New "Shell"f Life to Old Toys

[Bleighdzes]

You might have guessed it, but while digging around the basement for things to part with, I found my old TMNT figures. I was never really big into collecting them, but I did always make sure I got the main 4 characters in releases that I liked. I found them in a shoe box - the original 4 that were released first, and the later released flexible turtles that I think were based on the movie. I remember enjoying these rubber-feel turtles quite a bit, but just like their predecessors, the elbow pads, wrist pads and knee pads were all the matching colors of their bandanas. Well, I decided that they needed to have a bit of an update, or at least have colors that were beyond the scope of enjoyment to a 5-year old.

I'm now starting to do some paint mods to these four to make them look like quality paint schemed Turtles. So far, I've painted the pads to a decent brown color - in hindsight, I should have snapped pics of what they looked like originally, but I'm sure some of you will remember if any of you had them; if not, just imagine the colors of their bandanas in place of the brown pads. The real cool thing is that the paint sticks well and doesn't run off at all. I took pics of the work so far with the painted pads, however the pics are not the greatest as I took them with my phone - the regular cameras batteries were low on charge at the time. I'm going to work on a few other areas to touch up, like their torsos, teeth and other areas to get more detail for these toys. I'll post more as I go on.



These toys were pretty detailed for their day, but touching them up to make them look even better doesn't hurt too much either. Weapons will get a makeover as well.

[Grayfox]

Definitly looking better man. I'll be interested to see more pics!

If I had enough painting skills, I'd get a set of the 4 turtles from the current TMNT line and paint them much like what they looked like when they were first introduced. Brown elbow/knee pads, all red bandanas, a mix of brown and dark green (think the color of a swamp) for the skin and a light yellow for the teeth (cause you know mutant turtles living in the sewers can't possibly have clean, white teeth).

[Bleighdzes]

Wow, it really has been a long time, I had completely forgotten that they were all red bandanas. Hmmmmmmm..... If I do it, it will probably be the last thing I decide to paint.

[fatshadowmaster]

Nice work on these.

[Quiller-Bee]

Nice work, Bleighdzes. Definite improvement! This looks more like the way the figures should have been painted to begin with. It always irked me that Playmates chose to match the movie Turtles' elbow and knee pads with their headbands, instead of going for accuracy by choosing the brown used in the movies.

grayfox said:

If I had enough painting skills, I'd get a set of the 4 turtles from the current TMNT line and paint them much like what they looked like when they were first introduced. Brown elbow/knee pads, all red bandanas, a mix of brown and dark green (think the color of a swamp) for the skin and a light yellow for the teeth (cause you know mutant turtles living in the sewers can't possibly have clean, white teeth).

I plan to do the same thing with the toys from the next movie. Since they look the most Mirage-like in terms of appearance (excluding the "Ninja Action" series from the 90's, but the lame action features pretty much ruined them for me), I think they'll work out pretty well.

[Bleighdzes]

Here's a better shot of the four with my camera, now full of juice.




And here are the weapons I painted.



I need to get to the hobby store and get three more paints. One will be something that's perhaps an off-white color, like eggshell or something darker to simulate a worn weathered cloth look for Don's staves; I may also do the same for Raph's sais. I was thinking to do the same for Mike's nunchuks, but I'm thinking I may use a different color just to avoid these weapons all looking like they were ordred as a set. Leo's sword handles need a different color too, pehaps something like a dark leathered look. If anyone has some suggestions about any of the colors, I'm all eyes.

EDIT: I'd really like to do something about those nuncucks, like finding a tiny chain, snapping off a bit of the chain, then somehow bonding the plastic nunchuks handles to the chains. I'm thinking maybe a mod using epoxy?

[Grayfox]

Definitely good looking Bleighdzes.
You really improved the look of the figures, though I can't say I like the 'spots'.

As for Mikey's nunchuks, you could use real chains. I know some of the McFarlane figures often comes with these tiny metal chains. If not, just painting the rope/chain part black could work too.

Quiller Bee, did playmates released pictures for the figures of the upcoming movie? If so, do you know where I could see them?

Thanks!