I don’t know if I ever saw the episode of good old fashioned Ninja Turtles when Slash first appeared. I do remember when he was in the Archie Comics for a bit, and his toy looks way more like that version. Tokka was unmissable given he was in the live action Ninja Turtles II:Secret of the Ooooooooze. He also looked fucking amazing in that film.

The Slash figure I’ve had since I was a kid. I used to save up my weekly pocket money back in New Zealand. Five dollars a week as I recall. For that I would dry the dishes every night, keep my room semi-tidy and mow the lawns once a week. The vintage Playmates first waves of toys back in the late eighties and into the nineties cost around NZ $15 each. So three weeks pocket money = One Toy.

I started with General Traag and Fly Baxter, and eventually picked up the Turtles. But mostly I liked the villains, they had the more interesting sculpts and cool weird nasty details on them. I bought a few of them, then the damned stores stopped selling them, so it was only last year I picked up Tokka.

Tokka was released in 1991 and I got him in 2018 loose but complete from another collector. I *almost* got Rahzar from another dude, but the condition was not so good so I passed. Had a busted limb or something and wanted top dollar. No thanks pal! Not when I can get the same toy not broken for the same price. At least he told me so I could back out of the deal, I would have been pissed and scorched earth for him if he had of sent it without telling me.

IN YOUR FACE WITH A MUTANT MACE!

Anyway… SLASH… the fucking maniac Turtle from Dimension X. Most likely psychotic. He’s actually from earth, but whatever. He ends up living in Dimension X in the Archie version. In the cartoon he was Bebop’s pet, but in the Archie Comics kind of his own character and a bit more developed, more dangerous and more intelligent. The cartoon mostly played him for laughs as an incompetent moron and he barely resembles the toy he is there to sell.

Safe to say Slash is my all time favourite Playmates Turtle toy. And my favourite Turtle character along with Raph. The Murakami-Wolf toon version was a benign idiot. The toy and Archie Comics version was a dangerous berzerker with a damaged mind who was manipulated by the Turtles various enemies. Later in the comics Slash becomes part of the group The Mutanimals, and later still teams up with the Fab Four to save the planet from a race of evil intergalactic bugs/insects intent on devouring all life on earth (think Aliens, or Brood or whatever, parasites) and even sacrifices himself to do so becoming a true hero.

MANIACS FRESH FROM THE SEWERS AND DIMENSION X!

Check out that toothy grin, the weird scribbled “s” belt letter, the off kilter stance, spikes out the wazoo and cool textures on his skin. That crooked cackling grin and weird uneven eyes pretty much makes him the Bizarro Ninja Turtle with skulls on his belt.

Mostly I don’t bother taking a picture of the behind of a toy as it’s rather boring, who even looks there. But Slash looks just as damn good from the back. Check out those wicked spikes all around his shell, his tail, those meaty calfs and purple shoulder armor and wrist spikes. Look closer and you’ll see an intricate pattern on his shell that is almost hypnotic. They don’t make toys like this no more. You can just make out on the right edge of his belt a Grenade molded in and a holster at the back for his crooked Sai.

Tokka, of the second movie fame is a redeco and resculpt of the Slash toy. Same body, different head and colors, and some other minor details. Knee spikes and belt are mostly the same, but Tokka has the foot symbol on his belt, and different shoulder pads, strangely unpainted.

Tokka on the backside has the same details and belt space for a weapon, and his shell has a nice brown shade that looks even better in person. Unlike a lot of the mainline Turtle toys through year, Tokka and Slash have their Turtle Tails. Rumor is these were not featured on the main four in most toy lines as from a distance the front it can be easily mistaken for a penis.

The belt fronts on both toys hang down in front, so even in package reactionary helicopter parents can’t set off some five alarm chili pepper panic in their communities to protect the children from Satan’s Snapping Turtle Dick and that sort of thing.

Tokka is not as spiky as his movie version (and fuck me I’d love some company to do a high quality expensive movie accurate version like a NECA 1/4 scale example) but he is just a repaint of Slash with a new head and other minor differences, so it’s better to have him as a bonus toy at all than complain about his differences.

Tokka’s head is a just such a great sculpt. He has that savageness, but also that baby like inquisitiveness which was his character in the film. He is basically an animal abused by Shredder and set on the Turtles, just a baby learning his way in the world like any other wild animal trying to imprint on his parental figures and environment, while following his inborn instincts. Savage, yet cute and deadly as he doesn’t know his own phenomenal strength, he throws poor Donnie around like a rag doll in Secret of the Ooze.

Unlike Slash who is around the same height as the Turtles – or sometimes shorter and wider with bigger muscles and total mass – Tokka is a giant next to even the movie Turtles, who are typically taller than their cartoon versions.

Tokka tends to be hunched over most of the time with his neck jutting forward like an actual Turtle. The amazing puppet suit with a man inside is nearly twice the size of the other live action Turtles. The puppetry is outstanding with Tokka beating up the Turtles. He also appeared briefly in the cartoon, but was clearly not based on the movie version.

Remember when I said Tokka’s toy was a redeco of Slash’s figure? Yup, so the cartoon just went ahead and made the animation model the toy redeco. I don’t know if they did not have rights to use the movie version perhaps? But he ends up being a Slash clone and it’s pretty funny as they even left on the knee spikes and skulls on the belt. Tokka doesn’t wear a belt you dummies!!!

Over on the card back we get a look at their weapons, which are Slash’s purple-pink weapons repainted black for Tokka’s versions. The “Twisted Turtle Belt” has now become the “Belly Bustin’ Belt” to hold up his non-existent pants. I pity the people that had to write these descriptions with probably bugger all information. I do love the descriptive words and alliteration however. Top Stuff!

I do have all the weapons for both, but some are in a storage tub so I’m using the excellent search friendly website resource TMNT-Ninjaturtles.com – As I lost my card backs years ago, and don’t have any for the recent figures I picked up. According to Slash’s bio card he was created by Shredder in Dimension X, blind in one eye, he is a ninja (with no training) and a……….. cannibal? That’s just nasty.

Tokka’s biocard is a bit simpler, even mentioning the movie he is from, despite this being a biocard for a toy that appeared in the cartoon (as a redeco of the Slash toy). It mentions how he is basically a big dumb baby who is a “celluloid sicko”. I’m guessing when this card was written it was not a given if/when he might ever appear in the cartoon.

CUTTING THE TURTLES DOWN TO SIZE ONE SLICE AT A TIME!

Putting the two most dangerous Turtles in town side by side, you can see the basic similarities, how good both look with their different head sculpts and paint schemes. The hands fit most any weapons from various TMNT 5″ toy lines, including modern ones.

Tokka is some kind of snapping Turtle, explaining his beak like mouth. Slash however I have no idea. I think he is just a basic turtle but with spikes etc added on his back to make him more of a demented bad ass.

Tokka likes a good punch up, would you mess with these flaming fists of turtle fury?

As cool and wild as these guys are, I think both are misunderstood, so after beating each other up along with the Turtles – I see them going on some kind of cool team up mission then going their own ways. Despite being created as bad guys, both are just not misunderstood child like animals. And both were manipulated by Shredder and/or Krang etc depending on which fiction you look at.

While NECA have given us some amazing 1990-era live action movie accurate large and small scale Turtles, I would dearly love them to make a movie accurate Tokka. Slash has been on the books for about two years now, and is part of the “Arcade” line of TMNT 6″ figures along with Granitor and General Traag – with no news for over a year now – so it might have been canned at this point. Three fingers crossed. Oh, Tokka has five fingers like a human, while Slash has the usual three. Only just noticed!

I would not like to be on the business end of that one! That’s it for now. Next time I’m going to talk about my OTHER favourite Slash figure and it’s not an official one.

IMAGE CREDITS

*TMNT Playmates vintage all card image scans from https://tmnt-ninjaturtles.com/figures/ original card design by Playmates Toys

*TMNT comic art from the Archie TMNT Adventures series (later republished by IDW Publishing).

*Slash, Tokka and Razhzar cartoon image from the Murakami-Wolf era Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) show.

*Live action stills screen captured from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze (1991)