Original Art

Check out the Mirage Studios ebay page! They are auctioning off the original artwork Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird created on the TMNT episode of the Netflix show "The Toys That Made Us"!

TMNT/Power Rangers #1

This one should be good! POWER RANGERS/TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #1 from IDW Publishing drops today at your local comic shop! Can't wait!

Mikey meets Santa!

Mikey's getting into the Christmas spirit!

New Comics!

Box of comics just came in from Mirage Publishing! So excited to start reading!

Armaggon

I'm still waiting for an Archie Comics accurate figure of this AWESOME and underused TMNT character! 

TMNT Movie Knockoffs

In my searches for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles items on ebay, I kept stumbling upon listings for Ninja Turtles 6 piece Classic Collection sets. These sets looked just like the Playmates TMNT Movie figures that were released in 1992, but the price was only around $13 for the 6 figures! Obviously these had to be knockoffs, but the quality in the pictures looked so good. Finally, out of curiosity I pulled the trigger and bought these Turtle boys from China! 

Donatello

Leonardo

Michelangelo

Raphael

 So, obviously you can see the differences in the side by side pictures. The knock off Turtles seem to only have 2 head sculpts. Raph and Don are styled after the Playmates Donatello and Mike and Leo look to be styled after the original Playmates Leonardo figure. The belts also come in two varieties Mike's and Don's. Those differences don't bother me too much, but some of the quality control issues seem common with these types of toys. You have extra plastic around the heads and the paint applications are less than perfect and they are made from hard plastic instead of the rubbery feeling stuff used to make the green teens in 1991. But one cool thing about these toys is the weapons! They are painted to look like the real thing and are not the standard brown color that came with the Playmates movie Turtles. Pretty cool, except Leo's swords are significantly warped. I'll have to figure out a way to correct that.

Master Splinter

Here is where these knockoffs get a little cray-cray! Master Splinter looks nothing like his Playmates counterpart. He looks more like a ninja raccoon with his gray fur and black coloring around his eyes. His fur is definitely not flocked and he is missing his robe. He does come with his bow and arrow though. I gotta say, I kind of like this take on the mutant master. 

Foot Soldier

Here is the rare example of how I actually think the knockoff figure improves on the original. I like the black coloring of the Foot Soldier over the gray of the Playmates version and the gray around the arms, legs and belt really pop against the dark of the body sculpt. Kind of reminds me of the Foot Ninja from the For Kids series. One not so cool thing is how they packaged him with the Foot Bopper weapon that was originally included with Movie Star Leonardo. Overall, I am pretty impressed with this set. I didn't pay all that much for it and they seem to be some of the better knockoff TMNT toys that I have seen around. Now take a look back at the commercial from 1991 promoting these awesome new toys featuring the movie likenesses of our favorite Turtle Teens!

New York Sewer

Any Turtles down there?

1990 Movie Shirt

Going through some old boxes of stuff at my Mom's house and found my old TMNT shirt from the first movie!!!

Arcade 1up TMNT at Walmart!

Found it at Walmart!! Its $400, but it's so beautiful!!!

"It will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine!" - Wayne Campbell & Me

Daily Thought...

I think it would be awesome to see a new Panda Khan action figure.

Slumber Party!!!!

I'll bring the Pizza-Crunchabungas! What are you bringing?

Comics Revue

I have been searching for the issues that feature the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They are on my TMNT want list!

The Shredder!!!

This SHREDDER is awesome! I need this for my pasta!!! Only $24.99 at Gamestop!

 

Birthday Recap 2019!

My family did an amazing job again this year taking care of me on my birthday! First off when I got home from work that evening, sitting on the kitchen counter was this amazing Ice Cream Kitty cake my wife made for me! She made the iconic TMNT character out of homemade Rice Crispy treats and fondant and placed her on top of a Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake!

As soon as I stepped in the door, my kids were begging me to open my gifts. After thanking my wife for the cake I started ripping some packages open. I finally have a copy of the Batman Vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated movie! I have still not yet seen this flick, but that will change soon. I've heard good things and can't wait to see it for myself. My kids got me a Donatello mini Ty stuffed animal to go along with the Leo I bought at a yard sale this past summer. He now lives on my Turtles shelf in the basement.

I will admit that the box of TMNT 2 cards was a gift to myself, but I have good intentions of using this as a family activity. Me and the kids have had a lot of fun opening old boxes of trading cards to try and build sets. We've done it with Super Mario Bros. movie cards and Star Wars cards already and I can't wait to tear into these wax packs with my children. The wife picked up these Adidas kicks for me since my latest pair of Nikes are wearing down.

One of the coolest things I received for my birthday was this Leonardo that my youngest daughter made for me out of Perler Beads! I love that she took the time to make this for me and I also love that she used the pattern from the recently released Pixel Pals. My son made me a Master Sword from the Legend of Zelda out of these beads also, but they have not yet been melted together. Can't wait for that project to be finished!

After presents it was time to eat! Just like we do almost every year, we went to my favorite local pizza place and enjoyed some great pizza and played some video games! It was another great birthday and I am thankful for having a family that takes the time to celebrate and have fun with me all the time! Can't wait to see what happens next year!

