Saturday, August 18, 2012

Nick TMNT: The Party Dude Abides


As you're all well aware, Michelangelo is a party dude.  It is explicitly stated in the 80's opening theme song, and displayed with Mike's approval by his screaming "PARTAAAAYY!" while performing a most righteous breakdancing backspin.  Michelangelo in a nutshell, folks.  Let's party.


Looks like not much has changed for 'ol Mike!  Though I see no statements of his dude-style partying, you can still plainly see that his classic personality seems to be untouched.  We'll see when the toon comes out but....come one.  It's Mikey! 

Bununyadonbotherwiththat Let's see what the toy is all about!




As it states on the filecard, Mike is the runt of the litter, and comes in at around the size of a G.I. Joe, while the rest of the turtles come in around 4 inches or above.  I'll do a post displaying all the turtles together later so you can see the differences.  For now: It's Mikey time...because I took WAY more pics that I thought I would.  No idea why.


Chucks!  Nunchucks!  Nunchaku!  Whatever you wana call 'em - they're Michelangelo's staple.  Also: They're the standard in broken weapons.  Mikey rarely ever has real chains on his chucks, and often times the only way to get them in his belt is to bend 'em and shove 'em in.


Like this!  And you can probably already see, but take a close look:


...at the stress marks you're probably already familiar with!  'Course I can't say I'm really complaining.  I mean, they certainly aren't going to break.  It's thick enough so you don't have to worry, but thin enough to bend them easily.  They aren't rubbery plastic, but it still works. 

Still, by this point I hoped they would figure something out other than "go ahead and risk breaking the toy."  Just one joint connecting the chain in the middle would do the trick; you could bend them and also stretch them outward to make it look like he's swinging 'em. 

Ah well.  I'm used to it, and I've already bent them a few times now to get them in the belt, and I don't see them breaking any time soon. 




Unless he's breaking faces, of course.

Now lets get to Mikey's extra accessories:


Sadly, I think Mike is not only the shortest, but also got the shortest end of the stick when it came to extras.  The extras in each pack were pretty exciting!  We got a varied array of different ninja weapons that were all fun, and each turtle got their own personal ninja stars. 

Well, Mike gets a new ninja weapon - the kusarigama (chained sickle, or danger-to-himself-and-others) - which is cool, but his other items are the standard personal ninja stars....and Raph's.  Kinda boring!  Why throw in Raph's stars?  Everyone gets their own, but Mike steals Raph's even when he's already got some?  Couldn't have thought up at least one more ninja weapon suited to Mike?

On top of that, the kusarigama is molded kinda weird.


Looks okay there, and you can put it in his belt:


But...why is the blade molded inward? 


It's just awkward for play!  It's not really molded in any battle-ready position.  The chain sorta looks like it's in mid-throw, but the sickle is molded inward, so he won't be slashing with it easily.  If he holds it forward, the chain is forward!  Just kinda odd and awkward.  I didn't expect them to put in a real chain, but they could have at least molded it in some sort of fun and usable way.

So yeah, I threw on my own chain.




I bought some chains (necklaces, technically) at Michael's and cut them to the size of the molded chain.  In retrospect, I should have cut it longer, 'cause the thing still can't be used that well with such a short chain....but hell, it gets the job done!


I cut the molded chain off both ends and cut a slit in the leftover plastic, then shoved the end of the chain in and glued it with superglue.  I don't recommend this procedure, but it worked!  It was just hard and I didn't have the best tools for the job (Meaning: I used my hands and pried them off before the glue fully dried).  I'm thinking of doing it to the chucks as well....just, maybe when I find a better way.



So that's that!  Once again, I don't expect them to use a real chain - 'cause that's expensive - but it would have been cool to have it molded in a better way.


Next, the ninja stars, or shurikens, or those things that'll be thrown and lost in seconds.  He can hold 'em, and you can shove 'em in his belt:


Or he can HOLD 'EM ALL



Yeah I never knew what to do with those.  They always come with ninja stars, and they're always tiny, and they're always pointless to toss around.  Still...I must have them.  Just wouldn't seem like ninja without them!  Go figure.

And that's it for accessories!  Maybe they shafted him because he already came with two nunchucks...but Raph came with two sais, and they still gave him two more "half" sais (whatever those are).  Feels like they could have come up with something else for Mike. 

Still, the reason I ended up taking so many pics is that he just works WAY past his low point in the accessory area and is just so much fun to play with!  Dunno if it's because he's small, or because his articulation just seems to work the best.  His knees seem to bend in the most, his head has the greatest range of motion, and...well he's just fun!





I've never had this much fun with a Michelangelo figure!  I don't know why, but he's always been the low point in terms of the figures.  I was never all that big on his weapons, and something about him just didn't excite me.  Cool character, just boring figures.

