Production stopping?

[Hyper Metal Sonic]

I'm still lacking many of the 1st series of TMNT figures, such as the basic turtles, etc. They're not going to stop producing these, are they? I'd hate to go look for them one day and find out that they've stopped making them..

BTW, I found a Splinter in Wal-Mart today, someone told me it's rare, is that true?

[azure turtle]

I thought there was a second wave of the 1st series? I could've sworn I read that somehwere...

[GK Punk]

Yeah, everything I've seen points to a re-release of them recently... maybe it's just your area? Is there any nearby towns you could check?

[DarthRaphael]

In my area the small amount of shelf space for TMNT is cluttered by the mutating or the fighting gear figs. !st wave is hard to find because the otherstock is not moving.

[coryroo24]

it seems like all the stores around here (pittsburgh) have all turtle varients (mutations, fightin gear) everything else is gone. Sometimes i'll see an original shedder, splinter, elite, and hun but thats about it. I hope these variations don't get out of hand

[Taloniss]

BTW, I found a Splinter in Wal-Mart today, someone told me it's rare, is that true?

Not really. All the stores up here have about 20 Splinters each.

[TMNTGal]

The very 1st release had 6 Stock & Assortment #'s and has the standard pose. The only ones shipping now are ReReleases with the main Turtles Holding their weapons. The #'s and inserts have also changed. If you're collecting variations try eBay. If you're only interested in the characters and not the variation, then just wait until they get some new cases in. One think you have to note, both Donatello & Raphael are packed with each missing 1 accessory. The only ones that have all the accessories were the very first wave.

[Hyper Metal Sonic]

The very 1st release had 6 Stock & Assortment #'s and has the standard pose. The only ones shipping now are ReReleases with the main Turtles Holding their weapons. The #'s and inserts have also changed. If you're collecting variations try eBay. If you're only interested in the characters and not the variation, then just wait until they get some new cases in. One think you have to note, both Donatello & Raphael are packed with each missing 1 accessory. The only ones that have all the accessories were the very first wave.


Why does that sound so...stupid?

[raphael90]

One think you have to note, both Donatello & Raphael are packed with each missing 1 accessory. The only ones that have all the accessories were the very first wave.

My new Raphael came with pulley and cord, two sais and and ninja stars...what version did I get? What am I missing?

[tOkKa]

-->> :D ..relativly ..i pretend to be a calm person.. n' i don't really try on purpose much to jump to conclusions.. but ..eh.. i'm not all that paranoid even tho' nobody likes me much but really.. i read.. Production Stopping (sans the '?').. and of coarse.. i feared the worse n' well

.. :o












..GEE WHIZZ!! GIVE A GUY A HEART ATTACK!! YOU SCARED THE SWEET STENCHY STOOL n' PEELED TOMATOERS RIGHT OUTTA ME!!

:o ..just what i need them to do.. 'stop production' on TMNTs aaakk@@!! :sick:

[Stone Ill]

-->> :D ..relativly ..i pretend to be a calm person.. n' i don't really try on purpose much to jump to conclusions.. but ..eh.. i'm not all that paranoid even tho' nobody likes me much but really.. i read.. Production Stopping (sans the '?').. and of coarse.. i feared the worse n' well

.. :o












..GEE WHIZZ!! GIVE A GUY A HEART ATTACK!! YOU SCARED THE SWEET STENCHY STOOL n' PEELED TOMATOERS RIGHT OUTTA ME!!

:o ..just what i need them to do.. 'stop production' on TMNTs aaakk@@!! :sick:

Couldn't have said it better myself. :lol:

[bufo]

The first wave of characters have only just been released around here, so I don't think they'll be stopping production anytime soon.
BTW....does anybody know how long it took before the second wave (Casey, April, Hun) was released after the first one

[Straight-Edge]

Bufo, you live in the Netherlands... so toy distribution there has nothing to do with the US. Not to be mean, but you can't really give examples to someone in Louisiana.

That said, yes, playmats has rereleased the original Turtles recently, but the fact of toys these days is: nothing stays for long. The stores have handed down the first Commandment of toys long long ago that says:

Thou shalt have new figures for us every 4 months. Old figures are the devil's tools.

