The First Turtles (Black & White Variant)

In November 1983, cartoonists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were having a brainstorming session to figure out what project they should work on after their Fugitoid comic. To make his pal laugh, Kevin drew a picture of a turtle standing on its hind legs and wielding ninja weapons. Peter loved it and drew one of his own. Great works come from humble beginnings. At San Diego Comic-Con 2024, NECA had a set of action figures based on those original Turtle sketches. It was available online for fans who wouldn't be attending the show, which is always good; but of course, NECA being NECA, they didn't do anything to promote this sale ahead of time, and so it was already sold out by the time word spread. Top notch work, team, we're all proud of you. Fortunately, there's still an option. The SDCC set was color, but right now you can find a black-and-white version. A cooler design and I can just pick it up off the shelf in person instead of having to pay shipping? You had me at "meat tornado"! Kevin-Turtle is the bigger, rounder one. Obviously there are going to be differences between a back-of-the-napkin joke sketch and the final published product, but it's frankly impressive how many elements were there from the beginning. Like, the hands and feet may have five digits apiece with short, pointy claws (rather than the more familiar "two giant, flat fingers" the TMNT have today), but he's got the mask, got the pads on the elbows and knees, got wrist bands... really, the only thing we're missing is a belt. This sketch is as close to the modern-day Turtles as Ditko's Spider-Man is to the modern-day Spidey, and that's impressive! The problem with making a toy based off an initial design sketch is that once you've finished the main thing, there are no extras or accessories you can give it. NECA took several steps to deal with that, beginning with designing an alternate head. The normal look (ie, the one Kevin Eastman drew 41 years ago) is just frowning, but the alternate has the mouth open slightly to show his teeth, in much the same way the vintage Playmates toys did. Peter-Turtle is the shorter, thinner one. Looking at the sketches, you can tell that one of two things is true: either he drew his Ninja Turtle smaller than Kevin did, or he only had a Sharpie and not a real pen. That drawing has the line weight of a neutron star. This figure is only about 5½" tall, compared to the other's 6". His limbs are ganglier, and he doesn't wear any pads. Also only four claws instead of five - slowly working their way down to the proper number of fingers, I see! Laird gave his Turtle a pointier nose, and the mask comes down to cover it as well, not just the eyes. Both these Turtles have tails, something that would eventually be dropped from the design - as revealed on the TMNT episode of The Toys That Made Us, Playmates originally sculpted their figures with tails like this, but decided they looked too much like penises and so the feature was quietly removed. There's an alternate head for this figure, too, and again it's showing its teeth. Harkening back to the first time NECA did Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys, 16 years ago, these are sculpted and painted with lines to make them look like they're drawn with crosshatching. More than that, though, the lines are, where possible, based directly on those old sketches! Like, compare the scutes on Kevin-Turtle's chest to the ones in the art, and they're almost an exact match! The effect is less pronounced on Peter-Turtle (since that was a much smaller and thus less detailed drawing), but it's still a cool idea and execution from gentleman thief working off his sentence by helping the FBI catch art forgers, Paul Harding. The initial Kevin Eastman drawing gave the turtle a pair of nunchucks that attached to his forearms though unknown means; this toy includes those, and makes them removable by way of a small clip that fits into the wristband. Peter Laird's had what appeared to be a singular stick merely strapped to the arm, but here each one is interpretted as two - you'll always be able to tell them apart, because the bigger turtle's version has a chain, while the smaller turtle's doesn't. There were no other weapons in the drawings, but NECA has chosen to include a whole bunch here, presumably in the hopes you'll buy two sets (or possibly four) and kit each figure out like a different Turtle. There are two loose nunchucks, with metal chains, and one that's sculpted to look like it's spinning. Sort of. Pay no attention to the fact that it's spinning at the wrong end of the chain: this way we get a hinge joint that allows for it to be posed in different directions. The set also includes two sais, two katanas, a bo, and a tonfa. That last one's pretty unexpected! Articulation is mostly the same between the two figures: a swivel for the tie on the back of the mask; a barbell head; balljointed neck; swivel/hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists; balljoint hips; balljoint tail; swivel thighs; swivel/hinge knees; and swivel/​hinge ankles. At least, Petey has knees and ankles: Kev is so big and chunky, his legs only have one joint below the kneepads. You can call it either a knee or an ankle as you see fit. Since the hands based on the sketches are open, the set includes alternate hands capable of holding the weapons. Doing the First Turtles sketches as action figures is a great idea. You can tell, because Playmates is doing almost the exact same thing at the same time (theirs are technically based on a later sketch, when the four boys were more distinct, but it's the same basic idea). The black and white (and red) versions are a better look than the full-color SDCC ones, meaning for once the cooler version of a toy is not the more expensive and exclusionary one! $60 seems a bit high for what you're getting, but the excitement of unexpectedly finding this in Walmart's "collector" area won out. -- 11/14/24 Do these look better in white or green? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.

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