Dogpound

 Straight from the new computer animated cartoon, TMNT, it's Dogpound! This nefarious villain is one of the Shredder's top lieutenants. A martial arts master in his own right, he also is a mutant menace to the Turtles! Hit the jump to see this very bad dog!

Instead of tying his arms, shouldn't they have just leashed him?

I haven't seen the new TMNT show and I haven't seen any reviews of it yet, so I'm going solely on what info I got from the cardback on this guy's character. If you love the show, or hate the show; well, I'm the wrong guy to talk to. I have the Ninja Turtle action figures from this new line and I'm a big fan of them, even if the other figures have been kind of a let down so far. Dogpound here caught my eye at Wal-Mart for $8.88 and I said, "What the hey? It's a violent dog man. That's a good enough reason to buy it."

Shredder's Top Dog. Not to be confused with Shredder's Hot Dog.

I really like the packaging on these figures. It's standardized across the line and the boxes are irregularly cut. It helps them pop on the pegs and distinguishes them from the rest of the rectangular cardbacks. The colors are vibrant, some nice purples and greens, and overall I think Playmates did a good job with the packaging design. I suppose if you wanted to be collector friendly, you could carefully slit the plastic with a sharp knife (careful kids and fumble fingered adults) and slide it out. Me, I just grip and rip. It's all good though, if you're a MOC (mint on card) kinda person, these will stand out just fine.

His name is Chris Bradford, a quick Google search shows that there is a real Chris Bradford who is a martial arts expert! So, does real Chris turn into a misshapen dog mutant?

On the back is the standard character bio information, pics of the other toys in the line, and some character art from the show. I'm a sucker for packaging that has dotted lines for me to cut out and save the oh-so-precious biography. I need to know! The world needs to know!

Stuck in a moment and he can't get out of it. Until I tear the box apart with my muscly fingers.

 Dogpound is held in his plastic prison by two plastic twist ties around his dog biceps. Open the box, pull out the tray, do the untwist, and there you have it. Dogpound doesn't come with any weapons or accessories other than a tail that plugs into his rear end and some spinal spikes that click onto his back. If you read his bio, you'd know that he doesn't need weapons when he has "Canine Claws & Teeth, Mutant Spikes". Also, probably wet dog hair smell.

Violent martial artist dog. Will probably not sit on command.

Out of the box you notice he's pretty heavy for his size. His sculpt is squat and brutish looking and he carries most of his weight in his arms and torso. His color scheme is pretty basic, a light brown for the fur with a white undercoat. Dark, burgundy (Ron Burgundy?) pants and some gray knee pads and codpiece. Black is used for his eyes, eyebrows, and his mouth.

Somewhere a furry will see this tail and get a raging hard-on. And that's just wrong.

Despite his weight, the plug in tail helps balance him and it can be swiveled around 360 degrees. The feet are actually hollow, but they don't hinder his balance in any way despite being so light weight.

His right arm looks much less like a deep fried hot wing than his other one.

Paint applications are very light on Dogpound. There is a nice effect on the underside of his arms and on his chest to blend the brown fur with the white. Other than that, not much. A dedicated painter who is good with drybrushing and doing some dark washes would do wonders for Dogpound. That goes for pretty much all the figures in this Ninja Turtles line, although the four main Turtles look good "as is".

As we all know, all dogs have giant spikes protruding from their bodies. It's a fact of naaaaature!

I actually like that Dogpound's shoulders are not even. It gives him an asymmetrical quality that obviously draws comparisons to the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Looking at this guy though, you can just see him plodding along on two feet until he has to chase down his enemies and then it's a leaping, bounding run using his arms and legs.

This is what happens when Wolverine makes sweaty mutant love to Sabretooth.

I also like his "mutant spikes". They remind me of the bony protrusions on Doomsday, the villain responsible for the death of Superman. Although, to be fair, not as extreme.

Bonier than thou, Dogpound.

 Another medium sized complaint that I have about the paint job is that Dogpound's left arm and shoulder are obviously much larger, stronger, and more mutated than his right arm. In fact, if you look at the pictures, you can see where his left arm has many more of the spiky bone protrusions. If these had been painted, I think it would make this figure a lot better. There is a ton of sculpted detail that gets lost because the paint is simply not there to pick it out and make it noticeable.

