NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS

As some of you may know I talk every so often with Steve Murphy and as I would think all of you know there has been little to no news about either Playmates or NECA's next TMNT figure offerings.
Well I got tired of waiting for someone to spring some news so I went to Murph and shot some questions his way, while not totally informative and brutally sad this is more news than we've been given at all from either party concerning our favorite green guys.

I asked:
I was wondering if there are going to be any back to the sewer figures and when can we expect them?By that I mean figures sculpted to look like the show, not the movie figures with cyber gear on them.

Murph's Answer:
"The BTTS figures look more like the movie turtles than the showturtles, sorry to report. They should be out any day now I'm told."

I said:
I really wish there was something I could do to change things.I guess the best thing to do is not give up on my own dreams and if I ever make my own toy line to never lose what my intentions had been from the start and that is to create awesome looking characters that are appealing to the senses.I think the reason the old toys are so much fun is because people like Ryan Brown had been so involved in the creative process, but even looking back Playmates rejected almost every amazing idea Peter ever had which btw blows my mind considering he's one half of the creative team behind this property.Seems to me that companies have no respect for the people behind what's making them money and a line that put there stupid little company on the map.

Murph Said:
"I couldn't have put it better, man.Playmates is lame, no doubt about it. The sad part about it is thatthe old school TMNT figures were so much fun, so cool and creative.Ever since Next Mutation it's been pretty much boredom."

I Asked:
Any NECA news? My comic book guy said he saw the Shredder series in the new issue of previews but when he tried to show me he couldn't find it.

Murph's Answer:
"We have not heard a peep out of NECA regarding the next releasefigure, whatever it is. No news from NECA since just prior to SDCC2008, in fact. No idea why not. To date Mirage has approved Shredder,Utrom, Foot Soldier and Elite Foot Guard figures. Again, no idea when they're coming out."

So there you go folks Not really mind blowing but more like tear shedding news for the lot of you.

Wal-Mart

It's come to my attention and maybe some of yours over the past year that many Wal-Marts have no representation of the Playmates TMNT toy line in their stores.

I've been trying to get to the bottom of this mystery for awhile and have had little to no results even with the help of people at Mirage studios (Playmates like to keep them in the dark almost as much as they do with their fans.)
Well today I decided to write to Playmates just to see if I could get some sort of answer to what exactly was going on.
As usual the person who responded was Paula Billingsley but it wasn't the typical insert answer here type of response, even if it wasn't much.
This is what she had to say:

The product should be shipping to the Wal-Mart stores this
month for the Fall line of toys.
Regards,
Paula Billingsley
Playmates Toys Inc.

"Build A Better Mousetrap, & The World Will Beat A Path To Your Door."

A few months ago NECA released their Mouser figures early with less articulation than the ones that are to be released with the April O' Neil figure will have.
Well my friend Jeb was kind enough to grab me a set and I got them in the mail today.
I'm going to be honest I thought they'd be a bit bigger but I can't complain the sculpts on these NECA TMNT have been thus far amazing and light years above anything Playmates toys has done in years.
I did know prior to the release of these that they would not have much articulation, but I can't lie it is still disappointing that only the neck and upper legs move.
When you think of a Mouser the number one priority should be articulation, I mean it's a robot.
First when I get any figure I give a good look over to check the paint and see how many points of articulation it has.
When I first saw under it's head it looked as if it has a ball joint at it's neck, I was very disappointed because I pushed on it a bit and it wouldn't budge (these things look like they could break easily), but I am happy to announce with a little force these figures do have ball jointed heads!
The paint jobs are decent with a few off spots where the machines had missed their mark, but other than that not to bad.
This set also comes with a street base like all the other NECA TMNT figures have but sadly the Mousers do not have holes in their feet so they can be pegged into the base.
Along with the base comes a San Diego sewer lid commemorating the San Diego Comicon of 2008, on the back side of the lid is a photo of Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird from the early years.
Which is a very nice surprise if you didn't know about it.
Over all even with my disappointment over the lack of things NECA continues to be a great company taking pride and putting allot of effort into these Ninja Turtle figures.
I give this set of Mousers 7 Shells out of a possible 10 shells, because these are really nice but they didn't go that extra yard to make these the ultimate figure they should be and there is still room for improvements that I hope they make on them when they are released along side April O' Neil in the Fall.