- Monday, November 16, 2015 1:21 PM
- DisneyDan
Hello everyone,
One of my favourite characters from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series is the Fugitoid. The Fugitoid is a fugitive android, that was formerly an android named SAL and a human named Professor Honeycutt. Following an accident, which varies slightly in each incarnation of the series, Honeycutt becomes infused with SAL, and becomes known as Fugitoid by the Triceratons - a name that sticks even with his allies.
Over the years Playmates Toys, who hold the rights to TMNT action figures, have produced a variety of Fugitoid figures, of which I have all of them. Most recently they came out with a two new ones based on the current Nickelodeon TV series, in which he features.
As I have been doing more and more current toy reviews, I thought that as well as reviewing the most recently released Fugitoid, it would be fun to look at the previous ones at the same time also.
Back in 1990, Playmates released a Fugitoid figure, the first one they had ever made. It was a gold/brown color and came with a variety of attachable accessories. Interestingly, at this point, Fugitoid had not featured in any TMNT cartoon or film, only the comic books - in which he is white.
The photo here is of my Fugitoid, which has the small biography cut from the backing card, and three of the four accessories he originally came with.
Fourteen years later Playmates made the second version of the Fugitoid, this time from the TV series that was running at the time, in which Fugitoid featured. This figure comes, again, with some accessories, and the backing card has a short bio about him. As a collector, I didn't want to remove this one from the packaging, and I simply display him by putting a push pin through the shelf hanger, on the wall.
The next Fugitoid came out in 2009, and is something that I only acquired recently, simply because I had no idea it existed! This figure was produced exclusively for Mirage Studios, the original owners and creators of TMNT. Mirage sold the TMNT to Nickelodeon in late 2009, and so this was the most likely the last figure ever produced under that brand. As I said, it was actually a Studios exclusive, and you had to order from them to get it. Six years later (just a couple of weeks ago) I was searching for comics on the Mirage website and what did I find? They still had this figure! Amazing! It was $15 shipped within the US, and came signed by Peter Laird himself! I'll be completely honest, I expected that he would have signed these years ago, and that they had been sitting in a stock room somewhere. However, it does say 2015 on it. I mean, how would he know he'd still be selling these in 2015? So it has to be a current signature.
The box is important for me as a TMNT fan as it has the address of Mirage Studios on it - Northampton, MA, which is also plays a key part in many of the TMNT story arcs.
Fugitoid came in a sealed bag. He isn't articulated, more of a display item, but he's still really awesome (especially for $15 with a signed box!)
Six years after that release, we arrive in 2015, and Playmates has a new Fugitoid figure that was released very recently - but is quite hard to find. We luckily managed to get ahold of one though. Like with the 2004 figure, I have kept him in the box. He doesn't come with any accessories this time, but for the first time he is actually white - which he was in the original comic (and indeed is in the current show). The back of the box has some bio info, like the others.
Finally, very recently there was one more Fugitoid released - this time in a special box set with the four TMNT. The Metal Mutants pack has metallic versions of the characters from the currently airing season four. As with the others, for now he remains unopened. He doesn't have any accessories, but he does look pretty cool, I think.
Well, there we have it! A complete history of the Fugitoid action figures! It would be hard for me to chose a favourite as they are all cool for different reasons, although the one that came signed from Peter Laird recently definitely had me the most excited I had ever been over a TMNT figure!
If you have any comments, you can leave them in the Disqus section below.
Have a great week everyone.
Dan.
