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Share your esoteric knowledge
What are some things you know, either behind the scenes or deep lore, that you don’t think the average fan knows? Not your typical trivia that casuals are unaware of, but stuff that even most Dromers might not know, or maybe forgot after all these years.
Here’s some off the top of my head: Mirage: - I seem to remember Murphy writing in his blog that he had major friction with a Mirage staffer that was very rightwing and harassed him over his lefty politics. He made it sound like everyone else brushed it off as harmless ball breaking, but he took it personally. I’m sure it wasn’t Kevin, Peter, Jim or Steve. Maybe Talbot or Brown? Gary Richardson? Any guesses? - Peter Laird’s daughter had job at Playmates at some point. She was basically laid off when her manager got fired. 1987: - When Fred Wolf read the first draft of Turtle Tracks, he thought “homeboy” was slang for “homosexual” (was this in the Turtledoc?) - Fred Wolf sued Mirage for more royalties money. The case wasn’t dismissed until 2005! https://www.plainsite.org/dockets/2t...studios-et-al/ 1990: - Robin Williams urged Judith Hoag to take the role of April because he was a fan of the comics. The Next Mutation: The original concept art has Venus in a pink mask and Leo in yellow. 4kids: - Hun’s name was Drako in preproduction. Ultimate Ninja’s name is Ue-sama. - Michael Sinterniklaas recorded the audio anytime Michelangelo burped. - 4kids Hamato Yoshi appears in a newly printed children’s book called “I Am Leonardo “ which is based on the 1987 cartoon. I assume the commissioned artist just did a Google image search and went with their first hit lol 2007: - John DiMaggio was the voice of Winters before they brought in bigger stars. Casey, April and “narrator” were also voiced by different VAs but I don’t know who. 2012: - Ciro almost got the Beastie Boys to do the theme song. - Shredder is visually based on Sho Kosugi from the Ninja trilogy. Yoshi is based on Sonny Chiba. Xever is based on Jim Kelly. I feel like Bradford and Hun are too obvious. - Both Kraang Prime voice actors got “cancelled” for popping off online. Other: - Kendrick Lamar has a song called “Sherane (Master Splinters daughter)”. It’s not actually a TMNT reference, he’s just calling the girl in the song a hoodrat lol. - Walking Dead had an episode starring a character named Eastman that was one huge TMNT reference titled “Here’s Not Here”: https://tornyourdress.com/wp-content...dom5.gif?w=584 - Metalcore band August Burns Red used to sell a shirt with Shredder on it: Spoiler:
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There are some things about the first season of FW that must be known.
Alright, the known vetoes that Peter and Kevin made for the FW show are:
It should also be noted that several scripts by David Wise were recycled from other cartoons he worked on, I know of at least seven confirmed cases but I think there might be more. Interestingly enough, the first season alone has three confirmed cases and I suspect the whole thing might be heavily modified from the three-parter finale of Transformers, differences mostly accounting for details lifted from the Mirage comics series and fitting in the world of TMNT. These are the similarities that are confirmed in season 1 alone:
And the reason to believe FW season 1 was based on the three-parter finale of Transformers is more than just the ending scene, they also have the following similarities:
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The funniest one for me is the reason Murphy killed off all the Mutanimals in the Archie series comic is simply because the TV deal they thought they had going through with a spinoff of the original cartoon with the Mutanimals fell through and was canceled. Ryan Brown did a lot of character art sheets for the pitch for the spinoff cartoon.
Murphy was so mad/disappointed he spite killed off all the Mutanimals in cold blood in a children's comic. :lol: |
I doubt there's much of anything I know that any dedicated fan posting or lurking this forum doesn't also know.
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Any screenshots of that book? Now I'm legit curious.
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At least Andrew gave them their revenge in Odyssey. Quote:
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As it turns out, the martial arts styles that I study is based in Wilmington, North Carolina where the 1990 movie was filmed.
