Would the OT still have taken off if the turtles had different coloured bandanas?
 

It seems like a trivial question. The mask colours given post-Mirage do seem to suit them.

But if the guys had been given different coloured masks, would that have affected the overall blend of the franchise? Is their mask colour something subliminal that simply added to the mystique?

Imagine if Leo wore orange, Raph purple, Mikey blue and Donnie red, for example. Do you think that would have come to be seen as the natural way of things? Raphael in most iterations was the obvious choice to be the one not to have his mask colour altered, as red is code for anger and rage. However, in the OT that was not his personality, so who knows.

Blue seems to represent calmness, it's a 'cool' (as in calm) colour for a level-headed leader. Purple is the colour of pacifism. Orange is bright and attracts those who are fun-loving. And red has already been explained. In most iterations the colours represent their personalities. Was this deliberate, do you think? or did it just fall into place that way? I can't remember ever hearing this explained.

Equally, if one of them had been given a yellow mask, or a white mask, or a brown mask...would things feel differently?

They clearly picked the colors that represented their personalities, so I don't see what other way they would have gone. Green was obviously excluded because it would blend in with the color of their skin.

Funnily enough black went to Slash (in Archie, IDW and Nick) so we got one more color bandana that accurately represents a Turtles personality.

That's what I felt but, personally, I've never actually seen that confirmed. But let's assume that, hypothetically speaking, they had cvcked it up and picked the wrong colours for their personalities. Would that have made the turtles less popular and less of a phenomenon?

Pretty sure they just kinda picked them...because late in the game (even some promos pics were taken) Donnie and Mikey had swapped palettes.

If that's true, they really fluked it. I mean the four colours suit them perfectly.

Weren't Mikey & Don's colours were swapped at the last minute? I seem to recall seeing a Don figure with an orange bandana & pads in a Playmates catalogue way back when...

Yep, Jester said the same.

I can't imagine Mikey wearing purple and Donnie wearing orange. But if that had happened, we might well be sitting here right now saying "I can't imagine Mikey wearing orange and Donnie wearing purple".

The fact that they flipped them before the show went into production says a lot. It was probably decided orange should go to Mikey because it fits his personality.

Also they chose "primary" colors. Stuff like yellow, brown, white, etc. wouldn't have worked as well.

Yeah, I figured that. But it's nice to speculate anyway.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3730/9...4d739c00_b.jpg
*image credit tOkKa's flikr.
FOUND IT!!!
http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=44940

Like the posts in the topic say, I look at that and see it as Mikey with a bo and Donnie with nunchaku. Lol.

Not sure I ever knew they had switched those two. o.O Although they must have had some kind of thinking going into it by that point if they chose to do that.

Even if they just kind of stuck each with a color, I wouldn't be surprised if those assignments also helped shape their written personalities over time.

If so, imagine how different they each might be now. If Leo really was in orange, he might have ended up as a flighty, chaotic and ineffective leader.

That's probably very early press stuff, look at Bebop's shades colored red...he looks more creepy instead o gray.

Wow, interesting to see Mikey and Donnie with reversed colours!

Weird image... but as a kid, I sometimes would give them different weapons as I played with them. Just for the lulz :lol:

And no, I don't think it'd have been nay different if they had different colors since that's how we'd know them since the beginning. Now if you ask me if things would have been different if they had kept the red bandanas, that I'd agree. As a kid, I'd mix them up sometimes even with the different colors. My first language not being English obviously didn't help much as a 6 year old at the time either. The animators clearly did have some trouble as well based on all the animation errors and those were grown-ups.

This should help you guys visualize:

http://i.imgur.com/KUvB62I.jpg

Hmm...
http://www.color-wheel-artist.com/primary-colors.html

I love the original shades palette for Bebop.

Oooooh, thanks for this!

Neat! I couldn't imagine purple Mikey though.

Except they chose two primary colors and two secondary colors

And fyi, yellow is a primary color.