In 1991’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze movie, Tokka and Rahzar were created by using a can of stolen TGRI mutagen on a wolf and a snapping turtle, which became these two iconic villains. They were created so Shredder can use them to fight the turtles since he was not able to defeat them by himself in the first film. Aside from Super Shredder being introduced, these two characters are some of the most memorable in the film franchise, and while they had low intelligence much like Rocksteady and Bebop, they proved to have great physical strength that made them more than a match for the Turtles. This was proven in their fight, where the turtles had to try to trick them to eat “prefight doughnuts,” which according to Leonardo, was an ancient ritual before combat. These contained anti-mutagen pills to transform Tokka and Rahzar back into their pre-mutant state. For this to work, the doughnuts had to be ingested. Rahzar and Tokka begin to eat, but when taking his second one, Rahzar becomes uncharacteristically suspicious and crushes the doughnut in his hand, revealing the anti-mutagen capsule, which begins the combat.
Tokka and Rahzar only appeared in one episode of the cartoon, in the 7th season in 1993, in the episode “Dirk Savage: Mutant Hunter“. They were out-of-control mutants created when the Shredder exposed zoo animals to mutagen years earlier.Their look in the cartoon was very much like that of their action figures in the vintage line, which were made two years before their cartoon appearance. The spelling of their names had also changed, and they were “Toka and Razar”.
Both Tokka and Rahzar were offered as part of a pre-order exclusively through The NECA Store. This pre-order had a limited window from last Summer. At this time, there are no updates as to when these will be offered again for a possible reissue offering for those of you that may have missed out on the pre-order, as I asked even before starting this review. All you can do is keep asking NECA on their social media channels to offer these again, as this is a company that cares and wants to get this product into the hands of everyone that wants it.
Thank you to NECA Toys for providing their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze – Tokka & Rahzar Figures for review.
Availability: August 2020 Pre-Orders; December 2020/January 2021 – Pre-Orders shipped from The NECA Store
Tokka and Rahzar are packaged in a window box, with artwork inspired from the film, and including images of the figures on the sides, images and a description on the back.
Tokka and Rahzar are two of the most iconic and memorable characters in the Turtles franchise, and much like Bebop and Rocksteady, they are known more for their muscle than brains. However, Tokka and Rahzar actually had the strength to defeat the turtles as we saw in the film, which is an accomplishment that most villains of the franchise could not claim. In the film, it didn’t take their ninja skills to defeat Tokka and Rahzar, but anti-mutagen pill hidden inside donuts and the use of carbon dioxide from the fire extinguisher to speed up the demutation process and their repeated burping was slowing down what little anti-mutagen they had ingested. Without these pills, things would have turned out much different for the turtles, as Shredder would have been triumphant.
The film itself had some mixed reviews from fans, but most should be able to agree that Tokka and Rahzar were two of the best characters that came out of the film. The Secret of the Ooze didn’t seem to live up to the expectations left by fans from the more darker side of the first film that stayed in the hearts of fans into their adulthood. This sequel however is probably best remembered for the introduction of these characters, and depending on how you feel about he film, you have to love the fact that Tokka and Rahzar were formidable enough to defeat the turtles in a fair fight.
Back when NECA Toys showed off these figures at New York ToyFair, it became clear that this opened the door to the possibility of every movie character could potentially join the line-up. We already know that April O’Neil is coming, and we could one day see Casey Jones without his mask. The possibilities of expanding this line seem endless right now, and it’s a great time to be a turtles fan.
Tokka and Rahzar are so incredibly done that it looks like they just walked right out of the film, with using all of today’s high-end sculpting and attention to detail. These are so amazingly done and realistic to the film that they look almost life-like, and these are probably two of the best movie figures released in the line so far. As impressive as the Turtles, Casey Jones, Foot Soldier, Splinter and both versions of Shredder were, these seem to top that ten fold.
Tokka and Rahzar are big, bulky, full of articulation such as double jointed knees and elbows, and Tokka even has hinged eye brows and jaw. The eye brows can be moved individually, and you can create some dynamic expressions on his face with this, along with the movement of the jaw. These figures are monstrous characters with peak action figure sculpting and detail that NECA is known for on all of their licenses. Tokka is especially impressive, with the sculpting of the shell with spikes, deco on the skin tone, and everything about the head sculpt is just beyond what you could have imagined this to have turned out. The details in his mouth are so incredibly done, along with the teeth, the articulated beak, and all the attention to detail and paint applications on the eyes. His body is wider than a standard turtle, and the shell is so big that you can see it facing him. The chest part is also nicely done with the paint applications, and all the great work on the elbow and knee pads, bandages around his wrists and gloves. His feet are also amazing, with the long spiky nails and all the great work applied to these as well. In addition, the washes done for the paint is also amazing, and really bring his likeness together along with every other aspect about him.
Rahzar is equally as impressive, with being mutated from a wolf into this giant mutant with all of the attention to detail that went into him. He has sculpted fur, and has a body or armor that includes pieces of an automobile, such as a radiator, tires, and other parts with some highly detailed paint applications. In addition, he has spiked elbow and thigh pads, shoulder and knee pads, and chain links on his back that holds his chest armor in place. Aside from that, the articulation is equally as impressive, with the double hinged elbows and knees, hinged jaw, and everything else that’s standard for the line. His head sculpt is just as impressive as Tokka’s, with the sculpted interior details of the mouth, long facial hair, pointy ears, the eyes and nose, and all of this great deco applied to his head and throughout his body.
The set includes an assortment of accessories from several scenes of the film. Each figure includes three sets of interchangeable hand sculpts, Rahzar comes with his hubcap shield, a wooden post, Tokka includes pipe, the fire extinguisher, TGRI Ooze canister that originally came with Super Shredder, a doughnut box, a stack of doughnuts, and the opened doughnut with the little mutation reversing pill in the middle that fits perfectly in their hand.
Overall, Tokka and Rahzar are extremely an impressive set and two of NECA’s best done turtles figures yet in the movie line-up, with all the great attention to detail and movie likeness given to these. Every aspect about these figures is perfection, such as the likenesses, deco and of course the accessories. There has been so much love given to creating these figures and you can see just how passionate the NECA team is to give us something truly special. These are the definitive figures of these characters that we’re probably going to get in our lifetime, and these are the best representations of these characters ever released. These are two great characters to add to your collection, and hopefully you got your pre-orders in last Summer when these were offered. Hopefully, we’ll see these characters return as they appeared in the classic cartoon series, which would also be great to have them added to collection as well.
Purchase:
Additional NECA Turtles figures are available to order on Entertainment Earth, BigBadToyStore, Hobby Link Japan, Things From Another World, Zavvi – U.S./Canada and Zavvi – U.K.
