REVIEW: TMNT X Transformers Party Wallop

Two of my favourite childhood TV shows have been mashed together for an interesting toy project (cash in?). That’s right,  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles meets Transformers in this Hasbro toy. Party Wallop is one of the crossover figures being released celebrating 40 years of Transformers.

Video Review

The below video summarises my thoughts and lets you see the figure in motion and shows elements of the transformation.

What’s In The Box 

The transformer comes packaged in robot mode with his spoiler and the front of the van unattached in the box, the front is technically an accessory in robot mode since it acts a a removable armoured chest plate. The spoiler doesn’t need to come off again once slotted in.

You also get 4 additional turtle head pieces  he comes with no eye mask but you can swap that for the colours of the four half shell heroes. Of course  you cannot have each of the heads and not provide each of the turtles weapons, so we get a pair of Sai for Raph, two swords for Leo, a couple of nunchucks for Mikey and a bo staff for Donny.

Thankfully you also get an instruction manual that shows how to transform from robot mode to vehicle as well as some of the figures other features. Oh, and of course you couldn’t have a Turtle without their favourite food, Pizza. The circular panel on the front of Party Wallop can be removed to reveal a pizza inside.

Metalhead?

The first thing that struck me about this when handling “Party Wallop” was just how plastic-y (it’s a word, Shut up!) it is. I know it’s a plastic toy, everything I shoot is plastic. I think it’s the combination of the bright colours (which are accurate to the van from the original cartoon to be fair) and the complete lack of any paint detail. Perhaps I have been spoiled by the similarly priced but non transforming Yolopark figures.

I could understand if this was a cheap kids toy, but it’s not priced that way. 

The accessories too are very cheap feeling and come in a fairly dull, washed out grey colour. Some paint or even a different colour plastic for the handles would have improved them a lot.

The changeable head plates fare a little better the masks colours look good and and they fit on perfectly with no fuss.

Turtles In Disguise

The strengths of this figure lie in the engineering for the transformation. Converting from robot to van is a satisfying process that I enjoyed doing a few times.

The mechanisms and figure design are made more impressive when you consider you are also able to store all accessories, including the 4 spare heads, securely inside. And for the most part these are well hidden so as not to interfere with the look of the Party Wagon.

In vehicle mode the toy is instantly recognisable as the Turtles primary mode of transport and definitely gives me nostalgia for the original toy that I never had as a kid. In robot mode Hasbro did a good job of giving it some classic Transformers looks while also making it clearly a version of a Ninja Turtle. The roof on his back gives a feel of a Turtle shell and the chest, with the van front removed  captures the look and feel of those 90’s turtle designs.

Ninja moves

In robot mode the figure has a decent range of articulation; you can get this thing in to some good poses and it stands pretty easily in lots of positions. A really nice feature is the spinning belt initial that allows you to easily switch to the corresponding letter to the Turtle head you have in place. There’s 5 in total because there’s also a blank one, I suppose to go with the unmasked head.

The weapons  while cheap looking all sit firmly in hand although, the swords look a bit odd thanks to large tabs uses to connect them to the body when not being held.

In vehicle mode the toy rolls nicely, You may have to tweak and adjust slightly to make sure everything is clicked into place just right to make sure no parts catch the wheels.

Summary

Party Wallop is fun toy with some excellent engineering and some fun features. however, for the price I wanted a little more, specifically more paint to bring out the sculpt details. Just look at the difference when stood next to this Yolopark Megatron that costs around the same:

The inclusion of 5 heads is great so you can choose your favourite turtle and both modes have a good overall look. I think I actually prefer vehicle mode and that’s how I’ll display it most of the time.

I’ve previously purchased the Back to the Future and Ghostbusters crossovers with Transformers and I think both of those looked better overall, but if you are a TMNT fan and also like Transformers I think you may get a (Ninja) kick out of this if you can stomach the price and can get past the basic colours.