Teenage, Mutant, Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, shortened to TMNT is a multimedia franchise originally created in the early 80's by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Originally starting as a comic book series with its first published in 1984 by their company they created, Mirage Studios; the series quickly gained popularity and along with it, a TV show in '87 and toys, toys, toys!

There's a great YouTube video by matttt talking about the history of the TMNT franchise and its rise to popularity during the 80's, 90's, and onward in the years. There's also a reading guide for the comics in the description of the YouTube video, which is really appreciated for any comic series.

Similar to Sonic, TMNT has multiple entry points from different decades; whether it be comics, movies, or games! Each TMNT iteration has things unique to it, but they all follow the same core story from Eastman and Laird's comics to different degrees.

Fan Buttons

made by me! use wherever you'd like, credit not necessary

Other Websites!

TMNT Entity blog dedication to various TMNT reviews

Virtual Ninja Turtle Museum showcases all the various TMNT toys over the years

The Mirage Group Mirage Studio's original website

Turtle To-Do List

TMNT Faves

Media Watchlist

Comics Readlist

Games Playlist

Page Credits

My Personal TMNT History

my first exposure to the TMNT franchise was the 2003 series, which aired on FoxBox; later known as 4Kids TV. My watching of the series as a kid ended somewhere during Fast Forward, and I don't remember much of Fast Forward aside from J's Reviews on Youtube which I'm currently watching.

I remeber really enjoying TMNT 2003 for what it was, my mishoomis always watched Kung-Fu, Samurai, and Cowboy films as I grew up, and he trained in Karate; I was really interested in these type of things, so I think TMNT 2003 really stood out to me because it had a similar tone in story to those films.

At the time I didn't seek out more turtles media, due to not having internet growing up and I lived in a small town with no comic book store, so any knowledge I did have of media I liked at the time until almost highschool was from anything I saw on television.

Around 2016~ I learnt that there was more to TMNT aside from the 2003 show, and even comics! Which was great for me, because I was finally starting to get an interest in western comics and media like Scrooge McDuck and Darkwing Duck.

Even though I was somewhat into TMNT during 2018 I didn't finish Rise at the time, I'm not very good w/ watching shows that release 1 episode a week, like anime,

This page is more or less a declaration to my interest in TMNT and Usagi Yojimbo, and to document that as best as I can; there's actually not many TMNT-esque websites on neocities like there is Sonic & Sega, and comics are a genuine interest in mine. :) Eventually maybe I can make a Usagi Yojimbo-specific page.

TMNT collection

It's not much right now, but I'm hoping to collect more of the comics and larger collections are usually easier to for me to acquire compared to singles. I'm not sure if I'll collect figures at the moment, there's a few that was interested in, like the NECA Usagi Yojimbo figure, but unfortunately it's Sold Out everywhere I look.

TMNT | Usagi Yojimno (2017) & Wherewhen; both published by IDW
TMNT Ultimate Collection vol. 1; published by IDW

Who's that Rabbit?

The Rabbit character's name is Miyamoto Usagi, he is the main character of a comic series called Usagi Yojimbo, written and illustrated by Stan Sakai; Yojimbo in Japanese;
用心棒 (Yōjinbō) means Bodyguard.

Miyamoto Usagi is a wandering rōnin in Edo period Japan, on a warrior's pilgrimage and offering his services as a bodyguard. There's lots of references to Japanese cinema and the series is slightly influenced by Groo the Wanderer, which Sakai is the lettering for.

Usagi Yojimbo has had multiple crossovers with TMNT over the years, having the turtles appear in the universe of its comic, and Miyamoto Usagi visiting the turtles' universe a few times as well.

The first main crossovers were a few comics mainly illustrated by Stan Sakai, with one story written and illustrated by Peter Laird. They were short comics at first with Leonardo being the one to cross paths with Usagi, but in Shades of Green all the turtles were brought to Usagi's world through magic. Later on there were other crossovers between TMNT and UY, with the most recent (and last?) being Wherewhen, published by IDW in 2023.

The next major crossover between UY and TMNT would be the 87 TV series; where Usagi is brought to the turtles' world through a (device) and a malfunction caused by Shredder's own plans. Usagi is then tricked by Shredder and is forced to fight the turtles.

2003's crossover with UY is probably the most well known, during the Battle Nexus tournament that takes place in a "world between worlds" Usagi appears as a challenger within the tournament and has many moments with Leonardo during the tournament. He would also later appear during the Christmas Special, where he and Leonardo exchange presents.

Usagi would also appear in the 2012 TMNT during a 3 episode arc alongside Jei, a character also grom UY. Unfortunately, Usagi had no chance to appear in Rise prior to its cancellation.

And finally, Usagi appears in multiple TMNT games; from a boss fight in TMNT 2 Battle Nexus, to a playable character in TMNT Legends, and even a playable character in the Shellshock DLC in Shredder's Revenge.