If there’s one thing I can’t get enough of, it’s some awesome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle inspired artwork. I’ve posted a lot of examples over the years, and I never get tired of seeing the heroes and villains of the TMNT cartoon and toys in varying styles.

Thanks to our friend Alex Deligiannis, I found artist Matt Kaufenberg through Instagram, posting awesome in-progress and final versions of TMNT art. You can follow his progress at his blog, An Illustration a Day.

So far he’s completed the four turtles, Shredder, Krang, Bebop, and Rocksteady. He mentioned that these will all be available soon as prints, and I can’t wait to get them and frame them up next to the other TMNT art in my collection.

And of course I can’t post TMNT art without putting in some suggestions. I’d love to see Matt’s version of Metalhead, Slash, Fugitoid, and Ace Duck.

You can check out Matt’s blog, his store, and follow him on Twitter.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have had some crazy merchandise over the years, but one that has a particularly interesting following is a snack from the early 90s. Yes, I’m talking about Pizza Crunchabungas, the pizza-flavored corn snacks. The reason this random TMNT tie-in has a following with fans is because it was marketed with a very cool commercial. The commercial was the only time the Turtles were animated in Claymation, and it was done by master animator Will Vinton of California Raisins fame.

I looked for this commercial on YouTube whenever I thought about it, but for some reason I never found it until now. The turtles look awesome in claymation form, and I wish we could have had a whole series (or at least a special) done in this style. I’d love to see Krang, Bebop, and Rocksteady in stop-motion.

If you want to learn more about Pizza Crunchabungas (why wouldn’t you?) you should read Matt’s definitive article at XE from a few years ago, and also check out Tokka’s video and painted model photos on Flickr.

Wow…just wow. Director Kyle Roberts used the NECA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures, hand-drawn backgrounds, and a lot of talent to recreate the 80s TMNT cartoon intro in stop motion. The animation is smooth and the whole thing is very impressive, maybe minus the cover of the theme song. This looks a lot better than the TMNT stop motion I posted a few years ago.

Also make sure to check out their making of video. As awesome as this is, I wonder if they wished they would have waited for the new TMNT Classics action figures. That would have looked amazing.

Via Topless Robot

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.

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Yesterday MTV Geek got an exclusive first-look at the new TMNT toys that will be coming out later this year, and they are amazing. I was going to hop on the bandwagon yesterday and post the initial photos but I decided to hold off so I could try to organize my thoughts on the two different lines in a little more depth. Playmates is releasing lines based on the new show as well as a TMNT Classics line modeled after the original cartoon. Today I’m going to talk mostly about those.

2012: Year of the Dragon Turtle

With the new CGI show airing on Nickelodeon this year and Playmates releasing these toys, it could be a huge year for the Turtles. I haven’t seen anything from the new cartoon, but I know lots of awesome people are working on it and it should appeal to kids without seeming like some recycled 80s fad. Combine that with the fact that these new toys look like the best Playmates have ever released, and we could potentially have ourselves full-blown TMNT mania again.
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