X-Entertainment's Christmas Season & Advent Calendar, 2008.

03/21/2007: The Ninja Turtles. Live and in person.

Y’all should remember Brian — the guy who occasionally lends X-E its spirited holiday designs? I’ve mentioned him before. Anyway, a while back, Brian landed a job with MTV, which put him exactly ten floors below where I work. Yesterday morning, I get into the office, and the sugar was barely in the coffee when my phone rang. It was him. Did he want to get a jumpstart on X-E’s next Halloween design as I’ve been endlessly suggesting? No. He had something much more important to tell me about. Something magical was set to happen that afternoon, just across the street at the Virgin Megastore. Half off DVD box sets? No. Something bigger. Something greener.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Live. In person. Within humping distance. Ours for the taking.

With the new movie set to debut, there’s also a new soundtrack to go with it, and that’s what this little event was for. Brian was ostensibly covering it for work, and I was ostensibly his photographer for the hour, ostensibly because motherfucking holy shit it is my BIRTHRIGHT to be as close to real live Ninja Turtles as humanly possible.

So, I’m standing in this little gated off section with all of the other photographers, and boy, they were vicious. Everyone wanted the right angle. People kept giving me devil eyes when they thought I was stealing their turf, but I was all like, “chill, I’m here to get a few grainy pictures for my blog, grab a complimentary TMNT button and go home.” Only instead of actually saying that, I kinda just looked down timidly.

Soon, the line formed. I’d be lying if I said hundreds, but certainly, there were dozens of Ninja Turtle maniacs of all ages waiting to shake hands with the lean green fighting machines. It worked like this: If you bought the soundtrack, you got to meet with the Turtles. That catch paved way for me getting to eavesdrop on the greatest conversation ever, where a slimy, creepy store manager started complaining to one of the studio peeps about how he was gonna “go into a rage” if people just returned the CDs after getting their Ninja Turtle fix. If only Hamato was there to mediate.

Finally, the announcement blared over the store speakers. The Turtles…had arrived.

AND THEY CAME DOWN THE ESCALATOR! NINJA TURTLES DOWN AN ESCALATOR! MY LIFE IS COMPLETE!

I just expected them to saunter out onto the tiny platform from some hidden greenroom. Nope, they arrived by CAB! And since this was on the lowest level of an 80 floor store, they had to go down like sixty-seven escalator flights! TURTLES DOWN AN ESCALATOR AHHHHHHHHH

All four Ninja Turtles were present, because you can’t have one without the other three. I held out some small hope that we’d get those funky latex costumes as seen in the old movies, but nah — these were more like really, really, really expensive Ninja Turtles Halloween costumes. Adequate, but nothing that was going to get me to ask Raphael if he liked Critters enough to see Critters 2. In honor of the affable event climate, the Turtles sadly left their gear at home. No big sticks, and no swords. They also took a vow of silence, refusing to speak even when children asked them questions that couldn’t be answered with a simple yes-or-no headshake.

After letting the press direct the Turtles through 450,000 action poses, the patient fans were finally allowed to mingle with their heroes. The kids and twenty-something goofballs went home happy, and because I was in the right place at the right time, I went home with a swank set of Ninja Turtles promo magnets.

Soon after, I returned to the office, pretending that I’d just gotten back from another grueling errand.

Speaking of which, My Bday is on Friday and I’ll be celebrating with a few friends with a day in Manhattan! Sure, we gotta do a lousy thing for an art class and go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but before & after that, who knows? And just 2 days early, too.

Cool!
I remember buying the original set for my baby bro like 18 years ago! I’ve been his favorite sis ever since! (p.s. happy birthday fellow pisces!)

JennyB…if you’re referring to me, I’m an Aries, not a Pisces. Aries began today, the 21st. Nice try, though.

Heh, when I heard that the TMNT were going to be at the Virgin Megastore, I figured you’d be there.

Also, McDonald’s will start having TMNT toys in their Happy Meals beginning this Friday.

