To:Playmates:Good writer needed

[VaughnMichael]

Originally Posted by HayashibaraMegumi

And forgive me if I seemed snapish but that rant wasn't pointed at anyone imparticular, it's just been boiling up for quite sometime between what people have been saying about the toys and new toon, needed to let a little venting out somewhere.

like wize with those things and also the only time people ever pay me any attention is when I have to just about scream or write some rant I get ignord once again just like kinda how splinter did.
-Vaughn Michael

[Michaelangelo|DAH]

hehe count me in on that one too

I just hope we can figure something out

[EZweasel]

ok if everyone is gona write a letter for themself that is fine, but i have written the letter i am sending. and here it is..there are probably some mistaken in it though.


Dear Playmates,

I write you this letter today while thanking you, i also must complain. My complaint is for the line of Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles. This line started out with some great features. They where SHOW ACCURATE. I watched the show one time and thought these figures where awsome. Later on down the line these show accurate figures started to decline. Next What was Just alright with the ARTICULAION of the first wave began to become unaparent. they had Ball jointed arms, legs and they even bent at the elbows. I look at Leatherhead now which is not on par with this. And lastly, the PACKAGING. While not something that is that big of a deal. Alot of collectors loved the Packaging of the OLD LINE..

I believe that Figures should match what they came from. I understand that sometimes its tough to get it to look exactly like the show, But this is not at all what we the fans are asking for. You Started out with 7 show accurate figures. While being a tad different it was very unoticible and all the figures where great..The next wave You continued with some more show accurate figures. I was very happy for the line and overjoyed with my new turtle figures. By the 3rd wave i became dissapointed.....out of all the figures you could have done you gave us something called extreme sports turtles...While The four turtles did do these sports on the show, the turtles never had any sorta clothes on them....this was a disgrace to the turtles. Out of all the turtle variants you could have done you gave us something that was very inaccurate. You could have given us Purple dragon disguises toys from the episode "fallen angel"....You could have even made some undercover turtles with the trench coat and hat...But you failed with your extreme sports variants. I was also disapointed with the actuall accesories that came with the extreme sports variants. they had motors on their vehicles and where very oversized. This was never in the show and was only hinted at. The inacurate show figures continued on down the line. We got Armored gear turtles. While these figures where a pretty cool idea, when and did this happen in the actual show. I have seen every episode and have not seen these variants.The space hoppin turtle where another problem...In your earlier preview you showed accurate space hoppin turtle. Later on this change to something wierd....You scrapped the whole idea of making something accurate to making something inaccurate. Now i see a preview for some upcoming turtles and behold what do i find.....deep diving turtles and repaints of UK exclusive INACCURATE TURTLE VARIANTS.

Articulation is what i like to call play value. To me it is what seperates a good figure from a great figure. I looked at your first wave and thought to myself these figure are "Good". I couldn't help be have just the tiniest bit of disapointment in my heart. You may ask why? I will tell you why. The first 7 figure you created had great apearance but where lacking in the area of articulation. They had pretty decent movment, but had one standard pose. This was acceptable though. I was willing to forgive this, but the next wave took a turn for the worst. the ball jointed legs lost some play value. and on two of your figures you completley took ball joints out of the picture. Casey joins was the only character who kept this. And He lost the play value in his legs. You continued with this trend for the most part. Leatherhead is very dissapointing. His apearance and articulation took a beating. You can even see the screws in his back...He hardly moves and is very bulky.

My last complaint was with the packaging. This is something that doesnt bother ME, but has bothered alot of fans. I hear complaints about this alot. They loved the artwork of the OLD LINE, but it seems you have become less creative sence then. All of the packaging looks the same and there is no originality. I have not much to say in this area. I just thought i would bring this to your attention.

In my last rant i would like to THANK YOU for give us some great action figures and other toys.I thought i would tell you what i do like. As i look at my figures i see some cool looking figures. I love the four show accurate turtle you have done for us. Shredder is another great addition in my collection. Casey jones is probably one of my favorite figures even though he lacks in certain areas. The Foot tech ninja and foot elit are great too.....So what is it i am wanting?? let me tell you....

