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TMNT Minimates - it's official!


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Sorry but if you have the choice between the 80s TMNT designs which were the most popular iteration of the TMNT or the IDW designs which are least known TMNT designs, you go with the 80s designs every time. 

I'd buy some of the IDW stuff mind you, but it's appeal is a million times more limited than the Fred Wolf stuff.

I'd say a big section of people who go into comic shops don't know there's even a current TMNT comic. There's probably still a portion who still have no idea TMNT was EVER a comic. I've met tons of TMNT fans over the years... The number who even knew it was ever a comic is staggering.

Just because the IDW stuff is "current" doesn't mean it's the right play for DST or anyone. 

And just for icing on the cake... The highest selling TMNT comics of all time were... Not IDW, not Mirage, but the ARCHIE TMNT comics which feature the exact same Fred Wolf designs. 

This is one of those instances where being isolated to just the hardcore people on this forum and others, clouds sound business sense. 

Even if DST had rights to IDW, by no means should they ever choose those designs over the Fred Wolf stuff. Mind you, if we can have both, hell yea. Or pepper a few in during later waves, but if it's one or the other it'd be like choosing between making figures of Star Wars or StarCom. No one's choosing StarCom if they're looking to make money.

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I was trying to think of an appropriate Marvel comparison all afternoon but there's no point now because that one's perfect.

41 minutes ago, SCW said:

Sorry but if you have the choice between the 80s TMNT designs which were the most popular iteration of the TMNT or the IDW designs which are least known TMNT designs, you go with the 80s designs every time. 

I'd buy some of the IDW stuff mind you, but it's appeal is a million times more limited than the Fred Wolf stuff.

I'd say a big section of people who go into comic shops don't know there's even a current TMNT comic. There's probably still a portion who still have no idea TMNT was EVER a comic. I've met tons of TMNT fans over the years... The number who even knew it was ever a comic is staggering.

Just because the IDW stuff is "current" doesn't mean it's the right play for DST or anyone. 

And just for icing on the cake... The highest selling TMNT comics of all time were... Not IDW, not Mirage, but the ARCHIE TMNT comics which feature the exact same Fred Wolf designs. 

This is one of those instances where being isolated to just the hardcore people on this forum and others, clouds sound business sense. 

Even if DST had rights to IDW, by no means should they ever choose those designs over the Fred Wolf stuff. Mind you, if we can have both, hell yea. Or pepper a few in during later waves, but if it's one or the other it'd be like choosing between making figures of Star Wars or StarCom. No one's choosing StarCom if they're looking to make money.

This is also perfect. And now I want StarCom minimates.

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12 hours ago, DSTZach said:

If we had to go with the Marvel comparison, let's say this is like canceling the USM line at mass and offering the 90's X-Men cartoon to comic shops. Amazing Friends doesn't really compare to the importance of the original TMNT cartoon. 

Let's make this happen yesterday

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8 hours ago, Ninturtle said:

I think it's cool that wer're getting the FW mates because now we can recreate that cross over episode with Nick and Mirage.

True, this could be seen as an extension of the Nick line. Even if there had been no Fred Wolf cartoon, Nick fans would be begging for those goofy turtles from that parallel universes episode. Consider these the pre-Crisis Turtles.

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22 hours ago, SCW said:

Even if DST had rights to IDW, by no means should they ever choose those designs over the Fred Wolf stuff. Mind you, if we can have both, hell yea. Or pepper a few in during later waves, but if it's one or the other it'd be like choosing between making figures of Star Wars or StarCom. No one's choosing StarCom if they're looking to make money.

WHOA! Hold up, would this proposed Starcom minimates line be magnet activated like the 80's toy line? If so, I'm in. ALL IN.

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I want these new classic turtles, But more than anything I want DST to finally learn some lessons from poor wave planning. Everytime we get something good going it gets canceled and most of the time you can pinpoint the poor decision that lead to the poor sales or cancellation. Not to be a huge downer but Ive got a running tally of this stuff over at the side and considering how the toy markets work, and retailer/consumer behaviors, and the fact that minimates are already so niche, it would be great to have any other line go past 10 freaking waves.

