Today we’re taking a look at the upcoming two-pack of antagonists from NECA’s ’87 cartoon-based Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Leatherhead and Slash! Click through, you’ll be glad you did, I guar-un-tee.
Slash and Leatherhead come in the larger sized box, similar to Bebop and Rocksteady’s box with some great cartoon style art on the front and clear photos on the sides and back.
The accessory count is pretty astounding with tons of episode specific stuff including: Two swords for Slash, the Animalizer pistol and Laser rifle from Donatello Trashes Slash, a half eaten pizza, a regular turtle version of Slash, Slash’s “Binky” which is a palm tree from his original turtle bowl, open and grip hands for Leatherhead, two crawdads, a flamethrower, a chain with closing manacle, a bear trap, a net, and a rope.
The trap is hinged and can be set up like a trap should and also attaches to the belt.
The Flamethrower looks like his weapon from Night of the Rogues, and his right grip hand is tilted in a way that he can hold it comfortably. I could also see using this as a net-gun.
The rope is just a piece of rope, but it is looped and ready to tie him up like in his debut episode of the show. The net is pretty large and can comfortably fit a couple turtles and can be pulled shut at the corners. Very fun stuff.
The crawdads are pretty soft plastic and fit well in Leatherhead’s grip hands. The claws can hook onto loops on the belt or the tails can be shoved under the soft plastic belt for storage purposes.
The manacle can clamp around a turtle neck, April’s waist, Leatherhead’s wrist and I’m sure any number of things you can imagine.
Slash’s swords have that perfectly cartoonishly exaggerated Katana shape to them and fit tightly in his hands. They can be stored in his belt as he does in the show, but man that’s going to cut up his thighs. If he’s got the side strap, they both fit back there well.
The shoulder strap has some sort of sci-fi backpack attached. The strap isn’t glued down, so it can be taken off, though the shell spikes hold it in place really well. I think I like him best with it on as it just adds more visual interest.
The pistol looks like the gun Slash uses to turn Vern into a turtle, but it’s got a great standard sci-fi gun look in general. I like how the barrel kind of floats in front of the main body of the pistol via some semi-rigid plastic wires.
The blaster rifle is also from that same episode and has a very cool, very specific feel to it with some very clean paints.
You can’t have too many pizzas in a ninja turtle toy line and I like how this one has a specifically slash-shaped gigantic bite out of it.
The cutest accessories are Slash in his pre-mutated form and his plastic palm tree turtle bowl decoration. I couldn’t get the palm tree (BINKY!) to stand on it’s own, but a piece of poster tack solved that.
Leatherhead is a big, beefy figure and I think he shares some parts with Bebop and Rocksteady (arms), so with the large head he appropriately towers over the Turtles and adds a nice scale differential for the line.
The articulation is in line with most of the figures from this line with:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Ball and socket head, tail, and waist
- Double hinged elbows and knees
- Bicep and thigh swivels
- Hinged jaw
The articulation all moves pretty well, though the waist joint wobbles a bit, and is mostly a swivel.
Slash re-uses a lot of parts from the turtles and video game version of Slash, but tons of new details in the knees, hands, chest, arm armor, and head. I particularly like the head as it captures the goofier feel of this version of Slash perfectly. I especially like how the metal head band looks as it’s a separate piece which adds a nice dimensionality to the face.
Slash has the same articulation as the turtles though the waist ball joint has a bit more range since the belt goes under the shell rather than over it.
These guys look like they jumped off the screen and I can’t walk by them without the Ninja Turtle theme tune starting up. Thanks again to NECA for sending these along and be sure to check back tomorrow for the final two-pack!
