Dark Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

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Dark Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Classic Cartoon) Review

Dark Leonardo
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Classic Cartoon (Neca)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 inspiration from the old TMNT cereal for the artwork, what with the shell bowl and giant spoon. The art on the back makes sense if you've read the aforementioned issue, but he needs an actual bio rather than just "Quit hitting yourself. Quit hitting yourself" (it's funny, though, I'll give 'em that).

Alternate universe evil Leo is sculpted by Brodie Perkins and Tomasz Rozejowski, and it's an all-new sculpt with no recycled tooling, so that's cool. The dark turtles don't wear their usual eye masks, but they do wear masks over their mouths, and his eyes match the style of the cartoon more than the comic. The portrait looks great and sinister, and he has the darker skin color seen on recent Turtle figures like the Pizza Club releases and Punk Turtles. He gets a second head, and it's a Foot Soldier hood. The box calls it a "mind control hood," and I believe it's something from the comic I haven't read about yet. My mind's going "attempted disguise," and the colors are quite bold. It works with the other Turtles as well, and makes for some interesting displays and stories.

At 5 1/2" tall, Leonardo certainly has the edgy look going for him. He has straps covering his arms and legs, a spiked harness with metal chains, bladed shoulder and forearm guards on opposite arms, spiked shin guards, and something on his right forearm. Is it a laser or something? Whatever it is, it can be popped off so it doesn't get in the way of swapping hands. The outfit matches the comic, but the katana sheaths don't, as he doesn't have his scabbards, rather just getting a piece of leather(?) for the swords to slide into. I'm not much on it, and comic-accurate sheaths would've been better. The paint is good, with clean work on the lines, but slop is what you'll want to be mindful of, so look for the best one on the shelves. The best one I could find has a small gray streak on the harness, but everything else is good. And the foot symbol on his left shoulder? It's indented in rather than just painted. Probably wasn't a painless process to get it on him.

A new sculpt means Leo gets slightly improved articulation, and by slightly I mean there's only really one change from the base Turtles. He has a barbell head and chest, ball-jointed neck and hips, swivel/hinge shoulders, wrists, and ankles, double-hinged elbows (the one change in question) and knees, and swivel biceps, thighs, and mask knot. There's some tightness to the elbows and knees due to the pinless designs NECA's now using, but once freed up they work great, as does everything else, though the right shoulder is limited due to the shoulder pad. The main head is a bit hard to pop off the ball the first couple of times you swap portraits, but the alternate head goes on and off easily, as do the hands.

There isn't too much when it comes to accessories, but what Dark Leo has works with him. He gets three sets of hands - closed, gripping, and grasping - and these are all new sculpts. It's also about time we get a proper set of fists for the bros, though only for the darker green ones we've been getting as of late. He has a pair of katanas, of course, but he also has a mace that reminds me of the OG Foot Soldier figure. It looks nice, but why couldn't they have made it bendable? It would make it more dynamic than being just straight. Lastly, there's a lenticular card depicting Dark Leo with his brothers in the shadows, and as you can guess, this is meant for Donatello's Portable Portal Generator. That was a NECA Store exclusive, and I passed on it due to it being overpriced, but you'll need it to make good use of this add-on. The art/animation on the card itself is great, and it actually looks like the cartoon!

I don't understand why it took NECA so long to give us Saturday Morning Adventures figures, but this is a great one to start out on. The design is cool as heck, and if you can get past the minor articulation issues, you'll find Dark Leo's a very fun figure. Hopefully, this opens the door to more from these comics: Dark Don and Raph, General Thrum, Professor MacGuffin, Old Hob, that toon-styled Last Ronin teased at SDCC a long while back… the possibilities are quite plentiful.

- 6/4/25