Action-Figure.com has some coverage of the Preview Night at the San Diego Comic Con. There isn't much that we haven't seen before, but there is one display that is super-sweet. NECA unveiled its Fall 2008 TMNT line, showcasing not only a painted proto of the Foot Ninja, but also Foot Elite and the Shredder himself! They all look like they're straight from the Mirage comics, and the Shredder is the star of the assortment. There's also an Utrom, which is kind of weird because Utroms had absolutely nothing to do with the Shredder or the Foot. Hopefully this means we'll be getting an Utrom exo-suit as well!

Labels: Conventions, TMNT

The 5th Turtle again comes through with a look at the NECA Foot Ninja prototype. The sculpt looks okay I guess, but the figure features plenty of great articulation, like double-jointed knees and elbows, and toe joints. I can't wait to see if they do a Shredder!

Labels: TMNT

Newsarama.com posted an interview with Peter Laird, the head Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles honcho. Peter talks of the future of the Ninja Turtles franchise, and mentions the next season of the Turtles cartoon:

I always felt that while Fast Forward was a viable experiment, it wasn't exactly the direction in which I preferred to go. My preference would be to get back to the continuity and spirit we had established in the first five or six seasons of the 4Kids TMNT show, and ... the thing to do would be to keep the "Fast Forward" adventures in the show's continuity, but bring the Turtles back to the present... and back to the sewers.

He also says that a sequel to the recent CGI TMNT movie is still being discussed, with one significant change:

One of the things which seems to appeal to everyone is this idea of doing what people are calling a "hybrid" movie -- one where most of it will be live-action, but the Turtles would be very realistically rendered CGI characters.

Also, be sure to check out his blog, which features this awesome unused TMNT packaging art drawn by Peter himself!

Labels: Comic Book Movies, TMNT

NECA announced its exclusive for San Diego Comic Con: a TMNT mouser 3-pack! The mousers come with a stand and nifty San Diego manhole cover. It's a cool-looking exclusive, and I wish it was more widely available as I think they would sell like hotcakes.

Labels: Conventions, TMNT

NinjaTurtles.com revealed the new look for Leo, Casey, and April for next season's TMNT cartoon, "TMNT: Back to the Sewer". The style is more simplified and angular, and kind of reminds me of Kim Possible. I think the proportions work well and if the style isn't perfect, at least it looks better than Fast Forward. Here's hoping Playmates will churn out some decent figures!

Labels: TMNT

I finally put up a review of the first wave of TMNT figures from NECA! Do they live up to my hype? Judge for yourself!

Labels: TMNT, Updates

Just as a heads-up, I received my set of four Ninja Turtle figures from Big Bad Toy Store yesterday, so if you preordered these figures, you should be getting them soon! I'll have a full review of the figures up by this weekend, but here's a spoiler: they're by far the best Ninja Turtle figures ever created, and may very well be the coolest toys I've ever purchased. Hopefully that doesn't give too much away! ;) Stay tuned!

Labels: TMNT

4kids.tv is running a poll to determine which song should be used as the opening theme in the new TMNT cartoon this September. If you listen to the songs (particularly #2), you can glean some information regarding the new cartoon's storyline. Apparently, the new cartoon will have a cyberspace storyline (which will be great fodder for video games, I'm sure). Anyway, the songs are of varying quality. I voted for #4 because it was funky, weird, and cybernetic-sounding. But according to NinjaTurtles.com, #3 is winning, which is kind of understandable since it's the most Hannah Montana-esque. We have to live with this decision for the next year, so be sure to vote!

Labels: TMNT

TMNT
Figures.com has some great photos of upcoming toys from Toy Fare 2008. To start, we have this April O'Neil figure from the super-awesome NECA TMNT Classic line. It's an okay figure but a tad too much like a super-model to be the classic April. The figure comes with mousers, which also look okay, but need to have much more elongated heads. Overall, it could have been worse and the set looks good enough to pick up. But it just underscores the difficulties with capturing the classic TMNT style.

STAR TREK
The Original Star Trek line from Diamond Select Toys has some pretty sweet figures. Not only is there an interesting Kirk vs. Spock set from Amok Time, but also Kirk and Spock from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I'm not a big fan of ST:TMP, but the costumes are distinctive and kind of fun.

There's also this Borg Wave featuring Seven, the Borg Queen, and what I assume is a random drone. They're good figures, but the Borg are more over-exposed than Jedi, so I'm not too excited about this wave.

