Everyone's favorite pizza-loving heroes return in an epic new live action adventure Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, 4K Ultra HD, DVD and On Demand on Monday 24th October. Released by Paramount Home Media Distribution and Universal Pictures (UK) just in time for half term...


Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo are back to battle bigger, badder villains, alongside April O’Neil and a newcomer: the hockey-masked vigilante Casey Jones. The film stars plenty of familiar faces including Megan Fox, Will Arnett, Laura Linney, Stephen Amell, and Tyler Perry. The acting is good, and because of the turtles more realistic appearance, it's actually quite easy to forget you are watching 'turtles'. The personality and character are barely sidelined at all, and just as with the original cartoons, there's plenty of tongue-in-cheek humour.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Half Shell Heroes: Blast To The Past is a brand new DVD release from Universal Pictures and Nickleodeon. Available from Monday 16th May, it's a bit different from some of the other Turtles DVD's we've reviewed because Half-Shell Heroes aims to capture the interest and imagination of the younger members of your family. Less dark and more about the fun side of crime-fighting and sewer-living pizza-eating.


In Half-Shell Heroes: Blast To The Past, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles accidentally time travel back to the Jurassic Era. During their stay they encounter several friendly dinosaurs, but also rather bizarrely some dangerous aliens from the future. Using their ninja skills the Turtles have to find a way to save the day and possibly just as importantly get back home.

It's always great for children to be able to explore their own creativity and make something fabulous, and in my experience if it's something they can wear it's even better. When they are small they like to make masks and hats, and as they get older the opportunities for expressing your own individuality and creating your own clothes really open up.


buytshirtsonline sent a us T-shirt Kit so that my 2 younger children could let their inner artist escape and get creative, designing their own personalised t-shirts. The boys chose Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and LEGO transfers for their t-shirts, and when they came they were delighted!

In 2014 the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had a bit of a makeover. They still eat pizza and they still wear bandanas, but there's something decidedly different about them. They're meaner and not so cute. Life since 1987 has hardened them, and you can see that in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.

It's here - the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles LEGO sets are out. Darker and more moody, they're completely different to those which came before. Based on the new movie due out in October this year, there's nothing 'cartoon' about these minifigures.

Cowabunga Dude! The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back again courtesy of Lionsgate Home Entertainment in 4 fabulous DVD's showcasing some of the very best episodes from the original series.




I well remember the turtles arriving on UK TV back in 1987 - my little brother was only 8 at the time and thought they were amazing - we'd never seen anything like it. They took the UK by storm and were so different from other children's TV that traditionalists were a bit worried - the name was even changed to Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles because it was seen as too violent for children to be called 'Ninja' - oh how we've changed now!


Of course the show has a retro feel, but it stands up very well even though it's now 27 years old and it really isn't cringeworthy like some old shows. My 4 and 5 year old boys love it, as do my 16 and 20 year old boys - who used to watch it themselves when they were little. Awesome.

Awesome - pizza!

If you want to be taken back to 1987, or if you want to find out just what we were all watching back then, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 'The Best Of...' DVD's are available now from all good stockists, priced at around £6 each.

April was never happy to go out until she'd watched Corrie

Lionsgate have kindly offered 2 DVD's as prizes for my readers. 2 winners will each win a DVD from the collection (sorry, but you can't choose which, it will be random). Entry is by Rafflecopter below. The first entry is mandatory and should be answered as a comment on this blog post. Extra entries can be gained by completing additional tasks. The giveaway will end at midnight 27th June when no more entries will be accepted. Please see additional T's and C's at the bottom of the Rafflecopter form.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

We are keen on our Turtles LEGO, we've reviewed a few before, and it gets played with a lot. Whatever vehicle the boys have made there's usually a TMNT LEGO minifigure in the passenger seat.


Today I'm reviewing the T-Rawket Sky Strike, which is recommended for age 6+ and has 286 pieces. I was probably a bit harsh when I reviewed the Karai Bike Escape (set 79118), but I feel this set offers much better value for money.


The set contains the T-Rawket, the Kraang Ship and 4 excellent minifigures - Donatello, Michelangelo, Mutated Dr. O’Neil and The Kraang with their weapons and accessories. 





The Kraang Ship is really a fairly complicated structure, and my son did have some frustration connecting the four silver pieces to form the circular shape. As this was the only bit he couldn't do, I feel the age range is right. It should be a challenge, and it should be interesting, my son has learnt a new building technique with this set. 


There's loads going on with this set. The the Kraang Ship has an opening hatch, drops 'barrels of goo' from a trapdoor at the bottom and has 2 flick fire missiles.


The T-Rawket has an ejector seat, so that you can attach the backpack glider to your turtle and shoot them off to battle. There are also 2 flick fire missiles and a pizza shooting oven at the back.


My boys generally play with a new set for about an hour before they start dismantling it to modifiy it so that it's got a space for Batman, 6 extra wheels and a cannon. This set is still intact and complete and they've played with it a lot. The play value is excellent and it really does give children a whole scene to recreate the stories from the DVD/show and to use their own imagination.

I told you about the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles LEGO sets a few days ago, and today I'm reviewing one. The LEGO Karai Bike Escape is a new set from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles range for 2014. It contains Karai  and Leonardo with weapons and skateboard, Karai's bike, a road sign and a newspaper vending machine.


With a suggested age range of 5 -12 it's a very simple set - my 5 year old put it together in less than 10 minutes and didn't open the instruction book until after he'd completed the bike. There isn't a lot to build, this set has only 88 pieces. 


Karai is currently only available in this set (although is expected to appear in the Big Rig Snow Getaway later in the year). Leonardo appears with a different head and other features in the Turtle Lair Attack and Turtle Sub Undersea Chase.


They're pretty cool minifigures and Karai's bike is really nicely done with double stands, twin exhaust, and a hook for the helmet. There's a rope to pull Leonardo along and the bike itself is around 9cm long.



The newspaper vending machine is designed to 'explode' when the street sign is tipped over, adding to the play value and pretty much as you'd hope from a Turtles set.


In my opinion at £11.99 this set is priced at the top end of standard for a licensed LEGO set of this size, and really offers lower value to anyone who isn't keen on Karai or collecting all the Turtles.

If you want a TMNT LEGO playset then you're possibly better off saving your money a while longer and spending £8 extra on the Mutation Chamber Unleashed 79119 or even the Stealth Shell In Pursuit 79102.
If you just want a bike playset then you'd be far better off with the LEGO City High Speed Police Chase - 2 bikes, a police car and 2 minifigures for only £1 more.
If you are a big Turtles fan and like bikes - this is the set for you.