Donatello 2012

I haven’t anticipated a toy line like this in a very long time.  As you should be able to tell, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is one of my all-time favorite toy lines.  I got into the toys and the cartoon series early, and moved to the older Mirage comics in my early teens.  And though there has been quite a few carnations of the Turtles in the past, this incarnation looks interesting.  It’s almost like a mix of the original Turtles from the comics, mixed with the ones we knew as kids.

I stopped at Toy R Us this past weekend, and they had every other scale in stock, except the ones I was looking for!  They even had the Classics.  I was about to purchase the Classics Donatello(he is my favorite), when I figured I would check out the nearby Target.  My plan was, if Target didn’t have any Turtles, I would go back to TRU and buy the Classics Donatello.

And as they have in the past, Target came through!  They had at least one of every figure in this scale, except for Krang(I know, I know, he’s now Kraang).  I already knew I would get Donatello.  But at $8.99 each, I bought two(you’ll see him in a few days).  I love the new look of the Turtles, and think that the figures(so far), are prety nice to look at.  I always get nervous when new incarnations of shows and characters I grew up with go into production.  But just like Thundercats, this line will get my money(and of course I’ll be watching the series).

The other 3 Turtles all have their teeth showing, but not Donnie.  From the back of the card, we can see that Donnie has gap-teeth.  While this seems a bit weird, I’m curious to see how it fits in to his personality.  The articulation is better than the old-school figures, and it works.  Besides his trademark Bo, he also came with a weapon rack(similar to the ones we got with the originals).

I will have all four of them.  In my opinion, you need to have all four Turtles.

I’m not going to have any time to write this weekend, so, we’ll see the next one in a few days(I may have a few more by that time though 🙂 ).

TMNT Days #4, The Finale

I saved the best for last.  Not only is it my favorite character, but it’s my favorite representation of that character as well.

My wife bought this for me(at my request), for my birthday back in 2008.  I believe it cost around $14.99 at the time, which is a bargain compared to what some people are now asking for them.

TMNT is one of my favorite toylines as well as my favorite comic series(the early Mirage stuff is the best).  And these figures are the nicest representations of the Turtles I have ever seen.  Don’t get me wrong…I got into TMNT the same way most of you did.  I was about 9 years old when the cartoon and subsequent toyline came about.  It was when I started to get heavily into comics(when I was around 11 or 12), that I was introduced to the real Turtles.  And these figures are spot on from how they looked in those old comics.  Each Turtle came with their trademark weapons, a few accessories(like extra hands etc.) and a piece of a base that, when all connected together, made a nice diorama of a city street.  I’d like to get the other 3 and open all of them.  But as of right now, I don’t see any reason to open it.  It looks nice in the package(NECA did a great job on this as well), and I really don’t have any more room to display stuff(I may have to start swapping out figures every now and then).

TMNT Days #1

For the next few posts(four to be exact), I will be spotlighting some TMNT figures from my collection.  The figures that will be featured share 2 things in common.

1.)- They are all from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe.

2.)- They are all still(and will remain), in their packages.

I remember finding one peg of these 25th anniversary figures at Toys R Us in the summer of 2009.  My choices were Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Rocksteady.  I originally chose Raphael, because I never had him as a kid, and, at the time, he was absent from my collection.  On my way to the registers, I decided to go with Donatello, as he always been my favorite(for a short time, at the beginning, Mikey was my favorite).

The only differences that I’ve noticed(without opening the figure), is the included dvd(these only came with the 4 Turtles, and each featured one of the first four episodes), and slightly different artwork.

I also find it funny that Playmates went with the “naked” Shredder for this release.  You can bet, that if I see any more of these, I’ll be sure to snatch them up(no extreme mark-ups), as the only time I saw these was at the time I bought this figure.

New Additions

I’m still hanging in there with Chunky B.’s 28 Day Challenge, but have managed to have some toys donated to me.  My nephew Jo-Jo, sent me a package containing four figures.  As far as I knew, I thought he was sending me one figure.  We’ll start with the one I knew was coming.

  He’s stamped 2003, but I thought he was older, as I only saw him in his alternate state.