Blind bags with no pictures on the bags of possible contents, army builders in a box set instead of blind bag line, godzilla in every damn box set when mecha godzilla would have counted as an anchor then add in some poor character choices, Civilians, civilians, and even larvae!. Your basic line plan for most long lines is four 2-packs, so you take half of that away and stick in 4 turtles in each wave so we get that many waves of turtles, then repeat the same damn side characters over and over instead of drawing people in with new characters like playmates has been doing for 20 years of success, you over saturate your limited niche releases with the same turtles and civilians over and over??? Then surprise sales didnt do well for some reason. And comic shops already cant compete with TRU, so why not make it harder on them and irritate the hell out of their customers with blind bags of the same crazy repetitive lineups and lose money on the comic shop orders because their customers can go pick the turtles they want from tru and even check for better paint apps. 

Im curious how many people would have bought 4 waves of turtle variants after getting their first set if they knew how DST was going to ignore more important characters that could have been made. I think the new classic turtles look great but the first though I had was that they would be canceled after those two waves. They may require less sculpting than the nick turtles but there is a history of this stuff that seems to happen way too often.

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9 hours ago, arnim zola said:

I want these new classic turtles, But more than anything I want DST to finally learn some lessons from poor wave planning. Every time we get something good going it gets canceled and most of the time you can pinpoint the poor decision that lead to the poor sales or cancellation.

I'm curious how many people would have bought 4 waves of turtle variants after getting their first set if they knew how DST was going to ignore more important characters that could have been made. I think the new classic turtles look great but the first though I had was that they would be canceled after those two waves. They may require less sculpting than the nick turtles but there is a history of this stuff that seems to happen way too often.

Man, I completely agree with ALL of what you said.  The Nick TMNT line WAS one of my favorites but now I regret buying most of it.  Guys like Chris Bradford, Anton Zeck and Ivan Steranko aren't impressive anymore since we're not getting a Fish Face, Dogpound, Snake Weed, Leatherhead, Stockman Fly, Tiger Claw, Rat King, etc.  Add in the fact that we now have incomplete Translucent versions and Dark Horizons versions and this line doesn't quite seem like the home run it should have been.

I'm also looking forward to the new 80's versions but I'm not getting my hopes up for this line to continue past what we're already seen.

Edited by MisterMiracle
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We've never put out a blind bag with NO pictures of the contents on them. If not the actual figures, then we had artwork of the figures I think once. Not unheard of.

But blind bags at specialty are not why the Nick line ended. It was 2-packs at TRU. So clearly they didn't steal THAT much business from comic shops.

It sounds like the space season was weaker, and the space-based product paid the price, but I believe all Nick merch is down across the board, so I would not necessarily blame line planning or packaging. But you're free to blame what you want, based on data you have accumulated, it just won't change the facts.

And if you think the inclusion of larvae or a misplaced army-builder caused Godzilla or Mass Effect to end, well, I will say you're wrong about that, and leave it at that.

How many toy lines go past ten waves in general? That seems like a tremendous milestone, and I can only think of a handful of action figure lines that have, unless you count lines that are routinely rebooted like G.I. Joe, Transformers, He-Man, etc.. Most of the other mini-figure lines, like Titans, Mystery Minis, etc. are one-and-done. How far did Scribblenauts get? McFarlane's Lego TWD? 

Minimates is definitely still a niche line, and that means that we need to be smart with our tooling, because we aren't selling hundreds of thousands. If we couldn't make civilians and new Turtles, the line probably wouldn't even have made it THIS far.

Edited by DSTZach
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On 2/27/2017 at 8:56 PM, SCW said:

I'd say a big section of people who go into comic shops don't know there's even a current TMNT comic.

