Mention Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and some associated catchy phrases comes to mind - Turtle Power!  Cowabunga! Lean Green Mean Machine! Heroes in a half shell.  It was these that perhaps propelled these humanoid reptiles to fame.  Yes, there were movies, there were cartoons, there were almost everything imaginable under the sun bearing the logo or the likeness of the turtles.  Here, you can have a look at the card back of some of the toys.

Well, there are four turtles, the only difference between them are the names, weapons of choice and the colour of their costumes.  Leonardo (blue) was the leader, Donatello (purple) the resident scientist, Raphael (red), the wise cracking turtle and Michaelangelo (orange), the bodacious beach bum.

OK, some schmuck name after a non-electrical kitchen utensil poured some goo down the sewers and transformed normal turtles to turtles with attitude because they were closest to a human.  Well, anything can happen when stuff gets poured down the sewers.  The four turtles were tutored the way of the Ninja by a huge big rat named Splinter.  No, rat there is not figurative, but literal!

OK, there were the bad guys and there was a chick - all essential ingredients to the toyline, toon and movie.  Splinter was the leader of the bad guys, whcih also included two bestial dim-witted henchmen.  They were part of the "Foot" Clan.  April O'Niel was a reporter who somehow befriended the turtles and gave them her news van, which the Turtles converted into their Turtle van.

However when the turtles exploded (figuratively, not literally, although some might wish they did literally) on the scene and everything with the Turtles sold like hotcakes, Playmates churned out more and more Turtles variants including Rock N Roll Michaelangelo and Dracula Donatello above.

The latter secondary figures got more bizzare - mutated frogs named after some of the world's most fearsome conqurers, transforming turtles, aliens named after elementary particles and the like.

The line died out at the end of the nineties.  The last of the toys were released in 1998, the first 4 turtles and Splinter were remade and sold in the stores together with a new female turtle - Venus.  There were also new villains.  It died out rather quietly and quickly.

One thing that should be mentioned here is that there "Retromutagen Ooze" was a slime based compound, but it was much more watery than Mattel's slime or Kenner's Ghostbuster Ectoplasm.  In each caon of Ooze, however, there is a cool glow in the dark turtle.

Playmates is the company that made the turtles.  A good fan site to visit is the Virtual TMNT Museum.

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