Casey Jones & Mutagen Man Return To The Sewers

The latest TMNT figures from Playmates update some cool, classic characters.

Playmates is still on a roll with their TMNT collection as we enter year three, and the latest assortment brings Casey Jones and Mutagen Man back into the fold.  Based on their Nickelodeon series Season Two appearances, both figures are cool updates to the vintage fan favorites.

The new Casey makes for a neat figure.  Decked out in his black and grey street gear, the vigilante features his sports-style combat gear and a removable hockey mask with an asymmetrical skull painted on the face.  Under the mask, Casey sports black and white face paint as well, offering an almost Warriors-esque design.

Casey comes packing his hockey stick and a baseball bat, both of which he can hold or store in the clips on his back.  The sculpt here is quite good, with lots of cool details like the key ring hanging off Casey’s belt and the mask, which fits very well over his face under his hood.  The figure features a good amount of articulation, with a swivel neck and waist, hinged shoulders and hips, swivel wrists and injection molded elbows and knees.  This allows for plenty of posing options, and works well with his scrawny, scrappy build.

The color scheme on this guy looks great, and he fits in well– while remaining visually distinct– amongst his Turtle allies.  The only downside is the lack of paint on his back; great details like the chest straps are only painted on the front half of the figure, leaving his back solid black and grey.  Aside from this unfortunate oversight, Casey fits in nicely with the collection, although like other humans he’s a little on the small side, but he’s certainly a welcome addition.

Mutagen Man was one of my favorite toys as a kid, so I’m very glad to see him being rolled back into the new TMNT continuity.  His new figure looks great, maintaining the general bizarreness of the character perfectly.  Essentially a heap of organs in a containment canister with arms and legs, Mutagen Man is a very interesting design, and his new color scheme, with the silver body, blue-tinted plastic window and slimy yellow limbs, looks great.  The guts hang from the top of the torso, and are attached to the lid which twists off– this allows you to fill the torso with water or ooze, to finish off Mutagen Man’s slimy look.

As a fun bonus feature, Mutagen Man can also emit ooze from his left hand.  It’s a cool action feature, and doesn’t interrupt the sculpt or the articulation, which is always a good thing.  This new villain is a really fun update to one of the best figures from the vintage Turtles’ line, and he looks cool enough that I can’t imagine him not being a hit with kids, as well.

Casey and Mutagen Man are shipping in the first 2014 series, along with Kirby Bat and Squirrelanoid.  It’s a nice assortment to start off the year, and these figures have once again rekindled my love for Playmates’ awesome modern TMNT series.  With more classic characters like Slash, Bebop and Rocksteady on deck for the new season of the TV show, I can’t wait to see more cool updated figures in this line later this year!