Bootleg 'Karate Turtles Warriors' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Leonardo

Thanks to the intellect of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle collecting community at The Technodrome and Google and Youtube I was able to learn that this bootleg Leonardo is a 'Karate Turtles Warrior' - sans robe and weapons:

Regardless of his missing accessories, this is one sweet bootleg Leonardo and for a dollar I could not pass him up!

Obviously this bootleg TMNT is based on the original Playmates TMNT toyline. What wasn't immediately obvious until I set him next to the original Playmates TMNT figures is that he's a bit smaller in scale. In addition...

...even though he's Leonardo, his head sculpt is a direct (if shrunken down) rip-off of Donatello!

That seemed weird initially, but then again I only had one of the four bootlegs, and as my research confirmed, all four turtles heads use the exact same sculpt with only their bandanna/wrist gauntlets and belt letters being different.

Speaking of wrist gauntlets - yes, wrist gauntlets. Also: three fingers (plus thumb) and four toes. If it weren't evident that the bootleggers directly ripped the head sculpt from an original Ninja Turtle you might think they had never seen a Ninja Turtle!

Leonardo's legs are more plasticy, while the rest of this guy seems more hard rubbery. And yes, 'plasticy' and 'hard rubbery' are officially sanctioned scientific terms.

His back reminds me of the bottom of a rubber-duckie. I'm not an expert on hard rubber toy manufacturing, but I have to believe the same process was involved here.

This guy is just the right combination of weird and wonderful. I'm glad I found him at the flea market, original turtle bootlegs don't pop up all that often anymore these days. I'm also glad to have found out some legitimate details about this guy. Thanks to the Technodrome forums!