Playmates Toys Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2017 line-up coverage continues with a look at the repainted Mutagen Man figure as announced back at New York ToyFair. A least half the figures out right now are repaints of existing molds, as Playmates Toys is looking at 2018 and focusing most of their efforts on the new show starting. This years line includes some new figures, along with repaints such as Mutagen Man, which is a beautiful update to the first figure. If you’ve been lucky enough to find this Mutagen Man on store shelves, you will notice that like many other new figures this year, these are packaged out as 1 per case, and these are more popular than we could have imagined. Stores can’t keep characters like Mutagen Man, Fierce Fishface, Mastermind Baxter Fly, Brutal Shredder, Savage Rahzar, Vigilante Casey Jones and others in stock this year. With the next batch of figures hitting Q4, 2017, we’re hoping that those a bit easier to find, but as those are Monsters figures of the Turtles, not to mention 80’s Bebop and Rocksteady, it’s unlikely the popularity of this years line will die down anytime soon.
Formerly the Pulverize, who mutants into a jar of goo, then mutagen Man. He absorbs any ooze around him for fuel. Being mutated from nothing but a tube of guts to an armed and legged jar with acid ooze hands, he searches for April in hopes of finding a friend and fights anything that gets in his way. His acid ooze hands melt anything they touch, so the Turtles fight to keep him away and ooze free in order to find a cure and reverse the mutation.
Thank you to Playmates Toys for providing the Toxic Mutagen Man Figure for review.
Availability: 2017
Toxic Mutagen Man is a repaint of the previous show-accurate figure, and this new version gets a toxic twist with green ooze in the form of his arms and legs. On the show, Mutagen Man absorbs mutagen which gives him the ability to create arms and legs so he can burst out of the Krang container that Donatello has him stored in, and simply walk out of the Turtles lair. The new repainted arms and legs are made of translucent green plastic, to indicate a different kind of mutagen that Timothy, or Mutant Man absorbed. The container is also repainted, including a new yellow wire as opposed to black that is connected to the voice box so the Turtles can understand as he talks. The boxes are painted dark gray as opposed to black, and the container itself is painted in a slightly darker gray. The color of the translucent plastic is also different so you can see his body, which is now pink as opposed to turquoise. In addition, he now has painted eye balls that are black, as opposed to white.
The articulation is the same, including swivel-hinged shoulders, swivel wrists, and swivel-hinged hips. There are also silver bracelets around his wrists, and one on his left ankle just as the first figure had.
It’s no secret that are very passionate about the Turtles and especially the line that Playmates Toys puts out each year. Even though this year is mostly repaints, we find that these new figures are even better than some of the original first figures, and we believe Mutagen Man falls under that list. If you can find him, you should grab him. On an interesting note, we did find the first Mutant Man at Toys “R” Us recently, so it would appear that there are both versions out this year.
Overall, this is a great looking repaint, and we love the new toxic mutagen twist.
Purchase:
