#999 TMNT – LEONARDO vs. SHREDDER (1988)

 

In entries #720 and #721 we presented Raphael vs. Bebop and Michelangelo vs. Foot Soldier respectively. This time, I bring Leonardo vs. Shredder.

There are so many resources online about TMNT, that I won’t be writing anything about the characters or the toys. Leonardo is considered the leader of the turtles and Shredder is the leader of the foot clan, so this is the big battle among the first series by Playmates from 1988.

I have some pictures I took close to my home and I hope you like them.

Shredder came with a piece of cloth that is very interesting. I don't like that the figure comes in an strange position that is not very playable. I have heard that this was imposed by the toy manufacturer, as the villain could not be much taller than the turtles themselves for practical reasons (it had to use the same vehicles).

       

 

Nothing to say about Leonardo… great figure and accessories.

I have two of these, I kept the second one as it was different from the first. Please observe carefully the pictures to see the differences. Any idea, which one is which? maybe some re-release?

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: LEONARDO and SHREDDER
• Toy Line: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) (Wave 1)
• Year: 1988
• Company: Playmates (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 3.75’’ or 9,75 cm

#956 TMNT - TRICERATON + WINGNUT & SCREWLOOSE (1990)

These two figures are the only ones that I have completed so far from series 3. Like every other TMNT fan, I adore the figures from the Playmates toyline that represent other characters than the four turtles and the other main characters. They are so well designed: colourful, funny, with great playability (for example, unlike theturtles, most of them are very easy to set them standing) and cool accesories.

I am observing that the line is gaining value in the last months and some figures are really expensive already. Will this trend continue?

Well, the two figures today are:

TRICERATON:

Most mutant characters from the TMNT universe are humanoid animals living today, but in this case, it is a dinosaur. It looks like a crazy Playmates idea, but it is actually already in the very first issues of Eastman and Laird´s. Actually they are living on some other planet in Dimension X and are intelligent beings. There are many of these, although in the comic, they are wearing a different suit and look slightly more aggressive.

The figure comes with a grey belt and two rather big blue guns, that contrast with its orange skin.
It is an enemy of the Turtles

WINGNUT:

Wingnut is a bat, and Screwloose is a mosquito, maybe two of the strangest creatures in the toyline, because, how do you make a bat look human? It has strange proportions, with short legs, big belly, and the strangest of all is its head, and more particularly, its nose.

Besides the small Screwloose, the blister pack included two mechanic wings, in which we could insert a revolver and a grenade, both in light yellow, and a yellow belt.

From this figure I also have the bio-card, cut from the original blisterpack in English. These are very funny to read, as they always include many jokes and puns. Although I have this notes about its background and origins, I am still unsure if the figure actually appears in the comic books at some time, or if, in this case, it is a Playmates invention.

Wingnut is a friend and helper of the Turtles.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: TRICERATON + WINGNUT & SCREWLOOSE
• Toy Line: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) (Waves 3)
• Year: 1990
• Company: Playmates (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 3.75’’ or 9,75 cm

#887 TMNT - BREAKFIGHTIN´ RAPHAEL and SWORD SLICIN´ LEONARDO (WACKY ACTION SERIES) (1989 and 1990)

Ninja Turtles representing the four heroes and other main characters (like April O´Neill, Splinter or Shredder) had many versions. I do not know how well they sold at the time, but the fact is that if you have the figures from the first wave, all the other are not necessary.

Maybe because of this, most turtle (Raph, Don, Mike or Leo) figures made after 1988 are not very expensive and very easy to find. These are also the first figures I got to complete, because of their reduced number of accesories. The Wacky Action in particular are among the easiest figures in the whole collection.

They have an action feature consisting of a small clockwork mechanism that can make  the turtle do some kind of movement. Raphael can twist on its back and leonardo moves its arms up and down. Of course without batteries, just by loading the mechanism.

