The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a group of crime fighting mutant turtles lead by their sensei, Splinter and are named after four Renaissance artists’. They battle anything from small-time criminals to megalomaniacs. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles began as a comic series before being turned into a cartoon series on TV with a number of movies made as well. The toy line to accompany the cartoon series was very popular and successful lasting about ten years or more.
The Movie Star Turtles toys are based primarily on the second movie, The Secret of the Ooze and feature accessories used by the turtles from this movie.

Name: Movie Star Leo, Movie Star Don, Movie Star Raph and Movie Star Mike
Manufacturer: Playmates
Released:1991
Price: Then $5 to $12, Now – $50 to $100 MOC
Scale:4.5-5 inch figure
Accessories: Various weapons/props for each Turtle and ooze canister

Packaging

The Packaging for each turtle consists of clear plastic cover with tray, to hold the turtle and it’s accessories which are mounted on a sturdy backing card which features stills from the movie on a film negative roll and turtles logo on the front. On the back of the card there is a large still from the movie as well as product picture of all four turtles and accessories with a bio for the turtle at the bottom of the card. Each card is mostly the same with slight differences being the name of each turtle and “Mutant Movie Moment” picture on the back of each card and the bio. I quite like this packaging as it is very bright and colourful and features stills from the movie; I would say it would blend in fairly well with the previous turtle packaging, but still stand out on its own as well.

Sculpting

The sculpting for each turtle is done really well. I feel these are accurate to the source material and in my eyes capture the look of the turtles as they appeared on film.  They have nice sculpted details on the skin to give them a realistic appearance. There might appear to be re-use for each body, But it seems that all four turtles arms, legs and torsos are all different sculpts with subtle differences to each arm and leg as well as torso, for example there are scratches placed differently on each turtle’s stomach shell. Each head also has a different facial expression ranging from plain (Mike) to just down right crazy! (Leo)  The Arms, Legs and Head are all cast in a rubbery material used to mimic the look of the turtles in the movie, it works very well, however it can sometimes affect how well each turtle will stand in certain poses. The accessories for each turtle are also sculpted quite nicely and tend to be cast in either grey or brown plastic where applicable. In a lot of ways this keeps in step with the original turtles and weapons.

Paint

There is very little paint on each turtle – it is mainly kept to just on the bandanas, arm and knee pads, wrist covers and shell for each turtle. The paint application tends to be fairly clean, but there is still some slop here and there on each turtle, but it’s nothing to really affect the overall appearance. The eyes on each turtle are also nicely painted. For whatever reason, there are also dots or marks varying on each turtle painted on, with Leo having the worst of these, I’m assuming they are meant to add more detail, but do tend to look a little odd. There is no paint on the accessories the detailing on these are stickers applied to various items, such as the ooze canister.

Articulation

The turtles have the following articulation: Ball-jointed neck, ball-jointed arms and ball-jointed legs, giving them a grand total of five points of articulation. It’s not much and less than the original figures. This is largely due to the rubbery material the parts are cast in making things like wrist articulation a little hard to do. You can still get the turtles into a number of nice poses, but, not as many as I would like.

Accessories

Each turtle comes with a fair amount of accessories, besides their own personal weapons, they share the same ninja stars and ooze canister, but also come with additional movie or character themes items, such as Mike with the sausage nunchuku as used in the Secret of the Ooze movie or Don with the fire extinguisher. These accessories are quite fun and work well with each turtle and in most cases can be swapped between them. I understand Raph is a rough and ready dude, however I’m a little puzzled as to why he would want a turtle shell shield and turtle shell yuk-yuk yo-yo.

Potential Problems

The only real problem besides losing those damn ninja stars would be having the turtles fall over on you due to their rubbery legs, current count Raph – 2.These are well made toys so there are very little problems to be had

Price

Mint on Card prices can vary, but it seems the going rate is about $50 per turtle. Not too bad, but they will be cheaper to buy loose. Ebay is the place to go, as usual.

Overall

I really like these figures, I never had the movie versions when I was a child, only the original four, but I did enjoy the movies, they were fun for what they were and in a lot of ways so are these the figures. They aren’t prefect, but only have a few minor faults. There is a lot of play value and they sure do look good posed together. They have many nice accessories and very detailed sculpts and do look quite cool. Highly recommended for teenage mutant ninja turtles fans.  

 Please note. This post has been republished due to issues with the original post. First Published March 15, 2011.

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