"Turtles in a half shell; Turtle Power!" I sung, as I would play for hours upon .
hours in my room with my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figures. When I was 7 .
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were all the rave. Everyone had it, and I got caught up in .
this fad. There were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle comics, action figures, playing cards, .
and a cartoon. They even made a live action film based on the popular series. "Turtle .
Mania" was running rampant.
The highlight of every month for me as a kid was to go to the toy store with my .
Grandma, where she would buy me a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toy of my choosing. .
The selection would be huge, and 9 times out of 10 I would choose to get a Raphael toy .
out of all of them. When I picked Raphael, my Grandma would give me a stern look and .
say, "Don't you have a similar toy already?" And this would be, of course, true. Every .
month a new set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures would come out. There .
would be new versions of every turtle, and every enemy, enemies being Shredder and .
Beebop and Rocksteady. Each new edition had a new weapon or a new costume. So in .
complete disregard of my grandma's advice on getting a new toy, I would go for the .
same Raphael action figure, but this month with a detective costume on. By the end of .
my time in the Turtles" universe I would have collected over 30 different versions of .
Raphael. It didn't matter to me, though, that I had so many of the same fighter because he .
was my favorite and that's how kids think. Looking back on it now I see how it was silly .
of me, but I still wouldn't have had it any other way. .
The toy itself was similar to every action figure on the market. It's arms moved, .
and legs, and if we were really lucky the heads were adjustable too. Technically speaking .
these figures really weren't all that special. What made this toy special, however, was the .
characters. Raphael was my favorite, not because he was a 6 foot turtle wearing a red .
