If 2009 is the death of TMNT, how long will it be till the next reboot?
 

The original cartoon ended in 1996, followed right after by the Next Mutation in 1997.

There was a 5 year gap of nothing in terms of television from late 1998-early 2003.

How many years do you think it'll be before someone gets the idea to try and reboot the TMNT franchise again? If the current cartoon and toys never made as much a splash as the original toon did, why would a theoretical third cartoon years down the road be any different? Would Playmates still be in charge of the toys?

What do you think?

I'd say there's a second live action failure, then 5 empty years, keep to the old pattern. :P

A sabbatical would build interest back up probably.

It could be different this time round since the consumer market is much different than it was in the 90's.

===HERO

Playmates proposed a reboot for 2008 (Ultimate Ninja Turtles) which was rejected by MIRAGE, only this was probably an EXTREMLY dumb decision considering it was a project Playmates would have INVESTED in and would have made more of an effort on. We'd have seen Krang, Rocksteady, Bebop, Rat King etc, all back, and therefore an older market would have been acheived with the existing consumers and new ones.

Ah, and there lies the problem. Apparently the old toon is Laird's mortal enemy or something... :roll:

The current cartoon may not have made as much of a splash as the old cartoon but that hardly suggest that it was a failure, 7 seasons, a movie, a successful toyline, and over a billion dollars in worldwide revenue, has pretty much solidified the TMNT franchise as an evergreen property, making it much easier to get another show up and running, especially with there being more cable/HD channels searching for content and the possibility another movie release in about three years.


And Peter Laird seems to be pretty happy with Mirages' relationship with Playmates, so I would say it's very likely Playmates will still be in charge of the toyline.

With the 25th "Shell-ebration" there seems to be a slight shift in the way of thinking at Mirage.

I'm kind of sick of that line.

I'm sure Laird doesn't hate the old toon, but as long as he has creative control, he's not obligated to listen to fans whining about what they want to see in his version. If I made a really awesome story, then someone else made a spin-off and added characters, I'd respect it, but I'd never feel like I had to include their characters in the story I wanted to tell.

Laird and all the fans have to realize that the new comics are being funded by the old toon anyway.

The new comics are being funded?


Last I checked, Gary had pretty much stopped all advertising for them and avoided distribution outside diamond. And deliberatelly given the book contract to a very bad choice based on suspicious relations

1980's retro
 

Maybe it will don't be back att all. Maybe the 2003 cartoon is just a part of the 1980's retro movement wave that has hit the world in the arly 2000's. When that's over, TMNT as a media franchise can be gone (even if the Mirage comics will still exist).

There won't be a live action series this time. It'll be substituted for a CGI-human movie, and then the TMNT will be done for more years. I'd say 6-8 this time.

Laird has admitted to hating the old toon and the Archie series. Also a lot of the characters made for both the old toon and Archie series were created by him. Which is why I find it so stupid that he refuses to use them in anything.

He could so easily take his original concepts for Bebop and Rocksteady and use them in the new series. They would fit in perfectly and doing such would attract a larger audience. Instead he refuses because he doesn't want there to be too many mutants in the show. It's okay to have 900 aliens, monsters, mythical creatures, and demons but God forbid if there's a few more mutants. I'm sure he could re-write just about every character and make them fit that template if it was absolutely necessary. But it's to late for that anyways.

7 seasons
 

Isn't the 2003 cartoon much more popular after 7 seasons that the 1987 cartoon was after 7 seasons? Season 7 of the 1987 cartoon was 1993. It was right after the third movie and TMNT was declining.

Don't know. Does anyone know where to find ratings of the old show from 1993? Is this info archived anywhere?

Third movie
 

Here I found some ratings for the third movie: http://groups.google.se/group/rec.ar...912d5ac2d6ab69.

Only in the eyes of fans with axes to grind.

Laird used to claim to liking the old toon but it not being his particular vision for the turtles, of course that was before people started making an issue of his opinion of it. I think that more than anything has affected the way he openly talks about it

Ironicaly back in the day he'd be the one to one defend it Mirage purists who hated it. I've heard some fans describe him as a secret or "closet fan" of the series and I can see were they get that as beyond the few digs he's had at the show he has subtely sneaked in some old toon concepts. At very least he's been influenced by some of the concepts from it.

Really? Can you provide a quote on that because to my knowledge he's never claimed to hate either. Disdain for the old toon, certainly but I've never heard him say he hates it.

As for the claim he doesn't like the Archie series, that is just one of those nagging things that fans get into their heads that refuses to go away. He's always claimed to like the comic. He of course worked on the book himself illustrating quite a lot of the covers. I vaguely remember him saying that if the old toon had turned out like TMNT Adventures he wouldn't have a problem with it. He wanted to do a crossover between the Mirage and Archie turtles and at the start of Volume 4 said he would interested in doing that.

I can understand why people would think he does given his thoughts on the old toon. Murphy made a comment on here that people interpreted that he hated it, he later clarifed it wasn't what he meant and he's never heard Laird express anything bad about the comic but I guess the thought really got engrained in fans minds then.

Maybe he's changed his mind since then. So again, maybe you provide a quote on that.

Marginaly perhaps. Staunch fans of the old toon that are dislike(d) 2K3 did so simply was because it's new and not what they grew up. Most of them that watched some of it seemed to dismiss instantly because it seemed different to what they knew.

Including some old toon characters would be nice but I couldn't see it changing much. They'd be overlooked by some and criticised for changing them by others. Hell, I've even heard some people say they hate the new versions of Bebop and Rocksteady (prior to Samurai Tourist). I'm not really sure what show they were watching. If they'd have said they hated the new version of Krang or how Krang was now the Shredder I would've understood....It would still have been stupid....but I would've understood.

Shredder
 

Also remember that Bebop, Rocksteady and Krang were written out of the stories early, and Shredder working alone.

I think if the new Cartoon will end after the seventh season, the turtles should go for good. It's amazing that a 80's cartoon had such a great revival and was supirior over other remake (He-Men etc.) but they should end it as long as the show is high rated.
Maybe there should be a reboot in 10 or 15 years so a new generation could enjoy the turtles as we did in the 80's or th 00's

He-Man
 

Yeah, the 2002 He-Man version was not that successful.

I am a huge fan of old school He-Man. But i remember loving the new show. Skeleton's origin was a nice way to start the series imo.

2004
 

It was cancelled already in 2004.