My review of the Extreme Sports Turtles.

[tmntman]

Since I know a lot of people have been dreading these figures based on the production pictures. Since I managed to find all four yesterday at Walmart in Madison WI I thought I would give my impressions based on the actual production figures.

A couple of overall thoughts. The vehicles suck. The scales are way off. Except for Mike's skateboard they lack detailed paint applications. And the worst thing is that despite all of this, the vehicles don't work well with the figures anyways. The outfits aren't quite as bad as they seem. Mike is by far the ugliest. (And what kind of skateboarder wears full body spandex?) And all of the figures have sculpted details that are lost due to a lack of paint applications. There are two saving graces with the figures. Unlike previous wierd variations at least these still retain their weapons and belts to hold them. Also, the articulation is improved slightly. Only Don gets any additional joints but the overall execution is better on all four. This gives me some hope for future assortments.

First up is Leonardo. The outfit, an orange muscle Tee/biker short combo, is a rather strange chose, but not entirely hidious but realy looks out of place. He also has a blue helmet with snap on eye visor. The visor doesn't fit very well but won't fall off and is easy to miss when opening the figure. He has the same belt and sword scabbard as the first version. The scooter is a complete waste. The scale is insane; it is taller than Leonardo! It has no paint at all. The only highlight to it is a small kickstand on the back wheel but it is too small to support it very well anyways. But the real killer is that Leo can't ride the scooter anyways. The leg articulation won't allow both feet to be on the scooter unless Leo is facing completely sideways. I thought I was just doing it wrong but upon looking at the packaging I realized they couldn't do any better so they just don't picture the figure from the waist up when on the scooter. Extremely disappointing.

Michaelangelo is probably the weakest of the four. His outfit is just plain hidious and makes no sense for a skateboarder. It is basicly a bright yellow spandex suit with orange highlights. The only thing I can say about thsi the outfit is that it reminds me of the line in the X-men movie when Cyclops ask what Wolverine would prefer, yellow spandex? Mike probably suffers the most from the lack of paint. Aside from the chin stap for the helmet which has already been mentioned, his gloves extend past the wrist joints but are only painted on the hands. He also has some sort of wrapping on his legs but that detail is completely lost since they were left green. As with the other turtles, he still has his belt and to chuks. Mike does out shine the others in one respect, the skateboard. It is by far the best looking vehicle. It is horribly out of scale just like the others but it at least has some paint detail on the engine and the turtle face on the front of the engine. It could use some more paint to bring out the details on the rest of the board (how about an image on the bottom?) The skateboard is also the best built vehicle. It has actually metal axels for the wheels and is screwed together where the others are just plastic wheels that snap into place.

Donatello is the second best figure in the wave in my opinion. His outfit looks strange at first; I actually thought it was some sort of astronaut figure at first glance. He is the only spandex wearing Turtle that is horribly gaudy, and it looks like something a biker might wear. He also has the best paint applications. All of the major details have been painted. The only thing that is lost due to a lack of paint is the turtle shells on the shoulder and both gloves. As others have already mentioned, he is also the first figure in the new line with knee joints, though the range of motion is rather limited, around 60 degrees. The calves also rotate at the knee. Now the downside, his helmet. All of the other turtles' helmets look reasonably good and appropriate to them. Don's really is a brain bucket, or at least it is as large as a bucket. (I told you I though it was some astronaut figure at first glance. The helmet is the reason why.) But the big dissapointment is the huge thing hanging off the front like a chin strap. I think it is supposed to be a face guard, but it is so poorly made that I really can't tell for sure. He would look much better with a regular bicycle helmet. As nice as the figure is, the bike manages to suck enough to make up for it. It has zero paint, just two black wheels and everything else is a pearlized light blue. There are some sculpted details but they are very basic and lost without paint. It has a kick stand that looks like it was stolen from a moter scooter. Scale wise, the bicycle is probably the closest to being correct. It is a tad too tall (Don can't stradle the center bar) but mostly it is too short. Don is 5'2" and a bike for an adult should be almost 6' long. Don's bike is roughly 5' long. (BTW, those measurements are scale measurements not measurements of the actual figure obviously.)

If there is any standout in the line its Raph. his outfit, a ragged t-shirt and shorts, looks like something they might wear. The helmet, pads and shoes all got nice paint apps and show how nice these figures could look if fully painted. He also has a very nice ying/yang symbol painted on his chest, a vast improvement from Playmates past use of stick on decals. While he does look better than the rest, they still missed a lot of sculpted details. Like Mike, Raph's chin strap was missed which is a minor detail to me. The big oversight is the knees and elbows. While there are painted pads in both locations, there are also a second set of pads sculpted under the painted ones on both knees and elbows which weren't painted at all. You can overlook it on the knees but the extra pads break up the sculpt of the arms enough that without those paint details they look rather strange. Raph's skates are the only vehicles which actually work well. Like the rest they are lacking much detail and have only three tones, the black of the wheels, grey body and bak to the jets and a small silver section for the jet itself. Once again, the scale is WAY off. If they were in real life, they would probably be almost three feet long with out the jets! But as I said, while they look silly, they actually do work well. Rather than attaching via the peg holes in the feet as one would expect, there is a long tab on the skates which ensure that they fit like a real skate would rather than turning to either side. Their huge size also ensures that Raph can stand easily on his skates, a feat the other three can't do.

