Individual bandana colors superfluous to identify Nick Turtles?
 

One noticeable difference with the 2012 Turtles, compared to the other cartoon Turtles (OT and 2K3), is that the 2012 Turtles seem to all have stereotypical physical appearances that match their personalities.

For example, with Leonardo all of his physical features are basically average, and has dark, deep blue eyes.
For Donatello, he's skinny, tall, and has an egg-shaped head.
For Raphael, he's has a more built physique and has green eyes.
For Michelangelo, his youth is shown in his underdeveloped physique compared to his brothers, has innocent light blue eyes, and freckles.

These 2012 Turtles all have physical and facial features which are easily recognizable, unlike the OT Turtles and 2K3 Turtles where they all had the same height, physique, and facial appearance which made their multicolored bandanas more pertinent to easily identify which Turtle was which.

Since these 2012 Turtles are so noticeably different in appearance, does it make the colored bandanas even...necessary now? Yes, I know the multicolored assigned bandanas have now become a tradition, but these obvious physical differences kind of defeats the original purpose of the multicolored bandanas...right? :ohwell: If they didn't wear bandanas at all, or even returned to the original red, I could still identify them easily.

I'm not complaining, or saying that I want them removed/changed, but are these bandanas now... superfluous? What do you think? (Just something to think about.)

I think so, but there are probably some that still wouldn't see the differences between the turtles without the different colored bandanna or weapons.

"I like the blue one."

I think younger viewers still identify the turtles quite a bit by their colors, especially in the midst of a fight scene when the turtles are moving and jumping about. Not only that, but their names (even shortened nicknames) can still be a bit difficult for younger children to remember, making it more troublesome to know who is who. True, the turtles all have different weapons, but remembering blue, red, purple and orange is something kids pretty much learn how to do from a young age, and FAR easier than knowing to use katana/sword, sai, bo staff, and nunchucks to identify them.

I know that personally, even as an adult, when I'm watching a film or starting a new series, I STILL have a difficult time remembering the actors and actress' names despite the fact that I'm watching humans who all obviously look different from each other. I remember who is who by their appearance first and what role they play, and when discussing shows with my friends, they'll know right off the bat who the crazy awesome goth scientist is in NCIS even before I mention the name Abby. All in all, I think it's just a shorthand that I think is always going to work really well for kids and new fans of the turtles. Yes, as viewers who know and love the TMNT we can appreciate the unique builds and looks the turtles all now have, but for the average kid who watches turtles once or twice a week, remembering 'I like the orange one' is simply a lot easier.

They're superfluous in every version. Hell, the Fred Wolf show had the wrong color on them any ways a lot of the time.

It just makes it more fun and less boring. Always liked the all red myself, but way like colour more.

This question is pretty superfluous.

The Turtles are easily to recognize by kids by their colors, then their names, then their weapons.

I always liked the colors. Despite the Nick Turtles all having unique physical appearances, the colors do make it easier to identify them in things like busy fight scenes.

yea this XD

plus the colors go with their attitudes~

One funny thing about Mikey in the Nick series is that, with the bandana color and the freckles, they basically made him to a ginger. :lol:

Seeing as if you took the bandanas off, my 3 year old wouldn't know who was who or if they all wore red he would think they are all Raphael, the bandanas should stay.

For the children, it makes more sense for the multicolored bandanas to stay despite the differences in physical appearance for easy identification. While for us teens and adults, it wouldn't be too bothersome in terms of identification.
...Then again, we (teens and adults) are not the targeted audience for the Nick cartoon! :lol:

I guess hypothetically, even if these physical differences were implemented in the OT Turtles, it appears that the assigned iconic multicolored bandanas (or other form of color-coded identification) would have been inevitable in the TMNT franchise.

Was going to say something along these lines just couldn't get it worded right.

This. Very much this.

No reason to change the traditional four colors that have always been. Its just in those black and white comics that never sported the definitive look. I'm surprised those were never adapted to add the colors if not for the brief volume two started it with no explination needed. Peter even does not have a problem with it. I doubt we will ever have to worry about it being all red again. The mask color is just apart of each turtle. Michelangelo is orange not red or any other color.If its changed its simply not Michelangelo. It would be as if something is missing. The same for the other three turtles. Best thing Playmates Toys did!

