 By Alan Stares
By 1989 the Turtles craze was in full swing. The cartoon was the most popular kids shown on TV, and the merch was selling in truckloads, with everything from turtles bubble bath to Asda's vile pizza topping selection which would make a billy goat puke! A live action incarnation was inevitable, and in the 1990's instead of one we got three.......  If you were alive in any way shape or form from about 1989 until 1995, then you could not have missed the worldwide phenomenon that was the Turtles craze. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were the most popular franchise of that time, and the marketing for it was insane. Just about every product could be purchased with a Turtles theme, from lunchboxes to underwear, and it tapped in to the minds of just about everyone in the 5-15 age range with it's superb blending of Ninja action and goofy 90's surf humour.
Best know for the 80's cartoon show and series of 90's live action films, they started out in a much darker origin than their kid friendly animation lets on. The Turtles were created by Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird in 1984 and first appeared in a comic book published by Mirage studios. The actual creation of the turtles was (now famously) due to the two friends going out for dinner and a few beers, which led to Eastman drawing some half-cut ideas onto a napkin - a rare case of where the drunken "That's a great idea!" mentality actually paid off.  As debates go, there have been none quite so totally kicked to death than this one. Two absolute titans of their genre who have stood toe to toe with each other over the course of a quarter of a century. Who actually won is a question that isn't so easily answered, but we'll certainly try!
Final Fight, when mentioned, is generally taken as the first game, whereas Streets of Rage is seen more as a collective series, so as this debate could span a time frame which would see Connor MacLeod grow a bit grey and creaky, it's best to stick to some brief points focusing on the more famous titles of each. Mainly, the Final Fight arcade game vs the first two Streets of Rage games. We will however comment on the other entries in the series later on.  The age of the man toy is upon us, and to be honest, has been for a while. Swarms of grown ups pushing middle age live in lairs that are saturated with display cabinets full of what 'normal' people would call 'Toys'. Indeed, in the age of the geek, adult friendly names such as collectables, action figures, statues, and models flood the internet, as grown ass men litter their homes with these objects like a badge of honour. Quite right too!
It doesn't take a psychiatrist to realise that the urge to collect toys comes from childhood, and for us who are floating dubiously around the 35-45 year old mark, there were many toy manufacturers in the late 70's/early 80's. The most famous of these were of course Hasbro who created the Transformers and Mattel, the Masters (HA!) of the He-Man series of toys. However, one of the the most famous, and cross media, companies was probably Kenner.  1989 was a good year. Bat fever was sweeping the world (literally the whole globe!) with the release of Tim Burton's phenomenal Batman. We also got a look into the future (now the past.....*Sobs*) with Back To The Future II, and the Ninja Turtles craze was at it's peak. The world of gaming also took a step up with the release of Shadow Of The Beast on the Amiga. The 16-Bit home computers and the Sega Megadrive were starting to come in to their, own but the Nintendo NES still had some mighty fight in it, and so a deal was struck between Nintendo and Universal pictures to produce a kids adventure film which would feature heavy product placement. The Wizard was released in 1989 to some mixed reviews, but has since become a cult classic for it's retro games theme and it's unusual stance of lightly tackling some taboo issues. |
