Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Toy Line Discussion

This is crime you are listening to toy cast featuring

stage Megatron TFG one Mike and Radical retro

special guest from pop culture network Swain

Haleck No Sockie get me my new Hey, you guys!

This is The Mask, and you guys are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network! And you know what?

You are smoky! Cliffjumper! Commence countdown!

Five! Four! Three! Two! Listen in to the only

toy podcast you will ever need. Hello and welcome

to Toycast. This is episode 87. I am one of your

hosts, D .F. Joe and Mike, and joining me, as

you, well, I don't even remember the last time

you were on this show, Steve Megatron, also from

the Geekcast Radio Network. What, it was when

you did your Joker custom, wasn't it? Yes, episode

49 .5. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. It's been

a long time ago. And we have a special guest

from the Pop Culture Network. This is actually

the first time we've ever actually talked to

him. Swin Halleck the retro radical whatever

toy something. I don't know. What do you do?

The show is called Radical Retro Turtle Toy Talk

and it's kind of a mouthful. Yes, yes it is and

Steve pointed this out to me in our GCR and retro

1987 episode that Apparently my childhood memories

are so scatterbrained because You know, I thought

at the time, because the cartoon was out in 1987,

I thought the Turtles toys started in 87. Well,

no, they started in 88, but we at Toycast have

a certain flux capacitor planned for episode

88. So, yes, episode 87, we're going to be talking

about all about the Turtles toys, both the Playmates

versions, the NECA versions, who else had the

license swing? Oh For like major production,

I think really only the two of those but right

there's you know, possibly some Some off brand

somewhere pixel Dan has a really funny really

funny knockoff from Mexico So, but I don't know

if that counts So Why don't you introduce yourself

to the GeekCaster Radio Network? My name is Sweene

Hollock, as Mike said, and what brought me to

the dance is my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle vintage

review show, Radical Retro Turtle Toy Talk. Every

episode covers one... toy from the, usually from

the vintage playmates line, but now and then

I do a retrospective that goes, you know, will

compare and contrast the two playmates lines.

But that's, you know, what I got going over at

the pop culture network. Cool. Cool. Thanks for

having me. No problem. No problem. So we've got

several. different topics that we are going to

be getting into right after this break. Yes,

that actually very surprising here on toy cast

that theme song you just heard the original 87

cartoon theme song I found out was co -written

or co -produced by The guy that helped create

Dharma and Greg the Big Bang Theory Chuck Lorre

did work on the 87 turtle song It's actually

his voice that does all the voice like the cowabunga

dude and all that stuff That's his voice. And

I was shocked to find that out because I've loved

a lot of his TV shows that he's done. So there

you go. So as I said, we have several different

topics. I think the first one that we're going

to talk about is all of us having the turtles

figures as kids. Steve, why don't you go first?

Turtles figures. Did you have as a child in 1988?

well being Being 1988 dumbass. I was only two

years old so I Didn't actually start getting

turtles toys till I was about five and I had

everything That was out before that point up

to that particular year Like I had the sewer

I had the the blimp I had the techno drone I

had the the turtle van the So many incarnations

of the turtles themselves I had the huge Crang

I had I mean I had damn near everything at up

to a certain point unfortunately I only have

one figure left at this point and it's badly

mutilated which is the giant crane except for

the fact that I would get another one it's just

it costs like 90 bucks on eBay and I'm not willing

to spend that but I I had to keep at least that

one yeah that that was my all -time favorite

figure because I just like the fact that there

was a brain and a robot body in the stomach of

a robot body yes That figure's awesome, I kept

that. It's broken, but I kept it. But yeah, I

had damn near everything. What about you, Swin?

Where did you get started with turtles? Well,

once upon a time, drug stores were a good place

to find toys. Nowadays, Toys R Us isn't even

a good place to find toys. back in you know,

the late 80s I went into a what was it car drug

and saw um a Just pegs full of Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles figures and I'm like, oh my god,

that's so awesome And I was like mom mom you

got to let me get a couple How old was I like?

9 or 10 at this point. Um So she made me a deal

she said I could have two if I would behave for

her date that evening. And so she bought me Leonardo

and Shredder and was like, you get these when

the evening goes by and you've behaved. So I

did and I got my first turtles, Leonardo and

Shredder. And over the next couple of weeks,

I'd scrounge up what money I could and go buy

another one and another one and things just snowballed

out of control after that point. Now, what is

your current state of your collection? Like,

ballpark, how many TMNT figures do you have total?

