What the.......

[Samhain]

Why do they make shirts that are so insanely stupid? Its like a little kid is designing them.

This one is just totally random. Doesnt make any sense to me:



Then this one gets on my nerves because Dim Mak is a Chinese move and the Tmnt are trained in Ninjutsu. Its pretty clear people think all asians are the same. Doesnt make any sense. Who the hell aproves the designs? Its ridiculous. Also, ugly shirt.

[Roseangelo]

In the first pic, Leo/April look like the National Lampoon's Vacation poster:



Which is a parody of the Star Wars poster:



(I thought there was a SW poster with Leia wrapped around Luke's leg, but I couldn't find a pic.)

But yeah, they're all stupid.

[VaughnMichael]

They're trying to apeal to their supposid audience, who ever that may be.
Since they never can seem to make up their minds who the turtles should be marketed towards.

[Koi]

Originally Posted by Roseangelo

(I thought there was a SW poster with Leia wrapped around Luke's leg, but I couldn't find a pic.)

But yeah, they're all stupid.

It was an illustration by Ralph McQuarrie.


The awesome shirt would be ten times better if they took off all those conflicting pictures and just stuck with one image and the word awesome.

[Roseangelo]

Originally Posted by Drawsher

It was an illustration by Ralph McQuarrie.

Thank you! Knew it was something like that.

[oldmanwinters]

Man, there is a ton of early Star Wars promotional and concept art that I've never seen! I'd love to see a larger shot of that poster!

EDIT:
Ah, that's a little better!
http://www.starwars.com/img/fans/eve...80701/1_bg.jpg

[Kendamu]

Originally Posted by VaughnMichael

They're trying to apeal to their supposid audience, who ever that may be.
Since they never can seem to make up their minds who the turtles should be marketed towards.

Oh, no. These shirt-making guys know exactly who they're marketing to: adults who grew up on the OT and teens who think retro stuff is cool.

Anywho, I like the first shirt except that they're too smiley. This is supposed to be a kind of action-esque scene. They should at least look like they're making their way through dangerous waters.

As for the second... yeah, Dim Mak is a Chinese discipline. However, in the show itself they used the "Kur-Li" maneuver... which is just a Three Stooges joke. In fact, I'd think it were funnier if they used Kur-Li instead of Dim Mak, but it still looks like a cool shirt to me. In fact, I think I'll get it sometime soon.

[Leonardo87]

I don't know about you but, I actually like these designs. Sure they are based on Star Wars/National Lampoon's Vacation but they are pretty cool. Like Goongasnootch said, they are for the adults like me who grew up on the old toon.

[Samhain]

Originally Posted by Leonardo87

I don't know about you but, I actually like these designs. Sure they are based on Star Wars/National Lampoon's Vacation but they are pretty cool. Like Goongasnootch said, they are for the adults like me who grew up on the old toon.

Well im a adult that grew up with the toon aswell. But I just dont think they care what the heck these shirts look like. I didnt put 2&2 together when looking at the Star Wars esque shirt. They pretty much use the same exact art for like all the friggin shirts. But thats just my opinion, im sure lots of people will buy them.

[Kendamu]

Originally Posted by samhain88

Well im a adult that grew up with the toon aswell. But I just dont think they care what the heck these shirts look like. I didnt put 2&2 together when looking at the Star Wars esque shirt. They pretty much use the same exact art for like all the friggin shirts. But thats just my opinion, im sure lots of people will buy them.

Well, if you visited Murph's blog back when we kinda had a bit of a choice as to which art we'd have to see over and over again.

Anywho, they have to care what the shirts look like, otherwise people won't buy them... and, from what my friend working at Spencer's told me, TMNT stuff flies off the shelves there.

[Roseangelo]

Originally Posted by Goongasnootch

Well, if you visited Murph's blog back when we kinda had a bit of a choice as to which art we'd have to see over and over again.

Not really. They ignored all of our valid critiques of the crappy art and went with it anyways. And now it's plastered over all of this new crap. I refuse to buy anything that has this new crappy faux old school art. But I also basically don't buy any new TMNT stuff in general.

