The possibility of a Playmates Embargo on TMNT hasn't been made clear as of the writing of this rant, so, I suppose we should tackle these two, seeing that they're very similar. Both are members of the Foot Clan and they're heavily involved in a personal war. Since the Ultimates is inspired by the vintage toyline, which is a weird amalgamation of Mirage and toon, we can take elements from both to have characters:
I have made suggestions for these i. The past, but they heavily relied on Playmates Toys likenesses and elements. With the possible embargo, we need to change that.
Hamato Yoshi:
First, his hakama and kimono should be soft goods. I know Nefty hates soft goods, but with TMNTU I'm more open to them. Magenta kimono with grey striped Hakama for Yoshi. I would use a modified Shredder body for Hamato Yoshi.
What do I mean by modified? Simple: new lower leg and forearm parts to eliminate the holes for Shredder's armor. A new upper torso of similar size and build without the sculpted cloth piece from Shredder's mask. This would give Yoshi a martial artist look. The Bandages from the Shredder body would be on a bone white color on Yoshi. The shredder pants should be light grey. A bone white slip on neckpiece and a light grey Foot ninja head should be added and a soft goods magenta tunic amd white belt to have Yoshi in his ninja gear looking somewhat like a Mirage Foot Ninja... (setting up a future figure or 2, nudge nudge wink wink). Obviously a Toon TMNT Inspired Hamato Yoshi head would be needed.
For weaponry, a walking cane like Zatoichi's. It covers both staff and katana disciplines. A jitte and a sansetsukon cover the sai and Nunchaku disciplines. His last accessories would be a Bow (reuse Karai's) and arrows. Some of these accessories (all except the cane sword) would be reused on the foot ninja. As a replacement for the cabe sword, a katana and other preexisting weapons could be tossed in.
Oroku Saki:
Saki needs a new torso... (same one as Yoshi but with swappable arms) one set of arms would reuse the Yoshi arms, the other Shredder's arms with new armor pieces. We'd reuse Shredder's legs with new armor pieces too! The kimono would be purple and the hakama dark grey. The wraps on his forearms and feet should be black.
His pants should be dark grey. The new Shredder armor pieces should be metallic blue and they should look like the vintage toy armor sans spikes. He should get the purple neckpiece from Yoshi and a grey cloth tunic and black belt. A purple Foot Ninja head from Yoshi completes the second look.
He gets the standard hands from Shredder. 2 Additional left hands with blue claws sculpted on them (gripping hand and fist) a Third head with the Shredder helmet in Metallic blue with the face shadowed out. (See silver Shredder's second head) for weapons: Katana, Karai's kusarigama, a halberd,and a knife (reference to the knife that he used to kinda literally stab Yoshi in the back)
I know what you're thinking: "Why am I giving this figure a lot less accessories than Yoshi?"
OK, this figure has 4 modes:
Oroku Saki (toon based), Foot Ninja mode, Kinda Shredder mode and Oroku Nagi... oops, I kinda skipped the Oroku Nagi head. The 4th head, Unmasked Nagi is the reason why Saki seems a bit slim in accessories.
Not only that, I am also giving you spare parts for other characters:
The grey Tunic is also meant to be used on Silver Shredder to make a Somewhat Toon Shredder. The tunic, the full blue helmet, and the left hands are to make a more Mirage inspired Playmates styled Shredder.
The unspiked armor arms, the tunic or just the neckpiece with the Nagi head work to make an individual Toy version of Nagi. The shredder helmet and left claws being optional parts. Or you can pop the Nagi head on a Shredder body as well. If you get 2 of the figure, you can have Nagi wearing the kimono and hakama, while Saki is in Foot Ninja gear. Not to mention that the armored arms and legs can make way for reuse in Shredder's Elite warriors. With a new Helmet piece on a repainted Shredder head, we could also get the Shredder Elite.
So let's recap: from 2 figures that started from some mods to an existing figure, we have the potential for:
-Mirage Foot Ninja
-Shredder's Elite
-Mirage Shredder
-Oroku Nagi
-Oroku Nagi's Ghost
That's 5 more figures. The Mirage foot ninja and Mirage Shredder require either a new torso (preferred option) or a repainted one. In Mirage Shredder's case, new armored spikes for legs and forearms could be used as well and a few new right hands.
The Shredder elite require the same new torso (if available) But a new helmet piece on the Shredder head.
For Nagi's Ghost the form in which they choose the body, would be the canonical form for the living version. Add a ghost head with long hair and tattered sheer clothing to simulate the translucent ghostly clothes and make the figure in translucent or GITD Plastic.
There is another figure that could be made as well: Toon Shredder. Usong elements from the Mirage Shredder and Oroku Saki, a toon version could be made with 2 additional alternate heads: with helmet but no mask and the Eye of Sarnath.
The main problem would be the Playmates purists that only want the 80s toys bigger and more articulated. While they'd rather have nothing umless it's Playmates 2.0, I'd rather have stuff that goes beyond the original line, while maintaining a similar spirit to it.
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