Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/NECA

## Shredder and the Foot Clan + an Utrom

### Location

The original prototypes sat in NECA's studio for years and were reworked into a 2016 NYCC set; after years of development hell

## Product Information

### Year(s)

1999

When NECA became one of the first few companies to produce action figures of the Ninja Turtles besides Playmates, they had plans to do a set based on their arch-enemies; only to put in development hell for several years until they were finally released.

## **Summary**

In 2008, NECA released a series of action figures based on the original Mirages Comics versions of Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello that only had red eyemasks, were sculpted by the fantabulous Four Horsemen, and featured much more articulation than the figures the company usually put out before the 2010's. Along with being released in a New York Comic Con 2008 exclusive four-pack,  NECA also released a black and white repaint set of the figures, three Mouser robots that were exclusive to San Diego Comic Con 2008,  and April O'Neil who was exclusive to SDCC 2009 as part of the series' 25th anniversary . They also produced an urban vinyl style series of Ninja Turtles toys known as Batsus.  The figures were released to moderate acclaim from consumers, though did not sell too well as much of this had to do with Playmates, who held the master toy license for TMNT and was not too happy to see someone else do it. What may have affected the limited number of sales were either the license only being availalbe for a short time or its cost being unworkable.  Before that, prototypes of action figures based on the Shredder with two versions, one that had him with a bo staff and cape, and the other with an Utrom that may or may not have been Krang; and a Foot Soldier with a Mouser next to him, were shown at San Diego Comic Con 2008 where they were said to have been announced for a fall 2008 release date,  though missed that deadline as they were shown at the next year's New York Toy Fair.

Due to legal issues between NECA and Playmates, both action figures were never released and haunted fans for years. Though NECA held on to the prototypes for quite a while and after they released the four Ninja Turtles as part of their second series of Scalers figures in December 2014, fans began to suspect that the company had once again received the TMNT license and sure enough, several *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* figures have been released by them since 2016; both based on the comics, 1987 cartoon, and the 1990 live-action film. After positive responses to the exclusive TMNT sets they produced for SDCC 2016, NECA decided to up their game by making another exclusive set for that year's NYCC that would finally utilize both versions of the Shredder, the Foot Clansmen, and Utrom. The only thing that was missing was the Mouser that was seen standing next to one of the Foot Soldiers at NYTF 2009, though was just a reused mold of the figure that was already released in SDCC 08'.

## **Final Verdict**

Its safe to say the Shredder, Footsmen and Utrom figures that were released in the 2016 four-pack were the same molds as the original prototypes shown way back in 2008 and 2009. Much like the original 2008-09 TMNT figures that NECA was able to produce, the Eastman & Laird Villains 4-Pack has become very scarce due to its limited production run and convention-exclusivity making it soar high prices in the after-market. On the topic of the original four figures, several bootleg copies have cropped up in the aftermarket and are easily identifiable by their odd pillar-shaped packaging and multicolour eyemasks; some bootleg figures of the Movie Turtles have also been forged.

Long story short, even if they were technically never cancelled, the NECA Shredder and Foot Clan soldiers originally intended for 2009 will remain: **FOUND**.

## **External Link**

* Moore, J. (2016, January 16). Unreleased NECA Figures - A Look At What Might Have Been. *Toyark*. Online post.

* *List of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NECA) action figures*. (Retrieved 2021, November 25). Turtlepedia. Fandom Wiki. Online article.

* yo go re. (2016, November 11th). TMNT Eastman & Laird Villains 4-pack. *OAFE*. Online review.

## **References**

[[Category:

1. ↑ https://tmnt-ninjaturtles.com/figures/neca-tmnt-series-1-2008-turtles-4-pack-2008-nycc-exclusive-edition/
2. ↑ https://www.tmnttoys.com/08figures/NECAgrey/review.html
3. ↑ https://www.ebay.com/p/1100111017
4. ↑ https://www.tmnttoys.com/09figures/batsu/review.html
5. ↑ https://thenostalgiaspot.com/2020/04/24/neca-mirage-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles/
6. ↑ https://www.flickr.com/photos/terrible2z/2715628821
7. ↑ https://news.toyark.com/2009/02/15/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-images-from-toy-fair-2009-860
8. ↑ http://thefwoosh.com/2013/10/fraudulent-figure-feature-neca-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-bootlegs/
9. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz8HAlN75Gk