NECA 2012 Turtles

Yeah, after getting my "misdelivered" Shredder with a mystery FedEx tracking number from NECA for the WM order, I still haven't seen any movement on the other 3 turtles from that initial order that had Mikey delivered already.

Thanks everyone for these explanations. Yeah I must be a bit of an odd duck based on what people have said about the generation gap. I’m also in my early 40’s and yet I never really glommed into the original cartoon. I’ve watched maybe 3 seasons of the tv show before I backed out entirely and I only had one wave of the toys growing up. I did have a soft spot for some of the video games and the live action movies from the 90’s. Never read the Archie books until recently when the compendium was released earlier this spring and was so bored with the damn stories and felt they were for a younger audience that I just returned the book to Amazon later that week.

Anyways, after what would eventually become a ten year hiatus on not focusing on anything related to the TMNT from 1993-2003, I watched the new show and absolutely loved it. . I Also I started collecting the toys again and played the video games around this time and all of this really helped breathe life back into the core of my fandom. When I inevitably found out that the 03 series was heavily influenced by the mirage books (and also Neca’s first set of TMNT Mirage figures hit at the same time) I was just on a mad dash to read as many comic reprints that I could get my hands on. And this even included the new IDW series. And it was through that where I found my preferred niche of the TMNT


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I was into the show, the Archie comics, the movies, and the toys as a kid. It's still very possible that 2012 is my overall favorite TMNT show, however. I like the style, the characterization, and the way it combines all the different eras and characters. It didn't flame out as badly as the 2003 show did, the '87 show doesn't hold up for me when I've tried to rewatch it, Rise was never a favorite outside of the movie, etc. Tales is fun even though I don't care for a lot of the actual character designs. I read most of the Mirage comics within the last few years, and while I dig the toys that they make of them, I didn't really find the books themselves to be all that. Pretty awkwardly-written, and you're either gonna appreciate the art for its rawness or bounce of it, I think. As far as IDW goes, I read like the first 50 issues back when, and then fell off until the new Jason Aaron started up, which I have so far really liked. So I'll probably go back and catch up on it overall in the next few months/years.

And honestly, my most favorite LOOKS for the characters tend to be new takes on them: the JoyToy line, the Fury/Rage Toys line, the LingJihun line, Mondo's upcoming 1/6 scale figures, etc. I don't really have a strongly preferred/definitive look for this franchise, either despite or because of being familiar with most incarnations of it.

Well I have a package on the way from NECA. I'm guessing it's the rest of the 2012 shipment, as I don't think I have anything else ordered that should be shipping right now. Unless it's the KISS Ben Cooper figures suddenly... I'll know on Wednesday!

Got my Raph from Walmart today, just one which is a big improvement! Though Walmart still has it listed as “preparing to ship” so NECA still not sending shipping info to Walmart in a timely fashion.

My Raph finally arrived only it wasn’t Raph it was a second Michelangelo. . . So my TMNT team is now Mikey 1, Mikey 2, Leo & Don. Definitely a more playful and less angry group than your typical TMNT.

One thing the 2012 line may having going for it over something like 2003 is that a bunch of people who grew up on TMNT watched the 2012 series with their kids. That's a big part of the pull for me and I know it is for Pixel Dan. I don't know if it's enough to sustain it, but we'll see. I don't think we can actually guarantee that the kids who did watch the series will be nostalgic enough to want figures. It's just a dying hobby.

A shipment from NECA has finally hit my FedEx app. It's only 1.6lbs so if it's 2012 TMNT then I'm probably in the lone Mikey club. Complicating things is I did order Wingnut and a movie Mikey from Walmart so it could be one of those. None of my orders have actually been updated at either website so I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

I watched the Nick TMNT with my son. Those were his first action figures. He loved setting them up on the giant sewer lair we got him for his pre-school "graduation". I got him all the mix and match figures, and he loved swapping all their parts. He as into it for about two years, then ditched figures for Pokemon cards. And pretty soon after that, ditched cards for Minecraft, then Fortnite, and so on. Action figures were a very small part of his childhood, whereas for me, my collections lasted well into middle school.

But because I watched the show with my son, I have a soft spot for the characters and figures. I wound up collecting plenty of the 2012 figures myself, despite them clearly being made for kids. Having these designs at collector level is something that very much appeals to me. But I'm apprehensive about getting into yet another line, of yet another incarnation of the TMNT. And I know this selection can go DEEP. But if I had to choose? I'm way more connected to this incarnation than Archie, Mirage, heck, even the 1987 line. 2012 is fresher on my memory. And it legitimately was a great show with throwbacks to so many of the previous versions. It really is my favorite, besides the original line or 1990 movie.

