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Whether you are into TMNT art or are just excited about their 30th Anniversary and the upcoming movie, you will be able to get your cowabunga fix right here on the TMNT blog. Anything and everything related to the totally cool turtles can be found here. You may actually learn quite a bit of interesting turtle trivia here.

Could IDW develope their own TMNT movie or television show? Image Source: IDW.
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Top 5 IDW TMNT Covers

by Ian Gaudreau
written by Ian Gaudreau

The long-awaited Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #50 is releasing on October 7th. Within these 50 issues, there has been a variety of talented artists showcasing a range of artistic styles and techniques. I wanted to take this opportunity to recognize some of the top covers that have helped make the IDW run so exciting:

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BlogTV Series

TMNT – Season 3 in Review

by Zach Gasior
written by Zach Gasior

With the finale providing mountains of excitement, and the new space adventures set to begin in late October, TMNT Season 3 is finally in the books. So how was it? How did it stack up? Where does the show go from here? If you’ve stuck with these reviews and kept up with the season, then the answers to those questions won’t be surprising. But let’s just see what was accomplished in season three, and where the show can go moving forward.

In comparison to the first two seasons, three was not great. There was a lot of hype left over from the battle of New York, with Splinter missing and having amnesia, the Kraang taking over the city, and the turtles being banished to a remote area upstate. All of that could have led to some amazing developmental plotlines and stories that really made the gravity of the situation hit home. Then, it was all wrapped up and nearly forgotten within a couple of episodes. By the halfway point in the season the Kraang were gone, everyone seemed to forget that they were mutant slaves, and things were right back to normal. There was no real lasting effect from the invasion, which made it seem like it didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Even when the turtles gained their special stealth clothes, the outfits were all but forgotten during the back half of the season, save for maybe two individual appearances.

The show then shifted to the search for mutant Karai, and how to save her. There’s been no secret towards the reviews’ overall feeling about that plotline, and that hasn’t changed. Every episode for the back half of the season was about Karai in some way. Yet nothing was really done with it – there was no payoff, there was no development, and there was no climactic showdown between fathers for her ultimate salvation. Instead, the world was sucked through a black hole as if to say, “Eh, we don’t really know where this is going either, so let’s do a hard reset and start fresh.” If the space adventures last for only one season, and the Earth is restored somehow (which it seems like a show whose main demographic is kids would find a way to restore the status quo), then perhaps the old story lines will get picked up again in season five, but for the time being let’s just assume that the Earth is gone and that everything got a hard reset.

Overall, season three was kind of disappointing. There were a lot of fan-favorite characters added to the mix: the Mighty Mutanimals, Bebop and Rocksteady, Mondo Gecko, the Punk Frogs, and even Renet the time magician. But it still felt like the whole season was being used to transition into something else. If that’s true, then fantastic; it’ll be a great payoff to see all of these little elements show up again, either as the turtles dash around space or if the Earth is restored somehow. But just because there were great elements does not mean the season itself was anything special. As mentioned, the story wasn’t cohesive, the new characters didn’t feel like they had any real purpose other than to draw fans in, and by the end of it all nothing was accomplished.

Season four will hopefully remedy that situation, but there are still a few weeks before fans will know what the driving motivation is for these new adventures. The turtles, April, and Casey will have to have some purpose to their actions this season, and with a much shorter pickup of episodes (20 instead of 26), they’ll have to do it fast. Maybe that’s what the show has been missing, though – trimming some of the fat, as it were, to provide a much faster paced story. Hopefully it all comes together well, and hopefully it brings the show back to what it was doing with audiences in the early days of season one, because with success this season then hopefully a season six and beyond will be right around the corner.

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Where To Find Your Turtles Halloween Costume In 2015

by Justin Bozung
written by Justin Bozung

Pay attention!  There are only 37 days left before Halloween…..

It seems safe to suggest that last year, 2014, and this year too, 2015, can be called the year (s) of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.   While we’re not exactly experiencing Turtles-mania on the scope and scale that we did in the mid 1980’s with the rise and popularity of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series produced by animation pioneer Fred Wolf, nor the buzz created by the 1990 live-action movie, these past two years have seen a major resurgence in the Turtles and inspired fans old and new alike.    So, it should come to no surprise, that with the release of the 2014 Michael Bay produced-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, and its sequel slated for release next year that a slight return to Turtle-mania is on the horizon.  Which is why there is no better time to dress up for Halloween like any of the boys from the sewer, or even Shredder himself.     Costume manufacturers and retailers are reporting that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be one, if not the one, most popular Halloween costume of 2015.      

Going out as one of the Turtles for Halloween is incredibly easy and yet, if you really wanted to go all in and put all of your chips on the table, there are also a variety of websites out there on the interwebs that will show you how to make such a incredibly-detailed and screen-ready replica Turtles costume that you’ll have no excuse this year not to have your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costume prepped and ready for action by this October 31st.

