Tag Archives: Turtles of Grayskull

#3782: Mekaneck

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

MEKANECK

TURTLES OF GRAYSKULL (MATTEL)

“Nobody knows how truly dangerous the Snake Men are more than Mekaneck, the snake-hunting specialist able to spy on King Hiss from a distance.”

Hey, it’s time for more Masters of the Universe!  Not nearly as much of a break this time as the last, which isn’t so bad.  I’m actually jumping back into Turtles of Grayskull, the crossover with TMNT, but in contrast to all of my prior ToG reviews, this one’s actually of a proper Masters character.  Why’s that? Because there’s a Mekaneck, so I kind of have to, right?  It’s, like, a legal requirement, or something.  Don’t question it, just do it.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mekaneck is part of Series 5 of Turtles of Grayskull.  This is the first assortment of the new year, and the first to shift into this year’s theme, which is Snake Men related.  He’s one of the two Masters characters in the set, and also one of the two “new” characters.  What’s the rationale on Mekaneck’s inclusion?  I don’t know for sure.  They’ve tied him more directly in with the Snake Men, which is fine, I suppose.  I’m not gonna question that which gives me a new Mekaneck.  The figure stands about 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 26 points of articulation.  While the Masters characters don’t get quite the same sort of re-working for this line as the Turtles, they still have been getting some adjustments.  In Mekaneck’s case, he’s a lot more armored up, and actually covered head to toe.  It’s different for the sake of different, I suppose, but it better fits the slightly skewed aesthetic of ToG.  It’s got a different vibe from classic Mekaneck, but I definitely dig it, and it still feels like the character.  It’s also a sharper design, with a bit more going on, which gives his sculpt more to do.  In terms of coloring, he keeps the same general scheme, but the layout and balance is a little more tweaked.  I feel like he could use a touch more red, but otherwise, it’s not bad.  Mekaneck is packed with usual club (but now in a slightly more metallic shade of yellow), and two neck extension pieces, which are the same molds as the Origins release.  He also gets a new shield piece, which you can even put on his back.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Honestly, I really didn’t expect this one at all.  Like, I love the guy and all, but Mekaneck’s usually a bit of a wait even in a Masters-exclusive line, so in a cross-over line with twice as many major characters to balance, I just didn’t expect him to warrant a spot.  But, he did, and the concept got shown off first, which made me happy.  Then they showed off the prototype, and that made me happier.  And then he actually got released and that made me the happiest.  He’s a heck of a lot of fun, and I’m always happy to have another Mekanech.

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 and their eBay storefront.

#3710: April O’Neil

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

APRIL O’NEIL — SORCERESS FROM CHANNEL 6 NEWS

TURTLES OF GRAYSKULL (MATTEL)

You know, I had a pretty good run of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reviews last month, but it sort of fell off for October.  It’s kind of the nature of the beast; I don’t actually buy *that* much TMNT stuff.  But, it’s okay, because I’ve got a new TMNT thing!  And it’s not *just* TMNT, either!  It’s also Masters of the Universe, because we’ve got another crossover bit up in here!  ….Sorry, that felt wrong and forced.  I promise not to do it again.  Anyway, I’m jumping back over to Turtles of Grayskull, Mattel’s TMNT/MOTU crossover line.  I looked at the Casey last month, and because I’m a guy that loves my pairings, I’m taking a look at their take on the other human ally (and honestly the more important one) April O’Neil!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

April O’Neil – Sorceress From Channel 6 News is part of the fourth assortment of the Turtles of Grayskull line.  She’s one of the two Turtles-centered characters in the set, the other being a revisit on Leonardo.  The figure stands about 5 1/4 inches tall and she has 28 points of articulation.  She’s my first direct interaction with the female Origins base body, which is a fair bit different from its male counterpart in build, of course, but not drastically so in terms of articulation set-up.  Honestly, it’s not bad.  While Casey relied more on just the TMNT side of things for his design, April is going more the Donnie route, and getting merged with a specific MOTU concept, in this case the Sorceress, as is detailed pretty well in the included mini-comic.  It’s a solid merging of the two designs, specifically calling on the ’80s incarnations of both in particular, so that it really feels like ’80s April taking on the ’80s Sorceress’s powers.  The sculpt captures the whole set-up pretty decently.  There’s certainly a degree of hokeyness to it, but that’s kind of exactly the aim with this whole bit.  I do find it generally a more refined sculpt than most of her male counterparts, which is cool.  The color work is very bright and generally clean.  The face looks to be printed.  Mine’s got a stray black mark under the eye, but that’s really my only issue.  I quite like the pattern on the tabard; that’s a lot of fun.  She’s packed with a pair of wings, done up in the colors to match the vintage Sorceress, which plug pretty securely into her collar piece.  She’s also got a big hammer-style version of the Sorceress’s scepter, which I really do love.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I knew once I snagged Casey, I wanted to get an April to go with.  So, when Casey arrived, I confidently grabbed the red-headed warrior woman of the assortment to go with him…before realizing I had *actually* grabbed a Teela, and that April was in the next assortment.  Fortunately, it wasn’t really a long wait.  April’s a solid addition to the concept.  She’s got a different approach to the crossover than Casey, but I definitely can dig it.

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 and their eBay storefront.