 

Then it's unlikely a TMNT consumer is going to a comic shop at all. It's not just about what sells but where it sells. Obviously Nick TMNT is ideal for TRU, especially because it's "current." But if, as you insist, "a big section of people who go into comic shops don't know there's even a current TMNT comic," then why sell them something in a comic shop that's based on a cartoon?

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56 minutes ago, DSTZach said:

We've never put out a blind bag with NO pictures of the contents on them. If not the actual figures, then we had artwork of the figures I think once. Not unheard of.

But blind bags at specialty are not why the Nick line ended. It was 2-packs at TRU. So clearly they didn't steal THAT much business from comic shops.

It sounds like the space season was weaker, and the space-based product paid the price, but I believe all Nick merch is down across the board, so I would not necessarily blame line planning or packaging. But you're free to blame what you want, based on data you have accumulated, it just won't change the facts.

And if you think the inclusion of larvae or a misplaced army-builder caused Godzilla or Mass Effect to end, well, I will say you're wrong about that, and leave it at that.

How many toy lines go past ten waves in general? That seems like a tremendous milestone, and I can only think of a handful of action figure lines that have, unless you count lines that are routinely rebooted like G.I. Joe, Transformers, He-Man, etc.. Most of the other mini-figure lines, like Titans, Mystery Minis, etc. are one-and-done. How far did Scribblenauts get? McFarlane's Lego TWD? 

Minimates is definitely still a niche line, and that means that we need to be smart with our tooling, because we aren't selling hundreds of thousands. If we couldn't make civilians and new Turtles, the line probably wouldn't even have made it THIS far.

 I Don't know if I feel good about this line anymore then I did. I know 10 waves in other lines would be long but since we are  guaranteed turtles and civilians in every wave that leaves two spots left for the characters that make it worthwhile for me and others. I will swallow getting turtles and civilians in every wave and love if there something different and great about them but if there's no staying power in that for me if it's 3 or 4 waves.

I hope these over exceed everyone's expectation. I just wanted something that will be around a while. I know that there's aliens and others that are great but tmnt has possibility of  greatness. 

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1 hour ago, JediJohnson said:

Lego did not make The Walking Dead.  Fun Fact: "Lego" is not a generic term for "building blocks."  The more you know.....

I know, that's why I said McFarlane Lego. It was short-hand for "interlocking brick system," and a placeholder for whatever McFarlane calls their own interlocking brick system, I forget the name. (Building blocks are something a child plays with, BTW.)

It's like Kleenex or Xerox -- people call Minimates Lego all the time, I don't get all bent out of shape about it, and I WORK here.

Mega Blox Lego, Kre-O Lego... they're all made to capitalize on Lego's loss of patent on their brick system. That's why none of them existed before that event happened. The more you know...

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1 hour ago, MisterPL said:

 

Then it's unlikely a TMNT consumer is going to a comic shop at all. It's not just about what sells but where it sells. Obviously Nick TMNT is ideal for TRU, especially because it's "current." But if, as you insist, "a big section of people who go into comic shops don't know there's even a current TMNT comic," then why sell them something in a comic shop that's based on a cartoon?

Because they will have likely heard of that cartoon? Again, the 80s TMNT cartoon was HUGELY popular, far more than any comic version of TMNT. That and the Playmates toyline, connect to a huge generation of people who grew up in the 80s-90s. Just because someone goes into a comic shop doesn't mean they know everything about comics. Particularly these days, with comics so much a part of general pop culture, the guys who go into to buy Deadpool comics (but don't read anything else) or the guys who come in to buy some comics because they've seen the latest comic movie, are very apt to be attracted to seeing the "classic" Ninja Turtles in Minimates.

There's also a huge contingent of casual TMNT fans who don't like any version but that, because that's the only version they know. These are the people who won't buy Nick stuff or IDW stuff, because it looks similar, but it's not quite the Turtles they want. The 80s versions are the versions they want. 

