It’s another day and another opportunity for the entertainment industries to prove their virtue through ethnicity swapped fictional characters. The world is saved!
I will straight up admit to not being a devoted fan of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT). I liked the original cartoon series, and thought the first two live-action movies were awesome (yes, Vanilla Ice made the second one even more awesome). I fell off of the Turtle party-wagon after that sadly. However, I do know the basics: 4 color-coded Turtles each named after a famous artist and their mentor Splinter who is a giant mutated rat that can do ninjutsu. You have their evil nemesis the Shredder and his Foot clan. And you have their human ally, April O’Neil, a buxom red-head in a yellow track suit. She’s not just a lovely lady, she’s a heroic reporter determined to help the turtles however she can.
Yet in a world of mutated ninjas and alien brains, it’s that last one that seems to always cause so much controversy. Enter NECA, who have just unveiled their latest 7-inch April O’Neil action figure.
Managed to find @NECA_TOYS @TMNT Jennifer Lopez April and Handyman Don lastnight pic.twitter.com/fYUw726yE6
— Vaughn Michael (@VaughnMichael13) April 17, 2025
r Turtle line:
….and she definitely does not look like the April O’Neil I remember.
Now, to be fair, April is no stranger to race-swapping, however as far as I am aware this is the first time she’s had it pre-emptively happen in toy form. Before you cry fowl over yet more “Ginger-erasure”, this may not be as clear-cut as you may think.
Prior to their famous cartoon, TMNT was in fact an 80’s black-and-white comic book, created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Notable differences between the book and toon included the fact that the Turtles weren’t color-coded, Splinter was a rat and not a mutated human, and, rather than being a red-head, April O’Neil was a sassy lady who rocked a seriously hardcore perm. Legend has it that April O’Neil was named after Eastman’s first wife, a mixed-race brunette who also apparently enjoyed a perm every now and then. Over the years since then, the April character has evolved across various media, including animated series, films, and toy lines, but her racial identity has largely remained consistent. NECA’s latest figure, however, appears to reimagine April with a darker complexion, aligning it much more closely with recent TMNT adaptations, such as the 2023 Mutant Mayhem film. This shift in the action figure’s design has, as expected, sparked fierce debate all over the internet about representation, fidelity to source material, and the role of toy companies in reflecting modern interpretations.
The question then becomes, did NECA do this to garner attention by using what is becoming a contentious issue? Because frankly, the idea that companies are using ethnic swaps to stir up controversy, and thus PR, is an unpleasant idea.
Occam’s Razor suggests that it may be much ado about that darn perm. Many people have argued that the hairstyle is a dead-giveaway to the fact that the original April, as conceived by Eastman and Laird, was not 100% Caucasian. At the same time, however, arguments on the other side claim that 90% of women of all races in the 80’s had this sort of permed hair style, so it isn’t exactly a fool-proof argument.
The issue is further compounded by the fact that another character, Baxter Stockman, was definitely portrayed as African-American in the original comic, only to be white-washed later on in the cartoon. Mirage comic panels of both Baxter and April together clearly show a difference in skin tone between the two. However, in the case of the “white-washing” for Baxter Stockman, it may have been due to the kids’ cartoon not wishing to portray a villain as black who is trying to delete the beloved Splinter. It’s always important to remember the complexities of these sorts of issues and how there’s often a more complex reason for why things happen.
Baxter Stockman panel from original Eastman and Laird TMNT
Be that as it may, some research of the original comic does lead one towards the conclusion that the folks at NECA may have taken a bit too much artistic liberty with this one, especially as the figure’s main driver for sales is its ability to press the nostalgia button of truly die-hard fans. As of this article, NECA has made no comment on the matter.
However, as with any action figure these days, the only sure thing is that there are no sure things, and that you’ll never reach consensus in the collector community. Some people will love this figure and buy it day-one, others will rage against it and leave it hanging on the shelves. And that’s fine – it’s the beauty of toy collecting: if you don’t like it, just don’t buy it.
Reference: https://toynewsi.com/139-57503
Once you go black, they don’t let a redhead play you ever again.
I guess Ubisoft had some Star Wars Outlaws Action figures pre produced and now NECA bought them for a discount and turned them into April Oneal Action figures.
“Before you cry fowl over yet more “Ginger-erasure”, this may not be as clear-cut as you may think.”
nah, it is. she was never black or mixed race. sure, the og were black and white, but when brought to tpb form in color her very first color art was a redhead white chick in a slipknot jumper. april will always be a ginger white chick. her perm in the comic is very cut and dry: “what do you think of my new ‘do?” indicating it’s just a hairstyle change and not “btw, i’ll be in blackface for the remainder”.