General traag action figure series#
With the release of the second series in 1989, fans saw ten entirely new figures: five allies and five enemies, six new vehicles/accessories, the first playset, the Turtle Battle Fun role-play sets, 9" and 13" plush dolls, and official Retromutagen Ooze.
Colorful characters like General Traag, Rat King, Mutagen man, Scumbug, Pizza Face, Muckman, and many others featured intricate details such as small animals crawling over them, large scars, torn clothing, and pieces of garbage stuck to their bodies. The figures boasted highly detailed sculpting, especially for the time. Also included was a fully illustrated origin story on the card's backside which was phased out during the 4th series. Each figure had at least 7 points of articulation (neck, shoulders, wrists, hips), many accessories including the characters signature weapon, and a bio card on the back of the blister package that kids could cut out and collect. The blister card art was also very unrefined and reflected the comics in fact, Shredder's pose was based directly on art from the debut issue. The Turtles lacked pupils and had bulging muscles with large veins. The first three series of figures took obvious influence from the original Mirage comics. Corresponding firmly with its animated series counterpart, the original TMNT action figure line would last ten years and develop a legacy within the toy realm. If one was to clip the "Pizza Point"s located on the reverse side of the packaging then a person could redeem them along with a small fee for other Turtles merchandise like VHS tapes, posters, bath towels, among others. Each vehicle set was packaged with a jokebook and a small catalog. Vehicles included the Cheapskate, Turtle Trooper, Turtle Blimp, and Foot Knucklehead. The premiere series included the four Turtles, Splinter, April, Shredder, Rocksteady, Bebop, and a Foot Soldier. Playmates held up their end of the deal and produced the first series of TMNT action figures in the summer of 1988. In signing with Murakami-Wolf-Swenson Productions, Eastman and Laird saw the production of the first TMNT cartoon in December 1987. David Wise, Michael Charles Hill and Michael Reaves wrote most of the scripts, taking input via Mendelsohn and collaborating writer Schulte and marketing maven Aaronian.
As the series developed, veteran writer Jack Mendelsohn came on board as both a story editor and scriptwriter. Phrases like "Heroes in a Half Shell" and many of the comical catch phrases and battle slogans ("Turtle Power!") came from the writing and conceptualization of this creative team. Playmates and their team essentially served as associate producers and contributing writers to the miniseries that was first launch to sell-in the toy action figures. The sense of humor was honed with the collaboration of MWS's writers, Walk Kubiak, Aaronian, Schulte and Sachs. Sachs called the high-concept pitch "Green Against Brick". Aaronian brought on several designers and concepteer and writer John Schulte and worked out the simple backstory that would live on toy packaging for the entire run of the product and show. Wolf and his team combined concepts and ideas with Playmates marketing crew, headed by Karl Aaronian and then VP of Sales, Richard Sallis and President of Playmates, Bill Carlson. Development initiated with a creative team of companies and individuals: Jerry Sachs, famous ad man of Sachs-Finley Agency, brought together the animators at Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, headed by award-winning animator Fred Wolf.
Not entirely willing to risk marketing a small cult comic book, Playmates insisted that a cartoon series be produced first. Only one company expressed interest, a little-known California company by the name of Playmates Toys. Freedman took the idea to a variety of toy companies, only to be turned down by those who felt the concept was not popular enough to support a toy line.
These sold well, and Eastman and Laird were soon contacted by Mark Freedman, a licensing agent who believed he could make something of the Turtles. Within a year, First Comics began to reprint the early issues in color volumes four were produced, stopping at issue 11.
General traag action figure license#
The first TMNT license came in the form of a role-playing game by Palladium, followed by miniatures from Dark Horse.
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