New TMNT wave

icey117

Read these good news at BrickFan:

Sir von Lego on Eurobricks has given us some tiny bits of detail for the 2014 LEGO Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sets. Again, there will be seven sets in the next wave, four for the Nickelodeon animated series and three for the upcoming film. Unfortunately, there are no details for the movie sets.

Karais (Karai) escape on a bike (79118) – $14.99
The chamber of mutation (79119) – $26.99
T-Rawket (T-Rocket): Attack from the air (79120) – $34.99
Turtle-Submarine (79121) – $45.99

legomatt

Gotta say I'm surprised. I fully expected TMNT to be a 'one and done' given the sets in wave 1.

I guess it must have sold well to get a second wave. Goes to show, never underestimate the power of children's TV to keep a line active.

(Or these were already in production and can't be stopped. I guess we'll know based on their availability and shelf life. i.e. If they only make a fleeting appearance in stores and then vanish, i'd hazard they were too far along to ditch... but wanted to).

It'll be interesting to see how these sell, given most TMNT collectors could get a 'complete team' (turtles, splinter, shredder, kraang, footsoldiers) from just half of wave 1.

Brickarmor

^Rocksteady?!?!?!?

;-)

truk

Don't they plan to have a rhino in Chima? That might be as close as you get.

I don't follow the new cartoons too closely, but I don't think Bebop and Rocksteady have been around since the original cartoon ended in the 90's...and these are all new-cartoon/new-movie sets.

Also, color me surprised the first wave sold enough to warrant a second too.

tamamahm

Weird. I never saw anyone look at our purchase any TMNT. On the flip, though, at Target yesterday I did see a new wave of TMNT toys, so perhaps Lego is just copying market expectations? Looking at a hot toy list expectation, there seems to be the expectations that TMNT will do well this season. I am not sure is going to be accurate, though. Guess time will tell.

Diggydoes

Maybe it was some sort of license-deal that TLG HAS to produce a 2.wave even if they (may)didn't sell well so far?!

cheshirecat

My youngest and all his friends lice the new tmnt cartoons, have costumes and some toys. There's a decent amount of shelf space in our tescos devoted to it to. Just happen to have popped into pizza hut today and the kids menu is also TMNT themed. I suspect it's bigger than some imagine.

icey117

Agree with all here! There are alot of TMNT stuff being sold in the toy isles here in Denmark too. If anything first catch fire in the kids world, there no way stopping the trend nomatter how stupid that trend is. Kids are pretty irrational in that way (... said the AFOL who too spends way too much money on his dear hobby)

icey117

BTW - My thesis is still that the continious theme-exposure a series gives is a key factor of boosting sales.... http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/7161/why-tmnt-will-be-a-bestseller

y2josh

tamamahm said:

Weird. I never saw anyone look at our purchase any TMNT. On the flip, though, at Target yesterday I did see a new wave of TMNT toys, so perhaps Lego is just copying market expectations? Looking at a hot toy list expectation, there seems to be the expectations that TMNT will do well this season. I am not sure is going to be accurate, though. Guess time will tell.

cheshirecat said:

My youngest and all his friends lice the new tmnt cartoons, have costumes and some toys. There's a decent amount of shelf space in our tescos devoted to it to. Just happen to have popped into pizza hut today and the kids menu is also TMNT themed. I suspect it's bigger than some imagine.

I've said it before, and although I can't speak to the LEGO sets, I cannot keep the TMNT figures in stock to save my life (save those idiotic turtle variants they keep churning out). I have no clue if this success is translating over to the LEGO sets, and I've truthfully only ever seen the Lair and the Shredder set be sold out at most places... but TMNT has done extremely well in all of its animated iterations, so it's a bit shocking to me that so many people are surprised at its success in general.

jockosjungle

When I was a kid, you couldn't get a figure for love nor money one Christmas. However with so much more merchandising these days, I guess its a lot harder to spot something selling well. When I was a kid in the 80's, I wanted a Postman pat van and toy, I got a small plastic figure and a corgi van, pretty much all that was available to buy. Now every single TV show has a rack of toys dedicated to it and there are far more shows now than there were.

So nowadays the difference between a hit is probably much different to seeing people fighting over cabbage patch dolls or sleeping overnight to get a Stretch Armstrong.

Also I don't know the production cycle of a lego set, I imagine sets are designed and made in advance and much planning goes into this, hence if a set is scheduled, it launches.

As said, there is a movie to come, etc. Maybe Turtlemania is now what it was, but I'm fairly sure it'll be successful.