GMTV commercials - September 1994 (3)

The last of three commercial breaks recorded from GMTV on a Saturday in September 1994:

- Mr. Bucket
- Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: Road Ready Mutations
- Littlest Pet Shop Care Centre
- The Dandy

Sadly only one non-duplicate in this break (The Dandy), the other commercials were repeated from the previous breaks.

At a comic convention I attended in March everyone was given a goody bag that included a copy of The Dandy, now called "Dandy Xtreme". It's like some distant old uncle that desperately wants to convince you that he's cool but no-one's buying it. Literally.

That said, the free gift was a Transformers Animated / Revenge of the Fallen sticker album. So in that particular instance, having the Dandy handy wasn't a complete waste.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• advert
• advertisement
• commercial
• UK
• GMTV
• toys
• mr. bucket
• tmnt
• ninja turtles
• hero turtles
• littlest pet shop
• the dandy

[DeeJayBee21]

i pissed myself laughing at the mr bucket advert

[anxresi]

How on Earth are girls supposed to play that Mr Bucket Game?! SEXIST!!

[David315842]

@asukasboy I guess Toys R Us and Woolworths were the places to go for Turbomasters and Predators from 92, as well as Classic Transformers. Hmm I din't know that articulation over realism, seeing as those these wrestlers need to do stuff I would have to go for articulation. I guess this is why Hornby soon pulled out of the action figure buisnes and just stuck with trains. It's funny though, in the end galoob became another company absorbed by Hasbro. :D

[asukasboy]

@David315842 Yes, the WCW figs were sold here by Hornby on behalf of Galoob. They were more realistic than the Hasbro WWF figures, but as they had no articulation at all weren't nearly as fun.

I'd say from 1991 onwards it was always hit-and-miss as to whether any toy store I went into had Transformers. 96-97 were the REALLY dark years, once even the old G2 stock had vanished. Then Beast Wars kicked in and we were rolling again.

[David315842]

@asukasboy Yep that sounds to be the right era. I knew that WCW figures were being produced by Hornby around 1991, so obviously they didn't produce the WWf figures. :D Scarcity of Transformers? Well G1 after 1992 yes they were, but then we had G2 and nearly streight after that it was Beast Wars, we in Europe were very lucky to have Transformers continue as long as it did. :) No doubt Playmates will release toys based on this new CGI Turtles series that's coming out and won't go OTT with it. :)

[asukasboy]

@David315842 Yeah, I got all my Turtles toys between Xmas 1990 and mid-91. After that it was Hasbro WWF figs that plugged the gap for me due to the end of Real Ghostbusters and the increasing scarcity of Transformers. Kept watching the TMNT cartoon for years, though.

I was alarmed when I saw the 2k3 Turtles figs donning skateboard gear, but yes, to the credit of Playmates they mostly seemed to learn from the mistakes that they made in the 90s.

[David315842]

@asukasboy Hasbro WWF figures, this must be in the early 90's...I think. I know that some of the earlier toys were from LJN, but Hasbro gained the license for the toys inbetween them and Jackks Pacific. Since TMNT helped put Playmates on the map, they soon turned the Turtles into a huge cash cow. Hopefully when the new revival came along, Playmates didn't go too overboard with the figures this time around. :)

[asukasboy]

@David315842 It's a shame, because the first few years of toys were amazing, but as they started to expand beyond just having characters and vehicles from the show and did nonsensical stuff like Farmer Mike and Caveman Leo, it just wasn't the same anymore.

I don't remember when I stopped buying Turtles toys. I think Hasbro WWF figures came along, and between that and Transformers, TMNT toys just faded into the background for me.

[David315842]

@asukasboy I can see what you're saying. It is actually a bit farfecthed for Shredder to become a module or Leonardo a firetruck etc. they were defenatily trying to cash in on other franchises then, that was evident when they crossed over the Turtles with Star Trek, LOL. :D

[asukasboy]

@David315842 I was kind of okay with the initial Mutations toys (regular turtles to mutants and so on), but the Road Ready ones were just ridiculous, even by the standards of later TMNT figures. Poor Splinter, started out as a man, became a rat, then a gaudy van.

[David315842]

Having buckets of fun with balls, hmmm. Ah the Mutations line, basically it was TMHT trying to be like Transformers, it was so obvious. :D