TMNT 2012 Michelangelo

Michelangelo is the youngest of the Ninja Turtles and here I have the Playmates version of him from the new 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.  Once again this guy is a new sculpt and is visibly smaller than his brothers.  A nice touch.  I have also modified his nunchucks because originally they

A) Looked like sausages.

B) Developed a stress mark when holstered  

And

C) A chain just looks better.

 

Let’s have a closer look shall we?

 

 

 

He has the usual blister card package and little bio on the back.  As you can see from the picture of his face he is obviously the comic relief of the team,  He also comes with a weapons tree and his trademark nunchucks.  Enlarge that picture and you’ll see the default nunchucks.

 

There is my comparison picture of the two.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although he looks like a straight recolour of the other Turtles, he is noticeably shorter than his brethren.  The holsters or his nunchucks are pretty tight and that is the reason why the plastic for the ‘chain’ on the unaltered nunchucks get damaged.  There is just too much force for it to handle.  I though that they would be ok at the start and perhaps show signs of stress later, but sadly no.  As soon as I put them in the plastic chain had a massive white stress mark on it.  Then it’s only a matter of time before it snaps.  So I did the chain.

 

Mike’s belt is most similar to Raphael’s, it doesn’t have an over the shoulder Brace and just wraps around his waist.  As far as details and sculpting go, he has the least amount of shell scratches but still has quite a bit of skin definition.  And yes, he does have different toe prints to the others as well.  I thought I had taken a photo of them, but it would appear that I didn’t.  I will try to add one later.

 

And there it is.

 

The jointing is exactly the same as the other Turtles; ball jointed neck, hinge/swivels for knees, elbows, hips and shoulders with swivels for the wrists.  Again the knee/elbow pads both hide and hinder the joints a little.  his shell around the groin is softer plastic allowing for extra forward movement.

 

 

The nunchuck handles are pretty solid and a good size for a Ninja turtles large hands.  He comes with a bunch of other weapons on the tree as well.  However I will say that Mikey has the least varied selection, with two types of ninja stars and a kusarigama.

 

The kusarigama is also a plastic chained weapon, so since I had some chain left over I modded that too.  I prefer it this way,as the plastic chain was too short anyway.  The idea of the kusarigama is to use the chain to either bonk your opponent on the head with (as it has a weight on one end) or to tangle their weapons and disarm them that way.  Or, use the chain to grab their arm/weapons, pull them towards you and stab them with the sickle.  Usually the chain is really long, so mine isn’t in scale, but it’s long enough without getting in the way.

 

Another reason for modifying the nunchucks is so he can hold them under his arms.

Although I will admit you can’t have them dynamically flailing around anymore.  A small sacrifice in my opinion.

 

As I said before, Mike is the smallest Turtle.  Although it’s most noticeable against Don who is tallest, you can still tell when he is with Raph and Leo.

 

 

Once again his face sculpt is great and like Leo has a smile on one side and anger on the other.

 

 

Even ignoring the cool mouth the facial expression is marvellous.  I love the way his eyes and forehead look.

 

 

You can see straight away that he is cheeky and a bit of a prankster.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As expected, Michelangelo is another excellent addition to the Turtles group.  They have the articulation down well and he is sculpted differently enough to differentiate himself from his brothers and similarly enough to be easily recognisable as both a Ninja Turtle and  as the jokey little bro Michelangelo. 

 

The only issue I have is with the plastic chain for the weapons.  It would have been better had they have been made of a gummy plastic so that they wouldn’t stress the moment you put them in his belt.  But the addition of the chain to these weapons not only eliminates that issue, it makes them look a LOT better.  I guess his weapons tree is a bit disappointing too.  All the other ones I have wanted to try out at least a couple of the weapons, with Mikey’s though, I only care about the chain sickle.  But that is a small complaint.  So get this guy, especially if you are getting the others as you won’t be disappointed.  I love them.

 

The chain fix is pretty easy and I have done a tutorial video here if you want to do it yourself.