Toy Report: Nickelodeon’s Donatello

OK, so I have another Ninja Turtle toy to talk about.

Recently Nickelodeon, a subsidiary of Viacom, bought the rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. Not the licensing rights, the entire franchise. This lead to a new cartoon and of course a new toyline. Rather than go with a new company, Nickelodeon stuck with long time Ninja Turtles toy makers Playmates. While I have no intention of getting the entire series or even all four Turtles, my curiosity as to whether they’ve improved since the previous toyline got the better of me (mostly because of my reviews) and I snagged me a Donatello.

Right in the package I can tell they toned down the “egghead” look the cartoon hasgiven him. (Yes, he’s a genius and “egghead” is the nickname, sometimes insulting, given to geniuses. We get it.) Otherwise, I don’t have a lot to say about the front of the package. A quick look at the back, and then it’s time to open this baby up.

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Toy Report: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2.0

Sorry if my thoughts seem a bit unfocused in this. I’m either suffering from an allergy resurgence or a cold. Either way I’m a bit fuzz-brained today.

"Uh, Don...?" "I've been sick."

So last week we looked at the original Ninja Turtles toys from Playmates, or at least Donatello. This week we look at the remakes figures. In the early 2000’s 4Kids Entertainment teamed with Mirage Studios on a modern update to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. This was closer to the original comic book, although with even more of a science fiction bend to it. Personally I prefer it to the original. It was more serious in tone, and the animation was a higher quality (even with the occasionally obvious computer assist).

Playmates continued to hold the figure license and produced updated versions of the Turtles figures. So how much did they learn between lines? Sadly, not enough.