Comic Reviews by Walt

Last week I posted about finally getting the NECA quarter-scale Raphael figure I’d wanted for over a year.

The day after I ordered that, I had communication from Gamestop regarding a pre-order I’d placed way back in August 2018…for 7"-scale versions of the movie turtles. I’d completely forgotten about the pre-order, that the figures were even going to exist.

And–long story short–an ordering snafu and a 70+ minute phone call to customer service and several days, and my order arrived.

The TMNT seem to be an excellent property to me for stuff like this–one rarely would want just one turtle, as there are four primary characters…but there aren’t necessarily SO many characters that it becomes a hopeless thing. And of course, I went with all four here!

As a kid, Leonardo was always my "favorite turtle," for his color–blue–and being the leader (which seems odd to me as an adult with little interest in leadership). In more recent years I’ve found Raphael to be a "new favorite," as also demonstrated with opting for Raph as my first of the quarter-scale turtles. 

The back of the package has the turtle’s name and several images of the turtle, as well as a brief paragraph describing stuff, and a static image common across all four packages.

As said, Leo was my favorite; though Raph has overtaken him, he’s my "second favorite," and it’s interesting to me to see the two characters’ interactions; especially in the 1990 film where they butt heads and Leo is so relieved to be able to apologize to Raph for saying they didn’t need him. 

It’s interesting to me to compare the 1990 film to the comics as it drew so heavily…though as a kid, I remember being a bit surprised when I discovered that in the comics it was Leonardo who was badly beaten by the Foot, and not Raphael…though the beaten turtle being tossed through the window to April’s apartment was consistent between the iterations.

In some ways, Mikey’s my least favorite of the turtles…as a kid, I never cared for that notion of the "party dude"–though moreso with the ’80s cartoon, it was the surfer dude aspect I never cared much for. The film version was more to my liking, and some "iconic" lines that stand out for me to this day…"Pizza Dude’s got thirty seconds!" And of course, the infamous "God, I love being a TURTLE!" 

I also recall even as a kid noticing that in the movie, it was Splinter who had the phrase "Cowabunga!" at first, though obviously the turtles adopted it quickly as the film closed. 

While Raph and Leo are my favorites, Donatello is one I can identify with in other ways–especially his trying to join his brothers in exclamations while not quite fitting. Bossa Nova? Chevy Nova? And of course his friendship with Casey Jones and repairing the vehicle at April’s farmhouse. 

In retrospect I also quite appreciate this 1990 take on the character…though Donnie may be the "geek" of the bunch, I don’t care for the "stereotype" of the heavy/thick glasses that they saddled the character with for the 2014 & 2016 films. And of course, it’s those films that by comparison make these look all the better in my mind, though the nostalgia does plenty of good in that regard on its own. 

Here’s the Raphael figure on a (sold separately) NECA action figure base. 

Above is a look at the shell of the 7" Raphael figure. I’ve long REALLY liked the shell pattern of these movie turtles over pretty much any other iteration. And as these figures do such an excellent job of looking exactly like the film costumes, I’m quite enamored with having figures with the shell pattern duplicated, and that I can see it so clearly myself "live" and "in person" without just pausing a film on a screen or such.

I’d wondered about how similar this scale would be to the quarter-scale, and based on the "battle damage" on Raph’s shell, it seems–if not a shrunken mold, certainly an extremely detailed match, if one looks closely at the various slashes! 

Here’s a photo of the shell from the quarter-scale figure, and to my eye, I’d say they’re identical in detail, just different in size. 

Here are all four turtles out of the packaging and on NECA-brand bases. 

And here’s a look at the quarter-scale Raph, 7" scale Raph, and a "regular size" TMNT figure for scale (a reproduction of the "Movie Star Raphael" figure). The angle partially distorts the exact scale of the figures, but I still like seeing just how massive the quarter scale figure is, and these 7" figures are also significantly taller than the old standard figures! 

The NECA turtles get their own shelf for display for present–quarter scale Raph, 7", and "baby turtles" that I posted about a few weeks ago.  The miniature figures on a wall rack behind are Mini-Mates if I recall correctly, as well as Mega Bloks (now Mega Construx) minis.

Finally, since I have them, I’d added the Movie Star Turtles reproductions to the shelf because why not? I don’t even need risers or such for everything to be easily seen on the shelf!

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I’m NOT keen on chain-exclusive toys, and count myself extremely lucky that I happened across some announcement SOMEWHERE of these GameStop figures. The TMNT have long been–and continue to be–an exception to most of my personal "rules" and "principles" with stuff. I wasn’t about to boycott these or ignore them once I knew of them…even though I did then–with having pre-ordered–forget about them. (I was confident in the preorder and thus no reason to worry about missing them, so it was out of sight/out of mind).

At the same time, I figure at least there are a lot of GameStop locations around. I have four within a 20 minute driving radius, with two more extending to the half hour, and several more within an hour and near places I get to fairly frequently. So at least for me, the chain is actually more common and accessible to me than Walmart!

And though these are GameStop exclusive…that sure as heck beats San Diego Comic Con exclusive, or ANY convention-exclusive! I did see a YouTube video where someone compared the two versions–the SDCC from a couple years ago and these GS and there was no appreciable difference.

I’m sure QUITE happy with what I’ve got out of it, and since I want them out in the open on display and not just as toys in a package anyway, I’m actually probably "happier" with these than much rarer, MORE-exclusive, MORE EXPENSIVE versions!

Of course, issues with GameStop itself–the preorder snafu, waiting on hold from an automated system for 70 minutes to talk to my first human, the "handling" AND shipping-cost-per-item-but-all-four-came-in-a-single-box–were less than ideal. But I got these within a couple days of their official release, I didn’t have to deal with calling around or driving around to various GameStops looking for these or stewing over whether or not to trust their website’s accuracy of something being in-stock or not, etc.

And having them…it certainly desensitizes me to anyone ELSE’s plight. I have these, I’m happy with them, I’m glad I got them…and within individual reason, I definitely would recommend them as themselves (can’t blame NECA for issues with GameStop, short of the exclusivity and such to begin with).

Filed under: 2019 Non-Review posts, 2019 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Toy Chronicles | Tagged: 1/4 scale, 7 inch scale, GameStop, Gamestop Exclusive, Neca, Ninja Turtles, quarter scale, TMNT, TMNT 1990, toys |