Donatello

A special thanks to Bluefin Distribution for providing this samples.

You can get your Hero in a Half Shell at bigbadtoystore.com

Please check out SentaiSeiya’s review of the SH Figuarts Leonardo here.  

Donatello has always been my favorite Ninja Turtle. Before STEM became a big buzzword, kids in the 90’s didn’t really have many science related idols to really look up to besides many Carl Sagan, Bill Nye and I guess Beakman’s World, but to me, Donatello is what made me want to be a ‘scientist’ and eventually pursue a degree in engineering once I realized you can’t be just a ‘scientist’. Not only did Donatello always build all the cool TMNT vehicles, he was also always the best character in the TMNT video games so I was really excited when he was announced as one of the first two TMNT SHFs released.  

The TMNT SHFs were actually released as web exclusives in Japan while being regular releases in the US. This really shouldn’t be a surprise as I doubt a generation of Japanese children grew up watching the cartoon like in the US.

Donatello comes with a decent amount of accessories, including two heads, 4 sets of hands, two rear belt pieces, a bo staff, and most importantly, a slice of pizza.

Like most recent SHFs (we don’t talk about Ghost), Donatello has an incredible sculpt that’s nearly a perfect representation of the 90s TMNT cartoon design. The lower legs and feet are entirely metal to help balance weird proportions of a humanoid turtle but are also a little concerning as many older SHFs with metal feet have issues with becoming loose and chipping.

Articulation is fantastic, though not quite as good as the SHF First Order Stormtrooper primarily due to limitations of being a turtle. The arm articulation is probably the best I’ve seen in a SHF with an incredible range of motion. They even managed to throw in a waist joint by using a soft rubber chest that can flex with the figure. The only downside is the leg articulation, which goes back to the old style drop down hip joints instead of the newer styled ones. The legs still have a good range of motion, but don’t expect any fancy kneeling poses. Again, a large part of this is probably just due to the anthropomorphic turtle design.

The announcement that TMNT SHFs were being released was pretty unexpected, but the recent push for by Bandai to release more western focused figures has resulted in a lot of great figures. Other than the slightly limited leg articulation, I think Donatello is the new definitive Ninja Turtle figure. I’m pretty biased in this as I really do only care about the 90s animated series, and none of the subsequent series have had any interest for me, but considering the only other options in the ~6in scale are the weird playmates or the notoriously poor QC of NECA figures, i really don’t think there’s any other option for a near perfect Ninja Turtle. I loved Donatello so much I immediately went out to buy Leonardo and will definitely be picking up Mikey and Raph. I do hope this line sees the success that the DBZ figures have and we can get hopefully get more characters made.