What a difference 15 years makes...

[Munday's Chylde]

You'd be hard pressed to find a more damning piece of evidence that we're living in an age that's simply given up trying to hold on to it's morals than the return of the heros in a half shell.

Back in 1989 (or whenever) when they first crawled out of the sewers this side of the atlantic the powers that be were concerned that the word 'NInja' would cause vast armies of under ten year olds to march on downing street, behead John Major and then spill back out onto the streets to take off the fleeing goverment officials one by one with their vicious death stars.

For this reason we were rightly protected and the American...



...became the British...



And we all breathed a collective sigh of relief as we realised our necks and the necks of our leaders were safe.

So what happened? I turn on the tv this morning and I see the turtles are back and now with the notorious ninja moniker intact.

Terrible.

When did we stop caring? Are we really so apathetic now? Where are the Daily Mail? Where's Mary Whitehouse these days? I'm too scared to leave my house. What kind of nation is this now?

Bring back thatcher I say.

[Narshty]

Being younger than I care to admit when the Turtles first emerged, the disparity between the titles led me to believe that "hero" and "ninja" were one and the same. Thankfully, a viewing of this set me on the right track again, and I now know for a fact that ninjas are fucking crap.

[Doctor Stamen]

I saw an advert for something TMNT-related earlier when watching kids tv and it took me completely by surprise.  The whole issue of changing the name was fucking ridiculous anyway, everyone used to know what ninjas were, and you don't get that many of them over here anyway.

Were the names of the fillums changed for the British market, or couldn't they be arsed?  All I remember about them is that they were shit.

[gazzyk1ns]

I think the name remained but they had to cut out scenes where nunchucks were visible.

Seeing a pair of those obviosly encourages violence, but bodybuilding mutant turtles kicking evil, masked ninjas in the face is fine.

[Lt Plonker]

I remember an incident mentioned in the news about two kids who were killed or injured, I can't remember which, when they went down a manhole cover in search of the Turtles.

I recall, even at the age of 7, that it was a fucking stupid idea. The Turtles lived in New York not London. There was no way they'd be able to walk to New York. Cuh.

I had Michelangelo come to by birthday, too. So there.

[Jet Set Willy]

I had Michelangelo come to by birthday, too. So there.

Did you expect any less?!

He is a party dude after all.

[ozziechef]

I was glancing through a Gamecube magazine the other day and saw an advert for the dvd release of the original turtles film  and a big banner proudly proclaimed "Featuring the Nunchukka scene" which we were so cruelly robbed off....and they say kids today are losing their innocence

[mr rou-rou]

I'm the right age to be some sort of venerated guru on such matters, but I didn't even know the British version was 'heroes' and not 'ninjas', I'm just crap.

in my yoof, I threw shiruken at trees and one Christmas managed to knock myself unconscious with a set on nunchuks I'd just unwrapped, which kicked off a big row along the lines of 'who's idea was it to buy him these?'

You've probably seen this but it's topical

southpark's fun with weapons episode

available here http://www.bwd.cad.pl/sp/

[9]

for some stupid reason, when i left school my class bought our english teacher (who was very gay and very obviously not into martial arts) a really nice pair of nunchuks.

a nice bottle of whisky? no.
a signed photo of his favourite author? no.
nunchuks? HELL YES!

[Marcus Or Relius]

I remember an incident mentioned in the news about two kids who were killed or injured, I can't remember which, when they went down a manhole cover in search of the Turtles.

There was another one I recall about some kid who apparantly tried to copy the Turtles by karate-kicking a pane of glass, his foot going straight through it and getting slashed to ribbons in the process. The stupid fucking cunt.

Then his mum was whining on the local news about how the disgracefully violent cartoon should be banned for encouraging such behaviour, even though most other kids seem to have acquired the ability to watch cartoons without suffering severe injuries. The stupid fucking cunt.

[bill hicks]

Until farely recently all scenes of violence using 'easily made weapons' were banned in the UK. Apparently during the big Kung Fu craze in the '70s bored council estate kids were makin nunchuks in metal work and leathering each other.

I remember when the big HMV opened in Croydon being dragged along by my mum and sister because Bros were opening it and being bought a Shredder in Beatties next door. That Beatties is now an Anne Summers. So long innocence indeed.

Has anyone read the original comics with their gore soaked uber-violence? They were great.

Oh and Raphael was the best.

[mr rou-rou]

I remember when the big HMV opened in Croydon being dragged along by my mum and sister because Bros were opening it and being bought a Shredder in Beatties next door. That Beatties is now an Anne Summers. So long innocence indeed.

In that case I bet the Shredders they are selling now are completely different as well

[gazzyk1ns]

The best thing about Turtles (the cartoon) was that in the theme song, the guy runs through all the cool things three of the Turtles are good at, and then screams "and Donatello does machines!".

I was always a Ghostbusters man myself.

[Rats]

What a difference 15 years makes...

only if they're 1 or over. Someone will have done it already but I can't be fucked to look.

[Hans]

Has anyone read the original comics with their gore soaked uber-violence? They were great.

They're excellent, aren't they?  Blood everywhere and you get actual background information on Shredder and Master Splinter.  Great stuff.

[mwude]

Surely nowadays the problem wouldn't be with the word 'ninja' but with the 'mutant'?  So expect the title to be changed shortly to 'The teenage differently abled but still perfectly capable and normal in every way ninja turtles'.

