Another night, another NECA-styled TMNT custom! Today I'm posting one that I started working on after NECA already announced their own version of the character, but it was part of a videogame-themed convention exclusive box set (that STILL hasn't released yet), and I wanted my own cartoon version of the character. Say hello to the ragin' Cajun reptile, the mutant suitcase from down on the bayou, it's Leatherhead!

In almost every incarnation of the TMNT, Leatherhead is an ally of the Turtles. Not so in the '87 cartoon, where they made him a straight-up villain, initially to the Punk Frogs (who he wanted to enslave . . . for . . . reasons, look, it was the '80s, okay? The plots didn't make a lot of sense, just go with it), but when the Turtles came to their rescue, they quickly earned his ire and a long-standing grudge. He only appeared in a handful of episodes, but he was instantly popular, and appeared as one of the bosses in the Arcade game, cementing him as an icon of the Turtles' rogues gallery.

Frustratingly, he's one of the most inconsistently drawn characters in the franchise. Even from cell to cell in his cartoon appearances, he's frequently shown with VASTLY varied proportions, facial structure, gear, even his clothes change! Of note, the action figure and videogame appearance give him tattered blue jeans and brown leather boots (and on the figure and some promo art, bushy yellow eyebrows, because alligators have hair . . . I guess?), while in the cartoon, he wore baggy rubber swamp waders. Obviously, as my goal is cartoon accuracy, I went with the waders.

Like my Krang Android, Leatherhead is a TON of original sculpt. Even the seemingly unmodified portions of the original figures are actually covered in Loctite putty. I started with a Spider-Man & Friends Lizard figure. Yes, a preschool toy, I wouldn't have expected it either, but he had the PERFECT torso and shoulders and coat for ol' Leatherhead, and his head was even a good starting point for the swamp gator. I cut off his lower arms and replaced them with the thighs from a Marvel Legends "Fin Fang Foom" wave She-Hulk, complete with the hip joints, to give him rotate and hinge joints in his elbows. The hands came from a Batman: Knight Force Ninjas Tailwhip Killer Croc (a figure I originally intended to use as the base body for this piece, 'til I found the SM&F Lizard at a thrift store), as did the tail. The legs came from a WWE Elite Flashback Big Boss Man (they look smooth and rubbery, a good start for waders), and the feet came from some random fodder I had lying around . . . I think an old ToyBiz Street Fighter Zangief figure?

The rest was sculpt, sculpt, sculpt! Thicker legs, bigger feet, the pelvis, the hands (Killer Croc has five fingers, Leatherhead has four, I had to modify them), the belt, the wrist wraps, pockets, hat, and most of the head. I spliced joints into the Killer Croc tail so it has multiple points of rotation, and I made a second, swappable open hand out of one of Lizard's discarded hands. The TWO minor changes I made to his cartoon design is that I kept the grid pattern on his arms from the Lizard figure, and I kept the claws from Killer Croc. For some reason, in the cartoon, Leatherhead's arms are smooth and pristine, and he's got no reptillian claws on his fingers. The Lizard figure had a scale-like grid pattern on his upper arms, as did the Killer Croc tail, and I felt it just looked more accurate and natural for a mutant alligator. And of course, what four legged reptile doesn't have claws of some sort?

Leatherhead's "Crawdad Clamps" are just Lego lobsters, pegged onto Lego neck pegs that I installed on his hips. His bazooka (as it appears in his team-up episode with Rat King, built out of random sewer pipes and trash . . . again, these plots were bonkers) is made from random weapon fodder and more sculpt, and his swamp trap is a bear trap from a WWE figure, redesigned to actually open and close, and hung from his tail by a necklace chain.

(By the way, to anyone wondering . . . if you don't like soft goods on your figures, and you have the NECA cartoon Shredder? The cape from Marvel Legends Prowler is PERFECT for this figure!)

I am SO happy with how Leatherhead turned out. He was such a cobbled-together mess, and I honestly wasn't sure if he'd look good as a finished product, but he turned out just about perfect, and even if NECA does deliver a cartoon-accurate version in the future, mine is gonna stand proud on my shelf!

TURTLE POWER!!