Well Playmates has finally gotten around to showing off their sculpts for the next round of Classics figures. It’s Rocksteady and Bebop. Two of the most requested and popular figures in the toy line’s history. When Peter Laird gained control of the TMNT property fully a few years back, he took a very hardline stance against Rocksteady & Bebop. He couldn’t see them reinvented in any fashion as serious characters. As a result, Playmates never made any new toys of them, despite wanting to at times.
However, Nickelodeon doesn’t have such restrictions on Playmates and we knew that eventually a Classics line would have to include Shredder’s favorite mutant cretins. And they’re finally here in the plastic. After the success of the regular Turtles, we’ve all had high hopes that these goons would look just as good.
And look at that image. Perfect in just about every way. Man, I would pay $50 or more for these figures. Don’t they just look perfect?! I can’t wait to have these figures from Playmates… Oh, right… I almost forgot. These AREN’T the figures that Playmates is giving us, but rather a Photoshop manipulation from a guy on the forum named “grungethemovie”. So what are we getting? Take a look behind the cut…
It was just the other day I was talking about the leaked info on the New Ninja Turtle Figures for 2013 and now I can show you detailed photos of all the speculated characters. Although Toy Fair is a few weeks away, the Hong Kong Toy Fair is already producing some information, including our first look at all the new Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles product.
Much to my surprise, the Mousers are not a retread of the 2K3 sculpt, but in fact the most comic accurate Mouser sculpt ever done by ANY company. They look to have articulated heads, jaws and legs, but not knees. Playmates could have easily re-released their stellar 2K3 sculpt, but I have to give them props for this new Mouser sculpt. Even if I actually think the 2K3 sculpt is more accurate to the Nickelodeon source material. These Mousers will be super popular, and although it’s a 7 pack, it appears that half the Mousers are black. I’m not sure what that’s about.
Our first look at the new Shredder and Splinter is sort of disappointing. On one hand, Shredder comes with a cape now and a second unmasked head. He also may have knee joints, or at least knee bends in his sculpt. Splinter, on the other hand, is in some sort of training suit and he looks pretty terrible. Also in the lineup is our first look at some new unannounced figures, like the Toddler Turtles and special mission suit Turtles. The Toddler Turtles look fun, but don’t look better than the 2K3 versions. I’ll probably still pick them up, though.
Our good friend Jeff sent along some photos of the new Ninja Turtles ooze. Has this actually been called mutagen on the Nick show? I can’t recall it being referred to as such. I really love the look and texture of the new ooze and the containers are nice too. I’ve heard that these are showing up in Toys R Us locations mostly (none at my local TRU) but Jeff found these at Meijers.
Playmates could have easily just repacked classic mutagen and containers and probably got away with it. However this new formula looks more accurate to the show and gives us some new ooze to look at. Oddly enough, I’ve never been much of an ooze guy. I still have some MOC mutagen from 2K3, but none of the classic stuff anymore.
So a poster over at 4Chan has leaked some internal purchasing screens from Walmart that give us a good idea of what’s coming up in the next batch of Ninja Turtle toy releases. Historically these Walmart computer charts have been quite accurate, although there have been odd things here or there through the years. However, these TMNT figures sound pretty succinct and make sense with what has been shown in the TV show to this point.
One of the new items is Ooze/Mutagen. This is already hitting shelves at Toys R Us across the country, giving us some confirmation that this list is accurate but also that these products may not be that far away. Also on the list is Baxter, Snakeweed, Leatherhead and Rat King. No surprise to any of those, although Rat King hasn’t yet debuted in the cartoon.
Perhaps more interesting is the listing for “Cockroach” which I can only assume is a work in progress name for an as of yet unseen mutant. Also on the list is something called the Newtralizer, which we also don’t know anything about yet. Rounding things out is Spider Bytes and two new versions of Shredder and Splinter, simply listed as 2. One would hope that these are improved versions from the first Shredder and Splinter figures. I’d love some more articulation and such, but for all we know these could be some sort of “wacky action” versions. There’s also potential for them to Hamato Yoshi or Saki, but if that were true, I’d assume they’d be listed as such.
Of course the big news for most folks is the listing for a 7 pack of Mousers. Or M.O.U.S.E.R.S. as they were in the new Nickelodeon show. This isn’t too much of a surprise to me and we’ll have to wait and see if they actually hit shelves. Remember that a 6 pack of Mousers was advertised for the 2K2 line, but never ended up making shelves. Speaking of which, I fully expect these new Mousers to be repaints, if not complete retreads of those figures. I don’t really need anymore of them, as you can see from the photo above… But at $8 a pop, it might be hard to resist.
With the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being bar none, the hottest boy’s toy on the market today, I suspect that the releases will begin to flood the market fast and furious within the new year. I couldn’t be more excited and I hope that Playmates is up to the task. Hopefully they don’t get greedy and put out quality product, which will help secure the Turtles a strong foothold in the marketplace for years to come.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and that means Black Friday is upon us. As stores gear up for their biggest sale day of the year, it’s time for us to take a trip down the lanes of toy merchandise and see where things are at. Let’s take a peek into the land of holiday shopping as it’s time for… TALES FROM THE TOY AISLE PRE-BLACK FRIDAY EDITION!
In the run up to Black Friday, I headed out today and visited two Toys R Us locations, a K-Mart and a Walmart. Each store was gearing up for their big sale day. There were already some deals to be had, but what was the #1 trend I noticed?
Ninja Turtles is the hottest toy line on the planet! Yes, it’s true… The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back and sales are totally gangbusters. One Toys R Us location was completely wiped out. This TRU was previously stocked with every single peg full of Turtles’ toys.
But now? Nothing was left but a few roleplay toys and a backpack. Remember those $120 Sewer Lair playsets that nobody said would sell? Yeah, they were all gone too. But perhaps this is just a freak occurrence at one particular Toys R Us?
Each and every store I went to, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were kings of the aisle.
Another Toys R Us tried to pretend that the Ninja Tutles didn’t even exist. Their whole section had been wiped out, just as the other TRU, but instead of leaving the shelves as a barren wasteland, they “flexed” Power Rangers into that spot. I have to admit, I take a bit of pride in seeing that the Power Rangers are warming shelves while the TMNT are selling like hotcakes, because it was the Rangers who more or less ended the Turtles’ toy aisle dominance in the 90′s.
It’s not just Geoffrey the Giraffe who can’t keep Ninja Turtles in stock. K-Mart was sold out too. And they had quite a bit of peg space. More than K-Mart usually allows. I suspect K-Mart’s nice $7.99 pricetag is part of the reason, but even their roleplay weapons and lame Power Sound FX figures were sold out. Turtle Power!
This week’s assignment from the League of Extraordinary Bloggers is to take the old Marvel Comics “What If…” concept and apply it to some part of pop culture. I’ve missed the last few League assignments, but this one was just too good to pass up.
What if…? — Write an alternate turn of events for a pop culture storyline.
My concept is simple. What if that old blind man hadn’t crossed the street?
In Marvel Comics Daredevil #1 in 1964, it’s established that young Matt Murdock notices a blind man walking across the street. The poor old blind man doesn’t see that a truck is racing around the corner. He’s going to be hit! Matt calls to him to watch out, but the blind man can’t hear him.
Matt, being the good Samaritan that he is, decides to rush into danger to save the old man. The truck tries to stop, but it can’t seem to brake in time.
Matt jumps in just in time. Unfortunately for him, as he does this, the truck swerves and a canister flies out of the back of the truck. Matt and the old man are lucky to not be ran over… But the canister of mysterious ooze strikes Matt in the eyes.