Diamond announced earlier this year that they are getting the license to produce Teenage Mutant Ninja products for the specialty
market. (Playmates Toys will still retain the rights to produce action figures for the mass market.) While some photos did
surface from Toy Fair in February, Diamond is now taking the show on the road and the products directly to the fans on the
comic convention circuit. They had all of the products announced thus far on display at their booth at C2E2 in Chicago this weekend.
So I got a chance to see them in person, and get photos.
(I apologize for the quality of some of the photos. The display case in which the TMNT items were located was either in desprite need
of cleaning or has been seriously scratched up over time.)
Minimates
So the highlight of the Toy Fair announcement was that the TMNT license was being added to the Minimates toy line. For those that may
not know, Minimates is a line of small scale action figures which Diamond has been producing for almost a decade. The line has
included a number of different license, including both Marvel and DC Comics as well as a number of pop culture icons.
There were ten minimates on display at the show. They are slated for release in the fall for $10. But there was no indication if
that price was per figure or if they would be sold in 2 packs as Minimates typically are.
There were three Foot Clan members shown: Shredder, a Foot Soldier and a Robo Foot Soldier. There is also an alternate, unmasked head
shown for Shredder.
There were five gogd guys shown, the four Turtles and April. They are cute, but the cylindrical heads for the Turtles is really throwing
me off. Hopefully that is something that I'll either grow accustome to or that they make a new head sculpt.
There were also two different versions of the Kraang in their android bodies shown and a loose Kraang as well. They are nice,
but instead of a blue and clear version of the same figure, I would rather see one of them representing their civilain disguise.
Banks
These vinyl busts are also banks. They are due out in August and should sell for roughly $23 each. (And if you are interested,
contact your local comic shop soon. My local shop placed their order for them last week.) But make sure you set aside some
space because these things are large. I suppose that is to be expected since they need enough room in the body for them to serve
as a bank. But even so, seeing them in person I was still shocked to see how large they were. Each one is only five or six inches
tall, but they are over a foot wide! But they look great.
Misc
Finally there were two other items on display, a rolling pizza cutter and a bottle opener designed after the original cartoon designs.
They are kind of cute. But for the prices listed, it is hard to see too many stores ordering these without advvanced orders. That's
a shame since these could be fun, relatively inexpensive gifts for adult TMNT fans.