When I first saw the My Way Miniatures 28mm scale figures of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle heroes on Andy's blog site
here I immediately liked them. They were so well sculpted and beautifully animated. I mentioned to Andy that I already owned figures of the four Ninja Turtles but that mine were in a smaller scale. He wanted to see them, so for Andy, and everyone else, here they are.
These figures were made by Dark Horse many years ago (mid 1980's) and are no longer available. They are 20mm scale metal figures and are extremely rare. I read that Dark Horse had a lot of troubles casting them with as many as one in two figures being miscast! They are very nicely sculpted and I like how they are all scowling angrily. These are not the fun-loving heroes from the cartoon TV series. They came with integral bases and I have glued them to pieces of plasti-card and filled in the surrounds with Milliput. In the days before slottabases were invented, this was how I based most of my figures. They are also painted in simple block colours with no highlighting, shading or ink washes, which just goes to show how much I have developed as a painter over the years.
I'm sure you can recognise them all but they are arranged alphabetically from left to right with Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael. I'd seen them in the very first comics they appeared in and to be honest, back then I had no idea how tall they were meant to be in real life. So, I was happy to use these figures in games using 25mm scale and later, 28mm scale figures. How times have changed.
I knew that there was no way I could write this post without showing you some size comparison photos of the Dark Horse Ninja Turtles and the My Way Miniatures Ninja Turtles. So, to begin with here are the two versions of Donatello and the two versions of Leonardo. Note that I painted the flesh of the Dark Horse Turtles a lot darker than on the My Way Turtles. I also used different shades of brown for the belts, elbow pads and knee pads. Incidentally, when I dug them out for this post I noticed they all wore
the same coloured red bandana. This is how they originally appeared but I
decided to bring them more up to date so I repainted the bandanas for
Donnie, Leo and Mikey.
Finally, here are the two versions of Michelangelo and both versions of Raphael. Another thing to notice is the difference in height between the bases. I am not a fan of slottabases but I have so many figures glued on them it would be a nightmare to change them now. My preferred bases are either flat plastic or wooden MDF bases and you'll see more and more of my figures glued on them in the future. It is highly unlikely I will ever use my Dark Horse Ninja Turtles in a game, although a scenario in which some mad scientist villain has a shrink ray may be a good way to use them. There is no way I'll be getting rid of them, because they must be worth a nice sum nowadays.
Incidentally, I forgot to mention that the My Way Ninja Turtles cost 11 Euros each or you can get all four for 36 Euros, which is what I did. An alternative is to get all four figures plus a scenic sewer base for just 40 Euros. You can find details of their complete range here -
http://mywayminiatures.com/
I have just placed an order for the Ninja Turtles' ally, Casey Jones, as well as the main villains of the Turtles, Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady and a horde of Foot Clan Ninjas, all based on Andy's recommendations, i.e. figures from Greebo Games and Crossover Miniatures. As soon as I get them they'll be jumping to the front of my painting queue. Turtle power!