Today Playmates held a special event to celebrate the launch of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Toyark staff was invited to attend, and we have over 100 photos from the event. There they showed off their new action figures, play sets, vehicles, licensed merchandise and more. They had a few guest speakers from the show as well. The main cast of characters are:
- Leonardo “The Trickster”
- Donatello “The Tech Wiz”
- Michelangelo “The Wild Card”
- Raphael “The Muscles”
- Splinter “The Chill Master”
- Baron Draxum “The Maker of Mutants”
- Origami Ninja “The Confetti Commandos”
- April “The Street-Smart Best Friend”
- Meat Sweats “The Tenderizer”
Other items on display include:
- Turtle Tank
- Shell Hog w/ Leonardo
- Shell Hog w/ Michelangelo
- Epic Sewer Lair
- Costumes
- Bedding
- DVD’s
- Books
Many of the items on display had previously been seen or announced. Playmates is re-launching the entire brand around the new show and toys. So this event served as the official reveal of the new shipping box branding from Amazon, licensed home items, books, DVD’s, etc. Click the headline of the story for all of the photos.
Playmates Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Event Photos
The only good thing I see is the lair, everything else sucks!!!
Looks like a dumpsterfire, though that playset with a new coat of paint to hide the mandatory "kiddy" pastel colors would serve any 3.75~6" scale display.
This show probably should have been titled “Fall of the TMNT” because the only thing rising is a lot of anger and disagreements. There’s a divide that has begun amongst fans, and it’s because of this show. Reminds me of how the Star Wars fanbase has divided itself.
Unlike the Bay films (which most TMNT fans seemed to hate) there are people that love this new take and also fans who absolutely hate it!
I get that Nick is trying to diversify the show, and bring in a younger audience, but we really do need something for everyone. This also came hot off the heels of the last show, so it comes off a bit rushed in my opinion. I think if Nickelodeon announces an animated movie or Netflix animated for a mature audience, fans will back off complaining. Until then, I think this show has a hard road ahead.
Like the lair.... just needs some customizing. Figures look fine. Not my style, but would buy for my kids in a heartbeat if they like the cartoon.
Isn't having a trickster & a wild card redundant?
I saw the first ten, fifteen maybe? minutes of the first episode. I couldn't stand any more. This show is not for me.
toys look okay and show accurate. not gonna buy any.
That lair and the sub lair that was shown at sdcc are the only things I'd even remotely consider getting
Loki is a trickster. Nick Fury is a trickster. Dumbledore was a trickster.
Carnage is a wildcard. John McClane is a wildcard. Deadpool is a wildcard.
So they are saying Leonardo manipulates people or situations often thru omission or deception to his favor.
Michaelangelo is chaotic and unpredictable.
Carnage is a very known quantity since he's almost always a psychotic murderer.
Trickster often appear as wild cards to the enemy by confusing them. If your own team thinks you're a wild card, it means you're unreliable or a traitor.
Wtf? Seriously these new turtles remind me of when a bunch of clueless writers who know nothing about the characters, start throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks, these are just terrible imho.
I predict a quick failure on this toyline. Lets face it, older fans don't like it and at some degree, parents that buy stuff for their children kind of have to like what they are buying for their kids, and they don't like them either...
Trickster often appear as wild cards to the enemy by confusing them. If your own team thinks you're a wild card, it means you're unreliable or a traitor.
Unfortunately, Carnage is so piss-poorly written now by Marvel that he’s just a joke of a character. Possibly the worse character in Marvel.
my nephew will dig all these new toys. toys are made for the kids those who complain let me take you to tijuana to hong kong and show you a good time.
"The Chill Master"
toys look okay and show accurate. not gonna buy any.
They're not even show accurate as Playmates can't sculpt elongated characters to save their life.
yeah, I'm not buying any of it either, I don't want to support this terrible show.
I like the playset and might buy it.
I have zero interest in the rest.
I watched about 10 minutes of the 1st episode and wasn't able to sit through it further. I skipped through it to see if any of it catches my interest but no...
