Reviewing ‘Turtles Of Grayskull’ — The Crossover Every 80’s Kid Has Waited For Part 1: Leonardo

When Mattel’s Masters of the Universe Origins line announced its first ever crossover line, my ears perked up. My earliest fandom was He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. As the cartoon and toyline waned in popularity in the late 80’s, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles took their place.

Naturally, Turtles of Grayskull was going to make me stand up and take notice.

I was immediately impressed by the designs, and the first wave of announced figures. Seeing my personal favorite Turtle- Leonardo- front and center was even more exciting. Now that the figures have started to creep into stores, we got our hands on three of the initial figures, and are excited to take a look at them up close.

Now, as I said, Leo is my favorite Turtle (as if you wouldn’t be able to tell from the photos attached). He has been and always will be. Naturally, he’s the first I wanted to take a look at.

First of all, looks fantastic in-hand. Way too many figures I’ve been interested in just turned out to be stinkers in-hand (I won’t say who, but any teen from the 90’s probably enjoyed them as well). This is a figure that immediately would be great for both in-box and out-of-box collectors.

Pulling him out of the packaging is where I started to see some criticisms. Now, as with classic Masters of the Universe figures, there is a pack-in comic. It’s a fun little twelve pager introducing the mutated evil Masters, bringing the Turtles into Eternia and teaming them with Teela and Duncan. I didn’t see any credits though (however, the art is obviously from long-time MOTU artist and crossover king Freddie Williams III).

Now with the figure itself, I’m generally pretty happy. The figure is extremely top heavy but stands on his own extremely well. It wasn’t until I started doing some more dynamic posing that I had to borrow a stand from one of McFarlane DC Multiverse figures.

The joints were tight, and only required light pressure to begin posing. Most poses I tried with the figure itself worked pretty easily. The head has a good range of motion, and even better, the loose portion of the bandana is set into the back of the head with a peg, making it easy to move as you pose the figure.

Where I have criticisms is with the accessories.

The two piece power katana is a fun idea that recalls the original power sword of the classic MOTU line. In execution, it falls short. Combined, it’s a great sword, and allows for a lot of fun poses (I even was able to get a pose approximating the famous “I HAVE THE POWER”). When you separate it though, the two individual swords are too thin for Leo’s hands to hold them properly. 

I struggled with it enough I opted for just leaving them in one piece, even though the scabbard on Leo’s shell isn’t big enough to fit the combined sword, or even the two separate. Honestly, I think it would have been better to get three swords- the power katana plus two halves with regular hilts that don’t snap together- rather than this.

Meanwhile, the armor pieces frustrated me. Both shoulder pauldrons were bulky and loose, making some of the posing difficult. It was especially difficult with the furry piece on his upper back/shoulders, which was only removable by removing the entire chestplate (which would then remove his shell). The upper-arm/wrist armor piece was better, but still slipped off pretty easily.

Two last points that are each more of a comment more than a criticism. Removing the shell to act as a shield is a little weird. Both Leo and Donatello could have used a shell armor/shield piece as well as a molded shell on the figure. And lastly, if you’re more of a Turtle collector, just be ready for the fact that these figures are significantly taller than the Playmates Turtles- somewhere around to an inch to an inch and a half taller (check out the pictures below in comparison to the 2017 series Leonardo and Mutant Mayhem Leo). Not a problem for me personally, but I know it could potentially bother specific collectors.

Despite these criticisms, I absolutely love this figure. I crossed over my MOTU and TMNT figures more than once in imaginative play thirty-plus years ago, and this crossover easily meets the expectation I had. The design is fantastic and the figures are solid. A little work on the accessories, and this could be an all-time great line.