The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Slash and Tokka never directly interacted in any piece of TMNT media as far as I can recall, and yet they’ve always had a deep connection. JoyToy continues the tradition that was started by Playmates and continued by NECA.
Despite having these toys as a kid, I was an adult when I realized that 1990’s Slash and 1991’s Tokka were predominantly the same action figure. The differences that I can see between the two are the head, forearm, hands, and the armor pieces. Aside from that, they’re basically the same.
Playmates’ Slash and Tokka and the History of the Design
An interesting note to this is that the Slash figure appears to be a group effort between Anaglyph Studios and Varner Studios, according to an Instagram post from Varner.
Here’s the hardcopy Slash head we sculpted for Playmates in the 90s!Playmates reused the body from Tokka that I believe @scottthensey did which is why we don’t have the body. -Posted to Instagram December 3, 2023
Slash was released in 1990 and Tokka in 1991, and when Slash was shown off at the 1990 Toy Fair in February of 1990, the first TMNT movie wasn’t released yet, let along the second one. “But what about Terrapin the Terrible” created by Stephen R. Bissette? He was credited as creating Tokka to the degree that he had a share of the character at some point. Always look to the copyright notices in the comics. This one’s from the Secret of the Ooze adaptation:
In theory, Terrapin the Terrible could have been the base for the Slash/Tokka body, but the well circulated pitch drawing for Terrorpin the Terrible is dated April 1990, which was after the Slash figure was released. There’s a story that Kevin Eastman had a Tokka drawing in 1990, but the only copies of it that I can find online is a traced copy from the year 2000. There’s one other piece of art that has a bit of a hint.
This is from a page from Kevin Eastman’s Artobiography, with work by Kevin Eastman and Eric Talbot. It’s a take on Leonardo based on the swords and the straps. At the same time, it’s a piece of work from 1989, which works out for the timing of everything.
Despite the credit for Slash going to Ryan Brown, I don’t think this specific piece can be overlooked. In terms of what this piece has going for it:
- Hulking physique
- The teeth
- The bandana has the same orientation
- Shoulder armor
- Spiked club
- Left eye enlarged
In terms of the toys, it’s surprising to see that there’s very little out there when it comes to Slash prototypes or hard copies or even sketches. There’s been a lot published when it comes to characters from the same era, but Slash is absent. Among traders and collectors, I’ve only ever seen one incomplete Slash prototype be shared.
The arm is mostly consistent with the released toy, but the shell hadn’t been finalized, nor the armor pieces added. The tail is present, but isn’t what would become the final tail. This is the only photos of this design that I’ve seen across any of the available media. (If I’m wrong, get in touch with me).
NECA’s Cartoon Tokka and Adventures Slash
When it comes to NECA, Ithere’s some obvious re-use of the sculpt. NECA released the TMNT cartoon Tokka and Rahzar two pack in March of 2022 as part of Haulathon at Target. Slash was announced for pre-order one month prior in February 2022, but wasn’t made available until 2023. Tokka was released first, followed by Slash. Balance for the order of Playmates release, although I doubt that’s why it happened that way. Two birds, one stone with this announcement schedule.
The NECA Cartoon Tokka and Adventures Slash sculpts share legs, most of their arms the shell, with some exception the belt is the same, and a portion of the chest plate. Kudos to the NECA team for adding a bit of fun and continuing the toy lore. Continuing the Playmates connection, the shoulder armor is different per figure. The same goes for the elbow and wrist wraps, head, and hand sculpts.
JoyToy’s Tokka and Slash
JoyToy’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line is really fantastic and imaginative. There’s something that’s freeing when a piece of TMNT art is disconnected from any specific continuity. This was apparent with the Shredder’s Revenge video game, which liberally took inspiration across continuities by adding in Super Shredder and Karai and taking design inspiration from the Playmates toys. This is also the case with the recent TMNT x Fortnite collaboration, which takes elements of the 1987, 2003, and 2012 cartoons as well as creating new designs for the Turtles.
JoyToy takes a similarly creative approach, forging their own path by drawing inspiration from multiple designs and thinking outside the box when it suits the figures. Slash comes with two heads that sit comfortably in the center of the Venn diagram of the Playmates, Archie Adventures, and Fred Wolf cartoon designs. One head features a black bandana, and the other a metal one, both with a larger yellow left eye. It’s fun to explore the figures and discover small details that reference each version of the character. It’s an interesting direction to take, especially after the Bebop and Rocksteady figures closely followed the Playmates designs.
Slash and Tokka each have their typical pauldrons , with Slash’s tied together with rope and Tokka’s being spiked. Tokka’s belt buckle matches the foot logo from the previously released toys and Slash trades the backwards S for a Jolly Roger.
With the exception of Tokka’s leg spikes, we’re looking at identical leg sculpts. You can see in the image that the belts are nearly identical, including the holster. The paint job differs between the and the visual difference in the scales does a great job to mask the sculpts. On their own, the figures might look like they’re in-line with the scale of the NECA figures, but they’re under five inches tall, which makes some of the details that are packed into these figures quite amazing to have in the hand.
They both have some interesting additions to their shells. Tokka has hooks built into his shell that appear to be metal and Slash has something that look like sword frogs. Each of them carry a lot of accessories, so the holsters and many different ways to hold on to accessories are welcomed. JoyToy goes all out when it comes to accessories.
I did have one gripe with the Tokka figure. One of the two little hooks embedded into his shell was loose and it’s small. Like, really small and the rug in my office is a recycled t-shirt rug. Extremely colorful and lots of texture to lose things in. A loose part on a figure is hardly news, but this one really annoyed me because I was the one that kept forgetting about it and then almost immediately losing it again in the rug. I guess I’m a bit more angry at myself than some loose glue.
I’m really impressed with JoyToy’s action figures. It’s enough for me to consider picking up a figure or two from their Warhamme line of figures because of the quality and attention to detail. Instead, I’ll settle for the next wave of their TMNT figures. These two are stunning figures and JoyToy continued the tradition of linking Tokka and Slash together.