This incarnation isn't for me at all. Design and story -_-
At least with the Bay Movie Turtles I dislike the designs but like the movies.
Back to the 80s, 2003 series for me.
The 2012 is very interesting I still have that to catch up with and look forward to at least.
The show has the first episode up on Youtube officially as a preview.
It's definitely different. Like FLCL and Transformers Animated did the dragonball Z fusion dance while holding TMNT toys.
Has some potential, but definitely needs room to grow to see what it can become.
TBH, something high energy, comedic, and vibrant feels kind of refreshing for now instead of a constant retread of what the past 3 series were. And I gotta admit Mikey's new Jack O'Lantern ball and chain was actually a fun highlight as well as Leo's portal swords. And I really dig the aspect that this plays them up more as overgrown kids and not the TMNT that they'll become later over the course of the series. It really does feel like 10-13 year old's power fantasy, which is what it should be for a fresh take to do something different. And it's nice to see a series to let the creative teams go as far to the edge as they can in randomness to get that out of their system after the rigidity of of what the cg one was, and it's nice to see them do something completely off the wall and different instead of a complete retread of 80s, 2k3, and the cg one. TBH, even orignal TMNT started getting a bit off the wall random near the end of the 80s run. The toys even did Ronin Warriors style anime armor and a brief buffed up super heroes line too. And it's not like parody costumes are anything new to the line either, so it's nice to see them try something completely different to get it out of their systems before having to do the same stuff over and over and over again until beyond stale.
Splinter definitely will take some getting used to though, but you can really feel his "worn out by having to raise four sons" aspect in this. So he feels much more like an actual father as opposed to their sensei.
horrible, zero interest. i think the character designer said: lets do a totally opposite turtle then what we are used to, he even changed 2 of the bandanas on the turtles making them a skully bandana, that looks bad. even the shells on the backs are all different, smh...you cant re-invent the wheel folks...
Then with the first episode, entire areas threw massive fits about the comedic eye usages and sight gags. But the show became a success anyway. To the point it's called one of the best now. But if you followed how many areas talked about it when it first started, you wouldn't know that. There are many that even skipped the series entirely from how badly "fan areas" trashed it. Yet it still was a pretty big success.
Now you get to this, and it's like Nickelodeon is straight up side eyeing those haters of CG TMNT and saying "well if you hated CG TMNT, you're really going to hate this." It's back to 2D animation, 2 toes, but then amped up to absurd in other ways. They explain the new weapons in a pretty succinct early way to say "new tmnt is new everything" pretty blatantly by how they get rid of the old. New April is pretty awesome too. I actually kind of want to see a relatively serious take on her character concept for a spin-off medium of some kind. That could be interesting. They actually should maybe look into casting her for some kind of live action special or for commercial bumps like what G2 did with Prime and that kid in live action.
They'll still be doing the random TMNT shorts too. So it's not like wide content won't still be coming. If anything, all this does is fuel even wider amounts of the short toons and yields a way to have them done as toys too.
Also with this, it seems they upped articulation too. The toys look like everything that fans have been asking for in the toys, but is using new toon designs. Though I have to admit, if they do Usagi in this style, I'm buying it in a heartbeat. Same probably for Metalhead or if they do MechaDon or do some other random Robocop or other wilder anime robot or pop culture robot stuff using the turtles. For some reason, I could easily see them doing a GizmoDuck parody episode where all the turtles end up wearing the armor at one point because of whatever the password on it is. And I gotta admit, I'd buy a toy of that in a heartbeat too.
And I do have to admit if they make a lights and sound Mikey Jack O' Lantern role play toy, I might buy that too.
This has been in the works since around when those aired. So not really rushed. The CG one had ran its course and was only staying on because of how strong the ratings had been and to do some last fan wants like Usagi. So I don't think giving fans 'alternative' media is going to placate them at all. They already got everything they could ask for, and now it's time to try something new and different. The concept behind this one is to go farther back too. To before they were called the TMNT, before Shredder, before all of that, so it has more room to grow and last longer. That was part of the problem to the CG one, it jumped so fast into Shredder stuff, there really wasn't much to do and repeating the same storyline was getting stale.
