25 years of Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
I want to talk to you if I may about something very serious. Something that has always annoyed me and continues to annoy me now. Teenage Mutant NINJA Turtles. The “Ninja” part is very important. This is the story of a little boy and his eyes being opened to the larger world. When he realised you can have great meaning and significance in something that on the surface appears to be only very small.
21 years ago I was introduced to Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael. Four characters that still mean a lot to me now. The year was 1989 and I was just a small boy. Transformers had come and gone. But even now the voice of Peter Cullen and Optimus Prime bring back fond memories, and always puts a smile on my face (I am fortunate I can share this with my son, and my daughter when she is a little bigger). But that was 1985, I needed something new, something fresh.
Hero Turtles
The film that changed it all
Then something came for me “Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles”. Four amazing mutant turtles trained in martial arts by their rat master Splinter. Every week they fought the evil Shredder and all was good with the world. If I am honest with you I loved the series when it was on, but I always though the style was a little weak, but the concept was and is solid.
Then in 1990 when I was just 11 I got to see an astounding film. I still remember going to the cinema with my dad to see it. He was not so keen, but I had waited months to see it. It was everything I had hoped for, and it created a new interest in me, a fascination with Special FX and animatronincs. I saw it another three times at the cinema and longed for the day I could buy it on video.
Movie Trivial for you. Watch closely for Sam Rockwell in one of his first roles.
There is nothing I wanted more in the world than turtles. The toys we some way off, and when they did eventually come they were very hard to get hold off and not well made. I managed to nab a Michaelangelo and Leonardo 
.
World destroyed, eyes opened
The cover that changed it all
Then in 1991 (I was 12) I discovered the original comics. They came in four large books, I remember standing in the book shop looking at the cover thinking they look like the turtles, but its not right. They are all in red, and they are “Ninja” turtles? Something is wrong here. I managed to persuade my mum I needed the book, and my sister got the second volume.
From that moment the world I thought I knew was no more. The cartoon, the film, everything I had was destroyed. Raised to the ground and rebuilt better than before. This comic showed something I had always thought was missing from the idea. A real weight and meaning to the story, it was not just whimsical and a little silly. It was serious and deadly, it was a dark story of revenge and family. This was not the turtles I knew at all, this was much more real.
But there was something else I noticed over the course of the books. From the very start of the stories to the end the turtles are evolving, changing their personalities and growing. The films stole various elements from the comics, but the comics themselves make you feel a lot more.
Loving to hate Raph
If you had asked me who do you liked the least I would have said Raphael. No question, he was just a jerk in the cartoon and films. A hot head who refused to listen and just wanted to do his own thing.
But the comic makes the reason for this perfectly clear. He is the best of all of them, he is the most natural and most skilful. He feels is held back by his three brothers, and rejected by the world around him. He can not come to terms with the fact that they see Leo as the leader. He should be the leader because he is the best, and that’s what makes him a jerk. But he knows why they look to Leo and not him, and while that hurts him he feels it as well.
Understanding Raph has to be my favorite story of the turtles. Its always there in everything they do, but you just don’t see it until later. Then you can look back and say “oh yeah.. how did I not see that?”.
Leo, Mike and Don
Again as a small boy I would have told you Don is my favorite because he is clever and makes cool things. Mike was always in third place after Leo. He was cool, but that was really all he did and while I enjoyed it, it was not really enough.
Leo has always been great. He has two swords.. what’s not to love about that. He leads the group and over the course of the comics comes to realise that being a leader is not always fun.
Evolution of more than just turtles
But something else I noticed over the course of the comic was the evolution of Eastman and Laird’s drawing style. From the initial book to the last book, the styles are very different, it accentuates the evolution going on in the turtles, showing you they are not the same as they were when they started.
It’s Ninja not Hero
Once I had started down the path of the ninja, there was no going back. I could never look at the “Hero Turtles” the same way, they seemed childish in comparison to real story that inspired them. In a way I was a little saddened I could not enjoy them any more. But in many more ways I was happy I had seen something much better.
The best arcade
But I am thankful to the hero turtles for the arcade game that shares their name. It is still one of the best arcade games ever made, and I lost a lot of time and money to that machine.
Who’s your favorite?
If you ask me that now… I would have to say Leonardo (he is the leader… and has two swords). But Raphael comes a close second.
If I had to put money on one of them in a fight.. it would be on Raph.
Tags: 25 years, Books, comic, Don, film, Leo, Mike, Raph, teenage mutant hero turtles, teenage mutant ninja turtles, tmnt
June 30th, 2009 at 1:01 am
Ah nice write up. It’s a shame you only managed to get Michaelangelo and Leonardo as toys, don’t know where you live but down here in Cornwall (near the tip) it was pretty easy to get them thankfully! Managed to get all the toys, including Shredder, Krang, Bebop, Rocksteady, even their Turtle Wagon/Van whatever it was called.