My Faves: Figure Collection TMNT Edition

I have a fairly big collection of loose figures from the 80s & 90s. I would like to share a few of my faves with you at this time and since I have deemed August 2019 "The Month of the Turtle", this is an all TMNT edition of My Faves!!! Here we go!

Nightwatcher Raphael (Playmates, 2006)

I really enjoyed the 2007 Imagi Productions TMNT movie! The cast was great and included Chris Evans, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Patrick Stewart. The animation was pretty good. The fight scene with Leo and Raph on top of the NYC buildings in the rain was a highlight for me. I also loved the way they were able to make this a standalone movie, but still tied it in to the original Ninja Turtles movie trilogy. Anyway, the Nightwatcher character was pretty cool and when I saw this figure at a second hand store for less than a dollar, I immediately made it part of my collection. Yes, he is missing his helmet, but Raph is still a cool piece in any collection! 

Krang Mini-Vynl (Funko, 2014)

The look of these figures is pretty cool. They look cartoony, but that is the charm of this series from Funko. I picked up 4 or 5 of these blind boxes at Barnes and Noble for around $2 each. They were in their discount bin and I couldn't pass up that deal. Usually I don't like buying blind boxes, but for that price it was worth the gamble for these sweet TMNT figures. In addition to Krang I got Casey Jones, Michelangelo and April. 

Venus De Milo (Playmates, 1997)

First off, I have to say that I absolutely do not care for the TMNT: Next Mutation series from Saban. It looks cheaply made, the stories are weak and the dialogue is extremely dated. That being said, I thought the idea of adding a new Turtle to the family was a cool idea. The way it was done was pretty awful though. This can be done well as we have recently seen with the mutation to Jennika in the latest issues of the IDW Ninja Turtles comic, it just wasn't done well in this series.

Donatello LEGO Key-chain (LEGO, 2013) 

I went crazy when I heard that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were going to have their own LEGO sets! I loved LEGO as a kid and I still love them today. It was like a mash-up of two great things coming together to form one awesome toy! The first items I saw released were these TMNT keychains and so I bought my favorite Turtle Donatello when we were in the LEGO store while on vacation in Orlando, FL. I bought a few of the smaller sets and put them together with my kids. We had fun working together, but like most of our other sets they are now broken apart and in buckets with hundreds of other LEGOs waiting to be built again!

Tokka & Rahzar (Playmates, 1991)

The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie is one of my all time favorite flicks, but I would have to rank Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze a little higher. TMNT 2 was a little bit closer in tone to the cartoons I knew and loved, Vanilla Ice gave us "Ninja Rap" and it introduced us to 2 new mutant menaces, Tokka & Rahzar! These guys were freakin' AWESOME, but as a kid I always wondered why they didn't use Bebop and Rocksteady? It was years later that I found out it had to do something with the licensing rights of those characters. That turned out okay in the end though as we all grew to love these vicious, muscle bound, BABIES!!! I bought the Tokka action figure right off the rack in 1991, but Rahzar had to wait a few decades before I added him to my collection. I found him in a loose figure bargain bin at a vintage toy store for around $1.50! On a side note: Did we ever figure out which one was the ugly one?

Comic Book Pick 8/28/19

This week the comic book I am most excited to read is...

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #97

City at War, Part 5. With enemies victorious on all sides and allies in short supply, the TMNT are at their lowest point. Yet as the TMNT start to blame themselves, a greater threat looms ever closer...Don't miss the earth-shaking lead up to TMNT #100!

(W) Tom Waltz, Kevin Eastman (A) Michael Dialynas (CA) Dave Wachter

SRP: $3.99

Synopsis Provided By: PreviewsWorld.com 

Turtles Comic Pick-ups!

Today was an AWESOME day for Ninja Turtle fans at the local comic shop!

Throwback Jam of the Week: 8/26/19

Throw on your orange bandana and grab your nunchucks as we take you back! Without further ado, here is the 20 Years Before 2000 THROWBACK JAM OF THE WEEK...

Artist: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Song: Pizza Power
Album: Coming Out Of Their Shells (1990)

Peak Billboard Hot 100 Position: N/A
Bonus Fun Fact: The TMNT Coming Out Of Their Shells Tour began at Radio City Music Hall on August 17th, 1990. This tour was sponsored by Pizza Hut where you could buy your own copy of the soundtrack. This song was used by Konami for the intro music to their arcade game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time! You can view the video below.

Playmates Anniversary Turtles

Found this set at Wal-mart today and it looks AWESOME!

Original Ninja Turtles Artwork!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures #61 Cover (Archie 1994)

This issue of the TMNT Adventures is a head scratcher. The image on the cover never really happens in the book and after all the fighting and action that preceded this issue in the "Megadeath", "Terracide" and "Blind Sight" story lines we get a native american telling us a legend about how the world was formed by a giant Turtle, Beaver and Beetle! This is more of a morality tale, letting us know that if we don't take care of Earth big trouble is ahead. Not my favorite issue in the series, but when the opportunity arose to purchase the original cover art by Steve Murphy aka Dean Clarrain, I was all over it. I had read and enjoyed the old Archie Adventure series for years and Murphy is one of my favorite TMNT artists so it was worth it! 

