Party On: More Die-Cast TMNT Vehicles to Die For

It’s the holiday season, and what better time to talk about toys?

Well, anytime, really. But that’s not important right now.

Back in 2019, Mattel released the San Diego Comic-Con exclusive Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Party Wagon (or Turtle Van, if you prefer the show’s terminology) as part of their long-running Hot Wheels line of die-cast vehicles. I learned about this through Pixel Dan, who reviewed it at the time:

It’s pretty cool, but without any way of getting my hands on one at a price I found affordable, I put it out of my mind. That was probably a mistake, as Mattel would later release a display case-less variation of it at retail as a part of their Replica Entertainment line the following year.

Looking now, I see there’s other parts of that line I’d love to own, but finding them is a bit tricky.

On the bright side, Mattel has also released a less-detailed, seemingly more affordable mainline version as well:

I’d much rather have the Replica Entertainment one, but I’d gladly take either, though I’ve had luck with neither one.

Regardless, gazing at these two tiny vehicles got the gears in my head turning and thinking: There have been a lot of TMNT vehicles over the years, and a good number of them really do deserve the die-cast treatment. So here are some I hope that Mattel might get to in time.

The Footcruiser

I can think of no better place to start than the Footcruiser, which was essentially positioned as the Foot Clan’s evil counterpart to the Party Wagon.

Here’s the weird thing, though: For a cartoon ostensibly designed to sell toys, the Fred Wolf Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could be really bad at it. While featured in various merchandise and even the odd comic or two, the Footcruiser never really appeared in the long-running animated series. Throughout its 10-season, 193 episode run, the Footcruiser appeared precisely… once.

Even then, it wasn’t really “the Footcruiser” as we know it, but one of the flying cars the Neutrinos had left on Earth in the care of the Turtles (and not even in the same colors). Shredder, Bebop, and Rocksteady just happened to steal it at the end of an episode to make their getaway, and it was never seen again.

Still, it manages to be an iconic vehicle for the franchise at the time, and to have the Turtle Van without it just seems kind of wrong somehow.

The Transport/Mutant Module

If you want something more emblematic of the series, then look no further than the Transport Module (left). Used by Shredder and crew for the bulk of the series’ run, whenever the Technodrome was stuck somewhere on Earth, this is how the baddies got into and got out of trouble most of the time.

If that version is too plain for you, then maybe the Mutant Module toy (right) loosely based on it is more your speed?

The Technodrome

One last one for the bad guys, and the 1987 series, here before we move on.

But really, I’ve talked about the Technodrome in this space numerous times over the years, how could I leave it out? It has wheels (well, tank treads) and is made of metal, that should be more than enough, right?

Of course, the big issue is the matter of scale. To properly scale with the rest of the line, it would probably need to be five feet tall — not bloody likely. Still, I’d be happy if it was even the size of a golf or tennis ball, as long as the look was right.

Or I guess they could just do the much smaller Technodrome Mark-II.

The Mutant Marauder

This is where Hot Wheels’ utilization of a vast array of real-world vehicle licenses could come in handy. This is also where most TMNT fans would have me pilloried.

I’m not going to argue that Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation was a good show, but I still maintain that it had its good points. One for me was what I considered an upgrade at the time, from the old ‘n busted Volkswagen van to a sleek and modern Humvee, referred to as the Mutant Marauder only by Playmates in the associated toy line, as I recall (a reuse of the mold was later released for the 2003 series as the “Turtle Tracker”).

In truth, this would probably not only be the easiest for them to do, but also the least likely, because I don’t think we’re quite ready for that kind of nostalgia just yet. (It’s so overlooked, there’s barely anything on Turtlepedia about it — just for the toy, and even then, the re-release has more info about it than the original!)

The Battle Shell

Introduced at the start of 4Kids’ 2003 series, the Battle Shell just makes good sense all around for the Turtles, and is probably nearly as iconic to that series as the original Party Wagon was to the 1987 version.

Sure, I like the Hummer and all from Next Mutation, but confiscating and refurbishing an armored car used by the Purple Dragons for robberies is not only practical, but feels thematically appropriate for the quartet, too. I mean, armor is sort of their thing, naturally, what with the shells and all. A ride with a thick “shell” of its own just makes good sense.

The Shellraiser

The Shellraiser, cheekily-named by Michelangelo to little objection from his brothers, was the first main ride they used in the 2012 Nickelodeon series. Originally an abandoned subway car used as a makeshift home by Leatherhead, Donatello modified it so it could run along subway tracks or go above ground for some street action.

The Party Wagon (2012)

The 2012 series took bits from all over the various past TMNT mythos, so an updated version of the Party Wagon being introduced should be of little surprise.

Retrofitted from April’s dad’s old van that he used to party around in during his youth, this iteration is less faithful to the original cartoon and more to the original toy, with its red-orange doors, mirror-mounted guns, and stink bomb armaments.

In some ways, I think I like this one even more than the original!

The Turtle Tank

And here we come to what’s probably the biggest, baddest, and most recent personal vehicle the Turtles have ever used across all their iterations: The Turtle Tank, from Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

This thing is a glorious behemoth; as you can see in the picture at left, it absolutely dwarfs a New York taxi cab, and most of the TMNT’s vehicles aren’t that much bigger. Originally a moon buggy for the “Jupiter Jim” series of in-universe films that the four bros love, Michelangelo and Donatello wasted no time leaping at the chance to make it their own after discovering it had been repossessed.

Several of the above vehicles have been used to deploy smaller vehicles, usually a motorcycle for Raph or something, but this one contains three: two Shell Hog cycles, as well as the aforementioned New York taxi, which Donny modified to fly.

I’m not gonna lie — I dig big vehicles, particularly if they’re big enough to contain a bridge:

Of course, like the Technodrome, the issue of scale is one to deal with here, but at least it’s not nearly as ginormous as that thing is.

The Party Wagon (Toy Version)

Finally, we bring it back around to where we started, but with a twist.

While the version of the Party Wagon that Hot Wheels released is the original we all saw in the cartoon and comics, the above is what wound up on toy store shelves, in the NES game, and in various other licensed stuff as well (heck, it’s even the version used in the art for the premium Hot Wheels release above!). For some, this may very well be the version they remember better than they do Hot Wheels’ screen-accurate version. And for that, I say we pay respect to it.

Plus, there are enough differences to warrant a separate mold, or at least some retooling.

Honestly, even though this has some nice red-orange detailing I like, and more closely resembles the 2012 version that I liked more than the one from the original cartoon, I still prefer the original cartoon look to this one. I was never a fan of the graffiti detailing, or replacing all the cool gear inside with seats, among other changes. But I still appreciate this one, and would love to have it alongside the rest in my dream Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-themed Hot Wheels garage.

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And there you have it! These are my top TMNT vehicles I would love to see faithfully rendered in die-cast toy form and sold (and they’d take up far less space than Playmates’ full-sized 5″ figure-scaled versions).

However, these are only some of the many vehicles featured in the franchise. For instance, you might have noticed I kept it to ground vehicles — I’m sure some folks would welcome the Turtle Blimp in such a scale. And there are other vehicles from the various movies, and more from the cartoons as well… enough that I could do an entire second list! (And maybe a third, for that matter.)

But I wanted to leave some room for discussion. Did I pass over an old favorite? Tell me about it in the comments below, or on social media, or wherever you happen to see me!

Thanks for reading!

The vast majority of the images used here come from the Turtlepedia Wiki, which is linked throughout. Anything else is from images on packaging, screenshots, or other promotional materials.

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David Oxford is a freelance writer of many varied interests. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

David Oxford

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

For a full list of places to find him online, click here.