His only regret is that he had bonitis.

 The same goes for his back spikes, great sculpt, missed opportunity to add a paint wash to show it off. To be fair, Playmates has put out an entire new line at retail prices cheaper than G.I. Joe, all but the tiniest of Transformers, and Hasbro's Marvel 3.75 action figures. I can understand that to keep prices down painting was not a priority. Still a bit of a missed opportunity.

I get mad when my dog jumps on the couch. The Shredder must lose his mind every time Dogpound does it, or rolls on the carpet.

 

 

Bet you his feet smell like popcorn. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/58595

Small details, like his nails just need a bit of paint, a little dab'll do ya. I hate to keep harping on this but it bugs me enough to know that at some point this week I am going to bust out my paintbrush. I should be out carousing! In the pics below, you can see the tattered pants and the buckle and straps on his torso that were left the same color as the body of the figure. Last time I will say this in this review. Missed opportunity.

One thing about this toyline is apparently everyone has the gout because they all got some mad swollen feet.

Hawhaw, trying to see my details Getter Newtype Reviews?

Aaargh! The light! She burns!

What are you talking about? I didn't eat your baby.

I do think they did a great job on the face. It's big and expressive and I love the work they did on his teeth.  He's not any distinct breed of canine, but it does resemble a dingo to me.

Maybe I ate your baby! Bwahahaha!

Let's talk about the articulation. He's got 9 points of articulation by my count. His head swivels around, both shoulders have full rotation, his forearms are cut joints that spin in place, he's got a waist swivel, and his hips. Also, the aforementioned tail spins right round like a record baby, right right round round. So that's 9.

By this gesture we can tell Dogpound is a native of New York City. "Ayo! I'm walking here ya mook! Ah, up yers, pal! Yeah, right here, buddy, BAFANGOOL!"

Also, mine has a pinkish blot on the tail. I guess this is the only extra paint app I get. I'll just pretend he's particularly flea-ridden and is chewing that part of his tail.

The Shredder took him to the vet for some ointment for this.

While his articulation is a bit limited, you can get him into some good poses. The expressiveness of the face and the mass of the upper body help him seem more dynamic than he really is. Dogpound really looks fantastic when he's put with toys that do have really good articulation. With the right set-up he shines.

Nobody liked it when Dogpound wanted to play "Platoon".

Balance really wasn't a problem with Dogpound either. I got him into some kicking/sumo ritual/ripping dog fart poses without much trouble. Like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from this line, he's surprisingly fun to fiddle with. The same can't be said of the Shredder or Kraang. I like what Playmates is doing with this line overall, and while I keep kvetching about the paint, I'm just really happy to see the Turtles are back on the shelves and still awesome.

Totally marking his territory.

Awww, I stepped in my own poop!

This really is an ambitious toyline. Other than the first big assortment of characters, there's the new Turtle Van, now called the Shellraiser, three motorcycles, skateboards, and an awesome Sewer Lair playset that is over 3-feet tall. Playmates and Nickelodeon are banking on this show and toyline and I hope it succeeds and continues. Why? Because I need a new Turtle Blimp, dammit! A big ass Turtle Blimp! Is that too much to ask for?

The Turtles are grimacing because they just saw Dogpound's "red rocket".

Wow, this escalated really quickly.

BORF!

Tortuga y pero. Mano y mano. Or espada y garra. And that's probably all Spanish gibberish I just wrote.

Mikey gets the drop, because it's teamwork when the good guys do it, but if the bad guys do it, it's "cheating". Shenanigans!

Leo obviously read the book that says you should bop your dog on the nose to correct bad behavior.

Cowabunga dudes! Now let's take Dogpound to get neutered! Radical!

In the end, I really think the pros outweigh the cons with Dogpound. He's really fun, and at least at Wally world he's under $10 bucks. I'd recommend this toy to anyone, kids, nostalgic adults, collectors. It's just a fun toy, and sometimes we (and by we I specifically mean collectors) get up our own butts about minute details and exacting accuracy. This is a toy to be played with, not one that *Indiana Jones grumbling yell* "belongs in a museum"! Have fun out there everybody.