Turtles with or without masks?
 

This is just a goofy thought I've had rolling around my head since I first started watching the show in July. I have been watching all the episodes over again as we wait for new episodes and I'm wondering about the significance of the masks, or lack of them.

To my memory, the first time we see them without masks is in Slash and Destroy and Poor Donnie and Mikey are getting their shells handed to them by Slash. At first I felt they appeared vulnerable and damaged and then naked. For some reason it makes them seem oddly different.

Next, Leo loses his in the season finale and I think he goes without it for a few episodes. He's also damaged and vulnerable without it, but I found it easier to accept with Leo than I did Donnie and Mikey.

Then, correct me if I'm wrong, because I may have missed a scene as I was binge watching these all in a week. But in season three we know Raph has lost his, but they don't show him without it. Why is that? Do they not want us to see him damaged and vulnerable? Or are they just teasing the fans by not showing us Raph without his mask since he's the last one.

I'm thinking it's because of the dark Raph storyline we are supposed to get later on. They show him taking off his red to put on the black one. I could be wayyy over speculating this since the show appears to be changing gears this season.

For some reason a lot of fan based pictures show the turtles without their masks. I'm curious as to why some fans like them without the masks. I guess it's because the lack of a mask makes them appear naked and exposed more? I'm not sure what it is, but I'm also the most nervous to see Raph without his over any of them. I have no idea why really, I guess because the day he takes his off will not be a good day.

I think that the mask serves a functionality to soak sweat since they don't have eyebrows like us.

To me it just makes them seem casual without them...like the mask along with knee pads and belts are just part of their uniform. They probably have individual colors because a certain mutant turtle keep taking them all.:lol:

Personally I think you're reading too much into it.

As to why fans like them maskless, I think it has to do with it making them more "human" (read: relatable). Realistically speaking, would you sit around all day with elbow & kneepads, & a mask? No, of course not, you're gonna wanna be comfortable. It's not like Peter Parker wears his Spiderman suit in the shower or while cooking breakfast. The Mirage comics are the only version to feature the turtles without their gear somewhat regularly. The OT & subsequent toons have had brief moments, but not enough for my personal tastes.

On the topic of nude-faced turtles, there was supposed to be a scene where Mikey was maskless in the third film but it was cut for some reason (obviously it's because it looks straight up disturbing, haha!). See pic-
http://i62.tinypic.com/14soe53.jpg

I love when they're featured without their masks. Mirage definitely did it more, but I see it a decent amount in IDW. A lot of the Northampton arc has them all maskless.

As far as it applies to the Nick toon, I feel like in Slash and Destroy, the mask-taking was more to further just what a threat Slash was. For Leo, it was to really punctuated how badly he had been beaten by The Foot. I feel like Raph has yet to get a good spotlight for him to be maskless. I can't wait to get a reaaaally good Raph episode, like what's been hinted at.

I have to agree that it may be that it feels more like a casual view of them, their lives outside the usual bad guy fighting storyline, when they'd be off duty, off camera and symbolism of a more private part of their lives and selves that isn't seen as much.

As different and/or personal as it may feel to on a rare occasion see someone with their glasses off when you otherwise never see them without. It's a view of them few ever really see other than themselves. I think the same could be said of the Turtles' masks.


Ok, that settles it. Third movie and 2014 Mikey, leave it on. Please. :lol:

IDW's Northtampton arc was so good, and one of the reasons was that the turtles were maskless. It ahowed them settling down for once.

I actually really like the prevailing theory that they didn't show Raph without his mask (and may reveal so in a later episode) his eye area was scarred when Karai spit in his face.

There a suppose image of what he would look like with the acid burn.

http://40.media.tumblr.com/614abd299...igpmo4_500.png

Personally I prefer the turtles with masks. They wouldn't be ninjas without them! That's just me though. I can respect other opinions about this. Having the turtles without masks is like having Calvin without Hobbes (For those of you who are familiar with Bill Watterson's comic strip) things just wouldn't be the same.

But when they're in the lair, chilling, they wouldn't keep the gear on all the time.

Hmm.... Well, that's true.

