Wrapping Up Christmas 2022

Now that I am a parent Christmas is mostly all about making the kids happy and helping Santa get them the toys that were on their list. There is nothing like seeing their little faces light up on that special December morning...even if it's at 4am. I guess that's karma, but every year I still look forward to unwrapping my own gifts from my kids & wife. They always do a great job of getting me some sweet presents and this year they did not disappoint. I know it's a little late but let's look behind the wrapping paper and see what goodies were under the tree for me in 2022!

NECA Black & White Shredder figure

I received the NECA set of 4 Black & White Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles years ago as a birthday gift from my wife, so when I saw that NECA was releasing a Black & White Shredder to compliment those previous TMNT figures, I immediately added it to my "Want" list! Unfortunately, NECA made getting this figure a bit of a hassle. These were part of the "AutoT" series of figures. In order to get your physical Shredder, you needed to go to Walmart, find the AutoT package, buy the code, go to a website, enter the code and then wait weeks for NECA to send you your figure. Pretty convoluted, but well worth the wait. This figure is amazing, and I was happy to finally receive it on Christmas morning. One cool thing about the AutoT experience is the fact that everyone has the chance to receive an autograph from TMNT co-creator, Kevin Eastman. I did not get one of these randomly packed autographs, but hey, at least there was a chance.

Playmates Toon Turtles 4-Pack

I never had these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures when they were first released back in the 80's. By that point I had already amassed several variations of each Turtle, so getting these was not high on my priority list. Man did I miss out! I love the action features on these figures and the retro packaging really takes me back to perusing the toy aisle at our local department store, Toys R' Us, Child World or KB Toy store. The commercial for these toys really shows how cool they actually are! You can view that below.

It was another great Christmas filled with family, fun and of course presents. I hope you all had an AWESOME holiday and look forward to the new year. Thanks for reading!

Merry Christmas 2022!

Wishing everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS! Hope it's full of great food, cups of cheer, awesome gifts from Santa and tolerable family appearances! Can't wait to see what 2023 brings to the table. Whatever it is...we'll be ready! Ho-Ho-Ho!!!!

Throwback Jam of the Week: 12/5/22

  Throw on your Bandanna, grab your Bo Staff and head to the sewers as we take you back to the 90s! Without further ado, here is the 20 Years Before 2000 THROWBACK JAM OF THE WEEK!

Artist: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Song: Splinter's 12 Days of Christmas
Album: We Wish You A Turtle Christmas (1994)
Peak Billboard Hot 100 Position: N/A
Bonus Fun Fact: This straight to VHS video features the first time the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rap!

Throwback Jam of the Week: 12/27/21

 Throw on your Santa Hat and Ninja Bandana and head to the sewers as we take you back to the 90's! Without further ado, here is the 20 Years Before 2000 THROWBACK JAM OF THE WEEK!

Artist: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Song: The Wrap Rap
Album: We Wish You A Turtle Christmas (1994)
Peak Billboard Hot 100 Position: N/A
Bonus Fun Fact: This song is from the direct to video 25 minute special "We Wish You A Turtle Christmas" which was released in 1994 by FHE!

A Peek at Christmas 2021

This year Christmas is returning to a little bit of normalcy after last year's restrictions. Either way, nothing has stood in the way of my family taking part in some of our favorite Christmas traditions like watching Christmas Specials, decorating the tree and just enjoying the season together. Below may seem like another random dump of photos, but it is a peek into what the season is like in my household. I hope you and yours have an amazing holiday season. No matter how you celebrate or what you celebrate, appreciate those around you and just remember the good times. Feel free to let me know about your family's favorite traditions in the comment section below and have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

The kids and I watched "We Wish You A Turtle Christmas" this year. It was a first time viewing for my family and my kids really enjoyed the crude absurdity of the special. They are still singing about "4 Manhole Covers"!

Speaking of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, IDW did not disappoint with this years festive covers. These are always a welcome treat and addition to my ever growing TMNT comic collection. 

