Being a TMNT fan in 1998-2002.

[Spike Spiegel]

Was this period all that different from, say, 2009-2012?

Plus, I think Next Mutation was running from '98-'99 or so. I remember the VHS tape of the first set of episodes was a popular thing to check out at my library.

If that proposed series for the WB happened, the hiatus would have been even shorter.

[Powder]

Yes, because there was no internet, thus no insight as to what was coming or happening behind the scenes. During the period you mention, we still had comics, lots of new merch, events, speculation, updates, etc.

[CyberCubed]

TMNT was considered a dead franchise since the mid-90's, most people didn't even know comics were going on. Then by the late 90's the huge anime craze like Pokemon and Dragonball Z started so that buried TMNT even more.

It's kind of the same reason the 2k3 series didn't make as big an impact as it should of, because it came out during the early 2000's when the anime craze was huge in the U.S.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

Not even during the reruns you caught by the late-1990's and early-2000's?

No. The show had already been fully subbed, so why bother dubbing it years later considering the show was over by then and the Turtlemania craze of the late 80s/early 90s was dead?

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Spike Spiegel

Plus, I think Next Mutation was running from '98-'99 or so.

It ran from September 1997 to March 1998

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja_..._Next_Mutation

[Spike Spiegel]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

It ran from September 1997 to March 1998

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja_..._Next_Mutation

My mistake. Sometimes it all blurs together in my mind...

[d_osborn]

98-02 was a glorious time to be a fan. Early days of eBay, TMNT stuff was selling for a pittance. People were excited to be finding other fans online, there was a TON of stuff to still learn about TMNT history

Then again, I'm the type of fan that doesn't really give much of a hoot about having new stuff to consume.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

And the earliest posts in this forum still visible are from July 2001.

[Andrew NDB]

That was the best time for me, personally. It was right around 1996 that I sat down and ordered every Mirage thing, ever, and got up to speed. 1998-2002? Image TMNT was running from '96 - '99. Vol. 4 started in 2002. Fandom and the fan community was flourishing on websites, bunch of different forums, mailing lists, TMNT fanfiction and TMNT fanfiction communities all over the place. Even www.ninjaturtles.com was a constantly updated hive of activity. Who cares about NT:TNM?

1998-2002 was great. I'd take that era over everything since 2009 without any hesitation whatsoever. In a heartbeat.

Originally Posted by Prowler

What about the older users in here? For those of you born in the early 80s who were watching the FW series back when it aired, how did it feel being a TMNT fan after the fad was over and before the 2k3 cartoon began?

I guess mostly just really happy for Peter that he was able to make it happen, and solo at that. That must have been no small feat, and from all his blogs it looks like he had a blast working on it. From the snippets I'd initially watched of it here and there I deduced, however, the show wasn't for me and when I watched a slew of them... boy was I right. I can certainly appreciate Peter's attempted course correction in the mass media from what it had been previously, though.

Originally Posted by Powder

Yes, because there was no internet, thus no insight as to what was coming or happening behind the scenes. During the period you mention, we still had comics, lots of new merch, events, speculation, updates, etc.

Nonsense, of course there was internet from 1996-2002. 1996 was when Image Vol. 3 came out and I implicitly remember Dan Berger posting updates on www.ninjaturtles.com about when Vol. 2 ended and when Image was coming out. Pretty sure I launched my first website in '96 and I know the "Ring of Green" was already around.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

At least, you had to be happy for what we had.

[Powder]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Nonsense, of course there was internet from 1996-2002.

I am in awe that I wrote that, & I wish I could blame it on being high or something, but I can't. I mean, dude, I was using the internet then my damn self... Wow, alright, time to retire.

Definitely a different online climate, though. Not nearly as much info or as many resources, etc.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by d_osborn

98-02 was a glorious time to be a fan. Early days of eBay, TMNT stuff was selling for a pittance. People were excited to be finding other fans online, there was a TON of stuff to still learn about TMNT history

Then again, I'm the type of fan that doesn't really give much of a hoot about having new stuff to consume.

Well I'll give you that. I first read Mirage on the old ninjaturtles website. I found out about it around 2002-2003 or so, I think. I had watched the movies before, and had always found it odd how the origins of the Turtles, Shredder and Splinter were different in the movie. I was really SHOCKED when I found out that April was originally a lab assistant in the comics, and that being a reporter was a FW thing.

Originally Posted by Powder

I am in awe that I wrote that, & I wish I could blame it on being high or something, but I can't. I mean, dude, I was using the internet then my damn self... Wow, alright, time to retire.

Definitely a different online climate, though. Not nearly as much info or as many resources, etc.

I didn't correct you because I figured that was what you meant. Also, I personally didn't start using the internet until around September 2000 or so.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Just because there was the Internet doesn't mean we used it so much, and there were less websites. Also, less people had broadband.

