So apparently there are hundreds of TMNT characters according to Nick
 

If you listened to Andrew's TMNT podcast with Ciro Nieli, he said that Nick gave him a list of characters he could legally use for the Nick show...and it came up to hundreds of characters.

It's something to think about, because out of hundreds of characters there are what....maybe 25-30 essential or popular TMNT characters that are re-used, while the others are forgotten into obscurity?

It really makes you realize how many characters there are in TMNT, if you combine Mirage/Fred Wolf/4kids/Nick/IDW/Archie/Playmates characters all together and think of everyone.

Maybe includes some undisclosed/work-in progress characters too by past artists including Eastman and Laird?

More interesting would be to know which characters they can't use, so this podcast had fan questions? someone should ask him about The Next Mutation characters and whether Viacom or Saban owns them..
What were other characters we used to debate about? I remember some of the characters in the TMNT videogames, especifically Aska who was popular with the fandom, but there were others like the mutant panda from TMNT II. Have there even been other game exclusive characters in other games?
Also some of the TMNT Adventures characters were debated right? I remember Ninjara being one of them.

I know that they can't use Usagi and kin, and going by that, any Indy comic character bar Flaming Carrot, but I doubt Flaming Carrot will do much. A lot of mirage characters, like Bloodsucker, are creator owned. The 2k3 games had a few exclusives like Slashurr and the Black Gators. The Pallidium characters are owned by Pallidium, or perhaps their designers. Maybe Usub isn't, as he was in Manhattan Missions. Dheeraj and the other DW characters might be Dreamwave's property, the Fleetway-only ones are all creator owned, Fred Wolf might own some of the more obscure OT characters, and then there's all the guys who never made it...

I doubt the IDW characters are owned by them. Usagi has never been a TMNT character, so I'm ok with that, hope that even without Laird they still let him use him. Which are the Fleetway characters? Archie? Are all Archie characters creator owned? There was indeed that Sonic Archie controversy? I'm not familiar with Pallidium. As far as I know Fred Wolf only owns the show and nothing else of the OT. In fact that's what caused some trouble back in the 90s between them and Mirage. Again I don't know about the game exclusive characters, not sure how the rights work on those.

I actually wonder if all those one-shot Mad scientists from the OT are on that list. I mean Ciro Nieli would be scrolling down a list and saying, "Who the hell is Prof. Von Bolt? Or Lloyd Cycloyde? Or Prof. Sopho?"

:lol:

Do we have any proof Flaming Carrot will be in the show besides that one article from like a year ago?

Yeah, Rick Veitch owns his characters (though the Casey Jones story was done in collaboration with Kevin Eastman, so technically Viacom should co-own those characters, not that it matters since they're in legal limbo anyway). Also, Rick Arthur owns Lucindra and Malcolm and co., Don Simpson owns Teen Techno Turtle Trio Plus One and Alternative Turtles on the Moon, Fred Hembeck owns his back-up strip from the reprint of Mirage TMNT Vol. 1 #2, and most of the original Turtle Soups's participants (save Steve Bissette and Eric Talbot) own their stories from that book. The ownership of Dave Garcia and Mike Gaydos's stories for the later color Turtle Soup series is uncertain.

Yeah, but I'm pretty sure Viacom owns them now, seeing as how Mirage was pretty strict with work-for-hire contracts by then.


The Palladium stuff is a bit tricky. The earlier books had the text owned by Kevin Siembieda, but the illustrations owned by Eastman and Laird, which is probably why some characters were in Manhattan Missions. The later books have Siembieda own all the non-Mirage-derived elements and characters.

I doubt that, especially since Dreamwave no longer exists, and as I said above, Mirage had gotten strict about work-for-hire contracts by the 2K3 era.
Really? How do you know this?

Fred Wolf doesn't own any characters, they're all owned by Viacom (save for Usagi, who is naturally owned by Sakai).

And I assume by "all the guys who never made it...", you mean all the rejected toy and character designs? Yeah, I won't think too much about who owns them (I assume mostly the original designers/creators).

Also, Northshore Investments owned Tatsu, Keno, Prof. Jordan Perry and Chief Sterns.

I wonder if the Image TMNT Vol. 3 characters are on Nick's list, since Bobby Curnow said that they weren't on IDW's approved characters list, nor were Prof. Perry or Tatsu.

