Why do you like TMNT?

[Ninjara]

Or more precisely, what lures you into the glow of the TV to watch this cartoon and read the comics, etc.???

In my youth I was drawn to the action and fun of it all, but know that I am older I turn to the drama and life lessons learned. Not to mention that the boys in green are cute, for those of the giant mutated turtle persuasion.

I love all things about the turtles and what not...they rocked...and will do so even till the end of time or until they are hugged to death by their massive fan base...

I also love Gargoyles, Transformers, and about everything else a Tom Boy could like

HEROES IN A HALF SHELF.....TURTLE POWER!!!

[Karpo_007]

I cant really tell... I just have allways liked tmnt...

[Raph]

I had a lot of different action figures when I was a kid
He-man, Ghostbusters - Transformers, heck even Star Wars

But the Turtles where the only thing I truly played with, really intense, making stories, and ofcourse wanting more and more figurines.

The show was always on, around dinner time, and I was totally happy with the Turtles on, me infront of the TV with a hot pizza, and milk in my TMNT mug ( I was 9)
At that time I had a NES ofcourse, so TMNT also appeared on my TV screen whenever I wanted
I was hooked, and nowadays I still am. Drawing, Listening to the movie soundtracks, and finally able to collect the original comics, no that I have obtained a CreditCard.

I started being a fan, when the show started, and collectd the comics 5 years ago, when I started trying (I live in Holland) to collect the Image comics. Ad that, point I figured out that there where original comics. ANd I was happy to still love them although Im a grown up now ( yeah right )

So thats why I still love them, they're original, non commercial (check power rangers) and totally awesome.

Thanks for your time...and see ya around..

[azure turtle]

Oh man... This question has always been one of the hardest to answer. Lemme see if I can give you the short version. I first got into the TMNT because of the cartoon. The characters were so unique and had such magnetic personalities that I was hooked on the show. Later on, after the movies and seeing a few of the comics, I started liking them for a different reason. They're outcasts of society, feared and hated, yet they strive to save those in trouble. What's amazing is... They may be shunned by the "outside world" present in the comics, movies, etc., but if they were to ever appear in this world, they'd be considered heroes by many. That's probably why I've been stuck to this fandom the longest. They're heroes and role-models in my eyes. I hope that wasn't too confusing.

[Kali]

For me, it's one of those things I can't really explain. I can't remember why I liked them as a kid, except that I'd watch the show every time it came on. I played with action figures, played pretend, drew and created stories about them.

Well, they kinda slipped my mind for awhile, but now I'm back to liking them, and still doing the same things I did before, drawing, writing, and playing Turtles. The characters facinate me, how they're so different yet manage to get along (for the most part) and how they survive in the face of adversity. They spark my creativity and curiousity. They effect me on so many different levels.

Plus, they are really cute! I've always loved reptiles, so it would make since that my heros are reptilian, don't you think?

[Azraelito]

because was the first toon i see where all the people do martail arts.

[Ninjara]

ah yes! the martial arts...gotta love it....and the pizza!!!

[Machias Banshee]

(( My keyboard works again! beware of philosophical, sappy ranting...))

Well, I have been a fan of the turtles ever since i was 4?....I liked the way they worked together, and always seemed to pull through together, no matter how bad things got.

The more i dive into the story, the more i find interesting. What was it like to grow up and live in the world of the underground, with no contact with anyone for most of your life? To only have one person to watch over you, no relatives, no other family, fearful of others because they could mean the difference between life and death? How could one act of jealousy in a country halfway around the world make such a difference to so many?

