Are the Turtles super strong?
 

I've read on various pages and saw shows that say they aren't super strong, but are in peak physical condition. However there were moments where they almost seemed super strong. Like when Donatello ripped a piece of a vehicle in one of the episodes. (Although one could say that he used some cutting equipment off screen and then peeled it off.

I wasn't sure because there are moments like in Night of the Rogues when Slash tossed a pizzeria at Mikey and it fell on him, but he wasn't seriously injured. But then, maybe this was one of those Loony Toons moments where the Turtles manage to go through situations no normal being would be able to survive in. However there were moments where the Turtle Van fell over and all 4 had to push it back up, struggling, meaning if they all had super strength, it wouldn't have taken much effort. In the 2014 movies, they definitely seem to be super strong and have depicted super strength.

So it always confused me. Are the Turtles super strong? Or just in peak physical condition?

They're not meant to be strong at all, and that's what the horrid 2014 movie got completely wrong. They're not muscle bound Hulk creatures, they're ninja's.

Their shells offer them some degree of protection but otherwise I don't think they're any stronger than a normal well trained human.

Then they are strong, just not super strong. I mean of course they have to be fit to fight and be ninjas so yes they are strong.

In the 2014 movie they got it sort of right, if those versions were like the 2nd stage mutations in the 1987 series. xD That's what they remind me of. :tlol:

No

10characters.

And that explains them knocking over a brick wall onto Footbots in the first episode, HOW?! I'd say that , given that they were able to push the van UP at least five flights of stairs, YES, they ARE super strong! At least as strong as, say, Iron-Man in-armor. But not Thing or Hulk strong. There are plenty of other examples, too, but those were the first two that usually come to mind. 2K3 had a few, too.

Due to their training they're probably strong compared to the average person walking down the street. But I don't think they're supposed to be super human strong. Except for the final couple of seasons of the original cartoon when they further mutated. When they had their secondary mutations, at that point they were super strong.

First of all the original cartoon never took realistic physics into account and there was slapstick humor in everything.

Like in the Big Zipp episode where he bends two buildings like they're rubber to stop one from falling, when you can't bend a skyscraper like that without it being destroyed.

I always took them for being stronger than humans of similar size and muscle mass, but not to a superhero degree.

Now as for random bursts of superhero strength... I mostly just brush that off as cartoon magic. (Along with things that weirdly explode, break too easily, or whistle when they fall. lol)

In later eps, sure. But I'm talking abou the first season, which was more realistic in terms of what they were physically capable of in strength. They trashed the giant factory robots in the Technodrome, too. With weapons that should have been broken after hitting the machines with them! Youd have to be stronger than human peak to do that.

4 human sized people pushing a little VW van up the stairs

I take it you've never helped a friend move? :lol:

Human strength, or maybe the strength of a chimp. They're still biological organisms. Their mutation isn't "magic"
Definitely not Iron-Man. Haha...They aren't made of metal.
C'mon Duckie!

http://www.vwcampervanblog.com/wp-co...7/jed-vw-1.jpg

At minimum they can easily lift their own bodyweight, which right there makes them way stronger than a good portion of the human population.
Even in the mirage books they can be seen easily lifting manhole covers, and those things are 200+ lbs.

Super Strong?
probably no.
Really freakin' strong?
Yes.

Never said it was magic. And that van is at least a couple of tons- that ain't no baby grand piano they were pushing UP the stairs! Gravity alone would make that virtually impossible at human levels. And yes, I've actually done plenty of moving myself, so I know what one can or can't push up a flight of stairs. Actually, that's not even counting them pushing the subway car to the lair in Nick. You cannot tell me four humans could even BUDGE something THAT massive! And remember in the 03 series when Leo and Raph carried the sofa with Donbie ON it like it was easy? Or Mikey using an 600 lb + chunk of concrete and cable as a bola in Turtles On Trial?! Sorry, but no human could do THAT. Not even at peak ability. So, yeah- not made of metal, bud definitely in the same strength class as Shell-head. I'd say better than Cap, but only by a few hundred lbs lift/carry capacity.

