Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem - Donatello

A new TMNT animated movie is just around the corner and with that comes a new plethora of toys. While I'm not the biggest fan of the Turtles, the look of these figures immediately captivated me. While the animation style of the upcoming Mutant Mayhem movie doesn't appeal to me, the character designs look great, especially in plastic form. 

Next up we'll take a look at Donatello, "the brains". The "Theodore" of the group, of course they had to alter Donny's look by making him look a little more dorky and adding black rim glasses. I guess in a stereotypical way it does make sense, but I'm still not sure how I feel about this slight redesign to the character

Packaging is your basic blister card, the bubble show casing the character and their included weapons and accessories. The back of the card has a small bio card as well as a cross sell of the other figures included in the initial wave.

Playmates Toys took a less is more approach to these figures. What I mean by that is the paint apps are minimum, which helped keep the price point to just $10 per figure. There is some detail sculpted into the figure, such as scars on the chest or the intricate pattern to the turtle shell on the back. Purple paint was added to the bandana, elbow/knee pads and bandages around the wrists. The belt is removeable and has holsters on the rear to store his bo weapon. The fanny pack he's wearing is made of a softer plastic and can be removed as well. The glasses barely stay in his face/head...at least on my copy.

In addition to his bo staff, he includes a stand with additional weapons (including a slice of pizza!) attached. These can be removed pretty easily by twisting them off or use a small pair of clippers. He also comes with a baby turtle of himself, pre-mutation.

Articulation isn't bad as there are points located in the neck, shoulders, wrists and hips. You have to keep in mind the price point of the figure, but all things considered it's a pretty posable figure. The shell can make them a little top heavy, but I was able to pull off several poses that would stand on their own unassisted.

Final impressions: Positive. Decent character design, good sculpt, decent articulation. While I may not be thrilled about the new movie, the toy line based on the new movie is off to a great start thus far. As of this post, these figures are now widely available at local retail stores such as Target and Walmart and seem to be pretty plentiful. If you're a turtle fan, you probably already bought these on day one, but if you are a casual fan such as myself these are a nice, inexpensive treat.

Mega Bloks Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Series 1 Blind Bags

It doesn't seem that long ago that LEGO had the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles license for building blocks. Now said license has transferred to Mega Bloks and boy are they making good use of it. A quick stroll down the building block aisle at my local Target and I see several different sets of varying sizes for TMNT.

  

Being a sucker for blind packaged toys I had to pick up one bag (or maybe a few more!) to see what Mega Bloks was doing w/ the TMNT franchise. A quick scan of the back of the packaging and I see a total of 8 possible figures - the 4 turtles, Krang, a Foot soldier, a translucent red Shredder and a mystery figure.

Finding a bag w/ one of the turtles is rather easy thanks to their rounded shell. Two (Donatello & Raphael) of the four turtles are easier to obtain than the others. I'm not sure what the significance of the red Shredder is and I still don't know who the 8th mystery figure is.

  

I have purchased a few of the Mega Bloks Halo sets so I kinda knew going in what these figures would be like, but I didn't expect the figures to be this nice! The level of detailing for a $3 bling packaged figure is amazing. The figures are based off the current Nickelodeon show so they have goofy facial expressions and the large knee pads.

The figures have to be assembled. The arms were already attached in the bag, but they do pop off. The turtle head has mold bumps for the eyes, this helps keep the bandana on, but it also makes it hard to fit the piece on the head. The belt is a rubbery plastic that you have to stretch to fit over the body of the figure. I like that you can sheath Donatello's bo staff on the back.

The figure has a good amount of articulation for such a small figure. Ball jointed shoulders and hips and hinge joints at the knees. Sadly no elbow articulation, but the wrists to rotate a full 360 degrees.

If you're wondering why Donatello has a heart painted onto his front side, it's because he's been staring at this sketch of April O'Neil he comes packaged with.

Overall I really like what Mega Bloks has done with these figures and I eagerly await the 2nd series of blind packaged figures. I don't know if I'll pick up any of the larger sets, but I do like how the Turtles that come in those sets vary in deco from these blind packaged versions. At only $3 each, I encourage you to pick up a bag or two and check out these fun little toys.