[VaughnMichael]

Originally Posted by Goongasnootch

Oh, no. These shirt-making guys know exactly who they're marketing to: adults who grew up on the OT and teens who think retro stuff is cool.

I was being a smart @ss lol

Originally Posted by Roseangelo

Not really. They ignored all of our valid critiques of the crappy art and went with it anyways. And now it's plastered over all of this new crap. I refuse to buy anything that has this new crappy faux old school art. But I also basically don't buy any new TMNT stuff in general.

There hasn't been anything worth buying for some time anyway, and I agree about this bad art.

[Roseangelo]

Originally Posted by VaughnMichael

There hasn't been anything worth buying for some time anyway, and I agree about this bad art.

This is the one and only thing I've been tempted to buy in a long, long time. I like the distressed look and it has genuine old school art on it that looks to be untouched and not mucked up. Unfortunately, the $45 price stops me.

[Kendamu]

And that's the problem. It seems that what's flying off the shelves isn't what we want and what we want doesn't seem to sell so well.

[Roseangelo]

Originally Posted by Goongasnootch

And that's the problem. It seems that what's flying off the shelves isn't what we want and what we want doesn't seem to sell so well.

This is very, very much true. Here is how I've seen the last year-and-a-half of Turtles:

Fall 2008, Mirage prepares the 25th anniversary style guide that they will make available to licensees. For the first time since Peter Laird became sole owner of the TMNT, the old school cartoon Turtles are included in the style guide. I'm not 100% sure of this, but I believe the style guide would have also included 2K3 Turtles (probably BTTS... ugh) and comic Turtles. This would give licensees the chance to choose their flavor of Turtles as Mirage celebrated 25 years of all the flavors of Turtles.

However, with maybe a couple exceptions that I can't recall off hand but I'll leave room for exceptions just in case, the licensees have only been interested in the cartoon turtles. Not surprising, as these are the most nostalgic of the different flavors of Turtles and there is a lot of money to be made on nostalgia.

BUT THIS DOESN'T MEAN ALL THE NEW CRAP HAS TO HAVE CRAPPY ART. Really, this is the thing that bugs me most. I have nothing against the old cartoon Turtles and I do quite love them the way I love all the different flavors. If these are the Turtles that sell, then yes, these are absolutely the kind of products that companies should be making. But would it really have killed Mirage/4Kids to spend more time on the art and make it NOT crappy? Seriously, not only are the proportions on most of the Turtles horrible, but a lot of them also have actual old stock art heads photoshopped onto them (which doesn't help the proportions at all). And then there are all the pictures where the Turtles have boobs. Really, it's like they didn't even look at any of the actual old cartoon art by Lavigne/Brown or even the damn cartoon itself. It's just sloppy, and that's what bugs me most.

[Kendamu]

Here's to hoping the art's a bit better when they start pushing products for the new series in a couple years. It's a shame they don't use the real oldschool art on most things (I have a "Turtley Awesome" shirt I got for X-Mas with real oldschool art on it). The face on the "Dim Mak" shirt looks oldschool, though.

[Roseangelo]

Originally Posted by Goongasnootch

(I have a "Turtley Awesome" shirt I got for X-Mas with real oldschool art on it).

The heads on those Turtles have been replaced from the original. This is not uncommon with a lot of the newer stuff, though I have no idea why.

[VaughnMichael]

The stupid sayings also keep me away from these shirts.

[Roseangelo]

Originally Posted by VaughnMichael

The stupid saying also keep me away from these shirts.

Me too. And that's why I'm hanging onto the Target shirt from a few years ago. Not only no stupid saying, but not even a TMNT logo. Bonus points in my book.

[Kendamu]

Huh. Replaced heads. Who'da thunk it?

Yeah, the saying would've kept me from buying it myself, but it's really grown on me. The stupid saying is kinda funny to me now. Maybe I'm just not taking things as seriously now that we have less than no say in what happens next. Originally, the buyout combined with Mirage basically saying, "We're not doing anymore TMNT comics even though we can completely devote our time to that now that we only do TMNT comics," I was kinda turned off to all things Turtles for awhile. I'm getting over it now, though.