New Additions to the TMNT Collection III

Over the last few months I have succumbed to the addiction that is on-line shopping. Seriously, once you start you find so many other cool things and you just can't stop...that is until your wife reminds you that you have children and bills to pay. This realization led me to be pretty selective of what I've purchased recently and as a huge fan of the Green Machine there are a ton of options. So without wasting anymore time, here is part 3 of the newest additions to my TMNT collection!

TMNT: The Incredible Shrinking Turtles Book

I had some of these books as a kid, but never this one. This book came as a gift in a package from the ultra-cool Hoju Koolander! If you want to check out some of his radical retro flavored articles or videos you can check them out at RetroDaze.org or on the WIZARDS! Podcast on Youtube.

TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze VHS Tape

I have extremely fond memories of owning this VHS tape as a youngster. Me and my brother would watch this movie daily. This copy is a special one though. It comes from the Mirage Studios Archives and was in the collection of TMNT Co-Creator Peter Laird! Don't believe me?

I bought it off the Mirage Studios website and it came with this sweet Certificate of Authenticity! It only cost me about $10 and I love it! If you would like to own a piece from Mirage Studios, they typically hold weekly ebay auctions. You can view the items available by clicking HERE.

TMNT Party Wagon: Hot Wheels

I kept seeing this mini version of the Turtles' Party Wagon pop up in my Twitter feed. People were finding it everywhere. I searched my local Walmarts, Targets and Dollar Tree stores, but had no success. Instead of continuing the trend of disappointment, I decided to buy this off ebay for $5. After I made that purchase, I began finding these all over the place. I picked up a few extras and gave my son one, Ieven sent one to a collector in Canada who was having trouble locking one down. I really like the details and for $1 or less, you can't beat the usual Hot Wheels quality of this toy!

Funko Pops!

My wife scored me the Target exclusive Metalhead figure for Christmas. This was a big surprise for me and she was really proud of herself for tracking him down. She's a keeper. The Casey Jones, I found in a clearance section at Walmart. This was odd to me since they had just recently came out. I didn't have a Casey in my Pop! collection yet, so I took advantage of the possibly mislabeled figure and now he stands proud next to my Turtles on the shelf in the basement!

TMNT Valentines

I found the vintage looking TMNT Valentines on clearance for around $1 and my wife found the other 2 boxes for me. Of course the kids wanted to use some of these for my friends and I let them go to town. I remember what a thrill it was to receive a Ninja Turtles Valentine. I received a card featuring something I loved on the biggest love day of them all and it was AWESOME! Who am I to keep another child from experiencing that same thrill?

Thanks for bearing with me and checking out some of the latest additions to my TMNT collection. I gotta say, I'm running out of room and may have to expand my basement collection area because I'm sure there is more to come for this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fanatic! COWABUNGA!!!!

TMNT Alliance Video VHS

About a week or so ago, a coworker of mine was having a yard sale and said he was selling a bunch of movies for about $1 a piece. He is a big movie aficionado, so I was curious to see what flicks he was selling. I dug through his DVDs and grabbed a few. Nothing too great, but he did throw in about a dozen more of his picks for me to watch for free. On the way back to my car I noticed a box of VHS tapes stashed under a table. Something told me to take a look. I noticed the familiar box of the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie box and took it out. Something was different about this box though. It was a lot slicker and was missing the familiar FHE logo. Also, the Turtles on the front were flat, not embossed as usual! What the heck was this?

I took a closer look at the sides and noticed some more slight differences. Once again the FHE logo was replaced by an odd Alliance Releasing Home Video logo and a small Ninja Turtles cartoon head was placed under the picture of Donnie.

I took a look at the other side and noticed the same thing along with the addition of an MCA logo at the bottom of the box. I pointed these differences out to my coworker who never noticed these irregularities before. As a collector himself, I thought he was going to take the tape back, but he let me keep it. I asked if he knew where he got it from and he could not remember.

I took the VHS Turtles home and excitedly told my not so excited wife what I had found and noticed a few more things were awry on the back of the box! The first critique was not highlighted in red and the info on the bottom of the back was different too.

Finally I pulled the tape out of it's box, now this is where the differences were the most noticeable. This was a rental copy complete with green "Family" sticker and "BE KIND PLEASE REWIND" notice plastered to the tape. I love finding things like this. I wanted to see if anything was different with the actual movie recorded on this tape, so me and the kids popped it in and got ready for some radical action! The movie was exactly the same, except the commercials that ran before the movie were missing entirely!

Later that night I did what I should have done as soon as I got home and Googled "Alliance Releasing Home Video". It turns out this is the Canadian version of the TMNT Movie VHS tape! Who knows how it ended up in my buddy's yard sale, all I know is I am glad I have it! Now the question is, should I start seeking out all the other countries versions of one of my favorite movies of all-time?