By the way, is the NYC Toys R Us having a Midnight Madness thing for the Spider-Man 3 toys that are gonna debut in stores Saturday?

that is the best, it would have been so good if they actually did make them go down 79 escalators haha

oh man, i left the city too early. I wish i could have met the turtles

You didnt happen to pick up the turtles album did you? if so, what tracks are on it, and can i expect anything like the “coming out of their shell” tour on it

I wonder if they album will be any good. It would be nice if it didn’t go all Pokemon and sell out for pop artists. Well, unless the pop artists sell out and sing about ninja turtles. It WOULD be nice to hear snoop dogg busting out a few verses about saving april o neal, kicking robots and using turtle power to overcome everyday situations.

Is it wrong that I very much like Vitamin C’s “Vacation” from the Pokemovie soundtrack?

Nope! In fact, it’s pretty much the only Wii-related thing I still do on a regular basis. I’m dying to get a perfect Power Throws game, but have decided that this is impossible.

Yeah, I’ve given up on getting 300. It’s impossible! Do they make gamesharks for the Wii yet?

My friend asked if I wanted to go see Ninja Turtles…. I told her I very much planned on seeing Ninja Turtles as early as possible, and told her that if we go together she better not say one fucking word throughout the movie, and then I threatened her with every square inch of her life. I think she got the hint. She said I can take the duct tape, just in case.

So…. movie theaters frown on taking whole pizzas into the movie, right? Cuz it’s just not the same watching anything turtle related with popcorn or snowcaps instead of pizza.

I feel like I’ve at least seen shitty mini microwave pizzas for sale at some theaters. This would be the right opportunity to prove how bad they are.

Matt: You work in quite an exciting building. It’s cool to hear you are already putting ideas together for the next Halloween countdown.

I have pictures of why you should stay on International Dr. from my anniversary trip to Orlando. It’s like an acid trip without the stiff back. And Matt, we had a creepy arcade in the hotel. perfect!

I picked up the TMNT movie prequel comics today. Issues #1 and #2 (featuring Raphael and Michaelangelo respectively) came out, feature awesome covers, and are in black and white…all coloring book style. They rule rockcity–…Bebop and Rocksteady city!

Well, the last time I went to the movies the people behind me brought in two fucking Subway subs. I’m thinking my purse is pretty big, it could totally hold a personal pan pizza.

Nice pictures Bill All three of them. I especially like the Bigfoot one. Wow. I’ve heard of construction trucks that used those big of tires and they have killed plenty of people while at work. Still want one though.

TMNT is always a treat! Anyone up for a Turtle pudding pie? NOW that would be worth sneaking into the theatre, right Mystie?? If they still made them of course

And I had a shamrock shake, and a new jack in the box Andes chocolate chip mint shake. Sorry to say I liked the jack in the box one better

especially because I felt ripped off getting a tiny cup of milkshake for 2 bucks. Maybe because I am unemployed. Huh that probably is the case, when you are without a job (or you have a crappy job and bills to pay) everything seems expensive.

Last week my sister put a restraining order on me and then dropped it a couple of days later. No joke. And believe me I don’t want you to ask for details.

The shot of Mikey coming down the escalator is so cute. This is the greatest errand away from the office in the history of office errands.

So, from the makers of “Snakes on a Plane” comes this years internet cult hit film “Turtles on a Escalator”

I realize now that it is just his foot at an awkward angle… but first glance, it looks like Leo has a …. nevermind.

No kidding - shades of Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue when Michaelangelo was the only turtle who cared enough to convince us that drugs were bad.

Jealous.
My first job ever was in a bratwurst stand outside a grocery store and there would be cartoon characters that would come and meet and greet kids from time to time. When the Ninja Turtles came it was the craziest day of all, the line literally stretched around the parking lot. When Michalangelo went inside to use the restroom I was there (Well not IN the bathroom, but the area) The person in the costume was about a 13 year old kid. I was shocked, but apparently they fit well inside.
Bill–I remember Bigfoot

I asked my little brother if he was interested in seeing TMNT and secretly hoping that he was. He wasn’t. :-/

Fantastic. I actually met Michelangelo and April O’Neill at MGM Studios in Florida many moons ago…This was when the turtles were in their prime. I remember I got all shy when Mikey came over, and April wore the yellow jumpsuit…Aaah, Memories….

