NECA Retires the First Wave of Their Ninja Turtle Toy Line

It seems that NECA has actually stopped manufacturing their amazing line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys from the first wave. This means that Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael will not be produced again for a very long time. These action figures were based on the Ninja Turtles comics that were published way back in 1984. TMNT fans between the ages of 25-40 are possibly more familiar with comic version of these turtles since they were popular during the mid 1980s before their animated debut on the December of 1987. It is hard to believe NECA is retiring these little green guys because they sold like hotcakes at online stores such as www.eBay.com. Unfortunately, due to their limited availability, their prices have dramatically gone up. The Michelangelo figure can go as high as twenty five dollars on eBay auctions which are pretty high considering the fact that they were only ten to twelve dollars in 2008. Michelangelo happens to be the most common turtle of the four unlike his brother Raphael. NECA's Raphael can go as high as ninety dollars on auctions since he is in fact the rarest NECA Ninja Turtle. I am assuming he is the toughest one to find because shipments of these toys may have contained many Michelangelo and Leonardo figures rather than equal amounts of all four turtles.

It is terrible news that NECA has stopped releasing these figures because they had such amazing details to them. They came with tons of useful accessories such as ninja stars, clawed hands, and diorama pieces to assemble a live action scene from the comics. It is hard to tell if NECA will continue releasing different waves of these figures since they rarely provide fans with updates, but all I know is that the long awaited Shredder figure will be released around the second quarter of 2009. Also, I don't think NECA will be releasing the mirage comic versions of both Casey Jones and Splinter any time soon. It would be nice if they focused on other incarnations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles because there are plenty of fans who want figures from the first two live action movies that were released in 1990 and 1991. If NECA made a live action version of both Leo and Mike, I would be incredibly excited. I don't collect action figures, but I could make an exception if NECA did produce these guys.