The Toys That Built America

Struggling artists Peter Laird

and Kevin Eastman,

dream of having a hit comic book of their own.

They're staying up late at night

and they're kind of one-upping each other

with their drawings.

Eastman wanted to do something just to make Peter laugh.

Pete, what do you think?

It could be a pretty deadly assassin, if you ask me.

- (Pete chuckling) - Let me see that.

What starts as a joke

will one day become a $17 billion multimedia franchise

and include a revolutionary toy line

that jump-starts a flatlining action figure market.

Could put a toy turtle in the hand

of every kid in America, right?

For any toy line to reach a billion dollars, at that time,

that was pretty rare.

In 1990, Target sold more Turtle figures

than Snickers bars.

But the "Ninja Turtles'" kung fu grip

on the industry is challenged.

Exactamundo, dude.

When a new sensation

kicks them to the curb.

"Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" action figures

go from being a sought-after toy...

What do you mean we don't have enough toys for Christmas?

To a cultural phenomenon.

There's no precedent

for how many "Power Rangers" toys sold.

Together, they'll give rise

to a new kind of hero.

These two created a market for martial-art toys.

Well, what do you think?

There's never been anybody who's been able to stand up

and defeat the power of the "Power Rangers"

and the "Ninja Turtles."

Let me finish it.

But for now, Eastman and Laird have no idea

of the gold mine they're sitting on.

- Ninja Turtles. - (laughing)

Yeah.

By the early 1980s,

martial-arts films are gaining popularity in the US,

thanks in part to late night TV.

In the '70s, TV stations started finding

some of these old movies

that they could just leave running overnight

and so they would use things like monster movies

and kung fu movies.

You began finding Bruce Lee movies on television

and then all of the Chuck Norris movies.

But despite Hollywood's success,

the toy market can't seem to get any momentum.

The attempts to bring martial-arts toys to the market

had largely floundered.

Aurora had their "Kar-aa-ate Man"

and "Big Jim" had his kung fu academy,

but it was still a market that was kind of ripe

if you could find the right property to apply to that.

For comic illustrators Eastman and Laird,

making toys is the last thing on their minds.

Laird was about 10 years older than Eastman

and they're these two guys who love drawing comics.

They were working on a character called Fugitoid,

trying to get that off as a comic book,

and they got a lot of rejections back.

So they were kind of, you know, down in the dumps.

They're passing drawings back and forth

just trying to make each other laugh

and Kevin Eastman draws a picture of a turtle

standing upright with nunchucks.

Pete, what do you think?

There's something wrong with you.

Peter decided he'd take a crack at it,

so he drew kind of a slightly different turtle.

And Eastman wrote at the top, "Ninja Turtles."

Yeah.

Laird adds "Teenage Mutant."

- Whoa! - (both laughing)

The slowest animal on earth

being a sort of martial arts expert, that's just funny.

Eastman and Laird start to think that,

hey, maybe we got something here.

That's when Kevin Eastman was like,

"You know what, one's great,

but how about four, we make a team?"

What, what do we call 'em?

They just kinda looked around the apartment

to see what they had,

and they found an art book

that mentioned Renaissance painters.

When you're creating martial artist turtles,

you're already saying traditional rules don't apply.

Ghirlandaio?

Looks like a Michelangelo.

What about,

what about something like Leonardo?

And from there, they were able to extract the four names

that became the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,"

Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello.

They start to create a world building

around the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."

And it takes a while to make a comic book.

You've gotta plot it out,

you've gotta write it, you've gotta draw it.

The "Ninja Turtles" origins are this radioactive canister

hit a jar of turtles that this kid was carrying

and they all spilled down into the sewers

and mutagen mutated them.

Then, they give their teenage turtles

a supporting cast.

Splinter is this rat

who also is affected by this radioactive ooze

that creates the Ninja Turtles,

and he develops this crew into what they become.

In May of 1984, they completed the comic

and they were self-publishing.

With maxed out credit cards

and a loan from Peter Laird's uncle,

they were able to publish.

The comic books were extremely violent,

geared toward an audience just like them,

indie, alternative, college kids.

And only 3,000 copies were made

and it's sold on the Comics Buyer's Guide.

But their timing couldn't be more perfect.

In June of 1984, a movie comes out

called "The Karate Kid,"

and there was a lot of hype around that movie

and it was just a phenomenon.

We started to see people

really wanting to get into martial arts.

"The Karate Kid" was the unlikely hero,

the relatable underdog.

That's who we wanted, that's who we rooted for.

What kid didn't watch that movie

and start doing crane kicks in his kitchen?

They sold out of all 3,000 copies

and that's when distributors started to notice, like,

"Hey, let's reprint that one,

and then we want this many copies of issue two."

So now, they're off to the races.

Now they've got a property

and they have to continue the story.

Meanwhile, halfway around the world,

a cartoon theme song composer

is looking for the next chapter in his story.

Haim Saban is a very creative person.

He was a musician in Israel

and then came over to the United States

and continued to do music

for lots of different animated programs

like "Inspector Gadget" and the "Masters of the Universe."

In the early '80s,

he starts looking to start establishing his own

intellectual properties as well.

He's working in Japan at the time,

feeling a little bit burned out,

not really sure what his next move is,

and on the TV he sees "Super Sentai Bioman."

Well, this is kind of a revelation for him.

"Super Sentai" is this long-running Japanese series

in which these superheroes are fighting these wild monsters.

This is just an acid trip action adventure.

It's fantastical martial arts, huge monsters,

just this revolutionary thing

that really didn't exist in the US at the time.

By the time Saban sees "Bioman" in 1984,

that's already the eighth iteration of "Super Sentai."

Not only is there a TV show here that's already been made,

but there's already a toy line.

Someone else has already done all the hard work.

Saban realizes that

there might be an appetite for this

in the kids media marketplace in the United States.

So he thinks to himself,

"Well, maybe this is my next step.

This could be a big thing if I bring it to America."

As Saban gets started,

there's no stopping the "Ninja Turtles."

Over the next two years,

Eastman and Laird publish seven issues.

And it becomes this big cult sensation.

Selling in the hundreds of thousands,

which, for an independent comic, is unheard of.

Their success catches the eye

- of a licensing agent - (knocking)

hungry for a new opportunity.

- Hi. - Oh, hey, we're through here.

Mark Freedman is a high-energy guy

who really has a thorough understanding of the business.

He was doing some work for "Hanna-Barbera" at the time,

licensing out some of their properties.

But at this point in his career,

he's sick of making everyone else money

and he wants to make a little bit of that money for himself.

He created his own company called Surge Licensing,

and his family's putting pressure on him