Recently I was lucky enough to grab a Vision Quest Splinter off of Luke’s Toy Store before they sold out. And they sold out fast! As you may already know, the Vision Quest Splinter and Ivan Steranko are the one-per-case rare figures for the TMNT series 3 blind bags. Therefore, these two figures will not be found at Toys R Us and can only be found at specialty shops that sell the blind bag versions. I was able to get my hands on a Steranko too but let’s have a look at Vision Quest Splinter first.
Splinter came in the clear bag that holds the figures after opening the foil blind bags. He came with one accessory, a mystic blue flame stand and the common non-turtle clear stand (can we call that an accessory too?).
The Good: Diamond Select Toys always chooses great variants for characters and this Vision Quest Splinter is no different. DST does enough to their variants to make me not say “Ah, I already have a Splinter”. Instead, I say “I want them all!”
We get a translucent blue figure that is similar to the mutagen turtles, in terms of the plastic used, that were released earlier in this line. The detail is very nice on this figure even without the need for much paint. Splinter’s robe features flowers on the front and his signature symbol on the back.
What’s really cool is that DST even sculpted a little tail on the back of the robe and included some sculpting for the sash and where the robe comes together. Splinter’s head sculpt looks awesome too! He has a little slit on each ear, a goatee and a nose, eyes, a mouth and eyebrows worked onto the head. I’m guessing this is all very similar to the non-variant Splinter, if not the same exact head, but I haven’t picked up the regular Splinter version just yet. But I will!
Vision Quest Splinter’s shoulders also have a puffy look to them as if they were the sleeves of his robe. There is even blue painted lines on his wrists indicating some wrist tape.
I love the mystic blue flame stand too! It looks very cool when Splinter is displayed in/on it. There is even a little place for Splinter’s tail (how thoughtful?).
Vision Quest Splinter features a lot of articulation, 14 points to be exact, with head/neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees and ankles all being articulated. That’s just another reason to love these Minimate figures!
Vision Quest Splinter also comes apart, like all other Minimates. Splinter’s robe can be removed but there really isn’t any reason to leave it off as it just looks strange. Still fun to know that different parts could be swapped if you wanted to do so for whatever reason. This picture also gives us a great look at the detail on Splinter’s robe.
The Not So Good: I’m not sure if its due to the type of plastic used or what the exact reason is but Splinter’s limbs are very loose and pop off easily. His feet, hands and elbows are the main culprits and actually his one elbow fell off just when I picked him up.
Also, his left leg is a tad longer than his right. This makes for an uneven look while he stands. The problem can be manipulated a bit though and isn’t as noticeable with his robe on. Not really a bad thing because I was able to fix it, but Splinter came with his feet on the wrong way. His knees bent in the other direction and I wondered why his legs seemed to not do what I wanted them to. In fact a few other pieces were not on the correct way either. This was all an easy fix and an understandable mistake at the factory, as the entire figure is one color and hard to distinguish the correct positioning of each part. This also made for a good laugh so all in all, no biggie!
I really like this figure and it looks absolutely amazing with some light shining through it!!
Thanks for reading and be sure to pick up the TMNT series 3 Minimates by Diamond Select Toys now! Also, check back tomorrow for my review of the other one-per-case figure: Ivan Steranko!
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