As Peter Laird said, it would be rather pointless for the Mirage turtles to wear color bandanas when the majority of the series is in BLACK and WHITE. And switching it just for the short-lived Volume 2 would be pointless.

This is a large reason why even the all-red doesn't matter in Mirage, aside from the covers and the few colored issues, its all black and white anyway.

I've said it in another thread already, frankly I don't care which color scheme they go with for the bandanas. They can be all red or multi-colored, it doesn't matter to me. Hell they can be soaked in cat urine for all I care, so long as it makes them look noticable.

I honestly don't think I'd like their designs as much if they had all red :(

plus as someone said Mikey's freckles and his orange mask makes him look like a ginger and I love gingers XD

The masks are fine. Yeah, their physical appearance is difference, but not by a whole lot. And remember that they don't wear clothes.

And how was it superfluous in OT or 2k3? They looked exactly the same in OT, and 2k3 had slight skin tone differences. You'd rather the animators be obligated to show weapons in every shot?

And the Mirage comics had times where it just plain wasn't possible to tell who was who. You just had to accept that it must not be important in that panel. Tell me if I'm wrong, but I've never seen the turtles described as identical quadruplets. That's just they way they're drawn.

The skin tone differences certainly weren't "slight". Also, they each had different designs for their skull and eye shapes. And let's not forget different voice actors.

The bandanas were simply too iconic. I really do like the physical differences when it comes to height, skin tone and build. The OT came out at a time where there were limitations and all the Turtles had the exact same character model. 2K3 did have some physical differences along with consistent facial expressions.

My 4yr old remembers the turtles by their names rather easily.

I think its interesting that when they were in pre-production of the 4kids cartoon, PL didn't decide to change anything about their colored bandanas because he felt they were fine.

I actually wonder how different the 4kids series might have been received if PL made some pretty big changes with the bandana colors that series rather than leaving them the same.

Those two sentences don't make any sense... for obvious reasons I don't think I need to point out.

I think he means the colors the public have come to see the turtles as wearing. The turtles have had the multicolored bandannas in all media save one, and that's how most of the public outside the hardcore fanbase- even the target audience- knows them now.

But the point is the Mirage comics were mostly in black and white, so the Turtles having colored bandanas in a comic that was black and white would make no difference.

True, but I was also commenting on thier continued existance in all media, despite being 'superfluous'.

So if you put them all in blue just say and took away weapons he or she would still know?

Yup she's very smart she could tell who they are by voices or personality an by their various features

With Nick turtles yeah. Cus they have those features. What about say OT? Just a picture of them though?

Not trying to come off as rude, just curious.

Why are we taking the weapons away now?

What if we put them all in a dark room, took away their weapons, and made them all do Rodney Dangerfield impressions... I bet your 4 year old couldn't tell the difference then.

We are getting way off of the point here.

The ONLY time I have ever had any difficulty telling them apart is in the Mirage comics when there is little to no dialog and the weapons cannot be seen. Even as a kid I could distinguish the OT episodes when someone from the normal cast wasn't available and someone else had to fill in for a character.

Oh I misread I thought we were only talking of the nick turtles

We are. I was just curious.

Yea if they are nick no color or weapons she knows who they are. I got her a coloring book and they had no colors or weapons and she named them all. But OT heck I couldn't tell you who is who with no color masks lol

If you get frustrated because you can't tell them apart without letters or different colored skins or rainbow bandannas or stickers that say "Hello! My Name is ______" then frankly you deserve the frustration.

http://i1294.photobucket.com/albums/...ps80013ae9.jpg
Who's who?

err.......................Leo is the one on the top left...I think.......or is that a bo staff...XD

Mikey's the one smiling for sure.....

Great example using a coloring book...

Take a black and white screen shot from the show and it'll be easy. And again: voice actors.

Could you be any more of a jerk when stating your opinion? No, seriously - I don't believe you're living up to your potential.

I would actually agree that, in this new toon at least, the different bandana colors are a little bit superfluous due to how differently each character is designed in this version...but this is pretty much the first version to make them look that different from one another (I'm speaking of cartoon/movie/game adaptations here, I can't vouch for if the comics did or did not). Beyond that though, I still fail to see why what color a thin piece of fabric over their faces is continues to be such a big deal that it can cause remarks like that one to be construed as acceptable...

Mainly because in Mirage where the Turtles are ninja's they don't have any reason to be color coded. That and...it was a black and white comic series, making colors even more pointless.