The Gift Guide for Geeks continues with a look at the latest iteration of the “Heroes in a Half-Shell.”

NOTE: PRODUCT FOR THIS ARTICLE WAS PROVIDED BY PLAYMATES

      Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a new animated series that premiered this past September on Nickelodeon. It centers around the early days of the Turtles’ time in New York. 

     The series is notable due to the fairly radical redesign of the main characters and the absence of long time series villain Shredder. The Turtles also experience a change to their standard weapons, with each Turtle getting a new weapon, that is magically infused with special powers.

    I have to say that I personally was worried about the new designs, but the series has won me over with it’s humor and the sense of brotherhood it portrays is faithful to the “heart” of the TMNT concept.

      Likewise, Playmates is so good at making Ninja Turtles figures by now that they can probably do it blindfolded. Each of the four main turtle figures has 13 points of articulation, which is a fairly staggering amount. Taking into account the articulation and the large number of accessories each figure comes with, and these figures are actually an exceptional value for the approximately $10-15 price range they come out at, depending on where you buy them.

      For the Gift Guide, I am featuring 5 of the Basic Figures: Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael and Meat Sweats. Each of these characters is faithfully recreated by Playmates in the toy line, and as I mentioned before, each comes with a healthy number of accessories. The new “magical” weapons are done in a translucent plastic matching the color associated with that Turtle (blue for Leo…etc. ). Also, Leo and Mikey come with skateboards that have real working wheels, again color coded, and Mikey has the extra benefit of having a sticker sheet included that you can use to personalize your board, a great extra nod to the artistic nature of the character.

Here is a gallery of photos of the figures.

      Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles airs on Nickelodeon. These figures, in addition to other items including the Shell Hog motorcycles and the Turtle Tank, the newest version of the legendary Party Wagon, and the absolutely unbelievable Epic Sewer Lair playset, which is 3 feet tall!

     Playmates Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy line is available at Walmart, Target, Amazon and many other retailers.

My Special Thanks to Tori Schettino for her assistance