NECA TMNT Mutant Interest Story (April O’ Neil Ver. 2)
The Turtles’ very first human friend and ally, April O’Neil is a television news reporter working at Channel 6 News. Usually a field reporter, she has also been an occasional anchor for the “Happy Hour News” program.
This is actually the second version of this character in the toyline. Utilizing the same body, but now featuring a more proportioned head and a new upper torso with a raised collar to better capture the cartoon model.
Supposedly, her auburn hair and jumpsuit outfit were inspired by Fujiko Mine from the Anime Lupin III. I can see it.
The body is generally still the same as the previous release.
April’s wristwatch can actually be removed. Be mindful not to lose it when swapping out her hands.
While it still stands at 6 inches tall, same as with the original, the figure is a huge improvement in terms of proportions IMHO.
From the two-pack with the “bashed” Foot Soldier. I can’t unsee that large head now.
As an added bonus, the set comes with an extra heads, so you can actually pop the head off the version 1.0 body and put the extra head on instead.
The set comes with a snare for April. I’m not sure if this ever appeared in the show?
Poor April, she’s always getting into trouble. Ever the hostage…?
The snare fits pretty snugly on the figure. I doubt you can use it on the Turtles or even Casey or Splinter.
April comes with the same accessories as before, such as the Maltese Hamster (from Season 3, it was supposed to have a secret formula inside which could power up the Technodrome) and the Pizza Monster (from Season 2, “The Case of the Killer Pizzas”, a spoof of the Xenomorphs from the Aliens saga, exposing the monsters to water makes them grow into huge beasts), but this set has some new additions, such as the “The Hare and the Tortoise ” storybook and a picture of April’s Aunt Agatha.
Same as with the previous release, her Turtle Communicator Compact opens up.
The photo in the frame is Apri’s Aunt, Agatha “Aggie” Marbles, an amateur consulting detective who actually appeared in two episodes on the show, “Case of the Hot Kimono” and “Sleuth on the Loose”. Her character was inspired by Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, the titular hero of one of her mystery novel series.
April also comes with the Doku Plant, from the episode “Enter: The Fly”, where Shredder sends April a poisonous plant. After inhaling the pollen from the plant, April is poisoned, it was up to the Turtles to scour the city to find the Gazai plant that had the antidote to save her. This accessory was also available with Baxter Stockman from the two-pack with Splinter.
April also comes with a Venus Flytrap plant, from the epilogue scene of “It Came from Beneath the Sewers”. She presents it to the Turtles as a gift, unknowing of their harrowing adventure in dealing with a mutated Venus Flytrap-type creature from Dimension X a shortly before she arrived. It bites Mikey on the nose before the credits roll.
As a TV reporter, she comes with her gear. It’s the same equipment that we’ve seen from the previous release.
“Care to comment?”
A television camera is also included with the accessories. It’s the same one we got from the previous April.
April also comes with pointing hands exclusive to this set.
Aside from her new pointing hands, April also now comes with “V” hands. Cool.
“That’s a wrap!”
To top it all off, the set lastly comes with a printed backdrop for our ace reporter.
In the final seasons of the show, April eventually left Channel 6 News (after fighting with her boss Burne on time too many), ditched her yellow jumpsuit look and instead wore a brown jacket and worked as a freelance reporter. Sadly, she also began to distance herself from the Turtles. She began to appear less frequently on the show, declaring she put her adventurous past behind her and was trying to move on with her life (yeah, I’m not a fan of how the writers treated her too).
Overall, a great set. NECA never fails to impress when it comes to details and accessories and this release is no exception. I’m glad they revisited this figure, as it really does put the version 1.0 to shame and she was a really integral part of the show.
Gold
