Quote:
Originally Posted by mrmaczaps
I'd rather see the guys never wear bandanas again than see them stick with the "you are an idiot" color coding... because thats the only reason TPTB color coded them... great that most folks live down to their expectations.
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I am quite certain it had a lot more to do with Playmates realizing - correctly - that parents were not going to buy their kids the same identical action figure four times over.
For better or worse, if the Turtles don't get color-coded masks, the toy line never gets off the ground, the cartoon show developed for the sole purpose of advertising said toys never gets made, not a single person here ever becomes a TMNT fan and we're not here talking about any of this Today. These are Facts. The brand would have died, invisible, unless that specific compromise was made, among others.
Because Playmates was right. Parents would NOT have bought the same toy four times over. Most parents already bitched and moaned even though they DID have the colored masks. "Why do you NEED all four? It's the same exact figure! Can't you just PRETEND the blue one is the purple one? Come on."
Parents already looked at the TMNT toys as a blatant cash-grab by having four near-identical main characters. And that's AFTER the masks were colored differently. All-red masks, then Playmates (or any other company) would simply not have developed the line. It was a smart move on their part. Looking at the Big Picture, it was the correct decision. After all, TMNT still exists... Barely.
It's a business. And it was a business-driven decision, not a "BUT BRUH they're a ninja clan" decision. I bet even Kevin and Peter rightly bit their tongues about it when someone from Playmates told them outright, "So this is how it's gonna be." I doubt they even pushed back for two seconds. I bet as soon as they started talking about the money involved, even Ol' Stick In The Mud Purist Pete Laird was like, "Hmmm... I bet Leo would actually look great in blue!"
Because whatever he is, he's not a moron.
I know some people have a strong Mirage bias - though I confess to wondering why, a lot of it is SO BORING even though it's inarguably better-written than most TMNT comics have been, but again that's a very low bar to clear - but what makes no sense to me is how so many people are so "purist" that it seems like their preferred reality is one where none of the things that actually made TMNT popular ever came about, and in turn the brand died in obscurity around issue 4 or 5 of a comic book nobody had ever read.
Makes no sense to me, I'unno.