Which incarntion first drew you in?
 

I'm a little uneasy posting a thread as I've not been here long and I'm sure something like this would have been done previously, so apologies if is has.

I just wondered where everyone started with TMNT, was it the comics, one of the cartoons or movies which first drew you in? Were you a child, teen or late starting adult? (like me)

Some awareness of the TMNT from friends at school talking about the cartoon. I remember a friend passing around a copy of the Archie TMNT comic #6 and perusing it. Then the cartoon and toys. First couple of movies. Then one day I was digging in the TMNT back issue bins at my comic store and bought Mirage TMNT Vol. 1 #21.

I don't remember my first contact with TMNT, it was either the toys or the FW show. But as a kid I absolutely hated the show since I only got to see episodes that did not engage me at all such as the Super Irma episode and Musketeer episode etc. So the toys, 1990 movie and the Archie comics is what made me drawn to the property and when I had access to the internet I discovered the Mirage Comics which cemented it all.

I would assume it's the 4kids version.

The original cartoon. I had only just turned 5 two weeks before the first ever comic came out, so, unfortunately, I was definitely too young for it and it would be a few years until I knew about them. But I was there when they exploded into pop culture history, so that makes up for it.

2012. I tried to watch it simultaneously with FW, but then I got caught up in the action/storyline. IDW is what sealed the deal though.

I guess the toys and the NES games as a kid.

Finding the first movie on VHS at Walmart during the dead years (2001/2002) reignited my flame, and just in time for the 2003 boom.

Seeing the first movie in the theater in 1990 is what made me a TMNT fan. I didn't become of fan of the first cartoon until after the movie made me a fan of the franchise.

tmnt 2003/2007 made me interested in tmnt but Nick/FW got me hooked.

If we go by general consensus of the internet then everyone was a mirage TMNT fan from the start :lol:

My uncle's OT toys around 2003/04. Had some great memories of playing with that stuff. He had the Technodrome, the Lair, and just about every figure up until 1993.

Can't remember what came first, the toys or the cartoon for me. Then all the merchandise, movies, Archie comics, etc. Then grew out of them as I hit my teens.

Then in late 2002, early 2003 I found the four colour collections by First of the original 11 or so Mirage comics in a used book store. Rekindled my love for (mostly) all things TMNT.

I saw the original cartoon since I was 3 years old, and being a child of the 80's Turtlemania was everywhere at the time, so between that and the toys and videogames I was taken in by a lot of 80's kids.

People often forget TMNT was the "Pokemon" of the 80's and early 90's. It was a huge fad phenomenon that every kid back then pretty much got into, in almost the same manner that Power Rangers or Pokemon were huge fads afterward.

The original toyline, subsequently its accompanying cartoon.

Same here. Spotted the toyline on the shelves in Wal-mart and was absolutely amazed that it was a thing of beauty. First figure I got was Raphael. First cartoon episode I remember seeing was a portion of "The Fifth Turtle" when the show aired early in the morning on the FOX affiliate before I had to leave for school. Never did catch the end of those pre-CBS episodes until they finally came out on DVD!

The Fred Wolf toon in the early 90s when I was 3 or 4.

I first saw them when the first wave of action figures caught my eye in a local department store circa 1988. Then my cousin brought over some of the figures to play with one day and he told me there was a cartoon show at 6am Saturdays. I caught my first episode, "Splinter No More", that Saturday, and pretty much just kept watching and recording them every Saturday from then on out.

FW for me, then the toys/videogames and Archie, to this day I still favor the character designs from FW, although nowadays I can't really stand the show itself anymore.

Pretty much the same here. I went to see the movie with my two best friends on opening weekend, and fell in love with the characters and their story. I knew of the cartoon but didn't become hooked until the movie. Fell out of it around NM, and was only vaguely aware of the 2003 series. Took a fellow writer to reignite my love.

The 2003 animated series.