Interestingly, the line was splitted in two waves (wave 2 from 1989 and wave 3 from 1990), I don´t know the reason for that.

Wave 2 included:

• Rock 'N' Roll Michaelangelo
• Sewer Swimmin´ Donatello
• Breakfightin´ Raphael
• Mouser

Wave 3 included:

• Sword Slicin´ Leonardo
• Creepy Crawlin´ Splinter
• Slice 'N Dice Shredder

Note the very interesting release of Mouser, which is the only figure made of this nice little robot in the whole original toy line. The problem is that the Mouser is clearly oversized in comparison to the ones shown in comic books, video games and so on.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: BREAKFIGHTIN´ RAPHAEL and SWORD SLICIN´ LEONARDO (WACKY ACTION SERIES)
• Toy Line: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) (Waves 2 and 3)
• Year: 1989 and 1990
• Company: Playmates (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 3.75’’ or 9,75 cm

#872 TMNT - ROCKSTEADY (SOFT HEAD) (1988)

I got this figure by chance in a bigger lot. I was very surprised to find that the head of the figure was not like every other TMNT figure I have, but made of soft plastic, like some Masters of the Universe, if you know what I am talking about.

Apparently, soft-head turtles were the very first toys produced. To minimice risks, Playmates decided to make a first run keeping production costs as low as possible. The line may flop, as many other toylines have, so they took this decision. Of course, when they notice the big sale numbers, and the amazing success of the toyline, there was green light to produce hard, more qualitative plastic heads for all figures that had soft plastic heads. These were all figures except April.

*April also had a first version with a different paintwork (no stripes in the trousers), which is also quite difficult and expensive to find.

Hard Head (left) and Soft Head (right) Versions

These are more scarce, and more expensive to buy. They also came with lower quality accesories and a poorer paintwork.

Apparently, there are some figures which are rarer than others. According to the eBay's subtlethinker's Guide To Collecting Classic TMNT, the four turtles and Shredder are more difficult to find than Splinter, Bebop and Roksteady. And among the turtles, Donatello seems to be the rarest.

The soft-head TMNT figures were packaged with a Turtles Fan Club form, so even if they are MOC, they can be identified without opening the blisterpack. Well, the head looks slightly different, so I guess an expert could even identifiy one of these even in a picture.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: ROCKSTEADY (SOFT HEAD)
• Toy Line: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) (Wave 1)
• Year: 1988
• Company: Playmates (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 3.75’’ or 9,75 cm

#721 TMNT - MICHELANGELO vs. FOOT SOLDIER (1988)

Because we need to catch up, I am presenting two more TMNT figures today, again one turtle and one villain: Michelangelo vs. Foot Soldier.

As I mentioned in the previous entry, Michelangelo was the children's favorites. In the cartoons, he used to make a lot of jokes and was the funniest of all 4 brothers. In addition to that, he used the nunchuks, which, at the early 90s (times of many ninja-exploitation movies) was like the pinnacle of coolness. I remember that in the arcade machine, it was placed in the center-right position, and was also a turtle that many people would choose to play with (the arcade was revolutionary, because it allowed four players simultaneously). The favorite in the arcade, however, was Donatello (center-left position).

I also think Michelangelo was probably the figure that sold best during those first years, or at least, the favorite figure to start a collection with.

Every turtle in the first wave came with the same set of weapons: wooden frame, 2 shurikens (ninja stars), 1 strange straight and curved double sword (what's that?), a triangular knife and a small pick. Additionally, each turtle came with two specific accesories: Raphael came with two sais, and Michelangelo with two nunchuks. These specific accesories could be attached to their straps either on the back side or in the front. Most people simply ignored the strange set of weapons, and played only with the "official" ones. As a matter of fact, the wooden frame, with is a defense weapon was disposed thinking it was the plastic tree to which the rest of weapons attached. It was quite difficult to find the only one I currently own, and until new notice, I will consider all my turtles complete even if they do not have that frame.

