Review of Usagi Yojimbo
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure

Introduction

Almost 25 years ago, NECA produced their first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It took awhile for them to really get going though, thanks to licensing issues and other roadblocks, but the last few years have seen them go nuts with the animated style. The line is really impressive, and one of the coolest currently on the market.

Target is a great place to pick these up, and sometimes, they're the only place. A recent exclusive to the retailer is Usagi Yojimbo, a character onto himself that happened to also show up in the old Nickolodeon cartoon. Usagi just started showing up locally the last couple weeks, and will run you about $33 at the store.

Packaging - ***1/2
The brightly colored five panel box looks great, with cartoon images that look like they came right from the show. The window allows you to check out what you're getting, and of course the whole thing is completely collector friendly, so there's no reason not to free him from his plastic prison.

Sculpting - ****
Scultping animated characters is a lot harder than most folks realize. Often they don't look the same from frame to frame and from one angle over another. Details are critical, but too much detail destroys the cartoon feel. And scale can be all over the place in every show.

It also doesn't help that we tend to remember characters differently than they actually were. Combine all these factors, and you can see it's a struggle. But it's a struggle that NECA makes look easy with every release in this series.

There's plenty of texture on Usagi, creating the impression of fur while remaining cartoony. The expressions on both heads - and yes, there's two heads - are great, with a determined look in the eyes. One of the heads has the ears up, with a stern expression. The second has the ears tucked down and back, with an angry expression and open mouth.

Both heads are useful. The second portrait, with the ears down, works great with the included hat, while the first probably has the widest range of poses that it can be used with.

The sculpted clothing also has a subtle texture, and various areas, like the belt, or the lapels, appear as separate pieces thanks to the sculpt, even when it's all one piece. Creating this depth adds realism - in an animated way - to the figure.

He stands about 5 inches tall, fitting in nicely with the other cartoon TMNT figures.

Paint - ***1/2
The paint work is extremely clean, particularly for a figure with broad details and highlights like this.

There's black lines emulating the animated style, and these are generally clean and sharp. They are also present on the accessories, like the hat, and some of the work is extremely impressive. There's a blip here or there, but for the most part it's all quite clean.

The faces are particularly important, and both have eyes, eyebrows, whiskers, noses, and mouths that are well defined with sharp edges.

There's a lot of bright color here as well, and it's all consistent and even, and really creates a terrific looking figure on the shelf.

Articulation - ***1/2
The overall articulation is much better than I expected, considering the constraints of the animated design.

The ball jointed neck allows you to add lots of personality to the poses, and the heads swap pretty easily. There's rotating hinge joints at the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles, allowing for shallow to deep stances, and great arm poses with the various accessories.

There's a waist joint that is a rolling ball as well, so you can add some tilt and lean to the upper body and break up some of those straight lines.

The design does still restrict some of the joints, especially in the arms and legs, but it's much less than I anticipated.

Accessories - ****
As I mentioned, the big addition here is the second portrait. Any time I get two sculpted heads - or more! - I'm a happy camper.

There's also a nice group of hands to go with the posed hands he comes wearing. You can swap in fists, or gripping hands, and it works pretty easily.

I mentioned the hat earlier, which can be worn on top of the second head (with the folded ears), or worn hanging on his back. Be careful with the string however, as it's made out of a plastic material that can break.

He has four bladed weapons - katana, kunai, wakizashi, and katar. The katana and wakizashi can fit in a set of scabbards, and these scabbards can be held in place by an elastic belt. The katar and kunai can be held in the gripping hands. All the weapons look great, and the scale is good.

The elastic belt can be hidden under the torso, but I preferred having it on the outside of the hips, where it created a tighter fit for the scabbards.

There's also a cloth cloak with a hood and a second cloth belt. He looks pretty good wearing them, and there's a wire in the hood to pose it. Personally, i won't be using it on the shelf, but it's not a bad look.

Finally, there's a tokage, one of the little dinosaurs. He's cute, but the sculpt and paint are fairly basic, and it's unarticulated.

Fun Factor - ***1/2
This is a really fun figure, thanks to the solid articulation and a great assortment of extras. You'll revisit this guy regularly to update his look, and find plenty of ways to add him to the display.

Value - ***
I don't love the prices on the NECA figures edging up from $30, but at $32 you are getting a lot more extras than usual. It's a price point that feels a lot less painful thanks to the accessories and second portrait.

Things to Watch Out For -
As I mentioned, you'll want to take care with the plastic string on the helmet. It could break, although it will take a little effort on your part to do it.

Overall - ***1/2
I've been pretty successful at avoiding all the terrific cartoon TMNT releases from NECA. You know me, if I'd gotten started, I would have gone nuts. But occasionally there's a release that fits in nicely with the small handful of turtles I have, and I just can't resist. Such is Usagi. He's going to look great on the shelf, and NECA really knocked this one out of the park.

He is a Target exclusive right now though, so you'll want to start hanging around your local store to avoid paying scalper prices.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpting - ****
Paint - ***1/2
Articulation - ***1/2
Accessories - ****
Fun Factor - ***1/2
Value - ***
Overall - ***1/2

Where to Buy 
I picked this one up at Target where it's an exclusive right now, but you have ebay as well:

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
I've covered a number of unusual TMNT items over the years, including the First Turtle by Mondo, the very first NECA series, and the large sixth scale Turtles from Mondo.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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