The 4-inch+ line looks like it will start with only nine figures (or, in other words, the line will start small), which is a little disappointing given all the stuff we saw at Toy Fair (personally I'm most looking forward to that Mecha Mikey). At any rate, it more or less covers the basics: the four turtles, their rodent sensei Splinter, friend April O'Neil, the alien antagonist Kraang, the iconic enemy Shredder, and Shredder's (army builder) foot soldier Foot Soldier (maybe that last one is a little redundant...). The figures are billed at a somewhat respectable 12 points of articulation and supposedly range in height from 4.25-inches to 4.75-inches.

As mentioned, Playmates Toys is also releasing vehicles (and playsets) to go with the "Basic" line. While the smaller vehicles (basically motorcycles and an oversized skateboard; the price varies depending on whether it includes a figure) are none too impressive, the "Shellraiser" van is a different story:

Billed as being able to hold up to eight figures (meaning the Turtles must be giving a ride to some of Shredder's goons or something), the Shellraiser a radical ride for the tubular Turtles. It also has a bunch of action gimmicks that I'm not going to list because we're not kids... oh, shell, I'll list them anyway. The Shellraiser has entrances on the top, front, and sides of the vehicle (for legitimate display purposes) as well as a spring-loaded cannon and a gimmick that opens the side door sending a turtle, and I quote the Playmate Toys press release here, "flying out the side with 360 degree Ninja flip-kicking action" (so I guess it spins on that pole?).

I love the Shellraiser's design, which mixes cartoon goofiness with a good amount of detail. The general deco in some ways maintains the sort of classic feel of the original toy line. But it's not the biggest thing here by a good 25 or 30 inches.

The Secret Sewer Lair Playset is huge. At a whopping 42 inches tall, it may be taller than the children playing with it (although with a MSRP of US$119.99, I'm not sure how many parents will buy one for their kids). Honestly, it seems a lot bigger than any of the product I remember seeing commercials for as a kid let alone actually had the opportunity to own.

The playset features a sort of street level then a lot of sewer underneath. The street level's city diorama looks incredibly vibrant between the backdrop and foreground elements (seriously, when has a dumpster looked that cute?). The sewer levels look a bit more barebones with a lot of colored plastic; you know, the sort of thing we might see in classic playsets and therefore cool in its own right.

The playset seems to incorporate a lot of action features. The most interesting of the bunch are "lines that can be connected to objects in a kid's room" which, honestly, while possibly a hazard still sounds really cool.

The new TMNT also includes some 5.5-inch talking turtles,"role play" toy weapons, and some larger figures but those things seem exclusively geared towards children besides not being as gnarly as the other offerings. We could spent a whole month going through all this new merchandise in detail but then we'd have to the change the site's name to Turtlepop (or TMNTomopop?).

At any rate, pretty much everything is up for pre-order.

[ Pre-order the set of four 6-inch Classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures at Big Bad Toy Store ]

[ Pre-order the set of four 4-inch Basic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures at Big Bad Toy Store ]

[ Pre-order the Shellraiser at Entertainment Earth | Big Bad Toy Store ]