is finally receiving merchandise, with Nickelodeon now owning both properties making it easier to happen, and NECA has given his lesser-known disguise his first action figure. Garfello comes in the usual five-panel packaging, with the front and back having illustrations by Jason Yang. The graphics depict Garfield doing what he loves...[See More]

Michelangelo
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Classic Cartoon (Neca) - 2012 Cartoon
Rated 4.70 stars by Toasted Brains
After years of doing figures from the original TMNT cartoon, NECA taking on the 2012 cartoon alongside it came as a surprise, but a good one. The last collector-oriented 2012 Turtle figures were the Revoltechs, and those go for high prices now, so a cheaper alternative is much needed. Michelangelo was the first one they revealed, and he's the next figure in the line I'll be looking at. In the 2012 series, Mikey's still the party dude, but he's less "surfer dude" and more "wild child," and May Thamtarana captured his personality well with the default portrait, giving him a goofy smile. He looks very accurate to the show (it probably helps the show was already in three dimensions, giving NECA something to work off of), and the paint looks great, with bold colors and various specks on the...[See More]

Leonardo
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Classic Cartoon (Neca) - 2012 Cartoon
Rated 4.55 stars by Toasted Brains
No matter when you were born, chances are you've grown up with at least one incarnation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. For me, it was the 2012 series, the first one to use CGI, and the first with Nickelodeon's involvement. I saw a little bit of it when it was still running, but it wasn't until like two or three years ago that I completed a proper watch through of the series, and if you haven't seen it, you should. It's a love letter to the franchise as a whole, mixing action, humor, and surprisingly dark elements together well, and with a big-name cast to boot. When NECA, who's been doing figures from the first TMNT cartoon for years, announced they'd be tackling the 2012 series as well, I was hyped. The figures have been out for some time now, and my first of them is the leader...[See More]

Bodacious Beach Bros.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Classic Cartoon (Neca) - Basic Series
Rated 4.05 stars by Toasted Brains
SDCC was a while ago, and usually NECA's exclusive game is strong. This year's exclusives had a bit of a summer theme, including a surfing Chucky and a Tiki-headed Ben Cooper kid, but the only one that interested me was TMNT's "Bodacious Beach Bros." set. It's another toon exclusive, but it's their first SDCC release to feature outfits not from the show. We've seen line-exclusive variants for a while (including a beachgoer Slash that looks fun), and I'm always open to stuff like that. Even though summer is long gone and we're close to winter, I may as well review this set before it gets any colder. The packaging is really cool, as it has an illustration by Ken Mitchroney on the front. He's been doing all the illustrations for the Adventures figures, and seeing his style for the cartoon...[See More]

Granny Bebop and Baby Rocksteady
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Classic Cartoon (Neca) - Multi-Packs
Rated 4.45 stars by Toasted Brains
It seems NECA is required to put out a pair of Bebop and Rocksteady figures each year, and I can see why. The duo has had plenty of memorable disguises in the original cartoon, and the latest release of the pair is a much-requested one, being their granny and baby disguises from "Four Turtles and a Baby." Could a rhino in a diaper be the funniest action figure ever made? I'm going to say maybe. Keeping up the trend of having a different sculptor behind each B&R set, Brodie Perkins did much of the sculpting here, with assistance from Tony Cipriano and Tomasz Rozejowski (who did the vacation variants). Bebop has the old lady look down pat, with a gray wig, glasses, and lipstick. He has eyes underneath the glasses, and they're fully painted despite the glasses not being removable. The head...[See More]

Dark Leonardo (Two Scoops of Evil)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Classic Cartoon (Neca) - Basic Series
Rated 4.45 stars by Toasted Brains
Before I get into talking about the last Haulathon TMNT toon figure, have you read IDW's TMNT Saturday Morning Adventures comic? It's an expansion of the original 1987 cartoon, and it does a great job providing new stories from that universe while keeping the charm and humor of the show. It's given us plenty of action figure potential as well, so it's odd NECA hasn't tried doing any of the new characters or outfits from it, at least until a few months ago. The first SMA figure is Dark Leonardo, coming from issue #20, which features Michelangelo in an alternate universe where he never existed, resulting in his brothers and sensei being evil. Aaron Hazouri is once again doing the box art, and it's paired with a clever pun for the faux VHS title, "Two Scoops of Evil." I also see a bit of...[See More]

Tattoo and Wyrm
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Classic Cartoon (Neca) - Multi-Packs
Rated 4.35 stars by Toasted Brains
Having run for at least five years by this point, NECA's TMNT toon line has been scraping a bit for figures. They've done one-shots, characters in outfits not from the show, and now characters who never appeared in the show at all. The other two-pack out now alongside the ghostly pair of Creepy Eddie and Shibano-Sama consists of both a one-shot and a character who was animated around the time the show ran, but didn't actually appear in the show. The one-shot here is Tattoo, who you may recognize from the OG toy line, but he showed up in "Planet of the Turtleoids," where rather than being a good guy, he was a more neutral character. Apparently, he went from being a hamster to a sumo wrestler because of Shredder and Krang, and all he wanted was to go back home… to his cage. I guess they...[See More]