Funko POP! Retro Toys: TMNT – Splinter

The new Funko POP! Retro Toys: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) – Splinter Funko Pop! Vinyl Figure dropped today at Target website as an exclusive.

We can finally have your favorite heroes’ master on the shelf. Although, if you have any Shredder figures nearby, don’t be surprised if Master Splinter breaks free to go kick some bad guy butt! Some rivalries never die…

When you see a rat on the street, what do you see? Do you see vermin that need to be exterminated or a wise master that is simply trying to feed his four mutant turtle children?

Master Splinter, the master of the turtles, has two different versions of origin. In the original comics, the live-action movies, and the 2003 cartoon, he was a pet rat of the ninja Hamato Yoshi, who was accidentally exposed to radioactive material and acquired an anthropomorphic (human) form.

In the second version (1987 and 2012 cartoons), he was Hamato Yoshi himself.

 Master Splinter Funko Pop! exclusive to Target is now available at the links below. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, TMNT or The Ninja Turtles is one of the best-known franchises in the world. The characters are stars of comic books, cartoons, TV series, and movies, and yesterday they starred in their fourth live-action movie, directed by Jonathan Liebesman and produced by Michael Bay.

The group consisting of four mutant ninja turtles are Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello, and the four names make references to Renaissance artists. They were created and trained by Master Splinter, who has been portrayed as a mutant rat and also as a mutated human.

The characters first appeared in 1984 in Mirage Comics, founded by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. In the first comics, the stories were violent, and the turtles were not differentiated by their color masks (all red) but by their weapons and names.

In 1987 a cartoon was released that infantilized the stories, but with this gained fans worldwide, the first animated series was so beloved that it lasted 9 seasons, ending in 1996.