Slash (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Neca)) Review

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Slash (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Neca)) Review

Slash
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Neca) (Neca)When NECA announced a return to the Mirage TMNT figure line, nobody expected them to do more comic figures than just the Turtles' origins. In addition to The Last Ronin, Archie Comics' TMNT Adventures gets its own new figure line. As far as I'm concerned, Adventures rarely, if ever, got figures, so this is kind of a big deal. And kicking this line off is Slash, the monstrous turtle who's had prior NECA experience.

The packaging is similar the current Mirage line, with a trapezoidal window box outfitted with illustrations. These illustrations are provided by Adventures artist Ken Mitchroney, and the packaging motif as a whole gives off a vintage comic vibe. The one thing I don't like is the overabundance of plastic ties. Would it kill NECA to cut down on those?

The last two Slash figures used the same body as the four Turtles, resulting in him looking more slender than usual. This is not the case here, as this version of Slash has an appropriately chunky build. He's still a case of re-use, however, recycling his base body from the toon line's Tokka. Both figures are sculpted by Paul Harding, so it makes sense. He nailed Slash's design here, with all the proper details, and the sculpt blends well with his articulation. Standing about 5 1/2" tall, Slash bears accurate colors, along with some painted lines all around to reflect the comic's art style. The paint is rather clean, aside from paint rub-off from the left kneepad and some barely noticeable bleed on the belt.

Since Slash uses Tokka's body, it's no surprise his articulation is the same. He gets a ball-jointed head and chest, swivel/hinge shoulders, wrists, and ankles, swivel bandana tail, biceps, and thighs, double-hinged elbows and knees, and ball-socket hips. Slash's thick build barely impacts his articulation, and he's able to pull off plenty of poses. As the case is with many other Turtle figures, Slash suffers from tight wrist hinges due to NECA's continued insistence on painting them. You think by now they'd realize it does nothing but affect the joints, so let's hope it stops this year.

Slash doesn't have too much in terms of accessories, but what he has works well with the figure. For starters, he gets three pairs of hands: closed, gripping, and style pose. The hands are pretty tough to swap, and the claws on the wristbands getting in the way doesn't help. He also gets his kris, a jagged sword similar to what the Turtles in Time figure has, and that weird hook weapon that I doubt appeared in the comic, but was something that old turtle figures tended to have. Oddly, Slash doesn't get his palm tree, but you can easily use the one from the toon version if you have him.

2022 was a pretty good year for Slash, considering how we got both this version and Super7's one. While I personally enjoy the Super7 version more, the NECA version is undoubtedly a fun figure that stomps all over their previous Slashes, and it's nice to get one that isn't too thin or looks ridiculously goofy (sorry toon Slash). I'm all the more ready for what this line has to offer next, and Man Ray can't come soon enough.

- 1/7/23