Though I can in no way pretend to be well versed in the world of the Ninja Turtles, I know a few cool images when I see them, and these are pretty damn awesome.
Nickelodeon picked up the rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a while back, and with the new series due to kick off later this year, the first images from the show have surfaced online over at Toy Ark, via ComicBookMovie, after being promoted at the 2012 New York Toy Fair.
This new series will be the third iteration of the Turtles on TV, and (unless I’m mistaken) the first time that they’ll be appearing in CGI on the small screen.
Jason Biggs, best known for leading American Pie, has been announced as the voice of Leonardo. Sean Astin, a.k.a. Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings, will be voicing Raphael. Interestingly, Rob Paulsen, who voiced Raphael in the 1987 series, will be taking Donatello this time, and Greg Cripes will be voicing Michelangelo.
No word yet on exactly when Nickelodeon will be putting the show on the air, but one of the images below from the Toy Fair shows a sign that says it’s set for its debut in the US and Canada in the autumn this year, and will be launched internationally in 2013, so fans on this side of the Atlantic may have to wait a little longer for it.
The same sign also says that new episodes are committed through 2015, which could well suggest that we’ll be getting at least three or four seasons of this new series, with Nick’s goal being to:
“Make Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a huge hit TV series and consumer products powerhouse.”
On that note, fans of the show might like to know that another little billboard from the Toy Fair says that there will be cross-promotions with key licensees, including IDW and Activision. And since IDW are a comics publisher and Activision a video game publisher, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch at all to presume that those cross-promotions will soon include a new comic series and a video game tie-in for this new CGI series.
For now, here are the great first images, which you can click to enlarge. And if you’d like to see some of the other things on display for the Turtles at the Toy Fair, you can head over to Toy Ark here. (N.B. These images are photos taken at the Toy Fair last weekend, so if the quality isn’t quite up to scratch on some of them, don’t be alarmed.)
