Anyone else dislike the original turtle designs?
 

http://www.mwctoys.com/images/review_comictmnt_14.jpg

I know they're iconic and what started them off but I've never really liked them. They come off droopy or cartoonish to me and necks seem too long, at least in the toys. They remind of Cecil Turtle from Looney Tunes actually.

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/...20070713073613

I don't hate them but they've never appealed to me and I've never had the desire to get the Neca figures.

No. The first Turtle designs are among my favorites, they have a very unique and different creature design. However, they aren't very good at showing expressions, so it was only natural that E&L deviated to other designs as the comic went on.

Even the designs in #1 was refined from the concept art. (Unused retractable claws)
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/...ou6eku5khc.jpg

I actually feel the early Mirage were the best, followed closely by the first 6 episodes of the FW series.

The Neca figures are on my to buy list.


Personally, I hate the Archie version most. I can't stand that style of art.

I love them, personally. Though I will admit, it took a while for them to grow on me since I wasn't used to them.

Droopy & cartoonish?

You must be talking about the Fred Wolf series.
http://i60.tinypic.com/e6bymt.png

As they appeared in the very first issue? No I'm pretty fond of how they looked there, the faces actually look like they belong on Turtles. Since then they've just looked more like nose-less, ear-less, lip-less, wide human faces. In the case of Jim Lawson, horses. In the case of the PT movie, reptilian aliens.

:lol::lol::lol:
Jim's a nice guy, c'mon man...

You're not wrong though.

I love Eastman and Laird's Turtles. They are my favorite look of the Turtles. I'm actually not a fan of Jim Lawson's version of the Turtles. His art style just never really appealed to me.

Well I'm not familiar with all the artists. I looked up Jim Lawson since he was brought up and I agree it's not very good. Too squiggly.

I've never gotten into the comics. I want to its just something I haven't done. Some of the designs I've seen are pretty cool. Here's a picture I know we've all seen. I like this design alot better as far as older versions go.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._vol_1_4-2.jpg

Looks like someone just put a gun to his back or either he was just injected with something. ><

I never read the original comics, so I am not too familiar with them. But by just looking at them, I can safely say that, in my opinion, that I do not like them any more than the other incarnations of the turtles. The original comics turtles seems to be short, round and have odd facial features to me.

Edit: from a different angle, in certain drawings, they look like Koopa troopa from the Mario series xD

You talkin:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BU4xF9kR7n...1600/50-01.jpg
because if so....
http://media.giphy.com/media/MsZ7S2k8UVLr2/giphy.gif

I love the original designs. I remember as a kid trying to copy the Laird style, but could never pull it off.

The only critique I would give, and I apologize if it comes of as a little rude, but I didn't like the turtles tails as they seemed kinda 'phallic', to me. No other major designs I can remember have it, and I assume it's for the same reason.

Hey! The Necas are beautiful. Eastman and Laird did amazing jobs. I have a reprint of the first comic, found in the Visual History book, and it looks amazing. And the Fred Wolf TMNT look like cartoons, but the first Eastman/Laird TMNT look quite realistic, in my opinion. Don't hate on them. They're the best design of the TMNT, that, and the 1990 movie TMNT.

i love the original comics designs.

http://i.imgur.com/SrxF26i.gif


:lol::lol::lol:

I was thinking more along the lines of this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ures_cover.jpg

But both are a pretty derpy!

:tcouch:

Such blasphemy should never be uttered. Ever.

I don't dislike them. In fact I have a healthy level of respect for them (and do indeed own those Neca figs), but I feel they're definitely a case of having benefited from other artists offering their take later on.
I kinda feel the same way about Ditko's Spider-Man. I can't fault it, but I'm happier with Romita Sr.

The Archie TMNT, and specifically Allan's work, are the definitive designs for me. I'm a minority, I know, and I'm fine with that.

Whenever someone shares stills from old cartoons like this, I can't help but think that once, somewhere far away, someone put the finishing touches on that particular cel of animation and thought "That'll do".

I always liked the funkier Turtle designs. It's more fun to picture them tossing entire slices of pizza into their huge mouths... Really all the early stuff, (comics/toys/cartoons/packaging) was appealing in its own way. My favorites though are probably A.C. Farley's style - lots of energy and "funk" captured in his expressions and poses.

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2117/...37d027a592.jpg

City at War and Lawson's early 90s style were great too. I was also a big fan of Michael Dooney's stuff, which seemed to show up a lot on cover art. His turtles were awesome for group shots and battle scenes, like the Manhattan Project box.

You know, the turtles, Ninjara, etc., suited me just fine, but I hated Splinter's design and April's.

I don't hate them. I said that in my post.

The Fred Wolf turtles do look cartoonish but I meant the original comic designs look cartoonish because of their short, droopy stature. That's why I gave the example of Cecil and someone mentioned koopas which is also a good example.

They're not horrible but I just can't take them seriously. At least the OT turtles have a more built-up body style despite having cuter faces.

LIES!!! :P

To each their own, but I don't even think the interior art looked like that cover.
Ryan Brown never drew interiors for Archie.

I like the E&L turtles because they look properly inhuman and unfriendly. They are short and weird and are usually pupil-less and grimacing. How anyone decided to make a toyline and a cartoon from that I'll never know (well, I imagine they wanted a "gross" line).

They look like they have the features of human and turtle anatomy that would lend themselves best to being ninja, really.

I love them. Favorite designs of the guys. I love Farley's too.

Hehehe, a bit unfair, but there definitely were some weird drawings in that show.

I like the original comic designs a lot, but I also like the fact that they change over time, and that different artists draw the Turtles in distinctive styles. One my favourite stories when I was a kid was Red Sails in the Sunset, in Turtles Meet Archie. It looks weird at first, but I kinda fell in love with that art.

I love the designs from Mirage issue 1. I've always liked that they were smaller, and proportioned more like Turtles with the beaks and the thin necks/upper arms/upper legs. I do appreciate the more muscular style Pete and Kevin developed over the next few issues, but those first little Popeye the Sailor Man Turtles will always be my favorite.

I like the Neca turtles, they look very though. Also, the Eastman and Laird designs, but I don't like April with that curly black hair, she supposed to be a redhead, but I like her first design in the original comics, the curly hair was her second design. I started to read the Mirage Comics last year.

About the Original series' look, I like them. Well, they were my first introduction to the TMNT world. Peter Laird called them "cutesy" during an interview. :tgrin:

They're not very good designs, but they're a lot of fun to call back to for how raw they are.

There's a reason even Eastman and Laird moved away from them fairly quickly though. As soon as the series stopped being a full-on pastiche, it made more sense to move toward more expressive designs. Even by #4, they'd started to transition toward the versions we're more familiar with.

Early '90s Lawson was as good as it ever got, especially with the inking that accompanied it during "City at War."

I'm sure most people will disagree, because it's a pretty off-beat style (and probably a little dated as well), but you know what? It was a pretty off-beat series at that point.