Oh, goodness. I'd say between 100, 150. Wow.

sizeable. I mean, granted, part of that's, you

know, all the variants they threw in. Right.

You know, so it's like you kind of feel like

it might not count having, you know, 10 Donatello's,

but. But that's the beauty, though, they were,

you know, at least for the most part, completely

original sculpts. So you can say you got a unique

figure, but. Oh, yeah, exactly. Do you have a

favorite out of the ones that you got as a kid?

My favorite one I've ever had has always been

Muckman and Joe Eyeball. Muckman was basically

the mutated pile of garbage and that's just cool

enough. His sculpt is amazing, it's so nasty.

He comes with a bazooka made out of recycled

cans. Joe Eyeball's this little weird thing with...

like an eyeball on two antennae and one on his

tail and you stuff mutagen in the guy's head

and his back and it's like he's puking out mutagen

all over the place. It's just so awesome. How

do you not have fun with that when you're young?

So it's basically a TMNT figure that's kind of

like the slime pit from Masters. Yeah, he's kind

of like a mobile one. They have the Flush -O

-Matic, which was basically their answer to the

slime pit. Slime pit, yeah. But yeah, he's a

mobile slime pit. It's so awesome. The ooze comes

out of his mouth and out of his stomach. He can

even stuff in his gun. It's awesome. What about

you, Steve? Did you have a favorite as a kid,

or is the crane that you saved your favorite?

That was my ultimate favorite figure. That's

why I couldn't bear to get rid of it despite

the fact it's broken And just recently I got

rid of the Technodrome, but that's more so because

I had no place to put it Which I did have all

the pieces for but I I went through this phase

of using permanent markers to give battle damage

to things when I was younger so So every one

of my toys in a certain year had Battle damage

With with well, you know red and black markers,

so So yeah, that wasn't worth anything But yeah,

I kept the crane. That's my my ultimate favorite

figure Other than that, I mean I did like having

the the figures, but I mostly like the ones that

kind of And I these came along later, but I like

the ones where they they morphed between different

forms, whether it be Bebop and Rocksteady going

from their human form to their beast form. I

love the mutations ones. The movie ones, those

sucked, but that's because the third movie figures

sucked. The first movie ones weren't that bad.

As far as I go, I was eight years old in 88 and

I remember going to places similar to Sam's Club

or BJ's or Building Night, you know, those big

box stores would have them at discount. They

would be like three bucks per figure. And it

was just awesome. You go to another store up

north called Benny's, you went there, they were

like eight bucks a piece. It was just, it was

so awesome. I believe I had, I didn't get these

all at once, but by the time I was like nine

or 10, I had all four of the originals. I had

Splinter, I had April, I had Shredder, I had

one foot soldier, which I wish I could have gotten

more of those guys to army build them. I had

Rocksteady. I don't remember ever having Bebop.

Hmm, I don't know why I just don't remember ever

having them I remember as a kid the one thing

that frustrated me the most about the turtles

line the playmates line Was getting those freaking

weapons off the things. Oh my god the weapon

trees. Yes Those are so bad. Um, I also had a

stuck I had Baxter I had The rabbit thing it's

like a Jimbo Jimbo. That's yeah, I had metalhead

I don't remember ever having crane. I don't think

I did I Just I don't I don't remember that And

looking at a lot of these other ones, I don't

remember half of these I remember the sports

ones. I remember I wanted the sports ones because

they were so freaking cool. What was the other

one? Oh man, what was the line, Sween, where

Donnie was a detective? In a way, there's two.

It was like the first wave of non -action feature

variants. It was like turtles in disguise or

something like that. You had Don the undercover

turtle, Leo the... Sewer Samurai, Mike, the Sewer

Surfering Mike, and Raph the Astronaut, I'm forgetting

his name, Space Cadet Raph. But then several

years later, there was the undercover turtles

wave, which was all four of them, but they were

now in cloth trench coats. I had the original

Undercover Dawn. Yeah, because the later ones

were really kind of hard to come by nowadays.

But yeah, that Dawn is one of my absolute favorites.

I love that one. What I really loved in the later

waves was the open shellers. Oh God, what are

they called? The ones where the shells open.

