Playmates Concept Art 1988!
 

This ebay seller has some incredible pieces of TMNT history:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/thecafewha/m...1&_ipg=&_from=

They've also sold a number of great pieces already which you can see by searching their "completed listings."

They've got very early toy concept art for vehicles, weapons, playsets, and characters like Krang, Bebop, Rocksteady, Fugitoid, Ace Duck, the Punk Frogs, unused character concepts, Baxter Stockman, and Casey Jones (with even a red ink comment for the art to "go back to comic" on Casey; which was good advice). There's even Pizza Face... originally known as "Pizza the Hut!"

I saw a few already got posted in another thread, but I figured this find at least deserved its own corner of the internet.

Most all pieces seem to have been drawn and retained by an artist named Errol McCarthy, who must have had quite the resume. The ebay seller describes him as such:
Since last night, I've burned a few hours saving all the posted photos to my hard drive for record keeping. I'll post a few selections here!

Krang in his Bubble Walker
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...ps282bfb73.jpg

Ace Duck
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...ps9148b865.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...pse8da14fa.jpg

Leatherhead, aka "Sewer Gator"
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...ps1de30fc6.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...psf4791b9a.jpg

Genghis & the Punk Frogs
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...ps2822f021.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...psb0cf2377.jpg

Pizza Face, aka "Pizza the Hut"
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...psfd5ba368.jpg

Casey Jones looked like a cross between a character from Goonies and one of those monsters from the Kenner Real Ghostbusters toy line!
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...ps10916af8.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...psce7eefa9.jpg
"Go back to comic," indeed! I wonder if that was a personal note from Eastman and/or Laird?

Turtles Headquarters/Sewer Playset Concept:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...pse432a2a9.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...psaed9aaac.jpg

Storage Shell Weapons!
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...ps577ef159.jpg

Many of the vehicle/weapon stations seem to have been originally viewed as being a Turtle specific accessory:
Leonardo's Plunger Gun
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...psc113df9c.jpg

Michelangelo's Pizza Shooter
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...ps19519225.jpg

Donatello's Toxic Catapult
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...psff8923af.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...ps43ab8b21.jpg

Head Retractable Turtles
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...psebd5337a.jpg

The Battering Ram Fist from "Return of the Shredder." I wonder whether this could have actually worked as a toy. Kinda strange!
Many of the vehicle/weapon stations seem to have been originally viewed as being a Turtle specific accessory:
Leo's Plunger Gun
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...psbdafcf25.jpg

Escar Joe is such an awesome concept!

Sounds tasty!

Aww, man... you took the wind right out my sails. My next post was going to be all the early versions of the familiar characters; Genghis, Ace, Casey, etc

You found my Errol McCarthy goldmine!

"Goldmine" is right! Did you those asking prices for a single piece of art? :teek:

I expect the seller probably accepted a much lower best offer on most of them though.

I actually saved all the individual images and the web pages into a zip file. I think I'll put it up here for limited time download for folks to save it for posterity!
Nab 'em!

...oh my stars and garters..........that playset. So good I wish I had never seen it.

No doubt, apparently he thinks he's got Eastman's original turtle with those prices.

I've been nabbing the images and stashing them in my photobucket. I kinda question their authenticity since I've never heard Lavigne or Laird talk about him, their "perfect timing" showing up on eBay after all these years, and the lack of info about Errol on the web, but... I don't know.

It's still glad I'm not the only one snatching them up. Damn his watermark. Once it's on the web it's free reign.

It makes sense why the new Pizza Face from the Nick show looks like Pizza the hut from Spaceballs because originally he was named exactly that in the original toyline.

http://www.reactiongifs.us/wp-conten...blown_tmnt.gif

These are really rad.

Heh "nunchucko or whatever this is"
Whats with the giant grandpa Moses face in the sewer?

WOW!!!:o:o:o:o:o
So now we know who did much of the card art and designs for the old toy line, besides Laird, Dooney, & Brown.
This is so awesome!
They'd do so well to make this all into a large book, so many people would buy a book full of original TMNT designs.
It's very He-Man.:lol:

These were fun to look at. The TMNT toy line was so cool and unique with its character/vehicle designs. I would love to have a book with images of all the products that were released.

