Kids who grew up in the late 1980s or early 1990s will feel instantly familiar with classic style Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures. Pretty much every detail is a faithful recreation of what you will have had as a kid.
This Donatello figure is exactly like the original of everyone’s least favourite Ninja Turtle…I’m joking of course as I’m sure the smart one of the Turtles definitely does have his fans out there. It was strange as a kid that the classic range of Turtle figures gave each of the turtles a slightly different colour from one another considering they all matched in colour in the movie and cartoon series. I think this was done on the figures to make them more distinct from one another as the only other differences would be the colour of their eye mask, and elbow and knee pads. Oh and they didn’t all have the same expression either.
The figure comes with a rack of weapons which both seemed impressive as a kid as they were all attached to a rack that you had to cut them out of, but also is a pain for collectors and you’d have to damage the rack to get the weapons off.
In the case of Donatello his main weapon is the ‘Bo’ which is a big stick or staff. It comes with two although to wield it as you’d normally see him in the cartoon you’d probably only give him one held between two hands. Fortunately there is articulation on the wrists to make this easy.
Unlike some other figures there are no spring loaded or wind up actions, and the poses of the figures are a generic one size fits all style. This does mean the arms are slightly bent at the elbow, but this isn’t anything that would stop fans from poses the figures into most scenarios they may want to photograph.
For fans of a certain age this will always be the first style of Ninja Turtles figure they imagine when they think about the brand. Recreating the original figures without changes make these the perfect gift for nostalgic fans of the original cartoon. The packaging still features the same artwork as the original although there are modern logos for Nickelodeon on the back and there are other slight changes. The biggest of these is that with this new release the card only shows that you can get the four Ninja Turtles figures and doesn’t show Splinter, April, Shredder, BeBop, Rocksteady and the Foot Soldier. This is probably that there weren’t definite plans to rerelease these when this was made. There’s also no pizza token for a pizza point if you remember those form the originals.
Oh and just to acknowledge that as I’m English I was disappointed that this figure wasn’t rereleased as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and instead has the Ninja name as it had in America. If you don’t understand the story here because you’re from the States or are too young to know, the Ninja Turtles were rebranded as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in the UK in the late 80s/early 90s as Ninjas were seen as too violent.
Conclusion
Overall, this is a near perfect recreation of the original figure. For me the figure is spot on, and it’s only a few minor elements of the packaging that differs. I think anyone who’d want this would either be a Turtles fanatic or someone older who is keen for the nostalgia. The truth is that more modern Ninja Turtles figures may have a better design or level of detail or accessories if you were buying it for a kid who is a newer fan, but as a nostalgia piece this is as good as it can be.
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