A Collection a Day #31 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TMNT

A Collection a Day #31 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TMNT, originally uploaded by Cool and Collected.

If you are a child of the 80’s there’s a pretty good chance you had some of these green guys in your toy box. Some of us still have one or two, as you can see in the picture above. I’ve been wanting to do a picture like this for a while, and finally got motivated enough to haul out the boxes from the basement. I didn’t bother with all the vehicles, playsets, and villains for this photo, and left a bunch of other turtles in the dark, but you get the idea.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures were first released in 1988 by Playmates Toys. If you are starting a collection, look for the turtles and villains with soft rubber heads rather than hard plastic. Those are the very first figures that were released. Once they were deemed a success, Playmates started using the more expensive plastic for the heads.

TMNT merchandise has turned up everywhere from fast food meals to clothing to toys. Every few years it seems like the franchise gets a new life with the release of a new toy line, movie, or animated TV series, so the market for collecting TMNT merchandise keeps growing. My kids are starting to watch the cartoons and play with the toys, so it will be interesting to see how collectible these items may become.

Currently, you can buy the action figures in bulk on any given eBay day, but I also find them by the box load at yard sales. Expect to pay $1-3 per figure for the common ones, but maybe $5-10 for the rarer loose figures. Mint on card (MOC) figures can sell for $100+ dollars, but usually go for much less. Keep an eye out for the 1988 April O’Neill figure without any stripes on her pant legs, which is one of the rarest figures out there.

I have collected so many different things that I thought it would be fun to try and photograph a collection a day and see how far I can get.