Overall, these are an off beat idea that just arn't well executed. I think Playmates may have tried to do too much on the figures. Many lines have both basic and deluxe figures to give companies a little more freedom to do more ambitious figures. Had these been deluxes for a few dollars more, they might have come out ok. But trying to pack new sculpts with large accessories seems to have forced them to cut far to many corners. On a side note for those who might want to salvage these figures, you might want to just replace the 'vehicle' with a better version. I happened to have a promotional Tech Deck skateboard that I currently have Mike posed with. It makes a huge difference. I know they make similarly sized scooters and bicycles which I have often seen on clearance for around a dollar.

[Mr. Snackpants]

I like 'em. But I wish the bike, skateboard, skates, and scooter were made better.oh well............

[cqb101]

Thnaks for the review!

[Kid Icarus]

i guess the question now is, are they worth the money if you arn't a collector?

[Wingnut]

Originally Posted by Gwgtrunks

i guess the question now is, are they worth the money if you arn't a collector?

If i weren't a collector i would just buy MOC ones and not bother buying doubles

[tmntman]

i guess the question now is, are they worth the money if you arn't a collector?

Tough question to answer. If I weren't such a sucker for this line I would probably pass on them entirely. As I said at the bottom of my review, I think replacing the vehicles included with some Tech Decks or similar items will result in a vast improvement in the play value to kids. But I doubt many people want to have to pay more to replace the subpar accessories that these came with.

[Skabbz]

right as you posted this, i ran over to walmart to see if they had any yet. and sure enough they had all of the xtreme sports turtles and all of wave 2, as well as another playset. although i only got the xtreme sports turtles, since i have the rest. thanx alot for posting that review. mcl

[nimrod]

So what came with that line? Just the 4 x-treme turtles?

[cqb101]

Originally Posted by nimrod

So what came with that line? Just the 4 x-treme turtles?

yep.

[EZweasel]

i actually think these figures are beter than the first wave when it comes to moving and playing with them. i only got raph so far, but he stays on his skates good and he roles good.

[Albrecht]

no, there are seven figs. in wave one and seven in wave 2(x-tream tmnt, april, casey,and hun),

[nimrod]

I thought Wave 3 was going to have two of the x-treme turtles with another foot soldier or soemthing and Wave 4 would have the other two turtles with someone else. Hymm, guess that was wrong.

I have the four turtles, splinter, foot soldier, shredder, casey, april and hun with no intentions of getting the x-treme turtles.

So what's the next new figures coming them after these 4 x-treme turtles?

[Albrecht]

im gonna gusse:
foot tech ninja
baxter stockman
orouku saki (shredder w/ no armor)
and another CLOWN ASSED variation of the turtles

[cqb101]

Actually the next variation of the turtles isn't clown assed. Taken from OTC:

D'Alleva (VP of marketing for boys toys at Playmates) says they'll do a couple different versions of the Turtles each year, but "no Farmer Turtle and no Surfin' Dude Turtle." He says the Extreme Sports versions were made because they're in the show's opening credits, and he promises they're "the furthest we'll stray" from the classic Turtles. Next up is Fighting Gear Turtles, with removable armor that the Turtles could have made themselves from items in the sewer or junkyard, he says. Under the armor, they'll be super-articulated Turtles figures that collectors will dig...

Not too bad if you ask me.

[nimrod]

Now those sound cool. Im not into buying multiple turtles but the concept is good. If they look good I might buy those.

I want the foot tech ninja and the foot elite!

[Leo656]

He said "clown-assed"...

[Mr. Snackpants]

Originally Posted by Garet_Fire_Adept

no, there are seven figs. in wave one and seven in wave 2(x-tream tmnt, april, casey,and hun),

I think casey, april, and hun are wave2 and the extreme turtles are wave 3.

[cqb101]

Originally Posted by ben_wallace3

I think casey, april, and hun are wave2 and the extreme turtles are wave 3.

Yep. They were two different waves.

[Quiller-Bee]

Originally Posted by cqb101

Actually the next variation of the turtles isn't clown assed. Taken from OTC:

Not too bad if you ask me.

I agree. These could prove to be pretty cool.

[Kid Icarus]

Originally Posted by Garet_Fire_Adept

and another CLOWN ASSED variation of the turtles

They made Insane Clown Posse versions of the turtles? . just kiding, just kidding.

The super articulated ones sound cool... I'll have to pick them up. The armor also sounds cool... reminds me of the Usagi figure (maybe he'll come in that set?)