TBH, the only thing I would have liked to have seen from CG TMNT, would have been a few more Karai and Shinigami episodes, and maybe one more future episode for them to do a full Karai as Shredder in the future story and how Shinigami would have looked as a future version. And okay, maybe I'm also a little partial to the mermaid story they could have still done too.
But it's time to hit F5 on the franchise definitely. See what the new brings in. And if this shapes up to be pretty fun with some material they can do, and what else may come as the show slow burns to things like Shredder and whatever the new Karai ends up being like, and how they may adapt Shinigami to that too, I'm kind of looking forward to seasons 2, 3, 4, and on. A figure of Usagi in this style would rock. The potential for parody episodes. Don's more full techno nerd gives even more chances for fun absurdities and cool toys. I think this show could really do some amazing big things as it progresses. Karai we'll likely see towards the end of season 2, maybe in season 3 and I look forward to seeing how she's adapted to this style and how they'll embelish her elements of "Rebelious shredder daughter." But it's definitely going to be a slow burn. Season 1 with no Shredder, Season 2 starting to hint at him with maybe the foot having more appearances. Season 3 likely starting to build to that reveal. Then the contrast dynamics of Splinter and his sons to Shredder and his Rebellious daughter.
From the feel of the story they are going for, lack of the forming of the name as yet, this feels like they are aiming for a 10 season type show, or at least 5-8.
Like how TF animated was so wildly different, to then growing into becoming Transformers of yesteryear. Which if it had kept going, would have led to Devastator, and much more too. This show is a deconstruction and rebuilding in the same way, but has stronger Nickelodeon support behind it than CN did for TFA. So in this case, it'll likely reach that full story path it was intended for on reconstructing the classic into something new, and building them towards a new future with a complete wild ride along the way.
Think of it like Harry Potter. This is book 1. Sorceror's stone(cause they get magic weapons, a magic compass etc). The really good stuff we're familiar with isn't until book 5, and the last book will get stretched to 3 seasons.
We're already seeing hints of adventures to be told in flashback too from Splinter's "Do Not Touch" shelf. So we may even see why splinter is as tired and worn down as he is in this too over time.
If you ask me the show is not half bad and the figures are pretty awesome especially for the kids. I doubt either will fail. No matter how big an adult or collector fan base may seem for most things especially children’s cartoons, adult collectors will always be vastly outnumbered by the target demographic, kids.
We are just the vocal minority. Any kid would love to have their hands on those toys and just you wait, I don’t have a doubt in my mind that collectors will soon come around to enjoying this show and the toyline especially once it gets going for a few episodes.
We are just the vocal minority. Any kid would love to have their hands on those toys and just you wait, I don’t have a doubt in my mind that collectors will soon come around to enjoying this show and the toyline especially once it gets going for a few episodes.
Lol I totally agree with you. I was at Target the other day and saw a 7 to 9yr old kid complaining that the toys available were “from the old show”. Yup! A child! Looking at toys! What a concept. The dad just told him they’d check back later.
I remember similar vitriol with Transformers Animated and Teen Titans Go! Seems tv cartoon executives don’t have any clue what their true audience, middle aged men, really want.
Back on topic... Any hint on prices? The lair play set is tempting, but not sure I wanna spend $100+ for a major rework.
I’ve liked the looks of just about every iteration of the turtles.. but these... I don’t know what it is about them, but they look terrible.
Good Points: The articulation is improved over any of the previous Playmates versions. They look fun and wild as usual.
Bad Points: Watched the first episode on Nick's Youtube and it was not for me at all. Seems like the old Ren & Stimpy animation, and not in the fun nostalgic way...
Best Point: I won't be spending money on toys or DVDs for this series!
For those who dig it, good on ya, enjoy! (I have a weakness for Donatello, so I bet I cave on at least one version of him)
Keep reading: Rise of the TMNT Event - Page 2
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