I've still got their single on 7" somewhere.  T-U-R-T-L-E power, heroes in a half shell - turtle power!  By Partners in Krime, if my spidey sense is tingling correctly.

[NaN]

"and Donatello does machines!".

out of all of them he was probubly the most useful one then....

Leonardo leads
i mean was that all? any one can do that but not everyone is very good at it... i seem to remember he had his tongue firmly up splinter's ass anyway
and a rubbish rhyme with machines also

Raphael is cool but crude,
Michaelangelo is a party dude.

they're not even qualities anyway... just observations of their annoyances...  stupid creatures.... and how did they manage to keep fit when all they ate was pizza....

therefore donatello was the ace one... thank you

....


in retrospect its outbursts like this which remind me why i had such a rubbish childhood

[Krang]

Wasnt Raphael cool but rude ?

K.C. Jones (I think his name was) A rogue boy, with a hockey stick and mask. When i first saw that movie, i thought he was the dogs bollocks.

Also that underground club that all those teenagers went to, with the arcade machines and skateboard ramps, i was going to attempt to build one of them, in my bedroom.

edit : also, did Michaelangelo have Nunchucks in the episode you watched? He had to give them up for a while, because they were too dangerous, so they made him a bare knuckle street fighter instead.

Donatello had the coolest weapon.

[Des Nilsen]

I remember that when I first saw TMH/NT on the telly I found it really embarassing, and I've no idea why. I was just sitting there in my great Aunt's flat and it came on and I was aware that it was quite poppular but just found it a bit well... shit.
Still, I did steal another boy's Leonardo toy from the 'home box' at school but found I wasn't really interested in playing with it. It's like I knew there was something supposedly great about this TV show but I got nothing out of it. I slipped the toy back a few days later.
I liked Ghostbusters a lot more, and a bit of He-Man.

(Here's another nugget of (slightly petty in retrospect) crushed confidence and trust - my huge collection of He-Man toys went missing once when I was about 7 and while over my neighbor's house I saw he had all the same ones. My mum had given them all to him. I hold no grudges).

-

[Munday's Chylde]

Damn it all this is my thread and I insist you use it to discuss the changing values in our society and not which your favourite fucking turtle was or who would win in a fight between skeletor and texas pete.

[Shade]

[/i].

I was always a Ghostbusters man myself.

Yeah but look what became of them - http://maddox.xmission.com/muppet.html

Blue hair? A cheesy mullet? what the hell!?! They were respected (kind of) scientists, now they're just...well...they look like crap....I'm sorry but I've forgotten where I was going with this.


I think its on one of the cable channels (cartoon network, or fox kids) still show old school Ghostbusters, I love re-living my childhood.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Does anyone remember those really cheap knock-off t-shirts you got 'down the market' when the turtles were popular? They were more or less the same, but with little wrong things like Raphael and Donatello both having knives, or one of them being entirely blue, or the name changed to 'Teenage Underground Hero Turtles' and whatnot. I've got a photo of myself wearing one on a day out at Beamish somewhere/
There was also all those copycat ones like 'Adolescent Radioactive Karate Hamsters' or 'Middle-Aged Toxic Judo Gerbils'.
I made that last one up, actually.

[Hairy Chin]

Wasnt Raphael cool but rude ?

<SNIP>

Donatello had the coolest weapon.

I thought the lyric was 'rude' too - and Donatello didn't have the coolest weapon - there's Swords, Nunchuks, Sais...and what, he gets a stick?

It always pissed me off that Leonardo never stabbed anyone or owt - clearly having the most dangerous weapon of them all yet he brandishes them and then puts them away to beat people up.

No offence to you, Krang...but where the hell did he come from? I remember in Hero Turles he was some alien thing...but he's not been in any of the films to my recollection, nor has he appeared in the new ninja turtles cartoon. I actually think the cartoon is better this time round as they've gone back more to the old comic book sort of look.

Does anyone remember why in hero turtles Raphael (who was the best) suddenly became moody and started wearing a black all-in-one suit? I don't know if it was on telly or in the comics...but I must have missed a few episodes/issues as a kid and suddenly...what the hell? I was baffled.

I remember the kids venturing into sewers fiasco too - daft bastards.

[chand]

Does anyone remember those really cheap knock-off t-shirts you got 'down the market' when the turtles were popular?

Yeah, the sort of thing your gran buys you and you can't wear it because it's so poor and it says 'TURTELS' instead of Turtles. The market near me was full of that stuff, and really poorly-drawn Simpsons t-shirts.

There were loads of bootleg Turtles action figures, which had to be stopped cos they were made with incredibly toxic paint.

[NaN]

who would win in a fight between skeletor and texas pete?

i'm sticking my neck out... but i'd say texas pete

on regards to changing values, shade reminded me that they gave a character in sesame street AIDS.... now my days of watching the show are long gone, but i remember when it was just lighthearted japes with an educational edge.... now what? kids are learning to cope with sexually transmitted diseases? i'm not angered as such, just a little baffled

and the same with extreme ghostbusters.... never once did i think "i don't think the disabled are fairly represented in this cartoon.... in this modern society we should illustrate how people in wheelchairs are equally capable of busting ghosts as everyone else"...... clearly someone in this world did


hmmmm.... i think i shal start having the daily mail delivered on a daily basis from now on