We’re back with another Haul-a-Thon release today with the Dirk Savage and Mona Lisa 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cartoon figures. These two are single episode characters that made an impact so much so that I was a little surprised that they had only each appeared once. Let’s take a look!
The set comes with in the now classic two-pack look with a big open window up front framed by some fun artwork of the characters and clean photos on the front and back.
The set comes with the two figures, two text books, five test tubes, two test tube stands, three sets of hands for Dirk (fists, grip, pistol grip), four sets for Mona Lisa (fists, grip, open, open webbed), an alternate head for Mona Lisa, a rifle, pistol, rod weapon, a blaster back holster, a mutant trap, and mutant cuffs.
The books and chemistry set pieces work well with Mona Lisa’s back story as a student, but could be useful for guys like Baxter and Donatello. I imagine that I’ll be adding them to Donnie’s lab set when that comes out. The tubes have some lovely colors and look like they are filled with various toxic chemicals.
The two guns match Dirk’s weapons from the show and fit snugly into the pistol grip hands. The two-barreled stun rifle fits into the hard plastic holster in the back. The holster is thinner than the rifle so I wasn’t sure how it was supposed to fit initially, but I did end up being able to slide it in and used the tiny soft-plastic strap to hold it in.
The rifle holster pegs into a hole in the shoulder strap and the back and also has a little clip for the rod weapon which looks a bit like a stun prod.
The big trap has a removeable energy field in blue plastic. It’s similar to the foot trap Dirk used to capture the Punk Frogs and came with one of those sets, but it’s a little more substantial for use against Rhazar. It’s got that great TMNT tech feel with tiny little panels and button sculpted into the sides and painted cleanly.
The stun cuffs are what Dirk uses to catch Leo and Tokka on the show where he tosses them sort of like a boomerang that wraps around the mutants and then handcuffs them. In the show, the cord wraps around the mutants several times. It’s one piece of flexible plastic cuffs between a plastic cord and wraps once with a Ninja Turtle, but not really with Tokka.
The alternate head for Mona Lisa is great because it gives her even more personality and expressiveness as a figure with angry and happy expressions that match the animation models well.
The sculpting on these two is very true to the animation and the faces are wonderfully expressive. I especially like the crazy animated square jaw on Dirk. The humans on the ’87 cartoon had some pretty wildly exaggerated two-dimensional designs that I don’t think always make sense as a 3D object, so I’m impressed at how well they captured Dirk’s vibe.
The articulation is pretty standard to the line, but Dirk has an additional ball joint at the bottom of the neck that allows for some very impressive tilt. The figures have:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Double hinged knees and elbows
- Ball and socket head, lower neck (Dirk), mid torso (Dirk), tail (Mona) and waist (Mona)
- Swivel biceps, waist (Dirk) and boots (Dirk)
The paint is solid on these two with the two-tone paint scheme with a nice matte finish on the bodies and black detail lines that enhance the animated feel.
The scale is good with Mona being a little shorter than the Turtles and Dirk about a head taller.
Overall these two are a couple of fun figures to work into a TMNT collection. Dirk is a great opponent for all the mutants in your stable, good or evil, and Mona is another great turtle ally.
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Source: Fwoosh
