Look up Michelle Ivey, she owns two of the turtle heads and a few other props from various films, She is quite possibly the biggest tmnt fan of all time. She was on "totally obsessed" a long time ago, but I met her at a con last year and she said she still owns all the stuff. So theres a little more info for ya :)
This is heartbreaking given the sheer artistry that went into these films. The suits looked real. As a kid, there’s no way anyone could tell me that they weren’t real. They looked so good that they appeared in the now infamous Barbera Walters interview where Donatello’s costume had a tear duct issue, where Donatello starts crying and huge amounts of water come out of his mask. That being said, the stunt men were amazing, given how they fought, and backflipped, in suits that weighed close to 45 pounds or more, with metallic gears in the face, without proper ventilation at all. The quality of the practical suits in the first 2 films is up there with the animatronic dinosaurs in the first Jurassic Park. The first movie is still great even now.
The stuntmen didn't do the flips and stuff in the full-featured suits. There were multiple versions of the suits used in different circumstances; when they were doing athletic stunts, they didn't have the gears for controlling the faces because there was no need to encumber the performers or risk damaging the components. The stunt performers were still impressive, just not as inhuman as they'd have to be to perform those stunts with the full rigs.
@@jawbone78 Thanks! That’s definitely good to know. There’s a basic reason why that never really crossed my mind the way it would with other animatronic heavy films though. As a kid, my Dad, God rest his amazing soul, took me to see the Coming Out Of Our Shells Turtle’s Tour. Despite the far less impressive costumes than the impeccable ones seen in the film, there were parts of the show where they had animatronic mouth movements leading directly in to short fight scenes. Despite being pretty heavy, those Turtles Tour costumes were definitely lighter all around too.
I tried to make one years ago but never got past sculpting and the sculpt got damaged on a move. www.deviantart.com/eledoremassis02/art/Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtle-Michelangelo-283716727
Its kind of sad that they didn't preserve those suits and they just let them disintegrate. TMNT 1 and 2 were like me and my brother's favorite movies as kids.
There really isnt much you can do to preserve them, the material the suits were made of decomposes from age. Keeping them out of the sunlight helps but the reality is the original suits were not built to last any longer it took them to film the movie.
I miss the look of the 1990's turtles. They seemed to get it right, as far as I'm concerned. Not sure what they were trying to do with the Michael Bay versions, but they just...do not work.
Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo look like they have just been sitting in the attic for a little to long. But Leonardo looks like he has been through a vacuum cleaner and back.
Seems really strange that a studio would let all their suits fall apart. You'd imagine that a lot of the original suits would be locked in a hermetically sealed vault somewhere.
I agree, but at the time, the Turtles were a major cash cow. The movies were a cash grab and I can't imagine that anyone back then would've thought the IP would have the longevity it's seen. I believe that if the powers that be had anticipated said longevity, the suits would have been preserved and done tours around all the major puppet museum circuits.
@@monetstallion9363the first movie was anything but a cash grab. You can tell there was passion and actual care adapting the comics and keeping elements of the cartoon.
@RATTLEHEAD oh I didn't mean cash grab in a "throw it together" kind of way. I meant it in a "wow, we can't believe what a juggernaut this is, so let's strike while the iron is hot" way. The first two movies were the best, IMHO. Had Jim Henson not passed away when he had, I believe the third movie would have been much more... visually appealing.
Disney World used to have the turtles as meet and greet characters back around the time MGM Studios first opened, so 1989-ish, maybe a little after. They were more cartoony looking but it would be interesting to see how they're holding up as they'll be around the same age.
Yeah it would be awesome for only in the hands of TMNT NECA Scalpers that will sell them on Ebay by combining the cost of the replica suits with the cost of the Gold Nintendo World Championship Cartridge. We will all get the chance to find and afford Neca TMNT, when they release The Tmnt 3 movie figures that everyone hates😕
These guys were my heros as a child (and still are today to be honest lol) I'd definitely love to own a full suit as a statue in my home someday. I had no idea the suits were made out of a material that would shrink and crack so badly. Thanks for the video!
When these went viral. I have to think they were sitting in a closet for nearly 30 years, and the person who rediscovered them jumped back in terror. They should have been put into a pop culture museum. #TMNTforever
That Raphael suit does look like it's from "Secret of the Ooze", but it's missing the slice marks on his shell from that movie. I always assumed those were there to reflect the abuse he took in the first film.
@@yanx007 I thought that was modern day, I mean Ghost busters was great until the "remake", Judge Dredd was a classic, their working on a new Matrix reboot...like who tf asked for that? Just saying, I think modern day is worse for milking franchises, JP World 2 anyone?
@@coronaman-9478 Yeah, didn't think that through, but you knew what I meant....and if you didn't, I'll make it easier on you. Jurassic Park>Jurassic World.
4 года назад
Poor Leonardo. He looks like the last frame on those side by side mugshots that show how crack deteriorates a person.
Unfortunately, Ralph’s suit looks like an autopsy! Very creepy! Although, before the restorations, we could have used the suits for an awesome TMNT Zombie movie. At least Donnie’s suit. If I’m not mistaken, he was the one that was killed in one of the comics. That would have been cool.
