Toys you wish they made

[Drtooth]

Originally Posted by Jester

ARCHIE!!!

There, I'm done.

But seriously, there are a lot of characters from all the TMNT incarnations that were never imortalized in plastic. It's sad really.

Heh... you an' everyone else.

I don't know why... but the thought of M.U.S.C.L.E. sized Stump Wrestlers in a package would have been the most amazing thing ever.

Plus, they dropped the ball when it came to Monster In My Pocket style mini-mutant figures of all the weird different mutant figures they had...

[Canadian Turtle]

I think they were trying to make the figures first and then the cartoon would pick up the ones they liked. Like Why the hell would they have Ace Duck in the background on a TV screen for 2 seconds? That is so stupid!

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Canadian Turtle

I think they were trying to make the figures first and then the cartoon would pick up the ones they liked. Like Why the hell would they have Ace Duck in the background on a TV screen for 2 seconds? That is so stupid!

If you want a story with Ace Duck you can read a fanfic I found in 2004 (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1115105/1/Duck_and_Cover).

[Toonami Tom]

I have always wanted an action figure of 2k3 toon Oroku Saki. He would be in his tan ninja robes. I would also like to see figures of:

* "TMNT: Fast Forward" President Bishop
* "TMNT: Back to the Sewer" Master Kahn
* TMNT 2K3 Mouser 2.0
* TMNT 23K Tengu Shredder
* TMNT 23k Season 3 finale episode Shredder (the big robo-suit with the 4 arms that battled the turtles and Splinter aboard the starship.)

[Drtooth]

You know... I had a dream a couple nights back where they made TMNT Christmas Plush (high quality ones at that), and I was checking out a Splinter Dressed like Santa Claus...

Just tossing that one out there. I'd love to see that one.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Drtooth

You know... I had a dream a couple nights back where they made TMNT Christmas Plush (high quality ones at that), and I was checking out a Splinter Dressed like Santa Claus...

Just tossing that one out there. I'd love to see that one.

In Sweden, we had a 1991 Advent calendar where Splinter was Santa Claus (April was in the TV, on December 6 of course).

[BigApple3AM]

These are all great ideas. Regarding old toon gangsters: I find the old Dick Tracy line is a great fill in. Both were made by playmates and have the same construction/engineering.

I don't know why Fred Wolf and Playmates didn't work closely regarding the toys and their cartoon counterparts. I know for sure that we'll never get every character in toy form because it's very expensive to make toys. They have to be very selective. Still I don't know why Fred Wolf would write stories around made up and sometimes rather lame characters when they had plenty of toy characters to pick from. Someone made a good point about ace duck having a very small cameo, while cool, doesn't make sense. When you can do anything with him why limit it to a cameo? I guess maybe there wasn't a lot of incentive for Fred Wolf to put every single one of the toy characters in the cartoons. And similarly Playmates wouldn't want to make boring supporting cast toys that Fred Wolf came up with solely for one or two episodes, especially if they think they wouldn't sell.

Anyway, I would've loved a Rex-1. But my main want is Armaggon. I remember playing him in TMNT Tournament fighters and having a comic with him right on the cover, and wondering when he'd show up in toy form. I would have thought a Shark character would have been a better seller than say a pizza chef or a kangaroo.

While I'd love cartoon accurate toys, a large part of me still wants a lot of those characters done in the old toy line style. Mostly just so they'd fit with the rest of my collection.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Ectocooler

These are all great ideas. Regarding old toon gangsters: I find the old Dick Tracy line is a great fill in. Both were made by playmates and have the same construction/engineering.

I don't know why Fred Wolf and Playmates didn't work closely regarding the toys and their cartoon counterparts. I know for sure that we'll never get every character in toy form because it's very expensive to make toys. They have to be very selective. Still I don't know why Fred Wolf would write stories around made up and sometimes rather lame characters when they had plenty of toy characters to pick from. Someone made a good point about ace duck having a very small cameo, while cool, doesn't make sense. When you can do anything with him why limit it to a cameo? I guess maybe there wasn't a lot of incentive for Fred Wolf to put every single one of the toy characters in the cartoons. And similarly Playmates wouldn't want to make boring supporting cast toys that Fred Wolf came up with solely for one or two episodes, especially if they think they wouldn't sell.

Anyway, I would've loved a Rex-1. But my main want is Armaggon. I remember playing him in TMNT Tournament fighters and having a comic with him right on the cover, and wondering when he'd show up in toy form. I would have thought a Shark character would have been a better seller than say a pizza chef or a kangaroo.

While I'd love cartoon accurate toys, a large part of me still wants a lot of those characters done in the old toy line style. Mostly just so they'd fit with the rest of my collection.

Maybe expensive to make, but didn't the TMNT toys sell very good for many years?

[Canadian Turtle]

Maybe they were avoiding stupid parents complaining about the shows being half hour commercials.

What would cost more? Making a new toy from the show, or writing and animating a new character into the show?

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Canadian Turtle

Maybe they were avoiding stupid parents complaining about the shows being half hour commercials.

What would cost more? Making a new toy from the show, or writing and animating a new character into the show?

Wasn't it so with many 1980's action/adventure cartoons (G.I. Joe, He-Man, TMNT, Transformers).