1. More show accurate figures. Concentrate on what is in the show...Baxter is probably the most dissapointing figure i have seen from the line.
2. Beter articulation...ball jointed Head, Elbow, Armos, Hands, feet, Hands, Knees,Legs, and the list goes on.
3. Beter packaging. Show some originality. there are alot of fans out there who are willing to pay a little extra for the packaging.
4. Show accurate vehicles...Have you even seen the shell sub that was in the show and compared it to what you have given us : (

As always, thank you playmates for taking mine and other fans thoughts into consideration. and thank you for making great figures/toys.

[MrPliggins]

Guys, there are probably more kids than collectors who buy the toys, so that is who they will cater to. While I understand the show accurate thing and it would be nice... I don't see the variations of the Turtles themselves stopping any time soon. That's what sells to kids.
In the old Batman series of toys, they would have one villian and maybe one Robin to a case, and the rest were all Batmen. That's what sells..
They haven't gone overboard with the variations in TMNT though (like I think Batman did), and I don't think they will any time soon. There are hits and misses. Only in a perfect world would all the toys be perfect.

[jestergoblin]

Like everyone has said, there will never be an end to the turtle variants. Looking back at my old collection, I owned more Raphs than anything else (which is odd since he was my least favorite turtle at the time). I believe that there is more we need to do than just e-mail Playmates and say, "You screwed up! Fix it NOW!"

We need to tell them what we think is wrong and what we think they are doing right. How often do you write to a company and say "you guys did a great job!"? Playmates seems much more willing to work with the customers than most toy companies.

I will write them a letter next week addressing my own complaints with the line. I agree that the figures need more articulation (I am a big fan of the Marvel Legends line) and find it sad when my Leonardo is next to my Spider-Man who has more articulation in his right arm then Leo has in his whole body.

My other complaint would be the use of "action" features. I honestly despise my Hun and Casey because of their movement parts. My favorite figure of the line right now is Nano. He is such a well done figure and I wish more would be done like him. After that would be Biker Don because I love how they did his legs. If that was the norm with Ninja Turtles, I would be much happier with them as a whole.

On a side note, Putrescent, I believe that many of us collectors buy more figures per person than parents do but there are more parents buying the figures. Just from the new line, I've bought multiples of various figures already (four elites, three foot ninjas, 2 casey jones). How many kids do that? So I believe that we all have an equal say.

[Triceraton]

I don't really think the articulation is that big of an issue. Sure, some figures could definitely use more, but over all it's not bad. The only two I've felt really needed more were the Fire Foot Mystic(because there are obvious places it could've been added, and he really needs it, especially with the mystic repaints on the way) and the Turtlebot(because he's a robot, and thus easy to articulate while maintaining the sculpt, he should've had more).

They are going for sculpt over articulation, which is fine by me on a line like this. The Fighting Gear Turtles have all the articulation I'd want in this line anyway, except I'd replace the hinge hands with hinge elbows. I don't want these figures to look like the overarticulated to the point of being ugly and too loose to pose Marvel Legends. I collect LotR, and just about every figure ToyBiz has tried to take the Marvel Legends route in that line has ended up an ugly jointed, barely able to stand mess. Especially the hinged hands, these almost never work, and there have already been lots of complaints about those on the TMNT figures. If these highly stylized figures designed to look exactly like the cartoon started getting super articulated, the hinged hands would be the least of the problems.

What I'm trying to say is, there is a happy medium between unposeable statue figures, and overarticulated to the point of rediculousness figures. And, for the most part, the TMNT line falls in that area. And, for the figures that don't quite enough, well, I'd rather have a statuesque figure that's sculpted well than something with ugly joints that has trouble standing and holding its weapons.

Now, Baxter is something worth complaining about. Only because there are a lot of cool, cartoon accurate ways they could've gone. It really doesn't make sense, because almost every thing else this year is perfectly accurate with great sculpting. I can only assume that the issue is that in answering the demand for Baxter, Playmates had to come up with something, anything, fast. So we get a poorly sculpted, inaccurate figure which doesn't match the rest of the line at all.

I won't bother with the Turtle variants, because it's really not that bad. It's not like the old line, where 90% of the figures in one year are all Turtle variants, and it's not like Mattel's lines where all you can find are variants. So Playmates is doing a good job with the variants so far.

