After making custom 7mm DVD slim case inserts for the original 1987 series, when I bought the complete 2003 TMNT cartoon, I figured I should do the same for the new series, especially since it ALSO comes in a box that crams all the discs uncomfortably on top of each other, with no episode guide.
These should be sized 100% for print, with a quarter-inch bleed (the pink boxes in the corners are trim lines, so you know where to cut the paper while keeping the artwork all the way to the edge of the final product).
I used the orange-yellow-green shell pattern that was found on the action figure packages for the 2003 cartoon, as well as the green-and-black boxes found on the backs of those toys, to make it feel more in-line with the series when it was released 21 years ago.
Episode 110, “Nightmares Recycled” was never fully produced — It‘s an incredibly dark story that reveals that two of the series’ recurring villains were conjoined twins separated at birth, with one of them abandoned and being called “garbage.” I 100% agree with the decision to ax the episode from a CHILDREN’S SATURDAY MORNING CARTOON before it was produced, as did TMNT co-creator Peter Laird. Unfortunately, because 4Kids never adjusted the production numbers for the series, and there are no notes about that in the original box set. As a result, it just looks like there’s a missing episode from the “complete collection” — Except, since it was never actually produced, it’s not missing. It just doesn’t exist. I’ve included the episode title crossed out on the episode list for disc 13 as a bit of an explanation as to why that episode is “missing.”
For seasons 5 and 6, the show spun off into a soft reboot called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fast Forward that saw the green teens transported into the future. I wanted the design for the DVDs to match overall, but still take on the flair of the new series, hence the techy episode title boxes for those seasons.
For the 7th and final season, the turtles returned to the present which was known as Back to the Sewers. BTTS had a graffiti-style logo, so I replicated that for those episode title boxes. The finale of the entire series is the 2009 film, Turtles Forever, which was included in the box set.
