Good Smile Company Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Raphael & Donatello Statues

Raphael & Donatello
I recently reveiwed the first two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle statues produced by the Good Smile Company and based on the art work of James Jean. Since then, the other two brothers have arrived. So it's time to check out the complete set. I'm going to try to keep this review short since most of what I would have to say is just repeating what is already in my review of the first two. So if you haven't already read that, you might want to check it out first.

Packaging - 8/10

Donatello and Raphael use the same shoe box style packaging as their brothers. The boxes look great, protect the figures well and give you an easy way to safely store the statues in the future. One minor qualm I do have about them is that they are not uniform in size. That's not really surprising since the statues vary so much in size as well. But if you wanted to display them with the boxes as a backdrop, it would have been nice if they all had a consistent size in addition to the matching graphic design. That would also have made it a bit easier to store the boxes together if you aren't going to display them.

Sculpting - 9/10

As I said in the introduction, you can basically take my comments about Leonardo and Michelangelo and copy and paste them here for Raph and Don. They are very detailed and quite impressive. The weapons are still too large. Donatello's bo is longer than he is tall. And Raphael's sais are as long as his entire arm. But when you assemble them as a group, they look great. The one warning I can give is that if you are only buying Donatello, he comes off as excessivly tall. Being the only Turtle who is standing up straight combined with the tallest base and he clocks in at twelve and a half inches tall. Standing on his own, he looks more like a sports trophy. But I can't really fault him for that as it is necessary for him to be that tall to replicate the source image. But he would look much better on his own if you cut the base down and only used the top chunk.

Paint - 8/10

The paint applications for Donatello and Raphael match up to Leonardo and Michelangelo quite well. They still have the issue with the paint wash being very dark unless they are under very bright lights. But that issue aside, the quality is excellent and the statues look great together.

Articulation - 0/10

These are unarticulated statues. But if you hadn't figured that out yet, you probably aren't actually reading any of this to begin with.

Accessories - 5/10, (7/10 if you are buying all four)

The statues don't have any true accessories. Technically the weapons are removable/optional. But given their poses, they would look very strange without their weapons. Now that all four are released, the promotional offer for the aluminum print of the original artwork is now open. In each box is a sheet with instructions and a text code which you can enter online. I don't know exactly what the print will look like or how long it will be before they begin to ship them. But it is nice that they created a bonus for people who buy the complete set. (And for what it is worth, the instructions state that the codes need to be entered by the end of March of 2017. So even if you do not have the money to splurge for the complete set right now, you have plenty of time to get all four and still get the bonus print.

Value - Donatello 5/10, Raphael 6/10 (7/10 if you get all four)

Retail for the Good Smile statues is $130 each. That is a bit much for any one of these, especially Donatello who is just too tall to display well on his own. But put together as a group and they do look fantastic. The fact that the bases don't interconnect means that you can also mix them up a bit to find a display layout that works well for you.

Happy Hunting:

The Good Smile TMNT statues are sold through specialty stores. I bought all four of mine through Big Bad Toy Store. But they are also available from any number of online retailers for the same price. So check your favorite toy seller.

Raphael box front

Raphael box back

Donatello box front

Raph package contents Raphael parts Raphael front Raphael left side Raphael rear Raphael right side Raphael front view detail Raphael side view detail Raphael close up Raphael feet detail Raphael base detail Donatello parts Donatello front view Donatello left side Donatello rear view Donatello right side Donatello front detail Donatello left side detail Donatello rear view detail Donatello close up Donatello's belt Donatello's back assembled group group left side Group photo right side all four figures lined up