Lastly, just wanted to share this Turtly Magnificent Christmas light set up that the wife and I took the kids to see this year. AMAZING! I hope your holiday is full of cheer and good times. From all of us at 20 Years Before 2000...MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Santa's On His Way!

 My cookie for Santa has been frosted and I must say, it's pretty radical!

Radical Christmas Display!

 Best Christmas light display I've seen all year!

We Wish You A Turtle Christmas

 Finally watched "We Wish You A Turtle Christmas" with the kids for the first time. It was so bad that they loved it! I have heard "Gotta Get A Gift For Splinter" over and over since then!!

12 Years Ago at Christmas...

 12 years ago this is how I decorated my office for the holidays...

Annual Tradition

 We wish you a Turtle Christmas!

Wrapping Up Christmas 2020

 

Now that I am a parent Christmas is mostly all about making the kids happy and helping Santa get them the toys that were on their list. There is nothing like seeing their little faces light up on that special December morning...even if it's at 4am. I guess that's karma, but every year I still look forward to unwrapping my own gifts from my kids & wife. They typically do a great job of getting me some sweet presents and this year they did not disappoint. I know it's a little late, but lets look behind the wrapping paper and see what TMNT goodies were under the tree for me this year!

Stocking Stuffers

I've said it a million times before, but I LOVE STOCKING STUFFERS!!! My parents would allow us to open our stockings every Christmas before they got up. I'm sure it was so we would let them sleep in for another hour or so. This year I got some cool TMNT Snapz, Topps Baseball cards and of course candy!

Vinyl Figures

I had been eyeing that weird "Pizza Venkman" figure for a long time at our local calendar store, but at $20, I was not willing to budge. This one was found in the clearance section for $3 and was gifted to me for my Ghostbusters collection. Of course I had to have a TMNT item in my gifts this year. My wife found this Target exclusive Metalhead Funko POP while she was doing her online Christmas shopping. She thought I would like it...and she was right! This is now on my shelf of Ninja Turtles coolness in my basement next to my other TMNT POPs!

Well, that's it for this past Christmas. I hope yours was merry, bright and full of good tidings. Merry Christmas!

More Holiday Christmas Comic Covers!

I still love collecting comic books and I will always love the holiday season. So when it comes to comic books with special holiday stories or variant covers, you can almost bet that I will pick those up. I was going through some of my long boxes of books again this past weekend and pulled out these holiday themed issues of TMNT just to show you some of the cheer that can be found inside the pages of these heart warming graphic novels. Can't wait to read some new stories this year! So let's visit with the Ghost of Christmas past and take a look at some of these classic holiday covers from the days of yore! ENJOY!

Holidays Are Here!

 Hope everyone had an AMAZING Thanksgiving day. Now it's time to kick the holiday spirit into full gear!!!!

Cowabunga Christmas!

 For tonight's Holiday viewing pleasure!

Wrapping Up Christmas 2019

Now that I am a parent Christmas is mostly all about making the kids happy and helping Santa get them the toys that were on their list. But every year I still look forward to unwrapping my own gifts from my kids & wife. They typically do a great job of getting me some sweet presents and this year they did not disappoint. I know it's a little late, but lets look behind the wrapping paper and see what goodies were under the tree for me this year!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1up Arcade Cabinet!!!!!

I had no idea my wife was getting this for me. When I got up with the kids in the morning, there was no large box under the tree and I was extremely happy with the gifts I had gotten. Then we went over to my wife's sister's house for dinner and I saw it!!! Surprise!!! She had been putting away a few dollars every time she went shopping and got this game on sale during black Friday just because she knew how much this game meant to me. She really is great and I was very spoiled this Christmas and this just made me want to scream out in joy. In all fairness this is a family gift and anytime it is played, there are at least 2 Turtles on screen battling the Foot Clan. I even got my wife to play through the entire first TMNT arcade game with me! 

Mikey meets Santa!

Mikey's getting into the Christmas spirit!

