Steve Barron’s 2001 TMNT Mini-series Maquettes!

[d_osborn]

According to Propstore of London, these two maquettes just listed for auction are from the production of the unproduced early-00’s two-night, four hour TMNT miniseries. I’ve had a duplicate of the Donnie maquette in my collection for several months. I had thought (hoped?) they were early designs for the 1990 film. If not 1990, I think the unproduced Barron project is the next coolest option, haha.




Could these be what Peter Laird was posting about on his Planet Racers blog back in the day? The designs don’t really match the look of Brendan McCarthy’s concept art (accessories, clothes, etc.). Still, the maquettes are gorgeous. Could the Henson Company have been involved? It definitely has the look. Who is the father, Maury?

TAIL!



I asked Laird about the maquettes on an old Ask PL thread. “Sculpted and painted in England during the initial phases of the project.”



It’s hard to imagine these designs as 00-era cable-budget CGI characters. Propstore claims in the auction that practical suits were planned prior to the CGI characters. Laird mentioned a live action Splinter puppet test.

"Plans call for a two-night, four-hour program that uses live actors, but casts the Turtles themselves as CGI. -Press Release, 2001”

“The Ninja Turtles miniseries that Hallmark and I are developing will be a darker, more streetwise view of the characters. Taking its tone from the original comics, it will be an atmospheric and spectacular reinvention of the franchise using today’s CGI technology to leap into the 21st century. -Steve Barron, 2001”

More images...
https://www.icollector.com/TEENAGE-M...ette_i34305871
https://www.icollector.com/TEENAGE-M...ette_i34305872

[TommyT]

That's very interesting. I'm always curious to know what sorts of things collectors have stashed away that the public has never seen.

These are fascinating, but I can't see this looking very good in 00's era tv CGI.

do you also have images of the Splinter?

[d_osborn]

Originally Posted by TommyT

do you also have images of the Splinter?

The Donnie and Leo maquettes are all that Propstore listed. Laird mentioned a Shredder maquette in one of his blog posts. I'm sure there was a Splinter maquette if they had already progressed to costume tests.

[TommyT]

Do you collect just the statues, or other stuff too?

[Candy Kappa]

That is wild seeing these, very cool. Seeing a tail on the maquettes is amazing, Leo's mouth reminds me a little bit of the concept art we've seen before

[AquaParade]

Very interesting! One of the coolest TMNT discoveries in recent times, if true. I've always wanted to learn more about this series. Did Brendan McCarthy work on this series? I could never believe they actually got him to work on the concept art for the Steve Baron film(s). Such a great team they had back then. If they had let them loose a bit and let the Steve Baron sequels continue, I wonder if the franchise might be in a very different place today.