Review: Rage Toys Samurai Force Autumn

Over the last year or two I’ve picked up a few Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures from various different companies; Neca, Super7, Heat Boys, Loyal Subjects. However some recent arrivals from Rage Toys, that are unlicensed tributes to the Heroes in a half shell may be my favourites so far. Let’s take a look at “Autumn” first, just don’t call him Donny.

What’s In The Box

The picture above shows what is included in the box, I’m not sure why some is classified as “Gift Pack” but I assume that probably licensing related.

The first thing that struck me when I removed Autumn from his (fairly basic) packaging was how small he was. Standing less than 5 inches tall means he is a slightly odd scale, but let’s put that to one side.

The second thing I noticed was the amount of detail on the figure, sculpted and painted both. Little things like his wrist gadget and the various doohickeys on his shell are amazingly textured and coloured.

That coupled with flourishes of soft goods in the form of a scarf, belt tassels and mask mean he’s great looking figure. He also comes bundled with a great selection of accessories that seem to have had the same attention to detail as the bulk of the figure.

On top of a wide selection of hands, 3 pairs and a single pointing hand, he has gadgets and gizmos aplenty to go with his bo staff. The Turtle Donatello was the smart brother, building Sci-fi style devices when needed. It’s a fitting tribute that AUTUMN, styled as a traditional samurai variant of a Mutant Turtle would be pushing the technological boundaries of its time.

So like any forward thinking samurai he carries a musket but things are pushed a bit further with a radar dish and a mechanical arm. He’s also equipped to do major damage with 3 grenades that clip on to his thigh. Looking at those grenades I thought they would be a bit loose but they clip on nice and firmly. The look great too. All the accessories do.

Articulation wise he is quite interesting. His knees are double jointed giving good range there. A torso cut, rare on a turtle figure also means he can hot some poses a lot of turtle.figures can not. His arms.are only single joints at the elbows but they work well his hands are on ball joints only which limits movement at the wrist since they only allow a little movement, but in all directions. The head is on a ball joint that unfortunately does not allow him to look up very much but it has decent range aside from that.

Talking about heads, He has two in the box. One head that comes with a plastic hood is a sort of inverse of a typical mutant turtle mask, with only his eyes visible. The second head is a more overt tribute to his inspiration.

A “custom kit” adds two bonus heads. A more expressive variant of the tribute head and a classic samurai styled head. The custom kit also has some extra parts for a blue masked turtle I don’t have yet and some other bits and bobs I’ll share in my next review.

A did have a few small issues with the figure. His hands are great and provide good options but I didn’t find any that held the musket in a satisfying way. There is no trigger finger.

Additionally the musket would not easily stay secured in the supplied clip that attaches to the shell. And finally I love the soft goods scarf but the fabric tassels on the plastic belt is a little weird when you look too closely at it. For some reason I don’t have issues with the mix of fabric and plastic for the eye mask. Weird. Also it might have been nice if the tassels were wired, but they are not.

These minor niggles didn’t really detract from the overall package too much though.

And Autumn is a great little package. Highly detailed, loaded with accessories and different display options. This figure, and the line as a whole so far, really works well as a tribute to the source material. Different enough that it’s not just a copy but an alternative take on a mutant ninja turtle.

Regarding his size, yes he is quite small meaning he may not mix and match so well with say NECA turtles figures. However for photos I found I could make him work with larger figures.

I can’t wait to have all four “seasonal” brothers with their master on a small shelf together.