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Rad Plastic
Tracing the entire history of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy line from concept development in 1987 all the way to unreleased toys from 1999, Rad Plastic reveals the history of one of the most popular and iconic toy lines in history. You'll learn about how toys are made, from napkin sketch to store shelves, and every step in between. The Ninja Turtles were RAD in comics. RAD on the TV screen. And now for the first time RAD in a 400 page hardcover tome fit for the coffee table. It's RAD PLASTIC!
400 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 24, 2025
What an incredible look into the design process and history behind one of the most legendary action figure lines in history! I learned a lot, and despite largely being a coffee table book to appreciate for its photos, there was much to discover about the artists behind the magic.
February 3, 2022
Very interesting to see the development of Turtles through the years and the work and development that went into a toy. Although the composition of the book is great. The style and output this book presents can be pressing in relation to others in its same categories. The multiple reprints to the book defeat the validation in a pressing. A decent representation of the toy line though with items you may not see from early production.
February 2, 2022
This book is a picture history of the vintage TMNT toy line. Large size with multiple pictures on every page. A great coffee table book for a casual enthusiast or the perfect reference for any toy collector. 200+ pages of visual history of a toy line.
February 20, 2022
While I appreciate the time and effort it must have taken the author to make this book, I was unfortunately disappointed in the final product. There were a number of reasons for this:
- lack of completeness. I understand it must have been difficult to track down all the resources for this book, but I expect a book advertised as "tracing the entire history of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy line" to include nearly every toy from the line, but it doesn't. There is really good detail and research for the later years (my favorite part of the book aside from the barebones section on The Next Mutation), but the first two years of the toyline don't even feature all the figures. For example, the 1988 'basic assortment' page only has a prototype Bebop, Rocksteady, and Splinter. While you do say that the Series 1 prototypes are rare, why aren't the finished figures included in their place? Later on, one of the figures, Mona Lisa, is just a pencil sketch. I felt that was an issue throughout that finished figures and cardback art were generally not there and would have made this feel more complete. While the unreleased movie playset was very cool, there is almost nothing on the fun playsets that were released, such as the Technodrome, or special release figures.
- lack of polish. The use of ComicSans is pretty inexcusable for a professional publication in 2021 as it really makes the book feel juvenile and amateurish in nature. For example, the list of figures for each year that break up each section look like a Wiki page and not something enticing to the reader. The writing at times feels too much like a vanity project and not how a publication of this nature (and price) should be written. For example, the massive amount of time dedicated to the unreleased movie sewer lair, while admirable, comes off as a bit of 'fan-boying' as the section ends with ' surely some dedicated fan will build a custom version of this epic toy.' I get you are passionate about the topic, but it doesn't read professionally as written. Finally, page 58 has a URL written out...in a print book. Why? It could have easily been a QR code or written in a way that didn't have "http://..." in it.
There were some things I liked such as the unreleased products, alternate sculpts, and the actual toy art, but this book just felt sloppy and unprofessional. I honestly would have given it a 2.5, because I did like some of the content, but Goodreads doesn't allow that. Again, I understand the hard work that went into this book, but as a big TMNT fan I was left feeling Shell Shocked.
- lack of completeness. I understand it must have been difficult to track down all the resources for this book, but I expect a book advertised as "tracing the entire history of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy line" to include nearly every toy from the line, but it doesn't. There is really good detail and research for the later years (my favorite part of the book aside from the barebones section on The Next Mutation), but the first two years of the toyline don't even feature all the figures. For example, the 1988 'basic assortment' page only has a prototype Bebop, Rocksteady, and Splinter. While you do say that the Series 1 prototypes are rare, why aren't the finished figures included in their place? Later on, one of the figures, Mona Lisa, is just a pencil sketch. I felt that was an issue throughout that finished figures and cardback art were generally not there and would have made this feel more complete. While the unreleased movie playset was very cool, there is almost nothing on the fun playsets that were released, such as the Technodrome, or special release figures.
- lack of polish. The use of ComicSans is pretty inexcusable for a professional publication in 2021 as it really makes the book feel juvenile and amateurish in nature. For example, the list of figures for each year that break up each section look like a Wiki page and not something enticing to the reader. The writing at times feels too much like a vanity project and not how a publication of this nature (and price) should be written. For example, the massive amount of time dedicated to the unreleased movie sewer lair, while admirable, comes off as a bit of 'fan-boying' as the section ends with ' surely some dedicated fan will build a custom version of this epic toy.' I get you are passionate about the topic, but it doesn't read professionally as written. Finally, page 58 has a URL written out...in a print book. Why? It could have easily been a QR code or written in a way that didn't have "http://..." in it.
There were some things I liked such as the unreleased products, alternate sculpts, and the actual toy art, but this book just felt sloppy and unprofessional. I honestly would have given it a 2.5, because I did like some of the content, but Goodreads doesn't allow that. Again, I understand the hard work that went into this book, but as a big TMNT fan I was left feeling Shell Shocked.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews