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.

[Prowler]

TMNT and DBZ were the last two big cartoon fads that took the world by storm. I'm not counting Pokémon because it wasn't just the anime series that was popular, but the games as well. DBZ and TMNT started out as comics, but clearly what made them huge were their animated series. Although I asside Dragon Ball's manga sells very well, but it's not like people outside of Japan were buying it in the 90s.

There's been very popular animated series in the current century so far such as Naruto, Avatar, One Piece, Bleach, My Hero Academia, etc. but they didn't take the world by storm like TMNT and DBZ did. They're just very popular among an ocean of popular stuff. I've never seen One Piece marchandise and such being all over the place even though OP is the highest selling comic book series of all time as of today.

I think today there's just too much competition and content out there that makes it impossible for one single series to absolutely dominate toy sales and be consumed by 90%+ of kids. Not to mention TV isn't what it is anymore. What kids wake up early on Saturday and Sunday mornings to catch the latest episodes of their favourite cartoons nowadays anymore? Everyone is streaming their favourite shows, whether legally or not.

[Wildcat]

Don’t know what else to say about it. It was great. All the merchandise, cartoon and movies. The Turtles were in everything. How else can it be described?

I had a lot of toys. Mostly figures. Never had the Technodrome. I was more into vehicles like the Van, Pizza Thrower and skateboards (Cheapskates just googled it). A bunch of other things too but can’t remember off the top of my head.

I wouldn’t call it a fad. That’s more of a “hip” trend that pretty much stops once people get tired of it. These franchises hit a high and then leveled out once they were established. Happens to everything.

[Galactus]

Originally Posted by sdp

You guys are clueless to how big pokemon was and yes the anime was bigger than TMNT or dbz and even more popular than the games

I was there for both and TMNT definitely felt bigger. Like I pointed out the TMNT cartoon had several successful seasons whereas Pokemon seemed to peter off as Ash was entering the Orange League. Also TMNT actually had a properly successful movie.

I will say that Pokemon sucked in people I never thought would be into it. Like I was 15/16 at the time probably too old for the anime but since I'm a big nerd it's not a surprise I liked it (although it was mainly the game I was into). However a lot of other kids my age that normally would dismiss it as kids stuff were fans. I assume it was mainly due to video game and card collecting.