The TMNT have a rich 25 year history full of what seems to be an endless stream of interpretations. While many of these are fantastic, there are some not so fantastic bits. If you ask people about what the low lights of the past 25 years have been, there are three common answers: The third movie, Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, and The Coming Out of Their Shells Tour (COOTS). I actually have no dislike for any of these (my personal steaming pile of Turtle puke is Volume 4 of the comic books), and speaking of COOTS in particular, I love every ounce of it.Oh sure, it's cheesy as hell. It's also probably one of the most blatantly obvious examples of Eastman and Laird "selling out" the Turtles, if you're one to accuse them of that (I, personally, am not). But damn was it a lot of fun for my 6th grade, 11-year-old self. I mean, really a hell of a lot fun. Now I consider it one of my little guilty pleasures, and I love making particular new acquisitions.
So for a spot of fun, here's a look at a few promotional pictures from the tour. The first one (top), oddly, features a Los Angeles manhole cover.
This second picture was part of an Entertainment Weekly article about the tour. You can read the entirety of the article here - As you'll see, the writer wasn't willing to have a spot of fun at all. :p
The last picture also comes from Entertainment Weekly, but this time they were massively confused about what was being written about, as it was included with a movie review of TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze (they gave it a C+).
I liked Coming out of thier Shells :D
ReplyDeleteCount me as a fan of COOTS as well. I still treasure my tape and can sing along with all of the songs. And what about those rockstar costumes?! Stars over the eyes of a ninja = brilliance.
ReplyDeleteI too loved the Coming Out of Their Shells tour! I STILL listen to the tape that I have of those songs. To be painfully honest, I might even be able to sing every word of certain tracks on command.
ReplyDeleteAny idea on where I could get a video of the tour? I've found bootleg ones online but they look kind of sketchy. I used to have it taped of TV but that VHS is long, long, long gone.
Anyway, Cowabunga to you for sticking up for the 80s ShellMetal Tour De Force that was COOTS!
The tapes should be pretty common on eBay. I don't think I've ever seen a bootleg of it.
ReplyDeleteIt's on my long list of things to do to get the sucker transferred to DVD, along with the 30-minute making of video.
@dark_turtle: When I was digging through my stuff last night I made a lot of costume observations that I may need to turn into a post eventually. There's some pretty funny stuff. ^_^
I'm glad to see that there's some mutual love for the show!
I, for one, LOVE the COOTS tour. It's one of the VERY best animatronic kid's tours out there, up to this very day! :D ... HOWEVER, the MAKING OF COOTS video PISSES me off.. *grumbles* I *REALLY* wish there was at least ONE article/tvspot/book/etc that talked about the ACTUAL behind the scenes magic with the tour. *sai* Silly promoters. They didn't realize that they could have drawn in a whole other group of animatronic geeks if they had worked that avenue... I wonder what ever happened to the costumes used in that tour...
ReplyDeleteWeren't you going to give me a copy of French COOTS at some point in time? :p
ReplyDeleteI hope all of the costumes were thrown away. After a 40 city tour I couldn't imagine the sweat/rubber combination was a pretty sight. Except for maybe the vests. I liked those.
What a jerk! I don't appreciate him attacking TWO of my loves! The TMNT and then the Monkees!!! Why didn't he just do his job...what a cranky, no imagination, over paid, ball buster!!! What the hell man? Not cool...not cool at all...thanks for the pics and all, what a neat little trip down TMNT memory lane! XD I used to own that VHS and I watched it SO much I wore it out! XD Thanks again! No thanks to that reporter...grrrr....he just made his way on my list!
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