With Toy Fair only a little more than a week away, you can expect to see some companies leaking out a few morsels early to build anticipation for the big reveals in NY. This is just one of those early showings.
When I was a kid I was huge into Ninja Turtles. Until I eventually gave up on the line I had every single figure (except for Baxter Stockman, that damn fly-man was my white whale), and it started by my saying I wanted just one. I only wanted one Turtle, that would be it. It, of course, did not end with that one Turtle.
Which is why I’m looking at this early look at Playmates’ upcoming line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures with both joy and trepidation. They’re fantastic looking, but I’m a bit like a recovering addict.
What makes it worse is that Playmates is introducing two different lines – one based on the new Nickelodeon cartoon set to air in the Fall, the other being a super-articulated love letter to the cartoon of the 80s.
The look of the new Nickelodeon series take a lot of design cues from the recent IDW comic, and as such so do the toys. The figures vary in height from 4.25″ to 4.75″, showing a lack of shared bodies that’s a true rarity among TMNT lines. Â In fact, there’s very little part-reuse at all that I can see.
Since there’s a new Turtles cartoon/toy line, there’s also going to be a new version of their signature armored vehicle, this time called the “Shellraiser.” Because, you know, you can’t have Ninja Turtles without using the word “shell” to replace words that you can’t say on a cartoon.
Oh, and there’s also going to be this amazing Sewer Lair Playset. Look close and you can see a bunch of other figures in the picture.
For more toys (mostly the ones you won’t care about), you can head over to MTV Geek.
As for the classic line, the pull of nostalgia is really, really strong. And these 6″ toys with their 30 points of articulation look really, really good.
(By the way, that one Turtle from when I was a kid was Raph. My budget is doomed.)
