Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Roleplay Toys Review!

What are they?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Toys!!

For the time being Turtles are gonna be in your face.. let's face it, they've been around since the 1980's and will soon be dominating (once again) the big screen in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

This film looks awesome!!!

Anyway! back to the review. See below regarding the Ninja Practice Pal, Ninja Turtles Dojo - Raphael's Sai's AND The Ninja Turtles "Half Shell" which carries any of the Ninja Turtles weapons and doubles as a Shield!!

The Ninja Practice Pal (Raphael):

Now we all know Raph is the moody one of the bunch, well this little guy will on one hand teach your little one to beat the living daylights out of him and also spur them on to punch and throw the doll. Not too great an idea right? Well...this is what I think; my son can be pretty moody sometimes and even growled when picking up this guy, HOWEVER when he started to beat up Raph, something amazing happened, my son just started giggling and laughing his head off at the sounds Raph was making, so something that initially made him growl turned into making him laugh.

Thinking of the above further, from a parenting point of view this could be a great way for your child to (initially) get out their anger or tantrum and turn it into a fun playtime, it certainly calms down my son. So a fun toy and ALSO a great emotional aid. The Toy is around 16 inches tall and says over 10 phrases! It's quite detailed to the cartoon (even down to the cracks on Raphael's shell!) and he'd not hard, but not soft plush either, so you can "play fight" with your child with ease... Look out for the Leonardo version! Also very cool!

Ninja Turtles Dojo - Raphael's Sai's:

What kid doesn't want to be a Turtle?? Now they can, and safely too! This pair of Sai are made of a hard plastic core with a soft foam on the outside, quite detailed too! My son loved swinging these about and most enjoyed fighting his Raphael Practice pal (above).

As I've said these are quite nicely detailed and a great size for kids and bigger kids! (i.e. me!)

The only thing that really bothered me was that it only had one side of the fork, see the image above; a Sai would normally have two "prongs" (see left), not a massive problem, but being a fan of the TMNT cartoon my son immediately noticed the lack of one side. It doesn't come with a bandanna either which was a little surprising..

All in all though a great piece of kit, and bundled with the next item, you will loose your little one in your garden for the entire day while they take down the imaginary Shredder and the Foot clan! Might have to purchase Leo's Sword so I can join in!! The other 2 weapons are also available - Nunchaku and Bo (with blade!)


Turtles Combat Shell:

As per the above, who on this Earth did/does NOT want to be a Turtle?? I remember when the toys were first out and I always wanted my own shell! instead I had to settle with a material made one from my Nan, as much as it was good, it just wasn't the same... I wanted a hard shell that could hold my home made weapons! Now 20 years too late, thanks to Nickelodeon and Flair, they've gone and produced one! See the pictures for more info, this Shell fits like a back back and fastens with velcro, and on top of that the shell doubles as a shield!!

My son LOVED dressing up as a Turtle, coupled with the foam weapons above makes for a great roleplay session, and Daddy was "bundled" quite a few times!! Serves me right for being scary like the Shredder!

My only complaint is that (as above) this doesn't come with a bandanna. Maybe some cool versions are in the pipeline?

The Verdict:

The verdict? JUST AWESOME!!!

RRP's - 

The Ninja Practice Doll: £35
Foam Weapons:              £20
Combat Shell:                  £20

All of the above are available on Amazon at considerable discounts! Feel free to use my search on the right! They're all out right now!

More info available on Flair's website!