Being a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan often means embracing the good (the comics, the first movie, the ’87 cartoon) and the bad (Coming out of Our Shells Tour). The Turtles’ inherent wackiness keeps me from ever taking it too seriously, but one piece of TMNT history always gives me that weird embarrassed feeling, and that is Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation.

In case you didn’t turn on your TV for the five minutes that NT:TNM aired in the late nineties or you’ve just done a better job than me of repressing the memories of this show, I’ll fill you in. The Next Mutation was the first (and only) live-action TMNT show, and it was made by Saban, of Power Rangers fame. The costumes were pretty horrible, April and Casey are nowhere to be found, and the Shredder barely shows up at all. Sounds like a formula for a great TMNT show!
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Michael de Pippo caught my eye last year when he designed the awesome ‘Electric Mayhem’ concert posters, and I’ve been watching to see what else he’s had up his sleeve since then. His latest work is based off of my favorite TV Halloween special, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!. You can get the posters in the standard and variant versions above, as well as each on super-limited wood prints.

I love both versions, but the standard may be my favorite and I’m definitely going to try and snag one. Having bought all five of de Pippo’s Muppet posters, I can tell you that the quality on these is insanely great. They’re each hand-screen-printed and numbered, and come printed on very high-quality paper. The quantities for all versions will be pretty limited, but shouldn’t be as hard to get as Mondo posters.

Be sure to check out Michael’s post on his site for more info.

They go on sale next Tuesday at 9:30am PST on Dark Hall Mansion’s website, so be sure to bookmark that if you want to have a chance at getting some awesome ‘Great Pumpkin’ art by Michael de Pippo. I know the art in my office could use a little seasonal flair.

Remember that Scooby-Doo complete series DVD set in the Mystery Machine I reviewed forever ago? When I had that all I could think of was how they should do something similar for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Well, they did, and it’s pretty awesome.

I stopped buying the TMNT cartoon DVDs years ago. They were coming out too fast, and I wasn’t really watching them anymore. Now I feel kind of bad not having my favorite show as a kid represented on my media center, so I might have to splurge for this set when it comes out. Here are the details:

Cowabunga! Collect the Complete TMNT Classic TV Series Set – all 10 seasons together for the first time in a 23-disc set in totally awesome collectible packaging! Experience the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle saga in this totally tubular 23-disc set of the original animated series, featuring all 10 seasons in one complete cowabunga collection! From their origins on the comic book page to the depths of Dimension X and beyond, the pizza- loving, shell-busting Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo, with the guidance of their Sensei Master Splinter, have been delighting fans for decades with their turtle power. Whether it’s facing fierce enemies Krang, Shredder and Lord Dregg, saving humanity from near extinction, or battling against life-altering mutations, the half-shell heroes are always ready for heart-stopping, time-bending, straight outta the sewer action!

A totally tubular 23-disc set? Sold.

Via Ninja Pizza

There are two things in life I enjoy above pretty much every. Well, two things other than my family, career, dog, and all the other stuff I’m supposed to say. Those two things are Star Wars and funny stuff.

That means I’m an instant fan of this new creation from the funnymakers at Robot Chicken. Surely you’ve seen the Adult Swim TV series created by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich . They’ve done a few Star Wars parody specials over the years. Now they seem to have gone whole hog Gamorrean Guard into Star Wars with Star Wars Detours.

It’s an animated series that was just announced at Star Wars Celebration VI in Orlando. The details are a bit sketchy on whether it’ll be a TV or web series. With Robot Chicken and Lucasfilm’s existing relationships with Cartoon Network, I have to assume it’ll be on there.

Check out the trailer above and watch the three clips over at starwars.com. There’s also an official Detours Facebook page.

This week’s assignment from The League is right up my alley. I mean come on, this site used to be called Saturday Morning Central, there’s no way I could pass up the chance to create my own Ultimate Saturday Morning Cartoon Lineup.

I watched cartoons constantly as a kid. After school I would watch a good two or three hours of shows, in the mornings before catching the bus I would watch reruns of Beast Wars, and of course on Saturday Mornings I could always count on a few hours of cartoons accompanied by my favorite cereal.
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