Last week I had the opportunity to review my very first Mega Bloks Warcraft Mists of Pandaria figure–the Pandaren Hunter, Rojo–and tonight I’m lucky enough to have the very first Pandaren mount: the 2013 World of Warcraft Mega Bloks Dragon Turtle 91024. When I first heard that the Pandaren racial mount was a turtle, I was like, “What?” I couldn’t reconcile the image of a turtle in my heard with anything cool enough to exist as a mount in a world with Wyverns and Gryphons and the like. Now that I own my very own Warcraft Dragon Turtle mount toy, however, I’m happy to admit my mistake–the World of Warcraft Mega Bloks Dragon Turtle with Pandaren Monk figure is one cool toy…

The Right:

When you think of a turtle, you probably think of a benign, innocuous little reptile. This is not that turtle. The Dragon Turtle is more like a dinosaur (think Ankylosaurus with modified Triceratops horns) than your everyday turtle. The Dragon Turtle may not be the fastest-moving mount (at all), but it can carry a huge Pandaren rider and all its luggage without missing a step–and look like a totally intimidating beast while doing it. You expect beasts like the Swift Wyvern to look ferocious, but the growling visage on this Dragon Turtle is every bit as scary and perhaps even more effective. His shell is far more angular and sharp-looking than your everyday turtle, and the expression on his face, paired with his menacing nose ring, makes it clear this Dragon Turtle will be happy enough to rip your Worgen figures’ heads off.

While there aren’t quite as many places to integrate articulation into the Dragon Turtle as on the prior flying mounts like the Swift Gryphon, the articulation on the Mega Bloks WoW Dragon Turtle is still virtually everything you’d expect from a (non-ninja) turtle–6 points of articulation, all ball-joints (head, legs, and tail). The Dragon Turtle has a huge range of motion on each of these points of articulation, so you can pose him walking, laying down, wagging his armored tail, looking off to the side, charging into battle… whatever you want your Dragon Turtle to (reasonably) do, he can pretty well do it.

As fearsome as the Dragon Turtle is, it’s still a beast of burden, and boy, does he have a lot of weight to carry. Along with having to carry a husky Pandaren rider, the Dragon Turtle has to cart around a saddle, reins, and even what I think is a keg of brew. All the accessories (and the Pandaren figure) add a ton of color to the Dragon Turtle and make what could have been a very dull mount figure a lot more interesting to look at.

Although this is another Horde Pandaren like Rojo, the Pandaren Monk Windpaw feels totally different. His fur is colored white and reddish-brown, similar to red panda (ironic that the one named Rojo doesn’t look like a red panda and this one does, isn’t it?). Windpaw has a very oriental-looking attire, covered in ornamental beads and colored in mustard yellow, red, and jade. The difference between Rojo and Windpaw is instantly apparent–Rojo really does look like more of a warrior, whereas Windpaw the monk simply feels and looks more spiritual.

Windpaw includes one weapon: a Pandaren bamboo bo staff. That may not sound particularly compelling, but it is inexplicably intriguing to me and quite possibly my absolute favorite weapon in the entire World of Warcraft Mega Bloks toy line so far. While it may look like just an unassuming long stick at a glance, when you look closely it’s instantly recognizable as being made of bamboo even if you didn’t know the Pandaren wielded weapons of this type. The bamboo staff is huge and you can get a variety of cool poses using it, including both one-handed and two-handed ones. In short, the bamboo bo staff is fun–more of these, please, MEGA Brands.

The Wrong:

There’s next to nothing I dislike about the 2013 Mega Bloks World of Warcraft Dragon Turtle 91024 set. There’s a couple of stray paint marks on the Dragon Turtle itself that bother me, and I think a closing jaw on the Dragon Turtle would have been pretty riveting, but otherwise I’m content. Very nice stuff by MEGA Brands.

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

Thus far the only World of Warcraft Mega Bloks 2013 sets have been released exclusively at Toys R Us. If you don’t have a local Toys R Us or don’t want to buy it there, for the moment, your best bet is to pick up the WoW Dragon Turtle on ebay.

Overall: I really didn’t expect to be giving this set a very high grade, but as it turns out the World of Warcraft Mega Bloks Dragon Turtle 91024 is just too excellent not to. The Dragon Turtle is wonderfully-sculpted and designed, and on the same level of articulation as the more dynamic Swift Wyvern and Swift Gryphon. As for the pack-in figure, the Mega Bloks Pandaren Monk Windpaw figure is a great-looking figure that comes with my favorite weapon in this line yet–the bamboo bo staff–and I’d legitimately have bought this set just to get the great panda figure included in it. The Mega Bloks Warcraft Dragon Turtle figure really adds something different and exciting to the pre-existing WoW Mega Bloks line, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t give it the high recommendation that it deserves.

GRADE: A