• It'd be kind of neat if they all wore red masks, like in the Mirage comics.

• better design http://rainingcrow.deviantart.com/art/live-tmnt-concept-198534824

• this image was confirmed to not be the new designs for the new live action movie. its just a project done by a special effects student. someone stole the pic and started posting it around the internet

• I know, right?

• Well, so much for awesomeness.

• Damn, it's a student project. http://www.theeffectslab.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13657

• looks like a bad guy from the dark crystal

• Considering all the "intial WTF then eventual FTW" reactions of this realistic design, I kinda think they need to really gives this a shot. I mean, they tried out Venus de Milo, right? It can't get THAT bad.

• Are you high? Have you even seen the original comics, they look absolutely NOTHING like that. What the hell Turtles have you been looking at?

• It look so 90s and can you imagine someone wear that and say COWABANGA? Enough said.

• Me, I'm reminded of the giant, talking tortoise from "The Neverending Story".

• http://www.ninjaturtles.com/comics/mirage/volume01/36/36.htm There's the link, if anybody's interested.

• Never, the Universe will not permit something that awesome to exist.

• Yes! Oh, man, I didn't know those were Michael Zulli. I love his stuff!

• Real or not, that mask is FUgly...

• I like this idea, but then ur gonna get ALL those non nerdy main stream folks will only bitch piss and moan about it.

• Hahahahhaha, took the words right out of my mouth!

• Oh well... at least it got us all fired up for a while!

• Wow, I'm so impressed with you right now! This is the kind of detail that I'd never have recalled... kudos, man.

• There's always someone who brings this up and act all snarky. The fact is that the dark and gritty TMNT was an indie comic book that few people have read, the Ninja Turtles that made billions of dollars and everyone remembers is the cartoon version and the movies, toys, etc that it inspired.

• Oh, I see - yeah, the masks really don't make any kinda sense in a realistic thing, true enough!...

• <i>in the sense that the Turtles' heads will be CG and the the rest will be actors in suits.</i> Like they did with 'Where the Wild Things Are'? I could dig that.

• As I recall each of the action figures was also a different shade of green. Donatello was kind of brown-green, Leonardo was "Army green", Raphael was plain old green, and Michelangelo was sort of Turquoise. Also they were all differently posed and accessorized.

• No No No! XD

• Yo guys. It's a fake. It's a guy's animatronics class project.

• Really not caring for this. I don't outright HATE it, but it's kind of right up there with nipples on the Batsuit.

• With Nickelodeon running the show? I'm pretty sure kids will be the target.

• -->> ALA .. Michal Zulli TMNTs.. if not a tiny bit. ~ t

• Weren't the Turtle Ninjas originally just a fun parody of dark gritty stuff like "Sin City" and "Batman" comics popular in the 80's? Maybe they are doing the same thing all over again only this time they are going to parody gritty movies like "Sin City" and "The Dark Knight". What? It can happen.

• What exactly is the point of a realistic TMNT like this? The whole point of the franchise is campy fun. When you take it too seriously you start to realize that the entire concept behind humanoid, eternally teenage turtles who practice martial arts is extraordinarily silly.

• seeing that it looks like the franchise is headed for its dieing breath for the thing looks like the turtles are ageing rapidly hope that is just the first of the prototypes. for the look of the turtles

• it take way to long before somebody made this comparison. that 3 issue run he did is one of my favorites EVAR. +1000

• Wow! The design is nothing like I expected and its a bold move for the franchise. When I first saw it I thought it looked like a Skeksis from the Dark Crystal! I still adore the rounded faces of the turtles in the original movies, but I like it. Can't wait to see more!

• Wow.... it almost looks like a Skeksis from the Dark Crystal! It looks pretty cool, almost like how the turtles looked in the first issue with their over-sized beaks and smaller bodies. I still adore the rounded faces of the original movies, but I'm liking the new direction. Since TMNT is now a Nickelodeon property, wouldn't the company be worried about scaring the kids?

• I hear that. the only vol. to not feature the same color band (red), was the Archie comics based on the cartoon. But i've always loved anything based on them, "i have a mikey tat", so i'm sure whatever direction i'll still love the new film.

• It's a three issue arc by Michael Zulli in Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Zulli also created The Puma Blues and worked on The Sandman. Issue 36 was the one that popped into my head when I saw that design. I just flipped through it, and they are rather similar. The Zulli issues were awesome, so I'm game for this design.

