Teeneage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Battle Shell Turtles and Cockroach Action Figures

The heroes in a half shell are back! I remember Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from my childhood and I'm delighted to see that they have recently seen a resurgence in popularity, which means that Bud has really started to become interested in them too. We received a Battleshell Michelangelo and Cockroach 'baddie' figure from Flair recently and I was intrigued to see what Bud would make of them. I think Ian was a little more excited than Bud was, especially when he spotted Michelangelo!


The Battleshell action figures have an innovative new design which allows the turtles' small weapons to be stored inside their shells. You simply click open the back and remove, or replace the weapons as required. Michelangelo carries his two signature nunchucks and these don't fit inside the shell, it does offer the perfect storage for the shuriken throwing stars and sickle and chain though, I'm fairly sure the little stars would last about five minutes before getting lost without the shell storage, with the average four year old involved. The back of the shell offers two loops to store the nunchucks in but I found these a little difficulty, both nunchucks are made of moulded plastic and if you bend them in half to pop into the loops then you quickly see that the plastic is very stressed at the bending point. I really wouldn't recommend folding them too much as I think the nunchucks could easily snap. When we put them in the loops we just put one end in and let them hang instead.

The turtle figure measures 4.5 inches and is fully poseable, Arms and legs move at the shoulder, elbow, hip and knee, all move through 360 degrees and his head does too. I was quite impressed by this as many action figures I've seen either don't bend, or do so in a really unnatural  way. Michelangelo can be put in to fighting positions and stands up in them too.

Cockroach is not a character I am familiar with but he comes from the revamped Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series. He is a super tough, mutant bug and his figure measures 11 centimetres. He carries his signature saw blade weapon which he can carry in one of his hands, or in the hole in his body. Again both his arms and legs are fully poseable so he can get into full battle mode. Bud didn't know this character but he knew instinctively that he was a baddie and really enjoyed making Michelangelo and Cockroach 'fight'. Something to point out is that Cockroach's antenna is a separate piece which you insert into the top of his head, this does come out again and could be lost quite easily. I'm tempted to pop a dot of glue on the end to stick it in place.