I used to love the turtles! They were pretty much my introduction to snappy one liners. I loved them because of that.

On another note, can someone tell me what the hell is happening with toy ideas now?

Have these types of packs been out for a while? Where was this type of stuff when I was a kid?

Niiice. P.S. I saw this at the theater last night-
http://www.originalalamo.com/o.../show_details.asp?show_id=4388
Was /awesome/!! Lots of the commercials you’ve talked about were there, Matt, as well as some others which blew me away. [After the Cola Wars]

I can’t wait to see this movie! I wish I could see real live Ninja Turtles in real live person. :(

I’m curious about the soundtrack, too, but what’s the point if there aren’t updated versions of “Coming Out of Their Shells” or “Ninja Rap”?

I’m sort of disappointed that they didn’t take the opportunity to perform an acoustic version of “No Treaties,” but I’m glad to see that the TMNT are still making social calls. I still flip out over meeting Spider-Man at a CompUSA when I was ten, so I can only imagine what it was like seeing the Turtles now.

Damn it, why couldn’t that have happened in May when I’ll be there? If I go to NYC and don’t see a turtle, I’ll be pissed.

We’re taking my nephew to see TMNT tomorrow (or rather, my fiance and my nephew are taking me) and then we’re going to eat pizza! Cowabunga!

I’m going to see TMNT with the boyfriend and a few friends at the 11:45 p.m. showing tomorrow night. That should be interesting.

I am so jealous, Matt! I want to meet the Turtles. And see them go down an escalator. Dammit, why does nothing interesting happen upstate?!

I posted this comment to confess…I despise pretty much all forms of pop music, but I absolutely love the Pokemon movie soundtrack. Please, don’t hurt me. That makes me want to find this TMNT soundtrack and see if it can offer me more guilty pleasures. Hmm.

Thanks Goob! There are more pictures available now that I made them all public. For some reason I am like a retard with a rubix cube when it comes to Flikr. I get it now.

Mystie: We have pizza at our local movie theater. Actually we have Seattle’s Best coffee also. Good thing too because it helped me stay awake for The Messengers.

Garrison: You forgot the straight-to-DVD “Snakes on a Train” Yes it exists. I wonder what’s next, Elephants on an Elevator?

BTW, I saw a commercial today for the new Spidey 3 toys coming out from Hasbro. They even put on a phone number so Spidey can call you this Saturday.

Great. The first time I post in months, and the only thing I have to comment on is the fact that it DOES look like Leo has his turtle schlong hanging out.

Mystie,
My brother works in a town with a pizza joint sharing the same wall as the movie theater. You could order a pizza from the balcony of the theater and never miss a moment of the movie.

Sadly the pizza place had a fire and took them both out. Now no theater or pizza goodness. hmm I’ll have to ask if they rebuilt yet.

Well, Pete, you really want something to blow your mind, click my name to go to the Starship Dimensions site. Wherein it is discovered that Death Star vs Unicron is a very one sided affair. Still, I wish they did a Emperor/Death Star TransFormer, but the Shuttle one was pretty good.

Matt I just found an old, old Ronald McDonald add. Thought you might enjoy it. http://xpock.com/?p=1004

The guy playing Ronald has a cup for a nose, very odd compared to the Ronald I grew up with.

