Hey Guys! I'm a TMNT collector and documentary filmmaker. On this channel I combine those two passions! Sometimes I may review a new toy or collectible and sometimes I might just show you my collection or interview someone in the TMNT world! But, rest assured it will be all about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! I'm also filming a documentary on TMNT collectors! We are currently in the editing process but, we are always open to coming out and filming you, your story, and your collection! So just let me know! Thanks for watching and make sure you hit that subscribe button! Watch a few videos! Comment and hit the like button and tell me about you and your collection whether it be ninja turtles or not! #TMNT #TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles #ActionFigures #Collectibles #NinjaTurtles #HeroesInAHalfShell
In my opinion is unhealthy when you start neglecting other important aspects of your life because of it, at simple glance it doesn't seem that way, but I don't know the guy to know for sure. If it's either a good or bad collection, to me, it only depends on the presentation not the size or value of the collection. This one could use some work in that aspect.
I was a Mirage Studios Turtles Fan when the toyline and cartoon came out. I was about 14 or 15. I didn't mind the transition as i was fairly new to the franchise, and i could keep it compartmentalized. I continued to collect the b/w books(occasionly dipping my toe in the Archie stuff), I loved buying the early toys, and I watched the cartoon for a couple of years. My real love continued with the first movie and the video games as the rest gave way to my aging out. I had a good friend who loved the b/w books and got me into them, as he had with the X-men as well. He bought the first wave of figures but hated the cartoon and what happened to the franchise. To be fair, he got tired of most things that year as well, but it never seemed to be an age thing. He had moved away and just seemed to want to cut ties with most things. I think it was depression.
Always enjoy PixelDan but the interviewer was weirdly standoffish and came off uneducated. Opening the video with a "get over it" reeks of insecurities.
So, by the time this video came out, Playmates had already announced the Technodrome release just a few weeks back. I'd doubt that announcement was prior to this shoot, though. Re: comic book TMNT: As a kid, I was introduced to TMNT through the cartoon. However, within a year (1988), I'd learned of the comics, and picked up books as back issues. Once I had the comics, THOSE were more my Turtles. I preferred the serious tone and grittiness. Then the 1990 movie came along and was a bit of a hybrid of both, though still more heavily leaning on the comics as source material. The arcade game came out, and just blew me away. I don't look on the cartoon with disdain, but it is very silly to me...but the whole concept is, really. I tend to like things that know how to stay fresh and be a template ready for reinvention. That said, my affections also tend to lean closer to source materials, like G1 Transformers and Mirage TMNT. It can be a fascinating thing how one's perception can be shaped by how much nostalgia was initially imprinted.
Born before 76, I was into Star Wars then Joe. I got into Joe in 83, and was already thinking Joe jumped the shark with stuff like the fridge and Sgt Slaughter. So even though I may tail on ninja force, I didn’t like those other deviations from a more realistic army guy either. As you say though, somebody likes these toys. Good for them, I am not going to complain. If someone else likes em, but I won’t feel the need to get them for myself. As a toy store owner, you most definitely would want people to have some oddball toy line be their fave or you would not be able to sell that stuff. Nice convo with Pixel Dan
First, great job on the relaxed atmosphere and documentary styled look, whether you meant for it or not. It's a great switch up from a lot of other interview vids. I've only spoken to Dan once a few times in St. Louis at QuadCon and I was immediately struck by his low key and very honest demeanor, rounded out by a playful attitude about toy collecting and pop culture in general. So much of what you guys covered makes sense. Especially in how widespanning fandom has become. My first toyetic movie was seeing Empire Strikes Back in theatres, and I remember about a year ago, meeting a Star Wars fan that, the animated Clone Wars was the ONLY Star Wars they knew as a child. Zero interest in the original trilogy. It's a very VERY weird thing to see the difference between people's collecting interests because of timelines of reinventions of IPs. Personally I remembered the years from 79 through 89, a solid ten years of when I really was into toys, then having some years where I didn't really collect, and then suddenly getting back into toys through gaming and comics that all reignited around the time Image Comics and Magic the Gathering seemed to lead the charge, and suddenly being a nerd was becoming more and more acceptable. In NO way would I have imagined how popular pop culture has become. On the subject of TMNT, I had one of the reprints of the original TMNT comics, but didn't like the cartoon when it came out, while my younger brother who is around you and Dan's age, was a massive fan of the cartoon because he was right at that point of loving it as a little kid.
The dude with the man bun is definitely g@y and “woke” he said I was a chauvinist because I don’t care for the unnecessary gender swapping of characters in mutant mayhem. Which is incredibly ignorant for one, I’m married to a woman. Two, it goes both ways if a character was a woman I wouldn’t want them switching it to a man. For example if they switched april to a man that would be dumb as hell. The only people who defend the woke gender and race swapping of beloved characters are the hypocrites who aren’t true fans of the tmnt franchise. He’s also a fascist to attack anyone with different beliefs without reason. Anyone who disagrees with me just exposes themselves as not a true fan of the beloved franchise. Period. I’m glad I didn’t invite this guy to come see my collection had he said something like that at my home he wouldn’t be walking out the door unscathed. Believe that 💯
21:37 If you look up photos of the wax sculpts of the original version of Rocksteady, he looks ALOT like the Gatekeeper Rocksteady figure. That makes me wonder if they did that deliberately.
I love this conversation so much. I was a late admirer of GI Joe due to my age. So I was all in on Battle Corps and Ninja Force. 91-94 was my prime toy age, much like you guys. In time, my younger brothers and I discovered older stuff and loved it as well. Before internet and toy guides we just had comic shops, flea markets, and yard sales to find early GI Joe. That was part of our fun too. We got to discover all this years after initial release which meant despite our age gap we learned about all this together. We may not have been there at the beginning but we loved the ARAH run as much as anyone. And it still bonds us to this day.
Great discussion. Yeah, only Dan has the power to make Ninja Force Zartan's price go up. Stay away from Transformers, Dan. At least wait till I get what I need. Better yet, just stay away from Transformers. 😎
87 Turtles was my early childhood. To me it's like MotU was to Dan. I was born the year the toys came out, so don't remember the cartoon at all and moved onto Power Rangers by age 5. Going back to turtles in my teen years, I'm definitely that guy that prefers the Mirage influence. 03 cartoon, original movie. I like Secret of the Ooze and the Bay movies, but 03 and the original film are Turtles on the screen to me. I got a copy of the original mirage book at free comic book day years ago, I really like that too. It's this thing where I like Krang, Rocksteady and Bebop, Mondo Gecko, ect as toys, but I really enjoy the stories from those Mirage books and their adaptations.
I remember when Ninja Force came in very early 90's IIRC. It was at the end of the original toy line craze (they ran out of ideas). Before they tried their first reboot of it with the new molded fist hands weapons slid into. The line ran its course by then, the show ran its course was on reruns, and other toys came like TMNT, Marvel Toy Biz, Swamp Thing etc. I had the Storm Shadow and 1 other I can't remember but I do remember the neon like Zartan and Road Pig being very off putting as a kid lol comparatively with their originals & everything that came before it color palette wise. I was mostly done with GI Joe by then though. In retrospect it was cool what they did and to collect these sub lines. I remember liking Python Patrol and Tiger Force back then and the vehicle variants were cool!
That discussion with the Ninja Turtles comics is almost certainly true; I remember when I was collecting MOTU Classics, I would frequently come across He-Man fans on message boards who would still, 30 years later, be lamenting how the Filmation cartoon dumbed down and kidified He-Man compared to the mini-comics the figures came with. Always seemed crazy to me, as I don't think it is hard to argue the show was a big reason for how it got so big in the first place. Similarly with Turtles, yes the comics were always cool, but also super niche; the cartoon is what made it a global phenomenon, even if it isn't to someone's personal liking.
And for all the flack the Michael Bay Transformers movies get, you can't deny the fact that those movies brought Transformers back into mainstream awareness after two decades. And sure, to those of us who grew up with Beast Wars and the Unicron Trilogy, we know that Transformers was always around and it never left, but it just wasn't on most people's radar.
As an old school Joe fan (Who is also a He-man, TMNT, Transformers and Toxic crusaders fan) I don't despise Ninja force. I still strongly feel it has zero place within GIJoe alongside the older stuff that's more realistic, with some sci-fi flairs here and there. BUT, I dont think Ninja force fails to have a right to exist or deserve the ire of the fanbase and in a vacuum I genuinely think it was a fun sub-line and I would never want to try and diminish it in the eyes of someone who loves it. I like a fair bit of Ninja force myself. But I see it sort of as a separate toyline in a way. (My own hot take on Ninja force is I think it was a better sub-line than most of the GiJoe sub-lines. Battle-force 2000, Mega-marines, Dino-hunters, Star Brigade I'm looking at you) Besides, the ninja craze of the time, along with the flouresce-neonsplosion of the early 90s... I dug the ninja force toys and didn't care. I didn't play with them as a kid with my older gijoes, though. Even then I saw them as their own thing.
