Growing up we saw plenty of companies trying to make some fast cash on movie and toy trends by trademarking things like Teenage Mutant Ninja Tortoises, STARSWAR, ROBERT COP, Spader-Man, Transmogrifiers, Ace Team and so forth. Let me present a what I initially thought was an example of one of these knock-offs: Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles.
After being gifted a knitting pattern book published by Hippo Book & Scholastic Publications from 1990 with that very title I thought it was a serious case of bootleggery. The book even shamelessly used Splinter’s name… “how were these guys not getting sued?” I thought. After doing a little homework, though, it seems that much of Europe censored the Turtles by switching “ninja” for “hero” due to the former having more violent connotations including the U.K., Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Finland, France, Poland, Austria and Germany. In fact, the censorship policies were so strict that they even got rid of Mikey’s iconic nunchaku for most of the series. I don’t see how nunchaku are more violent than a sword or sai? Anyone?
Anyway, since it’s TMNT month here at Strange Kids Club, I took this as a hint to finally finish a knitting project I’ve been working on and share some pictures from this amazing DIY knitting pattern book. The book, by Joy Gammon, features several patterns of our favorite sewer-dwelling turtles and rat sensei, a short comic strip, and pictures of kids looking awkward in some sweet TMNT sweaters. Good times.
