Playmates Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ninja Elite Turtles and B&W 4 Pack Review
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You know that old saying about how when you have a good idea you should run it into the ground? Yeah. Neither do I.
But Playmates Toys sure seems to be fond of the concept. They first released the Classic Collection Turtles in 2012.
And since then, they have released the figures over and over as well as reused the molds as 1990 Movie figures and
Secret of the Ooze figures with only minor changes. And this year they are back again in force. This started with
their release once again this year, this time deco'd as Mirage Comics versions of the Turtles, called the Ninja Elite
Series and released via Previews and Diamond Distrabution. This was then followed this summer with a four pack of the
figures with a black and white paint job that was released for Free Comic Book Day. It's an interesting idea given that
Playmates already created Mirage Comic inspired sculpts for the 2012 basic toy line. But they're here now. So let's see
how they stack up.
Packaging - 8/10The Ninja Elite figures are packaged in window boxes that show off the figures well. They also use graphics from the old Mirage Comics well all across the box. I do have two minor quibbles with the design. The first is that the back of the box has just one large image from the first issue of TMNT. That's nice, but I would also like to see a photo of the actual figures. The second issue is a little stranger. Part of the graphics for the packaging are small white blotches. But some of these blotches line up perfectly with the top corners of the boxes and actually make it look like the boxes were crushed in those spots. This is compounded by the fact that the ink for the box does crack easily and some of those spots are slightly damaged with the printing highlighting the damage and making it look much worse than it really is. The B&W 4 Pack has a very similar design, just widened out to fit all four figures. And of course there is more room, so there are more images from Mirage Comics. That's not a bad thing, but it makes me want photos of the actual toys even more.
Sculpting - 4/10These are almost straight reuses of the original Classic Collection Turtles. The only changes I can see having been made are the inclusion of a cover for the belt buckles to hide the individual initials and they combined the front of Michelangelo's belt with the back of Raphael's to create one with no weapons storage. I liked these sculpts back when they were first released. But that was almot ten years ago. Companies have gotten much better at incorporating articulation into the sculpt since then. And the sculpts have only a passing resemblance to the Mirage Comic art.
Paint - Ninja Elite 4/10, B&W 4 Pack 7/10If I thought that the sculpting changes were lazy for the Ninja Elite figures, the paint work is even worse. Playmates gave them a darker green skin tone. And that works fine. But that's it. There's no shading or cross hatching like we have seen on previous Mirage based figures. They did step it up with the black and white set which is nice. But it also serves to show how lazy they were with the Ninja Elite figures.
Articulation - 6/10The original Classic Collection bodies came with 34 points of articulation. That actually gives these figures a good deal of articulation and ranage of motion. But it leaves them with the same issue that the original figures had, all of the finger articulation makes it very difficult to hold any weapons. And the finger joints for the Elite Ninja figures are extremely tight, so tight that Leonardo's fingers broke off. Needless to say, that is annoying.
Accessories - 5/10Each figure includes their signature weapon and a manhole cover stand. That's not very impressive. But at least the accessories are decent quality. Michelangelo's nunchukus have metal chains. And each manhole cover has a Turtle's name printed on it which is a nice little touch.
Value - Ninja Elite 3/10 FCBD 4 Pack 4/10The individual Ninja Elite figures sold for $25 each initially and the Free Comic Book Day 4 pack was around $110. (Being a Previews Exclusive, that price would vary depending upon the store.) For modern figures, that wouldn't be a horrible price. But these aren't really modern figures. They are fairly lazy repaints of figures from 2012. And as representations of the Mirage Turtle designs, they are even lazier. I do give the four pack a little more credit for having the weapon storage in the belts and for all of the joints working smoothly. But these are still sets that anyone other than a obsessive completionist can happily skip or atleast wait for a good discount. And the prices are falling. I was able to find a replacement Ninja Elite Leonardo for under $19. And the price for the four pack seems to be dropping as well.
Happy Hunting:Both the regular Ninja Elite figures and the B&W four pack were exclusives to specialty stores and comic book shops. So they weren't going to be showing up at Walmart, Target or any other major retailer. But the indivual figures were and still are readily available online from online toy stores like BBTS or Entertainment Earth. And a quick Google search turned up quite a few sites still selling the Free Comic Book Day four pack.
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