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In the early 90’s Peter Laird’s family got a new cat, which they named Michelangelo. His daughter quickly shortened it to “Mike”, which eventually became “Mikeroo”, then just “Roo”, and finally “Rooish”. |
April's middle name is apparently, "Harriet," although I'm not sure if that's true for all the older series.
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On the subject of middle names Casey’s legal name in Mirage is Arnold Bernid Jones and Casey is just a nickname. In 4kids his name is Arnold Casey Jones Jr. |
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The street address to the farmhouse in Mirage is: 42 Burr Hill Road, Northampton MA
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Posessiong knowledge was so much funnier in pre-digital and even early digital days.
By the early 21st century, a lot of fans in the early 20's (who'd just rediscovered their interests) weren't even aware of the origins of the franchise. |
Got another one, and this is good Pokemon trivia too.
Originally, Pokemon was going to have way more than 151 mons, but they cut a bunch because of data constraints on the Gameboy. Originally Wartortle was going to evolve into Kamex, which looked exactly like Wartortle but bigger with exaggerated tail and other features. What we know as Blastoise was part of a different line, with one pre-vo, and his name "Caravaggio". Not a direct reference, but a big turtle named after an Italian Rennaissance painter... |
Kamex is actually Blastoise's Japanese name:
There are always pokemon designs that get cut or moved to later games. Obviously some Johto pokemon like Ho-oh and Togepi were already designed around the time the series first came out. Shellos/Gastrodon were also originally intended to be Hoenn pokemon but got moved to DP. |
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https://i.imgur.com/cTnUprZ.jpeg And the Blastoise we know was called Karabajio. |
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The FW cartoon shouldn't have this much influence at this point, in my opinion it would make more sense to just a be a bit more original if you're just gonna make kids' book slop. As blasphemous as this may sound, the best idea if you have use old stories as a basis for these types of things, you might as well take good stories from Mirage/IDW and simplify them, instead of taking the slop that is FW and putting it through the slop machine. Hell, the reason I suggest being original first and foremost here is that you might as well be. I mean, how much harder can it be to write a really short story by yourself than it is to remake some crap David Wise recycled from some other crap he pulled out his ass? But if, and if you really have to, base these things on the FW cartoon, why trace promotional art from other iterations of the franchise? The Hamato Yoshi one does at least have some minor differences from the 4Kids show and the actual FW design for him appeared scarcely enough for me to excuse the artist for not knowing what he looked like. But this Kraang crap? Not only is that clearly a different design from the Krang that constantly showed up in FW, but I'm pretty damn sure it's literally just a promo image from the 2012 show traced over. What the actual hell? |
Yes, these are definitely the pinnacle of McTMNT slop lol. It seems like both the author and illustrator just use Google and Wikipedia. Wouldn’t be surprised if the script is GPT generated.
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Just to prove how easy it is, I'll write a 500 minimum story about the TMNT for children right here: Spoiler:
That's not a good story of course, but it didn't take me long to write and I certainly didn't need AI to make it. All it took was some knowledge of TMNT and some idea of what "safe kids' books" are like to write it. Hell, I'm pretty damn sure this would get accepted if submitted... |
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We are friends, right? |
Steve Barron's storyboard artist from TMNT 90, Brendan McCarthy, co-wrote Mad Max: Fury Road.
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I mean technically 87 did visit 2012's universe so I guess we could pretend one of their Kraang followed them back? lol But do we really want to. Eh. |
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The funnier part is that it’s all alone and out of its exosuit… completely useless in a fight. They actually need to be in the suit, or they’ll die eventually. That’s why they always scurry away immediately. |
Interesting enough, the Rock Soldier "Granitor" was never given a name in his one and only appearance in episode 4 of the original cartoon. He never returned after that episode, and since he never got a Playmates toy, a lot of us never knew what his name was. We found out with the instruction manual of TMNT II for NES where they had his name listed as Granitor.