Then, i look at how their way of life and such are similar to mine, and i am shocked.
--I am the youngest of four children.
--My older two brothers used to fight constantly, and because of an incident tht took place several years ago, Let's just say it would be DEALY to put them anywhere near each other.
--My 'youngest' older brother never ceases to amaze me with his talents. He's an Intermediate EMT, works on and refurbishes old cars, works with electronics, repairs stuff, and so on and so forth. He's also the quietest one, unless you see him in just the right mood. And when he sees his family getting hurt, there's no stopping his nobility...
Then there's me. I am the baby of the family. I can do no wrong in my parents' eyes (sometimes), and so, my brothers envy me...Especially the oldest. He always had to be as a rolemodel to us younger ones, which meant being more responsible than the rest of us...and when he sees the things I've done (college, moped), I swear he hates me for it. My parents tell him to take it easy on me, but he only seems to get more and more envious of my position. He loves the fact that since he is the eldest son, he gets to treat me like dirt to no end...saying that i 'owe' him for all the stuff i've put him through in the past. But, i know that if anything ever happened to me, he'd be there for me...
Today, I look to the turtles in my times of stress and need...
Splinter is my second father...I always think of him and what he would say when i am down, and i always try to do my best, so that if he were here with me, he'd be proud of me and my accomplishments. the turtles are my brothers and confidans, I can always look to Leo for advice, Don for an answer to any question, Raph to be able to let my feelings out, and Mike to lift my spirits whenever i am down...
I always look forward to watching reading, writing or drawing the turtles and Splinter...they are my second family, and they mean the world to me...


*contented sigh*

[terran631]

Wow..thats a pretty hard question actually. I knew about the TMNT when they first started getting popular..the cartoon and all. It never really interested me. (being the sophisticated junior high schooler) But one day a kid in my class had the comic from the first movie and he showed it to me. Needless to say, I have no idea what went on in class but I read the whole book and was hooked. I had been in martial arts since I was 7 and the whole concept of a family of martial artists intrigued me. Well, I drifted away after the seeing the third movie and didn't even think about it again until about 4 years ago when I discovered fanfiction on the internet. For some reason I assumed I was the only one who did that, but I read everything on the net and now I'm hooked again.

[Ninja Turtles Cartoon Fan]

Trying to determine when I became a fan of the Ninja Turtles is a hard question to answer because I really don't know when it happened!

For as long as I can remember, I have liked the Ninja Turtles. I used to get up early to watch and tape them on my cassette tapes before school every morning. I don't remember, however, my first experience with them. Was it the cartoon? Was it the action figures? Maybe someone from school told me about them? It's all a mystery to me!

But what I do know is that once I became a fan, I became a LIFELONG fan. A lot of cartoons have come and gone since then - Ghostbusters, Doug and Recess (all favorites of mine at different points in my life) - but the Ninja Turtles have remained at the top longer than any of the others. I lived and breathed the Ninja Turtles - cartoons, movies, action figures, the tour/concert/Pizza Hut craziness back in 1990, the baseball cards based on the cartoon (I have both Series 1 and 2! ), etc.

I remember thinking when I was little that Usagi Yojimbo and Panda Khan were brothers. I knew they weren't really, but since they were both Ninja animals - a rabbit and a panda - I called them brothers. I don't even know where in the heck Panda Khan came from. Those two guys, along with April, Splinter, and the four Movie turtles, were the only toy action figures allowed to cruise around in the Turtle Van. Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady had to walk. LOL!

Anyway, I have been a fan for what seems like forever. I will always be a fan. Because, as Michaelangelo put it:

"Turtles rule!" - from "State of Shock"

[Ninjara]

hmm? i wanna say I had seen the previews for the turtle cartoon on TV and really wanted to watch them when they first aired. And I think I am right, because the cartoon premeired in the evening where I lived and I got to watch it. Basically for the thirty minutes it was on I had the control of the TV of course, after watching the pilot/first episode i was hooked. so from '87 til '96 me and the TMNT were buds

in fact, i bought a ninja turtle toy for this one boy's birthday, however, i got sick and couldn't go...soooo in essence that is how i got my very first ninja turtle toy.

but he met his fate at the annual garage sale many years later

luckily i did manage to get more toys, but again...garage sale!!!

but i then found the comics, who met their fate at the hands of a neat freak father thrown away

so now, since it is friday and i got paid i am going to the video store and renting all three movies...that is if they still exist on the racks...if not i am going to spill toxic waste on myself and hope i mutate into something decent

*crosses fingers* those movies will be there dangit!!!!

i've spoken my peace!

