Snagged a Raph with motorcycle from a local Target today.
Some pics tomorrow.
screenshots from an unboxing video on instagram, good to see that Shredder is indeed taller than the turtles
Youtube review of the Shredder regular and In Hell version by ToyShiz.
It looks really good, but he failed to spot the mistake on the butterfly joints, which are flesh-colored but textured as the blue shirt...
As a legitimate abuse victim, it's hard for me to give even a toy company another chance after delivering a crappy product, but I was still tempted by the IDW Mikey & Donnie I found at Target for less than what they're going for on Amazon, so I hesitantly tried out one of them.
I gotta say...it's like these are from two completely different companies.
It's not a perfect figure (few are), and suffers from some issues plenty of other companies do (pretty gummy), but it's not only literal night & day with the previous garbage, but more worth the $18 than some of its more expensive competitors (*glares at $38 Black Series with no accessories*).
I look forward to grabbing the other three & Shredder!
How's the QC on them? I see a lot of Amazon reviews where the hands are coming apart from the hinged pegs, or reviews saying some of the arms have issues being raised or the elbows are flimsy. I might pick these up out of boredom if I can spot them at Target, but the idea of playing QC roulette with four figures where I can't track inventory online is a bit of a turn-off.
How's the QC on them? I see a lot of Amazon reviews where the hands are coming apart from the hinged pegs, or reviews saying some of the arms have issues being raised or the elbows are flimsy. I might pick these up out of boredom if I can spot them at Target, but the idea of playing QC roulette with four figures where I can't track inventory online is a bit of a turn-off.
Only qc issue I've had with mine was one of Raph's hands being a bit loose, other than that they're great
(Apologies if this comes off sarcastic, it is NOT intended) Oh, if I had any issues like that, I would've absolutely mentioned it in that post. Like I said, there's some bad gumminess all over, but no worse than, say, Marvel Legends.
Probably the worst things I dealt with are gummy elbows which make them a little wiggly, but as you can see in the first two pics, it doesn't prevent them from holding that pose; I had to heat up the hands to move the joints, simply because the pegs - while thankfully thick - are unreasonably short, so there's no way to get any leverage; and I should've heated it up, but swapping the heads was half good (popped off easily) and half nightmarish (it took way more strength than my physically disable hands were capable of to get it all the way on).
I have not suddenly turned into a TLS apologist with one figure, haha. The first four Turtles are still absolute garbage, and some of my biggest purchase regrets EVER, and while Krang is improved, still has choices that should never have been made (why are the tentacles that go into the brain articulated, but the ones that go into the walker NOT!?), and the original Toon Shredder & Foot have some good things about them, they're definitely ruined (for me) by other choices that should never be made about action figures in 2023 (hinge & swivel ankles and size compared to the Turtles being my most hated for both molds, and then throw in the Foot Soldiers' neck joints being functionally useless). And those are all the figures I have from this line (I have a few more BST AXN of Cowboy Bebop, Avatar, and AC/DC, but all have the same complaints & buyer's remorse, so their garbage production was not limited to TMNT).
But the improvements made on at least IDW Michelangelo are obviously things that should've been from the get-go in this day & age, but at least they were MADE. Super7 not only still doesn't give a sh** about articulation limitations, they're seemingly getting worse with recent figures (I don't have Space Cadet Raph, but ask Misfit about him, lol).
People rarely seek to improve themselves, companies never do. So it should be acknowledged that TLS are not only trying, but legitimately improving (I've heard nothing but good things about all the IDW figures, which is why I was tempted to try one out in the first place).
Sorry about TLDR.
Funny timing - tracked down this thread to ask if anyone had opinions on the best Loyal Subjects Casey Jones and if the earlier versions have been improved upon, but it sounds like they're actively getting better with each new iteration? I'm loving the set of the turtles I got this year and want to fill out the collection with an April and Casey, maybe Shredder too, and saw there were at least two Caseys. Anyone have both or either and have good or bad things to say about them? I'm inclined to go with the belly shirt classic look, but if the updated one in the red shirt is significantly better quality, I'm not picky. (I do prefer that the half-shirt one comes with an unmasked head though, which is always my preference.)
Funny timing - tracked down this thread to ask if anyone had opinions on the best Loyal Subjects Casey Jones and if the earlier versions have been improved upon, but it sounds like they're actively getting better with each new iteration? I'm loving the set of the turtles I got this year and want to fill out the collection with an April and Casey, maybe Shredder too, and saw there were at least two Caseys. Anyone have both or either and have good or bad things to say about them? I'm inclined to go with the belly shirt classic look, but if the updated one in the red shirt is significantly better quality, I'm not picky. (I do prefer that the half-shirt one comes with an unmasked head though, which is always my preference.)
I had the red shirt one for a bit, wasn't terrible but it was too short to work with the newer IDW turtles I had gotten and didn't have a hockey stick which kinda disappointed me.
I saw the Shredder in Hell pack at Wal-Mart last night. Was the only new thing I've seen them get. It looked...eh. But its there for folks wanting a Shredder.
Teenage sized action figures for my Marvel Legends and they have a better aesthetic to fit in with comic figures.
