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New TMNT Elite Series Figures From Playmates Toys


JayC

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Looks like Playmates Toys is throwing it's hat back into the collector area for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with these new Elite Series 6" figures. The figures are based on their original Mirage looks and are said to have 34 Points of articulation. These are being offered through Diamond Distributor which means they will be available at most major comic and specialty shops.

This isn't the first time Playmates has made collector oriented TMNT Turtle figures, and while they might not be praised as much as the NECA stuff, they will likely be much easier to get. The real question in my mind is whether or not Playmates will do more than just the turtles with these. Time will tell I guess. These figures are available for pre-order now at our sponsor BigBadToyStore.com.

Am I the only one who see the irony of the "Collector Specific" company doing figures for the big box retailers like Walmart and Target while the company known for making their products for kids is releasing their figures through the collector and specially market retailers? Shouldn't it really be the other way around???

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Your commentary/ Question is spot on Jay, It's a weird switch around . Like I see the need to grow for some of these companies but i wonder how much of it actually serves as good business, especially when in the case of some of those companies the product ends up staying on shelves and being heavily discounted. Perhaps it's alot of pre-purchased items by Big box companies, in which case those toy companies may win best but the collectors and fan channels  are kind of shafted on multiple levels, unless those discounted items are ones you actually want lol

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1 hour ago, JayC said:

The real question in my mind is whether or not Playmates will do more than just the turtles with these. 

I tend to doubt it. Playmates has shown themselves to be perfectly alright with Super 7 and Neca dividing the Adult Collector market between them. These, I see as just a quick and easy way to pick up some extra revenue during the lean time between the death of "Rise" and the official launch of the next evolution of TMNT (whatever that will be).

As for finding Neca's stuff, I found it down here, so I gotta believe they aren't that hard to track down.

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Wow.  Yeah, I'm holding one of the Classic Collection figures in my hand RIGHT NOW, and . . . yep.  100% identical toys.  The only thing that's different is the belts.  And THE WEAPONS AREN'T EVEN PAINTED.
<P>
Now, I WILL say that these ARE . . . eh, accurate ENOUGH to the original comics.  Because Eastman and Laird's art did evolve over the first three years before the cartoon released, the Turtles absolutely looked more like their cartoon counterparts than their original designs.  These aren't first appearance design, but they DO look like the comics.  More or less.
<P>
. . . But that's friggin' meaningless, because you could literally buy a complete set of the decent bootlegs of those CC figures for the PRICE OF ONE OF THESE, and just repaint them and change the belts, and you'd have basically the SAME EXACT FIGURES.  I mean, hell, you could probably do a BETTER job, because you can paint the weapons, fix the headbands to be longer, give them more comic-accurate "no knot, small metal clasps" belts, and paint black lines on them for that comic art feel!  For roughly $30!!
<P>
. . . Or, you know, JUST BUY THE NECA BOOTLEGS!! *LOL*

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Oh boy really playmates, these ain't it... these are just really boring repaints of the Classic series, but honestly make no sense....because the turtles in the original comics didn't look like this with the Toon/figure look, these are just bad to me (maybe worse then the Classic collection 1990 Movie figures which were so stupid) they are all the same figure except for a different head and weapon accessories, count me out, I already got the Original Comic Playmates figures from 2014 which look awesome to me and correct

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11 hours ago, Lord_Scareglow said:

Oh boy really playmates, these ain't it... these are just really boring repaints of the Classic series, but honestly make no sense....because the turtles in the original comics didn't look like this with the Toon/figure look, these are just bad to me (maybe worse then the Classic collection 1990 Movie figures which were so stupid) they are all the same figure except for a different head and weapon accessories, count me out, I already got the Original Comic Playmates figures from 2014 which look awesome to me and correct

Well, to be fair, again, the turtles DID look like this in the comics . . . eventually.  The first TMNT comic was published in 1984, and the Turtles looked like those 2014 Playmates figures or the 2008 NECA masterpieces.  However, by 1987 (when the cartoon came out), the comic art had evolved to make them slimmer, more human proportioned, more muscular, taller, without the giant calves and long necks, they MIGHT have even dropped the tails by then.  In short, they looked like the cartoon models (only without the unique colors or the letters on their belts).  In fact, that's WHY the Toon Turtles look the way they look: that's basically how Eastman and Laird were drawing them, by 1987.
<P>
So . . . I mean, these ARE comic TMNT figures.  Just not ORIGINAL comic TMNT figures.
<P>
And they sure as $#!+ aren't GOOD comic TMNT figures. *LOL*

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On 7/27/2020 at 10:59 AM, Zachatello said:

So, just re-release the “collector” figures they released almost ten years ago that collectors didn’t really like but with new color schemes to match the comics? I’ll stick with the Neca bootlegs. 

Technically, these would be a re-re-release since the same tooling was used on the movie Turtles which were, last time I checked, still being offered as a premium if you mailed in so many Rise of the TMNT pizza points (or whatever they were called).

Come to think of it, THOSE are just the same movie Turtles that were briefly offered through Walmart anyway, making these a re-re-re-release . . . or something.

Oh well, they pay for the license, they gotta sell something.

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On 7/29/2020 at 5:00 AM, Batman1701 said:

Well, to be fair, again, the turtles DID look like this in the comics . . . eventually.  The first TMNT comic was published in 1984, and the Turtles looked like those 2014 Playmates figures or the 2008 NECA masterpieces.  However, by 1987 (when the cartoon came out), the comic art had evolved to make them slimmer, more human proportioned, more muscular, taller, without the giant calves and long necks, they MIGHT have even dropped the tails by then.  In short, they looked like the cartoon models (only without the unique colors or the letters on their belts).  In fact, that's WHY the Toon Turtles look the way they look: that's basically how Eastman and Laird were drawing them, by 1987.
<P>
So . . . I mean, these ARE comic TMNT figures.  Just not ORIGINAL comic TMNT figures.
<P>
And they sure as $#!+ aren't GOOD comic TMNT figures. *LOL*

yes this is true, I know they started to look a bit more how they do nowadays later in the original comics,, but that doesn't represent the classic style to me, these figures I still don't like, they are cheap re-paints and there is so much better if you want the all red bandana looks , that's just my thoughts

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On 7/30/2020 at 7:59 PM, Lord_Scareglow said:

yes this is true, I know they started to look a bit more how they do nowadays later in the original comics,, but that doesn't represent the classic style to me, these figures I still don't like, they are cheap re-paints and there is so much better if you want the all red bandana looks , that's just my thoughts

Well yeah, on THAT front, you and I totally agree! 👍 🤘

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  • 2 weeks later...

So just straight up repaints of the TMNT Classics animated figures from several years ago?  That’s a pretty lazy choice given that doesn’t really match.
 

I liked these Classics figures at the time but unfortunately even they don’t hold up compared to what has come since, but this is already off and antiquated.  
 

And I agree 100% with JayC thats it’s weird that of all things these are the ones going to collector outlets instead of toy isles while other collector stuff is stick in the big box store system.  

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