Toy Review: HeatBoys TMNT-01 Leonardo

A high-end, diecast, mecha Ninja Turtle figure? Pinch me, please.

Producer: HeatBoys

Price: Approx. $170 USD

Release Date: Jun. 2023

Item Height: Approx. 9″

Item Weight: N/A

Batteries: 2x LR621 Cell Batteries (sold separately)

WHERE TO BUY: TFsource (Re Stock in Oct.)

Heatboys has put other mecha collectible companies on absolute notice with the first entry into their licensed, mecha-inspired Ninja Turtles toy series, TMNT-01 Leonardo. This diecast Turtle mecha toy is insanely good with a great amount of appeal for both play and display. After reading through my review let me know what you think of this piece in the comments below.

Presentation: It’s a good, quality box with the item and its accessories secured firmly inside of plastic clamshells inside. The photo graphic on the front of the box is awesome and I really like the “spread” on the back of the box showing the figure in various posing and and utilizing multiple accessories.

The aesthetic and quality of the product itself is also sublime, with a very “broken” design featuring plenty of tampos signifying that this truly is a mecha with a Ninja turtle stylization vs. a toy of a Ninja Turtle itself. The paint and tampos themselves are done extremely well and I’ve had no fear of paint chips and the like after plenty of play.

Build: TMNT-01 Leonardo is a figure comprised of a skeleton containing dicast parts with plastic pieces making up the outer shell (aesthetic.) It’s really well done with having a nice, hefty feel while not having areas where the weight feels detrimental to your personal play with the item or the joints on the item itself. It has neat, sliding mechanics on the limbs that keep the aesthetic cohesive with more advanced poses on top of adding to that “mechanical” theme of the design. It also has LED-lit eyes which are activated by placing a magnet in a container shaped like a pizza slice near the top of the head featuring both fully lit and pulsating options. The only thing I don’t like about the LEDs is how dim they are; in my opinion if they couldn’t have made them any brighter the eyes should have been painted white instead as the “clear” paint used to let the light shine through looks a bit dead on regular display.

Accessories: Accessories per the TFSource product listing;

– 2 x Katanas and Scabbards
– 2 x Short Swords
– 2 x Blaster Pistols
– 1 x Blaster Rifle
– 1 x Shield
– 2 x Shuriken
– 2 x Mini Leo Runners
– 1 x Stand
– Connector Parts

This is honestly as complete as it gets for me. Leonardo has always been a character known for having his two katanas and the toys maybe coming with a few shuriken so that’s about it so to have all of this is a treat. The option to display the majority of the accessories by connecting them to the various ports on the figure is nice but aesthetically I actually prefer to keep mine more clean with just the two katanas in the holsters on his back.

And just for the sake of saying it, the mini “rider” turtle that is able to be placed inside of a cockpit hidden in its back shell is fantastic. I find myself forgetting it even exists but when I do think about it, it’s such a nice little touch..

Articulation: The articulation on Leonardo is pretty outstanding. They managed to give it above-standard articulation while working around the “boxier” body type and even managed to give things like the back shell itself articulation. The finger articulation and neck extensions are nice touches as well. There really aren’t any positions that I had trouble getting him into but a deeper ab crunch and further waist swivel would have definitely assisted in some poses looking and feeling more natural in terms of display and play.

Overall Score: 8.5/10 – Heatboys knocked it out of the park with this one. Between the franchise it homages, the design, the materials used, and the build quality I think that this is a piece that will appeal to a very broad range of collectors. What I really like about this piece outside of the look/quality is that it has a strong enough presence in my opinion to display on its own. The character being a member of a group will naturally make people veer towards buying the other Turtles (myself included,) but it’s a wonderful thing that it has enough display presence to stand on its own as well. The only thing that keeps this from being a “perfect” 10 are minor nitpicks like wishing the ab crunch was able to sink in farther and the lights on the eyes were brighter/more prominent. I’d have also changed the pegs on the inner hands for the weapons to a straight up and down orientation vs. offset because it makes no sense for the hand to be straight position but the weapon at an angle.