The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were first introduced to the world back in 1984 when
they made their debut not on screen, but in comics published by Mirage Studios.
Made up of four teenaged anthropomorphic turtles named after Renaissance artists who were trained
in Ninjutsu by a rat sensei in the sewers of New York City, needless to say, the series
sparked many peoples imaginations.
The first comic, created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, was self published, and was
heavily influenced by the likes of Daredevil, Ronin and Cerebus.
So, naturally, like all comics, there's been a few alternate versions of the Turtles to
have popped up over the years, with a solid chunk of those versions being outside of the
comic panels.
So today, we're counting down the top 10 alternate versions of the teenage mutant ninja turtles.
Let's jump in.
10 Star Trek Mutant Ninja Turtles Starting off our list with a bit of a novelty,
we've got the Star Trek Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!
As action figures.
A toy promotion back in 1994, kids and collectors alike picked up these figures that were an
amalgamation of classic Star Trek characters and the turtles.
This included Chief Engineer Michealangelo, First Officer Donatello, Captain Leonardo,
and Chief Medical Officer Raphael.
9 2014 film There's been many different film versions
of the turtles, but the 2014 film starring Megan Fox has managed to do pretty well for
itself, being a box office success and the highest grossing film in it's series.
The production poured a ton of cash into the visual effects, wanting to give the turtles
the most realistic design as possible with nuanced facial expressions.
This led to the team developing a new motion capture system, in which each turtle was given
a distinctive body to resemble their personalities and physicality.
The effects supervisor Pablo Helman described them each, saying "Donatello is more like
a basketball player, Ralph is more like a football player and Mikey is a very short
Messi and plays soccer."
8 Same As It Never Was Featured in an episode of the 2003 Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, the world of episode Same As It Never Was takes
place in an alternate future when Donatello is transported to the year 2035.
Shredder won, and has taken over the entire planet.
Donatello has disappeared, the turtles have fallen apart without him, Splinter is dead,
April is the leader of the resistance, and everyone looks a little beat up.
7 Bread Boy In issues number #25-27 of Flaming Carrot
Comics, Raphael gets a case of amnesia and ends up becoming his sidekick.
While this isn't an alternate in the tradition sense, it does get pretty odd, with Raphael
running around with a bag on his head and a cape with the word Bread on it, causing
him to be called Bread Boy despite him calling his alias the night avenger.
The two work together to prevent a gang of evil umpires from using Frankenstein's monster's
head to steal the Empire State Building.
Told you it got weird.
6 Ten Inch Mutant Ninja Turtles The porn parody.
Yes, if you so wish, you can now see your favourite reptiles get it on in a very adult
way.
And, surprisingly, this parody, based off the trailer, seems to be fairly witty and
on point when it comes to making dirty yet relevant puns, especially compared to some
of the other pop culture icons that creators Wood Rocket have produced.
We actually covered a bunch of porn parodies in our kids characters turned dirty list,
so if you want more dirty puns and more fodder to ruin your childhood with, head on over
there and check it out after this video.
5 Mutant Turtles: Superman Legend (1996) Designed specifically to market a brand new
toy line, Superman Legend was a cross breed between the turtles and an amine tie in with
a toy line sold by Takara.
Released in 1996 in Japan, there were only two episodes, and while never released in
North America, fans have actually dubbed it in English on YouTube.
The turtles used special stones to transform into Super turtles, and could pull a power
rangers move by all combining into one almighty turtle, Turtle Saint.
4 Infestation After co-creator Peter Laird sold the rights
to the Turtles in 2009, two years later it was announced that IDW Publishing had secured
the rights, launching another series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, with the ability
to republish old ones.
One of the first events that the Turtles were involved in with IDW was a crossover called
Infestation, all about a zombie virus that effected the various universes within it's
series it published.
Like Star Trek and GI Joe.
While the characters never crossed over into each others universes, they shared similar
troubles with this virus, and the one that effected the Turtles were Lovecraftian monsters.
3 Coming Out of their Shells (1990) Back in 1990, Pizza Hut sponsored an international
music concert with the Turtles dancing and singing and throwing foam pizzas into the
audience.
Enjoy.
2 Deviations Another IDW event, Deviations consisted of
one shots for various titles back in 2016 that featured alternate timelines.
This included the likes of The Ghostbusters, GI Joe, The X Files, Transformers, and of
course, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, playing on the concept of how one moment could
alter a timeline's whole universe.
The Turtles title was "In a world where the turtles join Shredder!"
Shredder was the turtles' sensei, and Splinter forms a new group in a last ditch effort to
save his sons and New York City.
1 Image Comics 1996 Ending off our list is a much darker take
on the Turtles with Image Comics 1996 run.
Entirely in black and white, this relaunch was aimed to be a more edgy approach on the
story we know and love, channelling some of the darker roots of the Turtles' early days
in comics.
Except it went a tad too far, as a lot of critics noted, venturing into more gruesome
territory.
Leonardo lost a hand, Donatello was paralyzed thus turned into a cyborg, Raphael received
a terrible burn on his face and Splinter is a mutant bat.
And eventually, Raphael becomes the Shredder, so, there's that.
There we have it friends!
Which of these versions is your favourite?
Were there any on this list you were unfamiliar with?
Let us know in those comments below!
And also give us a shout with any list suggestions you may have; we love to know what you guys
are interested in.
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In the meantime, thanks for watching!
I've been Kelly Paoli and this has been top 10 nerd.
I'll catch you all in the next one.