#3691: Casey Jones

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

CASEY JONES — ONE-MAN WEAPONS RACK

TURTLES OF GRAYSKULL (MATTEL)

Toy crossovers are becoming a pretty common thing, and, honestly, when it comes to that sort of thing, TMNT has pretty much always been the king of that sort of thing.  At the very tail end of last year, Mattel launched a crossover between TMNT and their own in-house property, Masters of the Universe, dubbed “Turtles of Grayskull”.  I got the Donatello, of course, because that’s what I do.  The Metalhead/Roboto combo is a Build-A-Figure, so there’s a barrier for entry on that one, but that leaves me with one more TMNT character I always buy: Casey Jones!  So, let’s see how his amalgamation worked out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Casey Jones is part of the third assortment of Turtles of Grayskull figures.  He and Mikey are the two Turtles characters, and are joined by Teela and Skeletor from the Masters side. The figure stands about 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 26 points of articulation.  Donatello and the other Turtles were making use of a lot of new base parts, but Casey’s actually just using the standard Origins male buck.  It’s a little buff for Casey, I suppose, but it seems like when you travel to Eternia, you just immediately get jacked.  Donnie was specifically patterned on Man-At-Arms as his MOTU-equivalent, but Casey’s “One-Man Weapons Rack” gimmick makes him a bit more his own thing.  He’s pretty decidedly the classic Casey Jones cartoon design, but assembled using MOTU parts.  It’s honestly a pretty cool concept.  He gets a new head and a new overlay for the torso.  The head’s unmasked, and is certainly more in line with Casey’s more modern “pretty boy” interpretations.  It’s also rather unique when compared to the standard Origins heads, giving Casey a lot of character.  The new torso piece pairs up with a re-used Man-At-Arms shin guard to give him his slightly more padded appearance.  He also gets a new facemask and armored glove, patterned on Ram-Man’s headgear and the Jitsu/Fisto hands, respectively.  The glove’s a little tricky, because it feels like it *should* just slide over the hand, but because it’s an open hand, it sits way too far down.  You can remove the hand, of course, but then it feels like it sits a little too high, and it’s never totally secure.  I feel like just having it swap for the standard hand and putting a peg in place to hold it would have been the best solution.  Casey’s color scheme is his classic color lay out, with the saturation pitched up ever so slightly, and a few more metallic colors thrown in for good measure.  The paint work is minimal but generally clean, with the only notable issue on mine being some slop on the white paint for the boots.  Casey gets quite an impressive assortment of extras, with the previously mentioned mask and glove, as well as a MOTU-ified version of his usual sports bag, as well as a hockey stick, warhammer, axe, katana, and staff.  The “bag” clips securely onto the harness, and everything fits well inside it.  There’s even a special spot on the side to clip the hockey stick in place.  Obviously, the hockey stick is the classic armament here, and I love the translucent green, but I also love the warhammer so very, very much.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Donatello was fun, but as I said in that review, I didn’t see myself really jumping into this line.  Metalboto being a Build-A-Figure that I wasn’t given much of a chance to complete seemed to cement that…and then they showed off Casey.  I already have a soft spot for Casey figures, and this one also looked really, really cool.  As it turns out, he *is* really, really cool!

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 and their eBay storefront.

#3525: Donatello – Heroic Turtle-At-Arms

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

DONATELLO — HEROIC TURTLE-AT-ARMS

TURTLES OF GRAYSKULL (MATTEL)

Fun FiQ Fact #0004: The vintage Masters of the Universe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toylines shared a designer, Mark Taylor, who designed key portions of both lines.

I’m neither the world’s biggest Masters of the Universe fan nor the biggest TMNT fan, so you may be wondering what’s the deal with me reviewing a crossover figure from the two lines. Okay, you’re probably not, because I’m actually pretty transparent on some things, and one of them is that I like Donatello action figures. Where there are cool new Donnies, I tend to follow. Also, I do like me a nifty crossover. So, behold Man-At-Arms Donatello!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Donatello is part of the first standard assortment of Mattel’s Turtles of Grayskull line, alongside Leo, Man-At-Arms, and Mutated He-Man. The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 24 points of articulation. In terms of construction, these figures are very similar to Mattel’s own Origins line, which makes a degree of sense, since it allows the Turtles to fit right in with the established MotU characters, as showcased in the included minicomic. The design brings his build more in line with the typical Masters look, so he’s a little more roided out than usual, and gets less of that typical Turtle physique. This is presumably to keep cross-compatibility between all of the figures in the line. Donnie gets his own Man-At-Arms inspired armor, which is pretty fun. I especially dig how the back shell can turn into a separate shield piece. Donnie’s color work keeps with his usual palette, but there’s clearly more purple, since that’s the main basis for the armor. I like it; it makes him stand out nicely. Donnie is packed with the 7 pieces of removable armor, plus a staff-version of the Man-At-Arms mace, and a minicomic explaining the background of the crossover. Of particular note, it features Roboto in his minicomic colors, which makes me very happy.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

This whole endeavor is Max’s fault. He let me know about this crossover’s existence, and he made darn sure I got one of these, with this particular one landing in my hands just days before Christmas. He really likes to look out for me. I don’t feel the need to go in-depth for this line (but I certainly wouldn’t say no to a Roboto/Metalhead crossover), but this one figure is definitely worth it.