Ninja Turtles Giant Head Droppin' & Power Coil Turtles Review

I'm making some progress on clearing up the backlog of items from last year that I never got around to reviewing. But the pile that has been sitting in my dining room isn't completely gone yet. And buried down deep in that pile, I found a number of the giant, eleven inch tall figures that were released last year. For the first half of the year, Playmates tried to keep the giant figure line going by adding in Turtles with action features similar to the basic assortment figures. So early in 2015 we saw the release of giant versions of the head dropping turtle feature. And then at the beginning of the summer, they added the Power Coil figures which revived a feature that Playmates used in the 1990's for the Ronin Warriors line and the TMNT Coil Force Turtles. These figures have the arms connected to the torso on springs. While most collectors probably ignored these figures, for kids, especially young kids, they seem to have a lot of potential.

Packaging - 7/10

These are the first eleven inch figures that I've reviewed since the line got the new graphics for 2015. The packages are the same physical design which is a combination of a box at the bottom but leaving the figure in the open and attached to the backer. The design works very well here since it allows easy access to the figure to try out the action feature. The back of the packages has a lot of space and not a lot to show off. So they just show of the action feature for the figures and in the case of the Head Droppin' Turtles, images of the giant Dojo Turtles and giant Shredder.p

Sculpting - Head Droppin' Turtles 5/10, Power Coil Turtles 6/10

The sculpting for all four figures is on par with the Dojo Turtles. The head sculpts have been updated to match the Nickelodeon show designs. The feet, belts and other details are obviously based on the Nickelodeon designs. But the limbs lack the clean look and geometric shape of the Nickelodeon designs. They also had to enlarge amount of exposed shoulders for the Head Droppin' Turtles to leave enough space for the head to retract. It isn't so bad as to stick out immediately. But once you notice it, it's hard to ignore. And the Head Droppin' Turtles also have to have the knot and ends of their masks plastered to the back of their heads so that they don't hit the shell when the head retracts. The Power Coil Turtles also have a minor compromise as well in that their weapons are permanently stuck in their hands. But overall, the compromises made for the Power Coil and Head Droppin' Turtles is quite minor.

Paint - 6/10

The paint work on all four figures is reasonably well executed. They don't have a huge amount of detail. But all the major details such as the wrappings on the ankles, arms and fingers are painted. The most significant detail that was skipped was the insides of the mouths. There's also plenty of room for improvement if they had added any paint washes to highlight the details of the sculpt.

Articulation - Power Coil Turtles 7/10, Head Droppin' Turtles 4/10

The Head Droppin' Turtles have seven to nine points of articulation (depending upon if you are going to count the retracting neck and the left hip which serves as the trigger for the action feature) while the Power Coil Turtles have thirteen points of articulation. And their action feature actually compliments the articulation rather than hampering them. Their articulation includes:

ball jointed neck
power coil shoulders
rotating wrists
hinged and rotating hips
hinged and rotating joint under the knees

The power coil shoulders are technically rotating joints. But the arms are mounted on springs so the arms can be moved much like a ball joint. But once the arm is released, they pop back into the socket. It's still a big improvement over the Head Droppin' Turtles whose legs are basically immobile and the shoulders are simple rotating joints. I'm guessing the shoulders were changed due to limted space inside the torso, but there are better solutions to that limitation.

Accessories - Head Droppin' Turtles 4/10, Power Coil Turtles 0/10

The Power Coil Turtles have their weapons permanently stuck in their hands. So they have no accessories. They didn't even bother to include a sheath for Power Coil Leonardo. That's alright, he can probably have Head Droppin' Leonardo's since it litterally just falls off on my figure. Otherwise, Leonardo has a short and long sword which can be stored in the sheath in case Leo wants to lose them. Head Droppin' Raphael comes with a pair of sias. They are well sculpted and nicely painted, but they are also huge. They are almost as long as HD Leo's short sword. When they are stored on his belt against his back, they look like swords.

Value - 5/10

The giant sized Ninja Turtle figures sell for $20 in most stores. If you or the young TMNT fan in your life is a fan of action features, these can certainly be fun figures. But in my opinion, they don't offer a significant improvement over either the Battle Shell or Dojo Turtles which are still remain widely available.

Happy Hunting:

The Head Droppin' and Power Coil Turtles ship in the 11 inch assortment. And exactly which figures are shipping changes as the assortment line up rotates. But all four are still fairly common on store shelves in my area even a year after their release. They are also still available online through Toys R Us' web site as well as Target.com.

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Power Coil Turtles