Your predictions for TMNT in 2012

[pannoni1]

Hello and happy new year! As we flip the calendar, the stage is set for the comeback of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Along the way, expect lots of news feeds, new information, lots of media chatter, and of course, lots of criticism. It will be a bumpy ride, but as a fan, this is the year we've all been waiting for! So, here are my predictions for TMNT in 2012:

January: IDW announces that Shredder is going to be in their latest solicitation. The TMNT Vol. 1 #1 voice-over project is FINALLY finished near the end of this month.
February: Nickelodeon releases CGI designs of Splinter, Shredder, April, and the foot. NinjaTurtles.com may or may noy have been updated.
March: NinjaTurtles.com is finally updated and Nickelodeon states "we're back this fall" on that site and on nick.com. The Ninja Turtles movie enters pre-production with script writers announced and casting calls are announced.
April: Playmates announces the figures for the new Nick series including prototype designs, and on RobPaulsenLive.com we hear Rob mention that all episodes for the first season have been recorded, meaning only the animation/sounds have to take place in production.
May: Nickelodeon announces a date for the premier of the CGI series. Paramount selects the cast for the 2013 movie and announces filming locations.
June: Shooting for the 2013 movie begins, plus Playmates announces an August release for the Turtles/Splinter/Shredder figures for their Nick show. Some new TMNT merchandise also appears for summer/back to school uses. Nickelodoen also announces reruns of the 4kids series on the Nicktoons network beginning late summer/early fall.
July: Lionsgate announces that Season 10 of the OT with "3 missing episodes" hits stores in late August. NinjaTurtles.com is updated again, covering the new information of the series. At San Diego Comic Con, we see a sneak peek of the Nick series.
August: Nick announces the time slot at 10 AM Saturday mornings (just like the CBS/4kids shows), and we get lots of reviews for the new Playmates figures, Season 10 DVD, not to mention social media updates for the TMNT movie as it films in various locations.
September: The new CGI Nick series debuts. Unfortunately, it is received with poor to mediocre reviews. It has some curious watchers the first few episodes, but as parents tell their kids that the first two series were better, ratings slide to less than 1.0. Still, a new video game based on this series is announced, and people are impressed with the graphics, wondering "Why can't Nick be like this?"
October: The IDW series reaches a critical point with the Shredder now defeated and suddenly the issues are starting to turn a bit stale, as new characters are introduced. The 2013 movie finishes shooting, allowing post-production to begin.
November: The first teaser trailer for the movie arrives. Suddenly, due the approach of the 25th anniversary of the OT, a various channel begins airing reruns of the OT. And, ratings for the Nick series start to improve as it turned out that the criticism of the "cheap CGI animation" improves around this time due to the comments on Facebook/various TMNT sites, and the arrival of the holiday season allows many TMNT toys to appear at store, including the video game, and sales are slow at first, but increase as fan interest reignites.
December: "The Turtles are back", says the media headlines. The Nick series introduces Shredder shortly before mid-season reruns (or if there are two new episodes a weekend, an epic season finale that shows the blueprints of the Technodrome as Shredder/Foot flee from the Foot Headquarters building). A 25th anniversary special of the OT also airs as Ryan's Turtledocumentary is featured. The momentum to an even bigger 2013 is set.

[CyberCubed]

Aside from the obvious, all I want is for Lionsgate to release the Season 10 DVD sometime right before the Nick series starts.

I also think around late August we'll start seeing the 4kids cartoon rerun on Nicktoons, and maybe even a complete DVD set of it if we're really lucky.

[sdp]

Well umm...your predictions seem more like a fanfiction story, especially towards the end, and while I know it's predictions they don't seem very likely, most of the things you mention. Here are some more realistic predictions:

February: Toyfair 2012-, we could see figures for the new show and classics line. Unless the show is delayed I'd count on this happening.

March-May - Nick might have some small preview like they did at the Nicks choice award last year only longer and with more information. Last year they released stuff before SDCC and SDCC might be considered too late to promote the show since it'd begin airing in just a month and a half after it, so this before SDCC preview could happen. Lionsgate may release the last Volume, barebones, no 3 missing episodes...

June: E3 2012, We may see a new videogame based on the new show, more likely for next E3 but who knows. If we got a preview before E3 then it's more likely if we didn't then I wouldn't count on it.

