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!!