• ftw http://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/images/realtmnt2.jpg

• This is either: A: An art school students personal project. B: some really shitty movie design, depicting the turtles at an earlier stage in life. Hence the pubescent turtle look. C: The final turtle look, which would be fuckin gay.

• ftw http://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/images/realtmnt2.jpg

• Or to kiss April.. What?

• really excited about this take, at first i was completely WTF'd, but then i thought,... why not? I can't wait for their SPLINTER version-----

• No.

• You can tell them apart via weapons and voices/personality, but the eyemasks' different colors are probably the first thing most people use to identify them. In fact, I think that Laird and Eastman (not entirely sure if it was them or someone else) decided to give them the different colors rather than just use red for all of them in the '87 cartoon so it'd be less confusing for kids.

• Right, it's an anthology series called 'Turtle Soup'. There's some pretty awesome stuff in there.

• My feelings exactly. =)

• My first reaction? "AHH-JESUS-CHRIST! ......Hmmm,badass!.."

• That looks idiotic.

• C'mon. We all know that the turtles with be Shia Labeouf in green facepaint.

• Agreed. I immediately thought of turkey. Then again, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turkeys isn't so ridiculous...versus ninja turtles, that is.

• The masks aren't the issue for me either, it's the disconnect between a cartoony look, and a hyper-realistic look. If you go for the former, then it's all great, if you go for the latter, it looks weird.

• For all its flaws, I think the third movie was better than the second, if only because the third movie ditched the anti-violence stuff that was foisted on "The Secret of the Ooze." If you can bring yourself to watch Turtles II, you'll notice that Leonardo never actually attacks anyone with his swords, and at one point, Michelangelo uses sausages instead of nun-chucks to fight someone.

• That was unclear, since "Turtles in Time" was only ever used for the video game and the third TMNT movie never was called "Turtles in Time." ... ... I'm a dick.

• Well that's the debate over then. Was fun whilst it lasted.

• Okay, people, the conversation's over. Everybody go home.

• Yeah, I was talking about the third movie.

• It's not necessarily Michelangelo. The original turtles ALL wore red masks. The color-coding was a stupid thing added by the toy company to sell you FOUR action figures instead of just one.

• So you want a version with all the crap added by the toy company, and not a version that has anything to do with the comic book? - That's already out there. Go rent it.

• Is it just me or does it look like a Turkey?

• Fine. But why did they wear the masks in the original comic book? They weren't color-coded in the comic. They were all meant to be red. - I'll have to dig out my comics and read the part where Splinter has them wear masks. I swear there was a reason for it...

• Kids?!?! STFU. - TMNT was originally a bloody, mature-themed comic book that most certainly did not have kids in mind. When Eastman & Laird sold the rights to it, it was changed from the gritty urban ninja tale it was into the crazy, kid-friendly version you saw in theaters and malls across the country. - I'd LOVE to see a version that's true to the comics. Blood, gore, and cursing galore, please. - Let Quentin Tarantino direct a TMNT movie featuring real-looking turtles.

• Agreed. But the logic behind the masks is, for me, the same logic behind the existence of 4 teenage mutant ninja turtles trained by a big rat. It just goes with the territory. The masks were never an issue for me - the fact that master Splinter wore a robe (while the turtles wore basically nothing) has always bugged me much more...

• mehhh. it looks tooo much like an actual turtle. smart idea to try and make it look realistic but i think this is the wrong direction. if the turtles looked like this http://www.zootpatrol.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/tmnt1.jpg that would be perfect for me.

• I think it looks awesome, and if it's true, I'd loooove to see that. But yeah, true story, too many wrinkles for a teenager... even if it IS a turtle! As for the masks: even though anyone who's slightly paying attention can totally tell them apart by personality, voices and weapons, the masks also help... besides, they're ninjas! Ninjas are supposed to wear masks (at least according to the 80's concept of what a ninja was supposed to look like...)!

• That turtle reminded me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97-G2MYuO8w Cowabingo dudes!

• I assumed that he was talking about the third movie.

• Well, damn.

• I won't deny that this character design looks cool as shit. But it's just a little too realistic looking. Hard to imagine this thing smiling or eating a pizza. Also, these are supposed to be teenage turtles. The amount of detail on this face makes him look like he's older than Splinter. When am I going to get my Adolescent Radioactive Blackbelt Hamster movie?

• We're not all morons. Everyone knows the colored masks are to tell them apart. That's not the issue being brought up. The issue is the logical, in universe reason for wearing a mask when it doesn't obscure anything.

• Well... in this poor Michaelangelo's defense, he's got no eyes! Hard to look like a party dude without those... the voices also go a long way.

