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This TMNT trivia quiz covers the whole Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise in 60 free questions with answers: the black-and-white comic Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird self-published in 1984, the 1987 cartoon that gave the Turtles their coloured masks and their pizza habit, the 1990 live-action film with its Jim Henson costumes, the 2003, 2012 and Rise series, the Michael Bay-era movies, Mutant Mayhem, the Konami and Shredder's Revenge games and the Playmates toy empire. It starts with questions any fan can answer (which turtle carries the sai, what Michelangelo shouts) and works up to ones for people who know which Marvel hero the original comic was parodying and who wrote the theme song. Around a third are easy enough for younger fans. Every answer has been checked against a reference source, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered. Play the full set for a shareable score, then challenge a friend to beat it.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The four Turtles are named after what kind of famous people?
Italian Renaissance artists
Eastman and Laird lifted the names from art history, which is why Splinter's sons sound like a museum wing.
Q 02Which weapons does Leonardo carry?
Two katana
The blue-masked Turtle is usually written as the team leader and its most disciplined swordsman.
Q 03What colour bandana does Raphael wear?
Red
Raphael's colour matches his temper; he is the hot-headed Turtle who fights with a pair of sai.
Q 04What weapon does Donatello fight with?
A bō staff
The purple-masked Turtle is the team's inventor, and the staff is the only non-bladed weapon among the four.
Q 05Which Turtle wears the orange bandana?
Michelangelo
The nunchucks caused so much trouble with British censors that some overseas edits of the cartoon trimmed them out.
Q 06Splinter, the Turtles' adoptive father, trains them in which martial art?
Ninjutsu
The joke that started the franchise was a slow, cold-blooded reptile with the speed of a Japanese martial artist.
Q 07What is the Shredder's real name in most versions of the story?
Oroku Saki
In the very first Mirage issue Saki dies at the end of the fight, which later adaptations quietly ignored.
Q 08Casey Jones, the Turtles' vigilante ally, hides his face behind what?
A hockey mask
His arsenal is sporting goods too: hockey sticks, baseball bats and golf clubs pulled from a golf bag.
Q 09Where do the Turtles make their home?
The sewers
The lair has moved between versions but almost always sits somewhere under Manhattan.
Q 10Who created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird
The pair were two struggling artists in New Hampshire when the idea began as a joke sketch one evening.
Q 11In what year was the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic published?
1984
The cartoon followed three years later and the first live-action film six years after the comic.
Q 12The first issue debuted at a comic convention held at a Sheraton hotel in which city?
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Mirage Studios later moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, but the Turtles were born in a hotel in a small New Hampshire port town.
Q 13Roughly how many copies made up the first issue's print run?
3,000
Those first-printing copies are now among the most valuable modern comics, changing hands for six figures in top condition.
Q 21How many episodes did the 1987 cartoon run for across its ten seasons?
193
It began as a syndicated miniseries in December 1987 and added a CBS Saturday-morning run in 1990.
Q 22The 1987 cartoon's theme song was co-written by which future sitcom mega-producer?
Chuck Lorre
Long before The Big Bang Theory, Lorre and Dennis C. Brown wrote it on a $2,000 budget with a 48-hour deadline.
Q 23In the 1987 cartoon, the disembodied alien brain who allies with the Shredder comes from where?
Dimension X
The character was inspired by the Utroms of the comics, but the cartoon made him a lone exiled warlord who rides around in a robot body.
Q 14The original Mirage comic was printed in what style?
Black and white on newsprint
It was oversized and magazine-format because that was what the cheap local printer could do.
Q 15The Ninja Turtles' radioactive-ooze origin deliberately parodied which Marvel hero?
Daredevil
Eastman and Laird were riffing on Frank Miller's gritty ninja-heavy run, right down to Splinter echoing Daredevil's mentor Stick.
Q 16The Foot Clan was a satire of which Marvel ninja organisation?
The Hand
Foot versus Hand was the level of joke the whole comic ran on; the League of Assassins is DC, not Marvel.
Q 17Mirage Studios was funded with a tax refund and a loan from whom?
Eastman's uncle
The name Mirage was a joke too: there was no real studio, just two artists working from home.
Q 18In the UK the franchise was renamed to avoid the word "ninja". What were they called?
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles
The theme song was re-recorded with the new word, and the rename stuck across Europe until the 2003 series.
Q 19Which now-familiar element was introduced by the 1987 cartoon rather than the original comics?
Coloured masks
In the black-and-white comics the four were hard to tell apart; the cartoon also gave them their catchphrases and their taste for pizza.
Q 20Which animation company produced the 1987 cartoon series?
Fred Wolf Films
The same studio made the 1980s Ducktales-era competitor Toxic Crusaders, another mutant toy tie-in.
Q 24What is the name of the Shredder's giant mobile fortress in the 1987 cartoon?
The Technodrome
It spent most of the series stuck somewhere inconvenient: the Earth's core, Dimension X, the Arctic.
Q 25The Shredder's henchmen Bebop and Rocksteady are mutants of which two animals?
A warthog and a rhinoceros
They were invented for the cartoon and did not reach the big screen until 2016, because Peter Laird found them too silly for the 1991 film.
Q 26Which actor, later Uncle Phil on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, voiced the Shredder in the 1987 cartoon?
James Avery
Avery played the Shredder for most of the run while starring in the sitcom at the same time.
Q 27Which catchphrase is the orange-masked Turtle best known for in the 1987 cartoon?
Cowabunga!
The 2012 Nickelodeon series swapped it for "Booyakasha!" before letting the old word back in.
Q 28Which food are the Turtles famous for loving?
Pizza
One of the brothers takes it furthest, experimenting with toppings no human would order.
Q 29The 2012 Nickelodeon series first cast which American Pie actor as the voice of Leonardo?
Jason Biggs
He was replaced by Seth Green from season three onward.
Q 30The Turtle suits in the 1990 live-action film were built by which company?
Jim Henson's Creature Shop
Henson called them the most advanced creatures he had ever worked with; he died weeks after the premiere.