Knowing the #1 selling point of these figures would be the distinct character accuracy to the original comic book, NECA hired the impeccable artists known as The Four Horseman for bringing these four beauties to life, and frankly they’ve done an outstanding job. Truthfully, these figures are so great I’d be surprised if anyone can keep these sealed.
If you are a MIB collector you will want to make sure nothing is ever stacked on these and are boxed or hung in a safe place free from items that may fall and damage the packaging.
The plastic used to create the clamshell is very thin, it warps and bends very easily and doesn’t provide very good protection for the toys inside. On the backside, original artwork depicting each character as they were first seen in almost 30 years ago is shown as well as product photography that shows off all four Turtles placed in an exciting pose-off scene. Inside, each figure is held in place by a combination of the molded shell and some wire ties. The interior card uses the classic comic TMNT logo floating above a New York City scene background ripped right from the comic book pages.
The exterior packaging design utilizes a wide open window that lets you clearly see the toy inside and the assortment of weapons and extras packed within, while the lower exterior uses a simple black panel that reads the character name along with an illustration of their pre-Ninja days as four prepubescent turtles mucking around the spilled contents of a cracked TCRI canister. NECA’s first venture into Turtle-Land started with a huge colorful box set, shortly after that initial release each Turtle was sold as an individual figure found in NECA’s typical retail clamshell packaging which is what I am covering in this review. Why am I bothering to review a toy that’s nearly five years old already? Because these action figures are the things legends are made of and sometimes it’s fun to take a look back at things that still make us happy today.
In 2009, NECA produced a single line-up that included all four ninja turtles: Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael and Donatello all manufactured and designed like no other TMNT toy has ever been before.
Thanks to the masterminds at NECA this not-so-subtle reminder was like a sweeping leg kick that dropped me on my ass – and I ‘m crawling back asking for more. This is what I remember, but it’s been difficult to remember them for who they were because their image has been altered so often during the past 30 years. This was the real Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, they all wore red and they all meant business without any of the silly joking or ridiculous multi-colored bandanas. They still beat up an evil ninja master but he and his fellow FOOT Clan Ninjas didn’t usually run away when they were defeated – no, they often met a much more horrifying fate that ended in broken limbs, concussions or UFC-style beat downs, violent stabbings or even an occasional decapitation or three. Before the cartoons, before the three live-action films, and before all various animated adventures and a robust selection of toys and unrelated merchandise that drew in millions of dollars in profit was a tiny, relatively unheard of black & white independent comic book printed in 1984 that shared an identical title with identical character names, but that’s about where the comparisons stopped.