TMNT Minimates TRU Series 3 Review
TMNT Minimates are back again with series 3. We’ve gotten a hold of the entire Toys R Us wave and have an extensive review ready to go, read on after the jump!
The packaging is the same as the previous two series with a colorful blister card holding two figures. None of the two packs have the silver foil Toys R Us exclusive sticker on them, but it should be noted that the Shredder in the Vision Quest Donatello/Battle Ready Shredder IS only available at Toys R US.
First up is Vision Quest Leonardo. All of the turtles in this series are based on their Season 3 appearance where they went on a vision quest in the woods to overcome their fears and create new weapons. Leo has a new hood and all of the bandages are now painted a grey color to closer match the cartoon appearance.
The Turtles are basically the same bodies we got in series 2 with the new elbow pins, unfortunately most of the Turtles I got have something wrong with the left elbow. Leo’s lower arm is bent outward at the elbow (This may be fixable by heating up the plastic, but I haven’t tried that method yet) This bending makes the arm hard to move and can cause the lower arm to fall off easily.
Leo’s hood is removable and the head underneath is a basic Minimate head with the bandana painted on. The bandana is also painted on the top of the head, but since the head now has a peg hole in it (for the hood) These Turtles can now wear various Minimates hats and hair pieces.
Leo comes with his swords, a bow and two arrows. The arrows can be stored in his quiver and one of them can be attached to the bow. All of the Turtles’ stands this time have the individual spirit symbol for each Turtle instead of the manhole cover they have sported in the last two series.
The colors on Vision Quest Leonardo seem lighter in tone than the previous Leos. This may be a trick of the light due to the lighter bandages on Leo, however, the bandana is definitely lighter in color.
Paired with Leo is Rocksteady. His appearance is straight out of the cartoon with bulked up Minimate parts along with a lot of uniquely sculpted pieces.
I really like the bulk of this figure and his headsculpt is great. Unfortunately, it can fall off easily due to the bulky vest underneath the head. This happens with many of the larger Minimate figures.
Our next pack has Vision Quest Michelangelo. Unlike Leo, Mikey has some new body parts with the sculpted lower legs and lower arms. I believe the shoulder pads are glued on to regular Minimate shoulders. This would probably account for why my Mikey’s left elbow can’t bend at all, I believe some super glue ran down the arm and got into the joint.
Like all of the Turtles, Mikey’s head piece can come off and shows a painted on bandana underneath. Mikey also has various spots of mud painted on his head and legs. I’m a little surprised that the headpiece has cut out holes for the eyes, given that this can sometimes cause the eyes not to line up well. In Mikey’s case they work perfectly though.
In addition to the fully plastic Nunchuks we saw in the previous series, this Mikey also comes with a pair of Kamas. The new weapons fit nicely in his hands and I’m glad to see these make an appearance as he uses them pretty regularly in the cartoon these days.
Compared to the other Mikey figures we’ve gotten, this is the grimmest looking one. I suppose we should get a serious looking Mikey at least once.
Packaged with Mikey is one of my favorite figures in this series, Bebop! This figure has the most stylized appearance in that the oversized boots, head and hands are paired with a basic Minimate body. I like the aesthetic of it and it just works well for me.
The head is nicely sculpted and since the shoulder pads are pretty thin, there’s enough room to allow the head to look up and down slightly which you usually don’t see with the larger sculpted heads.
Bebop shares the same shoulder pads piece as Anton. Looking at the two together makes me like Bebop even more. Anton seems a little bland and monochromatic in comparison where Bebop pops with the addition of the light brown skin color.
Vision Quest Donatello has the same paint changes as Leo does with the grey wraps on his arms and legs. Both Donnie & Leo have holes in the back of their shells where the old weapon holders from the previous series’ were. These two now have weapon storage that’s attached to their removable hoods.
Donnie also suffers from the same bad left elbow as Leo, only Donnie’s arm is even harder to stay attached. Again, this may be able to be fixed by heating the arm up, I just haven’t tried it yet.
Donnie comes with an Axe Bo Staff and two heads, the masked head in the previous pictures and a painted bandanna head like the other Turtles. Also like the others, this is a pretty grim expression bordering on a sad looking Donnie. I’ll probably be sticking with the masked head as that one looks cooler.
With the mask head, this Donnie is the most imposing looking one almost appearing to have a villain appearance given the hood and weapon (I thought the same thing seeing the cartoon as well so this figure is a pretty accurate depiction)
The exclusive figure for Toys R Us is the Battle Ready Shredder. It’s basically a capeless Shredder figure which is how he appears in the cartoon often. This also allows the Shredder figure more poseability as it’s not hindered by a plastic cape.
Shredder also comes with a cartoon accurate maskless helmet. So now you can see Shredder’s burned face while he still wears his helmet.
At first glance this new Shredder just looks like he’s missing the cape the old one had, but if you look closer you can see that there are some different paint apps on the belt and around the knees. The back of the new one has the straps tampo the old one doesn’t have and the face is a meaner expression. While the older figure is great for standing around, this new one is the one you want to use when trying to pose Shredder in a fighting stance.
Our last pack has Vision Quest Raphael in it.Like Mikey, he has a new body piece with the newly sculpted shell/torso piece. This features the gas cans he wears with this costume on the cartoon.
Like the others, Raph has the removable hood with a painted bandana underneath. Unlike Mikey, however, Raphs hood has painted eyes instead of cut out holes that need to line up with the eyes underneath.
Along with his Sais, Raph comes with two hand blades and the flame pieces we recently saw with Pyro from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. I like that they included all of these weapons for Raph, but I really wish there was a way to combine the blades and fire as he does on the cartoon. Since both use the hands to grip the accessories, that’s pretty much impossible as there isn’t enough room in the hands for both accessories.
Raph is my favorite of the four new Turtles both in design and execution. It also helps that he’s the only one of the four that didn’t have a messed up left elbow.
Packaged with Raphael is his mutated pet turtle, Slash. Slash has some extra large parts to go on the 2″ Minimate frame to bulk him out to his typical proportions.
Slash’s head doesn’t move as it’s part of the torso piece to give the huge body, tiny head appearance that the character has on the cartoon.
Slash comes with his spiked mace. The figure is the bulkiest of them from series 3 and this can hinder his articulation quite a bit.
As always, there is a pile of keychains to deal with afterwards. I understand that someone, somewhere thinks the keychain aspect is a selling point, but I wonder how much it costs to include these vs how many sales are made due to them. We’ll probably never know, but I’m willing to bet it’s a marginal number.
That brings us to a close of TMNT Minimates Toys R Us Series 3. While I kinda like that the Turtles look completely different this time, I sorta wish we could get something similar to series 2 (Basic Turtles with tons of accessories and alternate heads/expressions) The quality on the Turtles is some of the worst I’ve ever seen from the Minimates line. I’m not sure if I just got some bad apples or if there’s a problem with the left arm mold, but 3 out of 4 Turtles having incapacitated arms is a bad sign.
The “Villains” however, are all great quality wise. The sculpts are all nicely done and while Shredder is a repeat with only minor differences, those differences are an improvement for the figure. All in All, the villains make these sets must buys as they’re a lot of fun.