How many people have you seen wearing a Fred Wolf style TMNT shirt on the street. They're VERY common. Now how many of those people do you think know IDW is even a thing? Or that Mirage was ever a thing? The reality is, most of those people have an attachment to 80s TMNT merch because they fit into the aforementioned category. Those people will buy these figures (or at least are more likely) and are the kind of people who do pop into comic shops, but may not necessarily know a ton about comics or comic history.

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1 hour ago, MisterPL said:

 

Then it's unlikely a TMNT consumer is going to a comic shop at all. It's not just about what sells but where it sells. Obviously Nick TMNT is ideal for TRU, especially because it's "current." But if, as you insist, "a big section of people who go into comic shops don't know there's even a current TMNT comic," then why sell them something in a comic shop that's based on a cartoon?

The number of original TMNT cartoon watchers is so vast that it has to include at least some people who go into comic shops, and I would go so far as to say that MOST comic shop customers in the correct age bracket watched the show in some capacity, simply based on the fact that they grew up to read and enjoy comic books. Just because IDW's new adventures, Nick adaptations and Mirage reprints aren't on their radar/pull list doesn't mean they don't have nostalgia for the old cartoon. You can buy toys for the property even if you no longer thing talking-animal books are the bee's knees. Heck, you can have nostalgia for the show even if you never watched on TV -- look at all the classic (NOT Nick) TMNT stuff in Hot Topic, and their target customers are probably not even the right age bracket! (They also sell comic-based Marvel and DC stuff, but no comics that I can see.)

What SCW said!

Did you know there's a James Bond comic now? From Dynamite? It's kinda cool! Should we never put classic James Bond movie Minimates into comic shops? Or just Dynamite styles? Should Barnes & Noble only get Ian Fleming box sets?

I should add that "comic shops" really means "comic specialty market" or "anyone who's not TRU or Walgreens." Luke's Toy Store, BBTS, EntEarth, numerous eBay stores and Amazon sellers... the people who will be able to order Fred Wolf TMNT includes comic dealers, but it also includes MANY toy sellers who have no connection to comics. My job is to make sure people who like TMNT -- comic readers or not -- know about these figures.

Edited by DSTZach
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1 hour ago, DSTZach said:

I should add that "comic shops" really means "comic specialty market" or "anyone who's not TRU or Walgreens." Luke's Toy Store, BBTS, EntEarth, numerous eBay stores and Amazon sellers... 

 

Now you're talking about opening it up to places that also sell home video. That makes much more sense.

 

As for James Bond, I'm sure DST would want the push the most "current" incarnation into the largest market possible, as with TMNT. But if that doesn't work out we can probably count on them to offer movies figures to comic shops any home video outlets.

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Fun fact: If DST gets these two 80s TMNT sets to market it will be the most complete "classic" Turtles line since the original. No other line that's tried to go down this path has made more than just a few characters.

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5 minutes ago, SCW said:

Fun fact: If DST gets these two 80s TMNT sets to market it will be the most complete "classic" Turtles line since the original. No other line that's tried to go down this path has made more than just a few characters.

I don't know about that.  The Playmates 6" Classic line stalled out but these look promising:

https://funko.com/collections/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles/products/mystery-minis-blind-box-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles

https://www.kidrobot.com/products/tmnt-mini-series-2

 

 

 

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More characters than the Mystery Minis which seems to be one and done, but those aren't really action figures so I wasn't counting them. I'd say the same for the Kid Robot stuff too.I don't consider 3 POA vinyls action figures anymore than I consider Vinimates.  But your mileage may vary.

 

But NECA, Playmates, Figuarts, etc haven't made it that far. I guess Mega Construx has.

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46 minutes ago, SCW said:

Fun fact: If DST gets these two 80s TMNT sets to market it will be the most complete "classic" Turtles line since the original. No other line that's tried to go down this path has made more than just a few characters.

Actually Megabloks  has all these plus human versions of Bebop. Rocksteady, and Baxter

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