Your Interests Before And After TMNT
 

Saw this topic on another forum and figured it'd be good for us here. Prior to getting into TMNT, what show/hobby interested you the most?

If you grew out of TMNT for a stretch, either because the shine of the OT ran out, or due to the gap in between NM and 4Kids, and even the small gap before the Nick show, what held your interest in between them?

Before OT, for me, there was

-Transformers
-Voltron
-GI Joe
-Thundercats
-Vintage Disney
-Loony Toons
-Gerry Anderson shows (Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Stingray Terrahawks)
-Dangermouse
-Classic Doctor Who (back then still new)

Because I did'nt have sattelite, I could'nt follow the OT past season three for a stretch, so other interests at the time were

-The Disney Afternoon
-(Almost) everything by Saban (Power Rangers, V.R Troopers Beetleborgs_
-Biker Mice From Mars
-90s Marvel Cartoons.
-DCAU
-Star Trek
-Babylon 5
-Manga Video Releases


Was'nt a fan of NM, so before 4Kids there was

-Stargate
-Buffy
-Angel
-Sliders
-Firefly
-Various Animes (DBZ, Sailor Moon, Gundam, Tenchi, Nadesico, Tekkaman, Excel Saga, Evangelion etc)

I was like 5-6 years old the first time I got my eyes on the TMNT, although I've only actually become a huge fan at 11-12 years old.

I guess video games in general, Nintendo in particular.

Never had another franchise that I've been as passionate about for a long time as the TMNT.

Turtles superseded He-Man as my main 'childhood love' in terms of cartoons and films. I still enjoyed He-Man afterwards but my focus was mainly turtles.

I started watching Power Rangers a few years after my love for the turtles began. Like Prowler I was also a video game obsessive, mainly Nintendo.

Football/soccer has always been my main hobby/interest in the world of entertainment though, along with the turtles.

I was 3 when I got into TMNT, so obviously I didn't have much before it. Of course I grew up with Nintendo as well.

However I also became a Batman fan thanks to the 1989 Batman movie and B:TAS. Later on I would get into the DC universe and Marvel although mostly just X-men.

I only watched Power Rangers for a short time and got bored of it after Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa were written off as the main villains. I then became a huge Pokemon fan for about 13 years although that has died down recently. Also got into DBZ heavily at the time.

My main fandoms would probably be:

- TMNT
- Batman (and to a lesser extent the DC universe)
- Pokemon
- Marvel
- Star Wars (movies only so far)

My main hobby is writing above all else, which is of course influenced greatly by being a willing slave to the mighty box.

Sort of got into gaming more during the peak of the early Sega/Nintendo/Sony wars, but it was never a lasting obsession.

I'm only now sort of putting DC and Marvel behind me, mainly through dissatisfaction with the comics and shows.

I was only 8 when the first cartoon introduced me to the Turtles, before them... hard to say. There were other things I liked that were around prior to them, many of those old now-nostalgic shows from the 80s, but nothing I was a solid fan of or head over heels about.

Well, the onset of my own long hiatus as a Turtles fan was not so much a choice of my own unfortunately... Had a certain parent minded her own business and respected the right of her daughter to be a fan of whatever she damn well pleased I doubt me and TMNT would have ever parted ways.

That said... a friend talked me into checking out the World of Warcraft trial back in early 2010 and been a bit of a player since then (on a small private server), so there's that at least. Before that though there wasn't really much of anything. Makes me realize I'd just been existing and, while liking some stuff, not really enjoying anything to a particular extent that it adds joy to one's life.

Before the TMNT? Spider-Man/Marvel, Star Wars, and Transformers. I was also into Micro Machines in a big way before (and during, and after) I discovered the Turtles.

After? Sports & girls.

My interests before TMNT were Transformers, G.I. Joe, Silverhawks, Thundercats, Masters of the Universe, M.A.S.K., Voltron, Double Dare, and Bionic Six

After TMNT, it was Fifteen, Carmen Sandiego, Ghostwriter, Street Fighter II, Beavis and Butt-head, Mortal Kombat, Power Rangers, The Tomorrow People, Digimon, and Harry Potter.

