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Old 02-17-2019, 10:44 AM   #221
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Crash Test Dummies

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Playmates changed card backs, the shelf space gave way to new items like Jurassic Park, Batman the Animated Series, expanded X-Men sets and the return of Transformers. Giving 90's kids something new and exciting in 1993 took attention away from the holdover TMNT. Then in the Fall Mighty Morphin Power Rangers came up big.
Didn't the Crash Test Dummies last for one Christmas and holiday season or so?
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Old 02-17-2019, 12:12 PM   #222
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I remember the commercial series taking a life of its own and getting a toy set and cartoon, was it from 1992 to 1994? That was when I saw cousins and friends have toys of them as a little kid.
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Old 03-15-2019, 02:55 PM   #223
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Didn't the Crash Test Dummies last for one Christmas and holiday season or so?
1991-1992 were the only real successful years, then they introduced a mythology with the junkyard dummy gang thing, in order to sell a TV series to Fox Kids which despite being 100% cgi and groundbreaking for a Saturday Morning cartoon, failed to gather interest, and Dummies faded away. TMNT in its later years lasted longer than those Dummies did.
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Old 03-15-2019, 08:27 PM   #224
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"Playmates had produced so much stuff so quickly"

Same with MotU - they overflod the market , also kids moved on to other things after MotU : Transformers , GI Joe etc
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Old 08-21-2019, 07:17 PM   #225
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Does anyone else on here agree that wave 1 of the 1988 original Playmates toy line was the best out of them all?

In ‘89, odd choices for figures (like Sewer Swimming Donatello) and vehicles (like the Sewer Party Tube) were released. It seems like things started to take a turn for the worst for Playmates after the Party Wagon was sold in stores in one of the earliest months of 1989.

The ‘88 wave one figures were extremely popular in 1990. Like with every successful boys toy line, you cannot talk about the whole toy line without bringing up of the greatness of the first wave and what made the whole line work. The 1989 wave two and three figures are pictured in some action figure and toy guides, but left out of books on toys in general. Were the best characters only in the first wave of the original toy line?
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Old 08-22-2019, 01:38 AM   #226
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Of course Wave 1 was the best. I always played with my Wave 1 turtles, Shredder, Splinter and Foot Soldier more than any of the other TMNT figures, other than maybe Krang. Even when Playmates started releasing other variants or updated versions of the characters, none had the same charm or versatility. A good figure line has to start with a really strong base set of figures, and TMNT executed that perfectly.



I think they did an incredible job on Wave 1 of the 2012 figures too. And 2003, though I wasn't engaged much when those were coming out, it looks pretty strong.
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Old 08-22-2019, 04:26 AM   #227
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Does anyone else on here agree that wave 1 of the 1988 original Playmates toy line was the best out of them all?
I disagree. The turtles themselves look OK, but Leo's expression was awful and some of the accessories were lackluster. April and Shredder were a mess, too. Obviously I played with all of the figures a ton and have very fond memories of them, but I preferred many of the later variants. When my best friend and I had "turtle wars" and we drafted characters to use, I pretty much always chose Classic Rock Leo or Lt. Leo as my first figure. Some of the variants (Clown Mike!) were over the top and ridiculous, but for me that was the charm of the original line.
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Old 08-22-2019, 04:34 AM   #228
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Yeah, the first April headsculpt is pretty awkward. The second head is much better sculpted
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Old 08-22-2019, 09:25 AM   #229
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The first April headsculpt made April look like how she appeared on the earliest Random House books. The second April headsculpt was too cartoony looking. Sadly, the second April headsculpt did not resemble April from the syndicated or CBS Saturday morning FW cartoons.

The original Playmates toy line suffered from looking more gross and colorful with each wave. With this kind of toy line, the second and third waves lacked the magic of the first wave, but was heaps better than the fourth and fifth waves. I didn’t notice much of a different between the sixth wave and the second through fifth waves. The sixth wave consisted of Dirtbag and Chromedome for those that were not aware of that on this forum. The seventh wave was saved by Super Shredder, Tokka, and Rhazar. The seventh basic assortment along with the Sewer Sports variants were the first ever figures that did not sell well in stores. Most children of the 80s and 90s switched over completely to video games that fall. The eighth and ninth basic assortments consisted of characters that mainly Turtles fans know of.

Both the overuse of mutants and turtle variants killed off the original Playmates toy line. It was much easier to move on from all things Turtles in 1991 because the second movie was lackluster, there was too much merchandise everywhere, and it was too hard to find discontinued characters from the earliest assortments for anyone who wasn’t a teenager, parent, or toy scalper.