Oh yeah and they they they store it's like I

think it's a storage. It's a storage center yeah.

Storage. Yeah. I thought those were really cool.

Because they come with so much stuff. That was

awesome. Yeah yeah. For me as a kid out of the

original line out of the original lineup of the

88 figures Donnie is always my favorite. Donnie

and Mike you're always my favorites. Leo and

Raph are good. I don't hate Leonardo and Raphael,

but I just related more to Donnie and Mikey.

It just wasn't like Leo and Raph, their relationship

and their, and even their relationship with the

rest of the, with the other two, it was just

too serious for me. I don't know. I just didn't

really care for it. But as far as the figure

go actually as far as the figures go somewhere

around my apartment I don't know where I Found

this a couple couple years ago Of course the

paints all worn on the figures. There's no accessories.

I still have My Leo and Donnie from the original

87 or the original 88 line. Yes, but I mean it's

They're both heavily played with they're missing

their belts Um, but, uh, no, I mean, you know,

kind of transitioning into the fact, you know,

the, the, the next topic and the popularity that

was in his TMNT toys. I mean, these things were

gangbusters from 88 to 93. I mean, even now,

I mean, you know, going past 93, but I think

those 88 to 93 was like the prime for the playmates

lines. And it was everywhere. It was just such

a great time to find something that wasn't Transformers

or Jojo or you know Transformers Jojo mask all

that stuff had already ended and you obviously

as a kid you had to move on and Because the cartoon

was so campy and because it was so tongue -in

-cheek That made kids want to buy these toys

Steve, thoughts on the popularity? I can definitely

see why it got as high of a popularity as it

did because there was so much diversity in the

action figure line between the films, between

different... I mean, they had the mutations,

they had the ones with the storage, they had...

Like Star Trek themed ones they had you know

I mean they were all different kinds Just from

the early on turtles before they even got to

the the the New Age stuff That it was hard to

not find something to like and that that whole

toy line, so I mean Whether they were a little

character in the show or not all their figures

were awesome and great to play with. I mean,

they may not have had a hell of a lot of articulation

on some of them, but they were still great to

look at and show accurate. Yeah. Yeah, it was

just so cool. What about you, Swain? Thoughts

on the popularity of it all? Wow, it really was

a craze. I mean, I remember from when the line

began, I was starting to get of that age where

kids start to make fun of their peers for still

playing with toys and stuff like that. But within

a couple of years, they were coming to school

with turtle shirts on and asking me about the

toys and stuff like that. There was no escaping

this craze. One thing I think that helped it

was TMNT kind of had a counter to everything.

There was a turtle version of everything else.

Not saying it's exactly the same thing, but you

had mutating turtles to come up and be like,

hey, Transformers fans, we got this. Mighty Max

fans, hey, we got the mini mutants. These little

play sets that pop open and you got the tiny

ones like the Mighty Max original Polly Pocket

play sets. There were mutating vehicles, so it's

like, hey, Mask fans, look at this. But yeah,

it was crazy. It just had an answer for everything.

I discover stuff all the time still that, wow,

they had an answer to that. Yeah, I mean, this

was a craze. Yeah. The other ones that I really

loved and the other ones I think that were some

of the more popular ones were the not only the

the shell storing ones, but the the head dropping

turtles. That was so freaking cool. Yeah. If

I if I had to go back and and try to find any

of the old playmates toys. No disrespect to the

original lineup of turtles, but I would want

all four of the head -dropping turtles. Those

were just so awesome. I mean, it was just one

of those things where, as you said, Sweeney,

it is a craze, and people took to it like gangbusters.

Where do you go wrong with an action feature

like that, too? I mean, Mikey did it in the movie.

You know and see that that was what was so great

about it. Yeah I mean that that really was what

was so great about it, and it was just it was

just an awesome awesome thing So we are gonna

take a quick break You're gonna hear some special

audio, and we'll be back after this hey guys

Raphael here the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Did you say podcast dudes do that you're listening

to a podcast on the gate cast radio network Cowabunga!

Ninja pizza? Well, what do you know? Rock, dudes!

Do you realize what this is? The crucial piece

of evidence we were looking for? The clue which

will lead us to the heart of the evil ninja empire?

Not even better! It's a place where we can get

some pizza! Right on! Okay, I'll head up there

and check it out. No, no, April. It's too dangerous.