Honestly? Yes, in my younger years, we did stuff like this for fun:





so I know it's possible, not to mention, it's a little van.

The stripped down version is 2600 lbs - in neutral, up a 45˚set of stairs? 4 athletic men?

Very possible.

Make it happen, 42.
And show your work when you do so.
(ie: pics or it didn't happen)

I MIGHT give you that one- but as you said, that's stripped down. Theirs wasn't- as shown when Donnie did just that once it was UP the stairs. And April was in it, too- adding another 120 lbs or so. And they are 5 ft 4 or so, and 175 lbs give or take, so- "short guys". Let's just say that I take that possibility with a heaping handful of salt.

That said, most of the other feats we've seen would not be possible for human-level strength. Smashing the Karai-bots, for instance. Like the Technodrome machines, they are metal, and are themselves stronger than humans given that they use pistons, hydraulics, gears, etc for power- something the turtles don't have going for them. Yet they destroyed those things on several occasions, and that's smashing hard steel. Or for that matter, any of the other robots and killer machines they've demolished in fights. And there are even a few in the comics, too. I'd say fighting Triceratons and even Leatherhead (on the few occasions they've had to knock him out) would prove they are stronger than humans by at least some margin. IDW- Raph smashes through a door like it's kindling. And so on....

I remember in the first season, in a fight with Bebop and Rocksteady, the four turtles managed to lift up their entire van with relative ease. If it's around 2600 pounds like an earlier comment mentioned, wouldn't that be roughly 650 pounds each person? I'm not sure, but is that physically possible for even someone at peak condition?

Lol, 15 years ago, when I was young and handsome, sure...

Ok stripped down means it's not a camper, not that it's "empty"

If we were assume the van is actually a stripped down VW, Then it weighs approximately 2600 lbs (1180 kg) and the effort is reduced by half (using the incline), then they need to push with at least 1300 lbs of force. This is equivalent to moving a 590kg mass. If all 4 push equally, they are each left pushing 147.5 lbs, the equivalent of pushing a 67kg mass.

On top of that, April is in the drivers seat, (I know I didn't account for her weight, but 120lbs isn't going to make or break this scenario given all the assumptions in place :P) Possibly giving an extra hand by accelerating the gas, or, if they were really concerned about monoxide posioning, which frankly could be an issue) at the very least, switching between neutral and the parking break, giving a helping hand to the boys.

I don't recall what floor She lived on, But I get the impression it was the second.

Beyond all of that, The thing was on wheels, reducing the amount of friction, but I'm too lazy to do that math right now.

http://images.sodahead.com/profiles/...937387472.jpeg

Just looking over the screen caps - where were they? why did I think that was April's place they were going to?

http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Peak_Human_Condition


http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Peak_Human_Strength

Over the head? Not without doing serious damage to one's muscles. And they made it look easy, as you said. And in Nick, they used Mikey's shell as a battering ram on that dome they were in in the Kraang base where the portal was when they couldn't breathe the air. Leo and Raph (arguably the two strongest) bashed through a barrier that should have been strong enough to hold them. Surprised the Kraang, who probably thought it was unbreakable!

I'm assume them to be under 5 feet (if april's 5'7", and they're shoulder height to her) - but again, being shorter is and advantage here.

Weight, meh, hard to say 175lbs - not likely, not with shells :P.

According to TMNT & Other Strangeness, Leo weights 150lbs (he's also 4,9" tall) which sounds very light.

A Green Sea Turtle can get up to 5 feet long, and they can weight up to 700lbs. But considering most Ninja Turtle incarnations can pull their heads in, which is a ability sea turtles lack due to too much muscles mass, I'd say a Ninja Turtle might weight somewhere between 250-350lbs

Your estimate sounds about right. I'd wager they clock in at around 275 each, give or take :). The Carapace and plastron combined are easily 60lbs of that

Although. Bruce Lee weighted around 140lbs at his peak. So I guess 200lbs could work too.

