Toy Review: ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles X G.I. Joe’ Donatello Is A King Of Shelf Appeal

Some figures are all about the posing. Others will fill a hole on the shelf. So where does the latest find in the TMNT X G.I. Joe crossover fall?

Now that the release of Playmates’ last big TMNT wave before their goodbye tour is fully rolled out, we were able to snag the last two brothers. We’re going to take a look at Donatello first. 

Crossing Donatello over with Dial-Tone certainly works. They’re tech guys. In the cases of the other brothers, though, they were crossed with some of the main Joes. Dial-Tone is absolutely more obscure. I think Breaker or Clutch would have made much more sense, considering their technical and mechanical skills, and both being much more well-known Joes.

That said, the design is really great. Just like I said with Michaelangelo, it doesn’t have any of the weird and silly touches of the early Playmates days, which would have been welcome (some broken tech, weird shell elements, stuff like that). Overall, it takes all of the classic elements of Dial-Tone’s design, including a perfect translation of his backpack.

For accessories, there’s only the backpack and the antenna/bo staff. It’s simple, but they both look great. More is always a bit better, but really both of these are so good that I can’t hold it against the figure. 

This figure continues the trend of excellent posing that Playmates has put out there. The Turtles are naturally bulky, but that never overwhelms these figures. The pack does get in the way a little bit, but without it, he’s fantastic. Even better, Donny’s staff can act as a stand just enough to do more with the figure without a stand that you would with the other Turtles.

While he’s not the flashiest or the strongest of the wave, this is a good, solid figure. He’s going to be a welcome addition to my TMNT collection, and that is exactly the sort of shelf appeal an action figure needs.