The downfall of the original Playmates toy line might have happened in the fall of ‘89 with the third basic assortment and Wacky Action Turtles or the fall of 1991 when collecting TMNT figures got to be too much for everyone. It’s hard to tell. 1990 seems to have been the best year to be an original Playmates toy line collector. There were pop-up display chases, Giant Turtles, lots of wave five basic assortment variant figures, and the rare purple Retromutagen Foot Ooze in stores. Two of the disguised turtles in the fifth wave were necessities for every original Playmates toy line collector, so things were not all bad for casual Turtles buyers in 1990.
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Old 08-22-2019, 09:27 AM   #230
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I disagree. The turtles themselves look OK, but Leo's expression was awful and some of the accessories were lackluster. April and Shredder were a mess, too. Obviously I played with all of the figures a ton and have very fond memories of them, but I preferred many of the later variants. When my best friend and I had "turtle wars" and we drafted characters to use, I pretty much always chose Classic Rock Leo or Lt. Leo as my first figure. Some of the variants (Clown Mike!) were over the top and ridiculous, but for me that was the charm of the original line.
The right side of Leo’s face matches the FW Leonardo at times better than the NECA ‘17 SDCC Leonardo does.
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Old 08-22-2019, 09:29 AM   #231
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Of course Wave 1 was the best. I always played with my Wave 1 turtles, Shredder, Splinter and Foot Soldier more than any of the other TMNT figures, other than maybe Krang. Even when Playmates started releasing other variants or updated versions of the characters, none had the same charm or versatility. A good figure line has to start with a really strong base set of figures, and TMNT executed that perfectly.



I think they did an incredible job on Wave 1 of the 2012 figures too. And 2003, though I wasn't engaged much when those were coming out, it looks pretty strong.
Which figure in the first wave of the original Playmates toy line was the most cartoony looking—Bebop or Foot Soldier?
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Old 08-22-2019, 02:18 PM   #232
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Does anyone else on here agree that wave 1 of the 1988 original Playmates toy line was the best out of them all?
No. Those were the best turtles for sure (I couldn't stand all of the costume iterations, even as a kid) but I definitely preferred some of the later waves. Wave 1 had four mostly identical figures, April, a terrible Shredder, a restricted Splinter, and then three fantastic figures in Rocksteady, Bebop, and the Foot soldier.

Wave 2, meanwhile, had some of my all-time favorites in Casey Jones, Usagi Yojimbo, Metalhead, Baxter, Leatherhead, Rat King, and Traag, not to mention Krang, Ace Duck, and Genghis Frog. Every one of those figures is great and did way more for my imagination than most of wave 1. And then there was the Slash wave!

Wave 1 created a solid and necessary foundation but the next few years were where the line really started to shine IMO.
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Old 08-22-2019, 02:55 PM   #233
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No. Those were the best turtles for sure (I couldn't stand all of the costume iterations, even as a kid) but I definitely preferred some of the later waves. Wave 1 had four mostly identical figures, April, a terrible Shredder, a restricted Splinter, and then three fantastic figures in Rocksteady, Bebop, and the Foot soldier.

Wave 2, meanwhile, had some of my all-time favorites in Casey Jones, Usagi Yojimbo, Metalhead, Baxter, Leatherhead, Rat King, and Traag, not to mention Krang, Ace Duck, and Genghis Frog. Every one of those figures is great and did way more for my imagination than most of wave 1. And then there was the Slash wave!

Wave 1 created a solid and necessary foundation but the next few years were where the line really started to shine IMO.
Wave two only had Baxter and Ace Duck out of all of them you listed. Most of the figures from wave 2 were in the first and second seasons of the 1987 syndicated show. Ace Duck was the only mutant from that wave to be introduced in the third season of the FW cartoon.

When did you lose interest in the original Playmates line? Was it shortly after there were too many costume iterations of the turtles?
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Old 08-23-2019, 07:42 AM   #234
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Wave two only had Baxter and Ace Duck out of all of them you listed. Most of the figures from wave 2 were in the first and second seasons of the 1987 syndicated show. Ace Duck was the only mutant from that wave to be introduced in the third season of the FW cartoon.

When did you lose interest in the original Playmates line? Was it shortly after there were too many costume iterations of the turtles?
Ah, gotcha. I was going off of the lists on TMNTtoys.com. I guess they just have things separated by years, not waves.

