Retro Card Pack: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990 film

If I was a little more organized and had a little more free time, I would have gotten this post up on March 30th when we celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film.  But what can you do?

So, here on the 2nd post of our Retro Card Pack series is the old wax pack from 1990 featuring the "Deluxe Turtles" Movie Cards!

A massive fan of the cartoon series on Saturday mornings, an even bigger fan of the Playmates line of action figures, I was super excited for this movie!  I honestly can't remember if my Mom took me to the theater to see this, or I had to wait until it was available on VHS.  If I had to guess, I had to wait for VHS since my Mom is just not a fan of going to the theater, and the only movie I remember my Dad taking me to was Apollo 13 and the 90s era digital remake of Star Wars:  A New Hope.

Waiting for VHS had its perks, though.  Nothing was better than nearly every Saturday morning when my Mom would take me right at 10am to Dollar Video.  I'd spend time strolling through the rental store and find my treasured movie or video game.  Maybe even a pack of Big League Chew, if I had been good that week.  Those are the types of memories one cherishes as a child.  Or I do, anyway.

Back to TMNT, this film was the highest-grossing independent film of all time (until Blair Witch in 1999) and featured some of the last puppetry from Jim Henson.  This low budget film ($13.5 million) earned a whopping $202 million in its first run in theaters worldwide.

The story was based on the original comics from Eastman and Laird, including the origin story, rooftop battles, and the trip to the farmhouse to lick their wounds.  The movie featured two sequels, "TMNT2:  The Secret of The Ooze" in 1991 and "TMNT 3:  Turtles Back in Time" in 1993.

This wax pack from Topps featured 9 cards depicting scenes from the movie or exclusive behind the scenes photos.  One collectible sticker was also included in each pack.

You could order the complete set from Topps if you sent $19.95 to the address listed on the back of the pack.  As a New York resident, I'd have to apply my state sales tax... which, how do you expect a kid in 1990 to include the appropriate amount of sales tax?!  $19.95 also seemed a little steep to me for the 132 card set.

This pack included a Leonardo sticker!  I was a Mikey kind of guy, but Leo was my second favorite of the four.  Ok, maybe Donatello was second.  It depends.  Either way, it's a great sticker!

Casey Jones had a fantastic figure in the PlayMates lineup, and the version of Casey Jones in the movie (Elias Koteas) was just as cool as I expected him to be.

Pizza! What kid doesn't love pizza?  During this time, we'd take what seemed like weekly trips to Pizza Hut, and I felt like a Turtle every time!  The Pizza Hut Book-It promotion helped make Mom and Dad agreeable in taking us, but I was more into pretending to be a Turtle while eating pizza!