Growing up, I loved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I guess i was the right demographic at the time. I mean, such a simple concept - Turtles, who practised Ninjitsu. Then again, it could have been 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Feces/ sea horses/ gingerbread men' and it would have still been so cool. Ninja's Rock!I always wanted to be a ninja, even stealing my aunts Purdah (face veil) a few times to get that authentic look. Mum and dad weren't as thrilled at the time (but I think this had more to do with the holes in our basement door made by my ninja stars then my attire). I bought a pair of Nunchukus as well, but I hardly used them because I kept hitting my balls while swinging them (maybe my 'ninja's are eunuchs' hypothesis holds some weight). I used to buy all the video games- I think in total i've owned about nine of them at least, as well as the action figures -I had a shit load of action figures - about 26 i think - all the turtles, April o Neal - OOH April (maybe she's the reason i got into media - but i doubt it) Bebop, Rocksteady, Shredder, Splinter, Casey Jones, even Kwang - the brain thing (those days the action figures were so much cheaper, about 28 rand a figure. These days they are about 110 rand each. Crazy!
My favourite character who wasn't a turtle was Panda Khan - Panda Khan was a mutated Samurai Panda who helped the turtles from time to time - I liked him because a) he was a Panda - Chinese - so the whole samurai crap had a legitimate angle. b) he had my surname, so that rocked c) Unless you were a TMNT fanboy like myself, ,you would have never heard of him, I was always trying to be a little different, even as a kid. Out of the turtles, My favourite was Donatello - I still sleep with my Donatello teddy bear that my dad bought me seventeen years ago. (don't read into the purple colour) Donatello was the slightly nerdy one, inventing stuff, playing with chemicals, so I identified with him, because when i was young I used to read Encyclopedia's and mix chemicals, and invent things. Leonardo was always the serious type, and Michelangelo was like the Wolverine of the series when it came to merchandising - all the kids liked him, so for that reason, I didn't. Raphael was a dick. He was sarcastic and just joked alot - So i guess I identify a little with him now as well :P
MJ
