TMNT Classics Leonardo
Along with their Nickelodeon-inspired TMNT toys, Playmates Toys announced a larger-scale, collector-oriented line, catering to the adult fans of the original animated series.
These were manufactured in a completely different scale and sold under the Teenage Mutant Ninja Classics label. All four of the reptilian brothers were made into this line, but I decided to try them out starting with the fearless Leonardo.
Leo is sculpted in a rather stylized, screen accurate way that reflects the overall appearance he had in the cartoons. The sculpture has good proportions but no real textures to speak of, which lends Leo a decidedly toy-ish look, but then again, that is the whole purpose of the line.
The head sculpt does offer some personality, with Leo’s half grimace and slightly furrowed brow. I think the head is composed of at least three separate pieces, but they all come together seamlessly.
Articulation is the aspect were Leonardo really shines, as he has as much joints as a Toy Biz figure had in the good old days. The very impressive number of articulation point on Leo goes like this:
• Ball jointed neck.
• Pegged hinge shoulders.
• Upper biceps swivel.
• Double hinged elbows.
• Pegged hinge wrists.
• Pegged hinge fingers (all three on each hand).
• Floating torso.
• Pegged hinge hips.
• Upper thigh swivels.
• Double hinged knees.
• Pegged hinge ankles.
• Hinged toes (two on each foot).
And the crazy thing is, all of these joints work really well. The torso joint is maybe the one with the least chance to blow you away, but it is implemented in a very clever way and it does provide a good deal of options to tweak the balance on Leonardo’s more dynamic poses.
About the only thing missing would be the ability to tilt the feet to the sides, like in most modern Marvel Legends figures, but I find it hard to fault Playmates for that considering how much articulation they put into Leo.
The paint operations on Leonardo are almost non-existent, as Leonardo was designed in such a way that each component was molded in the final color of plastic, or at least each piece was painted before the figure was assembled, thus avoiding paint spillage onto other areas.
There are a few small painted details, like the yellow “L” on his belt buckle, the eyes or the teeth, but there is very little paint anywhere else.
Leonardo comes armed with a pair of identical swords, both made from a silvery gray plastic and with their handles decorated in the same shade of blue as the figure. These weapons fit the provided scabbards, which are molded as one removable piece that connects to Leonardo’s back with a keyed peg.
Also included is a round display base textured like a manhole cover. The base has a couple of foot pegs on it and the engraved TMNT logo as well as a blank space where the name of the character is painted in black lettering.
Even though the scale was something of a hard sale for me, at first, I must say that I found this TMNT Classics Leonardo to be quite an impressive action figure.
Errex Score: 95/100.
Category: Featured, TMNT, Toy Reviews