You wouldn't last five minutes in a ninja pizza

parlor. I love saying lines like that. We better

go with you, April. That's right. Besides, we're

hungry! Yes! That's awesome. Wow. I knew you

had stuff in your range, but I didn't know Pat

Fraley was in your range. Well, it's a modified

Gollum with Yoda kind of thing. So we are back

here on Toycast, and the final two topics that

we're going to talk about is... First one is

sadly the failure of the 25th anniversary line

This is more playmates fault than anything else.

I think isn't it Swain? From what I gather Yeah

Now I still can't I still don't know for certain

why playmates jerked the plug on it, but um They're

the ones who you know they from what I understand

Playmates has the master license. NECA made theirs

kind of, you know, with permission, but the provisions

were like you can't do big box retail. Right.

So, you know, you couldn't have them at Toys

R Us. And part of that was because they were

going to do their own comic line, but they never

freaking did it. And so that's the part that's

still a mystery. I don't think I've ever heard

any confirmation why. And like we were talking

about earlier, before we started, Playmates is

like a very tight -lipped company. I've tried

emailing them myself multiple times, about 25th

anniversary line, and they just kept giving me

canned responses. So, I mean. Yeah, stuff like,

sorry, that's not in the budget right now or

sorry, that's not going to happen right now.

Maybe one day in the future, but we're not working

on that right now. Yeah. Yeah. Similar to another

toy company that gives those same. Exactly. You

know, I. Before the because the 25th anniversary

stuff now, what they did release Is pretty much

rare now, isn't it? I mean, it's not You can't

obviously it's not being sold in stores and even

on eBay the aren't the price is kind of ridiculous

on them Or are they fairly reasonable? Checked

I managed to get all mine like a day of so yeah,

I checked the second hand for those but You know,

I they only released the four turtles splinter

in April didn't there did they release shredder

as well for turtles? splinter April, Bebop, Rocksteady,

Shredder with a mini -crank, and there was supposed

to be Casey Jones, but I never got any confirmation

that he made it. The first two waves made it

to Target and Toys R Us and maybe Walmart, I

don't know. The third wave consisted of, let

me see, it was Slash, a foot soldier, shredder,

and that was supposed to be Casey Jones. But

Casey Jones never made it at all from what I

understand, but the other three, they didn't

even make it to shelves at most Toys R Us's.

They went straight to the discount stores like

Ross and TJ Maxx, those kinds of places. I managed

to grab a slash from one of those stores, the

25th Reissue, but I know people who found foot

soldiers in Shredder, but I've never known anyone

who found Casey Jones. Well, I remember when

I went to Target at the time, I saw all four

turtles, Splinter and April. I didn't see anybody

else. They had multiples of all the turtles,

they had multiples of Splinter, they had like

two Aprils. And I was gonna get them, they were

like $7 .99 each. I was gonna get them all and

I just couldn't pull the trigger to do it. Because

the funniest thing was when I was in Target,

I was actually at the time looking for Transformers

stuff. I was looking for at the time, Universe

2008 Cyclonus. And just as I'm flipping through

the Transformers thing, something green caught

my eye and I'm like, I look over like one peg

and there's like three pegs from top to bottom

of all turtles. I'm like, wait. Why are these

the vintage? Oh 25th anniversary Yeah, and it

was just so awesome. I had them all in my cart

ready to go and then I added it all up and I'm

like Yeah, even though I have the money to do

this I just can't bring myself to do it right

now and I'm kicking myself Ever since from not

just pulling the trigger and just getting them

all at that point It's as does the 2003 line

had anything done with it for toys the 2003 Like

you mean like an anniversary type thing. No,

no did the 2003 show get any toys? I don't oh,

yeah. Yeah, okay. Yeah, see that's one thing

I never I kept up with the show, but I never

really I never kept up with if they ever got

toys for that Yeah, they had a pretty healthy

toy line for those Not you know as Historically

it had some great stuff on it too though Yeah,

yeah Steve any other thoughts on 25th anniversary

or any other any other thoughts on the playmates

stuff I was gonna say I did notice that uh They

they Did have those those figures because I mean

I'd been going places and and seeing them Kind

of around so I mean that that was kind of neat

saying that I was like, holy shit Ninja Turtles

my wife's like no I'm like Because I would I

she knows I would splurge and when I get into

something again for the second time I am worse

than the first time so yeah so but I like to

see them do a little bit more with some of the

old toys or maybe revisit them and do like a

masterpiece type line I know they're not Hasbro

but yeah do something a little bit higher quality

and a little bit larger than what they did in

the past for maybe the collectors out there yeah

Now, one thing that we haven't really talked

about is the actual vehicles. I know up until

Sween actually got it for him again, I think

it was you that got it for Pixel Dan again, Dan,

a number of years ago, sold his technodrome and

it's been the bane of his existence to find one.

