Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Nickelodeon): Leatherhead

I have a confession.  I haven't watched more than 1 or 2 episodes of the new TMNT cartoon.  It's not that I don't want too, it's just I haven't gotten around to it.  However I love the designs of these classic characters and it's been hard resisting buying the entire line of TMNT.

Like I mentioned in my previous review of Metalhead, I wasn't planning on buying much outside the four turtles and Shredder.  Each new wave of figures brought more cool characters, but having not watched the cartoon I didn't have the same connection with the characters that I did with some from the original cartoon.  Then I saw Leatherhead and the rest was history.

I remember Leatherhead has being the Louisiana cajun gator wearing a vest and hat.  This new version of Leatherhead looks quite different, yet still retains some of the classic feel.  I had to make another exception and pick up this guy.

Team Turtle was severely out numbered early on in the series, but as you can see the sides are now starting to even out.  I'm not sure which figure will be my next purchase.  I'm thinking maybe someone from the Foot Clan as Shredder looks awfully lonely going up against the turtles, Metalhead and now Leatherhead.

A lot of these new TMNT figures look so much smaller when crammed into their blister card packaging and Leatherhead is no exception.  While hunched over a bit, Leatherhead has soon good heft to him.  Paint apps are pretty good, especially around his mouth - just look at those teeth!

If I didn't know the history of this character or saw on the packaging that he was one of the good guys, I'd swear Leatherhead was one the villains.  The sculpting on this figure is phenomenal.  The scaley skin looks great, you can almost see and feel the roughness.  The long lumbering arms and claws give him the appearance of being pretty vicious on the battlefield.

I don't have many complaints about the figure, but I wish the beige paint on his chest would have extended to the underside of his tail.  Not a big deal, but when you look at him straight on it just looks odd the that beige comes to a screeching halt just below his waist.

His tail comes unattached in the packaging, but easily snaps on and into place.  You can swivel the tail if you wish.  Articulation wise you have rotating shoulders giving the arms a good range of motion.  His hip joints don't allow much movement of the legs, but I guess there are only so many dynamic poses you can get a gator w/ arms and legs into!

Leatherhead is a fine addition to any modern TMNT collection.  After messing around w/ this guy a bit it has me more curious as ever to finally sit down a watch a few of the episodes online.  It appears that Playmates has yet another hit on their hands w/ these toys so I imagine there are more great toys to come.