CULT CLASSICS
And finally, also from NECA are some some great Cult Classics figures. Of note are Stuntman Mike, Machete, and an incredibly awesome Beetlejuice!

Labels: Conventions, Star Trek, TMNT

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to update with this news this weekend, but if you missed it, be sure to check out the images of the packaging of the upcoming NECA TMNT figures over at NinjaTurtles.com. It looks sweet and certainly captures the awesomeness of the Ninja Turtles with authentic art from the first few Mirage comics (the card front art is taken from page 9 of issue 1, the back from page 18 of the same issue, and the side from page 22 of issue 2). It's great that they're staying true to the style of the first few issues because by issue 9 the Turtles had a totally different style, and the art never returned to the coolness of those first 8. Check out the packaging at NinjaTurtles.com!

Labels: TMNT

Big Bad Toy Store finally revealed all four of the NECA Turtles. It looks like they all have the same base body sculpt, with different head sculpts and different facial expressions. It looks like there's plenty of articulation and the accessories are pretty nice. We finally get some decent nunchucks for Mike! It looks like they're going fast... Raph is already sold out! Check them out over at Big Bad Toy Store!

Update 1/23/2008: The 5th Turtle has a shot of the black and white version of Leonardo. Sweet!

Labels: TMNT

If you're curious as to what the previously mentioned classic TMNT merchandise entails, NinjaTurtles.com announced that Hot Topic has much of that merchandise in its online store. But don't get too excited thinking that the NECA figures are there. It's all clothing-related: t-shirts, wristbands, jackets, etc.

There's also a Raphael Beanie, I guess so that you can rob banks dressed as your favorite Ninja Turtle. Check out the entire line here.

Labels: TMNT

The 5th Turtle released a shot of the new Mirage-style Leonardo figure from NECA! The sculpt does a great job of mimicking the classic style of the Turtles from the first few issues of the comics. And judging from the pic, it looks like the figure might have as much as 15 points of articulation. Ninja Turtles figures with great sculpts and articulation? That's certainly a first. Check out the pic at The 5th Turtle!

Update 12/4/2007: The 5th Turtle has updated with some more information regarding this line:

Each NECA turtle will have the same body but unique faces/heads. Why no secondary characters included in NECA's first wave release? Here's what NECA had to say: "In an effort to introduce the line early in the year and to be able to ship before Chinese New Year we are going to offer the classic 4 turtles first. We will then refresh the line in Spring with variations on the turtles along with new secondary characters."

There are also shots of two of the bases, which have been grayscaled in order to calm down their cartoonish nature. And most importantly, they posted a shot of the Mikey head sculpt! Sweet! Check it out over at 5th Turtle!

Labels: TMNT

The 5th Turtle has posted a "first sculpt submission" by NECA for the upcoming Mirage Comics inspired TMNT line. It looks fantastic... it's totally in step with the Eastman/Laird style of Ninja Turtles. I'd argue that this prototype looks better than even the Playmates cold cast statues. Check it out!

Labels: TMNT

Since pretty much every property has some sort of a mini-line (Star Wars Galactic Heroes, Marvel Superhero Squad, etc), Playmates has decided to get into the game with its Mini-Mutants TMNT line, which will debut in Spring 2008. The figures are TMNT-movie styled, and feature articulation, vehicles and playsets. Check out some images over at Toy News International!

Labels: TMNT

The Official Ninja Turtles website posted some interesting information from the Licensing Show in New York. Here are some of the more interesting tidbits:

TMNT movie sequel: Mirage and its partners (Imagi, Warner Brothers and the Weinstein Group) are still discussing the possibility of a sequel for the CG film. Hopefully a decision will be made by the end of summer.

Playmates Toys: movie-themed toys will continue to be released until mid 2008. No decisions have been made yet regarding what will be released for the second half of '08.

A retro-licensing program will kick into high gear in 2008 with merchandise based on the 1980s TMNT cartoon series. Lots of adult-sized gear will be available!

I'm hoping for a movie sequel, as this year's movie was pretty much everything I wanted in a Ninja Turtles movie. Also, it's good to see more movie toys will be on the way! We've seen the next wave of Turtle figures that will be available this Fall. Does the mid-2008 deadline mean that we'll see new movie toys until then? We'll see!

Also, I'm eager to see what vintage Turtles merchandise is in the works!

Labels: TMNT