Probably the best example of a toyline with colorful characters is the vintage Ninja Turtles line from Playmates, so I picked up Pizzaface. Let's check him out.
Stats
Year Released: 1990
Company: Playmates
Size: 5"
Price: $5 (MOC) from eBay
Packaging: Carded
Looks:
Like many of its action figures from this time period, Playmates put a lot of effort in sculpting Pizzaface, including as many little details as possible. Splattered pizza slices adorn his cap and pants; bugs crawl all over him, and freakish slime is everywhere. These little sculpting "Easter Eggs" make the figure interesting the look at for quite some time.
Unfortunately, paint is not applied to all of these details so some of the best sculpting is easily missed. But while the paint apps are a bit sparce, there aren't any egregious misapplications.
One thing that really bugs me is that the left leg is positioned on the side instead of at an angle to the hip. It makes the toy look somewhat cheap. I know they did that because the hip joint has a different configuration because of the pegleg, but it's still troublesome.
Articulation:
The vintage TMNT line had pretty good articulation for the most part. But Pizzaface only has a swivel neck, shoulders, and left hip. Articulation for the elbows and pegleg would bring Pizzaface up to par with the other figures in the line.
Accessories:
Pizzaface comes with two pizzas, a cleaver, a pizza cutter pegleg and a Ninja Pizza box shield. All the accessories are imaginative and interesting. I love the details on the pizzas, especially the one that has a turtle baked-in! The Ninja Pizza box is also fun, mixing a lot of cool sculpting details together, like ninja stars, pizza slices, swords, grenades, etc. It appears as if Ninja Pizza was the Foot's pizza parlor, likely a front for the Shredder's devious plans!
Value:
I managed to win this guy on eBay for a measly $5. That's a great price, especially for a vintage toy. You might be able to score him a little cheaper if you want to get a loose one, and cheaper still if you get one that's incomplete.
Coolness:
Since the Turtles love pizza so much, an evil pizza chef is the perfect villain! The concept is great, and the sculpting details give this figure plenty of personality. Also, the pegleg can be swapped out with the cleaver, so you have multiple options for display.
Overall:
Like many of the action figures from the Playmates toylines, Pizzaface is just plain fun. His sculpt is great, with cool little sculpting "Easter Eggs" in both the figure and his accessories. But I wish the paint apps were more thorough. If these sculpting details were painted appropriately, the figure would really come to life... much like this Pizzaface prototype! Not only are the paint apps awesome on the proto, I love the second head! It's too bad they didn't keep that concept!
5 out of 5 - Simply incredible!
4 out of 5 - Pretty awesome!
3 out of 5 - Cool enough, I suppose.
2 out of 5 - Not quite good enough.
1 out of 5 - Pretty horrific!
0 out of 5 - No redeeming quality at all.
4 comments:
Man, has there been any retro reviews you have done of a figure I havn't had yet? Me and my bro were HUGE turtle fans back in 89 and up through the early 90's, and Pizza Face didn't escape our notice. In fact I want to say he was in my top 10, but crud there were so many great figures in our collection, that I really can't pick. I know I played with him the most, and loved his detachable Peg legs. Come on, what's not to like about a 1 legged pizza chef villain.
I even remember all the cool sculpting on him as well, and remember thinking even when I was a kid why they didn't paint them. Personally I'd like to see a custom paint job on this figure, as I'm pretty sure if they right person did it he would look exquisitely gruesome. :)
Thanks again for a great review and figure choice. I think I look forward mostly to these reviews, but am glad you only do one every so often. The fun would be gone if you did one too much I think.
As always, great review!
I think you make a great point about toys vs. miniature statues. Watching my son play with his toys has been an almost continuous epiphany-inspiring activity. I wish we would see a greater swing of all action figures focusing on being playthings first.
I actually expect to see some 90's toys become collectible because they are some of the final examples of action figures as toys instead of miniature articulated statues.
Man, the original TMNT line is phenomenal. Aside from the endless weird versions of the 4 Turtles themselves, pretty much every figure in the line is fantastic. And outside of a few from the end of the series, they're all so cheap.
Looking at my TMNT shelf really makes me wonder what the hell happened to Playmates over the years, from the sterile and boring TMNT relaunch a few years back to their "worst movie line ever" Star Trek figures for the new movie.
Not a hint of their original creativity or ingenuity remains.
Always liked 'ol Pizzaface. I think I got him for Christmas or a birthday or something. He was certainly one of the more unique out of the lot of already interesting figures.
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