Oh, that actually, it wasn't, I got him a, one

of the, the mini, uh, The mini technodrome viewer

actually got him the big one. So, okay Yeah,

it's just so you know, I'm kind of someone said

on the comments for the video Wow, whoever sent

you that one must have been pretty cheap I thought

was just funny. But yeah, oh god the technodrome

that's Yeah, the the technodrome the sewer place

set The... It's called the turtle van, dammit.

I don't care what the copyright says. It is the

fucking turtle van. It's not called the party

wagon, for Christ's sake. Are you serious? They

renamed it... Didn't they, Sweeney? They renamed

it the party wagon? I'm not sure if it was always

called the party wagon or not. I've always heard

it called both, and I just never made mental

not yet... review to that one because around

the time I started R223, our friend Lance Cortez,

Ido Vandito, he did a review of the Turtle Band

party wagon, whatever you want to call it. And

so I was like, well, there's no sense in me doing

another one of those right here, right now. Yeah,

I've heard it called both all throughout the

years, so I'm not 100 % sure what the deal is.

Yeah, I had the turtle van, the blimp. I remember

the blimp, but I don't remember. The actual blimp

wasn't hard plastic, was it? It was cloth, wasn't

it? It was inflatable. It was inflatable. That's

what it was. Yeah, it never stay flated for me.

I'd love I could get it there and then I think

something at one point a Push pin or something

ended up going through it, which is kind of sad.

So you only had the actual vehicle that detached.

Yeah Of course at the same time that blump was

so massive there was like it was really a hard

piece to store Oh, yeah. Yeah, but it was still

so cool Yeah, it was so cool. I actually got

that, and this is going to kind of date it quite

a bit for me. I was in freaking kindergarten,

had my tonsils out, and that was what I got as

a gift for being bedridden. Awesome. I was quite

pleased with having that. That's what I wanted.

Cool. Yeah, so I remember having the blimp. I

remember having the pizza thrower was awesome.

Oh my god. You know, you just get a bunch of

your friends and you know, they're off playing

with other parts of your toy collection and you

sneak up behind them with that pizza thrower

and you just start throwing pizzas. It was so

freaking awesome. One of my favorites is actually

the foot cruiser. Do you remember that one? No,

is this the one with the the drill on the end?

No, that's the module The the foot cruiser. It's

this like a black and purple convertible. It

was the first Convertible it's the neutrinos

thing. Well, actually it is the neutrinos car

On the back of the box, it explains that a crank

stole one of their cars and basically painted

it foot plan colors. And it's also funny because

they never actually released a neutrino car.

But yeah, so I'm betting there are plenty of

customs out there of neutrino cars. But yeah,

it did the same thing as the neutrino car. The

wheels folded under and it flew or you could

ride with it. It was awesome. You can fit like,

you know, five figures and it's really cool.

Yeah, I had that as well, obviously. Yeah. Oh

man, what other vehicles did they make? Cheapskate.

Cheapskate, were those the skateboards? Yep,

there was the Cheapskate and the Cheapskate 2.

Oh yeah, that's right. And didn't Rat King get

a vehicle of his own at some point? Um, I don't

think it was... I don't know that it was specifically

his. It was just a Foot Clan general vehicle,

but I seem to remember a commercial or an advertisement

with him in it. It's escaping me though. I could

be confusing it with the original Turtles in

Time game where you had to fight him in the sewer

in any of that giant vehicle thing, which...

That would have been awesome if they made a toy

out of that video game design. Yeah. That would

have been so great. Oh, man. You know, I guess

we could talk about the turtles doing other stuff,

you know, turtles crossing over with other franchises,

specifically Star Trek. I love that. Talk about

jumping the shark here. Oh, but those figures

were great. Yeah, they were great That's so funny

I Love that toy. I had the one of the the Kirk

look -alike Yeah, I thought that was cool as

hell Yeah, Leonardo was Captain Kirk Donatello.