Until now!



Somehow Mike jumped up to my next favorite besides Leo.  This is a first for me, but honestly, ALL these turtles are the best and most fun TMNT figures they've ever made.  They get across a classic feel and a new look at the same time, and have the best articulation Playmates could muster (emphasis on Playmates, we all know that NECA is capable).  Mike's extra accessories leave a little to be desired, but his nunchucks are fun enough and the figure itself blows always any problems you might have anyway. 

Get yourself a Mikey!

One final thing, however: I wanted to do a skateboarding shot, but I've only got one skateboard.  It comes with the previous movie Michelangelo.  And that figure is horrifying.

I tried my best.

I didn't want to make it creepy.  I really didn't.

I couldn't help it.








AHHHHHHHHHHHH OH GOD WHY MIKEY WWHHHHHY!!

17 comments:

  1. Jesus christ how horrifying.


    Playmates is doing great with these new Turtle figures.

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    1. HA. Just out of curiosity: you don't happen to be quoting the end of that DBZ Abridged episode, are you? Of course if you're not you have no idea what I'm talking about, but I gotta ask.

      Anyway: I agree! These things are blowing me away.

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    2. Bah, scratch that first question. Didn't think to look up the "how horrifying" quote. You hear a meme in one place and you get all mixed up as to where it comes from!

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    3. That Flesh eating Mikey has been etched into my sooooul!

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    4. HE VISITS WHILE YOU SLEEEEEP

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    5. *whelp* not getting any sleep ever again.

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    6. And this Mikey is worth three Raditz.

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  2. When the time came for me to score a Mikey from the (underrated) CGI flick, I got some sort of variant with a less horrifying head. That said, I wish I'd bought the van, just so I could have a Cowabunga Carl head to mess with. The van sucked, though.

    My Turtles have arrived! Hallelujah! Expect all manner of geeky self-indulgence!

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    1. Yeah, when I bought the movie turtles I was enamored with them. I'm just shocked, 'cause I've never had any toys shoot SO far down my list of favorites from just buying new versions of them. That's how good these new ones are! And man, movie Michelangelo...ugh. Pretty sure he was hilarious when I originally bought him. Not sure what changed. Maybe because I didn't take any pics of him back then? The close ups just...they eat at your soul.

      Anyway, can't wait to see your pics! If these things were pets, then mine would be couped up in the apartment and yours would get to run free in the wild mountainous country side of wherever the heck you are, you lucky...*grumble grumble* friggin' beautiful landscapes...

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    2. Yeah, I'm a lucky bastard when it comes to photo settings. Hell, I'm basically living in a Toyota Dolphin at the moment, but for the past two weeks we've been staying with friends in Shoshone, Idaho, and if I walk five minutes from their house there are all these rocks and all this rubble and such. It's awesome!

      [IMG]http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z58/MonteWilliams/ARustyShadeofBadass.jpg[/IMG]

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    3. Gah! I don't know how to post photos here. Also, I have to enter a captcha code every time I post a comment. Your blog is evil!

      Anyhoo, here are my photos:

      http://twofistedtoytalk.wordpress.com/2012/08/18/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles/

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    4. Yeah, I had to find a blog that was simple enough for me to post in it. Next i'll have to find one that is simple for EVERYONE. This is why I like forums better! Much easier for everyone to do what they want. Anyway, I'll comment in your blog!

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    5. Oooor not! No comments there; didn't notice until now. Anyway: AWESOME, as usual. The outside light really brings out the color on these guys and makes me love them all the more. I'm also lookin' forward to all your classic substitutions! The guy you're using for Muckman is great! Reminds me of how I used to do that for video game characters back in the day; using various toys for Mega Man or other favorites (since there were few video game toys back then).

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    6. Is it wrong that I didn't realize comments were not allowed on my blog? Ha ha ha, and here I am giving you shit about the difficulty of posting here!

      I received another substitution today. Do you remember Sgt. Bananas?

      http://www.tmnttoys.com/91figures/basics/5141.jpg

      I don't, 'cause he was after my time. But that's no reason not to recreate him!

      So I asked Prowlar from the old Sigma forums if he'd be willing to trade me his Monkeyman BAF... and instead he gave it to me, the generous bastard! Expect photos soon.

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    7. We're at the mercy of our blogs, honestly - until we make our own sites! However that works.

      Anyway, I recognize Sgt. Bananas there, but I never had him. Are you using Monkeyman by himself, or are you thinking of adding things to make him more like the Sgt?

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    8. That's the best thing of all: Bill already added an army helmet and some goggles and such to him,so he looks great!

      Here's the rest of my plan:

      http://twofistedtoytalk.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/modern-day-mutants/

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  3. I read your post and I found it amazing! thank! party toyz

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