[VaughnMichael]

Originally Posted by jestergoblin

On a side note, Putrescent, I believe that many of us collectors buy more figures per person than parents do but there are more parents buying the figures. Just from the new line, I've bought multiples of various figures already (four elites, three foot ninjas, 2 casey jones). How many kids do that? So I believe that we all have an equal say.

allot of kids do my nephews and there friends have a lot of foot soldiers and foot elite's because they want them like the show and they are so excited about all the stuff I show them that playmates shows us fans.....I'm like there uncle turtle god lol...it makes me proud that a new generation is loving a line I grew up on...and btw the thing there most excited about is the new space hopping turtles why because I showed them my special addition ones and they were like uncle why it different now I said because the company decided to change the look there like cool! the old ones were boring atleast these ones are all different and you know what there right they are I'm sick of show accurate this and that just give me some awesome TMNT toys and I'll be a happy camper..god they could go all the way back and stop painting the weapons to how about that.
but let me just say right now if playmates starts making hideous figures like this marvel legends things I will no longer even think twice about buying turtles except characters I really love allot sure those marvel figures may be really well articulated ..but I've gotten a few for the most part there really ugly and sculpted poorly....they have trouble holding things and standing up because they have to many joints....I'm just not going to agree with any of you on articulation I'd rather have some nice statues any day that I can display then some hunk of junk that falls off my computer top.
-Vaughn Michael

[LAXtitan99]

All I gotta say is that ya'll have WAYYYYYYY too much time on your hands.

Enjoy what they put out...TMNT are back! Its better than nothing. Only buy what you want or if your a completist like me...suck it up and buy it...sheesh...

[Zachatello00]

You know what's funny? In the cartoon, every time Baxter shows up, I groan. But I would be disappointed if he never came back. Baxter is a character that is made for that reason. He's a character you love to Hate. Like, an evil Urkle or something. What's ironic is that this figure shows up, and everyone groans.

I'm not a giant fan of the new Baxter sculpt, but look at the positive side. We will be getting a Baxter figure. Accurate Shamcurate. Lax Titan is right. We have TMNT again. No more fishing ebay hoping to hook a decent turtle figure that hasn't been chewed on, worn out, or missing all of his or her pieces.

Better Articulation? What are you talking about? They're called fighting gear ninja turtles! The articulation on these guys is great! they bend at the knee, toe, knuckle, even their heads wobble. Just fyi for those of you who steared clear of these "dreaded turtle variants" all that armor comes off of them, giving you a basic turtle with good articulation.

I think we've forgotten what life was like in the old days. When Leo couldn't cross his swords over his head, or shredder couldn't hold two weapons. This line has done major work improving the TMNT.

For those who are crying about TMNT variants, I remember having basic turtles, storage shell, movie star, sports, universal monsters, you name it. That's what kids want, the line is the Teenage mutant ninja turtles line after all. Not the "Baxter Stockman" line. Kids love turtles, playmates toys love kids. They did make the cold cast statues specifically for collectors. I don't know if I agree with these reports about the "line loosing it's touch" because it's the number one toy right now.

I know I may not convince many of you to do this, but I really think it's a good idea if we don't say anything to the people at playmates about our complaints with their line. Who are we to say that we know more about making toys and marketing, and saleability and all that than the people who actually do it for a living. I'm sure we probably won't even discourage them from making the toys in the future, they're making far too much money to disregard the line. We'll probably just kill a few trees and slow them down from making more awesome toys for us by making them take a few seconds to crumple and/or tear up the letters.

I'm not doggin' on anybody, but I haven't read a word on this thread that would motivate me to do anything other than disregard any letter containing this stuff sent to my desk. We cannot simply load the module with foot soldiers and storm the head office of playmates toys and expect an exo-suit baxter. Or a lab coat baxter, or a ... say, it sounds like they have plenty of material for baxter to work with in the future. Keep your shells on guys, we've got great toys and more on the way.

Playmates has been giving us great figures for 16 years now. They've made some weird ones between 1988 and now, but they've made great ones too, and they'll make more weird ones and great ones. I'm excited about it!

[Dane E5R]

Okay. We have TMNT again. Excellent. That's great, and I'm grateful for it. But that does not mean I'm going to settle for mediocrety. I've waited entirely too long for a figure that should've been released a year ago, and this simply will not do. After all the time they've had to make nearly every other character in the series, and make them SHOW ACCURATE at that, it's ridiculous that they're trying to hand us this piece of shyte. There is no reason I should have a Razorfist figure before I have a Stockman. The only reason Playmates will keep making mediocre figures is because people continue to accept them.

