DONATELLO — ORIGINAL SKETCH

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (PLAYMATES)

“Long ago in Dover, New Hampshire, two upstart comic book artists passed the time making each other laugh. Kevin Eastman sketched an unlikely combination of “Ninja” and “Turtle.” Peter Laird answered back with his own version. Before long, a new sketch emerged of all four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle brothers, ready for action. And the rest, as they say, is history!”

Man, for someone who’s only fleetingly into Ninja Turtles, I’ve had a bunch of Turtles stuff to review recently. Today, we’re jumping waaaaaay back, all the way to the beginning…ish. The creation of the TMNT is a case of serial escalation. Kevin Eastman’s first illustration was a single turtle wielding nunchucks, which co-creator Peter Laird responded to with his own refined illustration, which Eastman in turn responded to with *four* turtles, each with a different weapon. In honor of the franchise’s 40th anniversary, NECA put together a two-pack of Eastman and Laird’s first Turtles, and following the trend of escalation, Playmates has their own set, based on Eastman’s original drawing of all four. I’ve picked up the Donatello, and I’m taking a look at him today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Original Sketch Donatello is part of Playmates’ overarching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line. He and the other three Original Sketch figures are seemingly Target-exclusive, in the sense that it’s the only place they’ve shown up so far.  They started hitting retail shelves in June.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 20 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is more or less the same as the 2012-era Turtles, although with a universal joint on his neck in place of the balljoint.  His range of motion is a little restricted, owing a lot to his short and round build.  That said, he can still get into plenty of poses, including the one seen in the original sketch, which is kind of the main idea.  The sculpt is all-new for this set.  Obviously, a good number of the parts are shared between the four turtles, but Donnie gets a unique head, as well as the harness for his staff.  The whole sculpt is a pretty decent little recreation of the sketch.  There’s some adjustments, of course, to make it work in three dimensions, and they’ve also added a touch of texturing to the skin.  The one thing I’m not super crazy about is the the hollowed out portion of the feet; it’s not visible most of the time, but it’s definitely wonky when you can see it.  While the original sketch was just line work, and therefore black and white, Playmates opted to do colors for this release, matching them each up to their vintage figures.  It’s an interesting mix, seeing a pre-Playmates style Turtle in their later coloring, but it honestly works pretty well.  Donnie is packed with his bo staff, a display stand (which connects with the other three), a cardstock version of the sketch, and a broken ooze canister, which serves to hold the sketch.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t religiously follow TMNT news, so I missed the lead up on these guys, only discovering them when I found a couple of them in-store.  Of course, Donnie wasn’t one of the first two I found, so I had to keep looking.  Thankfully, it didn’t take me too long, and, boom, there he was.  He’s very fun.  I didn’t have super high expectations, but he’s just a solid little toy, and he’s very cool for the price point.  I dig him.  I dig him a lot.