The World Trade Center as the TMNT Saw It

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Ten years ago today, the skyline of New York City changed forever. As the Turtles have always called New York home, that lost skyline was often seen throughout all the mediums in which TMNT stories have been told. To reflect on the time before September 11, 2001, here's a look at some of the reminders we are left with of the World Trade Center, as seen through the eyes of a TMNT fan.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

The Twin Towers silently established the location of all three live-action TMNT movies.

TMNT 2: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 (1993)

IDW TMNT #1 Sold Out - 2nd Print Due For October

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Last week's launch of the new ongoing TMNT comic book series from IDW took only a few days to sell out from distributors. Writer Tom Waltz made the unofficial announcement on The Technodrome last Saturday, and today IDW has officially announced a second printing of the book that will be out in October.

From the press release:

“The response to the debut issue of the series has been phenomenal,” said Greg Goldstein, IDW’s chief operating officer. “We are grateful to all the old and new Turtles fans who are supporting this series so strongly, and will be delivering the second printing as soon as possible.”

Fans are encouraged to inquire with their local comic shop to make sure they get the second printing, which will feature a new variant of the Kevin Eastman art created for issue #1 (above).

The press release also re-confirms an October release date for the hardcover Ultimate Collection Volume 1, which collects issues 1-7 + Raphael #1 from the original Eastman and Laird comic books. Fans have recently been concerned about this, as Amazon has changed the release date to January 10, 2012. This doesn't seem to reflect the actual release date, however.

Read the full press release.

IDW TMNT #1 - Variant Cover Guide

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New comic book day is tomorrow! Woohoo! And this week that also means the launch of IDW's brand spankin' new ongoing TMNT series. Extra woohoo! As part of the promotion for the new series, IDW is releasing a whole bunch of variant covers for this first issue. Since information on all of these hasn't been completely concrete, I've created this guide to all of the different covers.

I am looking for scans of some of the variants, so please e-mail me if you can help me with that. I am especially interested in scans of sketch covers if anyone was able to snag one of those! If you'd like to post a picture of your haul on the Ninja Pizza Facebook page, please do!

Cover A

Cover B

Cover A: Raphael by Dan Duncan.
Regular cover; distributed in a 1:1:1:1 ratio with covers B, C & D.

Cover B: Donatello by Dan Duncan.
Regular cover; distributed in a 1:1:1:1 ratio with covers A, C & D.

TMNT (1990) Movie Screening in Cleveland, OH (Plus a Sandwich!)

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The Capitol Theater in Cleveland, OH, will be hosting a midnight screening of the original 1990 TMNT movie this coming Saturday night, August 20, 2011. You can buy advance tickets to the screening here.

The screening is part of the Melt Bar & Grilled Late Shift series, which combines classic movies with grilled sandwiches. The poster to the left was specially designed for this event and promotes the TMNT sandwich that will be available for only two nights. According to the poster, the sandwich features "real cheese pizza rolls deep friend 'til extra crispy and atomic hot, rich homemade marinara, green ooze basil pesto cream cheese, and provolone and romano cheese." You can also add crisp pepperoni for $1. (Whoa, heart attack!)

So if you're in Cleveland, this sounds like a fun opportunity to see the original TMNT movie. And if you try the sandwich, at least it will be a delicious last meal! ;)

Thanks to I Crave Pizza No More on The Technodrome for the heads-up!

"Goongala!" - Song from "Casey Jones" Fan Film

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The new Casey Jones fan film uses a brand new piece of music during the end credits, a song by Johnny October titled "Goongala!" You can hear the entire song in the YouTube video below, and you can buy it from iTunes here.

WARNING: The video below has explicit lyrics. There is also a clean version of the song available from iTunes.

"Casey Jones" Fan Film

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Back on February 8, 2010 (quite a long time ago), a trailer for a Casey Jones fan film showed up on YouTube. Fantastically, the project didn't get left forgotten, and last night the movie premiered at a free screening in Austin, TX. Ninja Pizza reader and mega TMNT fan Samuel Barrera attended the screening and wrote in with a report.

In a brief summary, Samuel describes the plot of the movie:

After assaulting Cousin Sid during hockey practice, Casey Jones is kicked off the team with no where to go and no money to his name. Moving back in to his mom's house, Casey realizes that his old stomping grounds have gone from bad to worse. Vowing to change things, Casey dons his mask and sets out to let the bad guys know... it's HIS town.

And his impressions after having seen it:

Hilarion Banks gives a very convincing performance as the hockey player turned vigilante. The violence level is turned up quite a few notches and when the bad guys get hit, we feel it. Casey doesn’t just trip people with that obviously painful hockey stick of his.

Another great surprise in this film was the inclusion of Michelangelo. Though most people know that Raphael is the first to meet Casey, here we see Mikey, who is actually voiced by Robbie Rist, the voice of Mikey from all three films. Now, while I’m not clear on whether Robbie Rist’s voice was recycled from the other films or if he actually voiced the character, it fits in smoothly.

And the Turtle suit used is truly magnificent. While it doesn’t impress as much as the original animatronic suits, this is possibly one of the better suits I’ve seen in any fan film.

There are also many nods to the different franchises, including the first TV series. Many of which will make any fan boy as giddy as a little school girl.

You can read Samuel's full report here.

For the rest of us who weren't in Austin last night, the movie will be online to watch for free at caseyjonesthemovie.com, starting September 17, 2011.

Check out the original trailer while you wait to see the movie:

TMNT Papercraft

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If you don't follow the Ninja Pizza Tumblr blog (and if you don't, you should), you missed today's post of the above picture of some completed TMNT papercraft toys. I just thought the photo was neato, but the picture sparked some interest in the actual papercrafts, so I've collected a bunch that were on the old 4Kids.tv website for your downloading and building pleasure.

You can download the collected .zip file here.

The Ninja Pizza Tumblr blog is updated once a day, every day, with a different TMNT-related image. Absolutely anything can show up here, so be sure to keep tabs on it to discover something new, old, interesting, or just cool!