I remember the day I first discovered the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pretty vividly. I was about eight or nine years old. My mom was working at a truck stop on the outskirts of Salina Kansas. I remember walking into the video arcade waiting for her to get off work one day and coming across this weird 4 player video game. It had cool cartoony style graphics, a rocking soundtrack, a jamming attract screen and these really interesting looking characters. I dropped a quarter into the machine and was instantly hooked.
For the first few months of my experience with Ninja Turtles as a brand the only thing I knew of the franchise was that video game. I had no idea there was a cartoon, comic book, toys or a live action movie on the way. I just knew it as a video game property. And this was alright by me. I got my first TMNT action figures a year later. It was the original Leo, Rocksteady and Master Splinter. Within a couple of years I had discovered the cartoon, the toys and had seen the live action movie. I was hooked.
I came into the world of Nina Turtles by way of the X Men. I had already been familiar with the concept of mutants from reading X Men comics. I was a bit confused at the use of the term mutant as it was used in the TMNT lore but I quickly adapted. I had already also been exposed to Karate Kid, Nina Gaiden and several martial arts movies. I already had an idea of how karate worked in movies so I was on board with the Ninjas in this universe. I was a kid so didn’t understand the nuances to the different forms of martial arts so everything was karate in my mind and anyone who did karate was a Ninja to me too. I didn’t know any better.
By the time I had a friend show me one of his TMNT comic books I had already played all three NES games, seen TMNT 2 in theaters and had half a dozen toys. I was disgusted to learn it was an ugly ass black and white comic book. This deeply offended me to the point where I refused to accept the comics into my world. I was happy with the toys, games and cartoon.
Speaking of the cartoon here is the thing. I was losing interest in animation at an early age. To be honest as far back as I remember I have always had a disdain for cartoons and had a preference for live action movies and TV shows. Sure I watched a bunch of Saturday morning cartoons along with my sisters but mostly because back then we lived in a small town and only had 3 channels to watch so didn’t have a whole lot to do. I remember watching the cartoon but only liking maybe the first dozen or so episodes before I lost interest. Looking back on it now while I do have nostalgia for it, I can’t bring myself to actually watch the show. It just doesn’t appeal to me. Nostalgia just isn’t enough for me to enjoy something anymore.
The weird thing is I leaned hard and fast into Ninja Turtles as a brand all at once. Then just as suddenly as I discovered the four Turtles I quickly lost interest over night. It wasn’t gradual or caused by a decline in the property. The toys were still cool looking, the cartoon was more popular than ever before. And I didn’t hate TMNT 3 Turtles in Time. Not at first. No it was a singular event that took me out of the Sewers of New York and into a new world of Martial Arts teenagers. It was the day I discovered the similarly named Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. I took a hard left turn. One day I was all into the Turtles and the next day they were dead to me. Replaced by the rainbow colored superheroes from Angel Grove. I would say I never looked back but that isn’t the case.
My first revisiting off the TMNT property came during the Nintendo Game Cube era. I discovered the TMNT video game on the system and was very happy to be back into the world of the mutant turtles. I never got into the new toys, cartoon or comics but I did enjoy that one video game. It would be nearly two more decades before I took another look at TMNT. It was in 2020 when I discovered the Rise of the TMNT toys that I got back into buying Ninja Turtles themed products. I went all in on that toy line. I was pretty sad at how suddenly it ended. Shortly after I got back into collecting the retro toys and that is where I stand today. I have no interest in ever touching a Nintendo Entertainment System ever again so replaying those old NES games is out of the question. I have no desire to revisit the cartoon nor have I had any interest in watching the Michael Bay live action turtle movies. My interest these days is purely as a toy collector. I might rewatch the original live action film from 1990 from time to time but beyond that my current experiences with the turtles is going to be buying their vintage toys from my childhood.
Stephanie Bri 