Published by Grandreams between 1990-92 – the UK had a range of ‘Hero’ Turtles coloring books, poster sets and activity books. These were mostly sold in Newsagents and Sweet Shops.
The color-in imagery used within these various stationary books was artwork based on the TV show. A lot of images were the Turtles and Splinter fighting off Mousers and Foot Soldiers. And like with the current censorship, there was not a nunchuck in sight.
No idea who the artist behind these was, but the random pictures were all very well drawn and stood out at the time. Being a coloring book, the images were easy to trace and make customized pictures from. As a kid I never really coloured in any of these and enjoyed copying through on white paper with the help of a desk lamp. The coloring books also had a nice crisp colorless image of the logo to trace around to use. An improvised method to use as I didn’t have a computer or the world wide web back then.
Art I ‘bootlegged’ from one of the coloring pages (1991)
Here are a few scans, and in optionally higher-res for the photoshop generation to have fun with. Click the links to view and download. Have fun!
This second wave of all-orange ooze (as a nod to retro mutagen no doubt) has different shade repaints of the mini turtles from wave 1.
Unlike the bandana colors of the American release, the mini turtles are still different shades of green. Although, this wave has an exclusive ‘chase figure’ of sorts with a Golden Turtle!
US wave 1 Leo on Left, UK Wave 2 Leo on Right
The Golden Turtle is part of a competition and promotion with Nickelodeon UK to win prizes and a vacation to Greece! The orange ooze canisters have only been found in Tesco stores and are likely an exclusive.
Punters who don’t find the Golden Turtle can still enter the competition via a promo code that every canister comes with. The promo code with The Golden Turtle is to prove authenticity.
Whilst having a clear out last year, I found a few magazine clippings from UK publication Smash Hits!. (a British equivalent to Tiger Beat.).
The Fly was a small cartoon strip featured in every issue. The Fly is literally a fly on the wall interviewer who annoys his interviewees. This particular edition has him donning a foot clan headband and visiting the set of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.
(Click to enlarge)
None of the boys ever admitted to having that saucy affair with ‘Kids in America’ singer Kim Wilde. What could have been the basis of such infidelity? :). Gotta love Kim! <3 The same issue of Smash Hits! also featured a hair-do workshop from Mr Ninja Rap himself – Vanilla Ice! I scanned and shared the article on my personal blog last summer for which Van Winkle himself plugged on Twitter.
More ‘attic clear-out’ stuff to come. It gets better from here.
–>> The “NINJA TURTLES” title on the cards reflects early design and production by Playmates before “TEENAGE MUTANT” was added back to the title of the reboot film. Cards and promo material had already been produced or were already moving forward in production by the time name change was made so i presume it was kind of too late to go back and change the first wave releases. That may change on cards in future releases later this year/ next year.
I believe this has happened to Playmates before, for example when they had the Peter Jackson “KING KONG” license. KING KONG related products and toys had “KONG : THE 8th WONDER OF THE WORLD” labeling, toys that rolled out at this time i think represented an earlier title to that film. Until just simply “KING KONG” became the film’s title. The early design and production by the toy companies had already had “8th WONDER – ” labels and cards. Playmates was not the only company effected by this. Tho’ i doubt the Film title changing issues really go into effecting the parallel product line’s sales. Other factors on the other hand do tho’.
I’m finding that the the basic Movie Foot is pretty creepy so i ‘ll have one AS-IS.. it’s doubtful that the FOOT are wearing translucent masks in the film. They might, but amoung the first real villains we were able to sneak-a-peek at fully last year was the standard “PARAMILITARY” – like Foot Soldiers. I tried to make one as movie accurate as i could, and it really wasn’t that hard and didn’t take too long. This is just what i did, you can do whatever you want or nothing at all, of coarse.
Using metallic silver, Krylon Fusion “hammered-look” COPPER spray paint for plastics ( on mask ), and some various washes and minor paint on his scarf & metallics on the boots – i think i did okay. The survival knife and firearms have just a metallic wash over them and weapons & figure are coated in a simple sealant even a glue-like substance like Modge Podge rubbed on the figure will work. That final step is not 100 % necessary, but if he’s gonna be handled allot for play and display, i do suggest it.
Since the Foot seem to be going all G.I.Joe in this movie, expanding the Soldier’s arsenal was just an obvious & easy option. For his cannon, battering ram, shield and bullhorn i easily customized/metalized the “stolen” weapons from one of the cheap DOLLAR TREE “MILITARY ACTION FIGURES” available in the toy isle of most of those stores. The weapons aren’t perfect, but add a fun display option. The one displayed on the right is the toy i cobbled these weapons from. The frogman looks like he has some cool weapons to RAVAGE as in the future !!
..maybe i did Ok ?! Or maybe the Foot looks more like DESTRO from G.I. Joe, or Michael Myers from HALLOWEEN. H’m.. you tell me.
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..More movie product is being released in more and more stores as you may have seen by now. Wal-marts are getting these pretty hefty palettes with tons of Movie figs: basic, DLX and large scale, april, and Raphael in Disguise. You will also find the newest of the standard Cartoon waves & re-releases in these palette displays ( i.e. Rahzar, Newtralizer, Slash, Dojo Splinter, and Cockroach T. reissue ).
Pixel DAN’S Movie toy reviews of the Teens and the Assault Van.
If you’re anywhere near the West Coast, or have time to take a trip, there’s a special exhibit at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. The gallery is open May 3 – September 14, 2014, with a special Opening reception June 14, 2014, 7:00-9:00pm, Free and open to the public.
And according to information on the Museum website:
Meet Nickelodeon animators, TMNT artists Mark Bode and Ken Mitchroney, longtime Mirage Studios staffer Molly Bode and other special guests as we celebrate the world premiere of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Visual History, an illustrated history of the Turtles written by exhibition curator Andrew Farago and published by Insight Editions.
So check out their website, facebook, and enjoy the exhibit!
The same issue of Smash Hits! also featured a hair-do workshop from Mr Ninja Rap himself – Vanilla Ice! I scanned and shared the article 
