For as long as there have been Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys, Playmates has been the company that holds the master toy license. But at every step, NECA has tried to find loopholes in the deal that would allow them a way in as well. For a while, when Playmates was only doing toys from the cartoon, NECA did comic-based figures…but then Playmates regained that part of the license. Recently, NECA has been doing 18-inch versions of the original 1991 movie turtles, as Playmates’ license didn’t cover that specific scale…but only domestically. Internationally they could not be officially available at retail.
Conventions, however, are not covered by the license, and last year’s San Diego Comic-Con featured two 6-inch TMNT sets based on the ’80s/’90s arcade game. Then New York Comic Con featured a villain’s pack of the Foot Clan based on their vintage comics look. This year comes the biggest one yet: an eight-pack of the four Turtles, Shredder, Krang, and two Foot Soldiers, as they appeared in the original TV cartoon, complete with black line work to make them look more like drawings that popped off the actual animation cels. While they may share some tooling with older versions, these figures are not straight repaints and include newly sculpted parts.
Revealed initially by The Fwoosh, this set comes in a cool, collector-friendly carry case and will set you back $200 (that works out to $25 per figure, which isn’t bad at all). Just be warned that NECA’s Comic-Con booth usually doesn’t take cards or checks, so you’ll want to prepare in advance to have that cash on hand.
In other good news, the license has loosened up restrictions just enough that there will be some for sale to non-attendees at https://thenecastore.com in June. If you want a set for yourself, bookmark that site and keep checking in, because they will sell quickly.
Check out more images in our gallery below, and the original Fwoosh story for even more still!
Is Comic-Con going to be one massive Cowabunga for your collection? Comment most crucially below!
Images: NECA
