Wingnut & Screwloose

Wingnut and Screwloose travel from the planet Flagenon in Dimension X with a device that can mind-control humans. It'll be up to the Turtles to take a bite out of these bugs when their plan is discovered! What? No they don't. That's the cartoon version, this is the far superior comic version. When the Turtles got back from Stump Asteroid, they were dropped off on a New York City rooftop in the middle of a storm. Before they could even get their bearings, they were dive-bombed by Wingnut, who broke a window and then flew away. The boys pursued him to the top of the World Trade Center (more than a year before Juggernaut and Black Tom would fight X-Force in the same spot) [almost: the Turtles were on Tower 1, X-Force was on Tower 2 --ed.], where they learned his tragic origin. In short, Wingnut was looking for Krang, but because he was pretty dumb, his only plan was "smash every skylight to see if Krang is under one of them." It's also possible "a bat breaking windows" was meant to be a Batman origin joke, since Wingnut was designed as a pastiche of the Caped Crusader, something that's never really been hidden about him. The character was one of many created by Ryan Brown, and since Brown was also part of the team in charge of writing the Archie comics, this version is much truer to his vision than the vintage toy or the cartoon incarnation were. He still has the large, upright nose, but he has much better posture, and a much thinner body. Of course, all designs change, so comicbook Wingnut isn't a direct copy of the original idea. That one seemed to be wearing a space suit, and had a cape that directly turned into wings. The final version keeps the shape of the armor on the chest, and has the utility belt, but there's also rounded shoulder armor (with lots of dings) and the body is more like spandex. There's a big hole in one of his thigh pads, and small spikes on his calves and the underside of his gloves. Tomasz Rozejowski has sculpted the figure with a supremely goofy, yet infectious, smile on its face, and there's even sculpted drool on his tongue. What the heck! You may recall that toy/cartoon Wingnut wore some very Adam West colors, light gray and brught blue, but comic Wingnut is much more a creature of the night, with a dark dark indigo bodysuit (and body, judging by the visible skin on his face and toes) with purple accents for his boots, pads, and gloves. The armor is grey, with the dings painted black, and the yellows are very vibrant. His chest symbol is just a bat, with no hint of being shaped like a W - thereby losing one of the cooler design elements of Brown's original concept. Wingnut is wearing a black mask, but you can barely tell because the skin it's against is so dark already. That does, however, make the bulging yellow wys and the pink ears, nose, and tongue stand out nicely. The articulation is usual stuff - head, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, chest, waist, hips, thighs, knees, ankles - but a lot of the hinges are insanely stiff! Getting both joints in either of the double-elbows or double-knees is unreliable at best. And because we always directly report when there are manufacturing problems with a NECA toy (here's the last one), we will tell you the right forearm had a minor molding issue that made it fall off the arm: there are swivel joints at the top of the gloves, but the arm is more oval than round, so the joint doesn't actually work; when molded properly, like on mine's left arm, the glove just won't turn; a minor flub on the right meant it could turn, which would push the glove off the mushroom cap. Since it's not intended to turn, I just glued it firmly in place - the wrist joint gives the same range of motion anyway. Also, because this shipped when it was so bitterly cold outside, the glue holding the nose on the face has gotten brittle and could no longer hold firmly, so that had to be re-glued as well. Instead of tiny vestigial wings, Archie Wingnut just wore a metal flightpack, so that's what this toy includes. It's a solid piece, with a 7" wingspan, and fits into a large slot on the figure's back. It's sculpted with a slight outward curve, and is detailed to look like flat metal plates that have been bolted together. Handles out near the wing tips can be held by a pair of the alternate hands, though you do have to move his arms slightly weirdly to get them lined up just right. It would be really nice if you could tip his head back farther, too - even the stock photos cheat it by having him looking to the side instead of straight ahead. Mirage Studios was very good about giving proper credit to creators, going so far as to let them retain the rights - that's how we know, for instance, who created each member of the Uncanny Trio - but it seems that wasn't the case at the very beginning. How do we know? Well, like we said, Wingnut was created by Ryan Brown; when we went to check who created his little mosquito sidekick Screwloose (it was Stephen Murphy ["with Peter Laird and Steve Lavigne," whatever that entails], for the record), we found that both Wingnut & Screwloose are listed as registered trademarks of Mirage, suggesting that the earliest creations were all treated as work-for-hire or had to be signed over to the company for legal reasons, and that eventually that changed. The indicia on the pair's first appearance credits them to Mirage, but their home planet Huanu (as well as something called the "Strieboids," a word never used in the comic, so it could be Wingnut's species, Screwloose's species, or even the aliens that attacked them; it seems to come from the German word for "fight" rather than anything specific to either animal) is credited to Murphy, meaning that the character names and designs were owned by the studio, but their backstory was still owned by the writers. Weird! And also, that would explain why the cartoon version was from a different planet. Wingnut and Screwloose's species share a symbiotic relationship: the Screwlooses can only eat Wingnut blood, and the Wingnuts can only sleep after being bitten by a Screwloose. Since the alien invasion led to the deaths of all the female members of Wingnut's race, that's super bad news for both of them. (Remember, the Adventures comics were full of '90s environmental messages, so this one was about animal conservation and the danger of extinction.) That's also more characterization than Screwloose has ever had before. The comic doesn't do away with the nods to Robin, the Boy Wonder, like the animation did, so Screwloose gets to wear a little domino mask over his eyes. He doesn't get multiple pairs of arms, though - just one. Screwloose has dark red skin, and wears a little green costume comprising a tunic with pointy shoulders, a pair of gloves, and boots with curly elf toes - the way he dressed in the Mighty Mutanimals comics more than TMNT Adventures. He's sculpted with a fairly sinister grin revealing his small, sharp teeth, and his wings are white with black veins painted on both sides. The toy has a balljointed head, swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel gloves, balljointed wings, a balljointed waist, balljoint hips, and swivel/hinge ankles. The set includes an alternate set of legs for Screwloose, as well. These are unarticulated, other than the waist, where the pieces swap out. The regular pair is standing, but these are sculpted in a permanent squat, so Screwloose can sit down. Specifically, so he can sit down on Wingnut's back: there's a small seat on the back of the wings, with a dip to accommodate Screwloose's tiny stinger and help hold the figure in place, allowing him to ride along on his buddy's back while they fly around. How fun! The seat can slide up and down on the back, moving all the way forward when he's sitting, or all the way back to be a stand and let him peek over Wingnut's head. In addition to the hands designed to hold onto the wings, the big figure gets a pair of fists, a pair of open hands, and a pair to hold his one accessory. When attacking the windows, WIngnut asked his sidekick to hand him another trinitrotoluene greande; Screwloose apologized, saying they were all out, and maybe his boss would like a nice rock, instead? So this set includes a large rock for him to hold. Considering the jetpack is removable, they could have included a second backpack piece, showing his useless natural wings, from teh storyline where the metal ones got crushed and he had to learn to live without for a time. Wingnut and Screwloose never appeared in the Mirage comics, so everything cool about them is all Archie. This set was allegedly available from Walmart's website sometime last year, but it's just begun showing up in stores now. It really is a great set, and it's fun to finally have the best version of this ditzy duo in plastic form. -- 03/05/26 What's your preferred version of Wingnut? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.