TMNT Week continues with a look at the Nickelodeon cartoon version of Donatello. I’ve always liked Donatello, but over the past few years he’s become one of my favorite Turtles, if not my number one favorite. The reason is pretty simple. He’s a geek.

In any team there’s always the brainy member, but Donatello always seemed a bit more than that. He was smart, sure, but he could still be funny and he could sure as hell kick your ass. I never understood the Bo Staff as a kid, but now I see it’s the perfect weapon for Donny. I never picked Donatello when I played TMNT video games, but now he’s always my first choice.

I’m excited to see the new version of Donatello, because he seems like the Turtle they’ve put the most effort into evolving. He has a crush on April (who’s the same age now), and he’s voiced by Rob Paulsen, who was Raphael in the Fred Wolf cartoon. I think Rob will give Donatello a great sense of humor but still be able to get the geeky side across.
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The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Classic Collection really surprised me when I first heard about it a few months ago. I wasn’t expecting Nickelodeon or Playmates to invest this much in the franchise so soon. An amazing new toy line to support their new cartoon would have been enough, but the companies decided to release another line of action figures, this one designed to look like the characters in the original Fred Wolf cartoon.

In my opinion, these are about as perfect as they possibly could have been.

Even though they were deeply connected, the original cartoon and the original Playmates toy line were always separate in my head. The characters never looked exactly like their animated counterparts with a few exceptions. They were still great toys, but I always wanted action figures that looked like they jumped right out of the cartoon. The TMNT Classic Collection is exactly that. This week I’ll be looking at all four Turtles, starting with Leonardo.

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TMNT Week is officially underway. I’ve got two huge boxes sitting on the floor of my office full of new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys, as well as some older stuff I haven’t reviewed yet, and I’m going to be making my way through it all this week. In case you missed the announcement post, today we’re focusing on the leader of the TMNT, Leonardo.

First up we’re going to look at the new Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles version of Leonardo. The new CG cartoon premieres on September 29th, and so far Nickelodeon has been doing a great job of getting us TMNT fans adequately pumped up. These toys are just starting to hit the shelves, but are much easier to find online right now.

How do these new TMNT action figures hold up to the original toys and all the versions we’ve had since? Will they help bring on a new era of Turtlemania? Why does Splinter look like a badger? I’ll hopefully be answering these questions and more all week.
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I wanted to give you all a heads up. I realized that I have a ton of TMNT content to publish in the next few days, and to not make this look like a TMNT-exclusive blog, I’ve decided to make next week TMNT Week. Specifically, Tuesday, July 24th through Friday, July 27th, so almost a week. Monday is my birthday and I’ll be taking the day off, but here’s what you have to look forward to next week:

• Tuesday: Leonardo
• Wednesday: Donatello
• Thursday: Michelangelo
• Friday: Raphael

Each day I’ll be posting reviews of the new action figures, as well as some character-related articles. I’ve had a blast lately geeking out with all you fellow bloggers and Twitterers about the resurgence of the TMNT, and I welcome you all to join in on TMNT Week!

See you next week!