TMNT Movie Mini figure Review
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So you are an action figure fan on a budget or with a serious lack of space. What are you going to do? Well if you are
a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Playmates Toys has you covered with their miniture versions of their figures.
And they are back once again for the Movie toy line. While the figures are suppose to be available on individual cards
as with the past mini-figures, this review will cover the ten pack of mini-figures.
Packaging - 7/10The mini-figure ten pack has the figures lined up in two rows in a thin window box. (With figures this small, it doens't have to be very deep.) The figures are lined up within the box with some variety to the poses. Oddly enough, the set includes five good guys (the Turtles and Splinter) and five of the bad guy characters (Max Winters, a Foot Ninja, the Vampire monster, and Generals Aguila and Gato) but the figures are mixed together in the box. I would have expected them to put all the good guys in one line and the bad guys in the other. I'm not really sure if that would have been better or not. It would have made it more obvious that rather important figures in the form of the other two Generals were missing. The box uses the movie graphics for the TMNT logo and the four Turtles in the lower corners. The top and side panels are too small to have anything more than just the TMNT logo. The back of the box has a brief description of the premisis of the movie as well as photos of most of the other Movie toys.
Sculpting - Splinter 7/10, Don, Mike & Raph 3/10, others 6/10The sculpting for the mini figures is pretty impressive for such tiny figures. Figures like Max Winters and Splinter have a great deal of detail crammed onto a two inch frame. I doubt that these are scaled down versions of the full sized figures since that would probably be a difficult process. But they almost look as though they could be. Of the five bad guys and Splinter, the only significant complaint I have is the scale or lack thereof. All of the figures are basically made to come as close to two and a quarter inches as reasonably possible. That and they also got the weapons for General Aguila and General Gato wrong just as with the full size figures. But the Turtles are a disappointment. Leonardo is almost passable though his body is a bit too stocky for the movie design. The other three are much worse. There is only the slightest trace of the movie design with its large feet and forearms. Their heads don't even match up to their necks.
Paint - Turtles 3/10, others 5/10The paint work on the mini figures is fairly simple due to their size. But in most cases the results are pretty good. Splinter and Max Winters are probably the best of the set as well as the most intricate. The Generals are a bit darker than they should be. And General Gato lacks the painted activation device on his chest or painted eyes that General Aguila has. So I guess he is supposed to still be stone. But once again the four Turtles fail to live up to the same standards as the other figures. Leonardo, Donatello and Michelangelo all have sloppy, inconsistant paint work or stray marks. And the lack of pupils for their eyes makes them look like they are all in trances.
Articulation - Vampire 0/10, Splinter 2/10, Generals 4/10, others 3/10You can't really expect such small figures to be very well articulated. Yet some of the Movie mini figures, namely the two Generals actually manage to pack four rotating, cut joints onto their tiny frames. Most of the figures have three joints: the shoulders and either the waist or neck. Splinter just has the two shoulder joints. The vampire has no articulation at all. The articulation for the bad guys makes sense, even the complete lack of it for the Vampire. But the lack of useable hip joints for the Turtles and Splinter is a pointless oversight.
Accessories - 0/10None of the figures have any removeable weapons or accessories. However, every figure comes with their weapons as a part of their sculpt with the exception of the Vampire which didn't use any weapons in the movie.
Value - 3/10The Movie Mini figures are basically on par with any of the first three series of mini figures. So I would expect their price to be similar as well. So a ten pack of figures should sell for around $10 right? Wrong. The ten pack of Movie Mini figures is $15. While I know that all of the movie toys carried an increase in price, an increase of 50% seems extreme. And there isn't anything to make these figures superior to the previous mini figures other than the packaging. I was fortunate that I bought most of my movie toys during a buy 2 get one free sale from Toys R Us which helped to cut the price back to where it should have been.
Happy Hunting:The ten pack of Movie Mini figures is exclusive to Toys R Us. It is available both in their stores and from their website: www.toysrus.com. If you are willing to search though, the mini figures are also suppose to be available on single cards and may actually be cheaper to purchase that way. Unfortunately I've yet to see them stocked at any stores locally.
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