2014 TMNT Film Character Design Details

[The Butcher]

About a year ago around here and on forums across the web, there was a fair bit of waxing and waning going on about how Michael Bay was going to ruin the hallowed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise with the upcoming TMNT film he's producing. Most of the complaints back then were in regards to some canon-altering details from a leaked early script. Fortunately, the majority of those bits are gone now (except for one big one), and the pic has wrapped filming. For better or worse, the Turtles are going back on the silver screen this summer.

But what will they look like? Well, this guy knows a guy who has seen the official movie action figures. And the results? I'll let you be the judge. Of course, how an individual pieces these descriptions together inside their head could vary greatly from the actual design, and the toys may not 100% match up with their on-screen counterparts. That said, the aforementioned blogger who posted the descriptions was asked to take them down (presumably by the movie folks), so chances are these toys were legit and the descriptions were accurate.

Okay, so with no further ado, here are said descriptions:

TMNT

- Each turtle has the weapons they should have. (YAY!) 2 swords for Leo, a staff for Don, 2 sais for Raph, a pair of nunchucks and a three sectioned staff for Mikey.
- Each turtle looks LIKE A TURTLE and not alien...at all. (BIGGER YAY!) In fact the designs are quite traditional and unremarkable, and feature far less texture than the 80's movie turtles. Eyes are fairly normal and not cartoonishly large. No beak along the nose area like some speculated. Three fingers and two toes.
- The sort of hunched over posture present in the actors in those leaked set pictures is present here.
- Amazingly, each character appeared to have a different physique with some (like Raphael and Leonardo) having super heroey muscle tone (though Raph appears more pumped up than Leo) and Donatello appearing slimmer..leaner. Michelangelo could possibly be slightly shorter than the rest.
- Each turtle's mask matches the color from the cartoons.
- Styles of dress are different as well with Leonardo in a sort of pseudo samurai gear get up including shoulder armor, some leg bits, arm bracer and foot wear up to the calf with bindings showing. He might have some armor (non metal) along his chest as well. Donatello's gear is a mix of techy, modern and a dash of samurai with more normal footwear (for a 2 toed giant turtle), some gadget on his head and gadgetry coming off of his shell. The ends of his mask are far longer than the rest, draping down to his waist. Raphael has adopted an urban warrior look with white, bandage-like wrappings on his feet, right leg, and right arm. He wears this very conan-esque loin cloth..thing..with leather straps draping down as if he were more suited for gladiatorial battle. Michelangelo's outfit seems the simplest with a hoodie wrapped around his waist, pants and sneakers with the toes cut out, wrappings on his hands and forearms, a necklace (could be puka shell beads?) and his mask ends drape down to his chest. He looks frighteningly ready to spit out some modern catch phrases.

Splinter

- Again, a very traditional design.
- Hair pulled up in a samurai..nub? Fu Manchu facial hair going on.
- His eyes seemed a little odd but I couldn't make out what was going on there.
- Slightly tattered samurai outfit with a blue upper half with gold accents, tan lower belted robes and blocky sandals.
- Comes with a samurai sword.

"The Shred Dude!"

- This guy looks like he owns stock in the Ronco knife company! Pointy edges coming off of absolutely anything. He'll be the stuff of ridicule for some time. Very overcomplicated outfit.
- Helmet is pseudo-traditional, adopting elements of the classic look (mostly the shape and key elements) with the top coming down over the eyes to the nose. Mouth area is recessed.
- Describing the rest of this armor is a nightmare. Suffice to say, even though he's covered head to toe in metal armor or blades, his arms are still mostly bare. It's a bit comical. He's got the shoulder pieces with the blades coming off them, the shin armor with the blades coming off them, black armor areas to offset the steel parts and a cape that looks metal with blades coming down the side. I'd expect we'll see him whip that around in battle.
- His only weapons (beyond his whole body) seem to be the bladey thingies coming off his forearm armor. The one on his right arm seems incredibly complicated..maybe a spinning blade?

April

- Nothing out of the ordinary here, especially since we saw her on set in her yellow jacket. Blue jeans, black boots up to her knees and a satchel across her chest.
- Worth noting the figure doesn’t much look like her.
- Comes with a camera and 2 sai knives.

The Foot

- No surprises here at all..just as drab as the goons in masks we saw on set.
- The figure designs are a bit more colorful with a brownish scarf, blue vest, black arms, tan pants, grey knee pads and black boots. They also seem to have made the mask more of a grey than the copper look we saw on set.
- The changes in colors and such lead me to wonder if they did that for the toy line just to bring something out for kids beyond a boring black outfit or has there been changes to the Foot Soldier’s look? Our bet is the former. Makes little sense to put out figures that don’t match the movie look, though….but it’s not like it hasn’t happened before.

So there you have it. The different heights and physiques for the Turtles is a nice touch, but the clothes sound lame. The Shredder... I dunno. The author may be exaggerating. I kinda hope he is, because between the character being a white American military officer and looking like the Ceremonial Killamajig from Futurama, Oroku Saki Eric Sachs is going to piss people off. Splinter seems to be fine. April and the Foot have been in pictures from the set for months now. Suffice to say that Megan Fox is hot, and Foot Soldiers are all apparently vying for a spot in The Shield.

Couldn't help but share. The movie comes out this August, which gives you plenty of time to put a chastity belt on your childhood.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Hands up if you remembered that film was happening!