Are we living in a golden age of TMNT toys?

[CyberCubed]

While Playmates is the worst it's ever been, we now have so many great figures made from NECA and all other companies making high end statues, figures, small mini figures, sets, etc. that we never got before.

On top of that, so many characters who never got toys before are getting figures like Granitor. We have so many new toys based on Fred Wolf Shredder and Krang that I would have killed for as a kid. Toys based on the videogames. Toys based on the original 1990 Movie Turtles that actually look good.

And most importantly of all so many toys based on the Mirage TMNT. If you flash back to the early 2000's, figures like these were nothing but a pipedream. All we had was the original NECA wave of the 4 Mirage TMNT and we know that line got canceled in 2008 and we didn't get anything else from them until recently.

Man, you guys don't know how good you have it.

[snake]

You don't even f*cking buy them.


I'd consider the OT line the golden age. What we're getting right now is pretty amazing, but it lacks the accessibility. I can't buy those 1/4 scale figures as much as I would like to, and I'm sure it's the same situation with other collectors. They cost too much.

We don't even have "so many" toys based off Mirage. Those cost an arm and a leg as well.

[Ninjinister]

I want my Hamatodamn 1:18 scale Turtles.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by snake

You don't even f*cking buy them.

Well no, but that doesn't mean it's not amazing. Not everyone can buy everything either, so that's besides the point.

This is the golden age, besides maybe the first couple of years of the original Playmates toyline in the 80's and early 90's. The type of statues from Sideshow, NECA, all the regular figures we get based on the movies, videogames, cartoons, etc....were nothing but a pipedream even only a coupel years ago.

As said, look back to 2000-2009. Literally all we had was the original NECA wave and that was basically it besides Playmates.

[Lil Karai]

This is the golden age of nostalgia for adult collectors and finally someone is catering effectively to that market.

[TurtleWA]

Originally Posted by Lil Karai

This is the golden age of nostalgia for adult collectors and finally someone is catering effectively to that market.

Never thought of it that way. The nostalgia business is booming!

Has there ever been such big business tied up with nostalgic things before? What did past generations that may have had disposable income spend it on? Was there an unidentified market twenty or even forty years ago for nostalgic things? Or is this taste for everything nostalgic something our generation has evolved?

[CyberCubed]

Nostalgia exists now because all the kids from the 80's and early 90's are adults.

[Lil Karai]

I think on average folks in their 30's-40's spend the most on nostalgie inducing products. After that spending decreases. So going after properties that are about 25-35 years old is the sweet spot for collectible sales.

[TurtleWA]

Maybe it's so big for our generation because pop culture was booming in the 80s and 90s. VHS,video games, cable, MTV, internet was starting up. Previous generations had minimal pop culture exposure in comparison. I don't think a lot of adults in the 1970s got nostalgic for the 1940s pop culture to this degree.

[DonnieLaForge]

Is grass generally green?

[DonnieLaForge]

PS I had to say "generally" because of the kind of people the Internet cultivates.

[thefont9]

In terms of Nostalgia, the baseball card market hit its peak in the early 1990's as the baby boomers hit their 40's. If you loved TMNT, you are in your mid-30's, for the most part. So I agree.

The other thing to remember is that it's just so much more socially acceptable to be a grown adult, in many cases with children, and to love buying action figures. A big part of that is the comicon boom. It's just way more acceptable to be a nerd. None of us have to be closeted about it.

We're in a golden age of toys because there is actually technology to make great toys. Nobody was making toys out of PVC or considering joint articulation in the 1980's. The more articulation you had, the more your product would potentially break.

Think about it this way: when the turtles classics line came out, almost everybody totally flipped. Those figures were so awesome at the time because we had nothing like them. That was less than 5 years ago, and since then we've gotten Revoltech, Figuarts, four different sets from NECA (FW, arcade, 1/4 scale and the second half of the mirage set), and Mondo. That's insanity, and they all make those playmates classics turtles look bad even though it's a really nice set!

The price point is a bummer for some, but that's the way economics work. If you want something to be affordable, you have to make a lot of it, and make it more cheaply. Companies like NECA are making things more high quality, but unfortunately because it's niche, it has to be sold at a higher price point. So rather than go halfway, they're making it super high quality. It's how they can stay in business and keep offering people the stuff they want.

Alas, these are the good old days. Enjoy it while it lasts, because all good things do end. Just be thankful you lived to see it, because 8 year old me would have absolutely flipped his s--- over these NECA pieces.

[***First of Two Latin Kings***]

Nobody mentioned Mondo...

[Panther10]

I would say that we are living in a golden age of Turtle figures. I've been saying since last Christmas that thanks to Neca toys, Playmates with their classic collections and bandai, I now own more TMNT figures now than I ever did when I was a child. Granted we don't get much as far as character selection goes, but in this particular case the quality of these figures far outweighs the quantity and volume of the characters we do get. Yes I'm getting the same basic set of villains and the same basic set of turtles albeit in different iterations with each release, but that doesn't stop these toys from blowing my mind every time something new comes out. I honestly love it. I haven't been this passionate about really owning and collecting Ninja Turtle toys since my early years into this hobby.

[wpugh2424]

Golden age of unique tmnt was back in the 80s & 90s

[MrVadersfist]

I definitely agree that for Ninja Turtles these are some of the best ever represented figures from both the comics, cartoons and movies. Honestly if not for those Mondo turtles, I wouldn't have gotten back into collecting turtle stuff. We have everything from the first turtle (albeit it came out awhile ago), to the mirage representation by Mondo, the SH Figuarts cartoon version, the 90s turtles in DreamEX, the NECA video game version and now the cartoon version and of course their movie version (and of course we had the mirage representation from back in 2008 or whatever year it was), to the Revoltech and the Playmates.

From here these pieces will become part of a niche for certain collectors until something REALLY drives the popularity through the roof again. Like maybe a better movie that looks to bring the original 4 turtles to the screen. Or hey, maybe a NetFlix series or just something to really make them boom again. Idk, but i definitely agree that we're in a golden age of collecting turtle figures right now

[D Piddy 1982]

I'm in my mid thirties and I've never known it as good as this, for me personally.

There is a downside though, soooo much stuff I can't afford it all (despite the fact I want it all)!

[zodach]

I am going to thank NECA for all the great products they are putting out there right now. They are giving us collectors what we have wanted for years. Playmates has been sandbagging us for years and I can just forget about them now.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by TurtleWA

Has there ever been such big business tied up with nostalgic things before?

Not really. Before it was like, Dad looking fondly back at stuff like this:



And stuff like that isn't tied up in particular "fandoms" as with something like "Turtlemania," if you were a kid at the time.

[TurtleWA]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Not really. Before it was like, Dad looking fondly back at stuff like this:

http://www.wallpapermaven.com/i/misc.../Toy-Car-d.jpg

And stuff like that isn't tied up in particular "fandoms" as with something like "Turtlemania," if you were a kid at the time.

Yeah good observation. Collecting matchbox cars or fiddling around with model trains. But no real fandom attached to those things. I can only think of maybe Beatlemania and Star Wars as two fandoms that could possibly be comparisons that predate Turtles. But nothing earlier than that. I'm not sure if baseball counts.