Blast from the Past #62 repost: Evil Mutants

I drew these two wacked-out evil mutant animal characters sometime in the late 1980's as part of our continuing efforts to help Playmates extend its TMNT action figure line.



I have NO idea what possessed me to combine a lynx with cyborg elements and add football to the mix, but I think it could have made a cool figure.



"Oscar" the mutant snail guy was a character I hoped would get made -- there's just something about him I like (I think it's his elegant bilateral symmetry). But neither of these dudes made it onto the animated show or into plastic form. -- PL

Blast from the Past #51 repost: Bulldog Mutant

As previously glimpsed in Blast#49 piloting the Exoskeleton, this is the bulldog mutant (who was never given a name, as far as I can recall) which Kevin and I worked up for Playmates when they were looking for ideas for animal mutants to be the Shredder's minions in the first year of the toy line.





I know I penciled the top drawing, and I'm pretty sure I penciled the bottom one too, which Kevin inked. It's too bad this character never made it to the toy shelves -- I think he would have been very cool! -- PL

Blast from the Past #49 repost: Exoskeleton concept for bad guys

In my first year of trying to come up with toy designs for the Playmates TMNT toy line, I drew this sketch for a mechanical exoskeleton, one of several designs for vehicles to be used by villains in the TMNT universe. (I'm not sure why I started to ink it and then stopped.) In this case, it was to be used by one of the Shredder's animal mutants -- the bulldog mutant dude piloting this rig was one of several mutant animal characters we sketched up for Playmates (this guy never made it to toy shelves, though). I have a better drawing or two of him around someplace -- maybe I'll post those sometime.



Anyway, I really hoped Playmates would make this toy -- basically because I wanted to play with it! But as I recall, we were told it was to expensive to produce, and it was shelved. Ironically, several years later Playmates produced an extensive -- and very cool -- line of toys which were almost all exoskeleton vehicles, for a property called EXO-SQUAD. I guess timing IS everything. -- PL

P.S. What's the old saying -- "All things come to he who waits"? Playmates eventually produced some nifty "Turtleized" exoskeleton-type vehicles for the Turtles in 2005 -- the "M.E.C.H. Wrekkers" line. -- PL