Toy Review – The Best Action Figure of 2012

A lot of great toys came out in 2012.

We’ll certainly highlight a few more of them in our upcoming Best of 2012 List, but I wanted to take this opportunity to spotlight my favorite 2012 toy line.

That line is Playmates Toys’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

UnderScoopFire’s Best Action Figure of 2012 is a four-way tie, between Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello & Michelangelo.

As a child of the 80s, consciously or otherwise I will always indelibly link a toy line to its corresponding TV series, if it has one. This psychological tendency is no doubt due to the influence of the king of all 80s toy-lines-supported-by-a-TV-series, G.I. Joe.

This inevitable connection became evident again when the Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series premiered in September. As soon as I saw this show, the value of the toys rose incredibly.

When this toy line first appeared on retail shelves in the summer of 2012, I thought they looked good; and figured I would eventually pick some of them up. There wasn’t an initial must-have-at-this-very-moment feel to them, but I did like the design of the initial offering.

Looking back, if anything these figures were released too early, as their head start over the animated series seemed to prevent them from flying off retail shelves. Children unfamiliar with the franchise were not connecting to them yet, and adult collectors may have been taking a wait-and-see approach.

INFOGRAPHIC: Shellebrating 25+ Years of TMNT History

Now, 7 episodes into the series’ first season, the figures are becoming harder to locate. The once-stocked shelves are quickly clearing, and the largest offering of the line yet, the TMNT Secret Sewer Lair Playset, (labeled a 2012 Toys R Us Holiday Hot Toy) is quickly disappearing. This thing is destined to become one of the classic playsets of all time.

Instead of publishing individual reviews for each Turtle, here is a general review of the line (with some individual figure highlights). As a reminder, I rank figures based on 5 categories: Design, Articulation, Playability, Collectability, and Value; with 5 stars being the highest score.

Design [rating=5] 

These figures, as well as the animated series, strike a perfect balance between preserving the feel of the originals while refreshingly updating them.

Some highlights of the design:

• The shell. While the Turtles’ back shell is hard, the belly shell is a pliable material that allows the legs to move more freely. Posing the figures in anything close to a sitting position would be impossible if this shell piece was hard, so this is a huge positive.
• The scale. While Leonardo and Raphael stand at comparable heights, Donatello clearly stands the tallest, while Mikey remains the most diminutive. This detail was lost on me until the show debuted, but seeing the characters depicted this way in relation to each other on screen, it really stands out as a nice design detail.
• The weapons. Each Turtle comes with a nice assortment of accessories, highlighted by their signature weapon. They are well constructed, and the figures grip their accessories well. The articulation (detailed later) allows for some great weapon-holding poses, perhaps my favorite of which is Raphael’s ability to hold his sai by the blade.

Articulation [rating=5]

As I’ve said before, more articulation isn’t always necessarily good articulation. In my opinion, over-articulating a figure can harm the overall feel of the toy. That said, these figures have the perfect amount of articulation. I don’t need every individual finger to move independently.

With regard to the four Turtles, the amount of joints and the range of motion for each is more than enough to strike some cool poses while maintaining a durable feel. I let my 3 year old play with them, and I feel confident they won’t break due to over-articulation.

Playability [rating=5]

A lot of the playability factor of an action figure is determined by the articulation, as seen above. Not to overstate it, but you can do a lot of great things with these figures, and they stand up to pretty rough play. The Turtles’ respective grips on their weapons is strong, so when the action gets going you don’t have to worry about a poorly-timed dropped sword or sai.

Collectability [rating=4]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are one of those toy lines, past and present, that are impossible to begin collecting without finishing. Unlike some of their contemporaries such as G.I. Joe and Transformers, there aren’t SO many TMNT characters that it is near impossible to collect them all. Even non-hardcore fans who don’t feel as compelled to collect all of the villains and ancillary characters can easily accumulate the 4 Turtles.

They just look way to cool together to collect anything short of all four, and once you’ve gone that far, how do you not pick up Splinter, April, Kra’ang and Shredder?

That said, there are a few swings & misses in the line. While the Kra’ang-carrying robot exoskeletons are great characters on the show, the figure leaves a lot to be desired. One of the least articulated figures of the line, the robot’s legs come in an awkwardly immovable position, making standing them independently difficult.

The removable Kraang (the current incarnation has two ‘A’s, and is a race, not an individual alien) is a cool feature. The texture is fun and the detail is impressive, if only its robot housing was up to speed. One note: if you have small children, beware of how easily Kraang’s tentacles can be pulled off.

I stopped short of a 5 star rating in this category, because as much as I love the Turtles, none of the other figures really stand out. It may be that the 4 Turtle figures set the bar so high for this line that it would be tough to maintain across the entire line, but it seems like there were some opportunities for the other figures to be better.

Value [rating=4]

Most action figures currently retail in the $8.99 – 9.99 price range. Most adult collectors fondly recall a time when action figures sold for no more than $3.99, but that was 20 years ago. Relative to the market, these figures are a good value. A quick scan of the toy aisle will find at least 5 other inferior lines with similar price points. These figures (specifically the 4 Turtles) are a lot thicker and more durable than most toys in this price range.

the newest offerings from Playmates Toys

I hope you found this review helpful. If you are a TMNT fan, I can’t recommend these figures enough. If you’ve got little ones who are interested in the product, I am confident they will enjoy these toys, especially if they are a fan of the Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show.

Check out Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Classics and our other toy reviews here, as well as the 100 Coolest Action Figures of All Time, and 11 80s Toy Lines You May Have Forgotten.

Howie Decker (@HowardtheDeck) is the co-creator and editor of UnderScoopFire. He likes fantasy baseball & taco night. You can read his Letter from the Editor here.