The Mutant Mayhem continues with a new release in the Playmates toy line. Mutant Mayhem did well at the box office with 180 million worldwide and caught the interest of some old fans as well as creating new ones. The Mega Mutant is the boss-level beast from the end of the movie. When Superfly is defeated, a building crashes down onto him in the water (along with the mutagen). When he emerges he has been transformed to a ginormous beast formed of various animals.
The Mega Mutant action figure is exclusive to Wal-Mart stores and can still be purchased online for the very reasonable price of 24.97. While anything TMNT is collected by the adult crowd, the main focus audience for this line is children. That doesn’t mean there’s not fun to be found for everyone though! It does mean lower overall prices, less paint apps, etc. Does this overgrown, mutated Superfly fit into your collection? You decide as we take a closer look into this oversized figure.
Within the Mega Mutant you’ll find Superfly, a whale, turtles, an octopus, and a giraffe. If you have seen the movie, you’ll remember the beast’s legs being composed of horses. You can’t really make that detail out, but you can tell that something is going on there. Both legs have a single point of articulation at the hip where they connect into the whale body. The feet can also rotate in a complete 360 degree circle. As for the arms, the each have a ball joint at the shoulder allowing for some movement. But, with the only other movement being the ability to rotate the hands/claws, the overall posing with this figure is pretty limited. Six yellow “translucent” plastic wings are included to snap into the corresponding holes on his back. I think these would have looked better in a white or even clear plastic color but overall not a big deal.
One detail missing though that I do consider a big deal is the blow hole. Yes, the missing blow hole that was such an integral part to defeating the Mega Mutant is nowhere to be found. Since I do give a few passes in this article for lack of details and articulation due to it being a kids line, the lack of a blow hole with some generic bright green paint apps for the mutagen is a major fail. It would have been fun for kids to recreate this by tossing a canister into the hole along with a cool, important detail that would not have affected costs by much, if at all.
The Mega Mutant is somewhere between 9-10″ tall, depending on your preferred stance. His normal pose has a slight hunch to the back (the hunchback whale!) and he poses quite well leaning forward at an angle. His mouth opens and closes for further Mutant Mayhem. Wal-Mart lists the mouth as able to ooze the included slime. Mine did not come with slime or have any indication on the packaging that it should have. This may have been scrapped late in production and the wrong description was posted.
The details of the various animals is very lacking. While you can make out the octopus, giraffe, and elephant by color and shape, the details on them are just non-existent. Although, the four small turtles on his belly is a nice little added detail! Basically though, as a toy produced for children and at a “budget” price, I can live with the lack of details (or what details we are given). Let’s talk about the more important issue here…how did a giraffe, elephant, and horses end up merged with Superfly? It was asked in the movie “what about the animals in the water” and he emerges from the river/ocean with his mutated Superfly body, fused with animals from the African Safari. Maybe I missed something though – feel free to drop me a message and help make sense of this madness!
Ok, back to the Mega Mutant figure, while he doesn’t tower over the turtles anywhere close to proportions in the movie, he’s still tall enough to be a big bad guy for the gang. This beast is well worth picking up if you are collecting this line or know a kid who is into the movie. The casual fan will probably be disappointed in the lack of details and articulation. If you liked the movie though and can get past what this beast lacks I think you’ll find what is there is fun, especially at the price.
