Haulathon 2025 has come and gone. Let’s rank all the figures I picked up this year! I’ll include how I picked them up between in-person and online. For two-pack figures, I’ll rank them separately. I didn’t pick up the Unmentionables set, so I don’t have to worry about ranking those individually.
In terms of the in-person experience, Haulathon was lacking. Every Target was a different experience. Some stores had a standalone display, some had the figures mixed into the Collector’s Corner. Some had both. Even within the same stores, the experience changed week to week. The stand-alone display was a good idea in theory, but it only added to confusion about where to find the Haulathon figures. There was a store or two that I came across where there was a NECA section in the toy aisles in addition to the Collector’s Spot. Perfect execution, no notes.
My Haulathon purchases: Dark Leo, Ultimate Shredder, Ultimate Panda Khan, Shibano-sama and Creepy Eddie two pack, April O’Neil v2, Black and White Mirage Casey Jones, and the Cartoon Wyrm and Tattoo two pack.
#1 and Best of Haulathon: Panda Khan (Crouching Panda, Hidden Turtles)
I’ve gushed about how much I love the Panda Khan figure, so this shouldn’t be a surprise. Tomasz Rozejowski did a fantastic job with the sculpt, the colors are perfect, and it’s nice to see the NECA TMNT Cartoon line expand beyond the characters that only appeared in the cartoon.
I thin that best parts of every Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figure line aren’t the turtles but the supporting characters. The rogues’ and heroes gallery have always captured my attention way more than the turtles. Panda Khan, Muckman, King Lionheart, Mondo Gecko, etc are all more interesting than the turtles.
#2: Dark Leonardo (Two Scoops of Evil)
This figure’s story is fascinating and mimics the character creation process from the times of the cartoon running alongside the Archie comics, and the Playmates toys.
“Our TMNT Brand Manager, Trevor Zammit, worked with concept artist Jason Yang to create a pitch deck of potential ‘what if’ characters for IDW, who selected our Dark Leo design, which envisioned a world where Leonardo had joined the Foot Clan. Having only one concept per character, this is where the true collaboration began, as IDW artist Sarah Myer would go on to create dark looks for the rest of the team, and Erik Burnham would develop a storyline that fit within the Saturday Morning Adventures comic.” -NECA Brand Manager Blaine Rodenbaugh (source | archive)
I really enjoy the Saturday Morning Adventures comics. They play in the sandbox of the original cartoon with cleverness that the Fred Wolf cartoon never possessed. Expanding the cartoon line into this comic line continues its *ahem* adventures beyond the original cartoon’s boundaries.
Each of the NECA TMNT figure lines have introduced styles from new artists. The Mirage line introduced the “Jim Lawson Turtles.” The Adventures line revealed that they’ll introduce an April O’Neil based on Chris Allen’s art, deviating from the Ken Mitchroney designs. The movie line introduced the hellish Christmas turtles, Coming Out of Our Shells turtles, and the third movie turtles, all deviations from the Jim Henson designs. Dark Leonardo is the first introduction of someone a different design into the cartoon line.
I think there’s a deeper review of Dark Leonardo coming based on all of this writing!
#3: Black and White Mirage Casey Jones
The black and white variants of the Mirage line are awesome and the Casey Jones sculpt by Josh Sutton really shines along with the black and white color variant. I picked up the original Casey Jones in the fall of 2023. I added the classic colors variant to the action figure library as part of the 2024 end of year blind box. It only seemed appropriate to complete the trio!
I haven’t taken the Casey Jones out of the box, so I’ll leave NECA’s images of the figure for the blog post.
#4: Cartoon Wyrm (Cartoon Wyrm and Tattoo Two Pack)
Along with Panda Khan and Dark Leonardo, we’ve ventured outside of the strict definition of “cartoon” for this figure. The two different two packs in Haulathon this year are pretty deep cuts. They all appear in a single episode (or less!) of the cartoon and the Creepy Eddie and Shibano-sama are appearing in toy for for the first time.
Wyrm is an iconic character design from the Playmates era. I reviewed Wyrm in a previous post. If you missed the commercial he appeared in, you’d never even know that he was ever animated at all. At the same time, he looks exactly like you’d expect. A jaw with articulation, swappable eyes, and a pair of fun accessories? Yes!
#5 Cartoon Ultimate Shredder (Start Shredding the News)
I bet you’d expect this figure to be higher on the list, but I’ll be honest in that it’s kinda boring in how perfect it is. It’s hard to believe that we haven’t gotten an Ultimate Shredder until now. The cartoon Shredder figures from 2019 (paired with Leonardo), 2020 (paired with Krang), and 2021 (in the pinball crate) all looked like Shredder, but they didn’t look like the real cartoon Shredder.
