“Yes, dudes and dudettes, major league butt-kicking is back in town!”
Feast! It is finally feast after so many, SO MANY years of famine when it comes to getting a steady release of collector-grade Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures. NECA’s release of their seminal figures based on the Eastman and Laird comics was years ago, Playmates has had a couple attempts at collector-focused lines, but nothing with legs, and TMNT fans have been left with little else than wanting more as other iconic lines from the ’80s and ’90s populated our modern shelves with classy updates. Well, just like that, both NECA and Bandai have tossed their hats in the ring to help us out, and, frankly, I am so excited for what BOTH of these companies will be offering us in the future. I need my TMNT fix, and big time.
Today, I am going to be focusing on Bandai since Benty did a great job covering the NECA Arcade Turtles set last week. Under their S.H. Figuarts execution, Bandai is getting the four brothers out this year (with Shredder coming soon as well!), and Leonardo and Donatello are up first, shipping the last week of this month. Now, lucky for me, Bluefin (the American distributor for the line) did have a little pre-release release of Leo and Donnie at SDCC last month, so Robo and I got lucky and braved the line on Preview Night. Trust me, both of us are really glad we did.
Now, just because I have been a slacker and did not get to featuring Donnie until now, a full month after SDCC (Robo was on the ball with his look at Leonardo), that does not mean that my excitement has waned one bit when it comes to this release. I waited for a few reasons: I have been REALLY busy since SDCC, Robo was early, so I wanted to save a feature for closer to the general release, and, most importantly, I wanted to see if any of the initial sheen of excitement had worn off after having the figure for a few weeks. I am happy to say, with 100 percent assurance, that the excitement has not worn off one bit, and I am still pinching myself over the fact that, based on Donatello alone, these figures are GREAT.
The lead into this release has been AGONIZING for me because I have been really excited for them since they were first teased at New York Comic Con last year. They have gone through some changes since then, but the mostly-final versions were on display at Toy Fair back in February, so seeing them in person really sealed it for me. These figures really capture the iconic look of the Turtles as they were purveyed during the height of their popularity during the late ’80s and early ’90s. I am not calling them 100 percent accurate to any one source (though, the standard marketing images are probably the closest), but much like Marvel Legends, DC Universe Classics, and a host of other lines, this execution captures a pretty universal “iconic” look for that classic era of TMNT.
You might think, with Bandai and NECA both making different TMNT figures from different eras and iterations, that I have hit a saturation point and would be looking to go with one company or line and go with it over the other, but that is not the case. In fact, I cannot stop buying, and buying into, new TMNT stuff, and as long as it is good, I will take Bandai AND NECA, and others that scratch the right itch as well. I mean, I am getting iconic ’90s Turtles, classic arcade Turtles, 1990 movie Turtles, and more to go along with my Eastman and Laird collection. Yes friends, it’s a good time to be a Turtle fan.
Like I said, Robo did a great job reviewing Leonardo, both in words and in video format, so really, he has covered a lot of the actual construction of this figure, and I agree with him at just about every turn. As you would expect, all four of the Turtles will share the same base body, so heads, accessories, and possibly hands would be the differences, so I thought it would be worth focusing on what Donatello features here. Obviously, the different Turtles will feature their particular weapons, but they also include an additional unique accessory. So, Donatello comes with his signature bo staff, as you would expect, and it is well-executed, with him able to manipulate and pose with it well. He looks good with both one-handed and two-handed grips, and the extensive articulation helps the posing flow from the hands and throughout the body naturally. I know that the unpainted grip tape on the bo is accurate to a lot of different sources, but it still looks weird to me (even as a life-long owner of the vintage figure), so I wish it was painted white.