Christmas 2018 Fallout

 Now that I am a parent Christmas is mostly all about making the kids happy and helping Santa get them the toys that were on their list. But every year I still look forward to unwrapping my own gifts from my kids & wife. They typically do a great job of getting me some sweet presents and this year they did not disappoint. I know it's a little late, but lets look behind the wrapping paper and see what goodies were under the tree for me this year!

Stocking Stuffers

I freakin' love stocking stuffers! Ever since I was a kid I couldn't wait to rip into the stocking on Christmas morning to find the cool little gifts Santa had brought in addition to all the edible goodies inside. This year was no different. I got a mini Horn Head Madball, Batman Fidget Spinner, Ghostbusters Ecto Plasm container, Ninja Turtles Playing Cards and some sweet treats!

Keepin it Christmas!

There are so many great things about this time of the year. Besides getting gifts there's the music (I'm looking at you WHAM!), movies, books and random items you find at the Dollar Tree. While unpacking our decorations to make our house a festive wonderland, I uncovered a few gems from my collection that make me happy it's Christmas.

This is one of my favorite issues of the original Mirage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle run. First of all it features Michaelangelo as the lead, it introduces his cat..Klunk and it's set during Christmas in NY! The gist of the story is that Mikey goes gift shopping, he spots some baddies robbing a toy store and he fights to get the toys back so they can be delivered to some underprivileged orphans. The artwork is vintage Eastman/Laird Turtles and the story is solid. I always had a soft spot for this issue and then a few years ago my sister bought my family this DVD for Christmas...

and it contains a pretty faithful cartoon version of the Michaelangelo Christmas special right down to the "Little Orphan Alien" toys. We watch this every year now as part of our Christmas special viewing rotation! You can view it for your holiday pleasure by clicking the YouTube video below!

Christmas is coming fast and I still have quite a few things to do before it gets here. So, I wanna join Mikey in saying, Thanks for reading and...

Round Robin Challenge: Eccentric Action Figures

This week 2 Minute Toy Break has challenged us to take a look at our nearest and weirdest and post a pic or multiple pics of the most eccentric action figure in our collection. This would be a museum worthy action figure. One that would draw a lot of ooohs and aaaahs from an art show crowd. Here's what I decided to feature....

A 2009 vacuum metalized limited edition Fugitoid action figure by Playmates Toys. This is not just any Fugitoid action figure though. This figure hung on the Christmas tree of TMNT co-creator Peter Laird! Here's the story.

In 2009 Mr. Laird's daughter Emily decided it would be fun to decorate the family tree with a bunch of these shiny, metallic Fugitoid figures. Peter Laird had a case of 100 of these figures and he himself opened 50 of the figures and attached an ornament hook to each figure.

On December 21st the tree was decorated by the Laird family and the 2009 mighty "Fugitree" was born.

After the 2009 holiday season, the Fugitoids were boxed back up and sold through the Mirage Studios website for $25. There were only 50 of these items available, and I got one!

This guy holds a prominent spot on my shelf of fame in the basement. Each Fugitoid came in a custom box made by Peter Laird with the story of the Fugitree printed  on a sticker on the front of the box.

The coolest thing was that the boxes were personally signed by Peter Laird. I am so glad to own this piece of TMNT history. It is a rare item that was used in the home of one of my comic book heroes. I feel this piece would fit into any museum of pop culture and would make any Ninja Turtles fan oooh and ahhh at it's appearance. And yes, my Fugitoid still has the ornament hanger on him that Peter Laird twisted around his neck for future tree hanging experiences.

If you would like to read more about the Fugitree, the history of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or the thoughts of Peter Laird, please visit his TMNT blog by clicking HERE! The Laird family photos in the above post were from his website.

Check out Toy Break's post. He has a pretty interesting mash-up to show off!

Merry Christmas!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! I hope it is full of family, fun and cheer! I know I am having a great time, but what to do after the turkey is eaten and the presents unwrapped? Why not watch a few of my favorite holiday classics below! Enjoy and I send my goodwill to you!

We wish you a Turtle Christmas: Part 1 (1994)