Ok, in laymen's terms, stores don't like having the same stock throughout the year. Ideally, they want a customer to come in and find all new product on the shelves every time. So toy companies have to be creative in order to give customers a chance to catch old figures. With the Simpsons line, Playmates reissued old characters with new heads, in two--packs, making it far removed enough from the original release to make the stores happy.

Hasbro goes for repaints/repackaging. Toy Biz remolds and does multi-packs. And MAttel just stops making the toyline altogether.

So, yeah, there will be a point very soon where the original TMNT and Splinter will disappear from shelves, and never return again. Playmates is smart, tho, and you can still get normal turtles with the fighting armor (completely removable), Splinter from the upcoming Cryo-tube, and Shredder with the removable armor.

We'll probably ee another set of "core cast" figures like this next year, giving customers a chance to have basic versions of the character, even if its not by rereleasing the first wave of figures.

[Hyper Metal Sonic]

Yeah. I just want to eventually pick up a basic set of the turtles without any gimmicky crap tacked on.

If all else fails, I guess I could order off the 'net somewheres.

[raphael90]

Anyone who could answer the question in my previous post in here? :D

[coryroo24]

Anyone who could answer the question in my previous post in here? :D

I'm guessing you got the first version. When you got Raph was he holding his weapons or not?

[raphael90]

No he wasn't holding the sais actually if I remember correctly because my package has the molds in the plastic where they rest. I have seen versions in the stores where they are holding their weapons. But I think he came with all the accessories he was supposed to have: sais, stars, rope, pulley.

Call it a personal quirk, but I got the figures that were not holding their weapons...I like to be the one to put the weapons in their hands and pose them, its just me. 8)

UPDATE (2/26/04) Okay...tonight I checked around at Wal-Mart and it looks like its possible a new wave of the first ones has come out because I found at least one of each original turtle, a couple Shredders and a Splinter (I was shocked to find him, I hadn't seen one in a long time). Wish I'd had some money...oh well.

Anyhow, I checked out the original Raphael, this had sais already in his hand. You were right about the second waves missing an accessory, because this Raphael had no pulley cord, in its place was a stupid manual explaining how to rig a cord for the pulley.

[Hyper Metal Sonic]

Well, I went to Wal-Mart today and bought my second figure, a normal Raph. (Only other figure I had was a Mutatin' Don.) I also bought my sister a Mike cause she wanted one.

Anywho, while there I saw alot of mutatin' figures, alot of fighting gear figures, and that was about it. I saw only three of the "normal" turtles. A Mike, a Don, and a Raph. Now I bought two of those three. This has me worried, cause if anything I just want the original four turtles to put on my shelf. if I start seeing nothing but the gear turtles and can't track down the normal figures I'm gonna cry.

Okay, not really. But I'll be rather ticked.

[Triceraton]

UPDATE (2/26/04) Okay...tonight I checked around at Wal-Mart and it looks like its possible a new wave of the first ones has come out because I found at least one of each original turtle, a couple Shredders and a Splinter (I was shocked to find him, I hadn't seen one in a long time). Wish I'd had some money...oh well.

Right after Christmas, a "refresh case" started shipping to stores, with the 4 normal turtles, Splinter, Shredder, Casey Jones, Nanotech Monster, and Xtreme Mike.

So, that would make the Foot Soldier the hardest figure to find right now(I haven't seen any in months), closely followed by April, Hun, and Foot Tech Ninja(these 3 were all easy to find at one point, but they're pretty much gone now).

[Hyper Metal Sonic]

I saw one tech ninja at my W-M.

[Krangfan]

Wow, after reading this thread, I can say that I'm glad that I got all four Turtles when I did! And that's all I have from the new toy line, and that's all I want. They look great standing on my stereo speaker! :tlove:

[Hyper Metal Sonic]

So, in all honestly, does anything think I'm going to have a problem finding the original figure set for at least the next 6 months?

[jestergoblin]

as long as you regularly check various stores, like wal-mart, target and toys r us you should be fine. And by regularly, I mean once a week.

[blueoakleyz]

well sounds like you shouldnt have too much of a problem since they're rereleasing them with DVDs
what about fighting turtles? are they really actually good standalone figures when u take the armor off?