What the.......

[Adam Riches]

Originally Posted by Roseangelo

BUT THIS DOESN'T MEAN ALL THE NEW CRAP HAS TO HAVE CRAPPY ART. Really, this is the thing that bugs me most. I have nothing against the old cartoon Turtles and I do quite love them the way I love all the different flavors. If these are the Turtles that sell, then yes, these are absolutely the kind of products that companies should be making. But would it really have killed Mirage/4Kids to spend more time on the art and make it NOT crappy? Seriously, not only are the proportions on most of the Turtles horrible, but a lot of them also have actual old stock art heads photoshopped onto them (which doesn't help the proportions at all). And then there are all the pictures where the Turtles have boobs. Really, it's like they didn't even look at any of the actual old cartoon art by Lavigne/Brown or even the damn cartoon itself. It's just sloppy, and that's what bugs me most.

I just have to say in some partial defense on the part of Mirage/4Kids, I don't think this was always entirely up to them. I know from first hand experience because I had talks with Lionsgate twice begging them to let me have a shot at some of the OT DVD box art and they were like dealing with a brick wall in regards to this stuff. They do it all in-house based on whatever materials are available to them and at least from what I could see were really just concerned with getting the product on shelves and had little care about it's presentation, as I think from where they're sitting the product itself (the episodes) are the real selling point. Now before anyone says anything, I realize Mirage had no say in the LG releases, it was just an example of something out of their hands.

Still I agree with you because these issues were present on many Mirage approved TMNT licensees in 08-09. To some extent the same case can be made about the Playmates 25th cardbacks, a lot of us were disappointed at the way they seemed sort of haphazardly arranged with no new art. It's a sad reality but the business side of TMNT licensing has basically equated to either using pre-approved stock art and updating it (new heads) or paying the absolute smallest amount possible to produce the product (if you can believe people actually get paid to do those head swaps, as if they are new art ). I've always found this to be a major bummer because as someone who really loves the TMNT I was hoping we'd see a lot more authentic Brown/Lavigne art for the 25th or at the very least find people that are passionate enough about the property (see: me ) to replicate that style and create quality art to better represent the TMNT to both casual and diehard fans.

I agree with most of you guys about the shirts especially...I've often believed that better quality product would have resulted in more interest and profits, but this opinion didn't seem to be shared by basically any of the licensees that deal with TMNT product, especially clothing items apparently.