What was your first set of each individual Turtle
 

I remember when I was a kid growing up and I would get a Ninja Turtle from Christmas, my birthday, or by saving my allowance and purchasing the figure myself. That I didn't have a complete set of all 4 Turtles from one series and one time. It was a few years before I had the core four Turtles though between my neighborhood friends who also collected the figures we could form our favorite green crime fighting foursome. I remember how fun it was to bond with the TMNT at that age with kids my own age. Anyways back in time to 1988 and at 5 years old my first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figure is placed in my hand and for the next 3 years it's almost a green blur, but from my memories and the Ninja Turtles figure archive I have been able to retrace my original collection of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello.

First I got the soft head Michaelangelo and fell in love with that figure I remember to I used to chew on the heads of the soft head figures lol oh wow I was a weird kid. (My second Turtles figure ever was Ace Duck. I was pretending the washing machine was the technodrome sitting on top of it playing with my figures alont the back and dropped Ace behind the washer. I told my dad and he was kind enough to pull the dryer out but we couldn't find Ace anywhere, ever since then I believe in pits to ther dimensions or voids and time and space.)

The First Leonardo and Donatello figures I got were from the wacky action series. Leonardo I remember being disappointing a little at the time (I was 6 or so) because of his weapons being so different from the movie and cartoon, I didn't find the charm in the pizza and all the other stuff stuck on his sword and the fact that the sword had a finger guard covered in spikes (truth be told I think that part was cool but not with a bunch of pizza sliding down the blade). Before I got this Leo I would sometimes pretend Metalhead was Leonardo instead.

Donatellos lack of series accurate weapon didn't bother me as much because when I was growing up from 5 to 8 my family had a pool in the backyard so I got alot of use out of this figure. Also I remember being impressed with his ankle articulation even at that young of an age.

My first Raphael was Grand Slammin Raph from the sports Turtles line. Though there was no time to be disapointed that my first Raphael figure wasn't wearing his standard famous attire I remember because that was my 7th birthday where my mom got me more then I can even remember. As well as Grand Slammin Raph that year I also got, Slam Dunkin Don, Slap shot Leo, Dirtbag, Pro Pilot Don, 5 or 6 BarnYard commandos and the list goes on....:tgrin:

I'm getting beside my main point though my question is what were the first figure versions of the 4 Turtles in your collection. And if you want to add any you used to have this figure stand in for this character kind of stuff is cool too. For example I thought Dirtbag looked so cool and came with such awesome weapons and tools I thought screw it he's a good guy and Splinters best friend. (This is before I saw Planet of the Turtloids mind you).

My first Turtles were the Movie III Samurai versions.

I went to a friend's birthday party when I was in 2nd grade circa 1988ish and he had a set of the original figs. His dad even made him a custom sewer (as the sewer lair hadn't even been released yet) using roof gutters. It was 2 layers tall and pretty neat. I was hooked from then.

My first turtle was soft head Donnie. Then it was Mike, Leo and eventually Raph. I had the first set of them released pretty quickly. I am proud to be an fan and a kid during that first year the toys and show went on air. It was such a great time to be a turtle fan. Nothing else has come close.

My first Turtle was 1989 Donatello. My mother bought it with me in the early 1990s in a stationery store which sold some toys, too. I loved the figure,and wanted them all. But the early figures like Bebop, Rocksteady and Shredder were already some years old and not available, so I got some used figures from friends... I remember figures like Rahzar, Super Shredder and Fugitoid I got MOC...

The very first Turtle I had was Raphael, the original 1988 one. Then I bought Donatello. I had some difficulties tracking down Michaelangelo and Leonardo, but I found them eventually. I had Leonardo with Storage Shell before having the standard one, I desperately needed Leo to play and that was the only version I could find :tlol:

Fightin Fear Raph Fightin Gear Leo 2k3 Mikey 2k3 Donny

My parents didn't buy until Christmas 1990 when I got a Sewer Surfin' Mike, Space Cadet Raph, Undercover Do, and Samurai Leo, so the "Disguised Turtles" were my first set. I remember breaking the Space Cadet Raph, but I seemed to care about toy cars, trains, and electronic games, so action figures were secondary on my wish lists, though I did remember having Groundchuck, Pizzaface, and Mutagen Man in the early '90s. It was not until last year when I started to buy some classic figures. But when you see my "want list", you'll see the remaining stuff that I'm missing meaning that any figure that isn't listed is in my collection, and I'm only four figures/vehicles short of having every 1988-1990 figure, and that includes all of the soft heads.

