Good Smile Company Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Villains Statues
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The last few years have seen a huge surge in the number of statues that have been produced for the Ninja Turtles license. A market that previously
had been limited to Playmates' series of Mirage Turtles and Sideshow's TMNT Comiquettes suddenly has companies producing statues for the 2014
movie, the 2016 movie, the 1990 movie and several series of statues inspired by particular artist's vision. I already reviewed one such series of
statues produced by the Good Smiles Company back in 2015. That series gave us statues of the four Turtles based on the art work of James Jean. And
now Good Smiles Company is back with a follow up series of four of the Ninja Turtles' villains done in the same style. The first three: Bebop,
Rocksteady and Shredder shipped in 2017. And Krang just recently began arriving to complete the set. And since I wanted to open all four villain
statues in order to the bonus art print, it seemed like a good time to see how this second set of statues turned out.
Packaging - 9/10The TMNT villains statues come in the same shoe box style packaging as the Turtle statues. Set against a black background, the photos of the statues shown on the front, side and top of the box stand out well. The use of black foam inside also ties the interior to the outer packaging design well. I do wish the material for the boxes was a bit thicker. The packaging gains much of its structural strength from the form fitted foam insert. And without them, the boxes would be fairly easily crushed. But as long as you keep the foam, the packaging works well for future storage of the statues which is very useful.
Sculpting - Shredder, Bebop & Rocksteady 9/10, Krang 8/10I like these statues. The style works much better for these four villains than it did for the Turtles in my opinion. Bebop and Rocksteady are based on the designs of the original toys, though with the detail work turned up to eleven. Shredder just takes the classic Shredder design and exaggerates the blades and armor to just shy of Michael Bay levels. Then you get to Krang. And compared to the other three, his new design seems pretty tame. That may be due in part to the fact that I have two of the First Gokin Cerebral figures standing on my desk and other than his shoulder pads being a bit more extreme, the two designs seem very similar. Krang is also a bit of an issue if you display the statues as a group as shown in the original artwork. He just isn't tall enough to really be seen clearly behind Shredder and his flowing cape. Fortunately the display bases aren't actually interconnecting. So if that bothers you, you can just position Krang elsewhere to be more visible.
Paint - Shredder 8/10, others 10/10The paint work on the four villains statues is very well done. Where as the Turtles were quite dark and didn't their best unless shown under very bright lighting, all four villains look good straight out of the box. I'm not a huge fan of the skin tone used for Bebop, but that is more personal preference than anything else. I was particularly impressed as I opened Krang and saw that the paint work even extended to the interior of the chest compartment and the back of Krang himself, both of which are areas that are only going to be seen during assembly. Shredder is the one statue in the series where I'm a bit conflicted on the paint work. There is a lot of heavy washes on his armor giving it a very dirty look. On his own, that is fine and it looks good. But standing with the rest of the group, I wish he had a cleaner look.
Articulation - 0/10No surprise here, these are statues. Though we do occasionally see statues that include alternative parts that give you more than one display option. But that isn't the case here.
Accessories - 6/10With most statues you don't expect much in the way of accessories. But things are a little different with these statues. As with the first series, there is a promotional offer for those that purchase all four statues. By going online and inputting a code found in each package, you can receive a print of the original Jean James artwork on an eight inch square piece of aluminum. It is a cool idea and a nice offer. But the prints are fairly small. Ideally I would like to display them behind the statues. But the statues would hide the print entirely.Art print aside, these statues are not as static as one might expect. Bebop's knife, gun and sunglasses are completely separate pieces so the statue can be displayed with or without them. (Though his hands look rather strange without the weapons.) Rocksteady's manhole cover shield is also a separate piece that can be removed if you wish. Shredder's mask is removable to reveal a fully sculpted and painted face underneath. And Krang's actual body is fully sculpted and removable. And since the interior of his android body is fully sculpted and painted, if you want to display the two separately, you have that option.
Value - Shredder 5/10, Bebop & Rocksteady 4/10, Krang 3/10When the Turtle statues were released, they sold for $130 each. Shredder was the first of the four villain statues to be released and came with a price tag of $160. Since then the price has climbed for each subsequent release until Krang arrived with a $250 price tag. I felt the Turtles were slightly overpriced. While these statues are cool, there doesn't seem to be anything here to justify that price creep. And at almost twice the price of the Turtles, Krang has reached a price point where you have to be a serious fan to justify that kind of price.
Happy Hunting:The villains series of statues was released throughout 2017 and into 2018 with Krang being the latest and last announced release. So Krang should still be fairly easy to find. But Rocksteady, Bebop and Shredder are all becoming harder to find. I ordered all four of my statues from Big Bad Toy Store. I have seen them on eBay as well, but the prices can vary a lot.
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