Michelangelo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Mondo)) Review

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Michelangelo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Mondo)) Review

Michelangelo
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Mondo) (Mondo)Nowadays, 1:6 scale figures are becoming pretty popular. A lot of companies are making 12-inch tall figures from a variety of licenses, though most of them are really expensive. Some are more on the cheap side, however, such as Mondo, who has done a couple of reasonably-priced figures. One of the first licenses they put into that scale is the ever popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.

Michelangelo comes in a simple, and rather large, fifth-panel box. The front shows artwork of the turtle himself and the back is art of all four of them. The front flap shows concept art of the figure itself, which is a nice touch. The box is nice and collector friendly, and everything is easy to take out and put back in later.

His sculpt is based off of the original Mirage comics, with the blocky head and tail later designs don't have. However, he isn't like the older NECA figures or what Playmates offered, more specifically, the neck isn't as long or thin as those sculpts have. The body is the same as the other Turtles Mondo did, though the head is different from the others, with a nice, toothy grin. I like the design here, and it reminds me of the later comic designs rather than the earlier ones. The paint is done pretty well, with clean black lines around the eyes and mouth on both heads (more on that below) and some good wash on the shell, belt, and pads. 9 1/2" isn't super tall, but the turtles aren't as big as humans, and he stands in good scale with other sixth-scale figures.

Michelangelo has a decent range of articulation, with a ball-jointed head, tail, and bandana tail, swivel-hinge shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and ankles, swivel biceps and thighs, and double-hinged knees. Everything moves well, though the right elbow tends to pop out a lot, which can be annoying to deal with. I also would've liked a joint at the chest or waist to allow for more poses.

The accessory count here is pretty good and perfect for the character. There's an alternate head with a red mask based off of the original comics, and it swaps out with the regular head easily. There's also an alternate pair of hands with the little claws used for scaling walls, and an extra left hand making a three-fingered shaka sign. Michelangelo's traditional pair of nunchucks are included, and the metal chains are a nice touch. Also included are two pairs of shurikens, four-point and eight-point respectively, a grappling hook with a real (and long) rope, and a blaster from the Triceraton story arc. Topping things off are a pre-mutated turtle Mikey and the Lil' Orphan Alien toy from the one-shot comic. The exclusive version, which was sold only on Mondo's website, had two slices of pizza as a bonus accessory, but that one is long gone and your only hope is through the secondary market.

Overall, Michelangelo is a pretty decent grab for my first sixth-scale figure. Sure, there are a few minor problems, with that elbow issue bugging me the most, but he's a solid figure for the most part. $150, while high, was a pretty standard price for him when he first came out, though BBTS had him for only $85, and I jumped right on that.

- 3/28/21