CASEY JONES

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

Apart from they year 2019, which saw an inordinately high number of TMNT-themed reviews, they tend to be a little bit scarce around these parts.  Not that I deliberately avoid them or anything, especially when I’ve got a good reason not to.  I guess I’ve got a good reason not to.  The story of where we are right now starts with Matty Collector.  I know, that’s rarely a good start, but this one plays out okay, I swear.  After running pretty much the whole platform into the ground, Mattel decided they didn’t really want to support a collector site anymore, and was looking to shut things down.  However, Masters of the Universe Classics still had a little traction left in it.  Rather than giving up entirely, they licensed the whole thing out to Super 7, who had previously been pretty much exclusively focusing on smaller Kenner throw-back figures.  Super 7 took the assignment rather to heart, initially continuing, and then circling back to further improve upon what Mattel had been doing with MOTUC.  When Mattel decided to take Masters back in-house, Super 7 opted to keep the style they’d started going, under the banner of Ultimates, and spread to other ’80s and ’90s properties, chief among them being TMNT.  They’re a good way into the line now, and they’ve just added one of the Turtles’ two best human friends, Casey Jones!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Casey Jones is part of Wave 4 of Super 7’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimates line, alongside Donatello, Mondo Gecko, and Muckman.  As with the rest of the line, his focus is specifically on recreating the vintage Playmates figure, up to modern standards of sculpting and articulation, so that’s what he’s specifically based on.  The figure stands 6 3/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is sort of its own style of thing.  There are certainly some elements of the Mattel work that Super 7 inherited with their Ultimates lines, but with its own sort of flair, which honestly marks some improvements to how things work.  There’s a pretty solid range of motion on most of the joints (the neck and waist are both a little restricted on mine, but that’s really it), and he holds poses well and maintains a pretty stable footing without much trouble.  The figure’s sculpt is all-new, with the express purpose of recreating the original Playmates toy design for the character.  For Casey, that’s not as far removed from the animation design as some others, making him perhaps a more comparable offering to what we got from NECA.  That said, there’s a slightly more in-depth level to the detailing, especially the smaller stuff and the texturing.  You can make out the individual wrappings of the bandages on his knees and right hand, as well as little traces of hair on his arms and what we can see of his torso.  I also really dig the smaller, personal touch details, like his left shoelace being untied, adding to Casey’s classically disheveled appearance.  His mask is even sculpted to look convincingly like a separate piece, even though it’s non-removable.  Casey’s color work isn’t terribly involved, which is rather true to the original design.  There’s a lot of swathes of solid colors, largely molded in the proper color of plastic.  That said, the base work is generally pretty clean, with only a few minor fuzzy spots.  He’s also got some decent accent work to help some of the sculpted elements pop just a little bit.  Casey is packed with a rather impressive selection of accessories.  He includes four sets of hands (fists, open gesture, gripping with a forward/back joint, and gripping with a side-to-side joint), three different baseball bats, a golf club, a hockey stick, three hockey pucks, and his bag to carry everything.  All of the figures also include a weapons tree simulating the ones included with the old Playmates figures.  The vintage Casey didn’t have one, but this one still gets it.  It’s actually kind of neat, since the excess parts of the tree resemble a goal net.  I don’t see myself getting any use of of this piece from a display standpoint, but it’s still kind of a nifty piece.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While the idea of spending $50 a pop on TMNT figures doesn’t exactly thrill me or seem like a thing I’m really game for, I do certainly have a soft spot for Casey Jones, and after all of the fiascos surrounding NECA’s various figures, I decided it might be worth my time to at least give this one a try.  After snagging this guy, I think it’s safe to say that he was definitely worth my time.  He’s a lot of fun, and I think Super 7 really found a footing to justify the price point on these.  I’m not going to be jumping in full force or anything, but I’m definitely game for at least one or two others, to say nothing of the other Super 7 Ultimates offerings that are upcoming.  But, in the mean time, I can safely say this is the best Casey Jones I’ve got, and that’s certainly a plus.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website.