NECA 1987 2-Pack Collection at Target

[Y2Bogus]

Personally, I'm glad to see Shredder again. I missed out on his early releases, and the pinball one just doesn't do it for me.

[Dask]

Originally Posted by Y2Bogus

Personally, I'm glad to see Shredder again. I missed out on his early releases, and the pinball one just doesn't do it for me.

Surprised they never made a pinball gray colored Splinter.

Great to see a unmasked Shredder.

Missed opportunity for neglecting Shredder's mom.

[Dask]

Originally Posted by teemu

holding them hostage

For sure, Creepy Eddie and that ghost ninja guy are lower down the totem pole than Tempestra.

[teemu]

Originally Posted by Dask

For sure, Creepy Eddie and that ghost ninja guy are lower down the totem pole than Tempestra.

I definately wanted Creepy Eddie to show up however down the totem pole he is. I'm pretty sure Tempestra is coming. Neca is gonna milk the cartoon line as far as they can.

[mikey0]

It’s really a shame Ray from “Rebel Without A Fin” is off the table. I doubt Super7 is going to do a reaction of Ray since they’re onto resculpts. Ray Fillet fans deserve better.

[lonewarrior20]

Originally Posted by mikey0

It’s really a shame Ray from “Rebel Without A Fin” is off the table. I doubt Super7 is going to do a reaction of Ray since they’re onto resculpts. Ray Fillet fans deserve better.

If they did do Ray i'd want him to come with Fish April.

[mikey0]

Box art for Panda Khan: https://x.com/toybroreviews/status/1...7Ctwgr%5Etweet

[mikey0]

Punk Leo and Raph are back in stock: https://www.target.com/p/neca-teenag...k/-/A-93537339

[DonnieLaForge]

I just opened all the FW and Mirage figures from the past 2 and a half years.

First and foremost, no wonder NECA is now posting their little disclaimer about how their figures suck with every announcement. There were many times I thought I would break something, and a few times where I did. Claw Shredder's elbow joints didnt want to articulate no matter how much force/wiggling/heat were applied - the hinge is made of extremely soft rubber that deforms itself at room temp and had fused to the arm pieces. I eventually got half of it on each side to articulate, but not full double joint motion, after being very careful. Electrozapper's lightning bolts on his head are easy to snap off if you're trying to swap heads due to the insane amount of force needed for the undersized socket hole, I lost one that way.

After those debacles I encountered many more situations where I couldn't get an accessory into a hand without paint damage so I started hitting every single thing with the hair dryer. DO NOT try to insert Chakahachi's weapon sheaths into his belt, Scrag's sledgehammer into his hand, or Lotus's blossom into hers, without hair dryer assist.

Mighty Hog and Rhino Man had EXTREMELY stuck joints on all arms and legs. Seemed like they were assembled with wet paint.

I really wish they'd lay off on the ridiculous overload on ties. Every figure takes 5 minutes to get out, 10 to loosen joints, and another 5 to figure out how the hell to balance it to stand upright (plus another 30 seconds of wondering how they always get one leg so much longer than the other). Multiply that by a lot and it was a 2 day full time job just opening "toys".

Now I have opened A LOT of toys in the past 10 years but this was ridiculous. Inevitably sliced a finger with the blade of course while wrestling over-tight ties.

Not even joking that I always have a voice in the back of my head saying "are you sure you want to buy this, you know it will take a half hour to open and something will break in the process and you might end up in the ER".

Why exactly do these companies make stuff out of such weird rubbery, sticky, and then sometimes brittle plastic, when Playmates can use plastic not even a toddler can destroy for a fraction of the cost?

Super7 too, I opened Krang at last and the base of his walker cabin instantly cracked open slightly when I inserted his right arm. And by the way the sockets and balls for those arms are awful.

Rant over. This experience is going into my playbook of how to remind myself I needn't be a completist.

[b14z3d21]

Originally Posted by DonnieLaForge

I just opened all the FW and Mirage figures from the past 2 and a half years.