[Canadian Turtle]

Thats why TMNT was the last great toy franchising show, and now look what parents have done! There are crap for shows left and no kids are interested in action figures anymore.... it sucks.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Canadian Turtle

Thats why TMNT was the last great toy franchising show, and now look what parents have done! There are crap for shows left and no kids are interested in action figures anymore.... it sucks.

Wouldn't the parents be happy now.?

[Drtooth]

Originally Posted by Canadian Turtle

Thats why TMNT was the last great toy franchising show, and now look what parents have done! There are crap for shows left and no kids are interested in action figures anymore.... it sucks.

It's...uh... not so much the parents... it's more the kids themselves... they don't WANT action figures or any of the small scale toys. They want the big expensive things (that more likely than not, they can't afford... leading us into the mess we're in now), and that means the action figures and all that are pushed behind.

Of course, only Hasbro is really pulling its freaking weight... Mattell's started some good stuff with the DC line. Ban Dai still doesn't know what to do in America (outside of Power Rangers of course), and Playmate's only has TMNT keeping it afloat.

[BigApple3AM]

From what I know... Animating a new character would need to be designed, then animated like any other character/thing in the show. So there really isn't much of a higher cost than animating the show in the first place.

Toys need to be individually sculpted, and then have metal molds made which I hear are extremely expensive. This is why toy companies try to reuse parts to create different toys (like Transformers being repainted into new characters, or Mattel's DC line or Hasbro's ML line which has been brought up in this thread, sharing different body parts to create new characters). Because of this they don't want to gamble. They want to put out toys they know they can sell. If the toys become pegwarmers it will hurt future retail orders of the toys and possibly kill the toy line altogether.

So when Playmates is choosing what figures do or don't get made, just imagine a bunch of people who have no emotional connection to the property but rather a financial one, all in a room saying stupid sh*t like: "Big Shark guy action figure - that probably wouldn't sell because kids are afraid of sharks, my kids were watching Jaws the other night, scared the crap out of them. Nope, cancel the Shark guy, kids won't buy it and parents won't buy it for their kids. Next! Big kangaroo mutant? Hell yeah Kanagroo Jack was on last night, my kids love that movie. Can we give him boxing gloves? Never mind, that's too violent. Lets just give him a boomarang instead. Boomerangs don't have a long history as a violent weapon, they're like crazy frisbees. Lets go with Kangaroo man. If you can, work in some stupid Australian movie stereotypes!"


PS I love Walkabout, I just use him as an example because he's an easy target.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Ectocooler

From what I know... Animating a new character would need to be designed, then animated like any other character/thing in the show. So there really isn't much of a higher cost than animating the show in the first place.

Toys need to be individually sculpted, and then have metal molds made which I hear are extremely expensive. This is why toy companies try to reuse parts to create different toys (like Transformers being repainted into new characters, or Mattel's DC line or Hasbro's ML line which has been brought up in this thread, sharing different body parts to create new characters). Because of this they don't want to gamble. They want to put out toys they know they can sell. If the toys become pegwarmers it will hurt future retail orders of the toys and possibly kill the toy line altogether.

So when Playmates is choosing what figures do or don't get made, just imagine a bunch of people who have no emotional connection to the property but rather a financial one, all in a room saying stupid sh*t like: "Big Shark guy action figure - that probably wouldn't sell because kids are afraid of sharks, my kids were watching Jaws the other night, scared the crap out of them. Nope, cancel the Shark guy, kids won't buy it and parents won't buy it for their kids. Next! Big kangaroo mutant? Hell yeah Kanagroo Jack was on last night, my kids love that movie. Can we give him boxing gloves? Never mind, that's too violent. Lets just give him a boomarang instead. Boomerangs don't have a long history as a violent weapon, they're like crazy frisbees. Lets go with Kangaroo man. If you can, work in some stupid Australian movie stereotypes!"


PS I love Walkabout, I just use him as an example because he's an easy target.

But in the 2003 new line of action figures (see http://www.ninjaturtles.com/html/toys.htm) are all based on the 2003 cartoon, the 2007 movie or the Mirage comics.

[BigApple3AM]

Yeah but there are obvious examples of them canceling toys or not making all show characters. And there are even some examples of characters not in the show (Alien Hunters) though these days they try to tie toys in with any media because it's the best advertisement for the toys. A lot of the turtle variants are put in the show after the toy has released. Thanks to computer animation the turn around for the episodes is pretty fast and 4kids and Playmates are simply more in tune with each other, moreso than Wolf and Playmates ever were.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

I was only interested in the original characters I knew from 1987 cartoon, Archie or the movies, and no unknown stuff like the TMNT being rock music stars (even if the "Coming out of their Shells" tour existed), Mutant Military, cavemen, dinosaurs or whatever (I recall some, other I have read here). Did anyone have these theme figures? Did you ever play with them?

[Drtooth]

You know what I wish for? Some decent Plush. Other than the giant cuddle pillows, I have yet to see anything of respectable quality.

[GK Punk]

I still wish they would have made a figure of Angel in the 2k3 toyline.

[Canadian Turtle]

What about the "other" mutants Shredder was making in the early first season out of the other thugs. There was one shot I remember of them in another room. I always thought they should have made more mutant characters in the show out of them.