Review – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Michelangelo
Thanks to the wonders of preparing photos in advance I now bring you another review of an action figure from the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy line (Amazon.com search*). Seriously, it’s only because I prepped the photos and had the review framework in place that I even managed to have time to sit down and put together my thoughts on this toy while at GenCon. Anyone who runs a blog should always be sure to have some posts started as drafts; it makes your life way easier.
This is my fifth review of toys in the series — earlier reviews: Leonardo, Raphael, Night Shadow Leonardo, and the incredible Shellraiser vehicle — and since Michelangelo shares the same awesome approach to toy design as the other turtles figures (excluding “Night Statue Leonardo”) this review is more about the pics than a blow-by-blow overview of the toy. See both the Leonardo and Raphael reviews and then keep in mind that Michelangelo is every bit as cool as his brothers.
Since I’m in a bit of a rush with work I’ll spare all of you my usual round of useless words and instead just let the pictures speak for themselves. I truly believe that by this point anyone who wanted to try the new turtles has given them a shot and doesn’t need to hear any of my thoughts on the line. (Which, by the way, is incredible and you should buy these toys.)
Philip Reed can’t wait to get home and unwind. It has been a long convention.
Strangely, while Donatello looks best to me in pictures, I think Michelangelo might be my favorite of the figures to have in person. His smaller stature and more saturated color is appealing in the flesh.
In your Leonardo review you mentioned how the plastic used was a little rubbery but not too much. I didn’t know what you were talking about because all of my figures had pretty stiff plastic, or it at least felt about the same as MOTUC or DCUC figures. As it turns out I guess there are a couple of different runs of these figures.
I now own two Raphaels and two Donatellos, and the second ones I bought (from target, the first came from TRU) have a more rubbery plastic used for the arms and legs, and the ball on which the head sits is larger and allows for a better range of motion on each.
Other differences include the color of weapons and belts, as the more rubbery figures have lighter colors on both accounts.
The easiest difference I can tell from the package is looking to see if the main weapons are stored with rubberbands (as with the more rubbery figures) or with those clear plastic twistys (as with the harder plastic figures).
I just thought I would share because I haven’t seen anything online about variations between these, and thought this might help someone decide what they want more.
@clark – That’s pretty weird. This is the first I’ve heard of a variant on the plastic. I wonder which run was first; I suspect the harder run was first since these appeared in TRU before the line was in Target.
Mine have all come from Target.
@garsh – I can’t pick one favorite since, to me, it’s the team of four together that’s so much fun. Having just one turtle would make me feel like the others are searching for him.