First and foremost, no wonder NECA is now posting their little disclaimer about how their figures suck with every announcement. There were many times I thought I would break something, and a few times where I did. Claw Shredder's elbow joints didnt want to articulate no matter how much force/wiggling/heat were applied - the hinge is made of extremely soft rubber that deforms itself at room temp and had fused to the arm pieces. I eventually got half of it on each side to articulate, but not full double joint motion, after being very careful. Electrozapper's lightning bolts on his head are easy to snap off if you're trying to swap heads due to the insane amount of force needed for the undersized socket hole, I lost one that way.

After those debacles I encountered many more situations where I couldn't get an accessory into a hand without paint damage so I started hitting every single thing with the hair dryer. DO NOT try to insert Chakahachi's weapon sheaths into his belt, Scrag's sledgehammer into his hand, or Lotus's blossom into hers, without hair dryer assist.

Mighty Hog and Rhino Man had EXTREMELY stuck joints on all arms and legs. Seemed like they were assembled with wet paint.

I really wish they'd lay off on the ridiculous overload on ties. Every figure takes 5 minutes to get out, 10 to loosen joints, and another 5 to figure out how the hell to balance it to stand upright (plus another 30 seconds of wondering how they always get one leg so much longer than the other). Multiply that by a lot and it was a 2 day full time job just opening "toys".

Now I have opened A LOT of toys in the past 10 years but this was ridiculous. Inevitably sliced a finger with the blade of course while wrestling over-tight ties.

Not even joking that I always have a voice in the back of my head saying "are you sure you want to buy this, you know it will take a half hour to open and something will break in the process and you might end up in the ER".

Why exactly do these companies make stuff out of such weird rubbery, sticky, and then sometimes brittle plastic, when Playmates can use plastic not even a toddler can destroy for a fraction of the cost?

Super7 too, I opened Krang at last and the base of his walker cabin instantly cracked open slightly when I inserted his right arm. And by the way the sockets and balls for those arms are awful.

Rant over. This experience is going into my playbook of how to remind myself I needn't be a completist.

Thanks for the heads up as I am going to be doing the same pretty soon with my toon collection I have started.

I also 100% agree on the ties. I once had about 40+ Super7 figures that I was ready to display and just opening all of them and getting them ready for display took a whole weekend.

[IMJ]

Something I think of every time I open a new toy nowadays - we know that microplastics are one of the worst things to "happen" to humanity. Yet all modern toys are packed with those ridiculous and largely unnecessary little rubbery plastic ties.

Seriously it's so clearly ridiculous that it's outrageous that any toy company continues to use them.

[DonnieLaForge]

I mean we all know NECA relies on the in-package collectors as much as or more than those of us who open...and so once any piece pops slightly out of place it's now "second grade" merchandise to those folks. So this may be the rationale for this nonsense. But I think the figures would be fine with only 1-2 each, instead of the 6+ they use now.

Update: I also opened the SDCC Keno w/bike today (and many other movie figures). I went to engage the kickstand, and my finger happened to land right up against a thin protruding bit of "tubing" right behind the kickstand and a "hose". My finger happened to inadvertently apply force to this bit while flipping the kickstand. Naturally it snapped right off, and in such a way that it was too hard to glue back on with superglue. Always nice when you break your rare SDCC exclusive .5 seconds after removing from the package!

[I Crave Pizza No More]

Originally Posted by IMJ

Something I think of every time I open a new toy nowadays - we know that microplastics are one of the worst things to "happen" to humanity. Yet all modern toys are packed with those ridiculous and largely unnecessary little rubbery plastic ties.

Seriously it's so clearly ridiculous that it's outrageous that any toy company continues to use them.

I agree with you about the microplastics (not to mention all of the toxins in plastic generally), but why would you expect a company selling mass amounts of plastic that serve no functional purpose to care about whether their packaging has too much plastic in it?

That's the sort of thing that most companies will never change on their own because they're opting for convenience and cost, so unless people abstain from buying products such and put pressure on the companies to change (very unlikely) or the use of such plastic is regulated (also very unlikely) nothing is going to change.

[Dask]

Originally Posted by DonnieLaForge

I mean we all know NECA relies on the in-package collectors as much as or more than those of us who open...and so once any piece pops slightly out of place it's now "second grade" merchandise to those folks. So this may be the rationale for this nonsense. But I think the figures would be fine with only 1-2 each, instead of the 6+ they use now.