I really think that TMNT was probably one of my earliest interests. Batman and them may have been close to around the same time I was getting aware of pop culture things and becoming a fan of them, I was born in 1987.

My interests following TMNT from what I can remember was...

Power Rangers
Mortal Kombat
Street Sharks
Pokemon
WWF / WCW

...and then full circle back to Batman and TMNT. Batman not as much anymore but I still love the hell out of TMNT.

Pretty sure Batman, Teen Titans, Pokemon, Carmen Sandiego, Sonic, Harry Potter.

Before TMNT me and my bro were heavily into things that had Duo's such as Sonic & Tails the Mario Bros. Batman & Robin as twins it was a way for us to both be involve without having to share anything else with the rest of my family. Until TMNT came we didn't watch a lot of shows or for that matter play games that weren't about duo's.

And during our pre 4kids gap
-Spiderman
-Superman
-The Batman
-Teen Titans
-DBZ and DB
-Xmen Evolution
-Hamtaro (I liked it)

I can't remeber during Nick. Pretty sure it was Avatar The Last Airbender and Korra.

TMNT was my very first interest. As soon as I learned how to use a remote control I watched Ninja Turtles('87) around age 2. Been all over it ever since.

I concurrently was a fan of Power Rangers. That lasted until winter 1998 during the Next Mutation brief run. My second favorite would be replaced by Pok'emon a year later to fill the secondary void. I liked and do like other things such as Braves baseball and Batman which are my co-number 2 to this day. Batman while always interested I picked up with around age 15. I was sucked into the three consecutive crazes and stayed with TMNT to this day while not the other two. Power Rangers just happened one day when I pulled the plug on my fandom, but Pok'emon was over time and I could not place my waned interest.

I was mostly into He-Man and Ghostbusters and comics. None of those things went away for me, but other than Ghostbusters there weren't a lot of cartoons holding my interest once USA started only airing He-Man re-runs once in a while, so TMNT kind of picked up the slack with that. I was one of those kids who literally watched every goddamn cartoon show that was on, and "liked" them all just fine, but only genuinely cared about a few. Batman: TAS wasn't around yet and TMNT was as close to a super-hero "fix" as a comic book fan could get in 1988. I never stopped liking those other things more than TMNT, but I may not have gotten into TMNT as big in the first place if He-Man hadn't been cancelled (and replaced with that sh*tty "New Adventures" series). TMNT definitely came along at a time when there was a gap in my viewing habits. I initially wanted to hate it because it was a "fad", but it turned out to actually have substance to it so I ended up liking it, and way more than I expected to.

I actually watched the show on and off until it ended, but stopped following it super-closely once it wasn't on every day in syndication anymore. Only being able to watch re-runs on USA Cartoon Express at random times and days was way too much of a chore by then, and I'd figured I'd already seen the "good stuff" (even though I liked them just fine, even as they aired I couldn't shake the feeling that the last 3 or 4 seasons of TMNT was Just More Product for its own sake, and that the show was just existing aimlessly on life support after 1993). Other than Batman and Superman, there weren't a lot of cartoons or shows I cared about watching by that point, and revisiting the recent past thanks to internet nostalgia wasn't a thing people did yet, so I mostly devoted 100% of my time to following wrestling in the hopes of pursuing it one day. I had hoped The Next Mutation was going to rekindle some of the magic, but everyone I knew collectively decided after the first episode aired that we'd just as soon never even talk about TMNT again until the end of time if it meant we had to acknowledge that show's existence.

I never stopped reading the Archie book or watching the first movie or old episodes on VHS, so I never didn't pay attention to TMNT, but there's always been stuff I liked more so I didn't entirely suffer during the "dark years" of 1995-2003 when there was no new TMNT product to speak of.

