Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Z-Line Water Tower Washout Playset Review

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were one of my eldest son Joe's favourite characters.  He loved watching the animated cartoon, he had all the action figures and he could quote all their catchphrases.  The pizza loving, sewer dwelling, evil fighting, heroes in a half shell captured the imagination of a whole generation of kids.  And now they are back!

The return of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the big screen, has seen the launch of a whole range of new and exciting TMNT toys.  Freddy received the Z-Line Water Tower Washout Playset to try out and was excited to let them wage their wild assault across his bedroom and enjoy the same toys as his big brother did 20 years ago!

The box contains: 1 Water Tower Play set, 4 Command Strips from 3M, 4 wall clips, 1 gargoyle launcher, 1 C-Clamp, 2 tension cylinders, 2 Z-line pulleys, 1 two-hand handle, 1 one hand handle, 2 48" Zip-line, 1 72" Zip Line, 1 Angle Gauge

Action figures are available to purchase separately. 

The playset takes a bit of construction and needs a good amount of space to set up successfully.  It is a bit complicated and I had to get Ian to help me assemble it and attach the pieces to the wall, door and to a chair in Freddy's room, to make the Z-Line function.

Once assembled, it took Ian a bit of time to get it working properly.  The angles need to be right and the wire need to have the right amount of tension in them for it to all work.  If the zip wire coming out of the water tower is too high it catches on the door as it opens, and the zip wires sometimes ping off of the mechanism.  We had some teething troubles, but once we had it sorted we invited Freddy to come and play.

He absolutely adored it!  If set up correctly, the first turtle is launched from the gargoyle launcher by pulling a release string (it is quite tough to pull).  It then whizzes down the zip wire crashing into the pipe on the water tower that triggers the trap door and swings open the doors allowing a second turtle to be launched down the second line.

When it worked well it was very impressive, but there were a fair few crash landings, stuck pulleys and flying turtle moments.  But these added to Freddy's enjoyment as he played with the set.

To reset the playset is a bit fiddly, but Freddy was happy just popping the pulleys on the line and letting the turtles whizz around.  He also enjoyed using the playset as a prop for some imaginative playtime using his other TMNT figures.

The toys are stuck to the wall using 3M Command Strips, which are removable.  The optimum positioning is within a corner of a room, but we ended up having to use a door and a wall, but it worked OK. The clamps attach to furniture (we had to put a chair in his room to get the angle right because none of his furniture was in the right place!)  

Although I saw it as a bit fussy and fiddly, Freddy disregarded all the negatives and just immersed himself in the joys of an imaginative game of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  He loved it and he enjoyed making the zip lining turtles whizz along the wires and hideout in the water tower.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Z-Line Water Tower Washout costs £29.99 from good toy retailers.

Here is Freddy demonstrating how the toy works.

                            

Heros in a Half Shell - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

I fondly remember my eldest son Joe loving Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles back in the early 90's.  Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael featured heavily in both TV viewing and playtime.  It provided some wonderful nostalgia when Freddy was sent the latest Nickelodeon TMNT toys from Character to try out. Twenty years on and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles still hold the same appeal and excitement!

He received the TMNT Battle Shell Leonardo along with Shredder's underwater thug and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle adversary Fishface!  The blister packed toys were easy to remove from the packaging and the cardboard and plastic separated up nicely for recycling.

The figures stand at around 5" high and are fully articulated with more than 12 points of articulation. They are highly detailed and perfectly replicate the TV characters .  They stand up well, which I think is an important feature.  Freddy gets very frustrated when he can't stand up his action figures ready for battle!  He loved the look of his new toys and was ready and eager to test them out right away.

The Battle Shell Leonardo comes with two long swords that fit into scabbards attached to his shell.  The shell itself opens up to reveal some secondary weaponry, a dagger and two Ninja throwing stars.  Leonardo's hands grip really well, as he keeps the streets of NY city safe armed with his signature weapons. Freddy did find opening the shell a bit tricky with his little fingers, but it opens simply by pulling which is a knack I'm sure he'll master.

Fishface is a fantastic mutant fish villain with his sharp venomous toothed jaws, water-breathing rig and his robotic legs.  He is no fish out of water when it comes to being the turtles most cutthroat enemy! He has a big sword and a small dagger that fit well into into hands. Freddy loves having both heroes and villains in order to play the most imaginative games of good versus evil!

The action figures are really well made with great attention to detail.  They are sturdy and robust for battle action.  Freddy is one of those children who loves to make toys fight and really puts the workmanship to the test as he bashes them around in his games of goodies vs baddies!  He really enjoyed playing as Leonardo whilst his dad played Fishface.  The toys stood up very well to the Freddy's enthusiastic playtime as they practiced the ancient art of Ninjutsu and displayed their Turtle Power!

The action figures cost £9.99 each, are suitable for children aged 4 and up and can be found at Argos, Amazon and other good toy retailers.  They are part of a range of characters and vehicles made in celebration of this iconic kids' show.  I think it's great that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back in all their pizza eating, Nunchuck throwing, Ninja fighting glory. It's great to see Freddy enjoying them as much as his big brother did when he was his age.

Freddy was so impressed with his new TMNT toys that he has taken them into school for Show and Tell today.  That shows just how great he thinks these new action figures are!