TMNT Week is officially underway. I’ve got two huge boxes sitting on the floor of my office full of new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys, as well as some older stuff I haven’t reviewed yet, and I’m going to be making my way through it all this week. In case you missed the announcement post, today we’re focusing on the leader of the TMNT, Leonardo.

First up we’re going to look at the new Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles version of Leonardo. The new CG cartoon premieres on September 29th, and so far Nickelodeon has been doing a great job of getting us TMNT fans adequately pumped up. These toys are just starting to hit the shelves, but are much easier to find online right now.

How do these new TMNT action figures hold up to the original toys and all the versions we’ve had since? Will they help bring on a new era of Turtlemania? Why does Splinter look like a badger? I’ll hopefully be answering these questions and more all week.
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I wanted to give you all a heads up. I realized that I have a ton of TMNT content to publish in the next few days, and to not make this look like a TMNT-exclusive blog, I’ve decided to make next week TMNT Week. Specifically, Tuesday, July 24th through Friday, July 27th, so almost a week. Monday is my birthday and I’ll be taking the day off, but here’s what you have to look forward to next week:

• Tuesday: Leonardo
• Wednesday: Donatello
• Thursday: Michelangelo
• Friday: Raphael

Each day I’ll be posting reviews of the new action figures, as well as some character-related articles. I’ve had a blast lately geeking out with all you fellow bloggers and Twitterers about the resurgence of the TMNT, and I welcome you all to join in on TMNT Week!

See you next week!

We’ve covered geeky shoes a couple of times on the ‘squatch before, and for all you geeks who proudly wear your hearts on your feet, here’s another pair to add to your collection.

Nickelodeon and Fila have joined forces to produce a couple limited edition pairs of sneakers inspired by everyone’s favorite mutant Turtles and their arch-nemesis The Shredder. Available this holiday season, the TMNT FX-100 is a black sneaker with green laces, an embroidered shell on the back, and wrapped in an interchangeable canvas strap featuring the colors of the Turtles’ masks.

Also, there’s a black, gray, and purple shoe modeled after the colors of The Shredder, and unfortunately not featuring any blades or sharp edges. Of the two designs, this is the most appealing to me, especially because they would be the perfect shoe to wear with my Shredder hoodie.

These may not be the best-looking shoes around, but at least Nickelodeon is serious about making the TMNT popular again, and that’s just fine by me. Bring on the merchandise!

So, would you ever wear TMNT shoes?

Sole Collector via The Technodrome Forums

The Top Hat Sasquatch team reads a lot of blog posts every day, and some slip through the crack or just don’t warrant their own post. That’s where Missing Links comes in. Every few days we collect the best links we’ve come across and pass them on to you.

Yes Virginia, there is a perfect super hero trilogy: ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ | ShezCrafti
Jaime over at Shezcrafti wrote up a nice (and spoiler-free) review of The Dark Knight Rises. I'm going to be a day or so late to this party, but I can't wait to see it.

TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman is loving Michael Bay’s movie – will fans? – Boing Boing
Even though I consider myself pretty hardcore when it comes to TMNT, I don't have a problem with them ditching the mutant aspect. Face it, they don't look that much like turtles anyway.

Pixar Is Making “Finding Nemo 2″ | Cartoon Brew
Interesting. So Disney is kind of forcing Andrew Stanton to direct Finding Nemo 2 before they'll let him make any more live action movies? It's a bummer that John Carter didn't do better in the box office.

Here’s the Opening of Nickelodeon’s TMNT Reboot! | ShezCrafti
They're kind of using the old theme song! Awesome. This show looks like a lot of fun.

‘Wreck-It Ralph’ Footage – Disney’s Video Game Movie Just Looks Better and Better [Comic-Con 2012] | /Film
Just when I didn't think I could be more excited about 'Wreck-it Ralph'…

I liked The Amazing Spider-man. I really did. I liked almost everything about it, with one glaring exception: the design of The Lizard. I was so excited when they announced that The Lizard would be the villain in this movie, but when the designs started to leak, I was a little bummed. When I finally saw the movie, I liked the character but the snoutless, generic Lizard design didn’t do much for me. So, to avoid actually working today I’ve been making a list of 10 things that look better than The Lizard.

As with most ‘silly lists’ on Top Hat Sasquatch, this is mainly a joke. Keep that in mind before you rage in the comments section.

The Goombas from the Super Mario Bros Movie

The Goombas from the Super Mario Bros movie were the first things I thought of when I saw The Lizard. Bald, scaly, and a big toothy grin. Exactly what The Lizard could have looked like in a 90s Spider-man movie, had they decided to ditch the snout and make it look ridiculous. I don’t know if a snout would have made The Lizard look that much better, but what is so unrealistic about growing a snout vs. growing a tail?
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