According to Propstore of London, these two maquettes just listed for auction are from the production of the unproduced early-00’s two-night, four hour TMNT miniseries. I’ve had a duplicate of the Donnie maquette in my collection for several months. I had thought (hoped?) they were early designs for the 1990 film. If not 1990, I think the unproduced Barron project is the next coolest option, haha.
Could these be what Peter Laird was posting about on his Planet Racers blog back in the day? The designs don’t really match the look of Brendan McCarthy’s concept art (accessories, clothes, etc.). Still, the maquettes are gorgeous. Could the Henson Company have been involved? It definitely has the look. Who is the father, Maury?
TAIL!
I asked Laird about the maquettes on an old Ask PL thread. “Sculpted and painted in England during the initial phases of the project.”
It’s hard to imagine these designs as 00-era cable-budget CGI characters. Propstore claims in the auction that practical suits were planned prior to the CGI characters. Laird mentioned a live action Splinter puppet test.
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"Plans call for a two-night, four-hour program that uses live actors, but casts the Turtles themselves as CGI. -Press Release, 2001”
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“The Ninja Turtles miniseries that Hallmark and I are developing will be a darker, more streetwise view of the characters. Taking its tone from the original comics, it will be an atmospheric and spectacular reinvention of the franchise using today’s CGI technology to leap into the 21st century. -Steve Barron, 2001”
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More images...
https://www.icollector.com/TEENAGE-M...ette_i34305871
https://www.icollector.com/TEENAGE-M...ette_i34305872