Heroes in a Half Shell

My Childhood Ninja Turtles Gear

Every kid has their role models and heroes while growing up. Some kids may look to their fathers, grandfathers, teachers, or perhaps even someone who has made a major impact on the world, as their very own personal hero. However, some kids like myself had a diffferent breed of heroes. My heroes were green, mutant, and teenagers...they were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

I loved the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for many years as a kid. I had so much Ninja Turtle merchandise, that I am sure the amount is worthy of a Guinness World record. The point of this article you may ask, is to simply take a look back at some of those items that truly put a smile on my face. Nothing more than a reminder of fun days spent with my heroes. So, if you are a fan of the Turtles, sit back and enjoy...

As grainy and outdated VHS tapes inform me, I was well into the Turtle craze by the age of two. Christmas of 1988 had me pulling mousers and Ninja Turtle Kleenexes out of my stocking, while presents of Ninja Turtle action figures would soon follow.

These action figures would truly stand the test of time, for they saw a lot of action in their days. From fighting Shredder and his goons, to watching me eat breakfast, from splashing in the bathtub, to lending me their weapons so that I could stick them in my nose and ears (don't ask)...these action figures were always up for an adventure (specially in the party wagon or turtle blimp!).

When the toys had lost their appeal, any other activity I was to participate in had to involve the Ninja Turtles. Coloring books and colorforms would prove to be first pick among stationary choices.

If I wasn't picking out the perfect shades of brown for Master Splinter or recreating the perfect sewer battle, working puzzles and painting by numbers were a must. I loved the satisfactory involved in successfully finishing a paint by numbers...it took a lot out of a kid! Although the puzzle shown above is rather simple, as my skills progressed, so did the puzzles. It truly does take 750 jigsaw pieces to perfect the wrath of Krang.

All of that work sure would make a kid develop an appetite. Luckily, the Ninja Turtles took it upon themselves to invest in the food market, so that kids would never go hungry again. From Turtle Pies to unique yet tasty jelly beans, the Ninja Turtles were featured on pretty much anything remotely edible. Waking up and eating breakfast was a little easier when pouring cereal from a brightly colored Ninja Turtle cereal box. The only thing that made the not so creative sugar dusted Chex cereal (with marshmallows) any better, was pouring it into the Ninja Turtles cereal bowl. For on the go Turtle munching, I can recall snacking on some Ninja Turtle cookies that came in a Turtle van shaped box. Although there are many other Ninja Turtle food items, those were just some of my favorite things to eat at the time.

If I could count how many hours I spent playing the two Ninja Turtles NES games above...it wouldn't do me any good, other than further stating how much I used to play video games. They were so much fun. Not only did I pump quarter after quarter in the Turtles arcade game, I could bring it home and play it too! It was one of my favorite games as a child, as it never got old to me. The first Ninja Turtles game was good, but lacked the appeal of its offspring game. It always used to bug me that the picture on the front had the Ninja Turtles in red masks, yet they had colored masks in the game. I am not sure why it mattered, I just wanted an answer I suppose!

The third Ninja Turtles game was pretty fun too, yet you never seem to hear much about it. Now that I think about it, I never heard too much about it as a kid. However, I had it, and it saw its fair share of play time. You may be wondering why I included the picture of the random hand held game. Well, as hand held games were popular back in my kid days, I had this particular one. I simply could not beat this game, no matter how hard I tried. Day after day I tried my best to save April from mouser attacks, yet I failed each time. I need to find that thing, pop in a couple of AA batteries, and conquer it once and for all. Better yet, I think I will just admit defeat...it would be much easier.

Now as if it wasn't exciting enough to see the Ninja Turtles in cartoon form, seeing them on a 'live action' movie was almost overwhelming! From the first time I heard Raphael cuss in the street, to the scene where the baby turtles say PIZZA...Ninja Turtles the movie had me hook, line and sinker! However, as if things couldn't get any better, they had to go and make Turtles II. The only movie (other than Space Jam) that my dad professed he hated, Turtles II was my favorite Turtles movie. It had everything I could ask from a turtle movie...Turtles, Super Shredder, and Vanilla Ice...err...scratch the last thing. I first saw Ninja Turtles III during a sleepover at a friends house. I am going to act like I never saw it, it just doesn't need to be discussed (sorry if you liked it, I didn't care for it). I had the first two movies on VHS, which allowed me to perfect my dance routine to Ninja Rap.

