LEONARDO

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: TURTLES IN TIME (NECA)

What?  No Legends review today?  But I’ve only reviewed half of the set!  How can this be?  Well, I got a lot of Legends in the last two weeks, so I’m going to be trying something a little different in terms of how I drop the reviews, so that I don’t get too Legends-ed out.  So, let’s jump over to something a little bit different: Ninja Turtles!  They’re hardly one of my primary interests, but the Turtles have been showing up with a decent amount of frequency on this site in the last year.  Back in March, I took a look at the Foot Soldier from NECA’s recently launched Turtles in Time line.  Now I’m following that up with a look at the Turtles’ leader, Leonardo!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Like the Foot Soldier before him, Leonardo is part of the first series of NECA’s Turtles in Time line, which is somewhat of a follow-up to their arcade-based boxed sets from 2016.  Unlike those, however, these guys are available at mass retail.  The figure stands 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  All of the figures in the first assortment barring Slash make use of the sculpts from the 2016 set, which, in the case of Leo, means he also shares his mold with all three of the cartoon-styled Leos released in the last three years as well.  It’s a nice, clean sculpt, which captures the design from the cartoon quite nicely.  It also does a pretty respectable job of working in the articulation, although in the case of this particular figure, I did have some troubles with stuck joints that took a little bit of working with.  Leo’s paintwork is much like the Foot’s, going with a slightly stylized approach to the game’s 16-bit graphics.  It’s a little more pronounced here than it was on the Foot, and is in fact an exact match for the boxed set release this time around.  It still looks pretty cool, and works in its own way.  Leo is packed with two sets of hands (gripping and gesturing), his twin swords (which are actually distinct sculpts from the one included with the Foot Soldier), and a hoverboard with a flight stand.  The board is again the coolest extra here, and I really dig the color coordination with Leo’s mask going on there.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Foot Soldier was really the only of the figures from the first assortment that I truly felt like I needed to own, since I’m starting to hit my limit on how many versions of the Turtles I can have in my collection.  If I’m going to break that rule, it’s also probably not going to be for Leo, what with him being my least favorite and all.  Why am I reviewing this guy, then?  Poor packaging design, that’s why.  While moving the figures from one location to another on the store floor at All Time, Leo’s hook broke off (that’s why you shouldn’t really make them out of cardboard), so since he was going to need to be opened anyway, Jason passed him along to me for a quick review.  He’s not a bad figure, and it’s nice to get a taste of the cartoon Turtles molds.  If you’re a Leo fan and just want a solid version of his ’80s look, you could do a lot worse than this one.

As mentioned above, I was given this guy to review by my friends at All Time Toys.  If you’d like one of your own, he’s still available via their webstore here.   Or, if you’re looking for other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.