I was just on the entertainmentearth.com home page, and there was a link to GI-Joe’s 25th anniversary?!?! WTF? Isn’t it more like 50 years? I know most people under the age of 30 won’t remember this, but there were GI-Joes before the five-inch figures that came out in 1982… they were like 10-12 inches high, and actually based on real US armed forces soldiers, and they had fun things like the “kung-fu grip” figures, which had hands made of rubber, which had the unfortunate side effect of the fingers breaking off after about five minutes of play, so for the rest of the action figure’s play-life they would be handicapped by not being able to hold rifles or guns or knives. There were also these neat playsets like the Troubleshooter vehicle and the Headquarters with a periscope light that you could use to send Morse-code messages to your buddies across a field. There was even an astronaut GI-Joe that came out in the late sixties, that you could buy a space capsule for.

Wu Jen: I think that Ronald McDonald is Willard Scott from the Today Show. The weather guy that highlights the oldest people’s bdays.

“And what a hansome looking 101 years old she is!”
brought to you by Smuckers.

In the past hour of watching Spongebob, I think I’ve seen the TMNT trailers something like 30 times.

Yeah nice pictures Bill of your trip. If you haven’t already, you should download the little piece of image uploading software they have over at Flickr. You you just open one window that shows the pictures and drag and drop into the software. That is the only way I could figure out how to upload pics on there, and it’s easy. So if you haven’t done that yet try it.

A number of friends and myself are planning on going late Friday night to see the movie. Remember: go too early and you deal with whiny kids the entire time; go late and you deal with people in their mid-teens to mid-twenties (mostly) yelling at the screen and telling the turtles to kick some ass. Your choice.

I remember the 12-inch Joes. (skip the jokes, or no soup for you!) Back in the days when a Joe with realistic whiskers would beat the ever-lovin’ crap outta Ken and bivouac in Barbie’s Malibu Dream House. Nothing like using the Human Bullet to crash a tea party!

WHAT THE FUCK?
Where am I when all this awesome stuff is happening?! My school is only a few blocks away. UGH.

There are already some reviews trickling in for the movie and, if the critics are to be believed, TMNT is terrible. Doesn’t bother me a bit, though, and I hope everyone here will take a chance and see it anyway. In order to avoid spoilers, I’m looking almost exclusively at numbers, anyway, which is the worst way to gauge the validity of a score. However, the one review I did gave me the best quote I’ve heard in some time.

“A throughline of organized violence permeates ‘TMNT’ as a baby step toward preparing youngsters to become soldiers in America’s never-ending war on humanity.”

Here’s the lowdown on the TMNT soundtrack, for those who wish to know what’s on there before actually dropping $20.

This is why I need to get a job in Philly, where this kind of stuff may actually have a chance of happening. You just don’t see giant Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles promoting their latest in the South Jersey boonies.

That kinda thing must be so great to be involved in. I have an old photograph of my brother with Raphael, when he was like 10. I should go find it.

The picture of Michelangelo on the elevator, and kb’s comment has me thinking about Turtles in everyday situations. Buying groceries, using public washrooms. How would you react that?

A weird fascination. Like this guy I saw on the bus yesterday- spitting image of Karl Marx.

LOVE THAT CRITTERS REFERENCE. I never got why that movie was playing in the theaters 5 years after the fact but what do I know

That reminds me so much of the Turtles at Disney world in the 90’s. Great entry. Can’t wait for the movie tomorrow! (I hope there’s a vanilla ice rap…. but i doubt it.)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
Heroes in a half-shell,
Turtle power!

They’re the world’s most fearsome fighting team
They’re heroes in a halfshell and they’re green
When the evil Shredder attacks,
These turtle boys don’t cut him no slack!

Splinter taught them to be ninja teens,
Leonardo leans,
Donatello does machines,
Raphael is cool, but crude,
Michelangelo is a party dude.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
Heroes in a half-shell,
Turtle power!

Splinter taught them to be ninja teens, [He's a radical rat!]
Leonardo leads,
Donatello does machines, [that's a fact, jack!]
Raphael is cool, but rude, [gimme a break!]
Michelangelo is a party dude! [PARTAY!!!!!]

