Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been around since the 1980’s and originally were produced for a comic book series. Since then they have been the face of many things including TV series, films and toys. Although the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are still popular today, let’s take a look at the story that made them so great.

Who are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are four teenage turtles (Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael) who are based in New York. Their purpose is to keep the streets of New York safe from a variety of things which have include criminals, alien invaders and anything else that came their way.

Their adventures were documented through comic books and later moved on to TV series and movies. Each turtle wore a different coloured mask, had a weapon of choice and all had different character traits which were:

• Leonardo – Leonardo was the leader of the pack and was often seen carrying two katana’s (swords). Sporting a blue mask he was the bravest of all the turtles and would always put his neck on the line to save the others.
• Michelangelo – Michelangelo was the relaxed one of the group in an orange mask with nun chucks being his weapon of choice. He provided the fun factor for the group, which would often land them in trouble.
• Donatello – Donatello was the brains of the group and sported a purple mask and used a bo staff (long wooden stick) as his weapon of choice. Donatello was seen as a genius and his intelligence was used to get them out of many sticky situations.
• Raphael – Last but not least there is Raphael, the naughty one of the clan. With his red mask and two ‘Sai’s’ *short metal swords, he would usually be the first to cause trouble and enlist the help of the others for backup.

History

Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1984 with the comic books being published by Mirage Studios in the same year. The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys were produced in 1986 and were made up of small figurines of the superheroes.

The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle TV show swiftly followed, airing for the first time in 1987 along with a whole range of merchandise. The early cartoon series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was primarily advertised for young children, whereas the comics were based on much darker storylines. The animated TV series lasted for over 10 years with its last series airing in 1996.

As well as a long running TV series, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles also had a range of films with the first feature film being released in 1990 and the last in 2016.  The first feature film made over $200 million in the box office ranking it ninth on the highest grossing film in 1990 worldwide.

Merchandise

Over the last couple of decades there has been a wide range of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles merchandise from action figures to lunchboxes, you name it the teenage turtles were probably on it. Some of the rarer figures are much sought after collectable items as well as the original comic books and original sketches. As well as toys, there was also a range of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle video games which were first released via Nintendo in 1989 and have been on the majority of game consoles over the last 20 years. Versions of the games now appear on iOs and Android devices.

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