In the how to plus up the 91-92 I talked, or will talk about plussing up the figures from that year and I dabbled in variants with the movie Foot Soldier... the tense confusion comes with me writing multiple rants at the same time and not all of them having the same publishing date. Right now I don't know when I will publish the latest batch.
So, the Movie Star Turtles: I know, I know, "why bother when NECA has released a superior product?"
Simple one word explanation: Nostalgia. While yes, the NECA Movie TMNT are amazing action figures with mirror screen perfect accuracy; I have a soft spot for The Playmates Toys figures.
So, let's talk movie stars:
Playmates did the 4 Turtles, Splinter and Foot Soldier.
I want to tackle those and more. To quote a former Mattel Brand Manager and professional writer and desperate vlogger yelling doom and gloom for clickbait: Logistics.
This will be one of the reasons why the NECA movie stuff will be "more accurate" than whatever Super7 can do. The other reason is Nostalgia... so let's take those ideas and add some Penny Pinching in some areas while Splurging in others.
Turtles
It feels like I'm gonna be lazy, but let me start by stating that most of the stuff they'd need would be props from the first 2 movies. Taking a look at the NECA Accessory packs could give you a hint of stuff needed.
For example, Michelangelo's special twirling hand and nunchucks is an obvious idea to copy from NECA.
One more thing: DO NOT MIMIC THE RUBBERY MATERIAL FROM THE VINTAGE FIGURES!!
An idea I have that might be unpopular is "Mistakes" like a human hand for Donatello based on the skating mistake, or the Turtles with wires coming out the back of their heads, or a human mouth inside the turtle mouth kind of thing.
Obvious extra hands and heads are obvious. Full Pizza is another obvious one, a pizza sliced in 5 pieces with each slice coming with a turtle and Splinter is another. The donuts from Secret of the Ooze is another accessory to use.
Splinter
Well let's start with no flocking (don't want Super7 screwing that up.) Multiple hands, an extra head, adding some movie accessories like the Ninja Rap newspaper, a pizza slice that fits on his head, normal slice, the shackles from the first movie. (Super7 could reuse the old Splinter torso with new legs and heads)
With the turtles and Splinter done, we could end here, but no. I will sail "uncharted territory" and go beyond vintage, while remaining respectful of vintage.
Shredder:
This is where we reuse parts from the Movie Star Foot Soldier. If s7 makes the belts a separate piece, we can reuse the torso. New arms and lower legs where the normal Shredder Spike armor pieces can be attached to.
Add a head from the other movie. If the shreder is from TMNT2SOTO, then add a TMNT1 Head or viceversa. The shredder belt should have the small knife used at the end of the first movie sculpted into it. Reuse the Shredder weapon rack weapons and the javelin from the first movie and add a small ooze container from TMNT2SOTO.
April O'Neil:
Right out of the bat this is a repaint of April the Ravishing Reporter. Brown cloth skirt, the tights and lower legs are painted in a tan pantyhose color and her shoes are red. Her coat is yellow.
No rooted hair for this reporte, but she gets a head "inspired" by Judith Hoag... Basically Toy April's head with Hoag's hairdo.
Extra hands,purse, sai, microphone, other movie themed accessories.
Casey Jones
Imagine the Casey figure with Shredder's torso painted like a shirt, a new head and a new vest used on the torso. That's more or less what Playmates would do. Using that mentality leads to the Movie Star Casey. The main difference is that he gets an actual shirt sculpted. The rest of the body is reusing the Toy Casey parts. The same applies to his accessories. The main head is similar to the existing Casey, but with long hair. He gets an extra unmasked head with the sculpt based on the TMNT3 Whit figure, but clean shaven and with long hair.
I know that April, Shredder, and Casey feel super cheap and half-assed figures. I know, but that's on purpose. Had Playmates done these figures, they would've been close to my ideas. I tried to give them some uniqueness using the Ultimates treatment, but I had to start from a Playmates perspective and on non-turtle toys, they tend to cut corners. To get truly accurate figures we have NECA. Super7 is for getting the perfect Playmates Tribute that Playmates is too lazy to do themselves.
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