Being a huge fan of the Mirage TMNT comics, I always loved the gritty comic-inspired design of Playmates' original wave of figures from 1988. But even though I appreciated the Mirage styling, the figures weren't particularly representative of the classic cartoon. Finally, in 1992 (4 years later!) Playmates released the Toon Turtles. Are they the "cartoony" Turtles that I so desperately need for my collection? Let's check out Toon Don to find out.
STATS
Year Stamped: 1992
Company: Playmates Toys
Size: 4 1/2"
Price: $7.50 loose complete from eBay
Packaging: Carded
APPEARANCE
Toon Don certainly looks like a cartoony Ninja Turtle, but his head sculpt doesn't quite capture the specific design of the classic cartoon. The head isn't wide enough, the eyes are too big, and the spinning-action bandana looks weird. But the rest of the body is pretty good, with toony rounded lines that work well.
The color scheme doesn't make much sense. The shell should be brown, not sea-green; the belt should be brown with a grey buckle, not all black. And for some weird reason, the figure is covered in a sort of pearlescent finish. The finish is admittedly kind of cool, but it's definitely not in-line with the cartoon theme. A flat, matte finish would have worked so much better. And if they wanted to go crazy, they could have added two-toned shading, similar to the way they painted the animation cels.
ARTICULATION
Toon Don swivels at the neck, shoulders, forearms, and (get this) hips. What happened to the ball-socket hips that virtually every single vintage TMNT figure has? Oh well, he still has some pretty good movement.
ACCESSORIES
Donnie's accessories are as follows:
- Two Toon Bos - These should be brown instead of purple, but I'm cool with them.
- Toon Turtle Pizza Disc - I have to admit, I have absolute no use for this flying disc.
- Animated Toon Television - The screen is one of those lenticular prints that shifts between two different images when you look at it from different angles. I really dig it, and the TV can be used in Turtle Lair dioramas.
- Turtle Communicator - The Turtle Communicator was used so often in the show that it's a must for any Toon Turtle. It's great to finally get one, but it should be green instead of purple.
VALUE
I was lucky to get this dude for $7.50 (loose) because sellers just love to inflate the prices of the Toon Turtles. But that's pretty close to my upper limit for TMNT purchases. You can get lots of really awesome Ninja Turtle figures for less, even carded.
COOLNESS
As cool as the cartoon concept is, the figure is frankly a bit doofy. Part of that is because of Don's Playskool-esque expression, but his silly action feature definitely contributes. If you push a button on Don's back, his bandana spins. Whoopdie-do. Did that happen in the cartoon? No. Does that give him some sort of "action edge" during playtime? Hell no. Does it look doofalicious? Oh yes.
OVERALL
I really want to love this figure, but I'll have to settle with just liking it. The sculpt doesn't quite capture the specific look of the cartoon character, the pearlescent finish is odd, and the action feature is stupid and pointless. He's definitely a toony Turtle, though, so at least he helps to fill the "animated Turtle" void in my collection.
8 comments:
Even when these guys first came out I was convinced they were crap. From the out of place shiny finish to the unnecessary action features. Thinking about it, even if they had nailed them, I'm not sure I would have bought them. As I was very fond of the first release of the turtles. I can't imagine anyone ever topping them, just for the sake of nostalgia. But I long for the day we get some great remakes of at least the first 2 waves of the original TMNT figures.
He comes with two flexible giant purple dongs?
Now that 'fan art' I've seen makes sense.
*shudders*
They are cool figures although the amount of gloss and glitter applied seems a bit much. I loved these when they originally came out being they were looking more like the cartoon. The little TV's were quite fun as well.
He looks more like the art that would always show up on things like T-shirts and posters and such. I think they used the same style on the TMNT cereal boxes.
I know what you mean, Nicky. Those shiny, airbrushed-looking renditions of the Ninja Turtles were common in the days of Turtlemania, but the Turtles never looked like that in the show.
Seeing this figure makes me nostalgic. But on the other hand never really liked the Toon Turtles, and never bought any of my own. The concept seemed as stupid to me as a 9 year old as it does now: The action figures don't look like the characters in the cartoon, so Playmates creates Toon Turtles...which also don't look like the characters in the cartoon.
I appreciate you reviewing this because I've often thought about buying the Toon Turtles off of Ebay. I'm glad I didn't because I don't recall ever reading about the goofy actions and whatnot.
When it came to TMNT figures I owned a ton, but I pretty much skipped anything if it had a wacky action. I recall seeing them in stores like once and skipping them, so maybe that was why.
Anywho, I think the sculpt is actually pretty great albeit the head sculpt is off. Shame Playmates never did a really good toon style turtle or even another version of the regular turtles.
The point of this line of Turtles wasn't to recreate them from the standpoint of the actual cartoon, but rather as a alternate vision of the turtles as classic slapstick characters such as bugs bunny. Hence the shiny colors, goofy expression and cartoony gimmicks such as the spinning bandana.
I got him too but mine was always missing the acsessories so i always wondered what was that button on his back.I also got Rafael(both from Playmates Toys),he spins his head.
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