The turtles wearing clothes
 

So I was reading the latest chapters of the IDW TMNT and a question popped into my head to ask the forum.

How do you feel about the turtles wearing clothes? Not like sweaters or t- shirts but sort of the ninja like clothes like the ones they are wearing now in the comics? Would you be okay if a movie or cartoon had the turtles in clothing like this just maybe customize for each particular turtle?

Well, I don't wanna come across like I prefer characters to run around nude all the time... That would be kinda creepy.

Seriously though... The shell ought to be clearly visible at all times, it's the defining feature of turtles and it might be hard to tell what type of creature they're even meant to resemble if it's covered up. That not to say some minor articles of clothing to help differentiate them isn't welcome, Eastman and Laird essentially designed them to look identical to eachother and that design philosophy lasted way too long, it's simply one of the big no-no's of character design and it's surprising that it wasn't properly corrected until less than a decade ago.

Of course, if they're going to wear slightly but noticably different clothes and have slightly different but notciable body features like so many artists have insisted on this past decade... Then...

Well... Can we get rid of of the multi-colored masks in light of that? As the first (quite frankly) really clumsy and childish attempt to make them look different from eachother, it has ironically become an obsolete design element by now. Change the masks to all red for any of these more elaborate designs and it'll still be easy to tell them apart. Seriously, go into photshop and remove the color coding for the 2012, Rise, PD and the more elaborate IDW designs, you'll see how pointless it has become. All the color coding does at this point is make them look like, what the original intention behind it was, a bunch of children's toys.

Not if they're Bondage Fairies. :lol:

Wait... Bondage Fairies is kinda creepy. Disregard. I'mma have another Guinness and go lie down. :lol::lol::lol:

.....I like the colored masks. Very festive. :trazz: Alright, I'm goin'.

I thinks it's well accepted and preferred by a good portion of fandom that they look better without clothes (including wrapping bandages like on Nickelodeon and guards like they had in Fast Forward), probably one of the things that many didn't like about the Bay flicks.

Though it is ok for occasional storylines in a series, and ninja garbs make for a good outfit since it's flexible and they can move around in it, like what they wore at the beginning of their time travel trip in 1987's The Legend Of Koji, or what Leonardo wore in 2003's The Real World I.

Turtles in clothes? (In general, not just dojo/clan garb.) I'm a sucker for it... Just don't do it so much in the franchise that it becomes too common and stops being adorable.


The masks are cute too, don't you dare go taking those away. lol Keeps the sweat out of the eyes, it has a utility purpose! :twink:

Too bad I can't draw with a tablet, otherwise I'd whip up a drawing of the Turtles dressed like the guys in Guns N Roses, just for you, Inn'igo. :trazz:

We had a similar thread recently, I prefer no clothes, just pads, belts, masks and bandages (which I could take or leave)

In a comedic toon you might get away with a perfectly fitted suit jacket for example but if it were serious they would have to accommodate the either very bulky or long shell with what they are wearing.

I feel that just like "Red Masks or Colored Masks?" and "Splinter: Yoshi or Just A Rat?", this is a topic that is destined to come up forevermore every so often.

It's funny; absolutely everything anyone can possibly say from either side of these subjects has already been said, and nobody ever has, or will, change their minds or their opinion. :lol: But I guess it passes the time.

Personally, I prefer just the "plain" old 1990 movie look over anything. But I don't entirely hate the wraps/bandages, the practical part of my brain just tells me that's gotta be a big pain in the ass, t'were it "real". Past that, to me, seems like pushing it.

Clothes just don't seem very practical or to have much of a point given the characters and subject matter, and it mostly just seems like an idea put over by people who really like playing paper dolls without much thought to anything else. :trazz:

I mean, Splinter wearing a kimono kinda makes sense on account of he's a rat and I don't think we need to see him dragging his "business" on the ground when he walks. :lol: But even then that's a concession made towards the sensibilities of the reader more than anything else. Yoshi/Splinter would probably wear clothes because he was a human being; Rat Splinter only wears them so the reader isn't put off by the horrors they'd see otherwise.

I'unno. With the Turtles, when the outfits come into play I get flashbacks to those awful variant action figures from back in the day. I prefer they just keep it simple, although I get why artists wanna "flex" once in a while.

Seeing as how in my fan comic "The full 80%" I had Leo change into a human being it's only decent of me to depict him wearing clothes.

No to clothes (except for specific story-related circumstances) and yes to colored masks, please. Which, coincidentally, is my broader approach to life as well.

There's no particular reason why the Turtles should be anything more than subtly different in appearance from each other, is there? One of them might go slightly more for body-building, that makes sense, but it's taken to absurd extremes in that horrible Bay piece of ****. In most versions, they actually are brothers, isn't that right?

To be fair, 2012 itself is just as guilty in the face department as PD is in the body. (Not that the faces of PD don't vary, but that Leo and Donnie at do at least resemble each other if you can look past Donnie's glasses and tech goggles. The body variations are too absurd though.) I didn't mind it in 2012, but as you say, they're siblings so the difference in looks is a bit extreme there, too.

I don't mind that their looks vary and I kind of prefer it, but to a point. The 90/91 films did well to make them resemble each other, but there is enough subtle difference that even in black and white images you know who is who. I don't mind it going a little further than that, but shouldn't go overboard.


edit: If the PD guys had all been about the size and body mass of Mikey at most and face designs all looked more like Leo I think they'd have worked out a little better, imo.

I mean those Turtles too clearly can't even fit through a manhole, yet the movies pretend they can and that's just headache inducing.

But you don't fast forward Raph in the trench coat though, do ya??

Then the next time there is an overly realistic live action CGI movie, we'll let you handle the parents having a meltdown over the green butt shots, assuming there's actually action scenes. :tlol: I mean that's clearly why PD went with coverage. lol

Hah. :D

They wear no clothes in the original comics so, if you wanna be respectful to the source, you should not put clothes on them. That's a simple rule. Wanna "modernize" them? Ok, then put clothes on them, create a female turtle, a black turtle and a lesbian turtle. Do you feel smart now? Good.

Need I point out that the Turtles wore human clothing from time to time in the Mirage comics?

As for the rest of that comment: Are you feeling okay? That seems needlessly hostile.

They all gotta grow up someday! :lol:

Wasn't the first clothes in the 87 cartoon the trench coats? I remember another episode where they are waiting for April outside the Channel 6 building and listening to music wearing street clothes.

I also remember with the action figures, you had the turtles in many costumes.

To answer the question, it's creativity in my opinion. A ninja hides well to avoid his answers :D

Only alternate costumes I wanna see.

It is weird because technically they aren't naked.

They aren't? Are shells now clothing?

For that matter, are our fingernails little hats for our fingers? Is my Covid-length hair a scarf? :teek:

You're my hero!

Sure! :lol:

Suggestion: Lady Godiva for Halloween? Everybody's inside, nobody's gonna see ya. Plus the hair covers everything with a little double-stick tape. :trazz::lol:

"Coverage" is "Coverage". Modesty's for suckers!

I know, that's easy to say when you're all good-looking and hung like Ron Jeremy*, like me, but the point still stands! :lol:

*

Let Jennika wear clothes because she’s different.

The boys should be naked as is.

This rule seems to apply to Sonic universe too where the girls are clothed unlike the boys.