It's time for my favorite Ninja Turtle to enter the fray! That's right! Leonardo is my favorite Ninja Turtle and to have him in his live action form as an action figure is more than a treat! With all that said, let's get on to my review of the #NECA TMNT Leonardo!
The pictures on the side shown above are images of the Turtles from the movie--the action figures does a fantastic job capturing those faces that the Turtles are giving. In fact, if it wasn't for the cloth looking headbands, it's easy to mistake them as the action figures and not real life pictures of the TMNT.
And then the pic of the action figures that look so damn accurate to the source material. If I haven't mentioned it in my previous reviews of Leo's brothers, I will say it now: NECA did a fine job on these things. It's quite odd that these would be a GameStop exclusive though. A comicon exclusive is pretty understandable but a local GameStop? That's a bit different. Though Walgreens gets exclusives so I guess since GameStop is now catering to the collectors with some action figure paraphernalia in their middle shelving it does make sense. Still, would have made more sense for a Target exclusive. Oh wait, there's already TMNT Target exclusives. Those sold out real fast in my local Target.
And just like his brothers the accessories that comes with Leonardo are: two pair of hands, two alternate headband ends, a slice of pizza, and the signature weapons; for Leo's case they are a pair of katanas. And just like the other pictures, the white back drop is still filthy. Took nothing away from the action figures though so hope people don't mind it as much.
Blue is not my favorite color, but Leonardo resonated with me. First off, Leo's weapons are probably your standard and the most effective weapon for a ninja. Yes, a bo-staff is more common (seeing how it can be almost anything; a broom, a mop, a larger stick on the ground, etc), but a pair of swords definitely can do more good when fighting against the forces of the Technodrones and Baxter Stockman. Heck, just hack em all down and some of April's damsel-in-distress moment would have been decreased! But other than his weapons, I actually liked Leonardo's personality when I was young. The mature one, the one who tries the hardest, the loyal student, the caring brother always trying to do the right thing.... those were qualities that I looked up to. But eventually through many different episodes of the series and through the journey of my own life, through all the adaptation of Leo being conveyed more of a goody-good rather than the interesting persevering brother and responsible one, I grew less dedicated to his attitude and found the combo of Leonardo and Raphael to be more interesting. Actually, I rather enjoyed Raph's and Leo's conflict during the first movie--it gave Leo the time to shine that he didn't get during the cartoon series. Today, I still think Leonardo is one of the better Turtles, as a leader he has the responsibility of ensuring that the four of them fight as a unit; he is responsible for keeping the four of the motivated and working together. Leonardo does keep the team in check and leads them to various victories that I can still enjoy today... let's just not talk about Rise of the Ninja Turtles though.
Leonardo's design for the movie is similar to Donatello in regards to the belt set up. Though Leo has two straps going over his right shoulder instead of one. I would much rather have him get the 'X' as some of the official artwork from way back when depicted him to have, but this one is just fine. His face resembled Michelangelo in shape far more than Don's and Raph's, but he has a more serious look. Sculpt wise in his NECA form, again, not much else I can say than amazing.
Color-wise, well, the paint job is amazing. All Leo's colors have different quirks for him that might be small, but it's enough to give Leonardo his own thing. NECA is so consistent that there's not much else to say other than it's all well done.
Much like with the accessories department, the sculpting, and the paint job, Leonardo's articulation is pretty much the same as the other Ninja Turtles. I was limited but not necessarily enough to really take away some pretty good photos.
Now don't get me wrong, with Leonardo being my favorite Ninja Turtle, I wanted to get more out of his articulation. I wanted to do some Ninja-y poses and get him to do what Ninjas do. He is, after all, the only Turtle out of the four that I feel has the more effective weapon against Foot Soldiers and the such. I wanted to get him with cutting poses, katana-pointing-poses to show like his a leader or what not, and so much more. Leonardo is really the first of NECA's TMNT action figures that I started desiring alternate faces, more hands, better articulation, and a base stand more fervently. Don't get me wrong, I thought of these things while I was posing Mikey, Raph, and Don around but Leonardo is my Ninja Turtle. I wanted more and I kept taking pictures wanting more. But to say that is a fault of NECA Leonardo would be unfair since I didn't really complain as much mentally with the other Turtles. It's really because Leonardo is my favorite and I desired more and more. Regardless of that, I had fun taking pictures and I am pretty happy with what I got.
As of this moment, I can proudly say that I have reviewed all four of the NECA's TMNT action figures. I'll take this moment to say as a whole, I love these action figures. Even with me having my favoritism with the leader of the Turtles I don't think I'll have that satisfaction with just Leonardo. These four are meant to be together and having all of them really adds something unique to my already cluttered and amazing collection.
In conclusion, I love Leonardo. His NECA iteration just adds more love. But I love the entire NECA TMNT even more. The set is amazing and I have nostalgia, geekdom, and toy collecting satisfaction. I grew up with the Ninja Turtles and I loved the first two Ninja Turtle movies. For anyone who is a fan of the Ninja Turtles and collects, do yourself a favor and get these guys. It might be hard with GameStop these days, but if you get the chance, definitely dive right in. If there's anything I can say about my review is that I was pleased and I can easily cast aside some of the bumps I got. With all that said, time to ponder if I should have Pizza tonight for dinner!
Until Next Time!
