It seems hard to believe now that there was a time when NECA were blocked from doing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures at mass retail and could only make convention exclusives so as not to compete with Playmates. Ever since Nickelodeon acquired the property, however, they’ve split the license as finely as possible between as many toy companies as they could, and TMNT has become NECA’s most popular — and profitable — line of figures.
To celebrate getting to 100 in the TV cartoon-based sub-line alone, they tend to do something special, and in this case, it’s an ultimate April O’Neil. April, the Turtles’ best human friend and ace TV reporter, comes in her signature yellow jumpsuit with a lot of accessories. Among her arsenal, we can find a camera, microphone, recorder, turtle com, doku plant, baby pizza monster, Maltese hamster, Venus fly trap, Aunt Aggie photo, storybook, capture clamp, extra heads, and extra hands. Aside from the obvious J-hook, the packaging is designed to resemble the artwork of classic VHS tapes.
An April-November Romance
Ms. O’Neil in “ultimate” form is available online through the NECA store, which accepts preorders from now through November 28. She’ll run you $39.99 along with NECA’s not-insubstantial shipping charges, which admittedly do include firm air padding that keeps the figures extremely secure in transit. After ultimate April, the plan at NECA is to release ultimate versions of each individual turtle with a similar amount of new character-specific accessories. The cartoon line initially started as Target-exclusive 2-packs, but clearly that’s no longer a limiting factor.
Expect ultimate April to ship in March of 2024. So if you order now, you’ll have her by . . . April. Oh, kneel and thank the scheduling gods for that one! (Sorry not sorry.)
Undecided as to whether this figure is worth it? Take a look at some official images down below and perhaps they’ll make all the difference.
