Big Boys Toys Bulkyz Deluxe Metallic Vinyl Figures & Playmates Shadow Ninjas Figures Review
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I'm often surprised by what proves popular in the world at large. So when Big Boys Toys released their Bulkyz Ninja Turtles vinyl figures last year, I happily bought a couple of sets as I do for just about everything. I eventually
reviewed them. (TLDR: cool, but really expensive) And I really expected that to be it as is almost always the case with releases from smaller companies
like this. So I was somewhat surprised to hear that Big Boys Toys was doing a second release with metalic paint finish. But then last summer I was
absolutely dumbstruck to see Playmates Toys has also released the same figures, just scaled down to around five and a half inches tall. So flash forward
to the eventual release of the metallic versions of the Big Boy Toys Bulkyz and I find myself in the odd situation of having two series of figures,
from two different companies that are largely indentical to figures I've already reviewed. So to save some effort, I figured I take a look at both
new versions at the same time.
Packaging - Bulkyz 5/10, Shadow Ninjas 9/10The first releases of the Bulkyz figures had bright, colorful packaging design. For the metallic releases, they kept the design the same, but all of the boxes now are a slightly metalic grey color instead of matching the mask color for each Turtle. It was not a good choice. The color choose doesn't really seem metallic. It just feels grey, like all the life and color had been drained out of each box. Suddenly they just feel dull. Fortunately Playmates didn't borrow the packaging design for the Shadow Ninja versions. These boxes use black and white backgrounds of a city in sillouette along with a graphitti themed logo and image of a stylized Turtle head to create a design the shadow. Put together, it creates a very nice design. The larger window on the front which also wraps around to the top and one side panel allows for a much better view of the figure. And there is enough room in the box to actually have the figures in a pose with their weapons instead of just standing straight up which is a nice change as well.
Sculpting - Shadow Ninjas 7/10, Bulkyz 8/10The sculpt for the Bulkyz metallic variants hasn't changed from the original release. Each Turtle has a unique head, but share the same body sculpt. The Shadow Ninjas versions are the same sculpts, including the same four head sculpts. And overall, they look great. But I do have to admit that there is some loss of detail. In particular I noticed it with the splits in Raphael's mask above and below his right eye. On the smaller figure, the bottom split is completely gone and the upper one is barely there. But I think that the chances of anyone actually noticing the difference is pretty slim.
Paint - Bulkyz 6/10, Shadow Ninjas 8/10The Bulkyz figures are straight repaints of the original releases. And I know it is a matter of opinion, but I don't think it's an improvement. The metallic finish used for all of the colors is nice. But just as with the packaging, these new versions are considerably darker than the originals. And with all of the colors being so much darker, they all tend to blend together when viewed causually. Given Playmates history of cutting corners on paint applications to keep costs down, these could have gone south really fast. But to Playmates' credit, they reproduced the originals quite well. There are some variations in exact colors used. And they didn't add the glossy coating over the belt buckles. But those minor issues aside, these are a surpisingly faithful reproduction of the original vinyl figures.
Articulation - 3/10The articulation for the Bulkyz figures isn't great. At eleven points of articulation, they have more points of articulation than I would have expected. But the two joints in each leg don't really do anything other than allow minor adjustments for stable posing. The articulation in the arms include rotating shoulders, elbows and wrists. So you can move the arms, You can adjust the elbow to be straight or bent ninty degrees. And the wrist rotates for weapons positioning. The Shadow Ninja figures drop the elbow joints and change the leg joints, so they have even less range of motion than their larger counterparts. On a slight positive note, there are fewer issues with the joints sticking due to the different materials.
Accessories - 5/10Both the Bulkyz and Shadow Ninjas figures include the Turtles' signature weapons and a way to store them on their belts. The Shadow Ninja figures technically have fewer accessories since the pouches on their belts are not removable as they are with the Bulkyz figures. But that also means that they won't fall off at random which has been an issue with the original Bulkyz Turtles. The Bulkyz Turtles have the exact same accessories as the regular versions. But for reasons I may never understand, they did away with the polished chrome finish for Raphael's sais and Leonardo's katanas in favor of a brushed chrome finish. Those original weapons are beautiful. So why they wouldn't also do that for figures that are all about a metallic finish is just dumbfounding. And clearly I'm not a fan of the change.
Build A Figure (Splinter) - 0/10So the original Bulkyz Ninja Turtles each came with a Build a Figure piece. If you bought all four, you could assemble a small Splinter figure. Technically this was supposed to be limited to just the "deluxe versions" of the figures. But I never saw any indication that there was a non-deluxe version produced. But for some reason, the metallic finish Bulkyz didn't get the Build a Figure parts. That's both odd and annoying since they already had the molds produced. So including the extra pieces should have cost almost nothing. And in general, if you had to pick which release could use a little extra value, I wouldn't have shorted the second release with the unusual color repaint. But the reason why I mention the non-existent Build A Figure is actually the Shadow Ninja figures which are almost in scale with the original Splinter figure. Splinter is still a bit too large, standing about an inch taller than the five inch tall Shadow Ninja Turtles. But after the 2012 series where Splinter was much taller than the Turtles, this doesn't look too out of place. Splinter certainly looks better with the Shadow Ninja versions than the original Bulkyz Turtles.
Value - Bulkyz 2/10, Shadow Ninjas 7/10The Bulkyz Turtles are large even by vinyl figure standards, and they carry a price tag to match at $180 each. And given that I think the originals look better, had better looking accessories for Leo and Raph, and came with the Splinter BAF pieces, even that rather modest price increase from the original versions is quite a bitter pill to swallow. And it was made so much worse by the release of the Shadow Ninja figures by Playmates. At just $20 a pop, you can get an entire set of this version for half of what just one of their larger brother will set you back. IF you REALLY love those metallic paint jobs, maybe you'll fork out the cash. But for most fans, you'll be happier with the original versions of the Bulkyz Turtles or their Shadow Ninja counterparts.
Happy Hunting:The Bulkyz figures are specialty store only. The Big Bad Toy Store is carrying them and that is where I ordered mine. There are also plenty of listings for them on eBay at the time of this writing as well. But bare in mind that the shipping on these is not cheap due to their large size. (Hooray for fixed price shipping options!) The Shadow Ninja figures were available at regular retail stores, though I only saw them at Target stores. And unfortunately they dropped them starting after Christmas of 2019. But they do still show up at some online stores like BBTS and Entertainment Earth.
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