Today I’m reviewing a slightly older set, though this 2013 Teenage Mutant Nina Turtles set is long since retired, I was lucky enough to pick one up sealed. I already have the other 2 Turtles not included here, so this was purchased to round out my crew.
This set contains 397 pieces and originally retailed for around £39.99, this was a mid tier set for this theme and is based on the 2012 CG animated series produced by Nickelodeon, and is branded as such on the box.
The set contains 4 minifigs, a buildable mouser robot, 2 small vehicles for the good guys and Baxter’s Mech that gives the set it’s name. I miss the days of seeing these little comic strips on the packaging. We used to see these on all the Marvel and DC sets too.
3 parts bags, 2 instruction books and a small sheet of just 2 stickers make up the contents of the box.
The first bag gives us 3 of our minifigs and the brick built ‘mouser’ robot. Both of the Turtles are included here. It’s Raphael and Donatello for this set.
Raphael was always my favourite of the crew, his grumpy looking face captures his personality perfectly. His included Sai are standard, and come included in many Ninjago sets.
Donatello is a lighter shade of green than his brother and comes with an angry facial expression and a staff that looks way more brutal than the one I associate with him. Printing on both the Turtles is great even if they aren’t the most detailed, they both come with their own style of shell.
Next we have April O’neil, although not a match to the April I’m familiar with from the original show, It was great to get her included, I believe she only came in this set.
She has a yellow, printed torso, dark blue legs with black boots, and a double sided head print with smiling and serious facial expressions. I really like her hair piece.
The Mouser is simple little build but resembles the design of the original well enough, I wish the set had included more than one though as these little guys often attack In Swarms.
There are also 2 small vehicles for the Turtles included in this 1st bag, first up is Donatello’s kart.
The kart is a basic but fun little build in yellow and shell green and features clips to hold Donatello’s staff and purple skateboard.
Raphael gets as small, one man glider in the same colour scheme. While I quite like the kart, I’m less of a fan of this one, something about it’s proportions just seems a little off. Like the kart it has space to clip the weapons of the user, and also.includes flick launchers mounted on the underside of the wings.
There is just a small propeller at the back of the glider, however it is has a design flaw that if you angle the launchers out they prevent the propeller from spinning.
On to bag 2 and the bigger build of the set. Baxter Stockman’s mech is actually based on the design from the show, albeit given the lego treatment.
The cockpit/torso is built first and has a very nice opening hatch for the pilot to enter through. The rest of bag 2 builds the mech’s arms which are attached via ball joints making them very pose-able.. 3 canopy pieces are used as armor to protect the cockpit area.
The 3rd and final bag features the lower torso of the mech and the legs which are identical builds.
The finished mech is large, imposing and absolutely fantastic. Built primarily in grey, it has a few very cool play features.
Both of the claw hands open and close and are large enough to grab a minifig. The right claw has a push launcher and is tethered to the mech by a string piece.
The left claw doesn’t detach but does have launcher that contains a projectile that has a cool, printed disc piece.
The mech also features shoulder mounted flick launchers. The upper torso can rotate from the lower part for more posing options and we have ball joints on the ankles. Even the toe claws can move!
Lastly, Baxter Stockman himself comes with a silver helmet and shoulder pauldron piece, a double sided angry and neutral face print. A nicely detailed unique torso and plain navy legs.
Overall this was a great set and build experience from a fantastic theme I missed out on originally. Excellent minifigs and a lot of play value. I purchased this set for the minifigs, but the mech was the surprise standout for me.
As stated at the top, this is a retired set, so if you want one, online auctions or bricklink are your friends.
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