At that rate... 2014 are lucky the cable on that elevator didn't break. They don't need weapons or be bulletproof, they can just use their weight and sit on people to death. :tlol: It's a wonder the van wasn't scraping the pavement.

Mark me down for "Really strong, but not super-strong." I wrestle with a few dudes who are around my height but about 70lbs heavier (so they'd be light-to-mid 200s), with body dimensions and proportions roughly similar to those of the TMNT in the original movie, and some of those guys can deadlift about 600lbs, squat about 500, leg press about 800 and chest press about 400.

So yeah, that's "super-strong" by conventional standards, but also entirely feasible, even for people under 6' tall. There's no reason at all the Turtles couldn't be that strong, especially Leo and Raph who probably work out more than Donnie and Mike I imagine.

Okay, for your scenario earlier, that only works if they were going DOWN. That incline (which is STAIRS, not a ramp) would work against them, so they would actually have to push more than twice as hard (because the weight is pushing back against them) than they would on a flat surface or a downward incline. April's weight makes it a little harder, but it's not a camper, but probably had a lot of science and robotics equipment in the back, since it was originally Baxter's. That adds a LOT of weight! Also, they were pushing it up to Baxter's apartment, which IIRC, one of them said something about it being up five flights. April's apartment was on the third floor of her building. (I know this because in The Gang's All Here, Mikey climbed up from her fire escape, and was shown getting in from the third story window.)

As for their weight, I've calculated it out that sans shells, they would likely weigh about 150-160 due to muscle mass, and the shells ad probably about 20 to 25 lbs. So 175 to 185, would be a pretty close estimate of their weight. And most versions have them all between 5' and 5'5". April is just about a head taller. (And her boots probably add a couple of inches.)

I'd say the 200 is probably a lot closer, given their short stature. Also, the shell is bone, but it is also thin and relatively light compared to larger and more dense limb bones. A small turtle shell is much lighter than one might think, and most of the weight is in the carapace, anyway.



Given that they are short even by "normal" standards, I'd say that they are just a bit above even that. Keep in mind, That chunk of concrete mentioned earlier was easily as big as Mike was, but he twirled it around like it was one of his frigging nunchucks! Needed both hands, but still.... No WAY a human could have bola'ed that walker thing Krang was in with that sucker. Same goes for that wall they knocked over on the Foot-bots. They have moved other large and extremely heavy objects before, as well, picked UP the van over their heads (as another poster noted) and tossed around huge tractor tires like Frisbees!

Way way back, WAY back - My max squat was 595 - I was around 205 - 6'3" at the time, and hardly what you'd consider "huge". I only benched 305 at my max - leg pressing 850 - but the shorter dudes bulked up much faster, and could lift much more. Linebackers - guys that had the genes to go pro - were easily putting up numbers like Leo's saying, and more.

I don't know that I'd call any of that super human, just athletic imho, but I'm not sure what's considered normal these days.

I disregard most feats of strength displayed in the original cartoon, on account'a that whole show was nutty. Like, I'll note it, but only half count it. That show ignored physics constantly.

Okay, I get that, but how is tossing enormous tires around like a Frisbee or picking up a fully equipped van NOT superhuman? Even linebackers and wrestlers couldn't do that with the kind of ease that they are shown doing these feats. And then there are the rooftop runs they often go out on, which would require a great deal of stamina and leg strength to run and jump that far. New York is about five miles long and two miles wide- might not seem like much, until you take into account that they are going over obstacles, across gaps that can be as much as ten feet, and up or down uneven terrain from building to building in a city of millions, often at heights of 100 ft or more, where winds are much stronger and more unpredictable.

These guys are doing things that humans would herniate themselves attempting. (Ever seen someone throw one of those huge tires twenty feet and do it repeatedly? Neither have I....) I know there are sports competitions for "strong men", but even those guys have difficulty ROLLING something that big and heavy, or carrying them ten yards or so, but the TMNT are doing discus with this stuff! And apparently carrying large pieces of scrap metal and other junk from junkyards on a daily basis. I just don't buy them NOT having somewhere above human peak strength, much like some superheroes who may not bench ten tons, but are still stronger than any peak human. (Iron-Man was just the first example that came to mind, as his armor does put him in this category- he's not as strong as Thor, Thing, or even Spidey, but stronger than Cap- who is himself slightly above peak.)

