The concept for TMNT arose from a humorous drawing that was sketched by creator Kevin Eastman.

The original comic version of TMNT was much darker than people realize. The ninja turtles were trained by Splinter for one reason – to kill Shredder.

Speaking of Shredder, did you know that his armor design was inspired by a cheese grater? Allegedly, when doing the dishes one night, Eastman accidentally put his arm through a rectangular cheese grate, which gave the idea.

Because of this kitchen tool, Eastman almost named Shredder ‘Grater’ or ‘Grateman’.

It is well known that the ninja turtles were named after Renaissance artists, but did you know the original names had a different spelling? Raphael was ‘Raffealo’ and Donatello was ‘Donato’.

Originally, Krang, the creepy living brain, was not evil. The villain was inspired by an alien race known as Utroms, totally peaceful and non-interfering creatures from another planet.

The TMNT were particularly popular in the UK where, in the run-up to Christmas, the Army & Navy Store in London devoted its entire basement to everything turtle-themed, including games, videos, toys, costumes and other items.

However, when the TNMT arrived to the UK for the first time, the name had to be changed to ‘Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles’ (or TMHT), since local censorship policies deemed the word ‘ninja’ to have excessively violent connotations.

Those censorship policies were so rigorous, that Michelangelo’s weapon (a nunchaku) had to be edited out of the show. In its place, he was given a grappling hook called ‘The Turtle Line’.

April O´Neil, the television reporter and admirer of the ninja turtles, was also changed. As some of the episodes of the first comics suggest, she was probably an African-American.

The martial art discipline the TMNT practice is called ninjutsu. It’s a strategy and tactics of unconventional and guerrilla warfare originating in Japan almost a thousand years ago.

The TMNT were so famous for their pizza weakness, that it caused a battle between pizza giants. Pizza Hut spent $20 million on a marketing campaign with the TMNT movie, but it was Domino’s who successfully won the privilege of being featured in the movie.

The Ninja turtles have appeared in five movies. The first one, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, released in 1990, was a huge success, making over 200 million dollars worldwide. In fact, it’s the ninth highest grossing film of 1990.

The costumes made for the film production were extremely heavy, which, combined with the North Carolinian hot weather and humidity, made all the actors lose about 20 pounds (9 kg) by the end of the production.

Actor Josh Pais (Raphael) had particular issues with the costume. Suffering from severe claustrophobia, he had to remove his turtle mask after every shot. Pais was also the only actor to physically portray his voice. Everyone else’s had to be swapped out.

Similarly to TMNT, real turtles also have no outer ears. Instead, they have excellent sight and smell.

Being such a big fan of the TMNT, Robin Williams provided Judith Hoag (April O’Neil) with information about her character. The two actors were working on ‘Cadillac Man’ when TMNT began production.

Brian Tochi and Robbie Rist (the voices of Leonardo and Michelangelo) were the only actors to appear in all three live-action TMNT movies.

The TMNT costumes required animatronics, which rendered them too big to fit in a traditional sewer grate. Because of this, all the grates in the movie were made specially.

Though the first film was supposed to take place in New York City, it was mostly shot in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Sam Rockwell’s character (Head Thug) tells the police to “go check out the East Warehouse over at Lairdman Island” in the 1990 movie, it is a nod to TMNT creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.

In the comic book and the 1990 movie script, the scene where the Foot Clan leader Tatsu beats up one of his soldiers ends with the death of the boy. To avoid the murder in a children´s movie though, the scene was re-cut at the last minute with the boy´s life being spared.

In the latest TMNT movie (released in 2014), April O´Neil was played by Megan Fox. Megan later revealed that she had always been a huge fan of the TMNTs and that Michelangelo was her favorite turtle.

In the 2014 version of the movie, it would take the crew almost 2 hours of each day to get the actors into their turtle suits.