Monday, June 28, 2010

Blast from the Past #316: Idea for Duck action figure

Again from that sketchbook -- this is one of the few pages with an inked drawing... and it is one of the few with an actual date, in this case April 25, 1988.



I have no idea if this drawing influenced the creation of the "Ace Duck" figure Playmates did make...



... but I suppose it's possible! -- PL

13 comments:

  1. I have a theory that like your previous post of an astronaut turtle not being an exact toy produced, but the basic idea taken to create a similar one in Space Cadet Raphael this is a basic concept that Playmates Toys took and made Ace Duck from.

    I admit I like this version over the arrogant muscle bound wrestler we were shown in TMNT Advnetures around that same time.

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  2. One of my favorite memories is tied to Ace. I was 7 or 8 years old and totally obsessed with ninja turtles, and I already had an Ace of my own. One day, while I was riding the school bus, I happened to look out into a cactus just off the road and saw Ace perched in the middle. I thought about him the whole way home and as soon as I got there, I begged my mom "Please, can I go to the pond? I found something!" The pond was halfway between my house and where I saw him (probably a mile one way) and the path going by it was the only thing connecting the two neighborhoods without driving out to the main roads. Nonetheless, I ran. When I got there, Ace was waiting, a bit sunbleached. The brown plastic of his jacket and blue paint of his jeans made him easy to tell apart from my original. I thought, before I took him, "What if some kid comes back looking for him?" and then I assured myself that Ace was safer with me and that kid should have taken better care of him to begin with :)

    And that's why I have two of these guys!

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  3. I just found out that Platinum Dunes, Michael Bay's company better known for screwing up classic eighties horror reboot films like Nightmare On Elm Street will be responsible for the new TMNT.

    This is a sad fact that makes me a little disappointed as my expectations for the up coming film now are low. I just expect a Bay influence of big dumb explosions and poor storyline/ character development to take the place of the original dark and intelligent TMNT source material. Where's Nolan when you need him?

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  4. I don't think you give yourself enough credit for how many of your designs Playmates was "inspired" by. ;-)

    I didn't really have any idea just how many characters (and characteristics, for that matter) you were responsible for from the early line until some of your blog posts.

    It's a shame this one didn't get made directly though,as he looks like he would have made a nice companion to Space Usagi.

    Also I have a small Ace Duck story myself, I remember as a kid my cousin and I would often play with our TMNT figures, and one day I noticed the hat on his Ace was removable while mine was stuck to his head! Infuriated that mine wouldn't come off like his, we spent the better part of an afternoon using our child-level strength to pull on Ace's hat until we were finally able to pry it loose, upon examination we found mine had a hole in his head and his hat had a peg used to glue it in place...I was disappointed. Obviously years later I found this was a variant like most toys have, but at the time I remember feeling very cheated. haha

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  5. I can see how it could have been inspiration for Ace Duck. This drawing he seems more like a jet-fighter pilot where as the Ace Duck figure seems more like a WWI or WWII pilot with the flight jacket & such.

    This design would have made a good second version of Ace Duck or as another duck pilot. Maybe turn this one into a rival pilot and give him mallard coloring?

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