Review – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shellraiser

Another way that I can tell that the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy line (Amazon.com search*) is incredible — earlier reviews: Leonardo, Raphael, Night Shadow Leonardo — is that I went out and bought one of the vehicles from the line. And not just any vehicle, but the over-sized and impressive Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shellraiser* that clearly demonstrates that Playmates is serious about making this line as much fun as they can. You may not think you have room for this toy, but I’m here to tell you that it’s time to make room.

A Giant Vehicle

At about 13-inches long, 7-inches wide, and 7-inches tall the Shellraiser is one huge chunk of plastic on wheels. But that size, as well as the hefty plastic used in its construction, is a lot of what makes the Shellraiser an impressive toy that kids will be begging for as soon as they see it. I’m planning to take mine to the office and display it on one of the shelves; between this and the action figures I’ll have a pretty impressive Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles display . . . and one that I’ll be tempted to take down and play with while I’m on conference calls.

Three Opening Doors

The vehicle’s front end opens to reveal a ramp with a footpeg where you can stand an action figure. It’s a narrow ramp, but it’s wide enough to fit figures into the Shellraiser. The top hatch also opens — if you glance down you can see a photo showing how an action figure can work the top cannon from the open hatch — and with some work you can pose a toy sticking out of the hatch. A ledge or seat would have been nice, but everything works just fine and is very playable.

The third hatch is on the right side of the van and opened by pressing a button on top of the vehicle. A fun gimmick slams a pipe out of the side of the van and, once you set it by attaching and action figure and winding the mechanism, a toy spins around on the post so that he can kick at anything you’ve placed just perfectly. This is the one feature I’m a little worried about — the door slams open with a lot of force and kids will likely be tempted to overwind the spring — but it’s so much fun that I think Playmates made the right call in adding this to the toy. Parents just wanna be sure to explain to kids exactly how to use this and why overwinding could be bad.

Assembly and Stickers

Snapping on the parts — wheels, cannons, and gray protrusions on the sides — only took a few moments, but the mountain of stickers that come with the toy took me almost 30 minutes to apply. And not every sticker is marked clearly on the instructions so there will be some variations in placement; nothing we should really stress about, though. And in the end there may have been a lot of stickers but they all look great on the toy. This one’s definitely for parents to assemble and sticker for their kids.

Insanely Fun

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shellraiser* is a toy. It’s boxy, incredibly large, and the plastic has a bit of flex and the feel of big toy cars. Actually, it has a lot in common with the feel of the Total Destruction Batmobile toy (review here) and I think it’s an excellent choice of a gift for any kid who turns into a Turtles fan. Hell, even adult collectors are gonna want this if they get even just a little into the new toy line; everything about this screams out that it’s a great toy.

Philip Reed will avoid the new TMNT playset because it is so amazingly huge that the cats would think that it’s a kitty toy.