It’s #TurtleTuesday, and you know, when you are this disgustingly beautiful, you can look good in any outfit. Such is the case with the TMNT ULTIMATES! Mutagen Man. He is back in an all-new glow-in-the-dark color scheme that might even out do his original mess of a masterpiece design.
Character repaints and variants are tricky thing when it comes to collector-driven action figure lines. They often toe the line between being essential and awesome, and being tossed in the category often referred to by fans as a “wasted slot.” I have been on both sides of that judgement call, but you have to hand it to Super7 – whether it be TMNT, Toxic Crusaders, or MOTU, these guys know how deliver on a glow-in-the-dark figure. I might have an inherent bias to those types of figures (though I would NEVER take GitD over an essential “standard”version if I had to choose one), between the two glowing Toxies, Baxter Stockman, and now Mutagen Man, the U! is becoming a fun place for fun variations.
So, this new one lands as an exclusive at Entertainment Earth (though, you can grab it at BBTS, too), and like Baxter, I new it looked cool, but again, I was caught off guard with how much I like it after having in hand for a couple of weeks (yes, I am slow on this one). I have talked during a couple of FwooshCast Live streams that the original ULTIMATES! Mutagen Man was the sleeper figure of series two, so I should have been better prepared for how slick this version would, ahem, ULTIMATELY turned out, but I will take a pleasant surprise where ever I find one. Seymour Gutz now joints Baxter Stockman as the original variant/repaints in the line, and like his predecessor, I have to have a nice spot to have this guy displayed prominently.
TMNT as a property is never going to be called anything but creative and original when it comes to character design, and even with a mythos of mutant warthogs, bug men, dragon guys, and weirdo sumo wrestlers, Mutagen Man raises to the top of the ladder in odd and disgusting fashion. So, I linked you to my look at the original U! figure above, so if you read that, or have that figure yourself, you know what you are going to get in terms of construction and build. Nothing is new here in terms of tooling, sculpting, or accessories, but the deco work is just wild, and certainly worthy of being called crazy cool, so even if you make this your default Mutagen Man on the shelf, you are good to go – and in style.
If Mutagen Man was rotting and melting away in his standard look, this takes all of that and adds a level of toxic wasting in a the best way. Even if the figure did not have the glow-in-the-dark feature, the new hot pink, metallic green, bright gold, and sickly, well, snot color is enough to make this figure completely bonkers. Hot pink and bright green are two of my favorite colors, and the way those two hues feature prominently is pretty much what you want when it comes to a TMNT figure. That said, Mutagen Man already leaned that way, but this just heightens the kindred spirit of MM to Toxie, and I love it. Those nondescript pink pupils on those floating disembodied eyes are just frikkin’ great.
Like a lot of good things though, the best part of this comes out once the lights are turned out, and the glowing effect on this figure is just great. There is noting cute, or winking, or even original about it, but the way all of the glowing parts look, and the different plastics glow slightly differently from each other is just too much fun. Plus, be careful because if you are sleeping in the same room as this figure, you are likely to end up with a sunburn when you wake up in the morning. The glowing effect is BRIGHT, like, it even surprised me, and I own a lot of GITD figures. If the glow is your thing, and you don’t give a lick about TMNT, you will still want to give this figure a look because it is likely it is going to make your other GITD figures jealous, at least from a brightness standpoint.
Yeah, figures like this are meant to be a fun trip that if they appeal to you, they appeal to you. I am not sure if this figure would ever be called “essential” to a TMNT collection, but boy, if you like fun, this figure is absolutely needed. I mentioned the spots above where you can get it, but just in case you missed it:
About Post Author
Source: Fwoosh
