He’s a lizard-man on a motorized skate board wearing a cut-off t-shirt and jeans. I’d buy this guy even if I’d never heard of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Let’s take a look at Mondo Gecko and Kerma!
Mondo and Kerma come in another brilliant VHS compilation style box. I can’t say enough about how much I love the art on these things and I appreciate the imaginary scenario they set up with Mondo and Kerma flying in a space ship and skating together on the back. I had a hard time seeing why these two guys came together, but I like the work they do in the packaging to make them seem more related. I also totally hear Michelangelo’s voice when I read “SHRED, MONDO, SHRED!”
The set comes with Mondo, Kerma, a pre-mutation gecko, a skateboard, a bag of loot, a bomb, two sets of hands (grip and splayed open), a blaster, and a compliance cuff.
The compliance cuff comes from the Dirk Savage: Mutant Hunter episode and was used to control mutants. The cuff slides over the wrists when you swap hands. The hands swap easily and stay on securely. I like the two options they chose, but I could go for one more set with a fist and maybe a “hang loose” gesture.
The loot bag, bomb, and blaster are all from Mondo’s episode of the ’87 show, but they seem like they will be fun to use to set up Turtle figure scenarios in the future. I mean, somebody is always robbing a bank, blasting somebody or planting a bomb in this kind of show, right? The bomb and blaster have clean paint work and I like how the loot bag is balanced to sit upright on the ground when not in hand.
Pre-mutated Mondo looks super cute, but at the same time a little sinister. That gecko is up to something.
The board is appropriately huge and is painted with some very vibrant colors. I think my favorite feature is that the foot peg is actually at a good spot where you want to put the back foot for skating poses. The wheels spin, but he stays pretty stable on a flat surface.
Kerma is almost an accessory, but has enough going on to be more. He’s got a good ball-jointed head, swivel/hinge arms and swivel wrists and legs. I found myself wishing the legs were hinges, so he could be posed more like he’s walking. The sculpting on this guy is fantastic and translates the cartoon look well while imbuing a ton of personality into his expression.
The sculpting on Mondo is also phenomenal and he simultaneously looks like he’s stepped right out of the TV onto my desk, but also cooler than he looks in the show somehow. It’s weird.
He scales great with the Ninja Turtles and has a really similar build and articulation scheme. Mondo has:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Bicep, wiast, and two thigh swivels (one near the hip and one at the shorts line)
- Ball and socket mid-torso, lower neck, head, and tail
- Double hinged knees
- Hinged jaw
The articulation is pretty awesome and I especially like how the forward bend on the ankles and flexible hips work with the double hinged knees to get low crouches for skating poses. The articulated jaw is also another nice feature and works with the lovely tilt in the neck joints for expressive posing. I do kind of wish the waist was a ball and socket for more crunch and tilt action and there were some butterfly pectoral hinges to bring the arms across the body more.
Paint is also really solid with great looking vibrant matte paint applied cleanly on all of the items in this set. The only paint issue I see is that the wrist hinge paint does scrape off.
Overall, this is another hit from NECA. I have to admit that Kerma is a bit of a deep cut for me and had to watch his episodes when he was announced because I had no memory of him but I’m glad I did because I really came to enjoy his weird, peaceful vibe and the running joke about the Turtles saving him from all his “little” problems. Mondo is a straight up fun figure and looks fantastic posed with his board. This was an early sample from NECA, but should be hitting Targets in the near future.
