As part of my new found return to the world of toy collecting I decided to pick up a couple of the Nickelodeon Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures. I have a few thoughts I wanted to jot down.
I first fell in love with Ninja Turtles as a property sometime in 1989 or so when I discovered the 4-player arcade machine. This was my first exposure to the radical reptiles. Once I learned there were toys and a cartoon related to this exciting new world to explore.
I bought two basic figures, Trickster Leonardo and Wild Card Michelangelo. The figures are pretty solid, great looking and fully represent the character from the show. I have no complaints there.
I really only want to address a couple minor gripes. The first is the accessories. Both turtles come with a pair of throwing stars, except neither of them have any peg or pouch that I can find indicating they can hold those stars. This wouldn’t be a major issue but the next gripe I have could be. There is no instruction booklet or anything included. There is a fold out pamphlet advertising the other toys in the line, but that doesn’t help with determining what to do with those stickers which is my third gripe. Why include stickers and no instructions on where to apply them? It seems odd to me. I wonder if they assume anyone purchasing the toy would be familiar with the show and should have a clue? I don’t know as I have never seen an episode of the show so I don’t even know if that would help or not.
I find it annoying when any product, especially a toy, comes packaged minus instructions on how to utilize all its features. This is particularly frustrating with a sheet of stickers and a pair of accessories which appear to be interactive but aren’t completely clear if or how they would do so. I consider it a flaw in the toy maker or at the very least a glaring oversight to omit something that would require a purchaser of the product to Google how to use it. I suspect without an easy way to hold the item they will fall into the black hole all toy accessories inevitably do.
Over all it is a small complaint of an otherwise great pair of toys. The figures are well designed, very articulate and I actually like the art style of the turtles. I can’t say the same for Splinter but that’s another story. At the very least I can be happy to have two new and completely unique Leonardo and Michelangelo figures in my collection.
I would rate the figures a 4.5 out of 5. The minor issue of not including clear instructions, especially with a figure having stickers included, brings the score down from an almost perfect toy. I love the molds, the weapons and the character bios on the back of the packaging.
Stephanie Bri 