Gym Class Heroes on a TMNT soundtrack? I guess I’m glad to see Decaydance get their tentacles into it, but honestly Cobra Starship will always be “that Snakes on a Plane band” Not that there’s anything wrong with that either…

In my college’s talent show, my frat’s pledges used the original TMNT theme in their act, with 2 guys dressing up as the turtles, plus one guy, who is Filipino, was represented as Raiden with Sais (I couldn’t believe the sight either) plus 3 others as Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach/Toadstool, and then they all fought each other to the Matrix fight music. It was truly a sight to see, plus some other random crap. At least when I did it, there was some organization to it.

I’ll be in Manhattan tomorrow for my Bday, and I hope ot see something as good as what Matt saw.

I remember meeting the Turtles at a Piggly Wiggly customer appreciation fair when I was little. That was awesome. That was a high point in my childhood. I also would look forward to my brother’s birthday because he would get Turtles figures. Me being a girl, I never got any. Even though I asked. Stupid gender roles. I played with them anyway!
Go ninja go ninja go!

I knew when I heard about that event that there’d be no way you’d miss it — I’m so excited about seeing the movie tomorrow night!

K-
you were right the first time, it’s cobra starship. and i agree with you they will always be that band that had the snakes on a plane song. it’s why they were formed, it’s all they’ll ever exsist for. pete is definetly becoming quite the business man though. i’m going to see them this summer, and cobra starship is opening so i’ll let you know if they suck as bad in person. also I saw gym class heroes they put on a hell of a show, they are worth seeing at least twice.

One of my favorite eps of the first cartoon was when April’s boss decided to personally track down those “Darn Turtles” and ran afoul of mob boss Don Tortello.

Hey everyone, I’m about to get ready to go to a noon showing of T.M.N.T. at the local movie theater. I hope they have cool merchandise for sale, although I probably won’t be able to afford it. Oh, well. I’ll post later today about how it went. I hope it rocks!

Hey, catch The Daily Show last night? They covered the YouTube lawsuit, it was pretty funny.
Leo should SO not have posed like that XD

Danny: Yeah, I’ve got nothing against Gym Class Heroes, I just never got around to getting the album. When I heard that Cobra Starship was putting out an album of their own I was like HUH? I’d buy a GCH album, and I was thinking about getting an Academy Is… album, but then I listened to some songs and wasn’t horribly impressed. Their lead singer (I don’t even know his name) has a nice vocal range and I love the chorus of SoaP for it

I can’t imagine going to a FOB concert no matter how much I love them. MCR crowds are awesome, but FOB crowds just seem *shudder*

I just saw a commercial on some channel that said, in essence, that if you go to http://www.hasbro.com/marvel/spiderman/, Spider-Man himself (!) will personally call you and tell you to go to some toy store for their Spider-Man promotion. Just thought you folks might want to know

I’m probably going to go see the movie tomorrow afternoon…Hope it’s cool…heck, as long as it is better than the third movie, I’ll be happy.

In that last picture, it looks like Leonardo is rocking out on an air guitar. There’s something incredibly wrong and cool about that.

YES! The whole time I was watching TMNT I kept thinking, “WHERE THE HELL DO I KNOW SPLINTER’S VOICE FROM?!!?!” and I just couldn’t put my finger on it! But I checked IMDB and OF COURSE!!! It’s Zuko’s uncle from Avatar!!!!! ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^

I see the late actor Mako did the voice for Splinter. I always associate him with old reruns of “MASH”, I think he was one of two or three Asian actors that the show would repeatedly use as featured Korean character guest stars in a dozen or so episodes. Could be ether attributed to his greatness as an actor or just the small number of Asian actors working in late 70s - early 80s. Or a little of both.

I’m still not sure I’m going to trek out to see this movie but I am really feeling it for other TMNT things right now. I want to go play the NES game, the first one.

I never figured out how to make the ropes shoot across the gaps in the rooftops, Doho. I must have been a dumb kid

I never figured out how to make the ropes shoot across the gaps in the rooftops,
It wasn’t a very intuitive process if I remember correctly.

Recently, I got an April from the TMNT movie from 1992. She cost me 3 dollars and I’m happy

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