July - SDCC 2012 - Trailer for the new show and screens and information about the show comes out. Plans for the movie could be mentioned. If we didn't see the figures at toyfair we'd see them here.

August - promotion for the new show all over Nickelodeon, merchandise starts showing up.

September - New show premiers, turtles stuff everywhere, at worst ratings will be very good but below Spongebob ratings. Nick will make sure this show is a success or at least try by marketing it as one.

Oct-Dec - episodes keep premiering at around one a week, if Lionsgate didn't release the S10 DVD in the spring then it'd be released here. If no plans for the movie were made in SDCC then maybe we'd hear about them now, either way this movie ain't coming out until 2014 at the earliest. The success of the premier of the new show probably will be very influential on moving the movie away from development hell. Nicktoons might get 2k3 re-runs but not likely, maybe next year but who knows.

Nonetheless this looks like the most exciting year to be a turtle fan since 2007 or to a lesser extent 2009/2003.

[Powder]

I predict the new Nick series will kick shell, the IDW book will turn into the OT on steroids, and we'll get little to no news on the new film.

[Samhain]

Originally Posted by Powder

the IDW book will turn into the OT on steroids

Hmmm, I hope not! But it is looking that way more and more every month.

[Mr._Mutant_Man]

Originally Posted by Powder

the IDW book will turn into the OT on steroids,

I don't get it. Does this mean the IDW comic will be like the OT but with the kid gloves not on so tight, or does this mean that there will be so much slapstick that the Turtles will drown Shredder in banana cream pies by the end of the year?

I don't think the sky is falling on the TMNT comic quality just because the multicolor bandannas have returned and Bebop and Rocksteady may be in the series. The Archie series gets remembered fondly, and that was largely based on the cartoon.

Fans really enjoyed the 2003 cartoon and that had multicolored bandannas and an annoying theme song.

[sdp]

IDW seems to cater to the fans who grew up with ____, when it comes to their titles, this is what I always expected so it's no surprise and the more issues come out the more I seem to be right and the more disappointed mirage fans are getting. IDW is doing a "mature" take of the original show.

[Powder]

Originally Posted by Mr._Mutant_Man

I don't get it. Does this mean the IDW comic will be like the OT but with the kid gloves not on so tight, or does this mean that there will be so much slapstick that the Turtles will drown Shredder in banana cream pies by the end of the year?

I don't mean it's humor, necessarily, but many other elements.

A. Read Michelangelo. In a 20 second scan of a 3 panel sequence, the turtles were pigeonholed into their OT personalities.

B. Yes, the colored masks are a part of it.

C. Potential army of mutants (See the lab from Raphael in which Alopex was mutated).

D. Hob, much like OT Shredder, has gotten his ass kicked every time (thus far) immediately without hassle.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by Powder

I predict the new Nick series will kick shell, the IDW book will turn into the OT on steroids, and we'll get little to no news on the new film.

Especially when more elements like The Technodrome, Dimension X or General Traag start showing up.

The only thing IDW has in common with Mirage is a black Baxter and April working as his assistant, and....that's it.

[Mr._Mutant_Man]

Originally Posted by sdp

IDW is doing a "mature" take of the original show.

I'm fine with that. If I want to read something that's just like Mirage TMNT, I can always get out one of the trades.

The current TMNT series hasn't been amazingly awesome, but it's still been pretty enjoyable. They've gotten most of the origin out of the way, I'm looking forward to seeing what the normal flow of the series will be like.

[Powder]

I would be fine with it too, it's just that I feel we were sort of led to believe that the series was going to be more raw & akin to it's real roots.
Bait & switch, as I said in another thread. Had I known from day one it would be a mature version of the OT I'd of been just as excited.
Just wish things were laid out accurately from the beginning.

[pannoni1]

Here's my mid-year report, and I find it a mixed bag.

