Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) are a group of four anthropomorphic turtle brothers, who, as one might infer from the name, are also teenagers, mutants and ninja. The Turtles are each named after a famous Renaissance artist: Leonardo (Leonardo da Vinci), Raphael (Raffaello Santi), Michelangelo (Michelangelo Buonarroti), and Donatello (Donatello). The TMNT live in the sewers of New York City.

Merchandise

• A Pen and Paper RPG entitled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness based after TMNT was published by Palladium Books in 1985. Turtles and rats were not the only option for mutated animals, a rather large list of animals was made available. It later spawned a game with a future apocalyptic earth populated mainly with animals, called After the Bomb. Palladium dropped the TMNT rights in 2000, due to the 1987 cartoon making the Turtles "too kiddy", despite fan protest. Palladium is still producing After The Bomb material, with no plans to pick up the TMNT license again, even with the 2003 cartoon in production.
• During the run of the 1987 cartoon, Playmates Toys produced hundreds of TMNT action figures, becoming one of the top collectibles for children of the time. Many sets of various characters were made, from the "normal" ones, to "space" versions, and even "party" versions. Each set included at least a new version of each turtle, and usually included new versions of supporting character like Shredder and April, and even Splinter and Casey Jones.
• In February 2004 a TMNT trading card game based on the 2003 cartoon was released by Upper Deck Entertainment.