Would you consider the multi-colored masks to be a vestigial design element?

[neatoman]

When the Turtles were given different mask colors, it was probably a decision made by Playmates. From the perspective of a toy company, this move makes sense, the Turtles basically look the same which means you can basically sell the same toy four times as long as the colors are slightly different and there are additional accessories. It's why Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker in Transformers look the same or why so many Masters of the Universe characters wear a fur loincloths even when it makes no sense for them to do so.

And while this did serve to rectify what might be Laird and Eastman's choice in designing these characters, it did so in what might be the laziest and most childish way possible. Right idea, wrong move basically. The fact that ever since 2012, there has been a push to make the characters look different from each other what mask color they happen to wear, does indicate that most designers agree that it wasn't enough. Some may go overboard, Rise being the prime example along with the PD movies, but they do still seem to all agree the masks were insufficient.

Here we have an image of the 2012 turtles, one of the more subtle attempts, in black an white. As you can see, it isn't exactly hard to tell which is which. While you may disagree with the particular design choices, it is still very easy to tell them apart.


Of course, if you don't need to pay attention to the mask colors, why even bother with the mask colors? Why not just return to them wearing all red? I guess tradition is the most obvious answer, most people expect it at this point. And of course there is the matter of the original comics being in black and white, colors only appeared on covers (which didn't feature color either until issue 4) and later colorised versions, so arguably any addition of color can be considered a change.

But one could argue that having the colors be uniform while the designs aren't, more than makes up for it and it looks better that way, less childish and easier to take seriously. So in case it might prove to make for a better design, why not return to them all wearing red?