Tag Archives: Foot Ninja

#2351: Foot Soldier

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

FOOT SOLDIER

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: TURTLES IN TIME (NECA)

I feel like I’ve reviewed a surprising number of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles items in the last year.  Though the license has classically just been with Playmates Toys, in the last year there’s actually been a lot of coverage from other toy companies.  In particular, NECA has done quite a bit, with movie, cartoon, and now video game-based figures all in short order.  The cool thing about the video game figures is that they’re actually just available at regular retail and not exclusives.  This marks the first time 7-inch Turtles have been available en masse since the old comic figures back in 2007.  Today, I’m not looking at any of the Turtles proper, but one of Shredder’s faceless minions, the Foot Soldiers!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Foot Soldier is part of the first series of NECA’s Turtles in Time line.  The line serves as something of a follow-up to their exclusive Arcade Game-based boxed sets from 2016, and in fact re-issues a lot of the sculpts contained therein.  The Foot Solder in particular is one such case, re-using the majority of that figure’s sculpt, which was itself repurposed from NECA’s then unreleased comics-styled Foot Soldier.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 35 points of articulation.  He’s certainly got a lot of spots of movement, and the arms and legs are very mobile, but the torso and neck are a little more restricted than I’d like.  That being said, it’s still a quite useful selection of articulation, and he’s still very agile.  The sculpt is an impressive piece, and marketedly different from the cartoon version we got in the Target two-packs.  As someone who’s never been much into the cartoon style design for the Foot, I’m all for getting this sculpt here.  It’s a nice, fairly balanced sculpt.  Some of the details of the costume don’t quite match the details of the game designs, but it’s not far off, and I don’t find the differences all that distracting.  The paint scheme on this guy is meant to replicate the 16-bit designs from the game, something that NECA’s gotten pretty adept at.  The Foot Soldiers in the game came in a variety of colors, something that the 2016 set replicated, but for the purposes of this one, they’ve opted for the purple coloring.  Honestly, it’s the best choice for a starter Foot, but I wouldn’t say no to getting more of this guy in the alternate colors.  The nature of the 16-bit replication means that the Foot Soldier definitely has a stylization to him, but honestly he walks the line of stylized, but still workable with non-16-bit figures.  He actually makes some changes from the boxed set version to make him a little less obviously styled, and I like the changes they made.  The Foot Soldier is packed with a sword, a gun, two sets of hands (fists and gripping), and a hover board with a flight stand.  The board is by far the coolest extra, with some really awesome detail work going on.  I really love the cartoon foot symbol at the front.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I’m kinda starting to hit my limit on how many different versions of the Turtles I need, I pretty much can’t have too many Foot guys, and I’ve wanted some form of this particular sculpt since NECA first showed it off back when they were still trying to continue the comic line.  Getting the nifty new game-inspired pieces is really just icing on the cake.  I definitely dig this guy a lot, and I’m resisting the urge to at lest pick up Donatello to go with him.

The Foot Soldier was purchased from my friends All Time Toys, where he is currently in stock here.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay Store.

#2117: Mutagen Leonardo & Foot Soldier

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , , ,

MUTAGEN LEONARDO & FOOT SOLDIER

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES MINIMATES

Well, the line has wrapped, but there was a time when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Minimates were some pretty hot stuff.  They were also some slightly confusing stuff, since depending on where you were purchasing them, the product was a bit different.  While the whole line was originally supposed to be blind-bagged, Toys R Us ended up not being so interested in that dynamic, and instead got theirs as two-packs, largely made up of the same basic figures showing up everywhere else, but now paired off and with one exclusive offering.  Today, I’m looking at that one, Mutagen Leonardo and his pack-mate the Foot Soldier.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Mutagen Leonardo and the Foot Soldier were released in TRU’s first series of TMNT Minimates two-packs.  The Foot Ninja was packed with the regular Leonardo as well, with Mutagen Leo swapping out for the regular in the one per case chase set.

MUTAGEN LEONARDO

Each of the primary retailers for this line got one Mutagen Turtle variant.  Mikey was at Kmart, Raphael at specialty, and Leo went to TRU (yes, they really did just the three of them at the start; Donatello had to wait for Series 2).  All of them were the same basic concept: take the standard release, mold him in translucent green plastic, and paint up just the bandanna in the proper color.  It’s not a bad look, and has the benefit of having the strong starting point with all the sculpted add-ons.  The lack of paint actually highlighted how nice the sculpts were on these guys, and the blank white eyes on the mask gave a nice change-up from the regular release.  Mutagen Leo was packed with the same accessories as his regular counterpart, so two katanas (in green to match him), a display stand painted like a manhole cover, and a keychain attachment to go around his neck.

