@salemcrow 

All of the Haulathon TMNT Neca stuff ended up Online at Target, even if it Sold Out quickly. That’s how I got all of the past events stuff save for the Accessory Set which sold out in seconds and eventually got it on Neca site.

I don’t remember any of the TMNT stuff being just available in store.

Is AliExpress legit? Seems ripe for Chinese sellers pushing KOs.

Posted by: @chooch555

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Is AliExpress legit? Seems ripe for Chinese sellers pushing KOs.

It seems to be that the newer stuff is legit...at least as far as they're legit pieces, but they're likely either stolen product or "extras" made and sold on the side. Anything that's older than a year or so? Probably bootlegs, yeah.

A fair measuring stick with Aliexpress is that if the price is too good to be true, it is.  If the price looks in line with what most places sell it for, it's probably legit.

Whelp, ordered an April that was on an intro discount for $20 and the 4 pizza club Turtles for $220. Sellers seem to be high volume and good ratings. Fingers crossed. If it works it'll be worth it for avoiding haulathon shenanigans.

There was a guy on ali with a couple different stores that I was buying stuff from for a good while there.  Prices were comparable to US retail, sometimes even a couple bucks less.  Anything that he had in-hand pics of I felt was safe to buy, and I never had any complaints.  I don't think he's around anymore, though it seems to me that an account called FHF Store on there might be related?

Yeah, so far the only thing I've ever bought off Ali was the April with the variant legs.  Everything about it matched up with the movie April I already had, obvious other than the single jointed knees. The box was fairly beat up, but that seems to be the norm from getting anything from 'em.

Ali has definitely been a thought floating around my head, but it definitely makes me nervous to get anything there. I bought some KO SHF figures a long time ago that were -absolute trash-. And I used to buy LEGO-style minifigs for my son there that were decent but not great. I wouldn't want to be depending on any kind of refund/return policy from a place like Ali or its various sellers. So I gotta be sure.

Also, right now the only VHS Leo I can find is bought as part of a set of all of them and I really don't want all of them badly enough to spend that kind of money right now. But it's certainly something I'll be keeping in mind.

"FHF Store" on aliexpress. 

I have bought from this seller several times. Zero problems. Most of the rumors about Ali come from inexperienced buyers who bought cheap knockoffs without thinking. Most of the good sellers always mark their products as "Original" or "Fake". At least look at the reviews...

I've gotten Archie Slash, Usagi, The Accessory Set, and Zarak from the DnD line. All were legit. I'm not sure if there are KO's for the Archie and Toon lines, I -think- just the original Mirage 1.0s and the movie figures. 

Usually reviews and customer photos will help. 

Posted by: @misfit

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The punk turtles are as expected though. Goofy designs I just happen to have an affection for. Most of the joints are fine out of the box save for the thigh swivel (stuck on all four) and some of the ankles. Donatello's head is a bit loose, though the alt head seats fine. The coats are overlays, but they don't have the usual shell underneath (you can push in on the backs of the coat) though there is a hard plastic bottom of a shell that's part of the sculpt. The jackets appear to all plug into where the belt normally would on the plastron and are glued in. The glasses are also glued into the sides of the heads, though one of them on my Raph didn't get glued. The alt heads are fun and I like that they're compatible with the Turtles in Disguise heads so we get some new mouth pieces. I wish each turtle had a unique portrait for the sunglasses head though instead of just Mikey. The accessories are just okay, but I bought the set for the figures themselves so I'm find with them. I do wish they could have given us the other jackets from the first season to swap into, but oh well.

Quoting myself as I have more thoughts on this set after having it for a few days. I do like that the alternate heads work with the Turtles in Disguise heads, in theory, but in practice they're pretty terrible. Whether you have a glossy or matte finish TiD set (I have both) the new mouth on the old bandana piece looks bad because they're different shades of green. If you put the whole punk head on an old turtle it looks okay, only when I actually swapped parts did it look bad. And the old mouth parts won't work with the punk turtles as they're bulkier and won't allow for enough clearance to snap into place. Plus, the shades of green are off anyways. It does highlight how I like the slimmer profile of the new mouth pieces, it's just too bad you basically have to get the new Pizza Club releases to get the most use out of them.

https://twitter.com/SamhainsGrimm/status/1774843322512662564

The only, older, figure that can use these new parts effectively is Dark Turtle. I really like the new open-mouthed grin with his cowl as it gives him a bit of a maniacal expression.

I got the set because I like the sunglasses and jacket look so the extra parts were more like a bonus. Even so, it sucks they didn't either maintain a consistent shade of green across releases or just include a new top half piece. If the mohawks could have been engineered to work with the bandana knot that would have been fine too. Also a bummer since the Pizza Club figures are 37 bucks a piece and each only comes with one standard head. Really feels like NECA is starting to nickel and dime collectors when it comes to anything with the actual turtles.

Can you remove the tops on the default heads?  One of the back of box shots shows Leo with the Mike grin, so hoping you can.

Things like that are incredibly frustrating. The idea of having swappable face pieces is brilliant. Opting to make them unswappable due to something so simple is vexing, whether it was to push people in purchasing the PC bros, or simply a factory accident. Is it confirmed the Pizza Club turtles match the shade of green?  

Is it cynical for me to suggest they did it on purpose so folks would buy pizza club, which is technically another price increase, making a 4 pack for close to 160, has few accessories than TID too.

@catromaji no, the default heads with the sunglasses don't come apart. And the sunglasses are glued in so it would take some effort to put the Mikey grin with another turtle.

I think the change in green is a combination of things. While I don't doubt that NECA wants to sell as many units as possible (and that's why the Pizza Club editions only come with one head), the change in color could be a screw up. The Punk Turtles are the same shade of green as the quarter scale Michelangelo which was different from the other quarter scale turtles. I don't see why NECA would have altered Michelangelo on purpose. I suppose it's possible they made this running change to a new green because they thought it looked better and to sell more turtles and the factory applied that change to the quarter scale figure as well screwing that up. Or they switched factories or something and the new one didn't match the old one's shade of green. Either way, it's annoying and they should have done something to bridge the gap such as including some new Turtles in Disguise head parts. The new heads on the old bodies don't look terrible, it's just when you have mismatched parts on the head itself that suck. And, it may be of some concern to others, but the tops of the new punk heads are one piece, i.e. - you can't remove the bandanas. If you were hoping to take the eyes from these figures to mix with the Pizza Club it won't work.