I wish they would show them with out the gear but understandable it would cut too much into the budget so I guess we head canon that they just take off when they about to go to bed. Maybe there even times when they are just so tired that they flop on the bed and sleep with it on.

That just screams photoshop.

:blanksta: That's because it's photoshopped. Nobody said it was real.

Sleeping in knee pads and junk sounds about as comfortable as waking up in the morning and realizing I'd left my bra on. lol

Do you have more of these photoshopped Raph without mask? Or one without the acid burn?

Why would it cut into any budget? They should be able to exclude the mask from being drawn by the 3D renderer with one simple click or so. In fact they would be saving rendering time since fabric seems to be one of the more complex 3D object to animate and render accurately.

Mikey was shown to be searching for his mask to put on when he just woke up in Mikey Gets Shellacne, implying that he slept without it prior to that.

I hope you have a comfortable one then :tlol:

Yeah, as long as they had the foresight to leave it separate like that. Which they appear to have since when poor Leo was out cold in the tub he wasn't wearing any of his stuff.;)


(And I'm not sure any bra is comfortable after sleeping in it all night. lol)



Edit: Poor unconscious baby (two current versions of him knocked out cold this year :ohwell:)... but yeah, we've already seen one without his gear. Granted it's not in a cozy just relaxing at home kind of way.

Yup. I found them on tumblr.
http://40.media.tumblr.com/8fa9acf61...igpmo1_500.png


I don't think so because then you would've continually be editing the models rather then having a extra ones which are only occasionally use sometimes for certain scenes when they're not working out or been in the lair for a while and are not just recently coming back from a mission.
Reasons like that are why we don't see them physically putting stuff in third person like when Splinter putting on the blind fold and the other moment when April put Raph's mask back on.

The only time when they can click something off or maybe just showing them taking it off or on are hats and helmets because the animator doesn't have think of how fabric will move when manipulating the model.

In a sense, sometimes that seems to be the intention. I just remember, in a nother TMNT show, the 2k3/Fastforward arc, there was a stint when Raph and Casey get stuck on an island for eternity, and Casey was implied to be naked and Raph didn't have his mask, nor his knee/elbow pads or belt.

I think it's more like the masks give them a sense of identity. A sense of being.

Hense why slash took Donnie and Mikey's masks, because he was stripping them of their identities as ninja.

Where as Leo's mask and gear are stripped from his body by his brothers because he had been sevearly beaten. And he doesn't wear the mask because he doesn't identify himself as a ninja any longer. He even lements that he will never be the same again. The only time he dons the mask again is when his family is indanger and he realizes that he is the only one who can save them.

And since that is one of the only articles of clothing they have they probably do feel naked without them. For example in Within the Woods, the tails of Donnie's mask are pinned by the Creaps pitchfork, and he wastes time try to unpin himself when he could have just as easily ripped the mask off and then then gone to get help.

It's pausible that he didn't want to abandon Mikey, but even then he still could have taken the mask off.

The day it really happens in the show, the internet is gonna light up like I don't even know what. :trazz: I highly suggest the gentlemen who do not like sites the likes of tumblr for the fandom of young, probably largely school age ladies stay far, far from it that day. :lol:

For the most part, it's easier to make things a separate poly/mesh then just have it all as one object. (Such as watches, shirts, belts etc being separate objects) it's less fuzz and looks better.

You can always merge them into one object or group for then hide the stuff that isn't needed, like the mask of a turtle.

Even Red Fly made the Out of the Shadows Turtles able to take off their gear, and remove Shredder's armor and his cape. Even Karai's mouth guard is removable.

Now that is an interesting concept. I did think it strange that she spit at him and then it was over with when Donnie or whoever it was washed out his eyes and he said he'd had enough. I find it peculiar that without his mask I still see him the same as I do with the mask. Can't wait to see him without his mask on the show though. Should be interesting.

With the exception of Mikey, all of their eyes seems squinty when going bare face so maybe Raph's would be similar.

Nice! Back in Rise of the Turtles when Raphael was threatening Snake with the mutagen and claimed that he is handsome, he did have a point :tlol:

The fact that Leonardo was completely bare while being transferred into the bathtub in Within the Woods already implied that the turtles and their gears were modelled as individual 3D objects and should be pretty much a click away to exclude anything from being rendered. I'm not surprised that even their shells were separate objects as well. Remember we saw a bunch of hollow turtle shells in the Dream Beaver ep?