FOOT SOLDIER

The Foot Soldier was available through all three venues, and I actually looked at his single-bagged release from Kmart back when these were new.  It’s the same figure, and I certainly don’t mind at all, since it and the Footbot were my favorites from the original line-up.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I wasn’t in a huge hurry to pick this up when it was new, and never got around to tracking it down.  One was traded into All Time a couple of weekends ago, and I had initially surrendered this set to Max.  However, he ended up buying it for me for my birthday instead, which was quite nice of him.  Of course, it does make this his fault, but it’s a lighter sort of “this is your fault” this time around.

#0463: Foot Soldier

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

FOOT SOLDIER

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES MINIMATES

You know what I haven’t reviewed enough of lately? Minimates! There have been a few Minimate reviews on the site recently, but they haven’t been from me, so I’ve kinda felt left out of the fun. But, never fear, I’m never too far from a Minimate to review!

A few months ago, I reviewed most of the figures in the K-Mart assortment of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Minimates. The only figure I was unable to find was the basic Foot Soldier. Well, I found him, so here he is!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Foot Soldier was released in the first series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This particular figure is from the K-Mart assortment, but the Foot Soldier was available in all of the offered assortments. The Foot Soldier is about 2 ½ inches tall and features 14 points of articulation. Like the rest of the TMNT Minimates, the Foot Soldier is based on the design from the current Nickelodeon cartoon. The figure is built on the standard Minimate body, with non-standard upper arms and upper legs, both of which are shared with the Footbot, as well as a set of straps with a sheath for the sword attached (also shared with the Footbot) and a belt piece that holds a knife. Aside from the belt, these pieces are exactly the same as those on the Footbot. They were pretty great there, and they’re pretty great here. The belt is a rather basic piece, but it works, and it helps to differentiate the two figures. Like the sculpt, the paintwork on this figure is more or less identical to the Footbot. The Footbot exhibited some of the best work of the TMNT Minimates, so that’s hardly a bad thing. Everything is clean and the details are nice and bold. I still really love the way they handled the eyes; the detail is just fantastic. The biggest difference between this figure and the Footbot is the accessory selection. This figure includes a katana, a smaller blade, a switch blade, a clear display stand, and the Kmart/TRU exclusive keychain attachment.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After missing out on him in my initial purchase of the TMNT Minimates, I was able to track down the Foot Soldier at Super Awesome Girlfriend’s local Kmart. While it may not seem like the most exciting figure at first, especially since I already have the Footbot, I was pretty thrilled to get this figure. (Jess can attest to this; I may or may not have been sitting in the front seat of the car yelling “Foot Ninja” when I got this.)

#0405: Footbot

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

FOOTBOT

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES MINIMATES

Time for part two of my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Minimates reviews. I have to admit, after the Comic Turtles last week, I kinda figured I’d be taking a break from TMNT. It’s not like they make up a particularly large portion of my collection. But, alas, Diamond had other plans. I can’t turn down Minimates, right? Today, I’ll be looking at one of the Turtles’ foes, the Footbot.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Footbot is a variant of the Foot Ninja, which is the quintessential TMNT army builder. He was released in the first series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Minimates. This figure is specifically from the K-Mart Blind Bag assortment, which means he’s got one extra piece to differentiate him. The Footbot is about 2 ½ inches tall and he features 20 points of articulation (those extra arms sure do help!). He’s based on the character’s design from the current cartoon. The figure is built on the standard Minimate body with non-standard upper arms, upper legs, and hand attachments, as well as an add-on belt piece with two duplicate arms attached. All of the sculpted parts are new to this figure (though the upper arms and legs are shared with the standard Foot Ninja) and they all work very nicely. Each of the hand attachments is different, which certainly adds some variety. Where the paint on Raphael was a bit of a disappointment, the paint on the Footbot is nothing short of exceptional. There’s plenty of detail work, and all of the lines are clean and crisp. The eyes in particular are a fantastic example of conveying dimension through creative paint. The Footbot includes a sword, a sheath and strap, and a spare set of hands, allowing him to be converted into a standard Foot Ninja, as well as a clear display stand and the K-Mart exclusive-ish keychain attachment.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like Raph, the Footbot was purchased from K-Mart. He’s actually the only one I knew I was getting ahead of time, as the package was slightly opened. If I’m honest, he’s my favorite figure in the series by far, and he may very well be one of my favorite Minimates, period. About the only downside of this figure is that the extra pieces kind of make the normal Foot Soldier redundant, but I’m hardly complaining!