My Collection: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Classics Leonardo

TMNT Classics Leonardo

More nostalgia now with the classic Leonardo of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Classic Collection from Playmates Toys. 

About the Turtles: Catapulted from indie comic book origins to super stardom in the original Murakami-Wolf-Sweson series (MWS) animated series. TMNT ran on air for nearly a decade (1987-1996) and ranked #1 in the ratings for an unprecendated 5 years straight! Featured in over 190 episodes. The fun loving, shell kicking teens are still recognized around the world and fondly remembered by fans with every bite of pizza.

The figures are directly inspired by the Original 1988 animated series and are a of great collector quality. Each of the Turtles figures features more than 34 points of articulation making them on of the most poseable collectors figures out there. Leonardo stands at 6" inches tall and features his signature twin Katana swords and a personalized manhole cover base.

The Thundercats was my first big animated series I was a huge fan of and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were the next. I think I had more toys from this show that any other toys that I was a fan of. The role play weapons, the vehicles the large variety of figures and the crazy variations available, Astronaut Raphael anyone? I had lots of figures including the original vintage ones and the figures that transformed from regular turtles and to the TMNT.

I never really had a favorite  character, I loved them all but mostly Leonardo because he was the leader. I had a few of  Michelangelo, he was the fun one and his shade of green was one of my favorite colours at that age, and because he ""was a party dude" I loved to place him on the table and spin him on his back like a spinning top.I even had the huge blimp which I really loved. My auntie had made me and my brother a custom costume complete with eye mask, elbow and knees pads and turtle shell, and my costume was based on Leonardo. 

I loved the show for years and the great toys that inspired form it. The show and toys have come back twice since then, my brother were young and really enjoyed the 2003 animated series and it was like my Christmas all over again, with the toys figures, weapons and animated series back on our screens and later with the current 2012 animated series that we also enjoy but to slightly lesser affect. With the arrival of this series came the release of the Classic Collection action figures from the original animated series. I found both new and classic toys at my local Smyths and was so impressed with their return.  I was just really happy something like this exists and that Christmas my girlfriend had really surprised me with one, Leonardo the leader. It was a great Christmas and I joke with her that was my classic Christmas because of the iPod Classic and Mezco Thundercats Classic Mumm-ra she also got me that year. These 

And like Christmas the previous year with the release of both modern and classic Thundercats while my kid brothers got modern versions of the toys the big kid got classic version of the characters from much loved animated shows.

So that is another post about another item from my collection and sadly my last action figure from a retro animated series. This show meant a lot to me and I was both a huge fan of the show and of the toys.This figure is a representation of that. There was a lot of great shows that I was a fan of when I was growing up, too many to remember, but the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is one I would never forget. 

T-U-R-T-L-E POWER !

K