Here in our UK office, we at GGM were fortunate enough to come into early possession of the first ever Megabloks TMNT Advent Calendar! From January this year onward, Megabloks have not failed to impress with their acquisition of the Ninja Turtles construction toy license. The brand seemingly delivered more in the space of 2 months than the previous holder Lego did in 2 years. Megabloks has covered almost every base of the Ninja Turtles property from the 2012 series, 1987 series, Mirage comics and so forth. Now Megabloks is looking to end its successful 2016 first year with an advent calendar for December.

First off, the advent calendar itself is in the same stylized shape as the packaging for other Megabloks TMNT products with the rounded off opening sides. The front is beautifully illustrated with CG stock images edited together of all the contents behind each door to give an idea what to do with all the attractive clutter. The main image as you’d expect is layered over with the numbers compositions over each door.
The back has an inventory of all the items against a plain background showing how you can swap all the Don, Mike, Leo and Raph items between the singular Turtle figure in the set.

And when I say singular Turtle, the box shows it plain and clear that only one Turtle is included within all the pieces, but can be interchanged with the Don/Leo/Raph/Mike items. This is a clever execution on Megabloks part and would have avoided making this calendar more expensive that it should be (The RRP is £25). The ‘interchangable Christmas sweattered’ Turtle is Leonardo by default and he crops up early in the set. The other bandanas which also come with stylized Christmas pizzas (repainted from the go kart sets) crop up in later doors.

What I don’t want to do is spoiler who/what is behind which number door, though I am sure a possible plethora of ‘unboxing’ videos on Youtube may do that deed later. The packaging already shows what is inside and this article is expanding on that with retaining the fun of what you may or may not receive during the Christmas countdown. The cardboard on this calendar is quite thin and tears very easily. I recommend using an exacto-knife if you are one of those who are not into mutilating toy packaging. Saying that, the calendar itself has no cut out and keep material or fold out play platform like the Lego Advent calendars do. However, a lot of these pieces are great add-ons for already existing sets like The Sewer Lair, Baxter’s Lab and Raphs Training Dojo. Like with the Lego calendars, there are brief assembly illustrations behind each easily tearable door. Be careful when opening!

Be back for part 2, when we showcase Casey, Shredder and other accessories. Stay tuned!

Arrived at our UK office this week! The long-awaited larger Leonardo with dinosaur set from the ‘Blast to the Past’ Half Shell Heroes toyline.

Leonardo’s dinosaur pal is looking a little less Triceratops-like… In fact, he isn’t paired up with a large Triceratops at all. Playmates have gone for a repaint of Donatello’s T-Rex companion in a similar color scheme.

This T-Rex is very cool blue all over. Even the inside of his mouth is blue! Or could that be Playmates cutting corners on paint apps again? Oh, Playmates!

Another thing to note is the Leonardo rider figure still has a weapon in hand unlike the other rider Dino-Turtle variants. Having a sword still in hand works well for that “charge into battle” posture.

Apologies for not having a Donatello T-Rex to compare with. Some of us (unlike the sidekick of a certain Intergalactic Wrestling Promoter) are just not made of money. Of course, we’re more than happy for Playmates to send the odd parcel our way *hint*. The best was done with what little there was available. Big thanks to our source btw. You know who you are! 😉

“I-Ho T-Rex away!”

Standing aside original 90’s Playmates Triceratops from the Cave Turtles line (No 90’s cave Leo on hand, sorry).

T-Rex Leo (left) Orange Basic Triceratops Leo (Right)

“Dine-Saur. Grrrrrrrr!!!”

The gangs all (mostly) here before Hero Jr takes them away to play with. Thanks for viewing.