Leonardo De-Chep-eo

Ross comes through again! I posted earlier about DC Infinite Heroes three packs showing up at Ross for the dirt cheap price of $4.99. Ever since finding them, I've checked Ross frequently for more goodies, and today I found this:

The 25th anniversary TMNT re-issue series - for $3.99 each!

Now if you're like me, you saw these at retail and went "cool!" then you saw the upwards-of-ten-dollar price tag and went "waitaminute...maybe not."

Well $3.99 is probably close to what these went for when first released decades ago, so there's no walking away from it this time! I was able to score Leonardo and Donatello (more on him later) and passed on Bebop and Rocksteady (whom I have recently picked up original versions of.)

I've been scoring a lot of TMNT stuff at yard sales and swap meets lately, but I have yet to bring home any of the original four turtle figures. They're always missing their weapons and belts, and although I am usually okay with that when it comes to vintage figures, the weapons are such an integral part of the Ninja Turtles' various personalities that I've not been able to bring myself to pick up any incomplete figures.

Which makes this Leonardo so much sweeter. Ahh, the minty freshness of his sleek green hide and his uncut weapons rack!

See, what I mean - Leo without Katanas is like...well...a turtle without his shell!

"Slice and dice, baby!"

The re-issues are exactly like the originals, however their heads are hard plastic like the rest of the figure (not rubber like the earliest releases,) and their copyright information on the base of their shell indicates "2008" - something to be aware of if some unscrupulous toy dealer tries to pass one of these guys off as original!

Leonardo was my favorite when the turtles first burst on the scene, but since then I've grown much fonder of Raphael. Looks like I need to check as many Ross stores as I can find yet again!


Also, as a bonus, each figure comes with a DVD episode of the original cartoon. Leo came with episode 1 - a nice place to start if I do say so myself.