| DONATELLO
(SAILOR)
PROJECT# 478 "And so our city is playing host to the navy's largest nuclear-powered submarine. This remarkable craft can stay underwater indefinitely, thanks to its supply of nuclear energy..." Preamble: The third-season Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles epsiode "Green With Jealousy" was one of the rare instances in which the Turtles wear a disguise other than their private eye get-ups. Maybe their trench coats were being dry cleaned, or maybe they just wanted to mix things up and got tired of wearing the same clothes all the time (they're not April O'Neil, after all), but whatever the case, in this episode they all wear matching sailor uniforms for a short time. The Turtles would go through many more disguises over the years, but the sailor suits left an impression on me—perhaps specifically because it was so unusual to see them finally wearing alternate costumes. After I finished action figure versions of all four private eye Turtles, I decided I wanted to create versions of them in their sailor suits, so I hunted down four Midshipman Mike action figures and went to work. Construction: Like many of the Ninja Turtles actions figures from this era, the original Midshipman Mike was sculpted with lots of extra details—he had fish perched on his shoulder (all wearing eyepatches, of course), barnacles growing on his clothing (?!), and a sailor hat that was inexplicably filled with water. This certainly wasn't as weird or gross as some of the other TMNT toys from the same time period, but the Turtles as seen in the cartoon series didn't have any creatures growing on them or living in their clothing, so I cut all these parts away. The original action figure was wearing an eyepatch, so I had to carve away at it and try to redo the head sculpt with my hobby knife to give him two regular eyes. One minor difference between the toy version and the sailor suit in animation is that the Turtles didn't wear shoes in the cartoon episode, so I also resculpted the boots of the toy to look more like their bare feet, carving out the insides of the pant legs (as well as the sleeves) to give them some depth. Donatello needs to have one hand turned in the opposite direction of the other in order to properly hold his bo staff, so I had to cut the figure's hand off, turn it around, and reattach it. Super glue alone wouldn't have been enough to properly secure it (not with me removing and replacing his weapons to photograph him when I was done), so I cut his forearm in half and drilled a screw through his wrist to secure his hand in the new position. The screw head is actually embedded inside his arm, which I glued back together afterwards. My project is carrying a bo staff from the 2003 Donatello toy, which is factory-painted and a lot longer than the version from the original toy line. Comments: Yes, I felt compelled to write three new, completely goofy character biographies as they might have appeared on hypothetical toy packaging, following the template and style of the official one for Midshipman Mike. Read 'em and weep.
PORTRAIT OF DECK-SWABBIN' DON Avast and ahoy and all that other nautical talk! Here comes Deck-Swabbin' Don, and he's the most hard-shelled helmsman of the high seas. Need your boat converted into a submarine? Don's your guy. Got trouble with Foot Soldiers hijacking your yacht? Don will pulverize those putrid pirates and pound them into pulp. Come heck or high water, you can bet your barnacles that Donatello is ready for anything. He's not afraid of hard work, but at the end of the day, there's nothing quite like a pizza topped with freshly-caught octopus as a reward for a job well done! |
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This Page Created: 1/19/2011
Last Updated: 2/8/2012
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