I always wondered what Casey's face looked like under the mask. Now I know. Lol

First version of Leatherhead reminds me of Dingodile from the Crash Bandicoot games (minus the blue pants), and his pipe gun reminds me of Dingodile's Flamethrower.
I'm glad that they stuck to a hockey mask for Casey Jones and he didn't say "HEY YOU GUYS!" though I am partial to his football with the fuse in it and the helmet with the hole in it. Tee hee.
The sewer playset design looks bad@$$ - I wish they would have kept it that way because the Odin face hardcore rocks.
Seeing the storage shell Turtles w/ the exposed ribcage and bones would have been interesting indeed.
The Punk Frogs look great and Donnie's Toxic Catapult is a great illustration.

Woah, so the actual artist/artists of the original Playmates box art has been a complete mystery all this time? What a crime!

Here's the Real Ghostbuster toy that reminds me of the Casey design:
Tombstone:
http://www.amazon.com/Ghostbusters-H.../dp/B001F1YLO4

I agree the skeleton detailing inside the Storage Shell Turtles was a nice touch. It might have been a bit too creepy a detail to include in the actual toy though. Or... more likely, it just wasn't cost effective to sculpt something that wouldn't be visible in the packaging bubble.

It was so funny I forgot to laugh! Also this art was shown in the Turtle Power documentary as well. I'm almost positive it was. I have it and this looks really familiar and I'm thinking that is where I seen it at.

are these authentic?? these are very interesting...

I believe they are copies of the original artwork.......please correct me if I am wrong

Those are so cool!

I don't think they'd be going for hundreds of dollars if they were copies.

actually, after reading the description, some of them ARE FAX COPIES of the original art work, while OTHERS are actual HAND DRAWN WITH PENCIL AND INK, according to the descriptions of them. hmmm, im still a little sketchy about them, I hope someone that knows more or that has talked to the seller can clear it up. =/ I really want a few of them, im surprised a lot of the guys on this forum haven't snagged them up yet.

Yeah, I thought it was bizarre that there some some fax copies in the auction. I guess maybe the logic was that the fax copies became official when a Playmates office put some notations on them or something. I dunno, but I think most of them are probably the real deal. Now, all that said, are they worth the asking price the seller wanted? Eh... I guess that all depends on what someone is willing to pay. Part of me thinks that maybe it would have made more sense to auction these drawings off as a huge lot instead of putting some individual pieces up.

I agree, to be honest, I think they might be a few hundred over priced. the only reason I say that is because on the toy hunterrr show they also had concept art of the figures for the x men toy biz line, and I saw them at comikazee, and they sold for about 120 a piece. so I would probably put these at about 200 due to the fan craze of turtles. but they are very beautiful, it would be great to snag one up and pair it up with the toy.

So after doing a little more googling on Errol McCarthy, he was pretty much a pervert.
That's about all I'm going to say on that.

0__o ummm, care to elaborate?

He did some work on some pretty weird comics in 1972. That's probably as elaborate as I should get since I'm sure children visit this site.

I was about to post the same thing! That's my favorite one.

hmm, well idk, but this artwork is nice either way. and I doubt children visit these sites, I mean, from the collections I see, most people are real collectors and have high priced items. not within a 15 year olds salary. lol.

Yeah, but if you venture over to the cartoon forum the hit topic is "(~*~) Are Donnie and April in <3 LOVE <3 (~*~)?¿?" or some crap like that... If those are collectors I'm ashamed of the company I keep, if not I'm sure they make their way over here from time to time.

true. eehh, well back to the topic at hand. DOES ANYONE HAVE MORE BACKGROUND ON THESE SKETCHES? I also am curious about the pricing on these.

Holy crap, these are amazing. Nice find!

the frog is gone.

These pieces are very cool, but for me id love to see more of the finished painted pieces. Especially from the first 2 years...

Hoo yeah, I'd love to see the box art of the early vehicles and weapon stations especially exhibited as prints without being obscured by text and logos.
http://mutantooze.org/wiki/playmates...cycle/tcycle2/

You know, after looking through the art, it occurred to me that I saw a vintage prototype at SDCC that was not labeled. Any obvious matches?

which sdcc were all these turtle prototypes at?!?! and do you have more pictures?!!?=)

Dude, is that a snail? A Barnacle? WHO/WHAT IS THAT I NEED TO KNOW AND IS THERE MORE :tgrin:

Wow those sketches are very interesting to look at, Leatherhead was gonna have headlights? Krazy. I'd like to see some concept art for the original 10 '88 figures if there are any. Would be interesting to see what other designs they had in mind for Shredder before coming to the decision of making him shirtless.

Looks like a sea snail/slug of some type. That HAS to be the end version of Escar Joe.