The eagle-eyed Shin Densetsu over at Toy Ark noticed that Playmates has updated their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Classics listings with the fan favorite henchmen duo known as Bebop and Rocksteady. While photos are currently unvailable, I imagine that there won't be any such shortage on excitement.

Fans will recall that Playmates launched their new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lines last Summer, at which point older fans had been looking forward to the highly articulate 6-inch Classics line. While the Classics line hasn't been without its issues (paint errors, somewhat soft joints), on the whole the line seems to have been relatively well-received. There's a lot to like about these new figures and I'm happy to see that the line will be continuing (unlike, say, what Bandai did with their ThunderCats Classics line...) especially since the first villain entries are, well, my favorite TMNT villains. Shredder's bumbling, occasionally treacherous flunkies added a touch of humor to the show. Starting off as a pair of street punks, Bebop and Rocksteady accepted Shredder's offer to give them power (not realizing what that actually entailed) and were transformed into a human warthog and a human rhino. Despite the increase to their physical abilities, the characters remained incompetent and essentially served as comic relief.

Availability of the 6-inch TMNT Classics figures seems to vary greatly at retail, with many stores only carrying the 4-inch line. Hopefully this will change as the Classics line begins to expand.

[ Toy Ark ]