Nunchaku and Eastman and/or Laird's depiction
 

I've seen a lot of art (I believe all of it was preproduction art, mind you, but I could be wrong), where Michelangelo has nunchaku strapped to his wrists or forearms. Three examples I can think of are the very first TMNT drawing that came out of that fateful night of "pizza and bad TV", the image used in the TMNT25 passport (which I know I've seen elsewhere, but cannot pinpoint it), and the drawing of Mike that was done for the unreleased fourth movie "Next Mutation" (where all of the Turtles and Splinter mutated further and gained super powers, as well as some hinderances).

My question is, where did this idea come from, and why was this continuously done? I've never seen anyone strap nunchaku to their arms in reality or fiction, and having some training in the weapon, it boggles my mind as to why anyone would do such a thing. Nunchaku pieces are indeed supposed to be approximately the length of one's forearm, but securing said weapon to the forearm would be very cumbersome and hinder movement and flexibility.

Anybody have a clue as to where they came up with this?

I would say Mike first had the nunchucks strapped to his arms because in that drawing he didn't have opposable thumbs to be able to hold them. I believe the drawing you mention in the Passport is the first group drawing of the four Turtles, so the strapped nunchuck probably just carried over from the first drawing. The Turtles were hardly refined at that point.

Whatever the case, I don't think it's a point of obsession for either of them.

Ah, OK. Good trivia. Thanks.

:)