Turtles wear red masks again
 

What are the chances we'll see a new version of the turtles going back to wearing red bandanas? It's not a deal breaker for me but I would love to see it happen again. Whether it'd be the comics, a new cartoon, a new film, etc., would you like to see it happen again?

I'm sure it'll happen in most new iterations, but never permanently. More like origins or flashbacks, similar to how IDW did it.

But no, no mainstream TMNT story will ever have all four Turtles wearing red masks. And I'm okay with that.

But what I WOULD love to see make a comeback are the Utrom symbols the Turtles were sporting on their plastrons back in Volume 4. That was nifty.

I would second that request for an all red mask wearing series, tv or comics, for a long haul... as much as I like IDWs take so far, I really dislike color Turtles comics and colored bandanas. But I'm a Mirage guy at heart so nothing for me will ever be as good.

I am not sure if any major incarnation has them wearing red masks. But I don't mind. Personally I was never fond of the red masks. In the comic, whether it was black and white or had them wearing red masks, it just makes it more difficult to tell who's who unless they have other features that distinguish them, aside from their weapons. I never thought it was original for them to all wear the same color and look pretty much the same.

Wait for Andrew to see this topic. He'll give you an hour and a half rant why red bandana's are natural and the colors make them metrosexuals.

Might be really cool if the Nick turtles went Mirage for the finale or something. Would be an epic way to end the series.

For in story reasons... Maybe the hue would look weird, but imagine if Splinter had died and each of the guys all made headbands out of a piece of his kimono. Would put an extra emotional spin on the motif beyond the clan unity.

Brace yourselves...

ANDREW IS COMING.

Damn, good idea! Never happen, but good idea.

So long as you give them their own distinctive silhouettes like in the Nick cartoon, it could work. Though personally, if the turtles needed to wear a single color, I'd rather it be black.

I wouldn't rule it out entirely. But certainly no time in the foreseeable future.

It'd be OK with that. In my old screenplay for "Ninja Turtles" (4), when Splinter got killed I had them shuck their colored bandannas and they all put on black ones.

But they do. There is no story-based reason for them to wear multi-colored bandannas beyond "I wanna be different!" or "I wanna make a fashion statement!" or "My favorite color is BLUE and I'm gonna wear it and show the world, damn it!" None of which seem in line with what would be the reasoning of a ninja trained from basically birth to be an assassin.

Black? You guys... Who do you think these turtles are, NINJA!? :tlol:

Do we really gotta do this all over again? :lol:

If anything it'll be like IDW where they only were them for the first arc.

I have been very disappointed. No one has invoked Crisler's Law for like, months. Usually this is a topic that brings it out so let's see.

Okay, I love that idea, but I also find it pretty funny that the Utroms couldn't tell them apart by their weapons. Here we have hyper-intelligent aliens who built a god-damn teleporter and practically all look and act identical (a thing I have a lot of problems with and thank IDW for dealing with), but when four turtles set their identities apart with their weaponry, and they don't take the time to set apart the tiny nuances that they should be able to spot, they make them wear symbols on their plastrons.

I could have gone with a joke that the Utroms can tell them apart without their weapons by the slightest little differences that the turtles never really took the time to notice.
"Oh yeah, I know you're Leonardo, you have that weird dent in the left side of your shell"
"...What dent?"
I recon if they're smart enough to tell each other apart in spite of looking incredibly similar, they should be able to spot little differences in every person down to their thumbprint - which is probably how they set each other apart anyway.

Regarding the turtles wearing red masks, I can see them doing it as a stealth tactic. Maybe in an "I am Spartacus!" situation where Raphael is in danger and the others have to protect him. So they all wear red masks and carry sai (but not actually use them for the purposes of distraction), and hope whoever they're dealing with can't pick up their differences in height and body shape.

The only way it'll happen is if, as others said, they pay homage in a single episode or issue of something, or, if we ever get a Mirage animated DVD feature.

Well, Ciro is a Mirage fanboy, so I'm sure he'd like to make it happen. Surely Nick would let go of the the rainbow headbands for ONE episode. And maybe I'm giving Playmates too much credit here, but it presents a variant figure opportunity, no?

As for my specific idea, now that I've looked at it with this in mind, I think Splinter's red would look really cool on the boys. Not to mention it's different enough from Raph's red so as to not make it pointless for him to bother with it.

I could see a training segment at the dojo with Splinter in the Nick cartoon where all the Turtles wear red bandana's as a training excercize.

The Turtles still look different though in Nick, with Don being tall and thin, Mike being shorter, the crack on Raph's shell, etc....that you would still tell them apart even if they all wore red.

The turtles wearing splinter's clothes as masks would be a great ending. Sucks that the chances of it happening are nearly nonexistant.

Since everyone else is repeating their arguments here, I'll repeat mine, as well;

1.) Ninjas (shinobi) did not have clan colors. Clan colors are not part of Japanese culture, clans identified by clan mon (symbol or crest) colors were worn based on time of year, holiday, auspicious occasion. Clan colors are an aspect of celtic culture (Scottish clans, Irish clans, etc.)

