It's amazing to think that Raph, the Space Cadet was, at one point, something genuinely fresh. For the first couple of years, Playmates kept the turtles in their more-or-less classic costumes. And then they realized they could be cowboys, rock stars, or just about anything, which would allow them to sell more of the four main turtles because, oddly, that's what kids tend to gravitate toward. One of my neighbor's kids, in the 1990s, had about a dozen turtles but had no interest in any of the other characters in the line for whatever reason.
So for whatever reason Raphael need to go into space. Let's accept this as a reasonable fact, and then look at his suit. This 4-inch figure has a removable clear helmet, and a surprisingly well-designed sticker on his chest showing all sorts of vital functions... like his Ooze levels. Other abstract dials and waves don't seem to have any obvious purpose, and a splat of the aforementioned ooze keeps this figure in line with the popular "gross-out" style on a lot of toys of this era. There are numerous straps and zippers sculpted to his surprisingly detailed suit, which even has little silver rivets painted just below his neck. These sorts of sculpted details are usually left unpainted on most kid-driven figures, but Playmates didn't skimp on this one. On his back is a bizarre extra: some sort of alien splattered to his suit, presumably attacking him. Of course, it was trendy to have creatures sculpted to your figures for no good or obvious reason in the 1990s.
With the new outfit came new accessories, like a ray gun which could plug into his chest and a sword which is, frankly, sort of baffling. It would make a little more sense were this figure Leonardo, but it's not, so Raph gets to enjoy this overly ornate sword. It looks like there's a gun stuck to it, it has some unnecessary tubes and wires sculpted to it, and (at least) it's silver. The matching gun isn't particularly amazing other than it also included a yellow tube which could connect to his suit, which is a nice touch.
This wasn't the only space suit turtle in the line-- a set of arguably more realistic Apollo 11 turtles were sold a couple of years later, and there were some space suit turtles in the 2004 line as well. Today, the original Raph, the Space Cadet goes for about $1-$10 eBay, depending on the day. I like this figure because it was pretty imaginative, although "space" as a place for adventure seems to be a little less popular since the moon landing (with the exception of Star Wars.) I won't demand you buy it because it's awesome or a classic, but it is weird and a little ugly enough to make it worth your while if you're in to weird toy figures from whey still designed them primarily with kids in mind.
16bit.com is best not viewed in Apple's Safari browser, we don't know why. All material on this site copyright their respective copyright holders. All materials appear hear for informative and entertainment purposes. 16bit.com is not to be held responsible for anything, ever. Photos taken by the 16bit.com staff. Site design, graphics, writing, and whatnot credited on the credits page. Be cool-- don't steal. We know where you live and we'll break your friggin' legs.
RSS 
