Playmates Toys' Donatello - TMNT 2012 series

Donatello is the classic, socially awkward, gadget brainiac/science nerd. As a science and science fiction nerd myself, I really enjoy his character. Compared to other series, Donatello's character is more or less the same, with the addition of being romantically attracted to April. He is involved more in the group than just being their tech and weapons/arsenal designer, which is nice. They really drive his character home as a bit hyper-logical, for example when a piece of Splinter wisdom goes right over his head.

He's a bit taller and leaner physically than the other turtles, and this figure shows that most especially in the head/neck. They gave his regular bo staff a bit of a kick by having him design a naginata type blade that folds out of one end. His accessories include his staff, bladed staff, two saw disc-type shurikens and a three section staff (sansetsu kun). I am a little bit disappointed that the staff is a bit too short. When he grips it with both hands, there's barely any left on each end.

Playmates Toys' Raphael - TMNT 2012 series

Raphael the rage machine! He still keeps that mantle, but in the 2012 series he is pretty hilarious himself, and razzes his brothers pretty well. I find along with all the other turtle personalities, I found this series really made me like each one more, whereas the older series I was more ambivalent about most with the exception of Mikey. I've always thought Raph had the most unique/neatest weapons since he uses them for all kinds of purposes in fights, where the sword, staff and nunchaku's have always been pretty one dimensional as a weapon in most iterations of the shows and movies.

This figure has a very dark forest green skin tone, and a pretty similar sculpt to the others. He's about the same height as Leo and comes with his sais, two "half" sais, two tiger head hook swords, and two four-pointed shurikens.

Playmates Toys' Leonardo - TMNT 2012 series

Leo is the classic leader. He tries to get everyone to work together, mediates Raph's temper, Mikey's impulse and Donny's haywired gadgets. He's got a tough job! The Leonardo in this series is a little bit more dynamic than others. He's a little less serious, and is made fun of by the other brothers to some good comedic effect. He is a bit more naive in his ideas than other iterations of Leo, and even enjoys a hilarious mock-Star-Trek space TV series.

I have to say, this is my favourite version of Leo, and he is one of my least favourite turtles.
This figure has more of a emerald green cast, and unlike the old line of TMNT figures, each turtle has a unique mold. They are even different heights, with Donny being the tallest, and Mikey the shortest of the turtles.

Update: TMNT Tuesdays!

Starting tomorrow, I decided I'd mix it up a little bit with reviewing some TMNT figures every Tuesday for the next little while. They're pretty basic figures mostly meant for kids, which makes it not so much work to write and shoot.

The TMNT Line has been owned by Playmates Toys, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong toy company, Playmates holdings, for many many years (since 1966).  Playmates actually sort of hovers for me between the area of too-bright, bulky, unarticulated Vs. adult collectible toy for this line.
The turtle brothers actually have a decent amount of articulation and range for their price point as well as the typical unpainted sprue accessories. The other characters look fairly close to the show but don't really have as many posing options, which is a shame.

Back in the day (oh yes I did), the older TMNT line had the characters in every kind of style and outfit imaginable, such as:

Wind up toys:


to "disguised" turtles (I had Mikey, but really was jealous of my friends' leonardo)



to some REALLY bizarre stuff:


*All images courtesy of tmnttoys.com

There have been quite a few lines since the first line based on movies and other tv shows.
I have a soft spot for TMNT toys because they were the very first action figures I remember having as a kid since I was so inundated at the time by the 1980s TV cartoon. I didn't have most of the crazy versions, but I do distinctly remember owning the basic four, krang, a mouser, foot soldier, and maybe some random versions like the turtle transforming Raph.

The TMNT toys are what actually got me first into collecting as an adult, ironically enough a few years ago. I had seen a friend get a few nice figures that looked great on his shelf and reminded me how much I missed the cartoons and make-believe pastimes of my youth, then I was introduced by the same friend to the newer TMNT (2012) series. I was kinda blown away! It was CG, but it was, what I considered, to be pretty good. The humour was great, and they even added in many japanese terms, something I think the other series --including the original--were missing.

I am kinda sad to see the series end! I'm not a big fan of the aesthetic look of the new upcoming series: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but I was willing to give the 2012 series a chance, so as a fan I'll do the same for this series.

DC Collectibles Manbat - Arkham Knight

Kirk Langstrom is a successful scientist and loving husband who is quickly developing chronic deafness. So what does he do? What any comic book good guy turned-villain would do. Splices DNA with that of a bat in order to counteract his disorder. Now, this is the part where you ignore science, because he ends up turning himself into an animalistic, superhuman strong bat creature.

As an opponent to Batman, he's a little bit limited in what is done story-wise with the character, in that he's more of a tragic villain. A bit of a Jekyll and Hyde type, rather than a malicious, evil psychopath that is typical of Batman's rogue gallery.
In the game, unlike some of the comics, he kills his wife during his transformation, then pretty much just flies around the city until you discover and try to cure him. Now, I was actually expecting his appearance, as it is a bit of a jump-scare, and he still scared the CRAP outta me when the scene came. His role is a side mission called Creature of the Night, which isn't particularly long.

SH Figuarts- Sasuke Uchiha (Itachi Battle Version)

Sasuke has always been a cold-hearted rival to Naruto who hailed from the same Ninja village, the Village Hidden in the Leaves. At least, he started out that way, then became a deserter/traitor, full blown villain and then other things! His character is always portrayed as an angry, competitive and very powerful shinobi.

Unlike Naruto, whose powers mostly focus on the Rasengan, Shadow clones and Wind powers, Sasuke's are mostly those of fire, lightning and his eye-powers of the Sharingan, which can do a variety of things from creating illusions, summoning unquenchable black fire, and precognition of movements in battle. Pretty useful!