Playmates Build-A-Figures

[ZacksSoUgly]

I was talking Turtles toys with a friend recently and on the subject of larger characters from the 2012 Nick show and their weak action figure representation, my friend brought up an idea : build-a-figures. Anybody else think it would have been cool to have build-a-figures of characters like Slash, Maximus Kong (Mutant Apocalypse Leo), "Mad Raph" (apocalypse episodes), Leatherhead, Sumo Kuma (Usagi episodes), Super Shredder, etc.?

I know it's too little too late for this, but thought it was an interesting idea and I think we could've got some better figures for some cool characters. Slash's figure from the 2012 line is WAY too small. Leatherhead and Super Shredder don't feel big enough either. BAFs could have been an easy answer to the problem, or is that too much of an "adult collector" concept for Playmates to utilize with TMNT?

Thoughts?

[Ninjinister]

They almost did this with their Back to the Sewer line. Cyber Splinter would have been the build-a-fig, which wasn't a "giant" figure but actually made sense based on the storyline. Alas, they canned the whole line.

I repainted my extra Slash and use him with my 3.75" figures. It's not perfect, but it looks a lot better.

[tmntman]

Personally, I've always just wanted Playmates to make use of the larger Deluxe lines that they always seem to have and make some of the bigger characters that way. (They can still throw in some oversized Turtle variants if they think they need to to sell the idea to stores.)

Build a Figures are an interesting idea. And as stated, they almost did that once already. There's two challenges that I see.

The first is that without waist joints, larger characters can't be broken down into small enough pieces to fit in the packaging well. And a lot of TMNT Mutants don't lend themselves to waist joints. Still, you could get around that with proper character selection.

The second issue is that the Build A Figure concept isn't well suited to Playmates' style of distribution where they just have a basic figure assortment and cycle figures in and out of production. It works best with lines that ship in distinct series such as Marvel Legends. As it stands now, unless they changed their distribution Playmates will need to either constantly change up which parts are included with figures that they want to keep in production or you will have figures being released with pieces of a Build A Figure that can no longer be completed as not all of the figures/pieces are in production. This can obviously be solved if Playmates changes their distribution methods. But I hope that the don't do that. I like that Playmates keeps older figures in production.

[inaheap]

I think this could be a neat way to introduce figures that might not sell well enough on their own. It could potentially help sell current figures if the the parts were figures from older lines that we never got or are improved upon. Or from never done TMNT iterations like IDW. It will never happen though.

[drewizzle88]

I think this would be a great way to get myself to pick up some Playmates figures I otherwise wouldn't purchase. Playmates seems to really skimp out of accessories these days. I loved the various sidekicks and accessories we used to get with the original line, basically I'm saying I feel like they might be too cheap to do this.

[ZacksSoUgly]

Originally Posted by tmntman

Personally, I've always just wanted Playmates to make use of the larger Deluxe lines that they always seem to have and make some of the bigger characters that way. (They can still throw in some oversized Turtle variants if they think they need to to sell the idea to stores.)

Build a Figures are an interesting idea. And as stated, they almost did that once already. There's two challenges that I see.

The first is that without waist joints, larger characters can't be broken down into small enough pieces to fit in the packaging well. And a lot of TMNT Mutants don't lend themselves to waist joints. Still, you could get around that with proper character selection.

The second issue is that the Build A Figure concept isn't well suited to Playmates' style of distribution where they just have a basic figure assortment and cycle figures in and out of production. It works best with lines that ship in distinct series such as Marvel Legends. As it stands now, unless they changed their distribution Playmates will need to either constantly change up which parts are included with figures that they want to keep in production or you will have figures being released with pieces of a Build A Figure that can no longer be completed as not all of the figures/pieces are in production. This can obviously be solved if Playmates changes their distribution methods. But I hope that the don't do that. I like that Playmates keeps older figures in production.

Good points, TMNTman. Those are definitely situations I can see Playmates trying to avoid altogether. And again, this is hopeful/wishful thinking for a line that is done already... But I think a solid way to avoid and/or resolve the distribution issue would be to make the BAF figures a "series" that's added to the distribution of a basic figure assortment. Example : 5 basic assortment figures are released in a wave that also includes 5 BAF figures. The BAF figures from that wave are done once they're distributed and sold through, but the basic figures are kept in production - rereleased or return in another wave down the line.

