Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990 Movie Shredder 1/4 Scale Figure – Toyark Photo Shoot

When the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film was released in 1990, kids were introduced to a serious and intimidating version of The Shredder. Gone were the zany antics of the cartoon version. Oroku Saki was given just enough back story, and just enough screen time, to establish himself as a formidable foe to the Turtles. The costume design paid respect to the original comic version of shredder, with large blades, and more traditional Clothing. To this day, the original live action Shredder remains the best movie version of the character. Fans have been hoping for a collector oriented action figure for years, and those requests have finally been fulfilled.

Courtesy of NECA, The Shredder joins their excellent line up of 1/4 scale figures based on the TMNT 1990 film.  Standing 18″ tall, Shredder includes interchangeable hands, a staff, a removable face mask, a knife, and a cape. We picked the figure up from sponsor Entertainment Earth. Check out my photos and thoughts on the figure after the jump.

Related Entertainment Earth links: NECA Shredder, NECA Foot Soldier, All TMNT Figures

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990 Movie  – The Shredder 1/4 Scale Figure by NECA

Pros

• Fantastic sculpt
• NECA’s best cape to date
• Nice metallic look to the helmet and blades
• Solid articulation
• Removable face mask is a welcome feature

Cons

• Wish the eyes were looking straight ahead
• Dark chin paint looks out of place

Overall
The Shredder is packed in a large window box, which is modeled after the classic original poster for the movie. The sides and back of the box features photos of the figure, showing the different accessories in use. The figure is held onto a cardboard backer with twist ties, while the accessories are in a plastic cover that is glued to the side of the backer. The figure includes a total of three sets of hands, a fabric cape, a knife and sheath, and his staff.

Right out of the box, Shredder is an impressive figure to handle. The figure is not only tall, but has a good heft to him, which helped to keep balance when posing. The blades on his shoulders, arms, and legs feel a bit more fragile, so take care in where you put pressure when posing. The sculpt work is outstanding on the figure. There’s some reuse from the Foot Soldier body here, which works pretty well when all of the Shredder specific armor pieces are added. NECA even added a new collar piece to make it more screen accurate. What really sells the look here is the films great helmet design, which the figure captures really well. There’s a nice contrast of textures between the chainmail armor look and the smooth steel of the face mask and blades. The face mask is removable, which reveals his scarred face. The face sculpt has a pretty spot on likeness to Shredder actor James Saito. Articulation is solid here, with double jointed elbows and knees allowing for better posing. I didn’t run into any range of motion issues, as there’s not much to block movement.

Paint work on the figure is strong here. The outfit features a maroon base color, but has little flecks of gold throughout, which is better appreciated in hand than in photos. Teh clothing and armor have multiple layers of paint wash over them, adding some extra depth to the sculpt. The paint on the face is mostly solid, with a bit of a heavy handed shadow on the lower jaw which looks a bit out of place. The rest of the face paint is perfectly solid. While the eyes are painted very nicely, I do think they would have worked better had they been facing straight ahead, instead of looking up. When the helmet and mask are on, those issues are moot though.

The included swap out hands bring some nice variety to the figure. You get clenched fists, open palms, and grip hands for the included staff. Each hand swaps out easily, and snap in nice and tight. The included knife and sheath can be tucked away on Shredder’s back. The best accessory here is the great looking cape. NECA made the outside of the cape with a silver lining, and the black tiger stripes really look great against that glossy material. The cape drapes nicely over the should blades, adding a little extra height to the shoulders themselves.

There’s nothing that would stop me from recommending this figure to any TMNT fan. Even if we do eventually get a general release of the 7″ version, the larger figure just makes a great display piece. With an excellent sculpt, nice paint work, and a nice assortment of accessories, The Shredder is hard to pass up. Check out some select photos below, and the rest ofthe gallery after that.

CompaniesNECA
CharactersShredder
Scale1/4

TagsFeatured NECA Toy Galleries

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