List of Merchandise Offically Released in 1987
 

Hello,

I'm trying to find out about everything official or bootleg merch released in 1987, around the start of the show, not comic or paper&pen related items from the same year.

This can be bootleg or official. So far, I onky see around 5 puzzles and the pizza power board game dated 1987, and I'm not entirely certain if they were made in 1987 and released a few months later in 1988. Were there any plushes, ceramic bootleg figures, keychains, shirts, posters, stickers released in 1987? And, is the pizza power games and the 5 or so puzzle that only have a 1987 date, released in 1987 or 1988?

The Dark Horse miniatures were the only TMNT collectibles on the market in 1987.

I adore the pre-cartoon era of TMNT, but there isn't much. Especially if you remove the comics or the RPG.

The Rose Art board game and puzzles are dated 1987 and were worked on in conjunction with the toy line (that's why you see brown Michelangelo and green Donatello on some of the items - Playmates hadn't finalized the turtles' colors until late in the process, hence things like the Orange Donatello prototype). Those games had a shorted turnaround time for production compared to the toys, but I doubt they actually got on shelves that year because the show didn't even debut until the 28th.

The first licensed product was TMNT & Other Strangeness RPG in 1985, with follow-ups TMNT Adventures (1986), After the Bomb (1986) and TMNT Guide to the Universe (1987). Dark Horse did their 25mm miniatures and the larger ones in 1985 in conjunction with the RPG. Famously, those are the only licensed items from this time.

By the end of 1987, the comic was at 17 issues (1-12, 5 one-shots, and like six reprints) and three trades. There wasn't much before the cartoon debuted.

Digging through those comics and reprints is the best way to see what actually got released because they got advertised in them. And it isn't much pre-cartoon beyond what I mentioned above.

Here is everything I know of:

1984 - Official Mirage iron-ons for t-shirts, these would get re-released a couple times over the years. They're the first non-comic stuff.

1985 - the official 4-button pin set (limited to 1000)

1986 - the first Mirage poster from First Comics in conjunction with the trade.

And that's it until the cartoon.

Thanks for the elaborate follow up. I do believe there was a glow in the dark shirt or promo shirt that dates to 1986. I recall seeing a long time on some website. There is a chance the puzzle and pizza power board game could have been released in 28-31st. I always thought the show premiered a few weeks earlier though.

Oh you're right - there were FOUR glow-in-the-dark shirts that you could have ordered from the Donatello #1 issue - the timeline on these is a bit murky. These were super limited run: http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=61615 Unsure if there was ever a Donatello produced.

This post also shows off the iron-ons and metal figures http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/sho...74&postcount=4

Buttons can be seen here http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/sho...5&postcount=19

There are some even weirder things, like a Fugitoid iron-on exists, but it might have been a Mirage crew exclusive because only one has ever surfaced.

Thanks for sharing. Never knew there were 4 shirts.

Only the Leonardo shirt was advertised in Donatello #1, I believe in '86. I'm not sure of the story behind the other 3 shirts.

There are actually 2 Fugitoid iron-ons that have surfaced, both from Steve Lavigne's archives. One in 2016 (the one in my set), the other a year or two ago, which sold super quick when listed. Before 2016 I was convinced the Fugitoid didn't exist.

#10 button set is the earliest number I've seen. I'm curious where the single digit sets could be.

Some of the earliest cartoon items I personally remember are the coloring books from Random House, I think there were 3 or 4, based on season 1. But they are copyrighted 1988.

Do you have any idea when the pizza power board game came out? Like an exact date? Now that I think about it, I feel like I've seen ads in tmnt comics that were made in 87, that advertise other shirts. I'm think I stumbled upon bootleg, mail-order, promo, or convention shirts made in 1987, I just cant remember the sources. Any insight into this?

From my recollection, I discovered TMNT in late '88. The Pizza Power board game is not one of the earliest items I remember. I think I received it for Christmas in '89.
There were some other shirts advertised in the earliest TMNT Adventures comics. But I believe they were released in '88.

There is a rare Tales/Mirage shirt that was released in '87. I think only 50 were printed. Here you can have it for the low price of $1k: https://www.dking-gallery.com/store/TMNT_TourV_XL.html

There weren't release dates for things like the board game - stuff came out when it arrived and that could vary a lot by region (still happens today with Playmates toys, they almost always appear on shelves first in California because that's where they're based in El Segundo).

I found this ad from Tokka's archive advertising the game in 1990, but showing a copyright of 1987 for the game, along side the puzzles and coloring books: https://www.flickr.com/photos/terrible2z/3715115148 The ad is from the Return of the Shredder Random House book - so I wouldn't be shocked if the game didn't get released until post-cartoon in '88 but pre-Playmates, which aligned with season 2 of the cartoon dropping. The cartoon didn't return until October '88 with its second season.

Then there is the 1987 action figure solicit from Playmates (this is the 2009 repro that originally came out in February 1987 - ten months before the release of the cartoon), which shows off purple Michelangelo and orange Donatello: https://www.flickr.com/photos/terrible2z/9925770034

https://www.flickr.com/photos/terrible2z/9925769334/

Also, Roseangelo has a great collection of vintage ads in her Flickr account: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosean...7602711878790/

And her collection of pre-Surge licensing: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosean...7601661576214/

I'm trying to track down another ad to help with the timeline of all of this - it's the original Playmates toy ad in black and white that was in one of the reprints of an early issue (like 3-7) but I can't find either a) a scan of the ad or reference to which one it was specifically in to get an idea of when exactly the toys started showing up on shelves because that would help lock in the date of when Mike and Don's colors for finalized.

There is an early ad for the figures in Mirage #13. It’s a two-page spread showing the initial 10 figures, in black and white of course . This was a preview, so it was released before the figures were on shelves (and maybe before the series aired).

There’s also an early newsletter called “Mirage News”, which was the first Mirage newsletter. If memory serves it was pretty early on.

I wonder who has the original prototypes. Were they finished in 1986 or 1987, in terms of packaging and final prototypes etc

So I think the Pizza Power game probably came out in '88 even though it's copyrighted '87. Then things lined up back then with when the show first came out. The prototypes were some thing that I would say probably happened by '86 but the final packaging and everything else didn't come till later. The timing of all this is a bit muddied.

The prototype packaging for the first toyline was likely finished in early 1987, since the flyer was as it mentioned early, they probably finished the toys at some point in 1986. When did they finish the season 1 cartoons before they aired? They did start making them in 1986 as well?