I wonder if the scripts for the original cartoon had his name decided but for some reason it was never stated in the actual episode. On a second note, it's a shame he never came back for another episode even once. He and Traag made a good "pair" and could have made for some good team-up stories in the later seasons to attack the Turtles around Season 3 or Season 7. |
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No sign of “I am Donatello” yet. |
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Speaking of unproduced, a one-hour TMNT Christmas special was planned called "Miracle on Interstate 91" from an idea by Peter Laird and writer/producer/former Mirage creative director Michael Charles Hill. A script of the fourth draft (dated November 2, 1992), along with a Fred Wolf series production bible, sold at auction for a little over $400. |
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I wonder what medium this Christmas special was meant to be in. I can’t imagine Laird wiring an episode for the FW cartoon. |
As far as the movies are concerned the accusation that Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman stopped New Line Cinema from using Bepub and Rocksteady is bunk. In reality Bepub and Rocksteady while at least co created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were not in their ownership like many other Turtles characters. As such New Line Cinema did not include Bepub and Rocksteady because they did not want to share fee with Fred Wolf and company.
Also this is more of an opinion then a fact but the idea that the Turtles all got distinct personalities thanks to the Fred Wolf cartoon never sat right with me with the exception of one turtle that being Leonardo. Ironically it is mostly fans of the Fred Wolf cartoon who claim that Leonardo is blank and boring character. It's doubelly strange since I hardly if ever see Mirage purist complain about Leonardo especially since in other media the turtle who is the closest to Splinter is almost always Leonardo, were as in the Mirage comic's it is Donnatelo. Also Leonardo kills the deity known as the adversery in the Twilight of the Ring story despite Donnatello being the one to become awere of the mammal and archesaur deities first. So, yeah you would expect Mirage purists who are Donnatello fans to be the one to mostly dislike Leonardo, but I see far more 87 Turtles fan not carring for him and claiming that he has no personality when the original cartoon was the one who gave him a personality. |
Bebop and Rocksteady wouldn't even have worked in the 90s movies because of how the mutagen worked there. They'd just be a baby-like rhino and warthog.
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Cool thread.
This is more opinion and speculation, but, we do know that Eastman & Laird enjoyed LotR. it seems to me that the number of 4 brothers was a nod to the 4 hobbits in LotR. What’s funny is that I believe Raphael to be closest to Samwise in personality, and Sean Astin voiced Raph in 2012. Donatello (Merry, the observant one who goes on to write a book on botany); Michelangelo (Pippin, goes on to house the hobbit’s library); Leonardo (Frodo, goes on to sail to the Undying Lands, what’s more zen than that?) Total speculation. But for a LotR & TMNT lover like myself, worth every word. |
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Here's the original listing: https://comics.ha.com/itm/memorabili...ription-071515 They threw in a random pinball manual, as well, for whatever reason. Heritage has a "Make Offer to Owner" option, but you gotta factor in handling, credit card processing fees, taxes, etc. When all is said and done, the real winner is the auction company. |
Interstate 91
Interstate 91 is in New England, running alongside the Connecticut River, so maybe it would introduce the Massachusetts farmhouse to the Fred Wolf series.
The Technodrome was on the bottom of the Arctic Sea at the time... |
I recently learned that before TMNT went into production at MWS/Fred Wolf, Marvel had the rights to produce a TMNT cartoon. Marvel and Fred Wolf made a trade and this is what they got in return for Turtles.
That theme song was also written by Chuck Lorre and DC Brown lol Quote:
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... Hm... What is the opposite saying of "dodged a bullet"? |
This thread inspired me to reach out to Michael Charles Hill. He was nice enough to share some more information, both about the canceled Xmas Special and the production bible that he wrote, although his memory is admittedly foggy:
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Huh... So essentially Kevin and Peter wanted to reboot the show around season 5 to be more comic accurate and Fred Wolf hated the idea?
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It's interesting the original cartoon never did have a Christmas episode, I wonder if this is why.
Also the change with Season 8 always did feel like they were trying to become B:TAS-lite with the red sky. |
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