The list probably included action figures that were never in the show which also pumps the number up some. Also non-mutant and mutant/altered versions of characters after they transform.

Ah, so no chance of seeing Tatsu again? :-?

Pizza face for example. An action figure that was never on the show. And who says they have to use them all?

They don't. But its interesting to see how many characters there are. Does the official list count one-shot obscure characters from the panels of Archie or one episodes of the original toon?

Does it include characters like Mr. Ogg? Toxeem?

As for video game exclusive characters I can think of: TMNT (1989) - Mechaturtle (even though he looks almost exactly like Slash), TMNT II The Arcade Game - Tora and Shogun, TMNT: Turtles in Time - Boxing Robots (they're memorable, are they from anything else?), TMNT: Tournament Fighters (SNES) - Aska, & TMNT: Tournament Fighters (Genesis) - Sisyphus.

I gather characters like Tatsu, Keno and even the Movie III characters like Walker, Princess Mitsu, and Whit can't be used is because of the likeness to the actors.

Meanwhile people in costumes like Rahzar and Tokka can be re-used because there's no human actors visible.

Okay.

Well, most of the ATB stuff was later reprinted with no turtles branding, so perhaps the ATB characters are property of Palladium themselves.
Eh, they weren't that great anyway.
Because apparently all the Fleetway Sonic characters are also creator owned, as are most of the 2000 AD characters, so maybe it's the rule in Britain?

How do you know Fred Wolf owns nobody? Also, Sherlock Holmes is public domain, so anyone can use him.

Exactly.
Does this apply to the Movie 3 Characters as well?

Any character Fred Wolf owns (which is probably noone anyway), would likely be some minor character nobody cares about like Howie, generic mad scientist #138, or Babyface Cleaver.

All the most important Fred Wolf characters were mostly Mirage or Playmates characters anyway. I'm sure others like Tempestra and Lord Dregg are owned by Nick too in case they ever bring them back.

According to Turtlepedia, there are literally over 500 characters ever made in the franchise's history (681 when you include the "characters" page plus the red/black characters on the "list of TMNT characters" page, and in these days, anything found online is source-able for inclusion. This doesn't include many OT generic scientists such as Dr. Polydorious as CyberCubed mentioned. While lots of characters creates growth, returning many favorites helps preserve the legacy that we've endured in new takes.

BTW if you play the early NES videogames, you'll see the disclaimer that the trademark use was granted to Konami under a license from Mirage, so the Nick purchase eventually included all those video game characters. You'll also find on the closing credits of the OT and TNM that the characters were also licensed by Mirage/Surge, so it all fits the same umbrella. As far I can see with regards to the characters with the exception of Usagi (he was a crossover anyway to begin with) is that all previous characters are held by Nick. Its one of the benefits IMO to continuing the success in IDW and Nick, and hopefully Paramount will continue that trend.

Indeed.

Where's the proof that the Fleetway Sonic characters are creator-owned?

Also, AFAIK, the only creator-owned 2000 AD characters are the one that the creators never signed away the rights to (much like most of Alan Moore's Marvel UK work, such as a his Doctor Who stories), so that was basically because of oversight.

I have no reason to believe that Fred Wolf owns anything. Like cybercubed said, the only characters Fred Wolf might own would be incidental characters, since the major characters created for the show (Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady, the Neutrinos, and the April's News crew) were owned by Mirage. And Sherlock Holmes may be public domain, but the specific version of him shown in Turtles is not (much like Disney's versions of Peter Pan and Snow White and such aren't public domain).

No. Mirage owned all those characters.

Is that true though? Because apparently Tristan Jones wanted to bring Tatsu and Keno into the Mirage universe, and his Tatsu artwork looked just like the movie version. Plus the fact that Tatsu showed up in a couple video games.

Oh yeah, and Mitsu had an action figure.

Well, for hundreds of characters, I'd say we have all the zillion-and-one action figures Playmates made for the 80's and 2000s, not all of which made it in the cartoons. Then we have several Mirage-exclusives like Savanti, Renet, Nobody, Shadow, Braunze, Radical, Cha Ocho, Choate, Fugitoid, etc, and characters from the 80's toon that seem to keep re-appearing like the Neutrinos and such. Then we have the new ones they're creating. Like it or not, characters like Snakeweed and Fishface are as much TMNT characters now as everyone else.