The second figure today is the Foot Soldier, the standard trooper of the foot clan. There are literally hundreds of them, and they are supposed to be skilled ninjas, but they never knew much success in the battle, being mostly anihilated by the turtles and their allies. It comes with the foot clan colours, which are dark and not very common in children toys, but personally I love the combination of black, grey, blue and purple. The position of the legs and head is also remarkable, kind of crouching, and it has very long arms, almost like an ape. This figure came with a series of amazing weapons, including that strange stab with a jaw at the end, a machete and a mace. This figure also included the wooden frame, only in grey. This last accesory is missing.

Something more, now we are talking about accesories, is that the same figures from 1988 were reissued several times since then including the same package (with vey subtle differences) and the same accesories. The figures are marked on the back with the year of each reissue, and the accesories suld be the same, but, I have noticed differences in the colour and also other differences in the cast, like in the following picture were the Foot Soldier staff is slightly shorter than the original (I assume the upper one is the original, maybeI am wrong).

 

 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: MICHELANGELO and FOOT SOLDIER
• Toy Line: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) (Wave 1)
• Year: 1988
• Company: Playmates (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 3.75’’ or 9,75 cm

#720 TMNT- RAPHAEL vs. BEBOP (1988)

If you follow my blog, you were probably wondering where I hid the ninja turtles. I have been postponing this entry because I like presenting toys which are complete (with all original accesories), and for TMNT, it is quite difficult to find 100% complete figures, especially if you do not collect them seriously. Let me explain this... I have maybe 40 figures or so, but all of them bought at flea-markets for very little money. I also have some accesories (most of them traded for other figures and accesories) but they belong to many different figures. Consider that, in this series, each figure had unique accesories that no other figure shared, and if you really want to complete figures, you have to spend a lot of money either in 100% complete figures or loose accesories.

So here’s my first entry about this great toyline from the 90s, one of the most famous of all times and also one of the vintage toylines that has a better health today, still being rebooted every back an then and being made into movies.

I should write something about the TMNT here, but I am feeling kind of lazy, because I already wrote everything I could for an article in the magazine F.E.A. nr. 9 together with my friend Pablo (you cand a link for this magazine in entry #361).

There we wrote around twenty pages running around the creation of the TMNT by Eastman and Laird, about the comics in which they are based, of course, about the toys, but also about Playmates as a company and many other toys rather than figures and merchandise made over the years. The article is in Spanish, but if you cannot read it, I assume there are thousands of web that can tell the history of these turtles better than I could ever do.

I will focus now on the first two toys I am presenting today: Raphael and Bebop. Raphael was the first turtle that was created, and many people's favorite. At least in the early days (I do not follow the TMNT since a few years), Raphael was the rebel of the group, and usually lose his temper during the fight, becoming more violent than the others. Interestingly, I would say, that among children in the late 80s, Raphael was the least favorite of all 4. People were especially fond of Leonardo, for being the leader, and Michelangelo and Donatello for their cool weapons, but Raph somehow was seen as the less interesting hero. For people who read the comic, Raphael is often ranked as the favorite turtle, probably because of his attitude towards life, being a rebel, sarcastic and several problems he had during the first issues of the Mirage comics.

Bebop, on the other side, is a character that didn´t exist in the original Eastman and Laird´s universe, but was created for the toyline and cartoons. Maybe there were not enough characters to start a proper toyline, and Playmates invented Bebop and Rocksteady. In the first comics, only Shredder and Foot Soldiers appear, together with other characters that would be available in further waves, like, for example, Krang. Curiously, Bebop was my favorite character when the line came out, for many reasons: because it is a pig, for its colour combination, for that strange drill-weapon, for the nice details casted in its clothes and body... I still appretiate the nice toy it is, but I would now preffer the Foot Soldier or Shredder.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: RAPHAEL vs. BEBOP
• Toy Line: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) (Wave 1)
• Year: 1988
• Company: Playmates (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 3.75’’ or 9,75 cm