• So.. if this is a somehow realistic turtle: Is it going to be slow? Is it going to die if it eats pizza oh my god what happened to your face!?

• Teenage Mutant Snapping Turtles?

• THANK YOU! That's exactly what I was thinking...

• There was a period in around 1993 or 94 where a handful of different artists did their own interpretations of the TMNT, and there was one mini-series of about 4 issues where the turtles looked a lot like this, if memory serves. It was really bizarre but really cool. The turtles had some mystic connection to Shinto-style animism, and at one point Leonardo (I think) channels a skull-headed crow spirit to help him on some kind of journey. I can't find any evidence of this on the net, and I got rid of all my old comics before my last move, but I know it existed.

• http://www.theeffectslab.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=115191

• I call bullshit. They'd only use that if they were making a movie based on the crude violent badassery of the orginal comics. Which would be too cool. While I would absolutely love a Kill Bill-style Turtles movie, I don't think it'll happen anytime soon.

• Why do they wear masks? How else would we tell them apart? Sure, when they're talking, it's easy enough. But if they're not speaking the only way we know which one is Donatello is because he wears a purple mask.

• Why do they wear masks? How else would we tell them apart? Sure, when they're talking, it's easy enough. But if they're not speaking the only way we know which one is Donatello is because he wears a purple mask.

• Turtles in Time was a really fun game. It played just like the first arcade game and had some fun stages. Sure, it's no classic, but I find it difficult to believe that it would leave such a bad taste in your mouth that you need an entire movie to forget one video game.

• Too many wrinkles for a "teenage" turtle--heh! Otherwise it looks cool, perhaps a little too creepy for mass marketing...

• Yes! Mirage style turtles FTW! Seriously people ignore the cartoon and the previous movies look at Mirage TMNT #1, that is what the turtles are meant to be! Hell's yes!

• reminds me of this: http://29.media.tumblr.com/b9vfl4b63p0894e66JzBEgiNo1_500.jpg I like the look of things with this

• Nightmares! Nightmares!

• Just as important, as how hot she is, will she be a Reporter, or a Scientist's Assistant?

• Am I the only one that thinks the turtle head looks like a skeksis?

• The important question is: will April O'Neil be hot?

• Really not very confusing. I read the original run, that was black & White, and you had to not only rely on weapons but also personality. Mike's Fun, Don's Smart, Raphs a loner, and Leo leads. But this movie better have CASEY JONE'S!!!

• I can't believe no one's seen the obvious use for the eyemasks. They're to distinguish each turtle, besides their weapons. One of the reasons I liked the different color coding in the media other than the original comics. all of them wearing red makes it slightly more confusing.

• It's not that I can't accept them wearing masks, I can't imagine them without the masks! It's the realism of the head that's throwing me off! It is unarguably cool, don't get me wrong. It's just that in combination with the masks (which are totally essential, and should NEVER be removed) it looks out of place.

• How would the talk with that sort of face sculpt? A beak like that would make it hard to enunciate.

• it's so you knew which action figure got which weapon.

• Look's like Michael Zulli's work on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 1, 1989, Issue 31 I think. I remember reading it thinking "Whoa this seem's like a Samurai tale, that just so happens to have 4 Turtles. If it's based on Michaels work HELL YES..

• No, no, God no. This better not be true. That thing looks atrocious. The Turtles are nit supposed to look like that.

• You can accept that they are teenage, mutant ninja turtles, but can't accept that they wear masks? Maybe they just think the masks look cool; they are suppose to be kids after all.

• you can tell them apart by their weapons, in one version, they all wear red masks.

• Glad that anthropormorphic turtle is thourally diguised.

• I think the point of the masks is so you can tell them apart

• Eh, while I am impressed with the quality of the sculpt, I'm just not feeling it. Let's see where this one goes.

• It's not like an eye mask really obscures your identity at all to begin with. It's like Clark Kent/Superman level of disguise. Like putting on eyeshadow and thinking nobody will recognize you anymore.

• really? no one is weirded out by the obvious lack of "teenage" in this turtle's face? I don't want "dark knight ninja turtles" I want pizza eating, skateboard riding, cowabunga-ing turtles. The last TMNT movie did it just fine, made it dark enough for adults but light enough for the kiddos.. and we got to see that dynamic between brothers finally explode.

• Definitely the most radical interpretation of the TMNT... interesting looking back and thinking how the Turtle's heads haven't varied too much over the past 20 years. Although not an immediate winner with me, I'll keep my mind open on this one, see where things lead.

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