So, TMNT has pretty much always been a "Top 5" thing for me since it first aired on TV, but I've definitely liked lots of other things equally or greater than. Oh, I also never didn't play video games, so video games filled a lot of time before, during, and after Turtlemania for me.

Going to just quote Zarius for some of this, as my tastes were about the same:

Before OT, for me, there was

-Xanth novels
-Transformers
-Voltron
-GI Joe
-Thundercats
-Dangermouse (basically, any "Classic Nick" cartoons. Especially David the Gnome and Esteban and the Seven Cities of Gold)
-Dungeons and Dragons (the cartoon- I didn't discover the game until high school)
-Biker Mice From Mars, Street Sharks, and Arthur and the Knights of Justice- I'm weird that way.....

My other interests during the OT were

-Gargoyles
-90s Marvel Cartoons.
-Batman: TAS
-Star Trek
-MacGuyver

Ditto not a fan of NM, so before 4Kids there was

-Charmed
-Buffy
-Angel
-Sliders
-Voyager


Unfortunately, I was working for most of the 4Kids era, and only rarely caught any of it- I remember a few episodes of the first season, and liked it, but missed the rest until FF, which I didn't like at the time.

Between then and now, though? Mostly Marvel comics and movies, Yu-Gi-Oh!(cartoons and game), Magic: the Gathering, Walking Dead, and Forgotten Realms novels(Long live Drizzt!!!). Also full Metal Alchemist, Wolf's Reign, Negima, GItS: SAC, Geneshaft, and a few other animes.

I liked a lot of that stuff too, but never anywhere close to being a "main" fandom. Like, when they were on I watched Voltron and Thundercats religiously, but then it was impossible to watch them for about ten years so I kind of stopped caring as much. Stuff like G.I. Joe and Transformers, I watched when I happened to catch it but my parents were already buying me a ton of He-Man, Ghostbusters, WWF and TMNT toys, and I kind of didn't bother to get into cartoons that I couldn't collect the toys of, it just seemed to take some of the shine away, so since I couldn't collect those toys I just only casually watched the shows. I couldn't fully commit to getting into the characters if I couldn't have them duke it out with Mumm-Ra and Skeletor under the coffee table. :lol:

It's no exaggeration to say I watched literally every cartoon show I could catch between 1984 and 1993 or so, but only a select few were good enough for me to say I was a "big fan" of. Like, I'unno, stuff like C.O.P.S., I watched that show every time it was on but I never collected the toys and I'll be damned if I can tell you one F'n thing about that franchise at all. :lol: I also used to watch Cartoon Express on USA like it was my religion, so for a long time I could do spot-on impressions of every Hanna-Barbera character who ever existed. But try as I might, I can't remember much of Grape Ape or Jabberjaw, either. :lol:

Before TMNT? Jeez... I was young when it came out..

She-Ra
Dinotopia books
Unsolved Mysteries (I loooved paranormal stuff)
Garfield
Asterix and Obelix
Mythology, especially Ancient Egypt
Anything Ocean related

After Turtles? I'm still IN turtles... :P

I was kind of the same way, minus the part about collecting the toys. As a girl, I wasn't encouraged to play with boys' toys- most of my Christmas or birthday gifts were Barbies (of course), and My Little Pony or She-Ra. (Some other favorites of mine, along with He-Man, Ghostbusters, and SWAT Cats.) The only "boy" toys I had growing up were some Hot Wheels/Matchbox cars, Legos, a few Tonka toys, and some plastic dinosaurs. Maybe my getting into shows like TMNT, Transformers, and GI Joe were my way of rebelling at having to play with the girls' toys, when the boys' stuff was so much more fun- and cooler! Then again, I was into science and nature, and used to go out bug-collecting and walking in wooded areas alone, something most girls wouldn't be caught dead doing....

