While I adored the Ninja Turtles cartoons and the comics I bought, the toys I didn't love. I bought some, but they were often weird, veiny, and chunky in ways I didn't love - so in 2020, this is my very first Foot Soldier. It's kind of weird starting with a Four Horsemen recreation of a $4 figure, but here we are! It's good, but I can't say it's amazing. Everything about it is perfect - which may be one of the problems we have as toy collectors moving ahead in time. This figure somehow captures the look and feel of the original, while giving us better-than-expected modern articulation and great paint. And it's good.
My biggest complaint about this 7-inch scale figure is that you can't get more. I'm not a big believer in "collectibles" - I think you should pump out as many as possible until the market says "please stop" - so an army-builder like this required you to be into the whole idea before you even know what would go in wave two. He has hands to hold weapons, to signal, to shoot, and to chop - to name a few. Everything you need for the perfect Food Soldier army is here, and at best you probably only ordered one when they went up for pre-sale in 2019. With 31 points of articulation this figure has the paint and articulation you need for what may well be the perfect troop builder. If you wanted to collect this entire line and weren't sold on the idea a year before the first one shipped, it's going to cost you. That just strikes me as unfortunate.
The tunic extends over the hips and is rubbery in all the right ways - it has more "give" than the furry shorts of He-Man. The extended shell forearm guards don't get in the way of the figure's mobility, and seem almost comically large. The big foot in the middle of his purple mask looks great, and his yellow eyes pop better than a lot of other recent figures I've bought. It's the update to the original you always wanted, but it doesn't seem like something you are going to want to play with - maybe not unless you got a couple more.
One of my big complaints about Star Wars as time went on was that I could pretty much review a figure without opening it - once you knew the articulation was standard and there were no play features, there wasn't much to say. That's how I felt about Masters of the Universe Classics near the end, too - there was little to surprise you. This is either good or bad - if you want a marvelous figure that's going to potentially stand the test of time as the very best collector-friendly entry in the line? This is the figure for you. If you want something to pose on a desk or in a diorama, this is it. Maybe articulation will advance to some 2.0 level of unprecedented amazement, but I doubt it.
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