TMNT Old School Off Model Designs
 

I just bought the TMNT: Kickin It Old School Coloring Book.It's a colouring book for adults but also children. I've learned that there are adult colouring books you can buy which helps relieve stress so I thought I'd try it with this one. The book apparently contains 75 pages of colouring pages although this is incorrect as only the right page has a picture to colour so basically divide 75 by 2 and you get the correct number of images. The book mostly contains images of the FW Turtles along with images from Mirage Volume 1 and as well as a couple of Nick ones.

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I'm bringing this up because I feel while the concept on the book is sound I'm a bit disappointed with the end result. Now the Mirage images are reprinted every well. Apologies for the large images, haven't figured out how to decrease the size of them:

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while the Nick cartoon has been faithfully transferred into 2D art. The problem I have is the FW art. Most if not all of it is obviosuly reprinted back from the 80s/90s which is where the problem lies. TMNT merchandise art back then was very inaccurate to the designs in the cartoon, check out Bebop and Rocksteady. The art as a result in the book looks like a cross between Archie and the Playmates toys:

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The artists back then never seemed to get it right and I've always wondered about the creative decisions in replicating the FW series for stuff like toys, games and other stuff. As someone who enjoys the FW you can see I'm sort of disappointed. Was it really too much in this day and age to get artists to design more faithful art that looks like this?

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Even if they took still images from the episodes that would have been better. So my question is does this kind of inaccuracy bother you now today and who created the simplistic designs for the merchandise in the first place?

Woah, never expected to see you not post on a Thursday.

Anyways, I personally have never been bothered by the different FW designs in merchandise since I don't buy any turtles merchandise at all. I imagine though that maybe those people who both watched the show and bought the toys/colouring books might've been irked by the designs being different from the show. For e.g. Many people loved the toy of Slash from the 80s but were dissapointed by his design in the show itself.

I'm not bothered by any of the retro art because that old Lavigne/Brown stuff is infinitely classic to me, it's animated, it's my childhood. But I do totally hate all the modern OT inspired stock art, yeah. It's stiff, lifeless, oddly proportioned, & often features borderline emotionless expressions. I don't mind Fred Wolf turtles being somewhat off model as they've always been, but they could do so much better...

Yeah, I don't know what it is about the modern "retro styled" stock art, but it's never been good. I think it started with the Lionsgate DVD releases of the Fred Wolf toon, where some hack copied the poses from 4Kids stock art and restyled it with terrible heads and faces. Then I think Mirage (around 2008 or 2009 for the 25th anniversary tour) commissioned some of their guys to do some new retro art (Lavigne maybe?) and it looked radically different and less appealing than the original style supposedly done by most of the same people. And now Nick puts out their own "retro" books and it just doesn't look any better.

I suggested and got it as a gift this past Christmas. With the cover just being '87 and the title, I was expecting it to be entirely that version, but I was very happily surprised that it's a mix of '87, Nick, AND Mirage art. (The art style of the FW pages doesn't bother me too much really... If it was supposed to be redrawn direct images from the series or old art it would bug me more, but this is largely the 21st century model of them.)

I also love that the tone varies, from cool gritty Mirage stuff to a few cute things that might be on a girl's t-shirt. :D Personally I'd recommend this, even just to have if not actually color. Not sure if I'll ever color any of mine. (I MIGHT sooner or later scan a few pages and add color digitally instead.)



edit: I think the only thing that bugs me about some of today's version of 'retro' FW stuff is when the four have a mix of expressions (between big smiles and looking serious) and they give the big grins to Leo and/or Raph...the two more apt to be putting on a fierce look. Not that Donnie and Mikey can't look like that, but if those two are, it just looks a little strange to me to have Leo and Raph beside them looking like they just OD'd on happy pills.

I do love the Leo on the skateboard in that one image... had considered scanning that eventually.

The turtles always had that weird extra.. . Surrounding line that circled itself around the turtles' um... front shell plates, or whatever you'd call them. The original action figures had them, the stock art had them and even the cgi versions of the OT tmnt had them in Transdimensional Turtles, but they never had them in the cartoon itself.

This thread makes me want to actually start coloring in mine. I am not much of an artist, so having all these images ready is great. I can pretend I'm an artist for awhile. IndigoErth I like your idea of adding color digitally. I want to use something other than crayons or colored pencils. However digitally is beyond my capabilities. I heard about Copic markers but don't want to spend that much. Also need something that won't soak through the pages. Hmm.

I love the weird old merchandising art, but I guess it's mostly because of nostalgia. It reminds me of being a kid and seeing Turtles stuff everywhere. I have fond memories of knock-off t-shirts with bad colour registration, and images in the TV guide where all the weapons were mixed up.

Consistency is a laudable goal to a degree, but you have to be a bit flexible. As ropy as some of that old animation was, it was warm and charming in a way that more tightly controlled stuff isn't. Compare the OT to Fast Forward. There are a lot more mistakes in the former, but I find it more appealing and fun to look at.

This art was on EVERYTHING in the '80s - napkins, birthday hats, etc. Maybe it holds a bit of nostalgia for me. I'm glad they used this classic Brown/Lavigne art instead of the newer "retro" art for this book. Sounds like a pretty cool coloring book to me.

They did use the new "retro" art. Most of the Fred Wolf turtle stuff in there is exactly that.

I think I know what you mean. The art just seems looser and more simplistic. Was it too much to reprint some b/w animation cels from the cartoon for the colouring book?

I've done the first page. While the FW series had various depths of colouring used I've tried to match it but considering what I have to work with I'm not going to get it precise. They're lots of differences between the the art in the old TMNT merchandise and the series such the Turtles belts as well as the mutants.

See the thing is even back then I thought they could have done a better job that's why I this book interested me. Considering they advertised it on Amazon as an adult colouring book that makes it sound like it's for collectors so thought the book would actually be more faithful to what people like about the FW TMNT series. I mean it's not a bad colouring book but it could have been much, much better.

Could you post or link to an example?

You already did, the shot with colored pencils laid over it.

That's the retro art? Wow, it's indistinguishable from the original art that's why I didn't notice. In a way that's even worse because they had the opportunity to do something better. :ohwell:

It's hardly indistinguishable... I know you get a lot of crap around here, I don't wanna dogpile you, but c'mon, man. There are dozens of differences in both style & design, not to mention you can tell one's digital & the other traditional.

Okay if you're referring to the design with the colour pencils overlaid I was totally fooled. What differences are there between the second picture and the third?

For one thing, the linework in the second image looks more wispy and rushed, while the 3rd picture's linework is more refined. The Turtles are "puffier" in the 3rd pic. Also, it looks like a completely different artist drew the two pictures, which is the case. I think the artist of the second picture was trying to capture Brown and Lavigne's classic style, but didn't quite get it right.

The Retro art have some weird proportions, got stiff poses and looks flat/lifeless. Kinda looks like someone traced a FW Turtle over something else.

Yeah, looking at both pictures, the retro art does make Don look really thin compared to the third picture. I mean was never a fan of Brown and Lavigne's FW TMNT art but the second picture somehow looks weaker than the third.