I didn't even know she had a music career!
New secrets of the Turtles' past are revealed as we learn more about the devastating series of events leading up to the Last Ronin's final battle, as well as its aftermath.
IDW's The Last Ronin was meant to be a standalone series, but was popular enough to warrant a sequel. Luckily, they left a handy hook in there, allowing them to put out Last Ronin - the Lost Years, bridging the gap to Last Ronin II. While the main story was about the Last Ronin and everything he went through between leaving and returning to New York, there was also a framing device introducing the next generation of heroes and showing them growing from toddlers to teenagers, raised both by their sensei, Casey Marie, and their grandma April.
April O'Neil seems to subscribe to the Sarah Connor school of aging: refuse to do any unnatural maintenance, but still end up the hottest grandma in the bingo hall regardless. Like, she's got lines on her face, but it's not as though they make her look decrepit. In fact, considering The Lost Years starts a decade after Last Ronin, she's looking better here than she did in the first series!
Just like all the boys did, April is wearing
her signature color, but gussying it up with some drab brown armor. The "Roninverse" April is a scientist, and relaxes by tinkering in her garage, so she's sculpted with cloth hanging down from her waist, and tools in her belt. And of course, as a little reminder of the time she got partially exploded, her left arm and right shin are mechanical. It's interesting that she's got five fingers, like a human, but only two toes, like a Turtle; was that in honor of her fallen brothers, or just because it's pointless to make all the toes when feet aren't as dextrous as hands?
Like we said, April's wearing yellow, a fairly muted shade rather than anything shockingly bright. Her pants are orange, though it's hard to notice since they're covered by what appear to be leather chaps. Her
prosthetic limbs are grey, with the hand and foot being a pale pink - paler than her actual skin, so we can tell they're not original to the chassis. The scar on her cheek gets its own thin red paint app, and the both wedding band and the cord it hangs from around her neck are painted cleanly. Like the other figures, she has some black lines to make her look more like comic art, and there's some gray fading into the red of her hair.
April doesn't get an alternate head, but she does have
three pairs of hands: holding, open, and fists. The figure has swivel/hinge ankles, double-hinged knees, swivels at both the top and bottom of the thigh, balljointed hips, a balljointed chest, swivel/hinge wrists, double-hinged elbows, swivel biceps, swivel/hinge shoulders, and a barbell head. The vest she wears is PVC over the torso beneath, and like Shanna and Rogue, the boobs are part of that rather than part of the body. And in keeping with our promise to inform you of every time we've got a NECA figure with a problem joint, the upper half of the right elbows was stuck: it took a little flexing and prying to get it moving like all the rest.
April's got a large wrench as an accessory, but it may not be intended for her; like we said, Lost Years showed the new Ninja Turtles
growing up, so this is a three-pack: it's got April, plus two of the baby turtles. First we've got Yi, who sort of mirrors Donatello, in that she's very brainy and inquisitive, but she almost seems more interested in medicine than technology. Basically, she just likes learning for learning's sake. But she likes hanging out in her grandma's lab, so her hand is sized to hold the wrench as well as April can. Since this is Yi as a baby, the toy isn't even 2⅝" tall, but she's sculpted adorably (the entire set is credited to man exposed to both mutagen and lingering Chinese radition, Paul Harding), and is painted the perfect shade of pale green with yellow stripes all over.
The second baby turtle is Moja. If Yi is the Donatello, Moja is the Raphael; but rather than just port the existing personalities onto new names, the new generation twists things a bit; so while Moja seems to be the
angriest of the four, she uses that temper to stick up for those who need it - even when she's defending one brother from another one. She's a little shorter than Yi and a little chunkier, because these are all different species of turtle. Like, Yi's stripes suggest she's a yellow-bellied slider, while Moja's brown coloration, distinct beak, and the horizontal scutes on the shell seem to come from snapping turtles. She has wraps on her forearms and shins, and has the same articulation as her sister: balljointed hips and shoulders, and a barbell head. In the comic she comes across as a little autistic, in part because she has such a firm sense of justice, but also because she prefers listening to music in headphones all the time. Fitting, then, that the toy includes headphones and a tape player for her.
When I first saw this set at Target, I found it weird that April only came with two of the Turtles, not all four. But they're doing a Sensei Casey Marie who will come with Odyn and Uno, so we'll really be able to complete the set. Eventually. In theory. (Still waiting for my Vincent Price, after all.) Because of the turtle babies, this release costs more than the average Last Ronin figures, but overall it's a great set.
-- 12/25/25
What cartoon heroine would make the greatest GILF? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.
|
