The Quest For Radio Boy

So chances are, if you're reading this blog, you've seen this clay sculpt on ebay. It has been up there for AWHILE...and frankly, I had always questioned it's authenticity. SO... I decided to do a little super sluething. First I hit up Steve Murphy at Mirage.

I Said:

Hey murph, You may have seen the wax sculpt in the link below on ebay before. The guy claims that it was an unproduced TMNT figure. The guy wants FAR too much for it obviously, but before I go through the trouble of haggling him down to something reasonable, I wanted to try to confirm that it was intended for the toy line…Do you remember this one ever coming across Mirage for approvals?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=220012759708&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=012

Steve replied:

Hi Stephan,
Hmmm, it doesn't ring a bell but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Let me forward it on to Ryan Brown: he has a much better memory for these things than I do. Back at ya...

Being the impatient guy I am, while I waited on Ryan's input, I shot an E-mail to Scott Hensey at Anaglyph Studios, who sculpted a large portion of the original line.

I said:

Hey Scott!

It's Stephan Reese, I have a question for you about one of your pieces.
It is definitely your style, so I'm not questioning that you sculpted it, but I do question that it was for TMNT and not for a different toy line. I asked Steve Murphy at Mirage about it, and he doesn't remember it coming through them for approvals, so I thought you might remember what you sculpted him for.

Thanks!
Stephan

Scott Replied:

Hello Stephan-
Thanks for the contact-
Yes, I remember that piece. It is clay by the way, not wax.
Yes, we sculpted it here at my studio. To tell the truth though - I can't say for sure it was for Turtles, it may have been for Toxie. It was one or the other for sure.
Good luck, let me know how it turns out.
scott

The plot thickened! It was definately either Toxic Crusaders or TMNT. Minutes later, Ryan got back to me.

Ryan said:

Yes. It was never approved though...I have the concept drawing for it somewhere.

So then I sent an e-mail to GML Enterprises, the person who has the Radio Boy Sculpt.

I said:

Dear gmlenterprises,

I was able to get absolute confirmation from Ryan Brown at Mirage Studios that radio boy did come through them for approvals. So, that means I am interested... Now, I would like to talk about price.

The current price you have set for the figure is frankly astronomical. And I have noticed that you've had him on the market for QUITE some time now. I am probably the foremost collector of ninja turtle prototypes and wax sculpts in the world. My collection includes such rarities as: *The HotSpot Wax Sculpt
*A Scratch resin Prototype
*A Pizzaface resin prototype (Unreleased version, hand painted by the sculptor)
*The wax sculpt for an unreleased version of Casey Jones.

I have never paid more than (Price Edited Out) for any of these items, some of which are much more historically relivant to the toy line than radio boy (as he was never approved). As such, I would like to offer you (Price Edited Out) for the radio boy sculpt. Let me know either way.

Thank You,
Stephan

So that is the saga so far. I will tell you more as the story unfolds!