Jan 16, 2022

Likenesses and TMNT Ultimates... a rant

The recent NECA Keno and the possibility of Super7 being able to do toys that aren't specific to the vintage toyline got me thinking: Since the Vintage Sculpts DO NOT TRULY RESEMBLE THE ACTORS, when they get recreated in Ultimates, then the updated toys SHOULDN'T LOOK LIKE THE ACTORS... why is this important? Well, the Fourhorsemen did MOTUC and they got pretty close on their likeness to the actors, which is super cool, but the complete opposite direction of what I'm thinking... it also goes against my principles, but the TMNT Line is far morw cartoony than MOTUC. Meaning that a Realistic, say Vanilla Ice, would look weird against Banana jumpsuit April.
Paige Turco: real vs toy.
Thw Action figure looks more like a young Betty White than it does Paige Turco.

Walker looks nothing like Stuart Wilson... the former Senator who was behind the Killer Tomatoes.
Whit looks nothing like Elias Koteas... Honestly he looks more like Terrence Stamp... Kneel and stuff. Yikes on the reused Casey parts, but I got the joke...

Do you see where I'm going with this? No, it's not bypassing Vanilla Ice's likeness to get a Possibly illegal dock rave singer figure: Cool Ice... ゴゴゴゴ JoJo reference was unavoidable.
But the reason is that the 2012 Hattori Tatsu looks far too much like Toshiro Obata that it would bring too much legal tape and stop the figure fron being made. I mean if Tom Cruise Characters get made as toys that look NOTHING like Tom Cruise...

Then how about making a Vintage Toyline Tatsu figure NOT BASED ON TOSHIRO OBATA... just a generic bald guy that kinda looks Asian... well, here's my proposition:

Using Eric "Cornboy" Maisie as the basic shape of the head, ears, nose, chin, but giving him Tatsu's mustache and eyebrows. Before anyone starts claiming racism, my angle is accuracy at being inaccurate to the original actor. If somehow, Super7 was able to get the likeness rights for an Ernie Reyes Jr. Keno Figure, I kinda want him to look more like a longish haired Dante Basco circa Hook instead of looking like Ernie Reyes Jr.

This seemingly blatant attempt at bypassing likenesses MIGHT BE problematic from a legal standpoint... I don't know the legal stuff. But from an artistic point of view, what I'm suggesting is to recreate the horribly bad (in the likeness department) sculpts from the era in order to update them to the Ultimates style.

With that said, I also would like them to acquire the correct likeness rights in order to have a proper Paige Turco movie 3 April, a Proper Tatsu looking like Toshiro Obata, a Vanilla Ice looking like Vanilla Ice, etc.

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