I do think that Donatello makes off better in the “additional accessory” department than Leo did, though, because a slice of pizza (to me), is a lot more fun than an undersized manhole cover. It is well-sculpted and painted, and Donatello has a perfect alternate hand to hold it, so if you want to go with a lighter side of display with these (they are certainly made for it), this works well. Frankly, I think Mikey is probably jealous as he seems like the more intuitive choice for pizza (and Donnie would get a Turtle Com or something more technical), but that is splitting hairs at this point. You cannot have the Turtles without pizza, so Donnie better be on defense, the other guys will be coming for it.
Like Leonardo, Donatello comes with two interchangeable heads, and as you likely guessed, they are both unique to him. Each Turtle gets a more serious face (and in the case of Leo, an additional REALLY serious face), and that is my preference for Donatello. I appreciate some of the lighter elements of TMNT from this era, but if I have my Turtles with their weapons at the ready, they are going to look like they are ready for a brawl. Donatello’s alternate head is a bit more playful, and it looks like he is smiling really big, or even sticking his tongue out a bit. The good thing is that it can double as a “mid-bite” expression for chomping on that included slice of pizza, but I have to say I doubt I will ever display my figure with that head. As Robo mentioned, there is only one bandana tie piece that you swap out between the heads, so be on the lookout for when you change them, as it is small; it does fit snugly, however, so I am not particularly worried about misplacing it.
I do want to mention my one nitpick with this figure before moving on, and it is around the interchangeable back of the belt piece. It is really cool how you can swap out between a regular belt, or one that will accommodate the bo, but for a figure where everything is done near-perfectly, the color mismatch is a weird miss. It is not painfully obvious, but you can see it and when you don’t have much of anything to point out, you tend to look for something. I know, pointing that out is really over the top, but here we are.
I know Robo pointed out all of the strengths of these figures overall, but I do want to add my agreement to that. The sculpts are really fantastic and Donatello perfectly captures the era and iconic look very, very well. All the line and paint applications are clean, and since the figure comes in at right around 5.5″, he scales perfectly with the rest of your 1:12 figures. The articulation is absolutely AMAZING, and Donnie has more points then I can count. His shoulders and hips allow for so much movement, it is almost unreal, and the right materials were used at every turn to accommodate. The best example of this is that the plastrons on the front of the shell are made of a rubbery plastic, so there is no inhibiting those hips. It is all very well thought out.
Finally, there is the part of the figure I was the most unsure about: the die-cast pieces. When we got the initial details about this line, it was said that the belt buckle and the lower legs would be made of die-cast metal, instead of being traditional plastic. Now, for the buckle, it is a cute gimmick, but the legs impact sculpt, articulation, paint, and durability. The rationale around the metal legs was to give the figure a low center of balance to help with posing. That ensured that these figures would be heavy (and they are), but I was really, really scared about functionality.
Obviously, that was first thing I went for when I opened Donnie, and to my relief, and admittedly, surprise, I found the execution to be perfect. You cannot tell the legs are metal just by looking at the figure as the sculpt and paint colors match perfectly from one material to the other. The paint was especially a risk here, but Bandai knocked it out without any issue. Additionally, the posing, and especially the balance, working wonders for these figures. The Turtles are much bigger in their upper bodies, so the heavy legs get the weight distributed better, and most poses are effortless to achieve and hold. I have played with this figure a LOT and I have been able to get it in a lot of dynamic and one-footed poses with ease, and nary a paint chip has occurred. It is hard to describe it, so you will just have to see for yourself, but these figures made a die cast believer out of me.
If you are a TMNT fan, I really cannot recommend these figures enough. Yes, they are expensive, but they achieve so much satisfying perfection they are really worth what you pay for. If these are successful, we will get more characters and Bandai already showed off Shredder at SDCC, so hopefully there are some good legs here. Leo and Donnie ship from Japan this month, and in September stateside, so if you are interested, you can certainly pick them up at BBTS. With these, and NECA’s offerings, it is turning into a great time to be a Turtle fan, so I am going to take advantage of it collect all of the great stuff from both companies. Cowabunga, dudes!