[sdp]

I never stopped liking TMNT, it's just that TMNT stopped putting out stuff so I kind of forgot about TMNT and moved on to Star Wars, Dragon Ball Z, The Simpsons, N64 and Pokemon which were the big franchises to me back then after TMNT.

I remember thinking the The Next Mutation toys and show looked freaking fantastic, I just didn't get to watch the show as a kid much. When there was nothing available I liked TMNT but like I said I just preferred to play with Dragon Ball/Star Wars toys or play Nintendo 64 and the turtles didn't cross my mind until 2k3 video games and screen shots started coming out which rekindled my nostalgia for this franchise I once loved.


So yeah, being a fan was ok since I had plenty of other stuff to keep me occupied and not jaded about it, also those being the final years of my childhood and beginning my teenage years likely helped me not caring about TMNT since it was that odd transition phase where you are "too old" for cartoons but not old enough to "not give a sh-t" what people think. It wasn't until I was 16 that I realized I still liked cartoons and that no one cared if I liked them or not, my social circles were all pretty open to "like whatever the hell you want to like", as long as you weren't anti-social about it, no one cares.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by sdp

I never stopped liking TMNT, it's just that TMNT stopped putting out stuff so I kind of forgot about TMNT and moved on to Star Wars, Dragon Ball Z, The Simpsons, N64 and Pokemon which were the big franchises to me back then after TMNT.

I remember thinking the The Next Mutation toys and show looked freaking fantastic, I just didn't get to watch the show as a kid much. When there was nothing available I liked TMNT but like I said I just preferred to play with Dragon Ball/Star Wars toys or play Nintendo 64 and the turtles didn't cross my mind until 2k3 video games and screen shots started coming out which rekindled my nostalgia for this franchise I once loved.


So yeah, being a fan was ok since I had plenty of other stuff to keep me occupied and not jaded about it, also those being the final years of my childhood and beginning my teenage years likely helped me not caring about TMNT since it was that odd transition phase where you are "too old" for cartoons but not old enough to "not give a sh-t" what people think. It wasn't until I was 16 that I realized I still liked cartoons and that no one cared if I liked them or not, my social circles were all pretty open to "like whatever the hell you want to like", as long as you weren't anti-social about it, no one cares.

Why did you feel ashame for liking TMNT, but not Star Wars action figures?

[sdp]

I never wrote I was ashamed of TMNT and not Star Wars.

But yeah during those early teen years 12/13/14 you're in that spot where you "can't" like kiddy stuff. Some franchises like TMNT and Power Rangers just weren't in my radar so it didn't matter, it was franchises that were popular at the time that I liked but were for kids that I was ashamed of like Pokemon, YuGiOh and what not.

And yes certain things were cool even if they were technically for kids, Star Wars and video games were those things you could easily talk about in 7th or 8th grade without feeling like too much of a dork.

By the time I was in 10th grade I didn't care what others thought and others didn't really care, in fact found it cool that I was so open to liking Pokemon, I mean this was in the early/mid 00's, liking Pokemon was not mainstream, the fad had just died and it was just seen as a kids franchise, only kids and the most hardcore fans of Pokemon were around back then.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by sdp

I never wrote I was ashamed of TMNT and not Star Wars.

But yeah during those early teen years 12/13/14 you're in that spot where you "can't" like kiddy stuff. Some franchises like TMNT and Power Rangers just weren't in my radar so it didn't matter, it was franchises that were popular at the time that I liked but were for kids that I was ashamed of like Pokemon, YuGiOh and what not.

And yes certain things were cool even if they were technically for kids, Star Wars and video games were those things you could easily talk about in 7th or 8th grade without feeling like too much of a dork.

By the time I was in 10th grade I didn't care what others thought and others didn't really care, in fact found it cool that I was so open to liking Pokemon, I mean this was in the early/mid 00's, liking Pokemon was not mainstream, the fad had just died and it was just seen as a kids franchise, only kids and the most hardcore fans of Pokemon were around back then.

I wasn't so ashamed for friends. For them, I could just hide it. I was ashamed in front of my parents. I know they wouldn't care but still, I was.

[DarkFell]

I watched the OT up to the eighth season, then I lost interest in seeing the rest (maybe the majority of it was because I went through a stretch without a working television within my grand-parents house, to which I would spend a majority of my summers' at.. hmm.)

I somehow missed The Next Mutation despite it being aired on a local station.

I do remember being half-way disenchanted with a majority of the cartoons / shows that were running on-air within the 1998 -2000 time-frame, although there were a few of them that kept me happy. Satellite television would eventually become our main service, but no TMNT series of any kind was running on any of the channels.

But, my tastes in cartoons loosened up some as I got older: I came back to the OT and started to like TMNT 2K12.

[Slap-Happy]

I became a fan during this period. I was able to get a ton of tapes and toys for cheap at swap meets and thrift stores, so it was a pretty good time for me. Mirage comics were plentiful and cheap too.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Some of the fansites during these years were fantastic, continuing during the early years of the 2003-2009 series.