If nothing else, one of the greatest things about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are the toys that they bring. When this movie was announced for 2014, I was rather excited to add these figures to my collection regardless of how they looked. To me, there are not as many variations on the Ninja Turtles as you might think. There are the original figures from the original animated series, then figures from The Next Mutation series (which includes Venus, a fifth and female Turtle), there was a special black and white boxed set which is lots of money, then some from the "TMNT" movie, the newest animated series, the throwback comic book series (which I opted for in place of the b&w boxed set) and now these guys. So really there are about six different action figure sets for the Ninja Turtles you might want to have, though variations between the newest animated series and the "TMNT" movie series are not that different.
I'm not sure why, but I've always had this thing with buying figures that go together at the same time and not wanting to get them individually. I recall collecting WWE Jakks action figures and they did an ECW line with the Dudley Boys in it. I refused to buy Buh Buh without D-Von and vice versa. This actually would hold true to this day with the WWE Mattel line and the Legion of Doom but I don't really feel like paying roughly twenty dollars for each of those figures. So one of my biggest things is that I don't want to pick up one or two or even three of these figures hoping to find who I'm missing because then I might just never find who I'm missing and then I'd feel like an idiot for either a) having to go on the second hand market to complete my set or b) never having the complete set. Really, just like one half of a tag team is no good so is anything other than 4/4 Turtles.
This boxed set was exclusive to Target and the figures in it are fairly close to their single release counterparts, with only slight variations here and there. This originally had a price tag of $34.99 and the single carded figures were running at $9.99 so that'd be like buying three Turtles and getting the fourth for half off, *but* when I found this at Target after the holidays (most likely as a return) it was on sale and went down to $24.48. If you divide that four ways it's roughly six dollars per figure and you just cannot beat that in today's land of mass retail.
You know, when you collect Ninja Turtles toys as I have (my entire life), you come to recognize that a lot of them look very similar. Even if their bodies don't look all the same, just look back to the originals and the newest from the Nickelodeon series and you'll see there aren't really that many differences. This is really one of the first major sets to have the Turtles kind of stand out from their other sets (Again, the "TMNT" movie set and most recent animated series set could be confused a lot more easily than anything else with this movie one)
As unique as each of these Turtles is and they have their own sizes and everything as well, since for the most part the Turtles have either always been the same size or only had one different sized figure (same with their shades of green), one of my first thoughts about the figures was obviously how they compare to the actual CGI concepts seen in the film. Something is seemingly always lost between the world of reality (or in this case a computer generated reality) and an action figure, much like how things can become less defined when real people are animated, but I didn't realize just how far these awesome figures strayed from their source until I found this website via a Google image search: http://www.mintconditioncustom.com/custom_tmnt_2014_movie_set/
Ultimately, my goal is to reclaim the original Turtles figures I had as a kid that mysteriously disappeared when I moved out of my parents house (Either to get the originals again or the more recent released versions of them) so then I can have four different sets of the four main Turtles. (Yes, the set of five from "The Next Mutation" is on my wish list as well) Along with this set, there were two different sets released exclusively to Target that were evolutions of Leonardo and Raphael. They had the tiny Turtles, mid-sized kids and then the regular movie version. I do prefer these figures with my others to that though as I feel looking at these action figures from when they all wore the same color to the newest animated series version to this newest movie version is just so cool. But yes, it also does remind me as well that I want to track down and get those "Turtles in Training" figures from the newest line one day as well, just for another set of the Fab Four.
Realistically, I just feel like this set of Ninja Turtles- even if you bought them one by one at full retail price- is worth it and will hold their value over time because they're just not like any of the other Turtles sets out there today and will probably never be again. Sure, there is a sequel coming and I'm sincerely hoping that the Turtles themselves have some alterations to their appearances so that I can then have another set of Turtles to collect. I could continue to buy the main four Turtles action figures forever.
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