What was Turtlemania like?

[Galactus]

Originally Posted by sdp

Turtlemania never reached the heights of Pokemania either. Pokemon was a whole other beast on a different league that TMNT could never hope for.

Power Rangers mania vs TMNT mania is a fairer comparison, but I've believe i already made a thread about that a few years ago. Worth noting Power Rangers sold for higher than TMNT, had always had a tv show running, appealed to girls more. I think PRs peaked earlier but was higher while tMNT just lasted longer while during it's fad phase.

TMNT was definitely bigger than Power Rangers at it's peak. Remember Power Rangers ratings dropped sharply as early as midway through the shows second season and while the movie made money it was hardly a big deal not even topping the US box office.

Pokemon is a bit of a strange one because it's not a franchise whose primary medium was toys or cartoons but rather video games which is an entirely different kettle of fish. The anime was huge in it's first season then as soon as Ash traded in Brock for Tracy and hopped on a Lapras to go around the Orange Island kids seemed to lose interest. It did have a financially successful movie; the biggest anime movie that had been released at that point but nothing to really write home about. How did the sequels fare in the West? How many of them were released outside of Japan?

Power Rangers and Pokemon are bigger franchises overall but that's because they are self sustaining. There is always a new team of Power Rangers and every few years there is a new batch of Pokemon to catch. They can go on forever and if one iteration flops they quickly move on the next.