The above image is what the final colored cover looked like once it was published in 1994!

Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 2 #34 Page 18 (Mirage, 2007)

The story featured within this issue of Tales of the TMNT involves a rogue group of wannabe Foot Soldiers convincing Master Splinter that one of them is his daughter Hamato Hana! This ruse is concocted so Splinter will teach them his secret ninja techniques. To confirm this claim of lineage, Splinter gives Hana a task to prove herself by stealing a piece of each of the Turtle's bandannas. Hana actually completes this quest, but while returning to her base she finds that she is not really Splinter's daughter. She is in fact his niece! Hana kills the other members of her group for misleading her and turns down Splinter's offer to train her. She then leaves, never to be seen again in the Mirage universe.

I remember reading this story over a decade ago and I thought it was pretty good. I just wish they would have continued Hana's story somehow. I bought this piece of original art directly from Mirage Studios out of Peter Laird's personal connection. I would have liked to have gotten a piece with the Turtles in it, but those go for big bucks and those are bucks I currently don't have. Maybe sometime in the future? For now I will enjoy this great piece of Turtle history drawn by longtime TMNT artist Jim Lawson!

The above image is what the final page looked like after the lettering was done. I hope to add more original art to my constantly growing Ninja Turtles collection and once I do, I am sure it will get posted onto the pages of 20 Years Before 2000!

Pizza!

Who else is hungry?

 

Yo! There's Donatello!

Throwback Jam of the Week: 8/19/19

Throw on your purple bandana and grab your bo staff as we take you back! Without further ado, here is the 20 Years Before 2000 THROWBACK JAM OF THE WEEK...

Artist: Spunkadelic

Song: 9.95
Album: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Motion Picture Soundtrack (1990)

Peak Billboard Hot 100 Position: N/A
Bonus Fun Fact: Spunkadelic was a Canadian hip-hop/R&B group that achieved moderate success in the U.S. during the 90s. They also appeared on the TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze soundtrack with their song "Creatures of Habit" in 1991.

Recent TMNT Pickups

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 35th Anniversary Box Set

I am always on the lookout for new Ninja Turtles items to add to my growing collection. The things I like to collect the most are TMNT Comics, Action Figures and Trading Cards. When I heard this 35th Anniversary Box Set was coming out I almost passed on it. It contains reprintings of the original Mirage TMNT #1-#4 and the Raphael one-shot special all in their original size and format. I already heve these comics, but still I was suckered in by the nice presentation from IDW. 

Mikey as Batman Con Exclusive Action Figure

I have to admit, my schedule has been crazy with work and kids this summer and I have not yet had a chance to watch the animated Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Trust me, it is on my list of things to do. I have read the first 2 volumes of the comic series and really enjoyed them. The 3rd series is currently hitting shelves at comic shops now. Anyway, I could not pass up this con exclusive figure of Mikey dressed in Batman's cape and cowl. This figure was too cool to pass up and will look good on my basement shelf next to some of the other exclusive toys in my collection!

TMNT Coming Out Of Their Shells Soundtrack

In 1990 I was around 9 years old and fully entrenched in Turtlemania! I am not shy to say that myself and my brother had the VHS tape of the TMNT Coming Out Of Their Shells Tour and we watched it all the time. We memorized all the songs and really enjoyed the show. We lived so close to NY City at this time, that I am surprised that we didn't bug our parents to take us to the show at Radio City Music Hall? Nonetheless, we wore that VHS tape out, but never got the music soundtrack from Pizza Hut! That is something that has been rectified all these years later thanks to ebay! Now I am on the hunt for a program from the tour!

TMNT Shell Shock Comic

This book has been on my want list for a long time! I finally found a seller who was charging a reasonable price ($20) for it and I immediately jumped at the opportunity. This comic was released in 1989 by Mirage Publishing as a fund raiser to fight illiteracy in America. Laird & Eastman donated the profits from this book to the Literacy Volunteers of Chicago, Inc. Shell Shock is a collection of 26 short TMNT stories. 19 are reprints and 7 are brand new material you couldn't get anywhere else! I am so glad to finally have this book in my possession!

TMNT Sketch Cards

Honestly, I have no idea who drew these sketch cards and I have no idea if they were part of a set, but they were extremely cheap and I liked the art style so I picked them up. If anyone has any information on these cards, please feel free to drop me a message in the comments below. It would be greatly appreciated! I would like to get all four in a frame to hang on the wall of my Turtle room which should be coming to my house hopefully sooner than later! Below is a peak at the next item I would like to add to my collection. ENJOY!

A history of 1988 April O'Neil

The one on the left without the orange accents is the original release. The very first April figures were produced with no blue stripes on her pants, then that was corrected and the figure was produced with the blue stripe until 1991 when the variant figure w/ orange was produced.