Playmates Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vs. Cobra Kai Two Packs Review
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Combinations and crossovers can be great. And when it comes to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, they can be pretty weird or downright
strange. (Yes TMNT x Hello Kitty, I'm looking at you.) But the announcement that the Ninja Turtles would be crossing over with the
Karate Kid and the modern relaunch, Cobra Kai, I was completely surprised. But as I thought about it, it makes a great deal of sense.
These two licenses managed to fuel the martial arts ambitions and dreams of an entire generation of kids in the eighties and into the
ninties. But that was the Karate Kid, not Cobra Kai. So what do the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have to do with the Middle Aged Human
Karate Sensei? I curious to find out.
Packaging - 3/10Each of the TMNT vs Cobra Kai sets has one of the Turtles packaged in a window box facing off with one of the characters from Karate Kid/Cobra Kai. We get logos for both properties at the top and bottom as well as black and yellow shadowy silhouettes of the two characters. On the back we get the silhouette pairs for all four sets around a fairly non-sensical attempt at a back story for this crossover. Ultimately that's my issue with the packaging, it does its job as packaging and displaying the toys, but it doesn't do anything to sell the concept of why the team of highly trained ninjas from New York traveled to the other side of the country to take down a group of high school kids and their sensei? Even looking at the figures, the Turtles who should be smaller than your average human, dwarf the non-turtles in size. And they're armed?
Sculpting - Turtles 3/10, Humans 5/10The Turtle figures included in these sets are the same Classic Collection sculpts that we have seen released repeatedly. But they really don't work well here. They are just not scaled properly for this. They are too tall, too thick and just generally the wrong style to fit in with realistic human figures. The human figures are alright, but have a laundry list of small issues: the feet are blocky, Diaz and Lawrence have arms that are sculpted like sleeves at the wrists. Ultimately the most important thing is the character likinesses. But as someone who hasn't seen Cobra Kai and has no interest in seeing it, and hasn't seen the Karate Kid in many years, I'm probably not the best person to judge the likinesses. They are close enough that I don't have a problem recognizing the characters except for Diaz who is from the show. But they are also generic enough that I can't say for sure if the sculpts are suppose to be based on the Cobra Kai show or the Karate Kid movie.
Paint - 5/10There is very little paint work here on either the Turtles or humans. The Turtles have painted eyes, teeth and belt buckle. For the humans, they have painted logos on their backs, a yellow stripe on Diaz's gi, Daniel's belt and the faces. They don't really need much more than that though.
Articulation - Humans 4/10, Turtles 6/10Once again, we are dealling with the Classic Collection Turtles and their roughly thirty four points of articulation. That all works fairly well here, especially since they don't really need to hold weapons to fight in a karate tournament. But things are not so great with the humans. They also have thirty-plus points of articulation. (Thirty one by my count.) But they are missing some big ones. The knees and elbows are double jointed, but they are a single hinge and rotating joint rather than a double hinge. That really limits the range of motion. And if you are going to make an action figure of the Karate Kid, he better be able to do a crane kick. And these figures can't.
Accessories - 3/10Each set comes with the signature weapon of the included Turtle and a soft goods gi. The weapons are the same as has been included with all of the past versions of the Classic Collection Turtles, but cast in black plastic. Oddly, both Donatello and Leonardo retain the ability to store their weapons on their belts, but that was removed for Michelangelo and Raphael, though Raphael can tuck his sais into the belt of his gi so really it's just Mikey who is left out. The gis have an elastic belt permanently sewn on, but they can be slipped over the figures' heads to remove them. The gis are nice. But the weapons don't really serve much purpose since they can't really be planning on using them against some unarmed humans. It would have been nice if they included something to tie into the Karate Kid/Cobra Kai license such as a trophy or maybe a plastic mat that could be hooked together to give you a competition area. What really annoys me is that they left out the one accessory that has come with all of the Classic Collection figure releases that might have actually been useful, the manhole cover stands.
Value - 3/10The TMNT vs. Cobra Kai sets sell for $40 each. For two collector market figures, that's not a bad price, assuming you were actually in the market for both figures in the set. But with nothing to connect the two licenses I'm under the assumption that most potential buyers will be looking at buying these for just one of the two figures in each set. If you are buying them for the Cobra Kai figures, $40 is a pretty stiff price tag for such average figures. In my case, I'm interested in the Turtles and really have no use for the Cobra Kai figures so I'm basically paying double for a slight repaint of the Classic Collection Turtles.
Happy Hunting:The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vs Cobra Kai sets have been popping up at retail at both Target and Best Buy stores throughout the lead up to the holiday season. They are still available from both at my local stores. But I suspect they will be disappearing before long now that the holidays are past. If you prefer an online option, both stores have them listed on their respective websites. They are also available from the usual online toy stores such as Big Bad Toy Store and Entertainment Earth.
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