Whats the difference?

[Pantrwrstl]

Sorry im still new to this. how does one tell the difference between a soft head and hard head turtle from 1988. any signs i should be looking for?

[VaughnMichael]

yes by this point the soft heads soft plastic head will be lighter in color and almost have a white film look to the skin almost well for the most part anyways.
The hard headed later turtle figures will just have normal looking brighter or darker skin depending on which turtle it is.
hope this helps.:D

[TMNTGal]

I'm not sure about a white film as none of mine have this. Here's a simple way to tell. If you can squeeze the head it's a soft head. If it's hard it's a hard head. Also, soft heads have no seam line. I guess I'll take some quick shots of my sets for comparison. Look for that soon.

[Greed]

I'm not sure about a white film as none of mine have this. Here's a simple way to tell. If you can squeeze the head it's a soft head. If it's hard it's a hard head. Also, soft heads have no seam line. I guess I'll take some quick shots of my sets for comparison. Look for that soon.

I think he meant how to tell in package.

[TMNTGal]

Yeah, the seam line is pretty noticible so that's how you tell when they are still in the package. Only the hard plastic head figures have seam lines.

Here are some quick shots I took of my loose ones. The figures appear to be different heights because I placed them on top of a wobbly old box and covered it with a white sheet. The lighting in my toy room isn't the greatest so I have to make due with the camera flash. Not the greatest pics but they are good enough.

http://home.earthlink.net/~tmntgal/TEMP/Soft%20Head%20Macao.jpg

These generally come with larger heads and the head and body color match very closely.

http://home.earthlink.net/~tmntgal/TEMP/Soft%20Head%20China.jpg

Most China figures have very small heads. You probably can't tell from the photo but when you hold them and compare with Macao, you can tell right away. Head and body colors match extremely well. I have also had large head China figures but the small heads are more interesting.

http://home.earthlink.net/~tmntgal/TEMP/Soft%20Head%20UnMarked.jpg

These soft heads have no markings except for the standard 1988 Playmates Toys. Heads are medium size, head and body colors don't match. They are very different when seen in person. The quality on the heads seems less when compared with Macao and China.

http://home.earthlink.net/~tmntgal/TEMP/Hard%20Head%20Orange%20Shell.jpg

These are standard Hard Heads and are probably what most people are familiar with.

http://home.earthlink.net/~tmntgal/TEMP/Hard%20Head%201998.jpg

This is the reissue set from 1998. The packages have a green warning label on them. Shiny plastic, paint colors are vibrant. Very beautiful reissues.

There's also the set of Turtles that came in the boxed 4 Pack. I don't want to open either of my sets as the box is too nice. They are hard heads and they are easy to distinguish as they have tan colored plastrons. This is also another great set of reissues.

[Ecto Jedi]

Wow...I wasn't even aware they'd re-released the old Turtle toys. Very nice!

[OA]

Yea, they completely flooded my Kaybees back in the day with those re-issues..what was neat was that there was a great variety of figures that were released besides the basic four so if you missed something the first time around, there was a chance of finding it then...

[TMNTGal]

The 98 KB Figures were also abundant in my area. I got almost all of them. They sold pretty fast and the few left overs were in a 3 for $10 bin. :) I snatched up another set of 4 Turtles and the last Robotic Foot Soldier to open. There were some dissapointments, some other reissues that originally came with stickers no longer had them, no Rahzar to accompany Tokka or the other 3 Movie Star Turtles.

[Ecto Jedi]

The 98 KB Figures were also abundant in my area. I got almost all of them. They sold pretty fast and the few left overs were in a 3 for $10 bin. :) I snatched up another set of 4 Turtles and the last Robotic Foot Soldier to open. There were some dissapointments, some other reissues that originally came with stickers no longer had them, no Rahzar to accompany Tokka or the other 3 Movie Star Turtles.

What were the packagings like? 'Same artwork, or new stuff?

[OA]

Naw, that would have been nice...they ALL came on the same IMO generic-looking cardback...I guess its all the more disapointing when you compare them to the originals

The cardback featured all four turtles on the cover...but the real value in the toys was the toys themselves, definately not the cardback, though for variation hunters I believe the cardbacks did have some slight variations...

[TMNTGal]

The 1998 KB reissues have a sewer scene with all 4 Turtles. Like the ones in this photo:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v156/Jesterangalo/P1000657.jpg

[BigApple3AM]

tmntgal is the turtle expert. I didn't know about the macao and china variations to the soft heads. Did one come before the other? I wonder which I have now, I'll have to look when I get home Sunday.

I have a question now. Does a fan club order form guarantee it's going to be a soft head? Did any hard heads come with fan club forms or any soft heads come without?

[Revan]

Why are Leo's eyes ovals and not triangle shaped like the other turtles? The ovals make him look scared and less threatening! I don't like it one bit.

[TMNTGal]

Not all soft heads came with FCFs. I don't think I've seen a Hard Head with a FCF inside. I have seen Hard Heads with the offer printed on the card though. It would be very odd if any did have the actual form inside since they were made later, I just assume they kept using the 1st style card and then later removed the offer from the card.

Another interesting note is most soft heads came with pointy throwing stars, but you will also find them with the regular rounded stars too. Most punch styles on the cards were the slim long type but I have also found the chubby short style tab too. I'm not sure which country came first, I'm guessing the toys were produced in multiple places at once. It's too bad they didn't date stamp figures back then, that would help.