NECA’s Panda Khan explores a “what if” scenario that never materialized in the original 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. Despite nearly all indicators that Panda Khan would follow Usagi Yojimbo by hitting the Playmates toy line and the Fred Wolf cartoon. Monica Sharp and Dave Garcia’s Panda Khan hit the Playmates toy line in 1990 and… that was pretty much it. There’s little publicly known about why Panda Khan disappeared from TMNT, and until now, he had only a single Playmates toy entry.
NECA’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Panda Khan figure is a delight. The design and colors are playful and alive. The sculpt and paint combination inspire joy. It’s highly posable despite the sculpt’s ornamental nature. Between this figure and the Mirage Leatherhead, choosing my favorite action figure of 2025 is going to be difficult.
Panda Khan might be one of the tallest and largest normal-sized figures in the NECA TMNT Cartoon line, save the oversized figures like Rex-1, Chrome Dome, Napoleon Colossus, and Android Krang. I’m not counting the Molecular Amplification Android Krang, because while NECA showed it off, they haven’t said anything about it in a long while. In terms of the cartoon line from this year’s Haulathon, he stands taller than Creepy Eddie and Shredder, and they’re the tallest in this year’s releases as far as the figures I’ve opened.
In terms of the design, as far as I can tell, the design came from NECA because of an Instagram post from Aaron Hazouri:
A couple other artists did some designs for Panda Khan before I came on board. I worked with Trevor (Zammit) and Tomasz (Rozejowski) to come up with the final design, which is like TMNT 87 meets Playmates.
They chose the portlier version of Panda between the posted sketches, but I’ll admit that I love the other version that Aaron posted. The final figure isn’t as chubby as the drawing, but he’s still carrying some extra weight around his waist. No judgement.
Gaelstone Media is using a variation of the action figure design in its marketing materials and in the connected Bull Airs merchandise, but the released trailer for the cartoon doesn’t, ahem, bear a resemblance to the NECA design. This could be a momentary capitalization on the momentary popularity of the figure with a return to the intended design or a shift in how the show will look. For the moment, it’s anyone’s guess.
Having a blank canvas rather than re-creating something from the Fred Wolf cartoon has been a huge bonus for this figure. It’s not that the cartoon-faithful figures have been bad, but the Fred Wolf creative team often took characters from other TMNT media and twisted them against the wishes of the original creators. As an example, Ray Fillet was never included in the cartoon either. He was intended to be a villain in the show and the team that created Ray, Ryan Brown and Steve Lavigne, rejected the script because of that. I could imagine the same fate befalling Panda Khan.
NECA has done a good job of building extensibility into its alternate heads and accessories. Panda Khan features two heads and two swappable “domes,” allowing you to swap in and out the two facial expressions with the ponytail and ears/no ears head. The bamboo hat also works in the same fashion. It’s similar to how different heads work with the any of the sculpts that feature Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Even between sets, like the Space Donatello/Samurai Mikey two pack or any of the Pizza Club Turtles. It’s ingenious.
The sculpt by Tomasz Rozejowski includes brilliant placement of the pieces of the samurai armor that Panda Khan is sporting. The armor is a soft plastic that has some give, which allows for movement and the Full Townshend (trademark toomuchnewtoys). They’re also placed strategically on the arms and allows for shoulder movement that isn’t found in other figures like Shredder as Dracula. The same goes for his hip joints and the belted armor. He can’t manage a full split due to his large thighs but can still hold a partial squat.
There’s two tests I usually do while posing figures. The first is to see if their hands can touch and the second is to see if I can get their hand to touch their chin to post them in a “thinking” position. Panda Khan can do both!
The amount of accessories is impressive, with a backpack, three additional pairs of hands (one to hold the claws, one that holds Panda Khan’s sword, the Morning Qi, one open, and one fist), two heads with their own head/hair option, a bamboo hat, and claws. For a figure of this size and of this much plastic, it’s kinda surprising to get this much along with it.
Panda Khan has a pinless design for double-jointed elbows and single-jointed knees, but it’s deeper and more brilliant than that. The sculpt itself has pins, but they’re not seen. This appears to be rolling out across NECA’s designs, independent of the sculptor, making me think that this is the future of NECA figures.
When Panda Khan was unveiled by NECA at Toy Fair 2025, it was a part of a few announcements by NECA that I referenced as NECA going bonkers in my Shredder as Dracula review. At one event, they showed off a fan-inspired robotic Tokka and Rahzar concept that never happened in the cartoons for the cartoon line a Bebop and Rocksteady if had they appeared in the 1990s movies, a full line of Stan Sakai turtles, and a Panda Khan for the cartoon line, despite Panda Khan never appearing in the cartoons.
The interest in Panda Khan didn’t come out of nowhere. In May 2020, Gaelstone Media purchased the rights to Panda Khan and has been developing ideas around the character ever since. I watched their Party Wagon interview with Gary Dolan of Bull Airs about the Bull Airs Panda Khan release, which was appears to have been timed to the NECA figure release.
As far as to why Panda Khan appeared in the toys and not the cartoon? According to Jon Bryans and Bryan Liddiard, “there are reasons for that, but those aren’t reasons that anybody needs to get into. We just say, you know, they didn’t move forward.” As a result of that quote, I absolutely want to get into it. Usagi Yojimbo has a much stronger history than Panda Khan, both in volume of comics and toys, and appeared in the cartoon in addition to having multiple figures in the original toy line. In recent years, Usagi paved the way for Panda Khan with NECA making multiple Usage figures, including a Usagi Yojimbo-only four pack. I think there’s eight in all.
Jon Bryans and Bryan Liddiard seem to be passionate about building a universe and a new origin and we’ll have to see how their work develops. They’v been working on an animated show for a few years, but they finally released a teaser at the end of 2024, saying they’ll be releasing the show this year. For comparison, Nacelle purchased Robo Force in June of 2021, had figures in stores in summer 2024, and released the animated show in April of 2025.
While I like the idea of Panda Khan being brought back, I’ll always have reservations around a company buying the rights and trying to incorporate them into a shared universe of other franchises. I worry that if Nacelle or Gaelstone could tank an entire list of franchises in one blow if something fails.
As usual, NECA’s credits on the bottom of the packaging are something that I adore. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have always embodied the spirit of independent artists, and seeing the names of everyone who worked on this figure along with “Inspired by the independent comic book The Chronicles of Panda Khan, created by Monica Sharp and Dave Garcia” shows a care that many other companies don’t display.
| Title | Credits |
| Director | Randy Falk Trevor Zammit |
| Sculpt & Fabrication | Tomasz Rozejowski Kushawara Studios |
| Paint | Geoff Trapp Mike Puzzo |
| Prototypes | Roger Fernandez |
| Photography | Matt Kloberdanz |
| Packaging | Travis Hastback |
| Illustrations | Aaron Hazouri |
Panda Khan was made available online during NECA/Target’s Haulathon on April 25, 2025 (week three), alongside Mirage Old Man Raphael and the Cartoon Wyrm/Tattoo two-pack (archived Haulathon page). People started finding the figure in stores in the weeks prior, but I hadn’t found it in any of the Target stores near my home, so I ordered it online. Of course, in the week between ordering and the figure’s arrival, I found it in-store. Haulathon is more intense this year than prior years, so I only have one Panda Khan in the collection and waited for delivery until May 2.