What'chu Tokka 'bout, Willis?

I had a great birthday yesterday and I will get to some of the swag soon. But before I do I still have a few 'older' toys to get through.

I mentioned Tokka in my previous post about his cronie Rahzar. And here he is:

Although Tokka is mostly a repainted Slash (with a new head, new shoulder 'pads,' new belt (buckle only) and new forearm/hands) I really love him. Maybe it's because he's mostly a re-painted Slash, as Slash was and still is my favorite TMNT toy of all time. Tokka even came with the exact same weapons as Slash, fortunately they are black and not nineties neon!

And even though he is a repaint he's a damn good one. All the details of the sculpt pop with the color he's molded in and the shading/details added on.

The new head sculpt is also very movie accurate and has some nice toothy details.

It's amazing Playmates didn't re-purpose more of their parts than they did. Especially when you consider the fact that parts re-purposing is #1 on the Mattel 'How To Make an Action Figure Line' list.

"People let me tell you 'bout my best friend,
He's a warm hearted person who'll love me till the end."

My assistant tried to give Tokka an extra weapon for this shot - bonus points to anyone who can guess who it actually belongs to before it's posted!

Tokka is a great action figure and it's nice that, although 'Secret of the Oooze' was more like 'Suck-fest make you Snooze,' there were at least a couple fun action figures to come from it that fit perfectly into your classic TMNT toy collection.

Rahzar's Edge

I count the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie as one of my all time favorite films ever. And I admit to having seen 'The Secret of the Ooze' in theatres when it was released. But for some odd reason or another I hadn't seen it again since then. I don't recall hating it, but I don't recall loving it either. So before I made this post I re-watched it.

Not a fan.

The Secret of the Ooze loses all the charm and grittyness of the first in favor of a more cartoony (in a bad way) Turtles movie. Dumbed down for kids, I don't think Leonardo unsheathed his swords or Raph his sai even once. Because...sharp?

In summation:

1) Shredder living for Part II negates the end of the final scene of the first movie. I know this is a movie trope, but it was so poorly handled for the second film. Shredder is in the garbage, alive, his pals meet him in the junkyard, all baddies back again. Lame.
2) No Casey Jones?!?! Not even a mention. Lame lame.
3)I had forgotten how much I hated that 'karate kid' wannabe Keno. Why the hell was he in the movie anyways? Lame lame lame.
4) Vanilla Ice: Yuck and Jeezus Crimeny WHY?!?! Lame times infinity.
5) Instead of Bebop and Rocksteady, whom everyone kind of expected to see, we got villainous versions of a snapping turtle and a wolf, for no reason in the world. I do recall this being a disappointment during my theatrical viewing.

But all disappointment aside, said 'also ran' villains Tokka and Rahzar at least make for neat looking toys.

Unlike Tokka (whom we'll see here at Toyriffic very soon!) Rahzar is/was an all 'new' sculpt/figure with no parts re-use for his action figure. He looks great and is the perfect amalgamation of movie look/Playmates Tmnt toy design.

I had to rewatch the movie for Rahzar's garb to make sense - it looks like his shoulder pads are made of hubcaps and tires and his chestplate is a grill from an old car. Because he was mutated in a junk yard, see?

Actually that's pretty cool!

Of note: not that Shredder isn't free to dress his mutant dog any way he pleases, but the torn 'shirt' suggests Rahzar may have originally been conceived as a man transformed, and that he was wearing a shirt before transformation.

Also: broken shackles. He doesn't have shackles in the movie, so this might also suggest an early concept design or character decision that was left on the drawing board.

Rahzar originally came with accessories that had little if nothing to do with his movie appearance. I don't have them and don't care too much, as Rahzar is a perfectly fine figure without them.

Rahzar is a fine classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy that I honestly never really thought I needed (Tokka is my favorite of the two) but I am glad to own him now that I have him - thanks to Brian at Cool and Collected for the trade- and stay tuned for my look at his pal Tokka coming soon!