Saturday, June 22, 2013

#295 YOLANDA – TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (1991)





No way! 295 entries and not a single TMNT yet? I’m really sorry. I have a couple of Playmates’ figures but none of them is complete, so I am waiting until I find the missing accessories to show the figures here, in a proper entry.

Meanwhile, I’ll show these other ninja turtles, which are also very nice toys, and have many things we could comment right now.

We already talked about Yolanda/Comansi in other entries. As said in those entries, Yolanda used to buy licenses to reproduce children’s favourite characters in plastic PVC figures. Since the TMNT was the most important toy collection by the beginning of the 90s, it was just a matter of time for Yolanda to get those licenses. The figures in the pictures are all copyrighted by “Mirage Studios”, the comic book company founded by Eastman and Laird (the creators of the characters).

Although the copyright of the figures is from 1988, I guess these figures were first sold in shops around 1991, maybe 1992.

As the Saint Seiya figures were (I showed in entry #174), these are hand painted, so the colours of the turtles might be mistaken. In this case is not the color, but the cast… can you find the error? 


In the picture with all four turtles, left to right, we see:
Raphael (red), Leonardo (blue), Donatello (purple) and Michelangelo (orange), the letter in their belts tells the initial of the name, so every character is correctly painted. 

However, it would have been more appropriate to cast each turtle with its preferred weapon:
Raph: Sai; Leonardo: Sword; Donatello: Bo and Michellangelo: Nunchakus , but Leonardo and Michelangelo seem to have changed weapons.

This series is not complete. Apart from the four turtles, there were more characters made: A second version of the turtles in “Mutant Military” outfits, plus Bebop, Rocksteady, Shredder and Splinter. 

These “Mutant Military” figures were released in 1991, and with that we can date Yolanda series from 1991 on.

Yolanda made turtles' figures in at least 2 different sizes. The ones I am showing here are the bigger ones. In the picture below, I offer a size comparison between the big and the small ones. The smaller size series also included many figures, at least, 8. These will be shown in future entries.


FACTS AND FIGURES:
  • Name: LEONARDO, RAPHAEL, DONATELLO and MICHELANGELO
  • Toy Line: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT)
  • Year: 1991
  • Company: Yolanda (Spain)
  • Size of the figure: Around 8 cm.

6 comments:

  1. I have some Yolanda TMNT's in a metallic green unpainted plastic, small scale, I guess they were bubble-gum premiums?

    Hugh

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  2. Hi Hugh, thanks for commenting here!

    Yes exactly. these are chewing gum premiums, but they're one inch or one and a half inches high, not more. I own two of them, I think I sent you a picture a long time ago.

    What I wrote in my entry about Real Ghostbusters chewing gum applies for those turtles, except they were all turtle-green. I never searched information about them, so I don't know how many of those were made or whatever. Sorry.

    http://toysfromthepast.blogspot.co.at/2012/06/161-yolanda-real-ghostbusters-chewing.html

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    Replies
    1. Might be based of off the 2002 tmnt/spongebob crossover

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    2. Hi Logan,

      Thanks for the comment!

      I'm pretty sure the figures Hugh mean are actually those Yolanda chewing gum premiums. I recently discovered that those same figures were also sold in plastic bags under the brand Novolinea (which is a "spin-off" of Comansi/Yolanda). I never had one of those bags in my hands, but I would say they're exactly the same figures.

      You can see some of these bags in todocoleccion (they're not available anymore):
      http://www.todocoleccion.net/orientaprecios/mi/#!fq=tortugas%20novolinea&sort=fecha_venta%20desc

      And here more about Novolínea:
      http://toysfromthepast.blogspot.com/2013/09/331-comansi-and-novolinea-lucky-luke.html

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  3. Nooo!!!! No hay error alguno!!!!! ;D Michelangelo, socarrón el, le ha robao la espada a Leonardo y le ha dejado sus nunchakus; de ahí el modelado de "expresión sorpresa" de Leo y asimismo el de triunfo de Mickey!!!

    Fuera coñas, tengo algunas de estas figurillas por casa; han servido, no hace mucho, para ponernos al peque y a mi en sintonía con los nombres - colores - armas - actitudes de las tortugas; días después, devoramos las pelis, pero aun no hemos visto la serie actual.

    Por estos lares se las encuentran muy bien de precio; no tienen el aspecto a nuevo de otras figuras de Yolanda que se encuentran en kioskos (de hecho estas de las tortugas sólo las voy encontrando en tiendas de segunda mano) pero son perfectas para jugar, y a veces, en buen estado, para coleccionar, en algunas figuras es como si el color estuviese medio derretido... no se...

    Saludos!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Uff, las pelis son durillas, ¿no? Ya en su día (creo que vi una o dos como mucho) y me parecieron regulares, ponle a tu hijo mejor los dibujos.

      En principio me parece perfecto que Yolanda siga vendiendo las tortugas, están otra vez de moda (siempre han estado) y los moldes son los mismos. Si conservan la licencia, seguro que es un producto que se vende bien. Tienen algo esas tortugas que caen bien a todo el mundo.

      ¡Gracias por el comentario!

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