I would say I was a fan of everything that came along, and it's crazy how I had that much time to watch it all given my participation in sports and video games that were there. I was at Wizard World Comic Con in Chicago, and I want to kick myself seeing all the old toys I used to have were going for there. I can say with confidence that I owned 90-95% of the turtle figures and play sets I found there, and that's in addition to all the other old toys I had a good chunk of.

I feel weird that I was such an outsider growing up when I fell in love and an active fan with most everything that was popular. TMNT and it's knockoffs, Power Rangers and it's knockoffs, Pokémon and it's knockoffs, Dragonball (Z), etc. It's even weirder considering I was a 4 sport jock as well, but I guess I was too much of a nerd at the same time so never really fit in anywhere.

Number one thing in my life that is above TMNT. Horses. That's my thing. Hobby/side business/sport/therapy. The works.

Before TMNT first debuted though, my biggest thing was Rainbow Brite.

I got out of TMNT when Power Rangers started to take over (never did like Power Rangers) so, in between 1993 and 2005, this is what I was heavily into.

1993-1999 Homicide: Life on the Street.
1999-2005 Third Watch and Star Wars prequels.
2001-2011 LOTR trilogy and the Harry Potter phenomenon.

It would have been about 2006 when I learned about the 2k3 TMNT show, and since discovering this place and re-igniting my love for the franchise, it's climbed back to number three for my major interests. Horses and traveling is the only thing I rank higher.

I tell ya, I was 2 when I discovered the turtles. So, I've known them all my life. My #1 though is Superman. I used to watch the old black and white reruns with George Reeves. So, I've stayed with that and with it, became a big fan of DC comics.

Once the OT stopped airing, besides watching a VHS of it and the first movie, I became interested in Power Rangers. Spider-Man. Wrestling. By the time 2k3 came out, I was 15. I discovered DBZ in 5th grade. Mad DBZ fan. Poke'mon around 6th grade. I'd watch turtles when I had a chance, but I didn't follow the show religously.

Before OT I loved Superman. I had a huge crush on Christopher Reeve (RIP, love you)

When TMNT came along (the original toon) then it opened the floodgates to fandom and I fell headlong into, not just TMNT, but lots of other stuff too.

Around the time of the original cartoon, I had a huge love for martial art films and Jean Claude Van Damme. I also liked Take That (pop band, it was cool at school)

Since then, I've been a fangirl. My strongest passions are;
Buffy / Angel (watching it on repeat never get's old)
Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles (Lestat, yum) and Vampires
TMNT (still, never really ever goes away and when it returns it's like a hammer hitting)
Torchwood / Doctor Who (Jack was awesome, and Torchwood was awesome ... until the dreaded season 3 hit)
and .... The A-Team (original show moreso than the film.)

Before TMNT I was really into Transformers and MOTU also Ghostbusters. Never really cared for GI Joe to much.
I am still a huge Transformers fan and collect those toys, mainly the Masterpiece line but Ninja Turtles is where it is at for me.

Before TMNT it was the Ghostbusters cartoon. I didn't have any hobbies because I was extremely young. Once TMNT came around I pretty much left any interest in Ghostbusters behind, which is odd, because I don't feel like Ghostbusters began to suck or anything, and I think back on it fondly. But for some reason TMNT stuck. Even when it started to die down a little It was still a thing to. Around late 90's early 2000's or so I got so much into anime that I didn't indulge so much in TMNT. I really got into Pokémon DBZ and such. But I would still go on ninjatutles.com or I'd find old cartoon VHS from blockbuster and buy them so I was still a fan deep down. THen 2003 arrived and I got into the new toy line a little bit and I liked the 2003 cartoon. and I go into it more again.

Before TMNT, at the age of 6-7, I watched The Smurfs and Looney Tunes. In Germany TM Hero T was later popularized. After TMHT I became a huge Wrestling Fan (Undertaker, Diesel etc...) and Turtles were forgotten for a time.

I think TMNT is my only 'fandom'. I have a similar enduring passion for Lord of the Rings and The Beatles, both of which I have loved since childhood.

