Publication date: July 12 – 15, 2012
Story: Tom Waltz
Photos: John Hayes
Summary:
Down in the alleys of New York, the Turtles are bummed
that they went their whole patrol without encountering a single Foot
Soldier. Raph suggests they liven things
up and have a race back to the lair; loser does the winner’s chores! Leonardo is against the race, as he doesn’t
like the idea of them splitting up while still in Foot Clan territory, but the
others veto him. Raph speeds off in the
Ninja Stealth Bike, Don makes his getaway in the Rippin’ Rider, Mikey zips off
on his Sewer Spinnin’ Skateboard, and Leo reluctantly follows them in the
Shellraiser.
Michelangelo is the first to encounter trouble, getting
ambushed by a Foot Soldier and a Foot Biker riding a Dragon Chopper. He has trouble taking them down, at least until Leo
comes to his rescue. Once the Foot
Soldiers are beaten, Mikey skates off, still determined to win the race.
Next is Donatello, who is so preoccupied imagining how
his victory will impress April that he fails to notice the Foot Soldiers
bearing down on them. Leo arrives in the
Shellraiser and bails Donnie out, though the poindexter declines to follow Leo’s
example and rides away, intent on winning April’s heart.
Lastly, Raphael is cornered in an alley by the Foot and
immediately begins busting heads. Leo
shows up to help him, but as soon as the fight’s over, Raph abandons him to
continue the race.
Leo begins to pout, lamenting how immature his brothers
are. However, he’s note alone, as he’s
suddenly approached by the looming form of...
The Shredder?! And his unflattering
paint applications?!
(Continued on the Target.com website in a stop-motion animated short)
The other Turtles arrive via rooftop and swoop down in the nick of time. They trash the Foot Soldiers and Shredder retreats via a smoke bomb, swearing revenge.
The other Turtles arrive via rooftop and swoop down in the nick of time. They trash the Foot Soldiers and Shredder retreats via a smoke bomb, swearing revenge.
Turtle Tips:
*In order to see the ending to this comic, you had to
scan the code on the back or go to target.com/nickelodeon and follow the link
there.
*Additionally, there was a challenge advertised at the
end, telling kids to buy the toys at Target and then photograph their own
ending to the story.
*This comic was available only at the 2012 San Diego
Comic Con.
*It’s also the very first IDW Ninja Turtles comic to take
place in the Nickelodeon universe, predating TMNT New Animated Adventures by
almost a year.
Review:
So thanks go out to Enscripture for sharing this comic
with me. Honestly, I knew that there was
a 2012 Comic Con TMNT comic with the action figures posed for a cover photo,
but I had thought it was just a reprint of TMNT (IDW) #1. I hadn’t a clue it was entirely new content.
Not… GREAT new content, no, but it certainly serves its
purposes.
Being from the first wave of toys based on the 2012
Nickelodeon TMNT cartoon, Waltz and Hayes don’t exactly have the pick of the
litter to work with. No Dogpound,
Fishface or Baxter Stockman in his StockmanPod armor. Just the same two Foot Soldier toys over and
over again. Well, and the Shredder, who
evidently has no eyes because Playmates couldn’t afford that sort of luxurious paint app.
Hey, and on the subject of that first wave of Nick TMNT
toys… Jeez, those Turtle figures were fugly.
They really don’t capture the look of the characters from the show. In fact, they look closer to the 4Kids TMNT
than the Nick TMNT. Playmates had a
second go and released some more show-accurate molds of the characters which I
hear went over better with collectors.
And funny that we never saw a lot of those vehicles in
the cartoon. Like the Rippin’ Rider or
the Ninja Stealth Bike (unless I’m forgetting a season 1 episode, which is
possible). I guess with the show being
CG-animated, it would have cost too much to make models for all the vehicles
and bullshit so we were saved from that bit of shoe-horned commercialism in the
series.
Anyway, it’s hard to believe this thing is 16 pages long
(18 if you count the 2-page spread that catalogs the toys available), but the
story is really milked to maximize the amount of photos advertising the action
figures. The toys have limited
articulation and can’t emote, of course, but Hayes does the best he can with
them. There’s no credit for who did the
letters and that’s probably for the best, since there are spelling and
grammatical errors throughout. The Shredder seems so confused on that last page.
Well, there you go.
If you ever see this thing on eBay, now you know what you’ll be
getting. I’ve no clue how it ends, since
I got ahold of this thing two years after the promotion ended. But if any of you have one of those cool
spaceman phones that can scan QR codes, let me know how the tale unfolds:
(EDIT: Thank you, spaceman!)
Grade: No grade, but I’ll compliment Waltz on his newly
coined piece of political vocabulary: “Splintatorship”.
