I'm having XTREME DESIGN FX make a Donatello..
 

I live about an hour from "Xtreme Design FX" studio, which as you all know, they build great TMNT movie style heads and a full costume. Since the full costume mold is no longer perfect, I had an idea.

I talked to Lance and asked him what parts of the costume mold was still in good shape. He said the hands, legs (from the knee, down to the foot), heads, neck and shell are in great shape. The upper torso, bicep and fore arm area is ruined, as well as the upper legs. Lance is building me a Donatello head (with movie 1 paint job "spots"), a pair of hands, a pair of lower legs and a custom neck piece to hide my skin. I'm going to wear all this with a trench coat, back pack and a fedora hat.

I should have it all in a few weeks, in plenty of time before Halloween. I'll show everyone when it is all put together.

Damn, that's a lot of money for a one-time use Halloween costume. Badass, yes, but expensive!

I'll use it for a lot more than just Halloween, Halloween is just where I'm going to debut this costume. It really isn't that expensive...the entire costume is expensive, I think he was selling them for between $4,000 - $7,000 at one time. With only buying the (1) head (2) hands (2) legs with feet (1) neck piece (2) leather wrist wraps (2) leather knee pads...I'm not even spending $1,000

This is a more affordable way to have an awesome Ninja Turtle movie style costume, just don't take off the trench coat! Since we never saw Donatello with a trench coat in the movies, we don't know if he would have carried his bo or not...but I'm going to fit a bo on the back of the coat anyway.

Their heads aren't accurate at all, dude. I know the locality of them being in Spartanburg or whatever is a cool factor but its not worth it. There is a guy here on the board who has a thread right now in the fan works section who does better work.

Awesome! Looking forward to the picture!!

I will be interested in seeing what they come up with..Good luck..

I look forward to seeing pics. But I do gotta say these are not movie accurate. But they will make an excellent costume.

Agreed, the head shape looks very odd to me with the front being really wide but the side of the head not being long enough and the mouth doesnt come out nearly enough. Still a cool costume though

Here's my feelings on xtremedesignFX "ninja turtle" costume/head stuff....

Most of us all grew up close to the same decades...we were kids in the 80's and/or early 90's. During that time the only ninja turtle costumes or masks available were either plastic with a rubber band, thin rubber masks that left the back of your head open, or probably the nicest ones were the Don Post masks.

I haven't researched "prop/costume" builders around the country like many of you have and I've always wanted a "professional looking" ninja turtle mask that didn't look like it came from a Halloween store or K-Mart. I wanted a turtle mask that would look worthy to be a stunt head used in a film/TV commercial quality. As soon as someone here finds a costume builder, another person finds a BETTER costume builder...then later on someone discovers a secret guy somewhere else who builds masks/costumes even better than the other 2 guys...and so on. Sooner or later you just have to STOP and go with who you trust or know.

I realize the difference in "movie accurate" turtle heads...shape, skin color, turtle spots, bandana length, movie:1 movie:2 movie:3...etc. I think the guy (Erik Porn) that's building that movie 1 RAPHAEL head is doing an amazing job, and I can tell that it is definatley looking like a Jim Henson original Raphael head...but I can't spend $2,000 on a mask. The guys at xtremedesign build ninja turtle heads better than anything you'll ever find in a Wal-Mart or Halloween store. People will see my mask and say, "Man, where did you get that, it looks real." Xtremedesign "turtle heads" are certainly worth the $250 they charge. I'm sure that if I commissioned them to build a "Jim Henson movie 1" style head of Donatello, and I supplied them with tons of pictures of Donatello's head...I'm sure they could do it just as well as anybody else. But I can't afford to spend thousands of dollars in a commission for a head sculpt when, in my opinion, the turtle heads they produce currently look good enough to me. I did make some specific requests on the mask...I want them to color match the shade of purple to "movie:1" Donatello as much as possible...a good medium purple. Also I requested a skin color paint job with "turtle spots".

Either way, this mask will be better than the Don Post masks that I have in my collection. I have other hobbies that take more of my money (restoring classic TV show vehicles) I'm currently finishing up my "A-Team" van. So if "ninja turtles" was my only hobby, then I'd probably sink some serious money into a "movie quality/accurate" full costume by some of the guys from this board...but remember, I just found this forum about a week ago!

Thanks for all the response with the Donatello costume pieces...I'll throw some pics up when I get it all together...

I very much look forward to seeing some pics.

Good luck!

dang this is the like the 5th person doing a full turtle costume from professionals. pretty crazy its all happening on the same time lol. everyone wants to be a turtle for halloween lol.

Sounds like an awesome idea. Can't wait to see pics.

Very nice, I cant wait to see it I have been following CustomPropSculptorGuy's thread and saw the other rapheal head that someone had commissioned. I'd love to have a turtle suit but I couldn't bring myself to spend the money. I would like a Raph head once CustomPropSculptorGuy has them available tho =)

How much do these Don Post masks cost, and did they only come in raphael red? I cant find any for sale or any info on their worth.... also any thoughts on who the best customiser is that you have seen that has made full turtle suits?

KB xx

I think Xtremedesignfx does really good work and if you supply a pic of how you want the head to look im 100% positive they could do it. I live here in NC. and are looking into them doing a Raphael head for me to look like the Movie 1 Raph. Good luck with the costume def put pics up when done.

Our good friend NinjaTurtle01 asked me to post some pictures of the finished costume. Here they are:

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/9862/1004389.jpg


http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/2973/1004393l.jpg

It turned out pretty cool, in my opinion.

that's a really nice costume. im glad it turned out well. was the body and mask a new sculpt the donny head reminds me of their raph mask. can you post more photos of the head? it looks very nice.

That is awesome! Only thing I could say is the fedora could be a bit bigger tho no one has heads the size of at TMNT so it would be impossible to find one unless it was custom made so your forgiven ;) edit its actually pretty good fit just a little tall compared to the one Raph had in the movie I thinks =)

Very nice costume, just like the action figure =) congrats!

That is really cool, looks great and I love it!