Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Nickelodeon): Dark Beaver

It's been awhile since I've visited the Turtles, but with the new Mega Blok toys catching my eye I decided to check back in and see what I've missed. I jumped online and tried to familiarize myself with the how the story line has progressed since I last watched. I'd love to follow the show on a more regular basis, but I feel like I hardly have time to accomplish the thing that need to be done each day.

That said one of the new figures in Playmates' TMNT series that instantly caught my eye was Dark Beaver. How could a giant, red beaver with a skull on his belly not jump out at you and grab your attention?! The whole space theme I can't really get excited about, but this guy...oh yeah!

When I decided to hunt for this figure, I had no idea he would be so hard to find. Granted this character turned up on my radar last fall, right when holiday shopping was starting to gear up. Several retailers had sales on the Turtle toys and displays and stock were a plenty...except this guy. My luck finally turned around in mid January when I finally found one at Walmart. Wouldn't you know that when I finally found one the paint apps weren't that great. More on that in a bit.

There are actually four Dream Beavers in the show. Now whether or not Playmates will make the other three into figures remains to be seen. There is a rumor that Dire Beaver will be released, but I can't seem to confirm or deny that rumor.

   

From a toy perspective it seems as if Playmates is getting better and better with each subsequent wave of action figures. These TMNT figures have never been known for their articulation so I was pleasantly surprised once I got him out of the packaging and found him to be a bit more poseable than the last figure I opened.

Dark Beaver's arms have good range of motion at the shoulders, allowing some decent poses to be struck. His tiny little legs feature small hinge joints to allow some bending. Both his arms and legs have a swivel rotate feature to allow more range of motion. Lastly his head can be turned a full 360 degrees.

The detail on the figure is quite well, from the sculpted fur all over his body to the texture on his tail (which by the way has to be snapped on via ball joint). Dark Beaver's eyes and ears however make him look more like a mutated squirrel to me. The face is also where my luck ran out - the paint apps. his got one single tooth, painted a yellowish orange. In the packaging I could see all the sports of missing paint. Some of the black paint on his whiskers wasn't quite in line w/ the sculpting either. Nothing too horrible, but that's why I like to be able to have multiples of the same figure at retail so I can compare each figure. Yes, I'm that guy you see standing in the toy aisle pouring over the small details of three or four of the same figure!

All in all I really like this figure. Currently he stands by himself on the top of a bookcase in the my office, spying over me from across the room while I work at my desk. I don't know why he's so hard to find, but if you are on the fence of whether or not to add him to your collection and you find him at retail - buy him. The Turtles always need new villains to fight and what's better than a giant red beaver?