I believe was like Spock. Yeah Raphael I think

was like McCoy or something and I think Michelangelo

is a red shirt but no Mikey was blue it's Captain

Leo first officer Don chief engineer Mikey so

Mikey was probably Scotty so he's a red shirt

no he's in the image it's blue Yes, he is red.

Sorry. I'm getting the two. Yeah, you're right

I may not have had these in a long time, but

I know I I was looking at the colors of the bandanas

dummy I wasn't looking at the colors of the shirts

because the red and the orange on on the picture

is is just too similar But no, I mean these these

were really really cool You know, and I'm sure

people that had Turtles collections as well as

Star Trek collections could cross over. Can you

imagine if they made a TMNT version of the Enterprise?

That would be awesome. The sad thing is I used

the Technodrone as my base of operations for

the Turtles once I had all the Star Trek figures

of them. So it was kind of funny. That's that's

where they were. I made the the bad guys that

fend for themselves. It was great. Well, because

playmates had the Star Trek license at the time.

So these like fit perfectly with that line of

Star Trek figures. Oh, yeah. It was really cool.

Yeah, it was. So and and then finally, we're

going to talk about Whether we think or if we

know or not is playmates still a viable company

I know I'm not sure if you said this on or off

airs we in there are supposed to be making appearance

at this year's toy fair Have Have they done anything

in a while? I mean, I know they did 25th anniversary,

but with any of their other lines Are they still

actively producing tool? Are they still actively

releasing toys? um Minimally, I can remember

all this 80s stuff and I can't remember two freaking

years ago. 2009 or 2010, whichever year it was,

Playmates had the license for the new Star Trek

and Terminator Salvation and these things absolutely

bombed. Like, you can still find, you can find

Star Trek at like the discount stores, but you

find the Terminator Salvation toys all the way

at the Dollar Tree. I mean, that's just how terribly

these tanked. And following that up, they had

like iCarly toys and Shrek and I think Michael

Jackson. Yeah, big ears or dolls or something

But nothing on turtles until now they're they're

supposed to announce something at toy fair if

I'm not mistaken and it's about damn time Yeah,

it is about damn time and maybe they're coming

back and announcing something now with all this

news about the new quote -unquote anime TMNT

cartoon coming out this year Well, there was

at San Diego Comic Con, as well as an earlier

point in the year, there were these invite -only

kind of quote -unquote, invite -only little events

where they had people working on the show and

the toys at these events. And I got me and Pixel

Dan and Lord Killen And Scotty Cash, we got to

look at the, we've seen the prototypes for the

upcoming figures, but it was a no picture, no

press, no recording, nothing thing. It was just,

if you're there, you see it and, you know, implant

it into your brain. And so, you know, I mean,

to the point where most of the internet doesn't

even believe these events took place. But I mean,

I promise they did. So, I mean, there is stuff

there. It's just that Playmates has been stringing

us along for nearly two years about this. They're

supposed to finally, finally say something official

at Toy Fair next month. I mean, you know, you

go to any retail outlet now, Walmart, Target,

Toys R Us, any major retailer. And the toy aisles

are Bakugan, DC, Marvel, Transformers, Star Wars,

G .I. Joe. Any of their lines that are listed

in the Wikipedia article, I haven't seen toys

for these in years. Darkwing Duck, they have

the license to that. Eon Kid, Family Guy. Garfield,

why do they have a license to Hilary Duff? I

have no friggin clue. Heather Grinch Stole Christmas.

Jackie Chan Adventures. Hong Kong, or not Hong

Kong, King Kong. I almost said Hong Kong, holy

crap. I'd buy those. Yeah, I'd buy that. I'd

buy that for a dollar. I don't understand. Why

do they have the license to Sequest DSV? That

show hasn't been on in years. Why do they have

a toy license for that? I know copyrights, because

I know from reporting on news like Hasbro, like

Transformers and all that stuff, I know copyrights

expire and all that, but if they're not... If

Playmates is not a company that's producing these

lines or these, why are they still, you know,

and again, the Wikipedia article might be wrong.

They might not have half the stuff. I don't know.

