NECA San Diego Comic-Con 2016 Exclusive TMNT Arcade 6″ Figures

Design: Based on the 1989 arcade game of the titular name. These molds are completely different than the Mirage figures from the same company. The body molds between the turtles are all the same, but the hands, belt and heads are mostly unique. The Foot also share the same mold, just different color. Shredder’s mold is also (by the looks of it) an entirely new design by NECA.



Detail: I love the lighter bandana colors on the turtles, they feel more retro this way. What I do dislike are the dark areas on the turtles. Some dark spots just seem too large, like on the side of the legs. Other than that, I love the pixelized paint as a whole; it just wouldn’t be an “arcade” set without it. Oh and just to note, I like all of the faces given to the turtles. They aren’t too extreme (I’m looking at you Playmates) and can fit many emotions when posing.



Articulation: Each figure contains more than 30 points. There are actually a lot of things I disliked. The turtles didn’t have double jointed knees and elbows, which really limited their posability. Mikey’s chuck also couldn’t nestle within his armpits like in the Mirage figures. And all of the turtles’ feet had very limited range of motion, barely extending past a 90 degree angle. What I did enjoy was the exclusion of toe articulation on the turtles (I’m looking at you again Playmates). Oh, and the bandanas were twistable as well.



Accessories: This is where this series shines. You have all of the basic weapons, along with a pizza, and another set of hands for each figure. That’s 8 sets of hands per box. And all of them are interchangeable, minus Shredder’s… unless you want a Foot ninja with claws. The only thing I disliked was Raph’s sai-holding hands, only because they can’t hold the sais like the Mirage turtles. I’m also not too fond of the breakable bo staff for Donnie, but most other people actually like it. Best accessories would have to be Mikey’s whirling chuck and the Foot’s giant mallet,



Box: Both boxes share the same art of the turtles, April and Shredder, but the villains’ box has flames on it, and Foot graffiti. The best part of the box is definitely the window display, which is great for in-box collectors. There is also a cardboard background with a different retro design inside each box, which is removable and can be used as staging. The only downside for me is the amount of tape used to seal the box-openings and accessories. They could’ve just made a more plastic in the box hug the accessories more, or put another piece of plastic on top to secure it, but whatever.



Buy or don’t buy? Definitely buy, but only near MSRP ($100). Though I do wish we received 5 figures in the villain set for the same price, since the Foot Ninja are all the same mold anyway. That way, we can have a blue ninja, which is very common in game. Maybe they’ll release a sub-villain set with a blue ninja, mousers, the rolling zappy bot and a squirrelanoid, but I digress. If you have played any TMNT video game in the 80s and 90s, then this should strike some nostalgic chord in you. I know it did for me.

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Note from author: Sorry for the hiatus. I have been working long hours and dealing with purchasing a home, so I haven’t the time for reading comics. I will get back to maybe-weekly reviews in a couple months. In the mean time, here is a toy review of the latest addition to my collection. As you can see, I am an out-of-box collector. The background is just a prototype (assembled in Photoshop); I printed it on my house computer. I’ll be printing on actual canvas sometime in the future, but this will do for now. Excuse the poor lighting, it was night-time and I didn’t have any top-down lighting available for the shot. And yes, I know that the background is from Turtles In Time and not the Arcade game; bite me. The bridge/construction-site is my most favorite stage ever.