2.) The color bandannas DO make more sense than one uniform color. No ninja clan or group would ever wear a uniform color that would identify them as a member of a distinct group, four ninjas wearing different colors would sow confusion among an enemy that saw or captured one of them. Any ninja clan who all dress in the same colors are a bunch of idiots.

3.) Ninjas have no uniform appearance- ninjitsu was the art of invisibility NOT because of ability to sneak around silently in the shadows (though plenty of that was done if the mission called for it) but the ability to blends in in plain sight, disguised as anyone or anything. That guy in a yukata next to you in the tea shop could be a ninja, and you'd never know it.

4.) Ninjas were not assassins- they were mercenaries, spies and saboteurs for hire. Killing during a mission was a last resort, because a body would draw unwanted attention. Japan had a separate, professional class of assassins, who were hired for killing jobs. Shinobi were called in to assassinate as a last resort, being extremely expensive to obtain, and was usually seen as overkill. In the ninjas heyday in the sengoku, a clan ninja would be lucky if they got one assassination per year, and even two or three kills in all of their missions combined per year. The goal of the ninja was to use his stealth and martial arts to NOT be seen, NOT to fight. A ninja always getting into fights is drawing unnecessary attention to themselves, making said ninja an idiot.

5.) The modern killing machine ninja in black kabuki pajamas who seeks 'revenge for dishonor' is the invention of Frank Miller, and has about as much to do with Japan or shinobi as American super heroes do. Ninja are more like sengoku-era James Bonds, or sengoku era special forces/commandos. The question of wither or not they are heroes should be weighed against that comparison, instead of Miller's orientalist wannabes.

That's is all, proceed with your debate!

I couldn't see it happening in mainstream either. Each turtle now is connected to a color. Flashbacks or origins as to how they received their different color bandanas, yeah, I could see it...like in Archie. If I remember that right, Splinter just got tired of confusing them. lolYou know, getting down to it, the way the "ninja" are portrayed in the show, with clan uniforms or whatever, makes me think of the Yakuza and how they function for some reason. Ninja are supposed to be hidden and stuff. The Yakuza function in plain site. I know I've come across a Yakuza guy at least once since I've been here.

It's beautiful! *sniff*

Y'know, that shows how well it'd work in a "mainstream" version with the physically-different Nick designs. You can instantly tell them apart even without being colour-coded. Cool.

I don't even blame the OT for going rainbow, it just sucks that it stuck.

All the live action designs were different enough to warrant all red. 4kids had different head and eye shapes, plus skin tones (FF and beyond had big Raph and shrimp Mikey). Next Mutation, 07 movie, most IDW designs... you see my point.

This... looks pretty cool, actually.

And I say this as someone who likes the colored bandanas.

That's great, Powder! Love it.

F**k red bandanas
F**k different coloured bandanas
F**k black bandanas

Just give me the wrestling costumes, or if you MUST use the bandanas still, the Vision Quest costumes, or something of equal standing.

Dude, don't phrase your thread title like that. It's phrased as if it's a statement instead of a question. For a second I thought this was gonna happen. Or maybe I'm just being naïve...

I never had much problem telling them apart in the Mirage days even without seeing the weapons... they weren't all drawn exactly the same...

My bad, dude. I'd probably feel the same way.:trazz:

For a special something or other its fine but I dont really like it. The colors are distinct and instantly recognizable.

Anyone who says theres no legitimate reason...they're actual characters with separate personalities and emotions. Not mindless fighting machines that need to follow some dress-code.

All red is too generic especially since they really don't wear anything else.

I don't think it'll happen. The multi-colored masks have become the default trademarks for the characters, as much or even more so than their weapons. The characters just look wrong with out the variation.

Send this to Ciro, now! You should be hired!:tgrin:

That they look wrong without the multicolored duds is your opinion.

A happy medium might be for IDW to do an adult comic and leave those guys wearing red, or null the color and do the book in black and white.

It is my opinion, true. However, I do think that the masks fall heavily under "Adaption Displacement." Show someone a red-masked Turtle and they'll probably assume it's Raph. Along with the rest of the franchise, I think it's safe to say that the '80s cartoon has pretty much replaced the original comics as the ultimate source material for the franchise. Even stuff that went back to the Mirage comics (like the 2003 cartoon and the current IDW comics kept the '80s masks).

Also, the colored masks allow the characters to be distinguished easily. I've tried reading some of the original comics, it's really hard to do. So, I think there's a practical reason why the change has stuck. It's arguably an improvement.

(As always, this's all IMHO, and your mileage may vary.)

While I have no real problem with the color coded masks (they were a step in the right direction in my opinion) I wonder though, are they a somewhat vestigial design coice now? Since the Nick show, the PD movies and some IDW artits have decided to give the Turtles more divergent designs, it seems like the color coded masks could very easily be discarded now.

Ew no. It's confusing and shows lack of personality. Let them have their own color.

Yeah, 'cause, you know, clothes define your personality.

Clothes don't define your personality but your personality can define your clothes.

Well he is the guy that adores the version where they do wear clothes. :lol: