I am really trying to keep up the theme days this week, so here is a giant-sized #TurtleTuesday for you, and that is not at all hyperbole. Our friends at NECA have been making a hell of a go of it with their Reel Toys Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie figures. They are some of the absolute best figures in my collection, and I love every last one of them. Up until this point, all of the releases have been for the original (and by FAR the best) 1990 movie, but that all changes with this brand new arrival. Yes, we have finally dipped our toes into The Secret of the Ooze, and as the cliche goes, NECA has gone big so they do not have to go home. Yep, Super Shredder is here to terrorize Turtles and Vanilla Ices alike.
Okay, I need to start this with a disclaimer that I think I have made in the past: I am not a fan of The Secret of the Ooze (or the third movie, for that matter) as a movie at ALL. I do not decry anyone who does enjoy the flick, but I love everything about the original movie so much, that I cannot reconcile a way the sequel could appeal to me in any fashion. The first movie blew my mind. Sure, I was just a little kid, but emotions, grit, weight, and style of the first film were so striking to me that it cause a near-complete paradigm shift for me when it came to TMNT. I was way too young to have discovered the original comics at that point, but the original theatrical release made it all so real and so dangerous, there was no turning back.
So, when the second flick showed up just to be more of a dithering madcap series of sequences than even the later seasons of the cartoon, I was not having it. Plus, the Turtles looked so different (see: worse), my favorite Turtles Donatello had changed voices and not at all in a good way, and April was a completely different person. Oh yeah, and no Casey. So, as a story and a cinematic experience, the movie was big time let down, and I have not even gotten the desire to revisit it in last several years. The cartoons were supposed to be funny and most irreverent, but damnit, it needed grit with my “real” Turtles, and Keno was certainly not bringing that. I know, I should shut up about that as it is getting into codger territory, but I am going somewhere here.
Because all that said, I still recognized cool designs from that early age, and even though I will leave the entire story of TSotO behind, there is no way I am going to pass up some of these figure offerings because they look really, really cool. Enter: The Super Shredder. Yes, the concept is pretty off the rails, but we are dealing with ninja turtles here, so having a giant mutated version of their most well-known villain isn’t as crazy as it might seem. Plus, Super Shredder’s debut (the concept was carried over into other media) gave us a chance to get Kevin Nash into the TMNT-verse, so that is… too sweet. Heh. On top of all of that, you just knew that NECA was going to absolutely kill it with these figures, so they are getting me to be all-in for a movie I don’t even care for. Pretty sneaky, NECA!
But so it goes. This figure is really another home run for the NECA team, and even in a line that is known for it’s insane detail and screen accuracy, Super Shredder is an absolute standout. He is imposingly tall, towering over the other TMNT movie figures, and the sculpted detail is grotesque, but beautifully accurate. In the movie, you never get a really good look at Super Shredder because he is thrashing around in a very low lit dock environment, so aside from some of the crazy ass blades of his costume that seemingly mutated/grew along with him (and awesomely depicted here), I was never really sure what was going on with the costume.
Well, you can see it all clearly now, and everything from the enhanced detailing around the helmet, to the belt, and the very intricate platform boots, is brought to life in intricate detail. The nasty hands and grotesque facial details add to the monstrous vibe of the character, and illustrates that a once cunning warrior has been completely displaced by a rampaging monster. The paint work is really cool, too, and balances the real world accuracy of the costume with preserving the highlights added to the costume to enhance the musculature in that dark scene. The effect in plastic is quite nice, and you can spend quite a lot of time discovering new details in the figure.
This guy is a huge hunk of plastic in and of himself, but he also comes with several accessories, including his spear, ooze canister, and several swappable hands. Super Shredder is menacing on his own, but is spear stands just as tall as any of the standard figures in the line, so watch out. Plus, you cannot have the main villain from The Secret of the OOZE without the titular can of the green glowing stuff, accurate adorned with the T.G.R.I. logo. For the hands he has fists, open palms, and grips for the spear and ooze canister, so you have everything here that you need.
Hey, even if I am limited in my love for TSotO movie, that doesn’t mean I don’t dig some of the designs, and as I said, I was not going to miss out on this figure. I sure am glad I didn’t because he is going to make a great centerpiece for the second movie section of the display, and I cannot wait to add Tokka and Rhazar to his side. I was able to grab my figure from the NECA Store when he went on-sale, but NECA has done right by offering a pre-order for the figure, too, so hopefully you got your order in. If not, this is still shipping to Wal-Mart, so be on the lookout there.