Sadly I don’t have them anymore, I remember it was 1 of those years where the Romanian Children charity came very important and I think most of my toys went there including a large size Millenium Falcon
About the change of Hero to Ninja, you are very right. Everything I knew before hand just gets thrown out the window, and here I realised ‘Now this is what I have been waiting for’ even if I hadn’t realised I had been waiting for anything different, here it was. I used to have every single comic of both versions, again no more. Although it’s quite possible I have the Hero version somewhere, but no clue really. And of course the TV series was just awesome. Like you I also went to see the film several times, ‘THIS is Martial Arts’ I thought to myself haha.
My favourite was Donatello. I am a fan of Bo Staffs and his attracted me straight away. Also I was a fan of purple when I was younger as well. Then probably Leonardo, Raphael and Michaelangelo.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:35 am
I know I had a Donatello as like you he was my main favorate but I really liked Michaelangelo as well, I was more like him as a kid…slightly annoying I would imagine.
Was talking to someone the other day about how nobody I knew really ate Pizza till the turtles showed up, had such an effect on kids was huge.
Play.com screwed up my pre-order (big surprise) but just re-ordered the “Ninja” turtles anniversary cartoon DVD. Mmm good times.
June 30th, 2009 at 2:05 am
Hi Takatori, thanks for dropping in
I just remember there was a big flap about the toys when they first arrived, and you could not find them anywhere, for love nor money. I think I just got a bit lucky, I happened to be standing in Toys R Us when they started putting them out. I actually had to take Mike back the next day as his crappy nunchuck brook within hours of getting him home (the plastic was too stiff and just snapped, happened on the replacement as well).
Exactly the same thing happened to me, came home one day to find all my toys gone. “Given to a good cause”
Only for me it was my box of Transformers. Nooo!!!
Donatello’s staff is part of what attracted me to him as well
I think your right Nikobe. I don’t remember Pizza being all that popular before them either.
The TV Series DVD is still available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles-Anniversary/dp/B001TJKVWS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1246356290&sr=8-3
June 30th, 2009 at 2:45 am
Added a poll at the end so we can find out who’s best
July 1st, 2009 at 1:43 am
Nice poll
Yeah, I lost all my toys that way. All Thundercats, Transformers, MASK and Turtles… I wasn’t a happy kiddy! Could be right about the Pizza thing, I also don’t remember Pizza being popular before them, but once they came in, wow it was hugely popular.
July 1st, 2009 at 5:35 am
I would rather not talk about all the toys I lost, its far to painful
I wish I still had my Thundertank, I used to love that. Even if the tracks didn’t really work, and it was a bit crappy when it popped up. But the jaws at the front were great for eating Snarf!
Dominoes and Pizza Hut have a lot to thank Turtles for.. at least over here.
July 6th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
I remember going round a friend’s house to watch the Ninja Turtles on cable TV before it came out over here on regular TV. I was also lucky enough to along with my brother get most of the first wave of Turtle figures even during the shortage. Think the only one I missed out on was Krang. Multiple foot soldiers, Bebop, Rocksteady all 4 turtles and casey and, April and Splinter too. My dad shopped at a cash n carry that imported French TNMT toys so half of mine have French packaging! I still have them all, plus the blimp and technodrome.
Leo was always my favourite and still is, it’s not just the twin katana, as the older brother who is supposed to set the example to a younger brother and isn’t the smartest or the strongest it was easy to feel for him when Mikey is mocking him or when Raph plays up.
Turtles is a franchise that has so much going for it, I’ll never understand why Transformers or G.I. Joe never had any decent games or why their live action films have to be spectacularly different from the original source materials. Turtles has had a couple of great cartoons (the 2k Turtles was a superb series that just didn’t get the push or success it deserved. As for games, everyone knows how awesome the arcade and Turtles in Time were/are but also Turtles 3 on the GC/xbox was a brilliant scrolling beat em up that was hideously under appreciated It was basically 3d version of the arcade game based on the 2k cartoon that remembered that you needed co-op in a Turtles game.
Although not a tight fit to the comics, I love the first live action film. That may be the best live action comic book film ever (yes I rank it above Batman although it’s close). It puts across the core points of the characters in an entertaining film, isn’t too long and is enjoyable from start to finish, well asides from the bit where Raph gets put in a coma. That was really upsetting at first even though I wasn’t a Raph fan. On a more positive note, the first encounter between Raph and Casey in the park is legendary. I’m still waiting for it to come out on blu-ray, the US gets it first as usual but Amazon.com aren’t stating what region the blu-ray will be when its released in August so I can’t order till I know if it’ll play on my PS3.
And yes, Pizza really wasn’t as big in the UK until Turtles came out.