I’m still playing catch up with all the Haul-a-Thon releases so today we’re going to look at the accessory set for the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. The TMNT cartoon line provides a good number of episode specific accessories with each release and this set is that turned up to eleven. Let’s take a look!
The box features a brilliant illustration on the front that shows off the contents of the set in a fun scene and some nice photos on the back.
The set comes with a ton of accessories, but also some smaller figures including four baby turtles, their weapons, MACC, a mouser, two baby pizza monsters, an alternate head for Baxter Stockman, a TV, VCR, one video cassette, a helmet for Rocksteady, a gun, a pizza, a pizza box, a video game, a backpack, a torch, a tracking device, and a picture of cheese.
Baxter gets an alternate head from the episode where he steals Shredder’s helmet with the Eye of Sarnath on it and uses it to wreak havoc. The facial expression is wonderfully gleefully unhinged.
Rocksteady also gets his hat from his first appearance. It disappears shortly thereafter in the show, but I think the toy design particularly made me nostalgic for this look, so I’m glad to have the option to add it to him here.
The pizza box is hinged and contains a full pizza and the cheese painting has a detailed frame and a lovely print of the cheese painting Rat King admires in the museum featured in the episode The Great Boldini. It’s a fun little piece that you can add to your Rat King displays or perhaps use it as something he’s stealing an the turtles are trying to stop him.
The pack is designed to fit on a Ninja Turtle shell and has a great feeling of weight and dimensionality to the sculpting that I was a little surprised that it doesn’t actually open up. I think it’s a specific reference to the backpacks in Splinter Vanishes, but really can be used for any time a Turtle goes on an adventure.
The diamond is the “Star of Hoboken” from the episode Napolean Bonafrog: Colossus of the Swamps and Shredder uses it to pay off gangster Big Louie. Could this mean Big Louie is on the way? I mean, I’d like him, but you could use it for any macguffin in your turtle adventures.
The scanning device is used by Donnie to track an Eye of Sarnath fragment, but it could also work great with any science based villains too or as decoration in the eventual Donatello workshop set. The little thing has such nice techno-greeblie detail and tons of small, precise paint hits that make it an impressive little gizmo.
The ray gun is another Donnie invention, the “Personality Modifier” from Leonardo Lightens Up. Donnie really ventured into some morally questionable scientific areas, huh? It’s got an interesting green paint job and a classic sci-fi look that makes it also looks great with Baxter.
The torch is another item that will come in handy for Donatello lab photos or for working on the Turtle Van.
The included mouser looks to me to be the same as the mouser in the mouser set, but the more mousers, the merrier, I always say. The pizza monsters are a new sculpt showing the creature in a great creepy crawly pose. I’m especially impressed with the little tiny black line that delineates his teeth.
I think the most iconic accessory in the whole set has to be the TV. That thing featured in so many episodes, usually supplying the necessary exposition to get the story started. This little sculpt is dead on and captures the haphazard feel of the illustration. It’s got a few options where you can add the VCR or antennae to the top as needed and they plug into holes on the top. The video cassette also fits nicely into the VCR.
The TV opens up and you can insert one of the included glossy cardstock pictures from the show and have the boys watch a variety of episode appropriate content.
There’s also a snazzy little video game console to go with the TV and one of the included screens is the Tempestra game!
One of the figures included is the TMNT equivalent of Johnny 5 from Short Circuit, MACC. MACC shows up in the Attack of Big MACC episode and features removeable weaponry and articulated elbows, legs, shoulders, and waist. I’m again really impressed with how clean the tiny little lines on his body panels are.
The extra gun from his back can be removed and the blaster in his head can be swapped out with a tiny little piece that gives the idea that his head hinges open.
Finally, the highlight of the set for me is the four baby turtles. They actually get transformed into little kid versions a few times on the show, but it seems to me you could also just use these with Splinter as toddler mutant ninja turtles in training. They have ball jointed heads, hips and bandana and swivel/hinge shoulders and feet. It’s a lot of articulation for tiny little guys, but they can be tough to balance due to their large heads and shells on such tiny little legs.
Overall, the set is full of super fun deep-cut show accessories and I can’t wait to get these into the upcoming Turtle Lair sets.
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Source: Fwoosh
