A few quarters ago, I took a look at the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from the Super 7 Ultimates line. They were pretty good for the most part, with the biggest issue being the price they all share ($55 a pop). I was still interested in checking out the rest of the lineup because of my love to that version of TMNT, but I would rather wait for the price to go down instead. The first issue that arose was the $10 increase for the second wave, which consists of Splinter, Casey Jones, Shredder, and a Foot Soldier. This time, I'll split the wave in half and review them in pairs for the sake of not delaying things as much as I can. For today's review, we'll see if any more red flags pop up as we take a look at the master and fodder of Ninja Turtle lore!
Here we have Master Splinter in-hand. For anyone wondering, this version was the actual rat owned by Hamato Yoshi, though he clawed Hun instead of Shredder given the different bearers of that title throughout this continuity. What I like about Splinter's design is that it captures the essence of an old, wise mentor as an anthropomorphic animal without making it too cartoony or something that a furry freak would be attracted to. As for the translation from digital animation to plastic, I want to say they mostly nailed the look of the character, but the problem many will bring up is how cheap he kind of feels. Super 7 usually has this PVC look to their toys in order to better make the sculpts smoother, hence being animation accurate, but the company sometimes makes the paint apps somewhat chalky or nowhere near as premium as one would hope. The grey plastic used for his head, arms, and legs is meant to match the animation, yet it kind of feels somewhat flat for a character meant to be in that color. Almost like it makes the white for the eyebrows appear indistinguishable from the shade of grey used for the rest of him. At least they got the legs correct with the digitigrade bone structure, and the tail at least had some lines sculpted to resemble some skin texture found on actual rodents, but alas, no bendy wire implementation.
The head sculpt manages to resemble how the character looked, and the eyes are thankfully locked out better, but the nose could have been painted better. As for the whiskers, I understand there are some limitations with the size and durability, but they holes used for inserting them could have been a bit less unsightly. Articulation consists of a double ball jointed neck with the standard side to side turn and somewhat limited up and down. Shoulders are able to move front and back with slight hindrance from his robes; in and out movement works fine as well as the bicep rotation yet the elbow joints barely go past 90 degrees. Wrists have tiny pegs for rotation and equally small hinges for moving them in and out, which despite being functional makes me worry about the longevity. He has a reasonably workable torso joint, and while the bottom of the robe inhibits his leg movement somewhat, the legs are able to move around reasonably well on ball joints. He has thigh swivels, double jointed knees, ankle hinges, and a swivel in lieu of ankle pivot given the nature of his legs. The tail is articulated at the base where it connects, but that's it for it.
In addition to the relaxed hands hands and the set of hands in the articulation segment, Splinter comes with a stick fitting for his name, a pair of hands to hold it in either side, a pair of splayed open hands, and a pair of fists. He also has an alternate head with his eyes closed as he meditates. Fits very well for a wise mentor such as himself.
He also comes with his pre-mutation self and a quartet of baby turtles. I like that the paint on them is reasonable, though Splinterat suffers from having the feet and tail off level with the rest of his limbs.
As for the Foot Soldier, this manages to be mostly better than Splinter interns of plastic quality visuals. The black, gunmetal grey, and light grey combo may be fairly monochromatic, but at least nothing feels as cheap as some Super 7 items come across. Granted, light bounces off a bit on the area where the logo is printed, but he doesn't have a cheap, unfinished look to him compared to Splinter. The grey on the gloves and boots also help from representing protective pads that deflect any cuts from swords or anything similar. The anatomy is slightly stylized, which is appropriate for the show's aesthetics, but it also fits given their lean and agile nature as ninjas, of course.
Head sculpt is simple in terms of sculptwork, and much like plenty of older Spider-Man heads, does appear somewhat balloonish, yet the creases for the eyebrows and the eyes raised in relief help make it look more like a human is underneath that mask. The yellow eyes are the best part of this toy, too. As for his articulation, the head is on a ball joint, shoulders and biceps work similarly to Splinter, though he has slightly better double jointed elbows, the wrists use the same level of range, torso moves around a bit more, hips have more range than Splinter does thanks to the shorter skirt, thigh swivels are present, double jointed knees actually work on him, and he has the more traditional ankle hinge and pivot.
One of his alternate heads has him with the left eye squinting somewhat, adding a bit of personality to a featureless mask. Not only that, but it goes well with either the bo staff or the throwing stars, which has their own dedicated hands. Thankfully, the bo staff is not reused from Donatello.
He also has a pair of katanas also new to his sculpt, which also helps that his weapon holding hands are able to hinge downwards as all sword wielders should have. He also includes an alternate right hand more gestural than the others with a third head featuring a headset; this represents the Foot Technician, though some wires on the back would have completed the look.
For a size comparison, here they are alongside Leonardo. We'll see who will pop up with Shredder and Casey Jones for their review. As one would expect these match closer to the 1/10 scale more than anything, so you can put the 2003 cast with your DC Multiverse collection for any crossover displays. The turtles will mostly work fine enough for 1/12 scale, though, and moreso than the Playmates Classic Collection molds. So where do I stand with our rat and foe? Sadly, Splinter falls short thanks to his overall qualities being outweighed by his negatives, from how drab the grey plastic looks on him to the head sculpt being let down somewhat by the coloring of the eyebrows and thick whiskers. Not to mention his rat form has some wonky molding to him, and the articulation he has could be better. The Foot Ninja does a better job at being an action figure, and I appreciate the accessories and personality he has for a Super 7 Ultimate. However, the two get points taken away from a $10 price hike. Sure, they're new molds and have a reasonable number of accessories, but are they worth getting at those prices if fans should know the Turtles' prices weren't already that great? I really want to say they're great as a dan of the 2003 series, but I have more issues with them than I do the turtles. Splinter moreso than the Foot Ninja. With discounts popping up here and there, pay around $45 or less for all Super 7 Ultimates. Don't be ripped off by their tariff bs, especially after they did their layoff and went on like nothing happened (which is more noticeable for a smaller company than the average conglomerate given you'd think there'd be more standards for the little guys).
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Splinter)
⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Foot Ninja)
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