06-18-2018, 12:27 AM | #1 |
Foot Soldier
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: San Diego
Posts: 104
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Playmates Build-A-Figures
I was talking Turtles toys with a friend recently and on the subject of larger characters from the 2012 Nick show and their weak action figure representation, my friend brought up an idea : build-a-figures. Anybody else think it would have been cool to have build-a-figures of characters like Slash, Maximus Kong (Mutant Apocalypse Leo), "Mad Raph" (apocalypse episodes), Leatherhead, Sumo Kuma (Usagi episodes), Super Shredder, etc.?
I know it's too little too late for this, but thought it was an interesting idea and I think we could've got some better figures for some cool characters. Slash's figure from the 2012 line is WAY too small. Leatherhead and Super Shredder don't feel big enough either. BAFs could have been an easy answer to the problem, or is that too much of an "adult collector" concept for Playmates to utilize with TMNT? Thoughts?
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06-18-2018, 12:32 AM | #2 |
無問題
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Moesko Island, WA
Posts: 14,313
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They almost did this with their Back to the Sewer line. Cyber Splinter would have been the build-a-fig, which wasn't a "giant" figure but actually made sense based on the storyline. Alas, they canned the whole line.
I repainted my extra Slash and use him with my 3.75" figures. It's not perfect, but it looks a lot better.
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06-18-2018, 06:37 AM | #3 |
Mad Scientist
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Madison, WI
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Personally, I've always just wanted Playmates to make use of the larger Deluxe lines that they always seem to have and make some of the bigger characters that way. (They can still throw in some oversized Turtle variants if they think they need to to sell the idea to stores.)
Build a Figures are an interesting idea. And as stated, they almost did that once already. There's two challenges that I see. The first is that without waist joints, larger characters can't be broken down into small enough pieces to fit in the packaging well. And a lot of TMNT Mutants don't lend themselves to waist joints. Still, you could get around that with proper character selection. The second issue is that the Build A Figure concept isn't well suited to Playmates' style of distribution where they just have a basic figure assortment and cycle figures in and out of production. It works best with lines that ship in distinct series such as Marvel Legends. As it stands now, unless they changed their distribution Playmates will need to either constantly change up which parts are included with figures that they want to keep in production or you will have figures being released with pieces of a Build A Figure that can no longer be completed as not all of the figures/pieces are in production. This can obviously be solved if Playmates changes their distribution methods. But I hope that the don't do that. I like that Playmates keeps older figures in production. |
06-18-2018, 12:41 PM | #4 |
Mad Scientist
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 1,143
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I think this could be a neat way to introduce figures that might not sell well enough on their own. It could potentially help sell current figures if the the parts were figures from older lines that we never got or are improved upon. Or from never done TMNT iterations like IDW. It will never happen though.
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06-18-2018, 04:58 PM | #5 |
Stone Warrior
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: SW Missouri
Posts: 572
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I think this would be a great way to get myself to pick up some Playmates figures I otherwise wouldn't purchase. Playmates seems to really skimp out of accessories these days. I loved the various sidekicks and accessories we used to get with the original line, basically I'm saying I feel like they might be too cheap to do this.
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06-18-2018, 09:37 PM | #6 | |
Foot Soldier
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Quote:
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06-18-2018, 09:41 PM | #7 | ||
Foot Soldier
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Quote:
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06-19-2018, 06:56 AM | #8 | |
Mad Scientist
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Madison, WI
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Quote:
It's true that as an adult, I can both afford and at some level would like to see Playmates raise the price on their figures so that didn't have to cut corners to reduce costs. But at one time I was also a kid, and a kid that had to buy most of his toys with quite limited funds. In fact, I only bought my first TMNT figure because I didn't have enough money to buy the Transformer figure I actually wanted at the time. So I still appreciate that Playmates seems to be so dedicated to making Ninja Turtle toys affordable and targeted to kids. |
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06-19-2018, 06:49 PM | #9 | |
Foot Soldier
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: San Diego
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Quote:
Cheap isn't being fair (most of the time). Maybe they are TOO focused on keeping them affordable.
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06-21-2018, 12:42 PM | #10 |
Mad Scientist
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 1,143
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I looked it up one time. according to google they are selling TMNT at the same price point they always have. Adjusted for inflation/time of course.
https://www.dollartimes.com/inflatio...nt=4&year=1987
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I have always liked Cowa-bunga! We do not stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing When I became an adult I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up. |
06-23-2018, 03:15 PM | #11 |
Stone Warrior
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Vancouver, BC
Posts: 737
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Build a figure isn't the best idea for a TMNT line. It's a rather different model when you compare to Marvel Legends or DC Universe
It's a bit tricky considering a lot of these characters are not in a normal humanoid proportion which makes breaking down the parts difficult. We often tease that the Playmates line are for kids but for a toy line like this there isn't much reused parts even for Turtle variants and to keep price point low like below $10 we already have to sacrifice a lot of paint applications or lack of. Doing a building a figure will jack up the price which isn't ideal or end up like the Power Rangers line, no accessories for characters. Like mentioned above a deluxe pack would have worked better. I don't want them to do 2 packs like they did with 2007 unless both characters are unique in some way. |
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