1st Annual Top 10 Most Viewed Action figures!

As of April 23rd, 2018, this blog has officially been running for a year! It's funny to think I've been writing this little hobby blog for *slightly* over a year. Anyway, I figure I'd celebrate that by starting a Top 10 Most viewed action figures. I figure *pun intended* I'd show off the blog posts that were of most interest to my readership. Here goes from 10th to 1st!



#10. DC Icons Aquaman
I did not expect him on this list, but it is --1. Nice that he made it and 2. Painfully funny that he is once again last on a list. I do actually like the figure, even with the gimmicky telepathy effect! He's simple, sleek and I like the glossy green parts of his suit.

Amazing-that-it-got-a-place Award!

"Willy's in trouble at the aquarium!"

#9. DC Icons Nightwing
He's always had a simple design in costume but Nightwing is my favorite in DC comics and this figure is my favorite Nightwing of the ones I own. I love the idea of a sidekick evolving to be his own thing. It's a natural progression that isn't often taken advantage of in comics. His kali sticks could be less plain but I'll be damned if I don't find his face sculpt one of the best of any Arkham or DC Classics I've seen.

Author's Favourite Award!

DC Icons line really should've made their
staves and sticks more interesting...basically
that's a metal bar with no features

#8 DC Icons Batgirl
Such a great Rebirth version of Batgirl. The fact this came with her big motorcycle is SWEET. With skid effects on the platform that comes with it! And a bunch of great accessories. She's a bit tricky to balance given the very light weight of the figure but is so great.

Punch pose! (for Instagram!)

Best Accessory Award!

#7 DC Collectibles Nightwing - Arkham Knight
He's only been in two of the four games, but his appearance in Arkham Knight was very pleasing. He had speaking parts, awesome dual play fights, and even some of his own missions and challenge maps. The character has a bit to be desired though. I don't particularly like his head and mask design. His articulation from his ab is just bad. His legs and body proportions also seem kinda weird. Oh well!

Playmates Toys' Foot Soldier - TMNT 2012 series

The Footsoldier or ninja is the classic backbone of any evil leader army! The Empire had storm troopers, Bowser had koppa troopers, and The Shredder has the Foot Clan.  By definition, a foot soldier is an infantryman who fights on foot, though in this case, the foot is also a symbol of the criminal organization that attempts to control NYC.

At first, the Foot clan is mostly human ninjas that do all the wet work, then later they are replaced with robot Foot ninjas that are basically Swiss army robot ninjas with a bazillion weapons. Either one is no real trouble for the turtles, but rule #1 of minion club is that the heroes have to have some weak enemies to beat up and show off their awesome moves!

The figure is one of the first releases and is of a pretty basic design. I have to say they are much improved compared to the 80s cartoon. The purple uniforms and oddly shaped heads didn't do it for me so much! The black costumes with red bandannas and eye mesh masks remind me a bit of the live action movies from the 90s. A nice feature on these guys is the crossed dual sheaths that hold both the shorter blade and longer ninja sword. They also come with two four-point shurikens and a comparable amount of posability as that of any of the villain character figures.

Playmates Toys' Dogpound - TMNT 2012 series

Dogpound is one of the many mutant minions that is original to the TMNT 2012 show. Originally Chris Bradford, a martial artist celebrity and secret servant to Shredder, he encounters the turtles and accidentally becomes exposed to the mutagen that turns him into Dogpound. Given he was last bitten by Shredder's akita dog, he becomes a monstrous dog creature covered in bony spikes along with a monstrous left arm with spiked knuckles.

He later mutates even further into Razhar, definitely a more sinister version, but I actually prefer his character as the smarmy, sarcastic, celebrity human self.  This is perhaps because he is modeled a bit after an evil type of Chuck Norris, which is hilarious.I bought this figure cause the sheer bulk of him compared to the turtles seemed like it was a neat difference that I hadn't really seen in the original toys from the 1980s. 

Despite the fact the figure is extremely top heavy, the legs and tail keep him satisfyingly upright. Like the other figures I'd discover in the line, he isn't super poseable, but is just generally neat to look at and have on the shelf. Paint and sculpt was ok as well, though you can't argue with the cheap price I got him at (11 CAD). He's actually not as easy to find cheap anymore, except on eBay and even there, shipping won't be kind to you unless you live in the continental U.S. 

DC Icons Batman (Rebirth)

The DC Rebirth universe has been a bit of a softer restart. It doesn't erase the events of the previous New 52 series, but simply puts on a fresh coat of paint to some characters backgrounds/looks and adds some new, interesting conflicts and events. The new Batman definitely has an updated look and life. He continues in his role to try to raise Damien Wayne as his son, while also finding himself trying to form a real relationship with Selina Kyle (Catwoman).

She said yes!

His look has changed a bit as well. He's still got the black and grey (my preferred), but the inside of his cape is purple (not my favourite for him, but interesting when you paralell the Joker). Add to that, his gloves are a bit bigger, and his boots have more pronounced ridges on the treads. I think this gives him a more work-out-tough-guy look. The other thing I'm torn about aside the cape is the knee pads. They are the same colour as the suit, but in a strange H shape. I don't quite get it?

The Batman here represents all those elements really well though. The articulation is pretty good, and this Batman has the newer drop down hinge hips. He is a bit bulkier, so his double joints don't work as effectively. One sore point for me about the DC Rebirth figures from the 7 pack is the lack of accessories or even alternate hands. I can stand not having another batarang, but there's not much choice for alternate hands. All in all though, he's a really nice figure and the design is very cleanly painted and sculpted.

Playmates Toys' Shredder (Customization) - TMNT 2012 series

Oh Shredder, always trying to stop those dang turtles!
In the 2012 show, Shredder is the typical obsessed, megalomanic, arrogant, cold-hearted villain although most of his rage and vengeance is directed towards Splinter. In the show, they both loved the same woman, Tang-Shen, but in a heated battle, she died and Shredder has blamed Splinter (though it's pretty clear Shredder --aka Oroku Saki-- killed her). He's a pretty generic villain in terms of personality and motivation, but the turtles have to have someone to fight!

There's a story about buying this shredder, and it goes like this:
I was buying the turtles, excited by the show and my re-introduction to collecting the toys. I bought the four turtles, then went to order Shredder at the same time. I wasn't really paying attention, and accidentally ordered the 8 inch tall Sound FX shredder. To the figure's credit, the look was pretty spot on, but the articulation was garbage since it was mostly meant as a sound effects toy. So I kept the figure and ordered the first release of the shredder.

Like the first release of the turtles, it was not quite like the cartoon. For one, the face plate wasn't completely painted, and the head sculpt in general was poor. The shredder gauntlet blades were far too short, even if they were meant to be in their retracted state. Last, there was no purple cape! Though he does remove it sometimes, he is mostly seen with the cape.

Customization steps:

Playmates Toys' Michelangelo - TMNT 2012 series

Mikey is and always has been, my favourite turtle. He is the liveliest of the bunch, he uses a fairly unconventional fighting weapon, and he is just downright hilarious. He is super-improved by the 2012 series treatment. Whereas before Mikey was more of a slight prankster and joker, he is off-the-wall funny in this. His antics between the brothers probably made me want to watch the show more than any other single character. I dare you to watch the episode "The Gauntlet" from season 1 and not laugh. This series also makes him more emotionally immature, but loving, than previous iterations.
He is, after all, the youngest of the turtle brothers.

This figure is the shortest of the four turtles, and his lime green skin tone is pretty close to the show colours. One thing they didn't add to the paint --and I wouldn't expect in a Playmates toy-- is the darker green freckles, which add to his more teenager-innocent look.

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.