[ZacksSoUgly]

Originally Posted by inaheap

I think this could be a neat way to introduce figures that might not sell well enough on their own. It could potentially help sell current figures if the the parts were figures from older lines that we never got or are improved upon. Or from never done TMNT iterations like IDW. It will never happen though.

True! Could help characters that might not sell well on their own, but are wanted by select fans. And right again, it probably (definitely) won't happen. This is just wishful thinking for a line that's already over and done with (2012).

Originally Posted by drewizzle88

I think this would be a great way to get myself to pick up some Playmates figures I otherwise wouldn't purchase. Playmates seems to really skimp out of accessories these days. I loved the various sidekicks and accessories we used to get with the original line, basically I'm saying I feel like they might be too cheap to do this.

I feel like they're definitely too cheap to do this. Some of the 2012 line had some decent accessories, but for the most part they were all lacking. Seems like the initial line of Rise Turtles has a bunch of accessories, but we'll see if that maintains.

[tmntman]

Originally Posted by ZacksSoUgly

I feel like they're definitely too cheap to do this. Some of the 2012 line had some decent accessories, but for the most part they were all lacking. Seems like the initial line of Rise Turtles has a bunch of accessories, but we'll see if that maintains.

I keep seeing people calling Playmates cheap. They aren't. Or at least I have yet to see any actual numbers to back that up. In my opinion, they are simply focused on keeping the price of their product down. They might be too focused on that, depending upon your view. But let's not forget that they are still producing figures that typically sell for $9 or less. And unlike a lot of toy lines, they are working with a property that doesn't afford them anywhere near the amount of mold reuse that other lines enjoy.

It's true that as an adult, I can both afford and at some level would like to see Playmates raise the price on their figures so that didn't have to cut corners to reduce costs. But at one time I was also a kid, and a kid that had to buy most of his toys with quite limited funds. In fact, I only bought my first TMNT figure because I didn't have enough money to buy the Transformer figure I actually wanted at the time. So I still appreciate that Playmates seems to be so dedicated to making Ninja Turtle toys affordable and targeted to kids.

[ZacksSoUgly]

Originally Posted by tmntman

I keep seeing people calling Playmates cheap. They aren't. Or at least I have yet to see any actual numbers to back that up. In my opinion, they are simply focused on keeping the price of their product down. They might be too focused on that, depending upon your view. But let's not forget that they are still producing figures that typically sell for $9 or less. And unlike a lot of toy lines, they are working with a property that doesn't afford them anywhere near the amount of mold reuse that other lines enjoy.

It's true that as an adult, I can both afford and at some level would like to see Playmates raise the price on their figures so that didn't have to cut corners to reduce costs. But at one time I was also a kid, and a kid that had to buy most of his toys with quite limited funds. In fact, I only bought my first TMNT figure because I didn't have enough money to buy the Transformer figure I actually wanted at the time. So I still appreciate that Playmates seems to be so dedicated to making Ninja Turtle toys affordable and targeted to kids.

Can't argue with this. Well said, TMNTman. I think I (and others) too often want to use "cheap" because we feel like we can afford anything from $9 figures to $120 figures (and beyond). There were just times with the 2012 line I felt they could have done WAY better. The Vision Quest Turtles immediately come to mind. They did great with the Samurai line, and they did a pretty solid job with the LARPing series. The Super Shredder line was also pretty good, but the Vision Quest line was low key horrible. I think the bad jumps to mind before the good, so I need to adjust that mindset.

Cheap isn't being fair (most of the time). Maybe they are TOO focused on keeping them affordable.

[inaheap]

I looked it up one time. according to google they are selling TMNT at the same price point they always have. Adjusted for inflation/time of course.

https://www.dollartimes.com/inflatio...nt=4&year=1987

[cloud]

Build a figure isn't the best idea for a TMNT line. It's a rather different model when you compare to Marvel Legends or DC Universe
It's a bit tricky considering a lot of these characters are not in a normal humanoid proportion which makes breaking down the parts difficult.
We often tease that the Playmates line are for kids but for a toy line like this there isn't much reused parts even for Turtle variants and to keep price point low like below $10 we already have to sacrifice a lot of paint applications or lack of.
Doing a building a figure will jack up the price which isn't ideal or end up like the Power Rangers line, no accessories for characters.

Like mentioned above a deluxe pack would have worked better. I don't want them to do 2 packs like they did with 2007 unless both characters are unique in some way.