Jay's Toy Shelf : NECA TMNT Splinter

Saturday, August 14, 2021

NECA TMNT Splinter - 1990s Film

Splinter comes into most of the TMNT franchise as the pet rat of the ninja Hamato Yoshi. The rat, Splinter, mimics his master's movements during practice. Later, when Hamato Yoshi fights with Oroku Saki (Later, Shredder). He is murdered, but Splinter escapes from his cage and claws at Saki's face, giving him his scars. Saki slices off Splinter's ear during the fight. Splinter escapes to the sewers of New York. Later a canister falls into the sewers along with four turtles and it mutates all five of them. Splinter names them and trains them in the ninjutsu of his master Hamato Yoshi.

NECA as usual has done an amazing job of replicating Splinter to top-notch movie accuracy. They did a great job of shading and sculpting each line of fur, claws and bandages. The scale compared to the turtles is great. I'm not a big fan of cloth goods but in this case, it works well. Very tattered and loose-fitting. It's quite easy to remove as well. The ribbon that sinches it together is pretty strange. I would've almost preferred a soft rubber peg-in attachment belt. Overall though, fantastic figure to go along with the turtles!

Sculpt/Paint: 3/3 Perfect job on the fur texture and face sculpt here. I am literally looking at a perfect plastic rendition of the splinter. The only thing that knocks it off is the cloth goods, especially the bow ribbon belt.

Articulation: 3/3 (30+ points): In the quest for that perfect articulation that offers both ranges of motion but also hides joints there are a lot of ways to do it. Toy companies often choose either mostly aesthetic or mostly range of motion. NECA seems to try to really straddle that line to the max. Splinter has very skinny arms and legs, as well as no true neck joint found in a standard humanoid figure. The head is on a ball joint that also swivels up and down and offers a surprising range. It is really well hidden in the sculpt as well. The knees, elbows and ankles all have double joints that also allow for swivels sideways. There is a toe hinge which in this rare case works out well for a rat-like figure. There are two small and fairly limited waist crunch ball joints well hidden both under the robe and overlapped by fur sculpt. The tail also swivels at its base and has a wire in one section of it to allow for some bending although it is quite stiff.

Accessories: 1/1 He is supposed to come with a pizza slice, nunchucku and a TCRI mutagen canister. Since I bought these second hand, he only came with the cannister, and it is super well done and painted. I assume the rest is good too. I wish he came with fist hands but honestly in the movies he doesn't do a ton of punching or anything so I'm fine with it.

Fun Factor: 2/3 He looks great on the shelf with the other 1990 NECA movie TMNT action figures. His tail allows for decent balance despite the short legs and bulkier body. You can put him in a variety of poses and no matter what you do with him he always looks wise! Great figure.

Verdict: 9/10 It's a fantastic figure and if you're at all a fan of the TMNT movies this is a must for you. It's great to have with your turtles and vs Shredder. Unless I see the figures super cheap I'll probably stick with this collection of TMNT movie figures but I highly recommend all the same!