But I mean, it is cited on here. So. Why aren't

they producing any of this stuff? I mean, even

some of the newer stuff, like you mentioned earlier,

the iCarly stuff or, you know, what's another

newer, you know, Simpsons to why aren't, you

know, yes, Shrek. You know, I've seen Shrek toys

here and there, but I think Playmates, at least

in my opinion, outside of Turtles, they cannot

compete with Hasbro, with Disney, with, you know,

technically Mattel because the DC's in stores

still, you know, the superhero squad stuff is

still in stores. Or not, that's Marvel, the Infinite

Heroes stuff. There's not enough room in those

retail stores for Playmates to break out. One

line maybe, but I have no idea why they have

licenses to all these other lines that they don't

do anything with. I would imagine a lot of those

have expired, because I think there were Darkwing

Duck figures, but I haven't seen them since.

Yeah, Dick Tracy coppers and gangsters. I remember

those as a kid. I mean those are awesome toys

I wonder also if part of it's they took such

a beating for Star Trek and Terminator that Yeah,

they're just off licking their wounds hoping

that this TMNT relaunch this year is gonna You

know help skyrocket them back on the map or something

Yeah, let's hope I mean Because, you know, and

see that's the thing nowadays and this is staying

on topic, but it's kind of getting off topic.

It seems like every cartoon series has to have

a toy line to support it and every toy line has

to have a cartoon series to support it. I mean,

it's just a vicious two -headed monster. That's

why static shock ended. I'm a big static shock

fan while we're off topic. I heard that's why

that ended when it did was they couldn't, the

TV company was like, get us a toy deal and we'll

keep making it. No toy company would take them

on without the show continuing something like

that. I don't work there, what do I know? But

something to that effect. I always thought that

was such a shame. Yeah, oh my god, I'm remembering

horrible horrible food tie -ins. Oh Timothy theme

marshmallows Hostess ninja turtles pudding pot.

Oh my god. I would slap an old lady for one of

those Those were so good, what would you slap

her with? All right, Hostess Ninja Turtle Pudding

Pies featuring a green sugar crust and vanilla

pudding inside and Royal Ooze gelatin desserts.

Oh my God. Well, since we're on the food topic,

anybody remember the Ninja Turtles breakfast

cereal? Yes. The green checks. Yes. Yep. Didn't

have marshmallows in it? Yes, it did. I used

to eat the hell out of that stuff. Oh, yeah.

That's the other thing as far as TMNT the craze

and the popularity of it's not just the popular

of the toys It's the overall popularity of the

brand where there was TMNT lunchboxes backpacks

Anything that you could market in you know the

late 80s to the mid to late 90s TMNT did it.

I mean they they marketed everything I remember

At the time, I think it was 1990, my dad had

moved here to Kentucky. I was still living in

Massachusetts with my mom. And he was supposed

to fly up to Massachusetts to visit me. There

was something that he couldn't come and visit

me. And he sent along. Hey, it was so awesome.

I wish I still had it today. I don't even think

my mom still has it. It's very sad. sent along

a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 87 -style cartoon

beach towel. This thing was humongous. The note

on it was, don't get pizza on it, dude. That's

awesome. Yeah, it was such a great, great thing.

And TMNT, I wish today they would Do something

with the line. I know they're gonna be doing

something eventually maybe because of the new

cartoon series I'm hoping that a new TMNT line

Will well they were great the vintage vintage

toys and the vintage Styling and the vintage

bucks were great. I'm hoping they kind of go

like in a you know today's toy line Are you know

today's standards of toy making with our take

in actual articulation? Not just legs that have

one pose and one foot up this way and the other

foot down that way I'm hoping that you know,

maybe we would get something similar to the articulation

that Masters classics has I Doubt it sadly well

there have been rumors of a classics line Somebody

I think the first person remember the event I

was telling you about that are you know these

exclusive? Right yeah some one of the earlier

ones of those somebody reported a classics being

Unveiled there, but the one I was that they did

all they had were the ones for the upcoming one

So I mean the rumors still there, but take that

as you will As long as it's not an online toy

line. I'm happy Oh, if you have to subscribe

to this, I'll just go, nah. No, let's not even

go there. All right, so we are going to take

a quick break and we'll be back after this. Hey,

come on! I'm starving, guys! Don't you guys think

about anything but pizza? Not unless we have

to. Welcome to Ninja Pizza, home of the nice

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code KEYCASTRADIO when you register. What it

is, friends. Sweeneholic here, inviting you to

join me every Monday for Radical Retro Turtle

Toy Talk. What's that, you ask? Radical Retro

Turtle Toy Talk is my weekly video series in

which we take a look at my favorite toy line

of yesteryear, Vintage Plant Mates Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles. If you're a green team -goer,