I'm not sure when I lost interest. I remember getting the Turtles III figures in store but that might have been about the end. The only costume figures I ever got new were Samurai Leo and Surfer Mikey but those were also the first two that were made (I think?) so the concept was still novel and interesting.

I'm a huge collector of things and my instinct is always to want everything for any particular collection I'm interested in. The Playmates line is the lone example of me having no desire whatsoever to be a completionist, which is very telling!
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Old 08-23-2019, 07:49 AM   #235
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Ah, gotcha. I was going off of the lists on TMNTtoys.com. I guess they just have things separated by years, not waves.

I'm not sure when I lost interest. I remember getting the Turtles III figures in store but that might have been about the end. The only costume figures I ever got new were Samurai Leo and Surfer Mikey but those were also the first two that were made (I think?) so the concept was still novel and interesting.

I'm a huge collector of things and my instinct is always to want everything for any particular collection I'm interested in. The Playmates line is the lone example of me having no desire whatsoever to be a completionist, which is very telling!
Sewer Samurai Leo and Mike, The Sewer Surfer were in stores from 1990 to 1993. They were some of the first disguised turtles along with Space Cadet Raphael and Undercover Donatello. Undercover Donatello seems to have been the only must have disguised turtle, but I believe all of the disguised turtles were common in the aforementioned years.
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Old 08-23-2019, 12:32 PM   #236
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This is a great thread.

I was on board with TMNT toys during the late stages of life of the wave 1 releases. I'd say that I fell out of it completely, believe it or not, right after Secret of the Ooze came out [weird because I loved the movie].

Before Secret of the Ooze was released, I had bought all of the 1990 wave, except for Spacesuit Raph. The disguised Turtles left me with the same negative feeling that I had a few years earlier when G.I. Joe started feeling "old and recycled"; and I started bowing out.

The last two brand new figures that I bought were Tokka and Razhar because they felt pretty legit at the time. I didn't buy any of the other toys from the wave that held Tokka & Razher. That was it. My last "all-in" were the regular 1990 releases.
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Old 08-23-2019, 03:31 PM   #237
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This is a great thread.

I was on board with TMNT toys during the late stages of life of the wave 1 releases. I'd say that I fell out of it completely, believe it or not, right after Secret of the Ooze came out [weird because I loved the movie].

Before Secret of the Ooze was released, I had bought all of the 1990 wave, except for Spacesuit Raph. The disguised Turtles left me with the same negative feeling that I had a few years earlier when G.I. Joe started feeling "old and recycled"; and I started bowing out.

The last two brand new figures that I bought were Tokka and Razhar because they felt pretty legit at the time. I didn't buy any of the other toys from the wave that held Tokka & Razher. That was it. My last "all-in" were the regular 1990 releases.
Tokka and Rahzar were the rarest figures from the 7th wave. Rahzar was harder to find than Tokka in the fall to winter seasons of 1991. I think the children of the 80s in the early 90s wanted Rahzar because it was a new sculpt and the accessories were more eye raising than Tokka’s. For Tokka fans, the battle fun set was made. 1988 to 1991 were the best years of the original Playmates toy line.
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Old 08-23-2019, 05:06 PM   #238
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I disagree. The turtles themselves look OK, but Leo's expression was awful and some of the accessories were lackluster. April and Shredder were a mess, too. Obviously I played with all of the figures a ton and have very fond memories of them, but I preferred many of the later variants. When my best friend and I had "turtle wars" and we drafted characters to use, I pretty much always chose Classic Rock Leo or Lt. Leo as my first figure. Some of the variants (Clown Mike!) were over the top and ridiculous, but for me that was the charm of the original line.
Should the original Playmates toy line be remembered for the over the top and ridiculous mutants and variants of the turtles or what came before?
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Old 08-23-2019, 07:12 PM   #239
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When the Target Exclusive Special Collector’s 4 Pack came out in 1992, it was apparent that the earliest figures of original Playmates toy line were dated. Still, like some people on here are saying, the TMNT 3 wave was where they stopped. I believe the oldest Millennials lost interest in 1991 after the seventh wave and the younger Millennials stop collecting after TMNT 3.
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Old 08-23-2019, 08:16 PM   #240
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When the Target Exclusive Special Collector’s 4 Pack came out in 1992, it was apparent that the earliest figures of original Playmates toy line were dated. Still, like some people on here are saying, the TMNT 3 wave was where they stopped. I believe the oldest Millennials lost interest in 1991 after the seventh wave and the younger Millennials stop collecting after TMNT 3.
And some millennials never stopped picking up the figures during the 1988-1998 run. Being 2 to 11 helped.
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