I recently stumbled upon this little slice of 90s nostalgia while looking for a list of TMNT crossover comics on ebay—a search inspired by IDW’s recent announcement of there TMNT/Ghostbusters mini-series. While I did manage to find a more than a few forgotten titles (Creed/TMNT #1, Grimjack #26 and The Savage Dragon/TMNT #1 being some of the standouts), it was The Official Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Treasury that really caught my attention.
“Lavishly illustrated with photos,” as the description on the back says, the TMNT Treasury was pitched as a must-have “current” resource for any Turtles fan or serious collector. Compiled in partnership with creators Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, the book sought to classify some of the most rare and valuable items from the Turtles franchise as well as the “merely interesting.” In truth, writer Stanley Wiater and compiler Jim Prindle do an admirable job documenting the various comic series, pre-Surge Licensing merchandise and other TMNT obscurities but fall short from providing a definitive guide/catalog I was hoping for. It’s also worth noting that the book is in black and white, not color, further demising the “lavishly illustrated” descriptor.
The book is divided into five sections which includes an introduction that documents the “making-of” the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a Mirage Studios’ Publications comic guide, pre-Surge Licensing products, a section dedicated solely to Playmates Toys and, finally, a look at miscellaneous merchandise/collectibles. By far the most interesting of these is the pre-Surge products which basically cover anything Laird and Eastman liscensed prior to joining forces with Mark Freedman; a relationship that would launch the Turtles into pop culture icon status.
Most of what’s shown in these pages are photos of the final product (toys, slippers, lunch boxes, etc) but in a really neat look behind-the-scenes there’s also images of the original prototypes for Playmates Turtles and Rocksteady figures (circa 1987). Unfortunately the photos (shown here) are small and in black and white, so much of the detail is lost. Interestingly enough, while the Turtles is pretty similar, Rocksteady original casting was much bulkier and matches Peter Laird’s “Rhino Mutant” sketch.
Laird reveals:
We thought it was going to be a great toy. But it turned out it used too much plastic and couldn’t be manufactured as economically as originally designed. So they slimmed him down considerably. Although he still looks cool, he’s no way as cool as he looked in that first sculpture!
The weirdest item presented here (and there’s a few of them)? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pork rinds by Rolets. For those that don’t remember, Rolets is the brand of pork rinds the Turtles eat in the movie. Still, seeing their faces plastered on the packaging I don’t think I could help but imagine I was eating tiny, crunchy turtles… and that’s just ain’t right.