[EZweasel]

please people.... i realy wan these figures to come out beter than what where getting. its a half @$$ job and im sick of it. Like i said. I guess it is baxter that has driven me to this...im going on strike. i will not buy anymore stupid turtle variants or any inacurate figures. i cant believe i even bought those extreme sports turtles. i thought maybe those would be as inaccurate as the line got. i was dead wrong. we now are getting variants of variants that where never even in the show.there are plent of variant turtles they could have done.

[Splinter]

Originally Posted by EZweasel

please people.... i realy wan these figures to come out beter than what where getting. its a half @$$ job and im sick of it. Like i said. I guess it is baxter that has driven me to this...im going on strike. i will not buy anymore stupid turtle variants or any inacurate figures. i cant believe i even bought those extreme sports turtles. i thought maybe those would be as inaccurate as the line got. i was dead wrong. we now are getting variants of variants that where never even in the show.there are plent of variant turtles they could have done.

The only real problem so far, is the Baxter figure. You're trying to accomplish waaaaay to much with one letter. They will never read all of what you wrote. Stick to 1 point, and hammer it home. Staying respectful and avoidng buzz words like, suck, blow, lame, boycott. Calm down, breath easy. And stick to one problem at a time. I don't like overartiiculation msyelf, so I'll stick with the current levels. That, is for kids.

[EZweasel]

Originally Posted by Splinter

The only real problem so far, is the Baxter figure. You're trying to accomplish waaaaay to much with one letter. They will never read all of what you wrote. Stick to 1 point, and hammer it home. Staying respectful and avoidng buzz words like, suck, blow, lame, boycott. Calm down, breath easy. And stick to one problem at a time. I don't like overartiiculation msyelf, so I'll stick with the current levels. That, is for kids.

well i dont want over articulation...and i wasnt rude in my letter was i? id say about 15-25 points of articulation would be great. anything between those figures. im noot saying 40 points like the marvel legends. thats too much. these figures could be 10 times beter. on a scale from 1-10 these figures get about a 4 id say. im sorry but playmates has got to listen to the fans.

[Splinter]

No, they don't have to listen to the fans. Remember, the company is only looking out to please the bottom line. Fans come second, because they know the stuff will sell. He're a less wordy and more likely to work letter.


To Whom It May Concern,

I am a dedicated TMNT fan, I have been ever since the Mirage comics first came out back in 1984. (This shows you are an adult collector). Of course I was always a bigger fan of the Archies' and the Animated Series. They were just a great source of figure ideas to your company, way back then. Just as you were to them. (This shows you are open to -different- ideas.). I was really happy to hear that TMNT was back, and again I'd be able to purchases figures of my favorite characters from your company.

So far I have been very pleased what you have released. The Toddler Turtles and Turtlebot two of my favorite releases. (This is the praise area of the letter) I can't wait to see what else you guys are cooking up for us. Hopefully you have some incredible suprises ahead. (Hope for the future of the line, and your plans to comtinue to support it).

Unfortunatly I feel that I must write to you, in regards to one of your upcoming figures. I wish that this letter could be nothing but pure praise, but I feel that I need to make these points known. It's in regard to the upcoming Baxter Stockman figure from your fine company. I feel that retail sales and fan support would be better behind a figure that was more toon accurate. There are after all many many versions to be tapped.

So far in the series, Baxter has had at least 7 distinct looks. None of which are present on the final toy. Now I understand that you're going for a more -toyetic- idea for Baxter. But other then his labcoat version, there were many many toon accurate versions that could have been tapped. I'd have even liked a labcoat version, though I understand that this could seem boring to your core market group.

I think if you take into account the rather vocal collecting group, in the equation you will discover that being more toon accurate would help your bottom line. After all, I know many many collectors would purchase a Utrom Shredder, an Oroku Saki, Karai, and any number of figures that wouldn't seem like hot sellers on paper.

Thank you for your time,

X

[Skabbz]

i wrote them too.. altho i cant remember exactly whut i wrote. lol. but i did tell them they need to work harder on the baxter fig, and that i want those original space hoppin sculpts still.

[milweskee]

I know this is a long post, but please read this!

