Playmates Concept Art 1988!

[oldmanwinters]

This ebay seller has some incredible pieces of TMNT history:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/thecafewha/m...1&_ipg=&_from=

They've also sold a number of great pieces already which you can see by searching their "completed listings."

They've got very early toy concept art for vehicles, weapons, playsets, and characters like Krang, Bebop, Rocksteady, Fugitoid, Ace Duck, the Punk Frogs, unused character concepts, Baxter Stockman, and Casey Jones (with even a red ink comment for the art to "go back to comic" on Casey; which was good advice). There's even Pizza Face... originally known as "Pizza the Hut!"

I saw a few already got posted in another thread, but I figured this find at least deserved its own corner of the internet.

Most all pieces seem to have been drawn and retained by an artist named Errol McCarthy, who must have had quite the resume. The ebay seller describes him as such:

[These pieces come] from the personal portfolio of Errol McCarthy. Errol is now best known as the most prolific Masters of the Universe artist of all time. His artwork is featured on more licensed products than any other artist. He created much of the vintage cardback artwork that we all know and love. For 30 years, his name remained unknown to all He-Man fans around the world. In addition to working on Masters of The Universe, Errol did concept and packaging artwork for many toy lines including TMNT, Big Jim, Toy Story, and Hotwheels.

There are over 300 individual pieces being offered from his TMNT portfolio. This artwork was done by Errol as a freelance artist who was a long-time friend of Mark Taylor who was then an executive at Playmates. Errol designed many of the character's toy designs that became part of the TMNT brand including Bebop, Rocksteady, Tom Sawyer, Krang, Baxter, the Technodrome, and the TMNT Blimp.

Since last night, I've burned a few hours saving all the posted photos to my hard drive for record keeping. I'll post a few selections here!

Krang in his Bubble Walker


Ace Duck



Leatherhead, aka "Sewer Gator"



Genghis & the Punk Frogs



Pizza Face, aka "Pizza the Hut"


Casey Jones looked like a cross between a character from Goonies and one of those monsters from the Kenner Real Ghostbusters toy line!


"Go back to comic," indeed! I wonder if that was a personal note from Eastman and/or Laird?