Difference between 1988 and 1999
 

So I just managed to collect all four original turtles :roll:

Just a question, is there any way to tell whether the turtles are from the first batch or the re-release around 1999?

I know the original releases from the 1980s have a date on the back of their shells. I'm not sure about the re-releases.

1988 have soft heads.

Only the first releases do. There are more hard than soft.

Thanks for all the help, you guys!

I should add that I also have an incomplete "vintage" Leo marked;
(C) 1988
Mirage Studios
Playmates Toys
China

But I know I bought him at a toy store as late as the fall of 2001. It was sold with the re-released card, though.

But there's no other way of telling if a TMNT was originally sold in 1988 or later, then?

I've never stumbled across a soft head TMNT. But I know that the same goes with MOTU figs; soft head indicates early release.

Paint is more glossy then the 88 Versions too

I should have expected something like that. Thank you!

Oh, I thought he was talking of only the first releases. When I think of the 1988 figures, I think of squishy heads.

I remember as kid I stole a Mikey and Donnie with soft heads from my preschool, I thought they were weird, but I didn't care because I had the missing two turtles.

I had Raph and Leo at the same time and they were both hard heads.

Also the date stamp on the back would be losing the readability. You would be able to see words, but they appeared more like shapes than words.

Do you still have them? or did you return them?

Nope, I sold them several years later at a garage sale.

I'd get the hard heads if I could the rubber on my originals got that sticky plastic problem.

The later released hard heads from 96 I think are cheaper.