I am not a big fan of turtle variants, but so far, they haven't really been too bad. Extreme Sports was bad, but I'm sure kids love them. Plus, they have to promote exercise for the fat a** kids in this country. Playmates even made fighting gear turtles for those of you who were unhappy with the articulation. They even had different faces for them. Those are actually on the top of my favorites list. Sure, the Space Hoppin' Turtles seem dumb to you, but they did give us special edition ones, and I bought those up. The packaging on those is great. And I like the new packaging way better than the old stuff. It's more modern and fits the new look. If they put a picture of a villian saying "I hate pizza" on one of the new figures' packaging, I would crack up, and then puke. It's dumb. It's dumb to me, and a lot of other people. This generation won't eat that. Those of us that had that stuff as kids grew up in the 80's. There were ugly color combinations and bad humor in everything those days. Music was incredibly weird as well. The 80's was like a 10 year hangover after the 60's and 70's.

Playmates also has a wonderful human resources department. They gave me a new Splinter when I told them the tail broke off.

Articulation is defintitely not a problem in this line. I think they've been doing a good job so far. No, it's not perfect, but it's not terrible either. Asking them to have all these ridiculous joints like Marvel Legends is a mistake. Those figures are a complete mistake. I only bought Blade because I wanted to put his coat on Casey Jones to make a Crow figure. Worked out great, but that's besides the point. I want to emphasize that Marvel Legends figures have less "PLAY VALUE" than an Elite Foot in my eyes. Those figures can do things I can't do, and that's just not right.

Anyways, Playmates has done a lot of great things for the fans. As for the Baxter Stockman, I wish he was different, but according to Playmates, he will be. I'm not going to say "shut up, and wait to see what they do with him" even though I would like to. I think we should express our displeasure with him, and him only. Because Playmates can obviously see that there's a problem, and they might just have to do an entirely new sculpt, so who knows. We might actually get the human version.

[Michaelangelo|DAH]

After reading this whole thread, I have realized a lot of stuff.

I might have made my conclusions about my opinion, on the playmates TMNT figures, a bit too fast, and that made me realize that should not bash something which I find very cool and awesome. I still have some stuff which I don't like though, but it's no big deal compared to all the time I dedicate to TMNT anyway.

I'm still gonna write a letter though, But I think I'm gonna be focusing on Splinter, as the main topic of my letter as Splinter mentioned. I hope we will be able to turn playmates around, so they'll realize what's wrong with Baxter, and maybe some of the other figures. Thanks for all of your opinions, they have been very helpful

Thanks

[Zachatello00]

Good work Splinter.

[Ninjinister]

I agree with you wholeheartedly, 'mlady. This seems to have gone quite too far. Now bear with me as I address certain points:

BAXTER
Indeed, I am totally disappointed with this figure. However, I will still purchase it, as it IS a TMNT figure, and I'm sure I'll be able to pop off his head one way or another to shove into the Utrom figure (whenever it is released). Every figure line does have it's "stinkers", and we cannot expect TMNT to be an exception to the rule.

MANY VARIANTS OF THE TURTLES
This is a standard for any line. Although I am one who bought nearly every variant in the past series of figures, I can honestly tell you all that this line's are infinitely more accurate:

The extreme sports line mirrors the show. The only reason they are wearing the "gear", is because you would feel even more ripped off if they were merely packaging the same old figure with the sports equipment, now would you not? It would be akin to Malibu Stacy with a new hat.

The fighting gear line is more than disappointing, however, the British recolor variants prove to be more pleasing to the eye.

Both the space hoppin' and deep diving Turtles are founded in the show... they may not be one-hundred percent accurate, but I do not wish to hear those of you who purchased the Napolean Bonafrog figure complain.

I do wish they would release some non-Turtle variants (other than Mutations and Armorized Shredder)

6-PACK MOUSERS
When was this announced? Have I missed something? And does this mean there just may be Foot Soldier two-packs?

USAGI AND GEN
I cannot say much for Gen, as I am unfamiliar with Usagi's actual world (I only have one of his comics), but Usagi himself appears to be one of the best figures thus far. He looks impressive, has very pleasing swords, and he has the ability to attack in a 90 degree angle. Usagi and Karai will be the figures I must purchase this year.

[Orochi Chimera]

If you write a long letter they might not want to even read it. It should be short and have the main complaint clearly expressed.