1986 Glow-in-the-dark Mirage shirts-- full set!
 

I've had a few people ask me to upload some collection pics. Most of my collection is centered around the first two films, but I might as well start with a recent score.

A full set of EARLY licensed 1986 Mirage TMNT t-shirts, screenprinted with phosphorescent (Glow-in-the-dark) ink. From the info I was given, there were only 24 Raph/Don/Mikey shirts printed as prototypes, and a full run of 576 Leo shirts that were sold.

The Leo shirt for sure looks a little different than the protos. To me, it looks like the protos are primarily one-color phosphorescent ink directly on black. The Leo production shirt is layered with a base of white ink under the green phosphorescent ink. This would be to make the green POP a bit more on top of the black. It looks like the ink color was tweaked a little between proto phase, as well.

Pretty cool! I might wear one to the gym later. I'm far from an expert on early licensed TMNT merch, so if anyone has info, I'd love to hear it!

https://i.imgur.com/Xwqk9w3.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/oLPOpoE.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/IX9d5zE.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/mDyOLJ4.jpg

Do you own the Don shirt?

DOH! edit-- 2 leos, no don.

Do you have any pics of the Don shirt?

Me?

No, I do not.

Oh cool, the first Leo even have the claws that ended up not being in the comic

Is it confirmed to have been printed? I'd love to see a pic.

I love that image. Someone here sold the original art a while back for a pretty decent price. I regret not picking it up.

If it was I wasn’t aware.

The provenance is from an old-school sci-fi collector. The auction states that the "project was never completed"-- it's possible a Don prototype shirt was never printed. Perhaps the Leo design was changed prior to printing the full run, opting for the no claws look?

Does anyone have a scan of the print ad handy?

Yup I had that original art as well for that claw Leo. Such a cool piece. Sweet set of shirts, never seen those before!

I'm pretty sure it was you that was selling it. STILL kicking myself for that one.

I think the biggest question is, how much are you going to sell these to me for? Never say never. Life happens.

Which brings up the question-- what are these currently going for in the market?

BTW, I'm loving the original ad. I never paid a ton of attention.

https://i.imgur.com/O4mlVOv.jpg

As a collector of the original Mirage merchandise, I never knew these existed either. Great pickup bro! Btw that original ad was only printed once to my knowledge: in the Donatello micro series book.

Edit: as for the current market price of the Leo shirt, good question!
I haven’t seen one on the market in a while. The early Mirage merchandise, despite its rarity, doesn’t seem to have much of a demand. I would guess around $100-150.

That was around my guess on the value. Thanks for the info! It looks like I'm in the market for a Donnie micro series book.

I've considered going after the early Dark Horse lead miniatures, as well. I had a loose set back in the day.

The Fifth Turtle, you've posted about these quite a bit. Do you have any other info/details on the shirts? I would love to see pics of yours!

I’ve pretty much sold my entire collection. I had a few sealed shirts over the years including a silver variation of Leo.

The Dark Horse Miniatures are fun to collect. Fyi, there are 24 sets total with packaging variations included. As for unique sets, there are only 9, plus the four large Turtles. (However the very first set has a different "Leo" sculpt than subsequent re-releases). View my post about them here for a "checklist" of sorts.

Thanks for the link!