The Favorite Turtle of the "Casual" TMNT Fans
 

Now I'm a little leery of this, as it really does have a major ring of misplaced elitism, but I've been watching reviews of the various TMNT video games online, and it made me wonder, "Which Turtle would the less than die hard fans call their favorite?"

This may wind up a massive joke and a complete landslide, but who do you think is the favorite Turtle of those people who remember the franchise fondly, but aren't going to be joining out ranks anytime soon?

My wife's a Leo fan, not sure why. I think it's that he's the leader. Michelangelo was the face of the Turtles in a lot of ways, so to me he seems the logical choice. I'm sure many people were like me and like Raph's snark from the FW toon, and Donatello was always there when things got dicey.

I always thought Raphael was the most iconic turtle for casual fans

I voted Mikey because he's the most logical choice, but I think Raphael is a close second, and could even be first.

Mikey was the face of the OT for obvious reasons. Raph may have fell in the cracks a tiny bit with the OT, but once the live action movies practically showcased him as the "main" (arguably) Turtle I think that changed. People like the angry bad-boy just as much as they like the jokester.

I could also see an argument for Leo cause "he has swords" or "he's the leader". A case could probably be made for Donnie too, but it's a stretch...I think the typical OT-nostalgia loving-casual is going to go with either Mikey, Raph, or Leo.

If you want proof, ask yourself why in every college-aged YouTube parody (or even the beloved Workaholics skit) of TMNT Donatello is the ass of the jokes. Or why in Hot Topic Mikey's and Raph's beanies were marked a few dollars higher than Leo's and Don's.

Wait, seriously? That's screwed up!

I picked Mikey... and here's why:

:D

I gotta go with Mikey. He's proberly the most popular turtle of the four.

I remember as a kid everyone wanted to be "Leonardo" because he was the leader and had swords, and I never had any trouble picking to be Raphael. But later now as a grown up when I talk to people who liked the turtles they all seem to choose Raphael as their favorite turtles, so who knows.

I never thought Mikey was that popular but counting he is the jokester maybe I'm wrong. Donatello seems to be the easiest one that most people didn't like, I mean no one ever wanted to be the "smart"/geek character, and the purple bandanna definitely didn't help, not to mention the bo is also not the most appealing weapon. Also the fact that his toy is brown, which isn't the most appealing color but also is not a color you think of associated to turtles. Though I've mentioned this before and Donatello defenders always come and tell me how popular he was, but I don't believe it.

Now as an adult I think I like Donatello the best, he seems to be the best/most interesting turtle in all incarnations. While Raph I seem to only prefer for nostalgic reasons because I really don't like his over the top hot head attitude he has in all new media of the turtles.

Yea, seriously...can you believe that? I argued with the dude for like 5 minutes until I just bought the Mikey anyway, haha. What happened: there was a 50% sticker on the remaining Turtles beanies they had - just Leo & Mikey. When Mikey rung up it was only 25% off instead of 50%. The guy was like "uh nobody buys Leo" and wouldn't give me the 50 % off, even though it was marked like that. I wanted to sock him in the face just for being a pretentious tool, but that's neither here nor there. I went on the website later to check it out and yep, Mikey & Raph were marked higher than Leo & Don. Lame.

About that All-Stars video, pretty funny! Although I don't know if they used Mikey because he was most popular or because he was clearly the one that could be linked to pot smoking, so they wanted to use him to hush that stereotype.

Usually I hear it's Mike or Raph .

My gut says Mikey, but I think it's pretty 50/50 with him against Raph.

I think it's a personality projection thing, everybody wants to either be the guy everyone loves, or the stereotypical badass.

No vote from me.

^ No vote for me neither.... :trazz:

The most "casuals" I know/meet can Not name any of the turtles....they only remember them !....The Less "casuals" people use to name more often Mike/Don for me...(only for OT cartoons) and Raph for the movies....

I debated in parentheses putting (The ____ One), but I thought it would be a little too much.

I voted for Mikey, casual fans seem to remember him as the favorite from their childhood.

Most of my friends who had fond memories of the tv series & movies from the 90s all say Raph.

In polls I have seen through the years Michelangelo and Leonardo go back and forth as the poll winner for favorite turtle. I would think Michelangelo edges out Leonardo but this all just speculation anyway. As long as it does not make my turtle looked down upon by diehards for being the possible favorite.:trazz: Donatello usually gets the shaft in seems in polls and samples.

Finally someone got the colors matched properly when doing a poll.

There is still such as thing as casual comic fans, not just TV and movies.

I'd say the video game lovers would probably choose Donatello since he had the best weapon in most games. But overall, just like the Italian Renaissance painters, Michelangelo and Leonardo are the most popular, followed by Raphael, and lastly Donatello. That's also the order you can play your turtles in the Game Boy game Radical Rescue.

.

That works out good for me especially since they are '87 series design!:D

As for the swords its a katana blade!:P

Just from my memory Leo and Don stuck out more in the 2003 cartoon to me while Mike and Raph did from the 1987 cartoon.

I've seen some where Raph is in the lead, and even a few where Donnie was. On IDW's current "favorite Turtle" thread, Raph is up by quite a few votes.

I'm curious why Nines voted Donnie, lol. A sick joke or his true opinion?! Find out next time at...THE DROME!

Here's a better poll of how casuals choose the Turtles, with 65,483 votes.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=4340

Poll of the Day

Who is your favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?

Donatello (purple, bo staff) 25.55% 16734

Leonardo (blue, katana) 32.35% 21186

Michelangelo (orange, nunchaku) 20.93% 13708

Raphael (red, sai) 21.16% 13855

TOTAL VOTES 65483

I have a feeling its who is your favorite turtle to play in a video game. :twink: Don is okay and all be my #4 turtle yet my #1 to play especially in the gneeraltion 1 video games.

Not at all, a vast number of the forum base aren't avid gamers. In fact, the Poll of the Day board is a very active social board, as is the other non-gaming boards.

The most active game boards are typically those that are current releases or have a cult following.