The cartoon Ultimate Shredder is that Shredder. The accessories are fun, but at the end of the day, this is the Shredder we always needed. I don’t love a soft goods cape and I don’t think I ever will, but if you’re not really staring, it doesn’t make too much of a difference.
#6 Cartoon Shibano-sama (Creepy Eddie and Shibano-sama Two Pack)
I think it’s important to say that I like all of these figures and the list is a ranking of the action figures that I purchased, but when you’re ranking things some of them have to be at the bottom of your list.
Shibano-sama brings translucency to the cartoon figures. Did I remember Shibano-sama from the cartoon when it was announced? Nope. Was I excited to get an action figure ghost? Yes. Was I excited to get a partially translucent action figure ghost? Hell yeah I was.
The figure has a feature I don’t think I’ve seen from another NECA figure, which is that when you use his “ghostly” legs, you can attach it to a small urn to make it look like he’s coming out of the urn. It’s a surprisingly well balanced to be on such a small base.
While the two pack shares a lot of the same molds between hands, feet, and ghostly apparition bottom half, I still feel like it offers a lot of fun and value. In addition to the two figures and accessories, it also comes with a stand to allow the figures to “float” while in their ghostly forms. NECA sells stands, but it’s nice to be able to use what the figures come with to keep them upright.
#7 Mirage April O’Neil v2
There was no question that I had to pick this one up as soon as it was announced. I love the non-super human action figures in the Mirage line, including Casey Jones, April O’Neil, Baxter Stockman, and Jack Kirby. This is NECA’s second April O’Neil in the Mirage line and the April that’s true to the cover of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 11 from June of 1987.
April feels is a necessity for a TMNT action figure collection! I’ve been wanting an April in the Mirage style for a while, but I’ll admit that it’s not a strong enough desire to pay a grail price for the figure. The original April is a San Diego Comic Con exclusive from 2009 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the turtles. We could have had the 15th anniversary of the figure in 2024. I’ve seen speculation on Reddit that the molds for the early NECA turtle figures were lost and that’s why we’ve never seen an official re-release of them. I’m not sure I believe that and if it were true, I don’t think it would stop NECA from recreating them.
Like the Casey figure, my April figure is still in box!
#8 Creepy Eddie (Shbano-sama and Creepy Eddie Two Pack)
The other end of the Shbano-sama two pack is Creepy Eddie, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Freddy Krueger. The episode he comes from, Nightmare in the Lair, is a fun little self-contained story with a villain unique and memorable enough to come back in the Saturday Morning Adventures Halloween Special comic book (a comic that also includes a cameo from Shibano-sama!). Another reason to love the people in charge of the Saturday Morning Adventures comic books.
Creepy Eddie checks all the boxes. He’s faithful to the cartoon, has a replaceable set of legs that swaps with a ghostly bottom half, and is unique, but up against the rest of the Haulathon figures, he doesn’t stand as much as a Panda Khan or a Dark Leo.
#9 Tattoo (Wyrm and Tattoo Two Pack)
Look, there had to be a figure that was at the bottom of the pack. While I love the humans in the Mirage line of figures, I’m still deciding about the cartoon line’s humans, Tattoo included. While Tattoo was a one note joke in the cartoon, he had a badass design in the Adventures comic book. Look at the Peter Laird and Dan Berger cover to Adventures 32 compared to the cartoon. One day we’ll get an Adventures Tattoo figure and it’ll be badass as hell (and hopefully very large).
Ultimately, I think I’m just disappointed in the cartoon Tattoo action figure. Like the rest of the list, I’m still glad I have it in the collection, but my mind goes to what could be rather than what is. The cartoon line, while being my second favorite (behind the Archie figures), is a double edged sword. If a figure is faithful to the cartoon and the cartoon was dull, you run the risk of a bit of a dull figure.
There we go, Haulathon is complete. There’s still one more drop online to be had, but at this point we’ve gotten all the most anticipated releases. In terms of having the community’s attention, I’m not sure this maintained six weeks of attention. A combination of announcing everything in advance and NECA releasing other TMNT action figures mid-Haulathon made for a bit of a chaotic experience.
Overall I’m still exceptionally happy with my purchases. I’d love a breather before the next big set of NECA releases, but somehow I don’t think that NECA is gonna stay quiet for very long. Cheers, we made it!