NECA '87 Toon TMNT

There's also a weird thing at EB where they have NECA and Mattel, but you can't PO all of it.

My store went through hoops to get my Mirage Karai for me and they never got April. Leatherhead just happened to show up as I walked in, and they never got more.

And then they carry WWE now, but you can only PO generic skins, which is how it used to be for Legends like pre-2020. And that leads to people pre-ordering large quantities, and even then you're not guaranteed to get the one that you want with whatever distribution is, and then nobody picks them up because they only wanted the one if anything, and then at peg warms and ruins the distro future because there's apparently no demand.

But that can't be entirely on EB, because they have no problem precision targeting every other toy line they carry from every other manufacturer. Including Figuarts and now Gundam.

Tldr NECA always makes it a Flying Grayson difficulty level of leaping through hoops to get their stuff, and I have so many other circuses that are willing to let me just grab stuff as I pass by their tent. Or something. That one got away from me.
 
Back in the early days of the line, Canadian e-tailers were able to order them and put them up for preorder. Then US buyers started buying them and NECA was very much aware and everything after feels like retaliation. A cutting off of the nose to spite your face scenario.

As for the line itself, it’s mostly been a dream come true, but it will always bother me a little that I think the turtles are some of the weakest releases within it and if that beach set is a preview of a new mold then I’m not impressed. And I still think they did April dirty. The redo was more like a bandage over the poor first attempt. And yeah, the wrist hinges drive me nuts as it’s the most inconsistent thing NECA does across lines.
 
RicksNerdLife said:
Welp. Nothing surprising here. I'd say this line might be in trouble.

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I hope not.

There are still plenty of villains from the show to release, and also many characters that were figures only that could get the animated treatment (not sure of the limitations around that, though).

Also, they haven’t touched the red sky seasons.

Giant Android Krang is still on there, though! I wish the kitchen was (although I don’t think it ever officially made it to the checklist).


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In trouble? How many more figures could they possibly make to continue it? I feel like there’s one named character left - Tempestra (who I don’t even know). Trouble? This line has had a longer life than just about any other NECA line. Multiple version of vacation and punk Turtles? They were milking this line.
 
In trouble of ending, so yes...in trouble. Any line that ends or is nearing the end or has telltale signs of ending are "in trouble of ending", regardless of your metrics.

Aside from that...

No Kitchen set, no Merdude or Ray Fillet, no Tempestra, no red sky season versions, no Dregg, no Carter, etc. The line would have a lot of life left if they stopped with the needless variants and "inspired by" crap.
 
Misfit said:
Back in the early days of the line, Canadian e-tailers were able to order them and put them up for preorder. Then US buyers started buying them and NECA was very much aware and everything after feels like retaliation. A cutting off of the nose to spite your face scenario.
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It's almost like America is constantly fucking everything up for everyone else.


RicksNerdLife said:
No Kitchen set, no Merdude or Ray Fillet, no Tempestra, no red sky season versions, no Dregg, no Carter, etc. The line would have a lot of life left if they stopped with the needless variants and "inspired by" crap.
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To be fair, and recognizing I may be the odd man out here... I don't care about anyone you just mentioned but I would be way more likely to re-invest in this line if it were doing more 'toy characters as if they were in the cartoon' type stuff than the deep dives on actual cartoon characters that I do not care about and/or don't have a single shred of memory regarding.
 
RicksNerdLife said:
In trouble of ending, so yes...in trouble. Any line that ends or is nearing the end or has telltale signs of ending are "in trouble of ending", regardless of your metrics.

Aside from that...

No Kitchen set, no Merdude or Ray Fillet, no Tempestra, no red sky season versions, no Dregg, no Carter, etc. The line would have a lot of life left if they stopped with the needless variants and "inspired by" crap.
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I see it as coming to its natural end. My knowedge doesn’t go as deep as yours, so I don’t know the characters you named. I think the line had a long healthy life, and there’s no trouble, per se, more just signs that things are winding down. I’d call the radio silence on Sesame Street trouble. But Toon TMNT was and is an epic line, even with the exclusion of some lesser known characters.
 
I’m a little surprised they didn’t stick one reveal on there, but yeah, the line is certainly slowing down. The 2012 stuff is probably taking away from it a bit and aren’t they doing Fortnite shit too? I do wonder a little about the health of NECA as it seems like they had a slow year. I’m sure the tariff nonsense has played a role, but I’ll be curious to see what the next show will bring which I guess will be Toy Fair.
 
That is my main concern is NECA is slowing down as a whole. If they can't make Turtles work (which granted, have had a slowdown on popularity in general) well...trouble. I would hate to lose them.
 
A few weeks ago, I was in Michaels with my daughter buying Christmas decorations and we found some mini Christmas decorations they had to use on doll houses. She wanted to get some for her dollhouse and I realized that I…well, could use them for the NECA Sewer Lair.

So yeah, the Turtles are having a Christmas party for their friends. Looks like one of the Alien Pizza Monsters and Leatherhead are teaming up to steal their Christmas feast of pizzas, though.


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As for the line coming to a close, I hope not. At the very least, I’d like to see the Molecular Krang and the Kitchen set. I’d also love to see more of the Playmates figures in cartoon style like Pizza Face, Halfcourt, Doctor El, Scale Tail, Sergeant Bananas, etc.

I think there’s also an opportunity for them to release more ultimates versions of figures that have been out of production for a while like Bebop and Rocksteady.


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I'm just waiting for the post from someone lurking in the shadows ready to pitch a bitchfit over daring to say that all might not be well in NECAville.
 
I was actually thinking “which NECA lines are putting out a lot of releases currently?” while reading this, and I agree, it does seem like they slowed down a lot across the board. The Last Ronin stuff seems to be chugging along but I don’t follow that line so maybe they are on sabbatical too.

The 2012 Turtles seem to be selling out after each drop, and the 35th Anniversary Walmart turtles sold out after a second run, and those figures are just reruns essentially.

I could see them doing a last push for the Toon Turtles with completely new Ultimates for the 4 Brothers and maybe for Bebop and Rocksteady as well, with Tempestra and the few remaining stragglers a part of that last leg. I’m thinking though other vehicles and play sets might be wishful thinking of the COVID boom days. Or they are waiting for the Donnie’s Lab fiasco to be farther back in people’s memory before asking the same crew for $300-400 for a preorder. It’s going to be brought up nonstop if they do a kitchen.
 
It’s a small snapshot, but the collector sections of my local Targets and Walmarts have been pretty stagnant of late. We’re in the middle of the Christmas season and I’m talking about stores on the NH border where there’s no sales tax and stuff just isn’t moving. The regular toy aisles are getting rocked, the video game section is sold out of all the big games, but the collector spot is jammed with stuff that’s been there for months along with some new stuff. It’s not a NECA specific issue, but I do worry Target and/or Walmart could pull the plug on the whole thing, especially if Funko goes under. Working in their favor is I can’t think of anything looking to take the place of the section. They’ve already dropped physical media like DVD and Blu Ray.
 
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