TMNT Playmates Shredder and Foot Soldier 1988 Soft Head Hard Head Review And More! 

The foot soldiers and shredder are hunched over in order to fit the blister. The designers (Eastman, Laird, and playmates) didn’t want to sacrifice the original height of the figures so they made them hunched instead.

I read that time, Playmates were rushing to released TMNT figures in 1988 after the five pilot episodes were debut that is... So they didn't have time to paint him properly, which why he's shirtless with blue armor... Is what I read that is, not sure this reason are true.... Also according to 'The toys that made us' the reason they made him crouch like that to fits in the blister pack, They want to keep him tall as the Mirage comic that is...

“Aw, Donnie!” Literally made me laugh out loud.

Great reviews, thanks for the upload. Apart from the weird stance,I believe the 1988 Shredder still could be saved and made into a representable piece. The wrinkled part of the face you noted, should have been the part of the face mask, but why he was so oddly painted in the first place will probably stay a mystery. I never wanted to buy the 1988 vetsion, since he hand no similarity to the cartoon version, but now, I think I will get a used figure, totaly strip the paint off, remove all the seam lines including the eyebrows molded onto the helmet, add a few parts (i.e. the shoulder armor straps that are clearly missing) and totaly repaint the figure. The whole procedure won't be able to help with the figure's troublesome anatomy, but it could vastly improve the overall looks from the original.

Great upload, enjoyable musings. The oddball design of the OG Shredder are what drew me to him as a kid. The creepy sunken face, exposed scrawny (old man body) musculature & extreme crouching pose all served to intrigue my weird little mind. I feel the TMNT toy designers did an amazing job of capturing our imaginations with their design choices.

I remember as a kid im the 80s when wave 1 of tmnt figures came out the heads were soft rubber...and later switched to hard heads. I still remember buying them at Toysrus..its was fresh line for toys!

The spots are mould in the plastic. Happens a lot with Kenner STar Wars toys as well. Great vid!

8:58 Fun Fact. Foot soldier and Shredder were sculpted like this to fit into the plastic Blister. Source: The Toys That Made Us

Actually, Fred Wolf Shredder wasn't featured in plenty of episodes. In fact, he wasn't the main villain for some episodes of Season 8, and he didn't appear even once in Season 9!

I'm pretty sure the Foot ninja in the 2003 TMNT were human during the entire run of the show.

The first release foot soldiers did not have a soft head variant so that is probably a first Release foot soldier 😊

Great video mate.

I'm curious if you ever figured out what the A on the foot soldier butt means. I recently bought one and can't find anything about it.

nice job using necas figures and combining the vintage ones!

I just picked up the 88 shredder at a thrift store and tbh I thought it was a bootleg at first. If I hadn’t looked it up online I would have walked away without it…

I need some foot soldiers but they are expensive complete.

I believe the very first wave of 1988 all said "Made in Macao" and then they said "Made in China" untill they switched to hard heads...this includes the foot soldier even though he always had a hard head...I also believe the A on his butt is for Anniversary but I could be mistaken on that

Ah yes blue and purple shirtless Shredder in a wicked dump pose. JESUS WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!?!?

Please do Krang next. 🧠

I always found the shirtless Shredder to be pretty lame looking

It's pronounced "muh-cow".

Never watch tmnt once the villains and turtles get wacky and dumb, much like dont watch the real ghostbusters after season 3. Its all down hill from there.