Coming to a close, there are only a few items left that I would like to mention, without having to discuss EVERYTHING I ever had. Ninja Turtle bed sheets were slept upon daily, at the Sampieri household. As the years went by, and after many washings, the sheets became so worn in that they had little prickly things on them. Not the bad type of prickly things, the good kind.

During my kindergarten year, I never bought my lunch at school, I took it everyday. Even though this basically unheard of, my mom allowed me to live off Spaghetti-O's and pudding for the whole school year. What better way to show off my lunch to my peers, than to sport a beautiful Ninja Turtles themed lunch box. I used that lunch box so much, that the sticker came off the front, and the picture came off of the thermos. After that, it was rather useless, other than a large crayon box, or action figure carrier (although not needed...I had a turtle action figure carrying case...oh yeah!).

From Ninja Turtle birthday parties, to wearing my heroes on my underwear, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were on everything I owned. I wish I could cover everything I had as a child, but like many others, I could basically write a book. I still have most of my Turtles gear, and I don't plan on letting it go any time soon! Thanks for reading, until next time...

Thanks to those I borrowed pictures from, you helped make this article possible!

Comments

I totally had that same lunchbox! I wish that the site wasn't buggy at the moment so I could see all of the other pictures lol. Thumbs up anyway!

The Ninja Turtles were gods when I was six years old. I had the action figures, the pizza thrower, the sewer playset, the movies, a couple cartoon tapes, the Coming Out Of Their Shells cassette, a Ninja Turtles sleeping bag, and so much more!! I even had a subscription to the short lived TMNT magazine. Still love the movies a whole lot and the first movie is still one of my favorite movies of all time. The scene where Leo discovers Raph waking up from being knocked out during the last Foot clan fight before they flee NYC and go to April's farmhouse makes me tear up every time. LOL Raphael is my guy!!

The Ninja Turtles ARE MY ALL TIME FAVORITE THING!

I too perfected the Ninja Rap dance... III and the new animated one were a let down. I still think they are real. Everytime i see a sewer gate, man-hole, etc.

awsome article dude i love tmnt and the new movie was awsome and when my nes broke i just wited a few years and i got the arcade coin op in my house p.s splinter was my fav p.s.s that pic at the top was creepy!

This was an awesome article. I remember being a TMNT fan, I had I swear all the action figures, Videos, and books.

I still have my TMNT can that had popcorn in it. It has Krang, The Shredder, Master Splinter, and the turtles on it with Michaelangelo's standard "COWABUNGA DUDE!" battle cry. I use it as a trashcan but it's not to say that I still don't love the old Ninja Turtles cartoons.

Ninja Turtles are BAD ASS. The movies kicked ass, the toys kicked ass and the old cartoon kicked ass.

I love articles like these. I can scroll down the page with out reading anything and get that happy feeling of being a kid because of the images. When i did read it i thought it was a good. TMNT is by far the biggest and best memory for me. I loved the cartoon, movie, action figures, and stuff animals. TMNT rank up at the top with Mario, Heman, and Nickelodeon as things i that i absolutely adored when i was a kid. Thanks for article.

Good subject matter. Too many photos for my taste and a bit short, but fun to read.

This article deserves a thumbs way up! In your snack foods portion, you forgot to mention the snack crackers! I LOVED those when I was a kid! I used to have that electronic Ninja Turtles game too, and thank you so much for not mentioning the third Ninja Turtle movie! If it was possible to give you more than one thumb up, I'd do it!

Dude I lived ninja turtles, the turtle pies were nasty

great article and awesome memories. TMNT was my childhood cartoon as well, loved it and still think its one of the best cartoons out there.just classic, and the movies were cool too. It breaks my heart to see this CRAPPY new TMNT cartoon.I feel sorry for kids today

I remember that handheld game!

