What does it feel like to hold fun in your hands? Unbox the NECA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures Stump Wrestling Ace Duck. It’s hard not to giggle at how beautifully ridiculous he is.
I’m loving every moment of the NECA “Joy Era.” When I’ve seen some discussion around “what’s even left for NECA to release?,” NECA has been getting weird, digging deep, and having fun with their releases. From the Cartoon series we’ve seen Dark Leonardo, Robot Tokka and Rahzar, Wyrm, and Panda Khan. The Last Ronin has the Nightwatcher figures and the baby turtles. The movie line is getting a “what if” Bebop and Rocksteady. The Mirage line’s the Unmentionables four pack was a surprise. That super weird Metaluna Krang and two-headed Donatello and Michelangelo are coming to Universal Monsters. There’s a whole set of Stan Sakai figures coming soon! Adventures will see Wingnut and Screwloose but nothing to date is weirder than Ace Duck. The “Joy Era” of NECA is here.
The creation of Ace Duck is somewhat unknown, but it’s possible that Peter Laird’s “Duck” toy concept sketch from April 25, 1988 is the origin. Quoting Peter’s blog from June 2010: “I have no idea if this drawing influenced the creation of the “Ace Duck” figure.” It’s pretty easy to see the resemblance. There’s some sketches and concept art from Errol McCarthy that popped up in an eBay auction a while ago and can also be found in Chris Fawcett’s awesome book Rad Plastic. McCarthy’s duck is named “Quack Up” Steve Quacken and is very obviously modeled from Steve McQueen in the film The War Lover.
Ace Duck’s appearance in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comic books are the most thorough appearance Ace Duck had in the 80s or 90s. While Ace Duck is one of the most well known Playmates action figures, he only appeared in the original cartoon for a brief moment on television in the sewer den. The Ace Duck from the Fred Wolf cartoon was essentially the same design that was in the Playmates action figure, despite having a very different backstory.
In the lore of the Playmates action figures, released in 1989, Ace Duck is a human who flies into an energy beam from Krang, making him a rare mutant that was transformed without mutagen. After meeting the Turtles, he becomes their blimp pilot for hire.
Ace Duck showed up in the Adventures Archie comic around the same time as he did in the cartoon, but very different. In the Adventures number 7, penciled by Jim Lawson, Ace Duck is the Stump Wrestling champion when the Turtles are introduced to him. He’s dispatched by Leatherhead while the Turtles wrestle Cryin’ Houn. When the Turtles return to Stump Wrestling in issue 37, penciled by Chris Allan, he’s wrestling Bloodbath while the Turtles take on “El Mysterio” who is absolutely not Cryin’ Houn’ under a mask.
The first glimpse we got at an unpainted Ace Duck came from a Mad Hatter Reviews video on July 27, 2024 at San Diego Comic Con 2024 and in the slides of the Toys Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Panel. (We’re still waiting for El Mysterio!) NECA’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Stump Wrestling Ace Duck was fully revealed on October 27, 2024 at New York Comic Con 2024 and available for pre-order as a part of Walmart’s Collector Con on March 13, 2025. My figure arrived July 15.
“I was adamant about the bulges.”
Aaron Hazouri
Concept Artist and Illustrator – NECA
Can we talk about the bulges? They can’t be missed. This might be some of the smallest wrestling gear I’ve ever seen on an anthropomorphic duck in plastic form. Hazouri’s design and the sculpt from Tomasz Rozejowski are dead on, as all of the TMNT Adventures figures from NECA have been. Rozejowski has sculpted the entire line, and the sculpts all feel so perfect.
The elbows and knees are single jointed and the ball joint torso has little give, which can somewhat limit the figure’s possibility, but at the same time it feels somewhat appropriate, as Ace Duck is a muscle-bound giant. I don’t think that the pinless double elbow and knee joints that we’ve seen in the smaller figures would look good on this figure. This also follows the joints we’ve seen in the larger NECA figures like the Stump Wrestling and Mirage Leatherheads.
We have to talk about his butt. Look at it! I can’t recall seeing butt cheek lines in a TMNT figure before. Can you? The tail feathers and wings are the largest differentiators between the Jim Lawson and Chris Allan designs for Ace Duck. Unlike the Mirage Leatherhead figure, which gave a Jim Lawson and a Dan Berger head sculpt, Ace Duck falls solely in the Lawson camp. Shelf space is finite and giant wings take up a lot of room. Even with shelf space at a premium, I’d still make room for a Cudley Cowlick figure/vehicle if NECA produced one.
Remember how I said that part of this era of NECA was digging deep? May I introduce you to a single panel from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures issue 7 where Leatherhead is swinging Ace Duck around during their wrestling match. NECA included an additional head straight from that single panel.
The other alternate head is another smarmy look straight from the same comic that compliments the other two heads well. This way you have an angry look, a confident look, and a combat look. This is a figure meant to be posed posing, so the toothy grin is perfect for him to sit on your shelf and show off his bulging biceps. I did find it a little difficult to remove the head from its peg, but I never know how much pressure to apply when removing a part. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to pulling the head or a hand off of an action figure after spending my entire life being careful not to break my toys.
Credit to Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo for the color choice and small details with their line work that go hand in hand with the sculpt to solidly ground the figure in the Adventures universe. Even the accessory folding chair has lifework and detail that makes it feel like it belongs in the comic books. Some of the criticisms I’ve seen about figures or accessories is a lack of pain application on flat-painted or flat-colored parts, and there’s none of that to be had here. Everything feels good and the paint is good. You’ll see a little scratching on the chair, that’s my fault and not how it arrived.
The packaging is solid, adorned with fun art from Ken Mitchroney. Of all the NECA TMNT figure lines, the Adventures line has the best packaging hands down. I think the Adventures line has the most personality of all of NECA’s TMNT lines, allowing for a solid blend of original art on the package with the actual figure through the window. I also love NECA’s pairings of specific artists with specific lines. Ken Mitchroney with Adventures, Aaron Hazouri with Cartoon, Ben Bishop with The Last Ronin, Kevin Eastman with Mirage, and Daniel Horne with Universal Monsters. I’m very interested to see who they’ll pair with the 2012 line of figures!
| Title | Credit |
| Director | Randy Falk Trevor Zammit |
| Sculpt and Fabrication | Tomasz Rozejowski Kushwara Studios |
| Paint | Geoff Trapp Mike Puzzo |
| Prototypes | Roger Fernandez |
| Photography | Stephen Mazurek |
| Illustrations | Ken Mitchroney |
| Packaging | Travis Hastback Gary Fields |
Stump Wrestling Ace Duck is another excellent addition in the TMNT Adventures line from NECA. This is an absolute joy all around to have in my collection. There’s a palpable amount of joy I get from this action figure and I’m not sure that there’s any higher compliment that I can give. I hope the Joy Era of NECA never ends!