Details on the New NINJA TURTLES Character Designs
Up until this point, all we've seen from the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film is a bunch of set photos of the actors in motion capture suits. Thanks to Idle Hands we have some new details on the character designs for these totally radical characters! The description comes from a source who happened to see the new action figures for the film. These days it seems most of the movie themed action figures are close to the same designs that we see in the movie, they might not be exactly the same though. I think fans will be happy with the descriptions.
Here are the detail points for the Ninja Turtles:
- 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.
Details for Master 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.
Details for The Shredder:
- 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?
Details for Footsoldiers:
- 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.
- Figure comes with a small hand gun, a larger rifle and a knife. You may be able to strap the smaller gun to his leg in a holster sculpted on.
The Jonathan Liebesman-directed film comes out later this year, and I imagine we'll get our first official look at these characters soon. The movie stars Megan Fox in the role of April O'Neil, Alan Ritchson as Raphael, Jeremy Howard as Donatello, Pete Ploszek as Leonardo, Noel Fisher as Michelangelo, Will Arnett as Vernon Fenwick, Danny Woodburn as Master Splinter, and William Fichtner as Shredder.
The movie hits theaters on August 8th, 2014.