Update: I also opened the SDCC Keno w/bike today (and many other movie figures). I went to engage the kickstand, and my finger happened to land right up against a thin protruding bit of "tubing" right behind the kickstand and a "hose". My finger happened to inadvertently apply force to this bit while flipping the kickstand. Naturally it snapped right off, and in such a way that it was too hard to glue back on with superglue. Always nice when you break your rare SDCC exclusive .5 seconds after removing from the package!

I like the fact that you are highlighting NECA's quality control. In the other threads, when I criticize NECA saying that many of my figures snapped or flaked with very limited hands-on contact (while my Super7 figures have never or rarely failed me), people kept accusing me of being a Super7 shill. Some folks here refused to be critical of NECA, perhaps their experience is limited and they only have a dozen figures or so, but I collect hundreds of NECA figures across multiple lines.

[DonnieLaForge]

It USED to be that NECA products tended to use the (ridiculously) thick metal twist ties with (typically) black casing to over-secure everything. These were twisted some 8,000 times each by some super-human or machine to make good and sure no comic shop would be forced to sell an item at a 10% discount because some figure's 7th alternate hand fell out of place.

I don't know if this is better or worse than that. I seem to remember that the twist ties were much easier to wedge a sturdy pair of scissors behind and simply cut.

The plastic thingers are a nightmare, too close to the merch to cut from the front and too tight to easily lift and cut from the back. My fingers will feel raw for days.

[DonnieLaForge]

Originally Posted by Dask

I like the fact that you are highlighting NECA's quality control. In the other threads, when I criticize NECA saying that many of my figures snapped or flaked with very limited hands-on contact (while my Super7 figures have never or rarely failed me), people kept accusing me of being a Super7 shill. Some folks here refused to be critical of NECA, perhaps their experience is limited and they only have a dozen figures or so, but I collect hundreds of NECA figures across multiple lines.

I also opened Super7 Scratch and Mousers, in addition to Krang. They were all easier to free from the plastic. The only one I raise any build quality/joint mobility eyebrow on is Krang as mentioned before. The others were fine.

That plus an unopened GITD Baxter are the extent of my S7 ultimates, whereas like you I've opened, played with, and stored hundreds of NECA from many lines.

The one saving grace about NECA merch that made these struggles bearable is that it's "cheap" (or put another way, high value per cost)...or at least it *was* in the before-time.

[RaphaelinSTL]

So what's technically on the horizon first? Panda Khan most likely? The fall came and went and no Tatu / Wrym 2-pack, so wondering if that will be moreso a Q1 release now.

EDIT: Oh wait, I'm wrong! It's Q2 2025 for those two, Shredder and Panda.

[DonnieLaForge]

Wow, that's a ways out. By then we'll be looking at $50 a pop after tariffs!

I finally just put the entire collection up on my 3-dio-wide display (minus variants until I feel like squeezing them in). Funny though, I haven't decided which turtle bros to crack open and put in yet (maybe Pizza Club?), and was gonna wait for Ultimate Shredder to add him in.

[jestergoblin]

Originally Posted by DonnieLaForge

It USED to be that NECA products tended to use the (ridiculously) thick metal twist ties with (typically) black casing to over-secure everything. These were twisted some 8,000 times each by some super-human or machine to make good and sure no comic shop would be forced to sell an item at a 10% discount because some figure's 7th alternate hand fell out of place.

I don't know if this is better or worse than that. I seem to remember that the twist ties were much easier to wedge a sturdy pair of scissors behind and simply cut.

The plastic thingers are a nightmare, too close to the merch to cut from the front and too tight to easily lift and cut from the back. My fingers will feel raw for days.

Good lord, I still remember freeing the Aramada Unicron Transformer and it took an hour to remove all those twisty-ties.

Sprue model trimmers work great for cutting figures free these days - or nail trimmers in a pinch.

[mikey0]

A better look at SMA Dark Leo: https://toynewsi.com/139-55770

A joke about the Donatello’s Lab situation: https://toynewsi.com/484-55765