Retailers like Party City and Spirit Halloween offer basic Halloween Turtles costumes that will satisfy those who wish to dress up as Mikey, Donnie, Raph, or Leo for this one night of the year.  And what’s great about these costume retailers is how they cater to all age groups and sizes.  If you’re looking for a Turtles Girls costume you’ve gone to the right place with any of those websites.   They also have youth, toddler, boys, and adult Turtles costumes as well as a few designed to appeal to the bad guy in all of us — Shredder Costumes!

Another company that does a really great job when it comes to finding your perfect Turtles costume is Michigan-based costume retailer TV Store Online.    Not only do they offer Turtles fans many of the same one-night only costumes that you can find on retail websites like Party City and Spirit Halloween, but they also offer one-of-a-kind and exclusive designs too.   Let’s say you’re the ultimate Turtles fan and want to walk around wearing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costume all year round, but still, want to present yourself as being a normal person?  Well, TVSO has a great selection of Turtles Costumes Hoodies, which are designed to function as a costume but also to be worn around anywhere and not let you look like you just escaped from a mental institution when you show up somewhere with a Turtles costume on in the middle of the winter at Christmas time.

And of course, there are the websites out there that are garnered toward the more D-I-Y Turtles fan, those who love the Turtles, but also wanna spend the time and effort on creating their own Turtles costumes, or even, re-creating or making amazing screen-accurate Turtles costume replicas from the live-action movies.    Big DIY Ideas is a great place to start as well as the website Instructables.   Both of those sites will have you shouting Cowabunga when you see what you can make when you get creative.   So, it doesn’t matter whether you want that one-night-only Turtles costume, or a long term Turtles costume that can double for the latest comic book geek fashions, or something that would even wow the hottest Hollywood costume designer working today, the options out there as a Turtles fan this year are simply amazing when it comes to showing everyone around you just how much you love the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles this Halloween.   

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BlogTV Series

Interview w/ Bill Martin, Voice Actor of Shredder for 80’s TMNT

by Justin Bozung
written by Justin Bozung

We got a brief interview with Bill Martin, the voice of Shredder on the ’80s Animated Turtles series from Season 8-10…

Q:  I was just looking at a few episodes from Season 8 of the ’80s Turtles Animated Series–there were a lot that changed with that season to the show.   You came in replacing James Avery as the voice of ‘Shredder’ and the show’s opening  and theme music were changed.    The new theme song was slower for the start of Season 8 and the visuals were mixed with footage from one of the live-action Turtles movies…

MARTIN:  I’m not sure why that happened, I wouldn’t have been prvy to all that.  I had known Fred Wolf [Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series Producer] going back to the 1970’s, when he had asked me to do some voice over work for THE POINT (1974) animated movie.    To fast-forward to the Turtles, I had heard that James Avery was leaving for whatever reason and that they needed a relief-pitcher.    The Producers auditioned voice-actors who could match James Avery’s voice, and I guess that I fit the bill.

Susan Blue [Turtles Director] auditioned me for the job, and if I ever fell off–where I didn’t sound like James Avery as Shredder she’d stop me and I’d do a “pick-up line” later on.  I had a tape of James Avery’s lines that I had to listen to over-and-over before I started.   But there really wasn’t  a lot of vocal range in what James was doing for Shredder, so it really wasn’t that difficult to match him.    Shredder was kind of a one-note Charlie and there wasn’t always a lot of reflections in his voice, like a character such as ‘Krang’, for example–who was voiced by my friend Pat Fraley.

Q:   All these years later, are they and Turtles synopsis’ or story-lines from the episodes of Season 8 or 9 that stick out to you as memorable?

MARTIN:   You know, I liked them all.  The thing that sticks out now, all of these years later, really, is just the time I spent recording the episodes.    It’s great when you can stand around with all of these “wackos” and music stands making voices around each other.  It was a lot of fun.   Susan Blue, the director, always put me next to Pat Fraley while we were recording the episodes, and he was so much fun to work with.   I guess, Susan, was grouping us villains together during those sessions.

Q:  In recently comparing your voice as Shredder to that of James Avery–Avery’s Shredder always sounds fairly diabolical–meaning, that he really hates the Turtles and wants to be rid of them, whereas, your voicing of Shredder–he just sounds like a grumpy old-man who has realized that he can’t beat the Turtles no matter how hard he tries…

MARTIN: (Laughing) Right, it was like he was yelling at the Turtles to get off his lawn or something…(Laughing)

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BlogMovie / TMNT Movies

Which TMNT Movie is Better Than The Rest?

by Justin W
written by Justin W

Have you found yourself spending countless hours trying to make a case for why your favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie is better than all the rest? Well, the truth is that we all have different tastes defined by a variety of different experiences, and our taste in movies is going to vary greatly based upon those factors. With that in mind, even if you’re not sure which movie is your favorite, this quiz should at least give you a few things to think about! Who knows? You might actually discover that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III really resonated with you! Okay, so that probably won’t happen, but anything is possible!

Let us know your results in the comments below, or feel free to tell us which movie is your favorite and why. With any luck, you might even convince us that your favorite TMNT movie actually is the best one ever made!

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