I can completely relate here. The Turtles were one of my favorites as a kid. I don't doubt that Eastman and Laird ever imagined how much of a merchandising juggernaut their little Frank Miller-style parody turned out to be back in '84.

Wait, did I say they WERE one of my favorites? They still are!

I was a huge turtle fan!! TMNT 2: the acarde game was a top nintendo game of all time! All my buddies came over to play that one..

I wanna go play with some toys

awsome article dude

From one TMNT fan to another. Good article. I still have the sheet set. I'm holding on to it for my son to use one day.

Great article, I too loved the turtles and had a great deal of the things spoken about in this article, brought back some memories here....thumbs up!

When I was a kid my first ever Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure is none other than bebop the Powerhouse Punk Enforcer for the Foot Clan. The next action figure we bought was Michaelangelo the Wild and Crazy Turtle, then we buy another one of their action figure Usagi Yojimbo the Samurai Hare with a Knife. We were hoping to get a Baxter Stockman action figure but we ran out of it, it got sold out on it's first ever released so we did'nt manage to get one I got really pissed. So we decided to wait another year who knows we might manage to get a cool one afterwards.

Dude, I have that lunchbox. And most of my TMNT toys. Turtle Power!

Man, I had that hand held game. I remember my cousin and I spending a lot of time playing on out 14 our drive to florida when I was a child going on vacation.

Man! I missed out! They had so much merchandise back then...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a huge part of my childhood, I like you had to buy everything that was a TMNT product, unfortunately all of my action figures are gone now, I think they were accidentally sold in a tag sale I had years ago, but I still have the movie VHS, and in the past few years I have bought the 3-pack on dvd for only like 10 bucks, so it's much better quality. As a kid I actually never saw Ninja Turtles II or III, so only in the past few years I have, although I do remember having action figures from the second movie. I agree the third one is pretty bad, second one is great, but the first will always be my favorite. In terms of the video games, I never had a NES or SNES, but I did play all the games, I have to say either the Arcade game or the one you didn't mention, Turtles in Time are two of my favorites. Now that the turtles have made a comeback with the new TV a bunch of years ago and continuing with Ninja Turtles Fast Forward and that new CGI movie from last year, it's good to see them back, but I still feel it's not the same as it was back in the 80s and 90s.

Riphard: You are correct, it was for their Turtle wheat...they had to make the cereal out of something!

i'm surprised there was so much merchandise i missed! i too had some of the old action figures, but that was it. great article!

Remember the little add on weapons that came with the figures? I think there was ninja stars and a scythe/scicle type thingy......I dunno, to cut down tall grass or field their turtle crops???? Turtle wheat?

man, you soooooo coulda been my bestfriend as a child! I had pretty much everything you mentioned in this article. This article brought back alot of memories, good read!

I had the April doll that they took off of the market, and there was a lot of wax build up on those swords...I believe that "Santa" began taking the weapons out of the plastic packaging before placing them in your stocking..

Well, actually there's been LOTS of artist in the TMNT history... I remember one of them draw them in a horribly "skater" way... thank god it only happened ONCE, give me some weeks and MAYBE I'll find an image to prove what I'm talking about... OH!, and maybe you want to check some of the uploaded images in my profile... hehehehe... thumbs up BTW.

That was a bodacious article! I didn't even know the Ninja Turtles had that much merchandise. Sometimes I wish that "Turtle Mania" would come back.

Those TMNT cookies were actually really good! They were like an apple-cinnamon type of flavor. Mmm....coookies.
The wierdest TMNT item I had was this food can label that came from an issue of Cracked magazine. You could just glue it onto a random soup can and say you had "Turtle Guts Soup" or whatever they called it. I offered it to all my visiting friends, but there were no taker. Wait a minute, there were no FRIENDS!

The turtles ruled good article and your right about the third film it was just crap. Wish crang was in the films though.

it always kinda bugged me too, that they all had red masks but at the time i didn't know any better. i found out in the interviening years about how they all wore red in the original mirage comic and the cover for the 1st NES game was taken from the cover for Iss. #4 ( i believe) of the original mirage comic.