How were you introduced to tmnt?

[thundermaster612]

I wasn't too young when I got my first exposure, the 87' series had ended a little bit before I was born and I heard some stuff about it. I saw like 2 episodes of it back then but that was it for then. Then the 2003 series came around and I loved it, I started watching the old series and the old movies too and got hooked. When the 2012 turtles came around I started collecting the figures and now here I am

[IndigoErth]

The original series, I was 8 when it started. Not really sure quite how soon I came across it though.

[MrPliggins]

In 1988 (ten years old) I saw the original figures on the shelves of a local department store. I assumed they were all bad guys because they had no eyes and looked mean. Some time later, my cousin brought over a few of the figures and we played with them. He enlightened me to the existence of the cartoon show, so that Saturday I got up at 6am to watch an episode, Splinter No More. I started time recording them every week after that, since they were on so early.

[darkknightdonatello]

when i was 4/5 my sister was into it so we had tmnt toys and vhs movies some time i watch the movies or the show it was cool i got into it more later when i seen the nicktoon ones i watched the 2003 one too

[Tora]

Mikey the soft head figure was my first TMNT Memory I believe. I picked him up from I think a Kmart in the early summer of 1988 though I may have already saw season 1 when it debuted but i'm not 100% sure. I know I had been watching the first season of the show in rerun/syndication form by that point.

[mrmaczaps]

I was perfectly aged for the OT and the toys... lost track of my toys and the toon during middle school/other comics and wasn't actually aware of the comics beyond the Archie ones but never picked them up... I used to think that New Comic Book Day was Friday and by then the LCS was always out of the adult one if they ever carried it... flashforward to my divorce in 2009 and I zombie walked around Jetpack Comics FCBD event and right by Laird and co with copies of issue 29 from v4 (could have been 30?) and the NECA four pack (which I also missed). A few months later, I saw TMNT #5 and decided to give it a try. Managed to track down at least a copy of every issue out there since then (minus a few pricey first prints and the error #3)...


It's been a fun ride.

[ProactiveMan]

Everyone at school knew the OT was coming - it premiered in prime time if memory serves, so it would have been hard to miss. There were only three commercial stations at the time.

[Bry]

I'm sure I've been through this a few times in previous threads, but what the heck.

The Fred Wolf show premiered two days after my 4th birthday, and I probably discovered TMNT that way a year or two later. I remember I had a VHS tape with random season one and two episodes recorded from YTV that I pretty much wore out as a kid. (Honestly, the intro sequence was probably my favourite part -- I remember I'd keep rewinding and playing that back on repeat.)

I do remember that the first comic I ever bought was Archie's TMNT Adventures #13. This bad boy here:



And that really kicked things off. I started collecting the Archie comics pretty seriously, and I found the characters, the stories, and the world overall a lot more interesting than the cartoon. It also opened me up to become a life-long comics fan.

Of course, there were also the toys and the Nintendo games. Those were a big part of it. And the movies were a big one too. The original 1990 movie kind of shocked me in comparison to the Fred Wolf cartoon, but in a good way.

During my back-issue searches for more Archie comics, I came across some Mirage books as well. In particular I remember seeing this cover:



I knew that TMNT began as a comic, but I don't think I realized there was a different comic than the Archie series. And the difference was inescapable. I didn't get that issue right away, and I kind of dropped off TMNT a bit after the fad wore off and other stuff took its place in the '90s Kid Public Consciousness (y'know, Power Rangers). But I learned a bit more about where the TMNT came from originally over the years, and wound up getting the colourized trade paperbacks from First Publishing on eBay in either grade 9 or 10. And that's the point I never looked back.

I collected as many Mirage comics as I could after that, and it quickly became my favourite version of all. And then the 2003 series launched years later, which stuck close to the original stories (or as close as a totally kid-friendly version could), which I really appreciated. Not a bad little era for my particular tastes, really.