Cursed images? No way. It is extremely interesting to see how these things have held up. It's also sort of morbid, what was once a moving figure is now a lifeless corpse, blank stares in the eyes with stale smiles. Thank you for showing this. I really enjoyed it!
@@sdot6939 i agree, and they did real choreographed awesome martial arts scenes, they'd NEVER do something like that today, would love a sequel to the first movie with the original April...maybe like the Turtles come back after hibernating for yearrs to the modern world? Would be so fun if they took the approach of the classic movie...
I feel like there could be a nice blend of both. Have the actors wearing full body suits like the original, but then CG the heads on. It would give the turtles much more expressive faces and facial capturing could expedite animation.
I remember as a kid finding a video here on RU-vid about an extreme Ninja Turtles fan who had tons of merch and other Stuff she had bought. If I remember correctly, she had bought one or two of the costume heads from the movies.
It's so cool that these were actual costumes worn by actors rather than all CGI like we get today. It's pretty scary what they look like now after 25+ years, but hopefully they can be fully restored to their original glory.
Pure 90s philosophy: let's make trailers better than movies and milk movie franchises to the ground without any care for the public. So don't expect to preserve anything. That was the 90s.
REALLY makes me rethink the whole 5 Nights at Freddy’s being a scary thing now! I don’t know maybe because I am a fan, but you would think if anything the costumes from the first movie would have been saved or keep somewhere in display in good shape.
Unfortunately there isn't much that can be done outside of molding and then replacing parts. The foam was never designed to last years and just dries out over time. It's a shame people didn't get molds taken of it before it died out. If somebody did, it could be remade.
My sister used to watch all of the TMNT movies in are living room. I had a nightmare of them getting killed in a beige alleyway in daylight. 2 got killed by being shot down by SWAT one died jumping head first into a TV. The last one jump into barbed wire and got up and said where's my skin and he turned and looked directly at me breathing heavily and then I woke up in the middle of the night I was still scared shitless because I could still hear the breathing and then I realized it was me.
I actually saw these suits with my secondary school class (around the time of the film's release) at London's _Museum of The Moving Image._ I have a vague memory of one of the girls on the bus home/the next day, clutching a thin _swatch_ of painted foamed rubber that she had torn off one of the hand gloves (to my quiet disgust), saying it smelled of "really eggy farts".
Yeah, as someone who works with a lot of materials, it makes sense. Those suits were meant to be (fairly) lightweight and last only about as long as the filming. Even then, they were a sweaty nightmare to wear because of the insulation properties of sponge foam and latex, and they needed constant repairs between takes. You could build a much better and breathable AND long lasting suit now if they did that for practical effects on a new Turtles movie. They won’t-because CGI has come so far and Batman is one of few characters that still wears a bulky suit...but it would look amazing on camera if they applied Jurassic Park (1) type special effects to a new Turtles movie.
If I was a producer of these movies, I would never let that amazing suits rot somewhere. These suits are a product of hard work and talent. I know it's not cheap to keep these suits intact, but given the amount of money that movies earned to heir producers because of these suits they definitely deserve better.
Awesome video. It's sad to see such iconic props deteriorate like this. I personally would love to see these in a pop culture museum where they can be maintained as opposed to in private collections but it might be too late at this point. It would be interesting to know just how many suits were used for each movie
Michelle Levy from Turtle-ly Obsessed....errr ummmm Totally. Bad I know. Lol. That Mikey head has some animatronics in it too as you can see the cable swinging around in the background. She also has a Leo head as well. Dunno if it is stunt or hero though. The show didn't show it much..
I watched a video of Jim Henson's Sketsies from "The Dark Crystal" and how they were falling apart and were all restored. A lot of these suits from the movies were made of material that would fall apart after a couple of takes. You got to remember that in the first 1990 movie they were fighting in these suits and the actors sweat in them and the material would fall apart from getting hit multiple times by the Foot Clan and Shredder. I would be interested to know if there were any turtle suits left from the first movie. Each turtle suit looks different than each movie.
Literally makes me sad that these productions don’t save them properly and restore them once every couple years... at least Warner Bros restores their old bat suits so they always look new
Hollywood please remake these old suits and put actors in them and make that a live action film for 2020 with some CGI and instead of rebooting it rather tell more turtle adventures from the comics both the 80s and the current IDW run please!!!
This vid popped up on my recommended land OMG IM HUGE TMNT FAN and I beenw watxhing all your vids learning more bout them thank you for bringing back my childhood
I went to a BBQ in Somerset U.K. about 4 years ago and there was a special effects guy at the BBQ who had worked on the original suits. I think he did all of the mechanics in the shells that controlled the face movement etc. I spent 2 hours talking to him. I am going to ask my friend what his name was. He was an English guy who worked with Jim back in the day.
@@zirconviper ...which would be cool! My comment was based on this AVGN vid: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GhJAovjGdGQ.html _Michelangelo crashes..._ if you haven't seen 😉👍
I’m reminded of the photo Karan Ashley posted about her suit from the Power Rangers 1995 film being in rough shape. She’s looking for someone to restore it. It’s both sad and cool that these suits from my childhood are still around but they’re in the shape they’re in :/
It's a real shame that the material used to make these costumes didn't hold up over time. That explains why the suits changed between each of the three movies.
