Jay's Toy Shelf : Playmates Toys' Donatello

Donatello is the classic, socially awkward, gadget brainiac/science nerd. As a science and science fiction nerd myself, I really enjoy his character. Compared to other series, Donatello's character is more or less the same, with the addition of being romantically attracted to April. He is involved more in the group than just being their tech and weapons/arsenal designer, which is nice. They really drive his character home as a bit hyper-logical, for example when a piece of Splinter wisdom goes right over his head.

He's a bit taller and leaner physically than the other turtles, and this figure shows that most especially in the head/neck. They gave his regular bo staff a bit of a kick by having him design a naginata type blade that folds out of one end. His accessories include his staff, bladed staff, two saw disc-type shurikens and a three section staff (sansetsu kun). I am a little bit disappointed that the staff is a bit too short. When he grips it with both hands, there's barely any left on each end.

Soo...when I first got this figure one of my cats knocked him off a shelf while my dog, in a coordinated effort, chewed off the toe and a bit of the bladed staff end. Since it was fairly messed up, I decided to test on my black wash on the cracks to see if I could get a gritty feel out of the figure by filling in the cracks. Not the best looking, but it was fun to experiment. Turns out it's far easier if you sand off some of the finish first, THEN paint. Live and learn!

The rating breakdown is about the same for Donny as it was for the other two, so skip to the pictures if you've seen either of the last two posts!

Sculpt&Paint: 3/5 This figure really comes through with the texturing of the skin, shell, bandages and even the weapons are pretty good. The paint is mostly fine, but it's fairly sloppy in some places, there's nothing on the weapons or belts, and obviously, there's no shading.

Articulation: 3/5 (19 PoA). Given the old toys I wasn't expecting much range for these guys, but the shoulders and hips offer quite a bit. The elbows and knees are pretty limited in how far you can move them because of the way they made the elbow/knee pads + the overly bulky forearm. No ankles or waists (though you don't see waist articulation much on the turtles in nearly any figure lines except maybe SH Figuarts or Revoltech versions of the tutles).

Price/Availability: 5/5 Dead cheap on eBay. Search up TMNT action figure lots, or even most individual figures (whether that's this line or the 1980s line) and they'll be a dollar or two at most per figure.

Accessories: 2/5 Okay! TMNT figures have always come with their standard weapons and a couple of extra pieces like the shurikens and such. In this case, he has a few extras that are all unpainted, solid brown colour. Not bad, but definitely would've been nicer painted. Also, while I'm ok with having a staff unpainted molded in light brown plastic, it seems weird to have the shuriken also in the same color. It was clearly a cost saving measure, but c'mon!

Fun factor: 3/5 These are fairly good playwise! Unlike the older figures that sometimes had a raised up foot, these have flat, wide feed that makes it easier to pose and balance, even kicking. They look fairly decent on the shelf in a collection or a battle display.

Verdict: 16/25 Good. Generally, I will give this type of toy a decent to mediocre rating since I'm an adult toy collector...and this isn't an adult toy! That seems a little unfair perhaps, but ultimately I enjoy the figure and it was the first of four that got me into collecting, so it gets to have some blog time!