I'm new here, of course I have questions

[Leonardo]

Hi, i'm new. As you could probably tell I love the "biggest sell out of b&w comics ever"


I grew up with the ninja turtles, and of course I had the usagi figure. Then one day I was in the comic store and was like, I think that guy was in ninja turtles once, and I fell in love with the book. I picked up the fg series pretty cheap, 20 issues for $10 and then used mycomicshop.com to complete the series. I'm totally hooked I'm on tons of tmnt message boards such as this one (like my own, look in my sig) and Usagi actually comes up quite often. I don't know why I never joined these forums before, anyways, I'm here now!
Me and a friend are actually thinking about using flash to make a usagi webtoon (if stan doesn't mind).


You'd be surprised how many tmnt fans, and even mild tmnt fans love usagi! I remember saying something about how the new thundercats issues were gross because they made the cats into a porno. Then someone commented (they just started reading usagi finally) that Stan doesn't need to have any porno in his comics, he does love so well. That just came from one of those immature tmnt fans, so I guess it has to have some meaning


Anyways enough with my life stories, here are the questions:

1. How come the Space Usagi toon was scrapped?

2.(question for Stan) Have you ever thought about making Usagi a total franchise like tmnt?

3. Is it true that Stan asked if Usagi could be in the second season of TMNT's new show? If so will there be the same action figure deal? (I'll try and find the link where I heard this rumor) EDIT: Sorry I'm retarded, I probably should have read the huge post saying usagi and the turtles in it before i asked this question

Finally I just wanted to say it's really cool that Stan gets in contact with his fans and chats with them and such.

[Stan Sakai]

1. How come the Space Usagi toon was scrapped?

2.(question for Stan) Have you ever thought about making Usagi a total franchise like tmnt?

3. Is it true that Stan asked if Usagi could be in the second season of TMNT's new show? If so will there be the same action figure deal? (I'll try and find the link where I heard this rumor) EDIT: Sorry I'm retarded, I probably should have read the huge post saying usagi and the turtles in it before i asked this question

Hi Leonardo, welcome,

1. Space Usagi was scrapped for a number of reasons, the biggest being that we could not find a toy manufacturer to underwrite the tv series. At that time, toys were the lion's share of the merchandising. Things have changed now. We had a lot of licensees on board, and we were even offered a time slot on tv. However, a toy series called Bucky O'Hare had appeared about seven years before Space Usagi. That bombed big time, which was understandable because both the toys and the tv series were not very good. Though SU was completely different in appearance and concept, still the toy companies shied away from anything to do with a rabbit in space.

2. I like to work on my comics. I have total control over everything. I know that I will have to compromise a lot if I spread the licensing out too much. Space Usagi was different in that it is one generation removed from the original Usagi, and I still had creative control over that property. I'm always open to talking with production companies, though. Usagi has been optioned a few times, but so far nothing has come out of it.

3. Peter contacted me with an offer for Usagi to appear in a cross-over story. I've always liked and respected Peter and I worked very well with Mirage in the past, so I jumped at the chance to work with them again. We're still in the early stages, so there have been no talks about another action figure, but I'm hopeful.

[Leonardo]

I appreciate you answering my questions so fast!

Space Usagi was cool, but it was never as good as the original in my opinon. I understand the Bucky O'hare thing, I heard that it actually did sell well, but because of Hasbro's bad marketing of the figures (which did suck) they lost money and just scrapped everything related to bucky o'hare. I'm guessing it could have done well since a lot of the fans of tmnt are huge fans of Bucky. Kinda weird, but I'll always prefer Usagi to Bucky

I love the comics, so I guess we don't want to see a repeat of the thing that happened to the turtles in the 80s when they became a franchise.

BTW while digging through my usagi stuff yesterday I found that Dark Horse figure, is there a possibility of darkhorse doing any other characters in plastic form?
Sad thing is I lost his swords Probably shouldn't have opened it, but it just looked so cool.
Alright I have to head back to school, ttyl!

[Stan Sakai]

is there a possibility of darkhorse doing any other characters in plastic form?

There is a 9" Usagi figure scheduled for a September release from Dark Horse.

[Leonardo]

Figure or statue? I heard there was a statue, so of course I'm going to get it to put it next to my New Leonardo statue

[Todd Shogun]

The new Leonardo statue is truly superb. A full 12" tall from base to sword tip. While equally awesome, the resin Usagi looks dwarfed next to it. Which brings me to this... any plans on a larger resin statue? Playmates are doing the TMNT (Mike is on the way...). Thing is, they are basing the designs off of the original TMNT #1 from 1984 (the first splash page actually). The designs are EXACTLY the same as they appeared in the comic. A design that is based on an early Usagi would be a dream come true.

The new Figure is a posable action figure very similar in design to the resin, but slightly larger. I think Stan posted some prelim. photos... gotta make Usagi whiter!!!!