Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Series 2 (Playmates Toys)

We interrupt our month long Halloween celebration to bring you a look at the brand new series two of Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line from Playmate's Toys. For those of you who enjoyed our original look at Series 1, this is a continued addition to that post.

Unlike when the first series launched, the new animated series has hit the air waves of Nickelodeon, and the show is being met with tremendous reviews. Fans young and old seem to have embraced the new series with open arms, and merchandise has been flying off of retail shelves.

Series two began hitting shelves in early October, 2012 with the three new figures; Metalhead, Fishface and Dogpound. We first found these figures as we were venturing through Delaware and Pennsylvania on our way to New York Comic Con. The three new figures bring with them a whole new look at the series, and introduce us to a couple of the newer characters from the animated series.

Many of you may remember Metalhead from the original series, and for what its worth, he remains intact in the form from yesteryear. The figure has a few slight changes to make him mesh with the new series, such as three toes, and a new back story. But again, for the most part, the series has done him justice by not retooling him completely.

Fishface and Dogpound, the two latest villains, bring an exciting new feel to the series, and not only that, are really cool to look at. To date, Dogpound is the bulkiest and heaviest figure in the series.

Much like the first series, the figures have some articulation, but are lacking it in some very common and important places. In the case of Dogpound and Fishface, it's in the knees. Fishface's legs are fashioned in the same right as the Kraang figure, and Dogpound as a whole is pretty much just one massive lump of plastic. He does have some wrist and leg movement, but it's very limited.

We also immediately spotted a production error on the back of the Metalhead card. As you can see in the photograph below, the picture of Raphael was used to advertise two separate figures - Himself and Michelangelo. We reached out to Playmates Toys regarding this issue, and they have told us that the mistake had been spotted on their end, and that when a second production run is made, the error will be corrected. That's good news for variant hunters. However, it will be interesting to see which card becomes the rarer one. Obviously if the corrected cards are printed in lower quantities, they will be harder to find.

***UPDATE***

As of December 7, 2012 we've started seeing the corrected card backs for Metalhead hitting shelves.  What this means is that Playmates Toys will no longer be running the error cards, and the only way you're going to find them is if they are overstock somewhere.  Another thing to note with the corrected card back is that due to the holiday season, Metalhead is an increasingly difficult figure to find.  We're not sure how many more production runs this particular figure has, so it is possible that the corrected version could become the rarer version.  Especially once all those kids out there receive their figure for Christmas, and rip it from the card.  Variant hunters should grab this figure while they can.

There are a few more interesting things to note pertaining to the card backs. For starters, the assortment numbers for the new figures have not changed from the first series number. The card backs for the three new figures also show all the originals plus the new assortment. Yet the card backs for the original figures have not been updated, and still show only the first series of figures available. We're not sure if all the cards will be updated for this new print run or not, but we would hope that at some point all of them are to showcase the full current line of figures available.

Playmates is moving full speed ahead with the series, and while no new figures are anticipated for the remainder of the year, it has already been stated that Spring of 2013 will bring three new figures; Snakeweed, Baxter Stockman and Leatherhead. Five months is a long time to wait though, and we hope that Playmates wouldn't grind the series to a halt for that long of a period. Especially with Christmas right around the corner. We're keeping our fingers crossed that some new toys will hit shelves in that time frame leading up to March of 2013. We'll of course keep you updated if they do.

If there was one complaint we have with the series it is that many stores are starting to raise the prices of their merchandise. Basic figures which were once only $8.99 at Toys R' Us have gone up to $9.99. The various sizes of vehicles have also increased in price by two to three dollars each. However, the most shocking sticker price hike is for the Toys R' Us exclusive Secret Sewer Lair which was once priced at a reasonable $119.99 which has gone up to $139.99. Tis' the season to get greedy we suppose.

For those of you looking for more collecitbles to chase down, a new press kit has made its way onto sites such as eBay. These kits were mailed to various members of the press, and contained a wonderfully put together little package. The box is shaped and designed to resemble a glowing manhole cover, all brought together with the TMNT logo. Inside sits a nice fold out poster depicting all four of the Turtles, and a DVD. The DVD contains a preview of the one hour premiere episode of the show. Underneath all of this sits one of the four turtle figures. Sadly, you won't find that the figures have been touched up with paint like they were for the New York Toy Fair promotional figures, but each figure is signed by the respective voice actor.

The kits have been selling on eBay for anywhere from thirty to eighty dollars each (as of this post), which is nothing compared to the three hundred fifty to four hundred dollar price tag that the original Toy Fair promotions each go for.

Join us Thursday as we continue with our regularly scheduled Halloween celebration.

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***UPDATE***

Toys R' Us has become the place to AVOID when buying your Turtle toys.  We've sat back and watched as figures went from $8.99 to $9.99 within weeks of their release.  Then when sales picked up, we shook our heads as Toys R' Us once again increased their price to $10.99, and dropped our jaw as the store once again raised the price to $11.99 for the holiday season.  All of this while Target and Walmart remain at a reasonable $8.99 per figure.

Toys R' Us is definitely flexing their greedy muscles with the series, and we can't endorse that.  Toys R' Us has been added to our personal list of stores to avoid for this series.