I guess when you talk super human, it's more of the leaps tall buildings stuff, or throwing shipping containers, shredding steel doors with your fingers...stuff humans could never hope to do...

FW took liberties, but it's full of inconsistency - so...Meh. If anything, it would be a nod to the working knowledge of martial arts at the time (read as David Wise), leveraging your opponents weight against them, channeling your chakras, the one inch punch, etc etc...

The series comes on the back of all those American Ninja movies, David Carradine's Kung Fu; Bruce Lee and The Karate Kid.
Strength wasn't physical, it came from within.

It's not the only one, then. In any case, I think it's pretty clear that they have shown some pretty incredible feats of physical strength across all the different versions- such as the 2007 movie, when they were fighting that giant blue monster in the construction site, or the five generals later in the film. They were hitting STONE bodies, with enough force to actually throw them!

Well there are degrees of superhuman strength, of course. You have strength ratings that range from just over human peak (Cap) to Unlimited (Hulk) and everything in between. Spidey, for instance, is rated about 10-15 tons lifting, depending on who's doing the writing. But he's rated below Thing. Batman would be human peak without enhancement. And he's not considered superhuman, but Cap is, because he's enhanced. Ant-Man is superhuman strength simply because he has strength of a full-sized human even at ant-size (which would make him enormously strong at that size), but is even stronger at giant-size because he's got giant strength at that size. (Which shouldn't even be possible, since the particles shouldn't work both ways....)

The point here is that you can have superhuman strength without going full-on Hulk with it, which is what it seems they have done. I guess I've just read enough comics to see how they fall within the ratings.

When I see them in my head, it's the movie version, which is the closest to "reality". There was nothing in the original films to indicate anything more than "really strong by real-world standards". I'm more drawn to that as a base standard over anything in any of the cartoons. Cartoons by definition have everything all exaggerated and inconsistent.

Like I said, I'll take such suggestions under advisement, but they really only half-count. :lol:

I'll give you that one. I honestly like the movies for that very reason, though I DO sort of still feel they should be slightly stronger than humans of the same size. (Mainly because all other mutants in the various media are as well, even Tokka and Rahzar.)

Yes

That's what they remind me of due to their huge size and they were definitely super strong. In the cartoon, it seems inconsistent and had loony tune moments where they survived things no human could survive. You never see them lift cars like Bebop or Rocksteady.

It seems strange as they never gave them a strength scale. I always figured they were no stronger than people like Batman or the Punisher when it comes to physical strength.

That's fine - and yes to the above, but , but no, the movie didn't get anything right.

The movie is wrong all over itself. Head to toe; front to back, 7 under it's eyelids.

!!!WRONG!!!!

Well, also in the Nick version, they managed to push the Shellraiser and get back underground without a power source with Donnie inside it. It's a subway car...that thing has to be super heavy.

I't just temporary and the building probably evacuated (even if it's definately extreme). For example, skyscrapers in Japan are built to stand giant Earthquakes (New York City has not many Earthquakes, but in the cartoon it could have been those skyscrapers built after "Return of the Technodrome"). Big Zipp could maybe use psychokinesis powers to hold it for a while (as long as we saw it). In other episodes, we often saw buildings falling apart all the time (starting with "A Thing About Rats"). In Sky Turtles, it was probably just "good luck" they fell to the right place when gravity in New York City turned ordinary again.

Actually, they did. That incident when they picked up the van to scare off some bad guys, as mentioned earlier.


Yeah, I already mentioned that one, too. That one actually sticks out as a prime example of superhuman strength. Along with Mikey and the giant concrete bola, or those huge machines they were bashing into scrap metal in the Technodrome. Or Leo slicing Traag to pieces in Nick. Being a huge mountain of living stone would require more force behind the blade than a human should be capable of. Yet Leo did it without much difficulty.