Aside from the different head mold and the sash, this is the same “Mutatin'” Donatello that came out in 1992!  No matter though.  Any Donatello is a welcome addition.  Here’s what the originals(I do not own the one in the picture below) looked like, to give you something to compare it to. 

Continuing on with the Donatello theme…here’s another one stamped 2003. 

I’m pretty sure this is from the TMNT Fast Forward line.  His head and bandana have some paint wear, but that’s okay. I like it just the same!

This next figure has got me stumped.

I think this is a bootleg…for 2 reasons.  First, I can’t find any date or any kind of copyright marks anywhere.  And secondly, the head doesn’t look like your typical Transformer mold.

He looks like he’s missing some pieces, so I’ll just chalk it up as “battle damage”.  There is something that I thought was pretty neat about him though.  Look a little more closely.

He keeps a tally of all of the Autobots he has defeated!  This is the Transformer equivalent to teardrops below your eye.  This Decepticon, whoever he is, is gangsta’!

And lastly, we have this little guy(who happens to be my favorite of this lot).

Leonardo here is just a little bigger than he is in this photo.  I already have the Donatello from this series, so now he has a buddy!  Here’s a picture of the two of them with the previous Donatello, to give you an idea of scale.

I’d like to thank my nephew for these figures.  They definitely helped make this 28 Day Challenge just a little bit easier.  And if anyone has any information on the “Transformer” above, drop me a line(I’m too lazy to really research it).

TMNT Party Wagon

Well, the masses(all four of them) have spoken, and they decried that they wanted to see the “Turtle Van”.  I know you’re probably thinking, finally!!  Sometimes I procrastinate, even if it’s opening a new toy.  But that is will power.  I didn’t have any new toys to open today(I do, but not ones I want to open[just yet]).  So, if I would’ve opened this sometime between Christmas and this past weekend, I wouldn’t have an awesome new toy to play with today.

So we open up the box and see that the van is held securely in place with some nicely crafted cardboard.

Now let’s look at the van and it’s accessories out of the box, but still encased in their protective packaging.

 

An now out of their protective packaging.

 

This exactly what it looks like coming out of the box.  I actually looked forward to applying the decals, but no such luck!  Now, I never had this as a kid, but I would imagine that just like 99% of the toys in the 80’s, you had to put the damn stickers on yourself.  You would think that the stickers might be painted on, but they are in fact, stickers(one of them was not fully adhered to the side, but I fixed that).

You can see from the photos that the van isn’t very hard to put together.  Everything fits into holes on the “Wagon”(or onto some of the other accessories), except for the front shield, which snaps onto two posts on the front.  Total time to put the Party Wagon together( including putting the “Whacko Bombs” in the door)?  Less than a minute.

All in all, I’m extremely happy to own The Party Wagon, and it still remains as my favorite Christmas Gift from this past Christmas.  I only have a few minor gripes, and had I known about them in advance, I would still have wanted it!

I’m sure you would like to know the gripes, so I’ll let you in on them.  First, I would have liked to apply the decals myself(like I said minor gripes).  Second, The Foot Tenderizer Weapon(the spring loaded door on the side of the van) cannot hold a TMNT figure by itself.  Well it can, but not very well, and if you can get one of the figures to sit for long enough to take a picture, it doesn’t look natural.  And I think this is because the ledge on the door is too short to have a figure in a sitting or standing action pose.  And lastly, on the side of the box, they show a Michaelangelo figure fastened to “The Foot Tenderizer Weapon” by way of rubber band.  There was no rubber band in the box!  Did the company think everyone has extra rubber bands lying around?!  Like I said, none of these gripes are huge problems and wouldn’t affect my decision on wanting to own this.

Now the Turtles don’t have to walk everywhere, and are the envy of all my toys(except for the Transformers), because they have the first vehicle in my collection.

Now here are a few shots that I took for fun.

I lucked out getting this.  It came out during the first quarter of 2009(I believe), so I was amazed I spotted it in a mall Toys R Us during the holiday shopping season of 2010.  And I never thought I had a shot at it.  If you can find it at less than 30 bucks, I would recommend picking this up.  I highly doubt that you will find this still sitting on a shelf at a store, but if you do grab it!