Custom Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder (1988, Playmates)

So my collection, as small as it is, was initially going to be comprised of only bootlegs or knock-offs with the odd genuine figure here or there. I would find myself going back to the drawing board regarding those plans as soon I purchased the NECA Mirage Comic Style TMNT crew (which I will post about later) but I could not find a Shredder to go along with them.

Wanted to try out the poses for the TMNT Video Game's cover art for the NES since it is my first memory of seeing the turtle boys all with red bandanas.

The turtles themselves have a 4-figure villain figure set to match but I am really not interested in the Foot Soldiers from that era, thus I am not looking forward to spend a $100 or more for the set.

Now jumping back to the original lineup, I always wondered as a kid the same thing everyone else did. Why does Shredder have different colors and no shirt? If only that were it, then maybe it'd be acceptable, the artwork showed that this design had some potential after all.

You could also criticize his "crouching" stance, the shape of his face shield, the eyebrow area being sculpted and painted OVER the helmet, and you could go on, so as bad ass Shredder was to me back then, the figure itself felt like a joke.

To me, those are good reasons to mess up a figure. This was very early on getting started collection and it was pleasantly easy for some reason. It was my second paint job ever and my first (and so far the only successful) full-body paint.

I have yet to completely and properly disassemble a figure and with this one I didn't see the need to as the skin color would remain intact and the neck didn't seem to be an issue.

I did not need to sculpt anything but I did need something to resemble a sash(?) hanging from the waist. I used painter's tape and a small piece of cardboard to generate this look. This figure's pose or stance will limit what you can do with it and unfortunately it limits quite a bit.

Overall, it was a very entertaining process, getting the dark accents under the muscles and soft darker shades, was a learning experience and the eyes were certainly a pain at first.

The Shredder gang.