Tonfa!
 

Hey, so my favorite martial arts weapon is the tonfa (just bought a pair online to play around with), and I stumbled on this wicked awesome drawing online: http://darkwyn.deviantart.com/art/Pl...Turtle-6178006

I was just wondering if anyone knows of a character in any TMNT-verse that has ever used tonfa. I've never seen them used in the cartoons or comics, but I still haven't seen season 3 or 4 of the 2k3 series (waiting on the blasted season sets to come out already), nor have I read all the comics by far. So have any characters used tonfa?

Mikey uses Tonfas in Next Mutation. Some Foot use them in different universes, but I can't think of anyone named.


Oh, the Mokusei-no-Bushis in "The Ninja Tribunal" (episode, not season) have Tonfas.

Oh yeah, I think I remember that now. I'll have to check that bit again.

Y'know, as hated as Next Mutation was, I do wish they would release a region 1 disk of it just so I could have it. I never actually watched the entire series, and I barely remember any of it.

Raph used Tonfa before he went to the Sai in vol 1 issue 9.

Avoid UK cuts
 

That was to avoid UK cuts of him using his nunchakus.

Wasn't that Mike?

no he used the Manrikigusari

Well duh :P

I fail to see the relevance here.

Awesome! That's exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. Have they ever shown what made him switch? I'm not experience in martial arts at all, so this is coming from a complete noob, but it seems to me that the tonfa is sort of a cross between the nunchaku and sai. You can use it to get in close and jab your opponent like the sai, but you can also use centripetal (centrifugal?) force to land some really hard blows. It's almost like a more defensive, conservative version of the sai, so I can totally see Raph using that before switching to the sai.

Anyway, have there been any other issues where Raph (or anyone else) used tonfa?

A tonfa is a poor mans (err..ninjas) nunchakus.

So at least it made some sense for Mikey to use them in TNM.

Better than a grappling hook, that's for sure:lol:

You know what i liked at least about the switch in the OT. It wasn't a sudden change from one episode to the other, you start seeing mikey use the hook more often but still using mainly his nunchuks then you see him use the hook more but still occasionally uses the nunchuks. And then only the hook. At least it made the switch a little better.

I really don't see how that statement fits since they are both "poor" mans weapons, since their developed from farmers tools

The tonfa is less deadly and requires less skill.

Well, I don't think anyone can argue that the tonfa requires less skill because any weapon that involves a chain is going to require a lot of skill to control such a fluid range of movement, but is a tonfa really less deadly? Again, I'm a noob when it comes to martial arts, but it seems to me that the source of a nunchaku's or tonfa's deadliness comes from the increased force that comes from rotational movement. The longer the radius, the stronger the force is. I'm pretty sure a tonfa has a longer radius than the nunchaku has, but on the other hand, the nunchaku is probably lighter and has less friction, enabling the fighter to spin the nunchaku faster.

I dunno. I'm not arguing with you, but I am curious because it seems like they would be fairly close in power. I'd imagine the tonfa is much better at blocking attacks too, but the nunchaku is much less predictable and should be great for playing mind-games with an opponent.

The Big Boss Man is smiling right now.:P

Actually, the Nunchaku has longer range than the Tonfa. Each stick of the Nunchaku is usually about a foot long, and the chain is usually about the width of the users' palm. When used correctly, the Nunchaku's stick is held at the very end which increases it's range.

Neither weapon takes more "skill" than the other though. The Tonfa practitioner needs to learn how to properly rotate his weapon to be able to block, and then quickly counter attack. The way it's used makes it far more effective against multiple weapons than the Nunchaku.

The Nunchaku on the other hand has a really hard time with blocking, mostly because of the lack of control. Whenever the Nunchaku connects with the target, it spends a bit of time out of control, hence why the user has to recoil it on their body, to regain control. Neither weapon though, tend to be one hit kills. But the Tonfa tends to be more accurate. Both weapons have been used in science labs, and neither can generate enough force to kill in one strike. But against the other plethora of Martial Arts weapons out there, the Tonfa practitioner has a better chance of lasting in comparison to the Nunchaku practitioner.

Lio... You're awesome! I really would like to learn more about this kind of stuff. Anyone know of a good website? :)

Well, I came to know these things by watching masters and reading books. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.