From the very first episode of the ’87 cartoon to Raph’s trench coat and hat in the ’90 movie, the Turtle in Disguise feels like a foundational aspect of the Ninja Turtles to me. The guys wore variations on the trench coat and hat look in many episodes over the series, so it’s great to get these in figure form. NECA added a lot of other interesting goodies to this set, so let’s take a look!
I feel like lately NECA has been trying convert this opener to a MOC collector with all the interesting box art on their Turtle releases. This one has a beautiful illustration of the guys eating pizza on the front and there is a flap that opens up and shows off the figures very well. The box art has tons of Easter Eggs referencing various characters that I’m hoping will be announced soon like Human Baxter, some that have been announced like the Pizza Monsters and Ace Duck, and some we’ve seen teases like Irma.
Unlike most sets like this, the flap opens down and there is a cool illustration of a city street with more TMNT Easter Eggs. The insert of the box has a great cartoon-styled building backdrop, so it kind of makes a little mini-diorama which is pretty cool.
The set comes with a lot of stuff including the four turtles, two pizzas, a pizza slice, Pigeon Pete, a boombox, “The Hare and the Tortoise” book, a skateboard, a “Weird Pizza” delivery boy hat, all the Turtles’ usual weapons, four “masked” heads, four hats, four extra turtle heads, and eight extra sets of hands!
The hands should be familiar if you have the other ninja turtle sets and include four sets of normal grips, four sets of flat “high five” hands, two sets of thumb up hands, one set of pointing weapon holding hands, and one set of the more open grip weapon holding hands. They all swap with some force and stay on tight.
The book is another one of those fun deep cut episode references. It’s a solid piece with graphics on the front and back so your April figure can read the guys their favorite bed time story.
The pizzas are nicely detailed with a lot of paint hits. I especially like the specificity of the Sardine and Ice Cream pizza.
Pigeon Pete is a tiny little slug figure that has a good amount of paint detail and stands well. He’s from a specific episode, but seems like a fun little thing to add to your TMNT display shelf.
The four bald heads are masks April gives the guys in the episode Turtles on Trial. There are four mask heads, two of each expression, and they pop and swap easily with the regular heads. They are a bit creepy looking, but that is exactly how they look in the show, so it’s a feature, not a bug.
The mask heads can wear the four included hats very well as well as Mikey’s Weird Pizza delivery boy hat. I’m impressed that the hats stay on both the turtle and mask heads pretty well.
I don’t remember specifically which episode the skateboard and boombox come from, but they are great accessories for the guys. The board has wheels that spin, but they hold stable enough to balance a figure on there.
My favorite feature is probably the alternate expressions. The heads split into two pieces and you get 8 total heads.
Basically you get two of each Turtle’s upper head, one with open eyes and one with more angry eyes. Then you also get two of each of four different expressions (open mouth, closed mouth smile, closed mouth, and open mouth smile) which can be swapped with the different eye parts for different effects.
Adding the angry eyes to the smiles makes for a more sinister look. Swapping the angry eyes for the more open eyes changes the yelling face from a look of anger to one of surprise. It’s a fun feature for sure, especially when taking pictures, and gives you way more options. I only wish the original heads swapped with these more easily for even more options.
The figure itself is mostly re-use of the original NECA cartoon turtles aside from the new head. The trench coat and pants are removeable and I really like the overall quality of the cloth on the coat. It hangs very nicely and the collar is a stiffer material designed to stay in the popped collar mode they guys employed when wearing coats. Straight out of the box, I feel like the collar is a little to straight up and down and it looks better once you bend it around. The coat is held closed with a belt and the buckle can be cinched closed. One of the cooler features is you can actually stick the figures’ hands in their pockets!
The articulation and paint on these figures are in line with the previous releases with one new addition: the bandana is poseable and attaches to the head with a swivel/hinge so you can move it around.
Overall this is a super fun set and it’s starting to hit Targets now. Thanks again to NECA for sending this along!
