Playmates has been putting out toys based on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ever since the beginning of the phenomenon. Now, they have developed two new lines under the Mutations banner. One allows you to “mix and match” different body parts to create new characters. The other “transforms” a figure from a full size turtle to a baby turtle. I asked our sometimes contributor, and TMNT Expert, Joseph, to put these new lines through their paces. This is his report.
Playmates toys has come out with a new Ninja Turtle line called Mutations. There are two kinds of Mutations figures: pet turtles to ninja, and mix and match, which are both really fun.
The pet turtles to ninjas are a great throw back to the original toy line and to the 2003 toy line, both featuring transforming ninja turtles to baby turtles. These figures are a little bigger than the normal ones. They are about 6 inches tall to the normal figure size which was 5 inches. They will tower over your other figures and, because of the transforming feature of their shell, is much wider than normal to accommodate the transformation, which is just like the original ones. When you do transform them, the head swivels out of the baby turtle’s head. In the back, legs turn into the front legs and you hide the original arms in the back shelf and rotate out the back legs. It is great to see the old concept for the transforming figures in the new art style of Nickelodeon. They do come with their signature weapons and the nice new addition is that they are painted the correct colors. My only complaint is Michelangelo’s nunchucks have no articulation and are very straight, so if you do bend them to make them look right, you do have the possibility of breaking it.
The mix-and-match line is really cool. It takes a collection of the Turtle characters and lets you mix and match the head, arms, and feet. They all connect to the torso, so you can have a Ninja Turtle body, Shredder’s head, Splinter’s legs, and Tiger Claw and Slash’s arms. You can have fun with them and make crazy combinations. The figures are really nice, looking very much like the original figures. The only exception being Slash, who is a bit taller, more accurately modeling his character in the show. I have to say the detaching-reattaching is very easy and simple to do. I really think these ones are going to be hit with kids because they look just like the original figures, with the added freedom and creativity the mix and matching allows.
I have to say it is great to see Playmate doing some fun new things with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line. I really look forward to seeing what they do next.
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Editor’s note: Thanks to Janis VanTine at GennComm for her assistance.
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Rob Hull
Rob Hull
