The Cool, the Collected and the Terrapin

Recently.

I guess it was recently, maybe, at least, Brian from over at Cool and Collected decided it was time to part ways with some of the excess toys he's accumulated over the last year. An entire basement filled to the brim with the type of stuff I could only dream about owning. Everything from Star Wars to G.I.Joe to my very own, very-current obsession: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

There's no need to rehash the tale of my budding collection. Let's just get right into taking a look at all the goodies I managed to score from the man who brought us all together.

Yes, I've mentioned before that I like to piece together my own collection from thrifty discoveries out in the wild. Occasionally, though, I stumble across an opportunity that's too good to pass up. Brian's generosity, offering up the goods for a fraction of the cost to his fellow collectors, was definitely one of those times. There's some key figures that I haven't had any luck finding at the flea market or thrift shops, like the Raphael figure you see above, that I've been itching to add to the trash-pile.

I often browse websites, eBay and Etsy and other shops, picking stuff out and creating small lots of action figures and other collectibles. I'll go so far as to add them to my cart, and then eventually I'll delete the whole thing. Exerting just the tiniest bit of self-control in my own sad way. I almost did the same thing here, putting together a fantasy-list of figures to inquire about, but not following through.

Until I saw Baxter Stockman in all his hybrid fly-man glory.

He's absolutely one of my favorite characters from the original TMNT animated series and toy-line. I knew when I saw him lined up with all the other figures that Brian was looking to purge, that there was no going back. That he had to be mine.

Oh yes, he had to be mine.

Another insect that's after my heart and probably my blood, too. Scumbug here was once a man [wassss once a man], an exterminator who found himself mutated, bonded with the cockroach he was aiming to maim. Becoming a literally bug-eyed bandit; out to wreak havoc and skitter away when Donatello turns on the lights. I'm pretty sure Donnie can find him lurking beneath the fridge.

Here's Ray Fillet, the heroic man-manta-ray, who I desperately pined away for as a wee little trash-boy. I loved his adventures with the Turtles in the pages of the Archie Comics' TMNT series, as well as the spin-off The Mighty Mutanimals, where he led his own team of mutant heroes. I simply adored his devilish [devil-fish?] smile. Also, he's teal!

Teal is tops, brah.

Confession time.

I've only seen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993) once, way back when it was first released on VHS. Despite being a huge fan of the franchise, I was bordering on teen-hood when the film hit theaters, so opted out of seeing it during its initial run. I honestly don't remember much except for time-travel to feudal Japan and Casey Jones babysitting some samurais.

And even though there's no love for the third Turtles flick, I found myself craving these two "movie-style" action figures. I kinda' dig Mikey in samurai garb, and I couldn't possibly resist Splinter with his faux-fur and clothe robe. It's a definite improvement over the original release Splinter, who I remember being completely naked for a majority of the time that I owned him.

I wasn't that weird a kid, really, I promise.