Before TMNT, I was 7, so it was Transformers, My Little Pony and Care Bears all the way....

I was a huge wrestling fan for a few years and that kinda put the Turtles on the shelf for me as well, but I'm way past that and the Turtles got back to being my main fictional interest.

Before. During, After. Whatever. My main five would have to be (omitting TMNT):

Godzilla
Transformers
Evangelion
Spider-Man
Bruce Timm's DCU.

Special mentions have to go to Star Fleet and the Metal Gear saga.

TMNT, Ghostbusters and BATMAN were my first serious fandoms as a kid of 4 years old in 1989.

After that I lost interest in TMNT and Ghostbusters and got into superheroes in toys, comics, cartoons and movies. I'm 29 now and since about the age of 26, I have been falling in love with TMNT and Ghostbusters all over again. Sometimes it makes me want to cry and I can get very emotional when I think about how or why I abandoned the TMNT because the 1990 movie was so great and the toys and the original 12 or so Mirage issues were amazing. I just am so glad to know the TMNT again. They are great friends.

Same with me. And can not watch WWE anymore. Sad but true !

When I was really young I liked G.I. Joe and Ghostbusters but both of those got dropped with the quickness once the OT came along and the TMNT took over my life. A few years into that I discovered DC/Marvel comics and became obsessed with those as well. Power Rangers joined the club, but I dropped that after a few years.

Parallel to a lot of this I was getting really into sports. Football, basketball, but primarily boxing. Around 12-14 my friends and I hit the ages where we began to really become big fans of certain videogame franchises like Resident Evil, Metal Gear, and lots of JRPGs. So we were all about that for awhile. My last few years of highschool a new kid transferred in who came from a big wrestling school. I had been training in boxing for 2 or 3 years at that point so I had no respect for grappling. He took it upon himself to introduce me to the UFC/PrideFC/K1 back in the dark days of MMA before the big MMA boom. From there I became obsessed with MMA and kickboxing.

So from 16 to now almost 29 the constant hobbies in my life have been comic books, TMNT, and combat sports. With certain videogames sprinkled in here and there.

No mentions of Fraggle Rock?? :P Ran across it in the early a.m. some days ago, not seen it in a while, still love Fraggle Rock. :D Not nearly with any of the same passion as TMNT, but it was a goodie and has aged pretty well.

Funny enough I realized the other day that one of my faves from that show, Mokey, is the calmer, rational, zen sort... like a certain Turtle. I sense a theme here... lol

Before: G.I. Joe and He-Man.

After: drugs and girls.

I haven't really followed it regularly since 2007 or so. Once in a while it holds my interest but I go back to losing it quickly.

Before I liked TMNT, I liked The Wiggles.

I almost had all their videos (my favorites being Wiggly Safari, Top Of The Tots, and Wiggle Bay) and been to two of their concerts. And Greg was there, yes.

Made me laugh.

Fruit salad, yummy yummy

Yummy yummy yummy yummy, FRUIT SALAD!
:lol:

Before: Not too much except for Sesame Street, classic Disney, and Mother Goose-style rhymes since I was in preschool when I discovered TMNT. I got Nintendo several months before Turtles, so I got a bit into that. I even liked some game shows mostly due to the colorful sets and on a show like Wheel of Fortune, learning the alphabet. I may have watched Muppet Babies (definitely so when it was on the same network as TMNT on Saturday mornings).

After: Power Rangers, Teen Pop/some Pop music, Titanic, Nickelodeon, Pokemon, Sim-type computer games, Sonic the Hedgehog, Nintendo 64, Playstation 1, classic Cartoon Network, game shows (peaked with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire's popularity).

Y'all are making me feel my years.

Those were the good times!

Other than the obvious stuff like family, football/soccer and the turtles stand above everything else now. This is simply me talking about entertainment and hence excluding my political views, current affairs, university work etc.

I prefer football by a small margin simply because it's been present all of my life and is ingrained in society where I live. But it's testament to the turtles that they even come close.