Displeased with the 2003 Toy Line

[TheCloneRanger]

I got off on a tangent in the Post All Toy Sightings Here! thread, and at the wise suggestion of rayfillet101, I'm moving my rant here. Hopefully I can get some more input from it, and can keep the PATSH thread from going completely off topic:

Originally Posted by Snailman

...

But characters from the old show being included in that line up sounds good to me duder!


-Snailman

I have nothing against the idea of seeing vinty figures redone, but why? I was thinking about this a couple of days ago (in the shower, to top it off), and I'm kinda displeased with the Playmates TMNT line. Why, you may be asking? TMNT toys first started coming out in 1988...16 years ago. 16 years ago, the internet was a rumor, computers took up city blocks, Michael Jackson was in trouble for sexual misconduct, and a Bush was in the White House.

Bad example.

But we've come a long way since 1988. Look at Star Wars (1985) compared to today's VOTC figures and, yes, the dreaded "Marvel Legends comparison." 16 years has given us amazing advancement in action figures, and PM is snubbing their nose at ALL of those advancements. Articulation, sculpting, accessories...you could put a '88 and a '03 Leonardo side by side, there's no quality difference. Whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, the 1988 and 2003 lines blend together perfectly. And they shouldn't. The same bland, "smooth" figures just don't cut it with me anymore. If they were to redo a figure like Bebop, Rocksteady, or any other retro character, chances are it would look so similar to the original, they might as well just rerelease THAT. And in fact, give them a couple of years. I have no doubts that they will.

The best example I can think of is Mattel's defunct He-Man line. Case-assortment problems aside, compare the old ones to the new ones, as sculpted by the 4H. They aren't articulated out the wha-zoo, but look at the detailing. They're clearly still He-Man figures, cut from the same cloth as the 80's versions, but with 2000 sculpting and paint processes.

I'm just saying, Playmates has dropped the ball here. And lets face it, the TMNT figures we have (figures of the actual 4 TMNT), don't even look like their show counter-part. They simply look like RESCULPTED '80s turtles! Somebody want to say Playmates didn't have source material to look at when they sculpted that early first wave? Bulls**t. The Foot and Shredder came out a matter of weeks later, and look like their show's counterpart.


Maybe I'm just in a bad mood because I can't find my Utrom, while I see hundreds (literally) of Space Turtles when I go on toy runs, or maybe I'm just looking at this line with a nonbiased mind for once...but I see it quickly going the way of the original line. The man who was quoted as saying that the Xtreme Sports Turtles would "be the furthest we go away from what you actually see in the show" in Lee's AFD was fired, correct? Ironic. With all the Turtle rehashes coming out, just give them time. We'll start seeing misc. mutants before too long. Even if they're never on the show, just give it time. Playmates will milk that cash cow for all it's worth. I'm just glad the people over the show have more sense than that.

These are toys based on cartoon characters, and are sculpted as such. Smooth lines, large areas of non-detail, but I'm tired of that. I don't want to insult anybody here, because I'm still buying the figures too. But as a consumer, I feel the right to complain.

The way I see it, this may (and probably will) be the last time we see TMNT. One rebirth is amazing, two probably won't happen. I'm going to ride the ship as long as it stays afloat this time, buying all the action figures along the way. I would just really like to see something nicer.

[/soapbox]

Edit: To clarify one thing, I would also like to see some of the vintage Mutants redone. But not in the style of the current line. It's too much like the original. Get the 4H on board, or someone with some better sculpting talent, then we'll talk.