Playmates Releases Some Teenage MINI Ninja Turtles

The latest TMNT figures from Playmates size down, but pack a big punch.

The latest series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are here, featuring three new sets, all smaller sized figures, yet ones that remain in scale with the rest of the line.  The new assortment consists of a pair of two packs of the Turtles as kids, “Ninjas in training,” as well as a pack of seven MOUSERs.

The Ninjas in training sets are really cool.  Each brother gets his own unique sculpt, and they’re absolutely adorable– the headsculpts convey some great personality, from Leonardo’s determination to Raphael’s anger, Michaelangelo’s silly grin and Donatello’s calculated hesitancy.  The Turtles stand about 2″ tall, perfectly in scale with their more mature selves, and include wooden play versions of their ninja weapons.

While these little guys lack some articulation– they get only a swivel head, hinged shoulders and a waist swivel, they’re super cute and a great concept as variants of the heroes on the half shell.  While they each have a little pre-pose to them, the stances all work for the characters and don’t impact their ability to stand or be posed a little.

The MOUSERs are amazing, and a far better value than I was originally concerned with.  The pack includes five silver robots and two black ones, all sharing the same sculpt.  If they had been static, solid pieces of plastic, it would make for a boring set, even as an army builder, but Playmates gave the figure poseable legs and a great ball joint head with hinged jaws.  This little bit of articulation goes a long way, allowing you to pose each MOUSER in a unique stance.  They’re about 1.5″ tall standing straight up, which is, again, the perfect scale for the deadly little robotic creatures.

Each MOUSER sports a red sensor above their jaws, and some of them have red details painted on the ridges of their mouth.  I’m not sure if they were all supposed to sport this deco, but out of my seven, only one does.  The jaws open and close with ease, and the ball join neck really goes a long way to get some great poses out of these guys.  I can’t wait to pick up a few more sets to really build an impressive and deadly little army.

Playmates continues to impress with the new TMNT collection.  They’re thinking outside of the box with their character concepts and figure design, and it works well far more often than not.  All three of these new sets are total winners, and despite their small size each feels well worth the basic figure price tag.  Look for the latest TMNT figures at most major retailers now… the final new figure, a new vastly improved Shredder with removable helmet and a cape, hasn’t surfaced yet, but hopefully he will join the rest of the TMNT on the winners shelf shortly.