I was hesitant to buy these. In the package they looked a little cheap. The joints look flimsy in the thinness. But I’m in Target. There’s all four. At first I’m just going to buy Donny. He’s my favorite and his accessories look the most interesting. But I convince myself if I’m sitting at the table and I like Donny I’d want the rest.
They look like Teenage Turtles for my Legends. I’ve always wanted that scale highly articulated Turtles. I justify getting all four and say I’m only going to open Donny first. If it’s not as good as I hoped I’ll return the other three. Donny still had good accessories with the goggles and super fist tech guantlet.
Donny’s knees do look weird articulated and the ankles don’t move as well as I like. The heads are hard to pop on and hands are hard. Of course heat fixes that. His elbows move like butter and have soft ratchets. I think there’s a waist swivel. His sculpt is really interesting. Love the texture to his skin and wraps and belts. I didn’t know his shell is metallic. Probably story specific which I’m not aware. He articulates well enough. I stood him next to Deadpool. Oh yeah! He looks great!
After playing around posing, swapping, and just enjoying Donny. I checked his scale next to Spring Samurai Turtle. Spring is smaller. He’s smaller than BST AXN Leo too. So Autumn is probably going to be shorter than this Donny too.
I opened them all. They still have odd quirks. Some of the bandanas seem really brittle. I’m happy there are pupil eyes heads and white out battle heads to use. The hands require heat to get the weapons in easier. Leo has sone odd posed hands. I’m not sure how they are to be used. I wish they all had fists. I like the variety of heights and builds as well as skin colors. The shoulders are a bear to raise. The bicep connection point to the shoulder will have to be watched. It’s a thin point and seems gummy. Weapon storage for most things for the most part. Some extra pieces are just alternate options.
$80 at Target. Yeah I’d say it’s a good value. Good team and has cross over potential with 1:12 sized figures. NECA stuff always looked a bit odd with smaller scale figures. They are 7” product. Nice to have 1:12 Teenager size Turtles!
Thwipp!
Really like the 20 or so issues I read of IDW turtles years ago, and especially like the looks. Wanted NECA to make the IDW figures like two years ago but moved on since getting the Super 7 versions. I have like 7 different sets of turtles at this point, so I wasn’t really looking to get these loyal subjects figures.
Anyway, I saw all 4 of these last week, but picked up Raph on a whim yesterday. Gotta say, for $18 these seem pretty good to me. Decent articulation and accessories, good scale, good presentation generally, and excellent price. My gripes with the figures come down to some sub-optimal (not “bad” but also not “best”) design choices and bad quality control.
On the figure I own there are four problems that could easily be fixed to bump this figure from good into great.
First, the paint for the eyes is not aligned (on both headsculpts), so the white is bleeding over the bandana. I can fix this with some red paint I already have, but I shouldn't have to do that.
Second, the feet on Raph could use some work. It feels like the ankles dont quite have the range they need to make posing this figure dynamically possible without a stand. Further exacerbating the problem is that Raph has no holes in his feet for a stand, and the bottom of his feet dont continue the color from the wraps. So the foot both looks a little weird (from one angle) and isn't as functional as it should be.
Third issue is the hands. While you get alternates, some of the hands seem really hard to get the weapon into, and others are too loose. Or maybe I’m just not sure what the hand is intended for. Either way, it was kind of a hassle to get the sai pointing in the hand I thought was intended for that, but the tonfas are loose in all the hands I tried them in. Also the peg on the hand isn’t all that deep, and I dont feel like the wrists get all the articulation they could have if the peg went deeper.
Fourth issue is that the bandana falls out of the head occasionally, and its made of a more rigid plastic than it needed to be. I think both bandanas are the exact same, which is weird. The peg should have been longer and one of the bandanas should have been either a different style or the same style but for less dynamic poses.
All my complaints are sort of nitpicks though. There is nothing egregiously wrong with the figure I bought, and it looks pretty good on the shelf in my opinion. Of the Raphael figures I own, I would rate my satisfaction with the figure higher than the Playmates TMNT Classics Raph (cartoon version, dont own movie Raph), the 2012 Raph from Playmates, the Loyal Subjects mini figure, the NECA Toon Turtle, and the NECA original Mirage Raph.
I dont like it more than the Mega Constux metal shell (1.5 inch tall figure), the NECA movie Raph, or the Super 7 Raph. But all of those figures cost more than this one.
Overall this is a good figure, especially if you like the IDW looks. I will be picking up the other brothers when I see them.
For whatever reason my Walmart had the IDW Shredder in Hell set marked down to $15, so I HAD to grab one at that price. It came up as "Shredder combo", so that must be it, unless there was some other BST AXN Shredder combo set released a while ago.
Got IDW Shredder in today and the qc on my copy is great, about on par with a typical Hasbro figure
Got the 4 IDW turtles for Christmas (they reached UK stores just in time) and I'm really happy with them.
They kind of full that quality gap between Playmates and NECA with a price around/little lower than Star Wars Black Series/Marvel Legends/DC Multiverse which I think is fair for what you get.
Now I'm excited to see the rest of the line. Hope they get revealed soon.
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