Kaiju In A Half Shell: Reviewing Playmates’ ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles X Godzilla’ — Part 1: Leonardo

My toy reviews are not as frequent as I would like them to be. However, with the latest collaboration from Playmates, I had to see how the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles X Godzilla collaboration stacks up.

This collaboration continues Toho International’s massive push to recenter Godzilla as the pop culture icon he is, including their ongoing collaboration with Marvel, DC and IDW. In fact, just this week, IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles X Godzilla #1 dropped (check out Anton Kromoff’s review here). But you’re not here to hear about that. You’re here to see how these toys stack up.

First up, the king of monsters mashed up with the leader: Leonardo as Godzilla.

So first of all, Playmates seems to be pushing towards more collector-level figures lately. The box art, both the front and back of the package, is fantastic- stacking up equal to or even better than what you’d see from Hasbro’s various lines, McFarlane Toys or NECA. This is a great figure for an in-box collector period.

But how about those of us that take it out of the box?

Well, out of the box, this is still a great figure.

The design of the heroic mashup is simply great. While the figure embodies Leonardo so well, it has all the hallmarks of Godzilla. The thick legs and the tail are perfectly Godzilla, while the figure’s upper body is our favorite ninja leader.

The accessories are very limited, but the ones included are fantastic. They’re kept to simply Leonardo’s signature katanas, but these aren’t just swords. These are swords surrounded in blue fire, evoking Godzilla’s signature atomic breath. Yes! Atomic. Fire. Katana. They’re great.

Another huge plus is the price point. This is a $15 figure (USD), and I got it even cheaper thanks to a Target BOGO sale. It’s easily as good a figure as figures at twice that price point, if not better.

Now, it’s not a perfect figure.

As far as posability goes, the upper body is great. The arms had a good range of motion and strong articulation. The head has an unexpectedly good range of motion, allowing for him to look pretty much anywhere you want him to (this is something Playmates has always been good at, way ahead of their competitors). But for the tail and legs, it’s not quite as good.

The tail is only a swivel, so it really only moves side to side. And the legs, while perfect for the design, are thick enough to make much of a range of motion difficult. In short, there’s no kicks happening with this figure. (As you can see though, I still got some good poses out of him.)

The other downside, is that the figure requires some assembly — specifically snapping his shell on his back. That alone isn’t a drawback, especially since it’s only one piece. Where it is a drawback is in the display and storage. If you’re the sort of collector who rotates their displays, sometimes putting figures away back in their boxes, or keep the boxes for general storage or moving later, the moment this figure is assembled, it’s extremely difficult to remove the shell. It’s a minor thing, but worth noting without a doubt.

(Also, a smaller complaint for this figure, but a big complaint for his brother who I’ll be reviewing next: when will toy companies include stands as a standard for all collector figures?!)

Overall though, this is a fantastic figure, and a fantastic addition to my TMNT collection. Currently the figures are a Target exclusive (no wider release has been announced that I can find), and are starting to become more rare, so grab them now before they’re gone.