For two humans dressed like mutant turtles, you would be hard pressed to find two more disparate characters than Zach and Smash. One’s a spunky kid sidekick and the other is a criminal karate instructor. You know those Slash for Cash Dojo kids were super bullies, so seeing Smash with Zach has me thinking of a Karate Kid/TMNT crossover. One with good figures. Let’s take a look at Zach and Smash!
You know the drill with these boxes. Fun Cartoon art meets super clean figure photos and it’s always nice to see a cross-sell section on boxes these days. These are also nice to see just because you almost never see Zach or Smash ancillary material of any kind.
NECA always packs these sets with tons of episode specific accessories, but this set feels like it’s on another level, especially with Zach’s gear. Zach appears in a few episodes, so we see him in a few slightly different looks and it is really nice that NECA included enough stuff to complete those looks. You can pop the alternate unmasked head on there and he looks like a regular cartoonified kid. I’m really impressed at how the sculptor translated Zach’s 2D pompadour into a 3D figure that looks great from all angles.
You can add just the backpack for a more adventure or school time civilian look. It is cast in some very nice flexible material so it’s no issue getting on the figure. There is a super tiny little shape on the back of the pack that I at first thought was just decoration, but it’s actually a little peg you can take out and the “shell” has a peg that attaches so it stays in place on the pack.
The garbage can lid shell has a flexible plastic belt, so you can slide it onto zach and it stays on well while allowing for posing. I didn’t take the little peg out in these pics and it still works okay, but it sits flatter with the lid pegged into the pack hole.
Zach also comes with some BK kids club goggles. He uses these to track the turtles in his debut episode, but they could be used for tons of different adventures I’m sure. The goggles have a white elastic strip that holds them on and a really lovely and sharp paint job.
Zach also comes with two versions of the Turtlecom, one opened and one closed and both have a small hole at the bottom. You can plug a flexible plastic wire into the Turtlecoms and attach it to his pack so you can reenact when Zach plugs the Turtlecom into his Jr. Detective kit to create a loud feedback sound.
That feedback destroys some crystals that factored into Shredder’s evil plan of the week and I believe this is supposed to be one of the shards that the Turtles use to escape capture in that episode. He also helps recover the Tortellini Emerald in an episode, so he has that as well. Both are fun little bits of plastic, but I’m especially impressed by the paint on the emerald with the crisp white lines.
Zach uses a hockey stick in his first appearance, so he’s got that too. It has that very simplified shape from the cartoon and fits well in Zach’s tiny hands.
I don’t really remember Zach or Smash using grappling hooks, but this could be a fun piece of gear for either character to use.
One of my favorite accessories is Chromedome’s severed head. During Night of the Rogues, Zach opens up the head and pulls some data out of there with a computer and this head has a little hinge that opens up and reveals Chromedome’s computer brain. They also included little jumper cables to attach the head to the computer. You can pop this head onto the original Chromedome, but you need to really heat that plastic on the original head up to pop it.
Zach also comes with extra hands including three grip, two fists, and two open hands that allow for a nice range of expression. They pop off easily, but not so easily that they are falling out when you mess with the figure. There is an extra right hand grip and I’m not quite sure why since they both look the same to me. Smash also has a good mix of extra hands with grip, chop, and fists.
He also comes with a nice spread of weapons. I don’t recall these specifically from the show, but they make for a good additional arsenal for all the martial arts users in the line.
Smash has a great alternate unmasked head that has a wonderfully unhinged yelling face. I almost wish he was masked, since I want to say he always has the mask on when in the costume. It would be a good start for a Smash in Gi custom.
Smash himself also has wonderful sculpting with an appropriately bulky body and unpleasant facial expressions. I can practically hear him say “We’re the crooked Ninja Turtle Gang.” when I look at the thing.
Articulation is good here and I especially like the range of motion you get out of the ball and sockets at the head and where the neck attaches to the body. So. Much. Tilt. The figures have mostly the same POA except where I’ve noted below:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows (Zach’s elbows are double swivel hinged), hips, wrists, and ankles
- Ball and socket head, neck, and waist
- Double hinged knees
The paint is very solid as well. It’s bright and saturated while having a lovely matte finish. The line work is also very clean and precise too.
This set is another winner, especially the Zach figure. Smash only appeared once, but his episode is pretty memorable, so I’m glad to have him. Zach was a much more frequent guest star and while he starts out as a fairly typical for the genre annoying kid sidekick, he actually shows some real courage and ingenuity over his episodes becoming a favorite. He earns the title of 5th Turtle and it’s kind of fun rewatching his episodes and seeing how much the turtles seem to like the “little dude”. You can also feel the love in this figure as he gets the royal treatment as much as any major character.
