Today we are going to take a look at the Sketch Turtles from Playmates Toys. What are the sketch Turtles you might ask, well let me tell you. After both Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird sat down and drew up their own version of the Turtles, they sat down and came out with the "original sketch" This sketch would be what they would use to write and draw the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book. Playmates Toys has made these figures based on that sketch so lets take a look at them and see how they did.
Playmates Toys has often been under contract as a chosen third party to produce toys, fashion dolls, games, and other merchandise coinciding with popular film and television media. Examples of media that Playmates has done toys for include Atomic Betty, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Trek, Ben 10, Godzilla vs. Kong, the Disney movie franchise Frozen, Miraculous Ladybug, Pikwik Pack, and now Power Rangers. They were made in cooperation with various international media production companies, including Canadian company Nelvana and United States companies Disney, DreamWorks Animation, and Nickelodeon.
PACKAGING:
Before we open this up, let's check out the packaging.
All 4 Turtles come in the same style box, at the top we have the 40th anniversary logo and the Nickelodeon logos. The figures are displayed in the middle of the box. The bottom of the box has the original TMNT logo that Peter and Kevin used on the original sketch, and speaking of that sketch, the bottom of the box also lets us know that each figure comes with a reprint of that same sketch. The back of the box has a picture of the original sketch as well as Peter and Kevin's first turtles they made before this one. At the bottom, we have a little write-up. "LONG AGO IN DOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, TWO UPSTART COMIC ARTISTS PASSED THE TIME MAKING EACH OTHER LAUGH. KEVIN EASTMAN SKETCHED AN UNLIKELY COMBINATION OF NINJA AND TURTLE. PETER LAIRD ANSWERED BACK WITH HIS OWN VERSION. BEFORE LONG A NEW SKETCH EMERGED OF ALL 4 TEENAGE BROTHERS, READY FOR ACTION. AND THE REST, AS THEY SAY, IS HISTORY!". One side of the box has the original logo at the top with a picture of each turtle at the bottom. The other side of the box has a picture of all 4 turtles.
INSIDE OF THE BOX:
Let's take a look at how the figure comes packed inside.
Each Turtle comes tied down in his plastic prison. Behind each figure is a slipcover that has the base tied down.
OUTSIDE OF THE BOX:
Let's open the box and take a closer look at the figure.
Taking all the figures out we can see in typical TMNT fashion, that each Turtle is the same figure aside from the colors and the heads. Interestingly, Leo and Donnie have different heads but Raph and Mikey share the same head, I wonder why they only did 3 different head sculpts and not 4.
ACCESSORIES:
Let's see what kind of accessories the figure comes with.
Leonardo comes with two Katanas, two sheaths for the katanas, a figure base, a sketch card, and a base for the card. Donatello comes with his Bo staff, a figure base, a sketch card, and a base for the card. Raphael comes with two Sai, a Katana, a sheath for Katana, a figure base, a sketch card, and a base for the card. Michelangelo comes with two Nunchucks, a figure base, a sketch card, and a base for the card. All of the weapons can be stored on the figures themselves.
ARTICULATION:
How can we pose the figure? Let's find out!
THE TURTLES' ARTICULATION INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING:
SWIVEL HINGED HEAD - This allows you to turn the head 360 degrees around
BALL-HINGED SHOULDERS - Gives the arm 360-degree rotation and also the ability to raise and lower the arm.
SINGLE JOINTED ELBOWS - This allows you to bend the arm about 90 degrees.
SWIVEL HINGE WRIST - It will enable you to turn the figure's wrists in a full 360-degree.
BALL JOINTED LEGS - With this, the legs will move out to the side along with some front and back motion.
SINGLE JOINTED SWIVEL KNEES - The joint allows you to bend the leg and also turn them a full 360 degrees.
SIZE COMPARISON:
How does the size of this figure compare to others?
Our new turtles stand right around 4.5 inches tall. Here are our new Turtles standing with some past Turtles. First, we have the NECA Cartoon Leo, Next, we have Donny from the Loyal Subjects Cartoon collection, third up we have Raph from the NECA Jim Lawson wave, and lastly, we have Mikey from the new Loyal Subjects IDW comic book line. For our last comparison, we have Raph from the Playmates take on the original comic book Turtles Wave.
RATING:
What are Baby Huey's scores for the figure?
PAINT JOB 4/5 - The paint on the figures is nice, however, a blackwash over them would have made them pop
FIGURE SCULPT 5/5 - The Turtles look just like they do in the original sketch
POSING 3/5 - You can just about get them into the pose in the sketch, however a few more articulation points would have helped a ton.
ACCESSORIES: 5/5 - These guys are packed with a ton of stuff.
DURABILITY 5/5 - The plastic is good, it's normal Playmates-type quality and I've never had an issue with it.
OVERALL SCORE 4.4/5 - If you are a Turtles fan do yourself a favor and track them down.
RETAIL COST: $14.99
I PICKED MINE UP AT TARGET
TIME FOR SOME TOYING AROUND!