Janurary: I blew the voice-over project prediciton, now slated for September. The solicitation for Shredder was pretty close being announced in February.
February: Good call sdp on the Toy Fair, and we saw some CGI designs for the Foot and Shredder, though April came a bit later.
March: The movie call seemed to be heading toward pre-production, but of course you all know what happened.
http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=36897
I came close with the official website prediction, as it went under matienence at the very end of February, but though the official "back this fall" trailer came in May.
April: No word on recording TMNT sessions on Rob Paulsen's website, but by that point the Playmates future thread was hoppin' with activity.
May: Blown call on the movie call with still no official cast and filming locations announced, with the temporary release date not announced until June.
June: We get a "coming this fall" teaser for the Nick series, but no confirmed date.
July: Came close with the Season 10 DVD prediction as Lionsgate as it was announced last month, and the DVD arrives August 14. The official website over the past month as undergone some updates. We got our sneek peek at SDCC as promised. Also, a couple things that I predicted for August happened in July: the Playmates Toys reviews and hitting stores (though many stores still won't get them for another few weeks), and the confirmed date/timeslot (I would have been right if it was for Central time.)

Looking ahead at my earlier predictions, the IDW becoming stale is certainly in play due in part to Duncan's exit as well as the fact that my take on the 25th anniversary special of the OT is turning out to be a voice cast reunion in a few weeks for Rob Paulsen's podcast. The biggest disappointment of course in 2012 has been the movie, with the animated/action figure predictions having the best performance, with the comics somewhere in the middle.

But let's hope for a strong later part of 2012 to really make this the best year in TMNT history since the early '90s!

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Aside from the obvious, all I want is for Lionsgate to release the Season 10 DVD sometime right before the Nick series starts.

I also think around late August we'll start seeing the 4kids cartoon rerun on Nicktoons, and maybe even a complete DVD set of it if we're really lucky.

Well I was half right.

[pannoni1]

Hello once again and Merry Christmas! Now its time to share your thoughts about how 2012 has been as a TMNT fan. But first, I'll share my review based on my predictions for August-September:

*First off, the voice-over product of Mirage #1 finally got released in September after a wait well over a year. Also, any predictions about the movie have been blown, since no official news about a trailer, cast, or script have been released since the leaked script. Now, for the results:

*August: We did experience plenty of reviews for the 2012 Playmates figures, Season 10 DVD release, and a bunch of Nick prequel comics that were fairly interesting.
*September: I blew my prediction on a video game announcement as still no development news has been announced. Still, I'm surprised with the reviews about how good the "Rise of the Turtles" premiere episode(s) started the Nick series.
*October: IDW by then was starting to get more interesting, showing that several concurrence storylines at once along with the return of classic characters such as Slash, the Technodrome & Traag/Granitor/Neutrinos shows that lots of interesting storylines are about to unfold.
*November: With the TMNT toys making Toys 'R' Us "Hot Toys" list and having a float appearing in the Thanksgiving Day Parade, and the nice sales of the figures meets my expectations. And reception of the Nick series improves not necessarily because of animation, but because of great episodes such as "Never Say Xever" and "The Gauntlet". The hate on Facebook wanes, although there are still some that miss the old Turtles as is likely expected. Sadly, instead of reruns of the OT on an other channel, we get a quickly made Turtlevan comprising the complete series of the OT with nothing new under the sun.
*December: I wasn't that far off in terms of some Technodrome reference (though arguably a 2001: A Space Odyssey reference) in the form of the eye in the climax of "It Came From the Depths". Shredder's introduction with the Turtles came back in "The Gauntlet", so it was a bit sooner than expected. There was not OT anniversary special, but the Jon Levitz Comedy Club reunion featuring the original voice actors back in August may have been the closest thing to such a special, and Canadian Turtle's TurtleDoc, while still slated for a 2013 release (likely in the later half of 2013), keeps building momentum for its release. And the Turtles are indeed back as the Turtles vs. Foot game keeps rolling along, the Turtles appear in shows such as "Comic Book Hunter" and "Cupcake Wars", proving that Turtle Power is alive and well!

Overall, 2012 was a very good year for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! The promotion by Nick has caused a new legion of fans that never quite came with the under the radar 4kids. The only blemish was the leaked Michael Bay script, however proper abandonment kept this from tarnishing the franchise. That's why the biggest issue with 2013 will be development of any movie since the Nick era audience will be well established and it becomes more critical for good reception.

[Powder]

Originally Posted by Powder

I predict the new Nick series will kick shell, the IDW book will turn into the OT on steroids, and we'll get little to no news on the new film.

It never fails, I'm always right.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by Powder

It never fails, I'm always right.

Haha pretty slick, man. What ya got for 2013?

[CyberCubed]

Predict that the 4kids series will be re-released to DVD in 2013 so it actually happens.

*fingers crossed*