Thinking back I didn't really have a set (just a few odd ones) until I bought a set of miniatures from the 2007 movie.
They're about 2 inches high.

My first set were the 88 toys. Can't remember which one I got first. My parents bough a bunch, and then gave them to me as presents for birthday, Christmas, easter, etc.

I'm not sure which I got first, but I always remember Muckman being one of my oldest.

Can't be sure, but I think it was the Movie Turtles, followed by the talking Turtles, then the Cave Turtles. I sold the talkers, and I think the only sets of all 4 Turtles I ever had were those and the Universal Monsters.

First full set were the originals, can't remember if soft or hard heads, but I know we (my brother and I) did have a soft head Raph. My favorite set growing up were the storage shells. I subbed them for the original set as my "basic" turtle set whenever I did any sort of battle.

All 4
 

All 4. 1991 Christmas.

I can't remember my first one, it was definitely a Turtle, I think it was Leonardo. I pretty much had every figure made from 1988-1991, but then I grew out of them. I certainly wish I would have kept them, but I sold them at garage sales. :tmad:

the 88 turtles and the movie 3 was my second never got the movie stars because my store never got them and i never did find them elswhere hopefully i will get them if they come in the classis line at one point

Christmas 90 a six year old boy in simpsons pajamas was quite happy.
The first figures I got were three of the original four turtles minus Raph, triceraton, splinter, tube thing, sludge mobile, Space Raph, and bebop for christmas. I remember being super excited, but at the same time was like WTF is this dinosaur and space suit crap. I was unfamiliar with TMNT until the cartoon came out which made me unfamiliar with the Tricratons. It wasn't until I was an adult and read the original comics that I finally knew (pre 2k3 reboot). I spent my whole childhood wandering who that damn dino was . A year later we moved and I found (possibly swiped) an original raph and Usagi at the playground. I was excited that I had a real Raph finally. The only problem to this childhood me was that he had some kind of cheap rubber head which made appear inferior to my other turtles. I know now that the soft heads are more desirable as collector's items and I'm also left to assume the reason they switched to hard heads was because kids weren't feeling the soft head turtles. Atleast childhood me wasn't.

Growing up, my family didn't have a lot of money. And one Christmas eve, a family came to our house to deliver presents. A charity service.

They handed me a handful of these carded packages and I eagerly opened them. To my surprise, it was all four turtles! I'm pretty sure I got a baddie, but I forget since that was a long time ago. haha. But I never forgot that day.

I wish I could meet them today and thank them again because that meant a lot to me.

Back in 1991, my first two turtles were Raph and Leo, there were counterfeits from Taiwan (not a good debut). They came with a different Packard (no portrait of Leo/Raph) and different weapons (instead of ninja stars, kama, weapons rack, etc), Leo/Raph came each with 8 weapons total (Two sais, two nunchuckus, two katanas and two bos).

Then, my older brother bought me Splinter, a counterfeit too but this one was almost perfect the figure/weapons/package although it didn´t have the holes in his feet.

Finally, my first original Playmates tmnt figure arrive,: Michaelangelo and all changed, the figure/weapons and package were awesome!!!

My next figure wasn´t Donatello but a 1988 Footsoldier (my mother told me that she saw Shredder in the toy store but refused to buy it for considering the figure too queer).

Since, I still didn´t have Don and the main villains I used some Master of The Universe/Princess of Power figures that I inherited from my older brother. Therefore, for a few months Leech was BeBop, Trap Jaw was Rocksteady and Zodac was Shredder! And Don? Well, he was “trapped” in another dimension lol.

After begging for months, my mother bought me both Bebop and Rocksteady but there were counterfeits again! (the worst counterfeits ever). They didn´t have legs or wrist articulation, lousy package/figure and weapons. However, the figures were made of a hard plastic so they could withstand harsh treatments.

In the end, my mother bought me an original playmates Donatello (she learnt to distiguish counterfeits from originals) and my first set of turtles was complete: Two originals and two from Taiwan but after hard effort and some original figures later I get original Raph, Leo, Bebop and Rocksteady thowing away those counterfeits for good.

I can't remember which Turtle I got first, but I know that I had the original four. I never bought any of the later Turtle variations because I preferred to spend my money on new characters.

I'm sure it must've been the '88 turtles.