I'm betting you'll have a great time getting

reacquainted with old friends, or meeting new

ones for the first time. That's Radical Retro

Turtle Toys Hawk at www .radicalretro .com, part

of the Pop Culture Network. Powers of Grayskull

series will cover every episode of every MOTU

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stuff. Join Optimus Solo and TFU and Mike as

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Good journey! Is this thing on? Oh goody! Why

hello there! It's your dear old Uncle Joker here.

I bet you're asking yourself, what could I be

possibly doing here of all places? Well, I'm

laughing at the fact that this new podcast presented

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Ugh! Join Steve, Mike, and sometimes Taylor for

reviews on the greatest DC animated universe,

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So put on a nice big smile and join us for the

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Then tune in to Telecast, GeekCastRadio .com's

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as Clarissa Explains It All, Salute Your Shorts,

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on GeekCastRadio .com. We are back here on toy

cast Steve final thoughts on the original turtles

toy lines I'd have to say that that's one of

the few Toy lines of my childhood where I loved

every figure. I had no matter how ugly the character

It just everything about it was great Yeah, it

was what about you swing It's, as you probably

can tell, it's my favorite toy line. There are

none that I hold dearer to my heart, nostalgically

or any way you want to look at it. I love TMNT

and all its forms. Even the worst of it, I find

good parts about it. That first toy line is just

always going to be my favorite. great times collecting

it, great times chasing down the figures you

were always looking for. Now, all these years

later, I have fun filming them and talking like

a dumbass into a microphone and videotaping myself

playing around with them. For me, it was where

I first got my toy hunting bug at the time as

a kid. 88, 89, 90, because I actively sought,

you know, every time my mom would go into what,

it didn't matter what store it was, it could

have been a, you know, Rite Aid, it could have

been a drug store, it could have been, I think

I found a Yosaki Yajimbo at a True Value hardware

store one time. Yes. I think I'm remembering

that correctly. I would find a lot of them in

CVS's and stuff like that. It's just, back then,

more so than now, but back then, toys were everywhere.

It wasn't just Toys R Us. In my case, in Massachusetts,

we had a place called Child World. Child World

and Toys R Us were the two big box stores, but

you could find Turtles toys anywhere. any store,

and it was just so great. Whereas now you have

Walmart, Target, Toys R Us, and you have all

the online stuff that you can look at, but some

of it will end up going to places like Big Lots,

and like you said, TJ Maxx, and all that stuff,

and it's just weird. It's weird what kind of

toys show up in drug stores to me. Because they'll

have Batman toys and rite aids. I'm like really

and They're so I you know you want to you know

Scalpers are the worst people in the world, but

you want to talk about somebody who's overpricing

toys drug stores are overpricing toys. Oh, yeah,

I saw Someone wanted 12 bucks for a pursuit of

Cobra figure not not pursuit of Cobra rise of

Cobra figure That's nuts. That's just nuts. So

Sween, where can we find Radical Retro Turtle

Toy Talk? I'm over at the Pop Culture Network,

www .popculturenetwork .com. It's where you can

find Radical Retro Turtle Toy Talk. You can find

other stuff like, you know, a lot of people here

I'm sure know Pixel Dan, does a lot of his stuff

over there like Power and Honor. It figures and

Scotty cash and you Mike you guys do the from

the command center podcast You can find that

over there, too Yeah, and there's It's it's just

a great place to come hang out and chew the breeze

and talk everything geek. It's a great place

Yep Thank you for joining us here on Toycast.

There are still ways to get in contact with us

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-5821. We hope you enjoyed this episode of ToyCast

and wish you'll join us next time when we will

be sending you back to the future. For now, I

am TFG1Mike with Steve Megatron Phillips. Hi,

I'm Sreenholic. You're supposed to say bye. Bye,

I'm Sreenholic. Thank you for listening. Until

next time. Wow, I should have been prepared for

that. Holy crap.