[kyabetsu]

Oh I know why I was drawn to them...

The turtles (to my middle-school way of thinking) were the perfect heroes.

See, I was one of those kids who imediately distrusted anything popular. New Kids, Vanilla Ice, etc. I felt like actors were just so fake. I couldn't follow along with the 'idol' crowd. I mean, MC Hammerand Tom Cruise... they all go home and act like THEMSELVES, god knows who that may be. I couldn't crush on someone I didn't feel like I KNEW. (crush in that weird-ass platonic sense, where you obsess and have a few weird dreams then buy like 56 posters.)

So when the TMNT came along, and got popular, I ignored them. Then they fell out of favor (in my middle school anyways) and I gave them another glance.

I was in LOOOOOOVE:
1. They were social outcasts. They didn't fit in. They hid their real selves from a world that could never understand. (not fitting in, then finding heroes that by definition could never fit in... answered my superhero-starved prayers )

2. They were entirely fictional, so what you saw was (palindrome) was what you got. No fake! GENIUNE CHARACTERS!!! yaaay!

3. Sure they were cartoons/comics, but they weren't 'The Smurfs' They had epic battles. And Splinter would have made them commit seppuku before he let any of them utter the word, 'Smurfy'

4. Their skills were TRAINED into them. They worked for their abilities. None of this "GO JOE!" GI Joe crap where you just grab an uzi of the rank and win through superior fire power.

5. No matter how many times they saved the city/girl/world/dimension/pizza... the only ones who ever knew were their family and friends (and the enemy who's butt they just kicked.) Talk about discouraging, but noble... I dig that.

6. Um. They were BUILT. daaaamn.


Anyways I was embarrassed about liking them as much as I did. So I hid all the drawings I did. Never wrote down the stories I made up, for fear some one would find them. Bought some tapes of the cartoon, but not too many. It wasn't until I was in college that I bought the action figures, the three movies and discovered fan fiction.

Let me say it is so nice to be out of the turtle-closet. I thought I was such a freak. But I'm not alone! I can stand proudly and proclaim, "TURTLES FIGHT WITH HONOR!!"

ok. I'm done now.
thanks for listening.
--kyabetsu

[Ninja Turtles Cartoon Fan]

Kyabetsu: Let me say it is so nice to be out of the turtle-closet. I thought I was such a freak. But I'm not alone! I can stand proudly and proclaim, "TURTLES FIGHT WITH HONOR!!"

Good for you! You shouldn't be ashamed of the things you take an interest in! Check out the thread "I'm a Ninja Turtles Fan, and I'm Not Afraid to Show It!" You will find other fans just like yourself standing up and proclaiming their feelings for the Ninja Turtles. Some people are even thinking about starting up fan clubs at their schools.

Michaelangelo: "How 'bout we take a pizza break, huh?"
Donatello, Leonardo and Raphael: "A pizza break?!"

From "It Came from Beneath the Sewers"

[speedracer]

1) Because the early seasons of the cartoon showed that cartoon characters could be intense *and* humorous.

2) Because April is soooo freaking hot.

[Karpo_007]

Originally Posted by Ninja Turtles Cartoon Fan

"TURTLES FIGHT WITH HONOR!!"

Actually the orginal line goes: "Turtles die with honor"

[Sparvid]

"We Turtles are not dogs without honor... unlike you Oroku Saki."
I like that line

[SeaThreePeeO]

I can't remember what drew me into the Turtles fandom. I think the secret mind control messages they trasmitted in the Cartoon had something to do with it.

I guess I was sucked in by the whole fantasy, honor and of course the fighting bit

[Azraelito]

kakakkaka i always dream about a crossover the turtles and snake eyes and storm shadow.

[prowler4]

I can't say exactly either. I've always liked TMNT and The Real Ghostbusters. (The best cartoons )

[SeaThreePeeO]

The Real Ghostbusters! Now that was a cartoon I can remember taping every ep as well as TMNT

Sadly in my misguided teenage years I taped over them