| Almost thirty two years ago I spent my hard earned lunch money to acquire Michelangelo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Playmates toys. For a time, I was ecstatic because of the new cartoon airing on my local channel every weekends and the allure of the action figures shown in their TV commercials got me all hooked.
Recalling in my youth buying toys almost in your teens should have changed to becoming a little bit responsible as an adult, but the freight train of would-be future franchises was sort of at the tail end of the golden age of that era’s pop culture status. TMNT was radical that would be often getting imitated but never duplicated. |
Among the four turtle characters in that cartoon Michelangelo or preferably called ‘Mikey’ nowadays was my favourite With his three other brothers that has different personalities like Mikey was jolly and has become one of the beloved characters in the world of TMNT regardless of its succeeding iteration. They have made part of the character’s DNA to that childish innocent and yet skilled fighter.
Fast forward to 2021 the most recent action figures that are based on the 2017/2018 TMNT series are going on clearance. They’re not the most popular ones due to their drastic appearance with weird designs and short lived TV series, but the previous series they’ve followed up with that ran from 2012 to 2016 was close to how TMNT had a resurgence among those who grew up with the 1988 cartoon, which lasted up to 1992 and still continue to influence other media iterations of the IP.
Nostalgic Price Point
I happen to acquire one of the action figures from that 2012 series despite having already the almost complete wave 1 characters introducing the four turtles. It’s so happens I have a soft spot for Mikey and when the chance to see this variant version of the figure from wave 1 going for ₱ 200.00 pesos I had immediately bought it without a second thought. It is the same figure from the 2012 series with minor difference, and takes me back to my youth how much I bought the original, and now vintage version of Mikey close to that retail price point at SM Department Store’s toy section at former Harrison Plaza.
But this one is the modern take of the character based from 2012 series, and missed out getting the reissue of that vintage version that was lost along with my personal collection from 2004. This one though, it may look similar to the Wave 1 version of the 2012 series, but there are still significant difference and how it would be considered the ‘cartoon’ version of this series whereas the premier release was produced to be a ‘realistic’ version of Mikey.
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Animated Mikey
Not going to delve on the details and design of the figures, since I did wrote a review of the Wave 1 version of Michelangelo back in 2013. This is just a personal summarization of the difference of this figure compared to older releases including the slight difference and why it was designated ‘Cartoon’ Mikey.
Clearly, the giveaway for this version is the packaging since it was released near the end of run before Playmate Toys jump ship to introduce the first wave for the 2017/2018 new series. But this figure has been released before sometime in the second or third wave of its original as a ‘running change’ to the Wave 1 version with noticeable difference with the painted eyes, cartoonish feet, and color coordinated belt, elbow & knee pads that was not significant to the animation model you see in the series.
Orange is the New Mikey
The obvious change on this figure is the feet that can be seen immediately, since it was the one you see in the series if you have keen eyes on details when watching the show. There are some minor changes too with the weapon accessory colours as the previous release is a bit brownish in tone as comparison to this orange-y version.
Of course, packaging for this one was a giveaway to slight re-brand as “TMNT: Totally Turtles” and instead of putting “Michelangelo” name designation they’ve used “Jokester Mikey” and you see the cross sell images of the other figures at the back of the card that were previously released with the same repackaging. Majority of the colours of the cardback is blue compared to primarlyy purple hues from the early releases. This will probably be the second best toyline behind the 1987/1988 series that lasted through the early 1990s with more variations of the same character.
Jokester for the Right Price
Nostalgia has a way to remind you about these toylines as back in the day the original TMNT toys goes for ₱150.00 pesos (**$4.15 AUD | $2.97 USD), which would take me back to that time saving lunch money for an action figure was challenging and when this version of Mikey was being sold for clearance close to that original price point it reminded me those simple days where you’re just keen to get your favourite character and not to be a completest.
Overall I still adore this figure despite having no major changes to the Wave 1 version aside from the painted eyes, the colour coordinated belt, elbow & knee pads, and the cartoonish feet. I know there were several versions of Mikey released in this toyline I never got the chance to get, which is fine since I only wanted this version to stand beside the Wave 1 version and between the Mikey Turflytle that I also got from a clearance sale after a few weeks coming back to this country in 2018.
Jokester Mikey is part of the rebranded and repackaged toyline under the Totally Turtles wave of action figures produced by Playmates Toys distributed by Europlay Toys, a sub-division company owned by Richprime Global Inc. that was originally retailed at ₱549.75 pesos (**$15.20 AUD | $10.88 USD), that was sold on clearance for ₱200.00 pesos (**$5.53 AUD | $3.96USD) acquired at the Ollie & Co Glorietta.
** - Currecy Converter on Google.com
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