I was never able to get my kids into the TMNT toyline. They had some roleplay toys they liked, but my son was all Paw Patrol. And my action figure enthusiast background meant I had to get him everything - the tower, every dog in their regular look, other vehicles, etc. It was brief though too, perhaps only 2 years tops, then the same path your kid took, Norm: Pokemon cards, Mincecraft, Fortnite. Now my son probably plays more Roblox than anything (same for my daughter), but still plays some more conventional games. I think he just spent his own money on a preorder for whatever the new Pokemon game is coming out soon. And I got him (and my daughter) a Switch 2 for Christmas so they'll have that to get games for in the near future. Action figures just aren't as important to the generations that followed us which is why I think the current collector market is due to start contracting at some point because there aren't many new demographics entering it. Provided there isn't another Funko Pop around the corner that attracts a ton of mainstream attention.

How old are your kids, Misfit? My son is now 14, a freshman in high school, my daughter is 11, in sixth grade, her last year of elementary. Neither were into toys for long, but my daughter is still very much into Roblox (playing with her cousins out in Colorado while on Facetime). My son barely has time for video games anymore since starting sports (football since eighth grade). I don't think I've even shown him the new NECA 2012 figures, as he has very little interest in my collection. I think they very much equate action figures as "dad's thing". My daughter got into collecting a little bit (Hello Kitty stuff) but is now full on into skin care and clothes. Honestly, I'm relieved they're not into action figures or collecting, because they don't need this vice.

My son is 10 and daughter 9. He is fully committed to gaming right now and my daughter just chucked all of her Barbies for makeup and such. I wasn't prepared for them to be this disinterested in toys at such a young age (and for my son, he's been mostly out on toys since he was 6 or 7).

Thinking back on my own childhood, which was filled with figures for near as long as I could remember... not many other kids played with or collected them past 1st or 2nd grade. I was born in '84. I remember wanting to play with figures with a neighbor in like 2nd grade, and he said something like "I don't know what to do with these" and we did something else.

I remember by 3rd grade a kid was being bullied for wearing Power Rangers paraphernalia because it was too kid-like. I remember being embarrassed that I still played with figures in the later half of elementary school when all my other friends had moved on a while back. I'd often hide them in my closet when a group of friends came over so they wouldn't laugh or think I was childish. It's possible I was friends with other kids who had figures but also felt the same social pressures to grow up and not be a kid.

By 4th-5th grade McFarlane had released his Spawn figures and they were kinda like a transitional line between kids toys and teenage culture. I knew one or two people that occasionally picked them up, but almost like desk art and not toys they'd pose around or play with. There was some respect on the idea of a "collector item." Sports were big, and kids were starting to get into music.

My micro-generation came in at the tail end of the Star Wars, MoTU, Thundercats, and we didn't really have those figures unless they came in through garage sales, older siblings, etc. But I remember Power of the Force figures, and the buzz with them were that they were collectors items (though I just wanted them as toys) and could be "worth something."

I grew up alongside the evolution of video games—Nintendos were ubiquitous and later the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, and so on. Those were popular, but my parents never allowed me to have a system. I didn't own a console until my 30's. I think even back then, gaming had by and large replaced the action figure. Maybe I kept playing with figures because I didn't have video games, just toys and comics. And the same thing could be said about comics, even back in the 90's most kids I knew didn't read them, let alone read them regularly. Or if they did, they didn't mention it.

That's all to say, I'm not really sure how younger generations will influence the adult collectors market. TBH I think it might be strong for some time ahead, but what IPs get figures may change. I think there are a lot of 20something collectors who are buying figures as adults that didn't collect or play with them much as a kid. Especially properties like Dragon Ball, but also Legends. Nerd culture is a lot more hip and permissible than it was during my young adulthood, and it's easy to find communities online. It's not unheard of for a guy in the office to have a Boba Fett helmet or a Mario action figure next to his computer. We're also in a unique era where we can easily stream media from different eras, meaning things may come in and out of vogue as generations rediscover dead IP and make them go viral.

I think the only hope I can see for future generations getting into the things we as an older generation appreciates is digital burnout. I've heard stories of people getting tired of online shopping and starting their own bricks and mortar businesses, likening it to a "real life catalog". That's just a store, bro! Look at the comeback of vinyl. Who would have thought analog would make its way back? I think toys and dolls and action figures are the same, providing that tactile/sensory experience, engaging the imagination. At least that's my hope.

Yeah, each generation kind of rejects the culture of the generation that directly preceded them, while resurrecting aspects of the culture that preceded the one they are rejecting.

Elder millennials and young Gen X got into new-60's culture in the 90's. Bell bottoms/flared jeans came back, colored sunglasses, lava lamps, The Beatles, the VW Beetle, weed, environmentalism. Now Gen Z is into Gen X culture and are back to the baggy pants that my generation would reject when we came to cultural power, and the 90's shows my generation left behind, and the cynicism we voted against with Obama's "Hope".