Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: NECA Reveals New Fugitoid Figure Based on Kevin Eastman’s Art

NECA has truly become the company to beat when it comes to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures. But while NECA’s recent releases have tended to focus on the ’90s TMNT films or the beloved 1987 animated series, their newest figure hearkens back to the very first incarnation of the Heroes in the Half Shell.

IGN can exclusively reveal new details on NECA’s new Fugitoid figure, which is based on co-creator Kevin Eastman’s art from the classic Mirage Comics TMNT series. Fugitoid is being released as part of the Haulathon event, a collaboration between NECA and Target.

First, get a closer look at the figure in the slideshow gallery below, then read on to find out when and where to preorder and see what Eastman had to say about bringing Fugitoid to three-dimensional life.

Fugitoid isn’t the first NECA figure based on the original TMNT comic. NECA actually got its start with the franchise releasing comic-inspired versions of the Turtles and Shredder, though those figures are long sold out now. For Eastman, part of the appeal of this collaboration was returning to the franchise’s roots and revisiting those designs.

“I love the fact that NECA has been able to take the hyper-realism of first movie, which is one of my favorite Turtles movies of all time, and then go completely switch gears and go to adapting some of the original animated series and making them look like they were pulled like right off the TV screen, which is super fun. But the fact that they’re adding to their line, especially with the Haulathon event and the different exclusives they’re doing through the Target Signature Series, and that kind of stuff is going back to that original Mirage line is just an absolute thrill. Fugitoid is one of the characters that Peter [Laird] and I first created before, even the Turtles. So that makes it even a bigger thrill for us to be part of it.”

While NECA isn’t the first company to release a Fugitoid figure, even Eastman was impressed with how faithful this new figure is to the source material.

“Looking again to the artisans at NECA… for example, I like to say the Judith Hoag [April O’Neil] figure from the first Turtle movie that they just recently released. It looks exact it’s so spectacularly beautiful down to the last detail and they’re applying that same passion and skill to some of the animated Turtle characters from the earliest cartoons and then taking that right back to home base, which is the original series.”

Eastman continues, “So noticing things that they’re doing, like the handgun that Fugitoid uses and some of the weaponry, some of the accessories that they’re packaging with the toys is pulled literally right from the comic book. And going that one extra step of making the detail of the item that’s added to the figurine look like exactly how it was drawn in the comic book. Because in those days, Pete and I were still struggling artistically to learn our craft, and still am 40 years later, but some of the crudeness of some of those items and the fact that they’ve been able to capture that crudeness and uniqueness and some of the look of the characters and the stylization is just, it pulls at the old heart string. It’s pretty awesome to see it brought together with such care and thought and attention to detail.”

So how can you add Fugitoid to your collection? Pre-orders will open on Friday, March 18 on the official Target website in the US and the Haulathon website internationally. Fugitoid will be available as both a standard figure for $32.99 and a Signature Edition (which includes a hand-signed art card) for $99.99. The figure will also be sold in limited quantities in Target stores.

NECA will continue to release a new Haulathon-exclusive figure every week for the next four weeks, so be sure to keep checking the site for new announcements and giveaways.

In other TMNT news, Nickelodeon is prepping a new series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies exclusively on Paramount+, and we recently got our first look at the retro-themed TMNT Cowabunga Collection.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Author: Jesse Schedeen. [Source Link (

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