[Kingoji]

One day my childhood friends were play-acting it the schoolyard. I caught the next Fred Wolf episode that aired and enjoyed it enough to stick with it and join in the fun. But i would say it was the first live action movie and the Archie comics that made me a life-long fan.

[pferreira]

I was 7 or 8 and the Fred Wolf cartoon started being shown on BBC's Going Live. That's how I got into Turtles.

[Casey]

Either the OT or a toy, but I'm 99% sure it was the show in the late 80s.

[Vicky82]

It was the 80s toon, I think I started watching it when it was on BBC 1/BBC 2 around 89/90 but I can't remember when BBC first aired TMNT

I do remember watching it on the DJ Cat Show on Sky 1 when my parents got Sky in 1992.

[Hero]

Seeing a comic cover in a small indy comic shop called Forever People in late 80's. Was looking for imported US prints of Transformers at the time. I wished I'd have picked it up and looked through it.

A couple of years passed, I was now in year 8 of Secondary school and I saw an advert during the Childrens BBC slot for a new cartoon called Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. I thought I'd give it a whirl. First episode I managed to catch was the Killer Pizzas. The earlier Eye of Sarnath material I caught up with on the BBC's Saturday Going Live show.

Anything beyond Season 3 I could not watch as those episodes aired on Sky TV and my dad would not back down saying No to it. Aside from occasionally catching the show at a friends house I managed to have Planet of the Turtloids recorded for me and bought the Sewer Heroes VHS tapes.

Aside from not being able to get enough of the toon, I subscribed to the Fleetway comic (Archie TMNT reprints and additional material) and that was a real highlight every fortnight. It was through the comics I first caught Ken Mitchroney's work and drew inspiration. I didn't know about this version of the comic until I found a ripped up copy on the way to school. Between the torn pages was a reprint of the Stump Wrestling story featuring Jim Lawson's artwork. I picked up and had a look and was worth having "Scab!" yelled at me from across the street for. I took a lot of heat at school for liking TMNT.

The Toys. That was a different story. The summer I think of that year (1990) I found a few of the toys on shelf in a Tescos and didn't buy anything believing they would be there when I came back from saving up some pocket money. These looked amazing and I had to have them!!!

They were not there when I returned! In fact, the toys were hard to get and scarce leading up til Christmas. My mum would get up at 6am with me and we'd queue up outside Toys R Us almost every weekend for a two rationed per customer arrangement when the doors would open and staff were standing behind the open cases. Felt like Jingle All The Way. Eventually Christmas came and I eventually had a completed set of the boys in green.

[miru]

SNES Turtles in Time. It was really fun. I think the family got up to "Skull and Crossbones."

[Groverman62]

I watched reruns of the 2003 cartoon back on cartoon network's old Miguzi block

[HeroTurtlesFan]

I was nine years old when BBC1 started running Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. I was a little late to the party (well, not that late - BBC skipped season 1 and went straight to season 2) and my first episode was "Curse of the Evil Eye". Loved it. By good fortune, the TMHT Adventures comic had just been released, and picked it up with issue #1. Loved those old comics.

This was all in January 1990.

[Panda_Kahn_fan]

Caught the OT miniseries on Saturdays when I was little, ran across the Archie comic and first NES game not long after. Got the Leonardo figure from KB toys not long after, and I've been hooked ever since.

[pferreira]

Originally Posted by Vicky82

It was the 80s toon, I think I started watching it when it was on BBC 1/BBC 2 around 89/90 but I can't remember when BBC first aired TMNT

I think it was 1990.

[NSP]

I was introduced to the ninja turtles through the toyline by Playmates. My dad was a toy collector so we always went to the stores in hunt of the new figures. Good times. ☺ Although I had a variety of toys as a kid...the Turtles were my favorites.

[Zage]

In either late 88, or early 89, I saw the cartoon, on TV, & then later on, bought Bebop. I was 10 at the time.