…a collection

Hey everyone…I just updated my post from a few weeks ago regarding the variant covers.  Check it out.  Next Wednesday is going to be AWESOME!

Here’s a neat little item.  The 1990 TMNT Christmas Catalog.  I can’t remember where this came from but I think this may have been sent to members of the TMNT Fan Club.  

Back in 1991 I was having difficulty finding any version of the Playmates April O’Neil figure for my TMNT collection.  So, I decided to write Playmates Toys a letter to inquire about her whereabouts.  Funny to think that this was 20 years ago.  A very neat piece of my TMNT collection and just one example of the types of things that make my TMNT collection so unique.  Proof positive that I’ve been a TMNT fan since the beginning.  There aren’t many that can say that.   It’s one thing to have a TMNT collection but it’s quite another to have collected TMNT.

As I showed in a previous post, I was a charter member of the TMNT Fan Club.  In addition to the certificate they issued, here are some additional items that came in the Fan Club packet.  Notice the small mini-comic book (2nd pic)…this is actually quite valuable now and extremely hard to find.  The 3rd pic is actually an application for the TMNT Fan Club.  The other pics are of the newsletters that were sent out periodically to members.

A disassembled box from the TMNT cereal (which BTW I used to love).  It was like Rice Chex with marshmallows.  Mmmmmmmm.

Check out all this stuff related to the live TMNT “Coming Out of Their Shells” Tour from back in 1990.  I bought tickets to this and went but I don’t remember that much about it other than it was a bit cheesy.  At the time of the tour I was 16…a bit outside the target age range.  Fun piece of TMNT history though.

These are just a few of the many trading cards that were available for collecting.  I have the complete sets of most of them.  I can remember going to the local comic shop and picking up stacks of these just trying to get one or two cards.  As a kid at the time, that involved a lot of my extra money.  Of course, you can buy the complete sets now for likely much less than I paid to assemble them card by card…but where’s the fun in that?

Here’s the info. on the variants for TMNT #2 from IDW.  Available on September 21, 2011.

1. Cover A (Dan Duncan) - regular cover shipped in a 4:1 ratio (A:B) in a single order (i.e., if shops order only 1 copy they get Cover A; if they order 4 copies of Cover A they can then purchase one copy of Cover B)
2. Cover A Newsstand (Dan Duncan) - newsstand edition distributed only to newsstand retailers (primarily Barnes & Noble)
3. Cover B (Walt Simonson) - regular cover shipped in a 4:1 ratio (A:B) in a single order (i.e., shops must order 4 copies of Cover A in order to purchase one copy of Cover B)
4. Cover RI A (Kevin Eastman) - 10 copy Retailer Incentive (i.e., shops that order 8 copies of Cover A and 2 copies of Cover B get this one free)
5. Cover RI B (Fred Hembeck) - 25 copy Retailer Incentive (i.e., shops that order 20 copies of Cover A and 5 copies of Cover B get this one free)
6. Cover RE Jetpack Comics (Peter Laird) - Jetpack Comics Retailer Exclusive Edition; available for purchase at Jetpack Comics
7. Global Conquest (Kevin Eastman) - International Edition issued to markets outside the U.S.A.
8. 2nd printing (Kevin Eastman) - B&W sketch version of the Eastman RI A cover with red lettering; released Oct. 12, 2011
9. 3rd printing (Kevin Eastman) - B&W sketch version of the Eastman RI A cover with bright green lettering; released Nov. 16, 2011

Hey everyone.  IDW is set to release TMNT #1 on August 24, 2011.  While this is great news for TMNT comics fans, what you may not realize is that #1 is being issued with multiple variant covers – way more than the Creed/TMNT crossover.  As a TMNT comics “completist” it’s been absolutely mind-numbing trying to decipher how many covers are being released and then figuring out how to acquire them.  I’ve spent weeks gathering this information and I finally have it nailed down (see details below).

1. Cover A (Dan Duncan) – Raphael; regular cover shipped in a 1:1:1:1 ratio (A, B, C, D) when ordered (i.e., if you ordered only 1 copy of #1 you could get either Cover A, B, C, or D).
2. Cover A Newsstand (Dan Duncan) - Raphael; newsstand edition distributed only to newsstand retailers (primarily Barnes & Noble)
3. Cover B (Dan Duncan) - Donatello; regular cover shipped in a 1:1:1:1 ratio (A, B, C, D) when ordered (i.e., if you ordered only 1 copy of #1 you could get either Cover A, B, C, or D).
4. Cover C (Dan Duncan) – Leonardo; regular cover shipped in a 1:1:1:1 ratio (A, B, C, D) when ordered (i.e., if you ordered only 1 copy of #1 you could get either Cover A, B, C, or D).
5. Cover D (Dan Duncan) – Michelangelo; regular cover shipped in a 1:1:1:1 ratio (A, B, C, D) when ordered (i.e., if you ordered only 1 copy of #1 you could get either Cover A, B, C, or D).
6. Cover RI A (Kevin Eastman) – 10 copy incentive (i.e., for every 10 copies of Cover A, B, C, or D purchased, retailers receive one copy of TMNT #1 with this cover).
7. Cover RI B (Dan Duncan) – all 4 Dan Duncan covers (Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo) in a double gate-fold cover layout; 20 copy incentive (i.e., for every 20 copies of Cover A, B, C, or D purchased, retailers receive one copy of TMNT #1 with this cover).
8. Cover RI C (Sam Kieth) – 25 copy incentive (i.e., for every 25 copies of Cover A, B, C, or D purchased, retailers receive one copy of TMNT #1 with this cover).
9. Cover RI D (Kevin Eastman) – hand-drawn sketch variant edition; 50 copy incentive (i.e., for every 50 copies of Cover A, B, C, or D purchased, retailers receive one copy of TMNT #1 with this cover); no picture other than group.  **ships up to 90 days beyond scheduled release date (UPDATE: Released Dec. 28, 2011) 
10. Cover RE Ashcan (Kevin Eastman) – ashcan edition; given away at SDCC 2011.
11. Cover RE Jetpack Comics (Peter Laird) – Jetpack Comics; available for purchase only via Jetpack Comics.
12. Cover RE NECRA (Dan Duncan) – NECRA Exclusive (a.k.a., Larry’s Comics Exclusive Edition); available for purchase via Jetpack Comics or Larry’s Comics.
13. Cover RE Detroit Fanfare (Dan Duncan) – Detroit Fanfare (a.k.a. Wonderworld Comics) exclusive variant edition (more info. here).   No purchase link is currently known but the Wonderworld site is here.
14. Cover RE Hastings (Dan Duncan) – Hastings variant edition; available at any of the Hastings Entertainment owned stores (e.g., Hastings or Tradesmart).
15. Global Conquest (Kevin Eastman) - International Edition issued to markets outside the U.S.A.
16. 2nd printing (Kevin Eastman) – B&W sketch version of the Eastman RI A cover with red lettering; released Oct. 12, 2011
17. 3rd printing (Kevin Eastman) - B&W sketch version of the Eastman RI A cover with bright green lettering; released Nov. 2, 2011

This sketch was done on my school notebook by one of my high school classmates, Mike Chenoweth.  I always thought it was pretty cool so I saved it.  Glad I did…some cool artwork.