Jay's Toy Shelf : Playmates Toys' Leonardo

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

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.

The figure has some decent articulation for a kids toy with nice range of motion in the ball and hinge jointed shoulders and thighs. I like that he comes with a scabbard you can actually fit both swords into quite snugly. The sculpting job is decent with some nice texturing and scratch/battle marks over the shell parts. He comes with his two swords, 3 kunai knives, 2 6-pointed shurikens and a weird...knife-like thing? I'm still not sure what it is. All the accessories are unpainted, and the paint is probably the weakest part of these lines of figures.

Sculpt&Paint: 3/5 This figure really comes through with the texturing of the skin, shell, bandages and even the weapons are pretty good. The paint is mostly fine, but it's fairly sloppy in some places, there's nothing on the weapons or belts, and obviously there's no shading.

Articulation: 3/5 (19 PoA). Given the old toys I wasn't expecting much range for these guys, but the shoulders and hips offer quite a bit. The elbows and knees are pretty limited in how far you can move them because of the way they made the elbow/knee pads + the overly bulky forearm. No ankles or waists (though you don't see waist articulation much on the turtles in nearly any figure lines except maybe SH Figuarts or Revoltech).

Price/Availability: 5/5 Dead cheap on eBay. Search up TMNT action figure lots, or even most individual figures (whether that's this line or the 1980s line) and they'll be a dollar or two at most per figure.

Accessories: 2/5 Okay! TMNT figures have always come with their standard weapons and a couple of extra pieces like the shurikens and such. In this case he has a few extra (including the weird knife...thing) that are all unpainted, solid grey metal look. Not bad, but definitely would've been nicer painted.

Fun factor: 3/5 These are fairly good playwise! Unlike the older figures that sometimes had a raised up foot, these have flat, wide feed that make it easier to pose and balance, even kicking. They look fairly decent on the shelf in a collection or a battle display.

Verdict: 16/25 Good. Generally, I will give this type of toy a decent rating, since I'm an adult toy collector...and this isn't an adult toy! That seems a little unfair perhaps, but ultimately I enjoy the figure and it was the first of four that got me into collecting, so it gets to have some blog time!