Along with Robotic Foot Soldier and Tiger Claw, the four Comic Book Turtles are also on the shelves. I recently picked up the Comic style Raphael and was not disappointed.
When I heard that Playmates was releasing Comic Book Turtles, I was ecstatic. I know NECA released Comic Book figures, and I do love them, but they are now very expensive and are becoming difficult to find. There are tons of knock offs on eBay, and I do own a set, but to me Playmates is Ninja Turtles. Personally, I now feel that the Ninja Turtles have official Comic Book figures.
So let’s have a look at Raph.
I own the other three brothers but they are in my MOC collection. I notice right off the bat that all of the figures have the same sculpt. The only difference is the head, particularly the mouth positioning.
The sculpt itself is pretty solid and proportionate overall. The markings on the skin are a nice touch but would be better had they been given a black paint application. Speaking of paint, the figure is almost a greenish/blue color. At first I was not wild about the color but it has grown on me. The figure has the signature TMNT belt but none of the four figures have a place to keep their weapons (no sword sheaths for Leo). Something that I love about this figure is that Playmates added the tail just like the original comic book art. They also gave these turtles the large feet/ankles just like the comic art.
The articulation is similar to previous Playmates figures with a ball and socket head and elbow and shoulder swivels. The figures also feature knee and hip swivels. My biggest beef with the articulation is that there is no wrist articulation. I have found good poses without the articulation but wrist articulation would have been a very nice addition to this figure as every comic fan would want to do the signature Ninja Turtles pose from that very first comic book page. Wrist articulation would make this much easier to accomplish.
Raphael comes with sais and a really cool trading card featuring original comic black & white art!
Overall, this is a nice figure for $8.00-$9.00. Sure there are a few complaints, and I don’t even want to compare with the NECA versions (you can see some differences in the pic), but as I mentioned previously, I am absolutely thrilled to finally see Playmates take a stab at the Comic Book style Ninja Turtle figures. These figures do look great posed if you can get past the wrist articulation and I will definitely be picking up the other three brothers for my loose collection. My hope is that we finally get a Comic Book Shredder, Foot Soldier, Foot Elite Guard and possibly some other original comic style figures. Thank you for reading and be sure to check out Playmates Toys for more Ninja Turtle toy news!
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