... his face looks like a bottle cap if I'm honest. :tlol:

Maybe it'll look better in motion. Leo does.

http://i.imgur.com/X8A88fe.gif

I think that would be the most ideal way to handle working on a CGI model of a Ninja Turtle. I did the same when I was making 3D TMNT models, first work out a basic body, and then model and fit on a shell later.

A lot of interesting stuff bouncing around in this thread! I like sans mask for the sheer curiosity factor; I want to see it because in general I can't have it. But looking at the pictures in this thread I realized something peculiar, which is without the mask I found myself saying, "Wow they look like giant turtles." ...duh. But there's something more humanizing to me with the masks on I guess? Or at least they allow for a bit of distance, if that makes any sense. :lol:

That's actually really good. The way the back shell fold backward rather then forwards seems more sensible since they have human shoulder blades and arm ball joints.

I think people love to look at the Turtles without their masks because it's a different look for them. And in this show, they have different eye colors, so to look at them without their masks makes their eyes pop out more. That Leo gif without his mask is pretty cool.

I think the turtles masks make them part of who they are, especially the color. I can't say they look better without them, but it does make them look cooler and more serious when they're fighting. Also gives them a cool ninja look :tcool:

I just had a thought the other day. What if they had face mask like Kakashi along with a ninja hood and winter clothing during the winter and they just wear the usual mask and other regular stuff during the summer and spring.

During the fall the uniform would be somewhere between.

No that would just be too much, no offense :lol:

[QUOTE=evan2000;1389831]Nice! Back in Rise of the Turtles when Raphael was threatening Snake with the mutagen and claimed that he is handsome, he did have a point :tlol:


Not to start anything, but I think I've always thought of Raph as the handsome one out of them all. Let's face it, a lot of women like bad boy types, so he fits in with that. However, Leo is handsome in that tub photo that's also on this thread. It's those big blue eyes. Maybe it's the eyes that make them more human, I'm glad they thought of that.

I just watched the movie last night and I realized they have the same eye colors that these guys do. I didn't notice that when I saw the movie in the theater. Leo's are really bright blue, but Raph's are a subtle green and Mikey's are also blue, but it's hard to see that Donnie's are brown unless you freeze frame :P

[QUOTE=aliena;1395770]
Funny you say that. When 2k3 first came on, me as well as so many people I know were turned off by the no pupils. It took me about 3 years to come around, but I still have friends and family who just refuse to watch the cartoon because of the no pupils. I too am glad that this version stuck them back in.

Yeah, there's something about the eye colors that just works for them and makes them seem more human like. I'm certainly not against 2K3 and how they didn't have the pupils because they did have them when they took the masks off. It was just hidden by the mask. But I love the different eye colors as it's an even easier way to distinguish which Turtle is which if they have their masks off.

I do love the eye colors as a new detail Nick has brought as it's addition to the Turtles (as well as variation in size/height) and hope it sticks around. Like that the movie picked up on it, too. (And that promo image close-up of the eyes of each was such a stunning image, despite the looks of them otherwise.)

Agree with the sentiment of 2003. It was ok, but I had wished they had pupils. And then by the time they added it they'd changed the art style enough that the way they did it looked weird imo. :ohwell:

And the expressions. Wickedly cute little bugger, they all are.

Well yeah but it is cold during the winter. They wouldn't be wearing all of that stuff during the spring and summer, hench the reason why they are wearing the usual look for the warmer seasons and the full on ninja uniform (all with a same color so they don't look like power rangers but a bit of their personal colors) with a mouth mask and a hood for the winter.

I think what they are wearing for the spirit quest is what I meant when I said "somewhere between the two looks." during the fall.

Eh, Nick wasn't the one that was the first to do either. Mikey was shorter than the other three in the live action movies and the 2007 movie was the first to give Mikey blue eyes instead of the normal brown eyes.

I did not recall that about the 07 movie. I'll have to check it out. I do always think of Mikey as the shortest of them all though. I wonder if they gave them different eye colors in The Next Mutation.