Thankfully Playmates was happy to oblige. With the new Turtles cartoon out and renewed interest in the property, they released Classic versions of the action figures, taking cues from both the original toys and the animation models from the series and kind of smooshing them together. Very successfully, I might add.
Leonardo
I'll start with Leo because he was my favorite Turtle. I liked the blue bandana and the ninja swords, and I still do. Aping the expression of the original figures, Leo has a half-sneer going on and most of his parts are cast in a muted spring green plastic. Unlike the original figure, however, Leo has painted-on pupils, like his animated counterpart. I'm not sure I like the pupils on these yet, and we'll get to that. On Leo, they're applied fairly well and don't look too goofy, but I think they could could have gone with the blank white eyes, like the originals, and they'd have looked just as good.
Michelangelo
My second favorite Turtle as a kid is my least favorite now, thanks to familiarizing myself with history and weaponry. It also doesn't help that of the pupils on these four, Mikey got the worst applications. On all four, it seems the left pupil is a little bigger than the right, and it's most evident here. On the other three, who have the traditional grimace, it doesn't look as bad, but on Mikey it comes off looking dopey thanks to his stern, toothless expression. Maybe he realized that the historic basis for his weaponry is tenuous, at best and began to despair, but we are talking about Mutant Ninja Turtles, after all. The metal chains on the nunchaku are a very nice touch, though.
Raphael
Raph is currently my favorite of the four figures, mostly due to the fact that he can hold his Sai in a "punching" position. It gives him more character than the others, somehow. His symmetrical grimace is spot-on for the character, and his light olive green is just a shade darker than Leo's like his original toy.
Donatello
Don also gets the wonky eye treatment, but not as bad. I like his staff, but I have two nits-- It could be a tad longer and there could be an extra one like the original. But that's pretty minor. Getting him to do the "staff under the arm" pose is a pretty big deal for a toy. There aren't too many mass-market figures that can do that, and it's all thanks to the incredible articulation at work, which brings us to:
The Good: These boys are packed with articulation. The packaging (with its dreaded twist ties, argh!) boasts "34 Points of Articulation!" and they aren't shitting you. Each Turtle has a ball-joint neck with somewhat limited range, ball shoulders, bicep cuts, double-jointed elbows, ball wrists, a mid-torso ball joint, ball hips, thigh swivels, double-jointed knees, ball ankles and an ankle pivot, and articulated toes. Phew!
Oh, and I didn't even mention the fingers:
The thumb moves around as well as up and down, which is a huge help holding their weapons. When purchasing these, the articulated fingers were my biggest concern, but the double jointed thumbs and fairly tight joints put all that to rest. These are sturdy figures all around, and the only wobbly joints I can find are at the torso, and those aren't so bad.
Their weapons are all cast in appropriate colors and have painted details to match their color schemes, except Donatello, who has white bandaging on the grip of his Bo. Why they did this and made everyone else's weapon grips coordinated is beyond me. Each has a sewer lid stand with their name tampo'd across it and chunky foot pegs that keep them securely in place. I wish more companies would consider stands for collector figures obligatory. We aren't throwing them in the toy box in the play room; we want to stand them up for display so our friends can come over and see how weird we are.
The Not So Good: If you buy these in person, check for paint apps on the eyes. Since I ordered online from Target, I got the luck of the draw. But considering I got them for $14.99 each and didn't have to leave the house, I'll deal with it. If you're lazy like me and want to take a chance, that's probably your best bet; I've only seen these at Toys "R" Us three times, and each time the price went up. At first, they were $18.99. About a month later, they were $19.99, and at a different TRU on THE SAME DAY (I was hunting for Masterpiece Prime and I'm a loser, okay?) the tag read $22.99! So if you want 'em, get 'em from Target.com and hope you don't get weird eyes. They are also light on the accessories-- I wouldn't have minded a myriad of ninja weapons like the originals had, or at least a shuriken or two.
Overall: These guys satisfied a pretty good want from me: Classic Turtle representation with modern engineering and articulation. I'm impressed with them, and more than I thought I would be. I recommend them, or if you just want your favorite Turtle, go for it. But you can't just have ONE, can you? Of course you can't...
-Swift
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