Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mecha figures? Oh shell yes!

What does it mean to be ninja? Vanilla Ice never truly knew, but most martial arts masters would likely emphasise stealth, cunning, and guile. And possibly being one of four mutated turtles raised by a giant talking rat and a steady diet of pizza. Testicles to that, why be a ninja when you can be a giant robot instead? After all, it’s still stealth if there are no witnesses.

Two companies called Snap Design Development and Heat Boys have decided to put together a dream project based on that idea: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but as mechanised robots. Titanium Mecha Ninja Turtlebots? The jury is still out on that one. Snap Designs has some familiarity with the TMNT franchise, as it used to operate under the name DreamEX and it developed a very cool series of half-shell hero toys.

For this spin-off, the TMNT Mecha figures will be officially licensed and a prototype for Leonardo was on display at an exhibition in China, via ToyArk. There’s not much to see and the figures will be around 9″tall, but here’s Turtle leader Leonardo in all his unpainted glory:

And here’s what the rest of the gang will look like, according to the official concept art:

And yes, you can bet your nunchucks that there’ll be a Shredder mecha figure, which looks like my wet dreams: Robots, ninjas, and too many damn knives:

I want them, and I want them now dammit. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is currently in a great place ever since Nicklelodeon took over. The 2010s CGI-animated series is multiple seasons of excellent world-building, while the follow-up show Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an underrated masterpiece of traditional animation and very untraditional takes on the beloved heroes who love to raise shell.

At this rate, I’ll gladly take a TMNT Gundam series according to the toys above.

Last Updated: May 4, 2021