Somehow, the dragons escape and kill Venus's father and trap Splinter's soul in the spirit realm. The two discussed many things in their dreams, like turtle training tactics and this crazy mirror the magician had that trapped these evil humanoid dragons. Venus's adopted father, however, knew about the TMNT squad and kept in contact with Splinter through the dream realm. The two moved to China and Venus trained and grew stronger, completely oblivious to the fact she was not the only one of her kind. Left alone and only to fend for herself, Venus made her way to Chinatown and was found and raised as a daughter by a Shinobi magician who named her Mei Pieh Chi. (The comics previously included a female character named Jennika, who mutated into a turtle after getting emergency blood transfusion from Leonardo, but Venus remains the only female turtle by birth.The story goes that when Splinter rescued the turtle squad from the sewers, he accidentally left Venus behind. Penned by Sophie Campbell, who had “been trying to make a Venus comeback happen for a while,” Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #127 reintroduced Venus to the world as part of a four-issue arc. So imagine the fandom’s surprise when the controversial character returned earlier this year via the pages of IDW’s popular Ninja Turtles comic books. Kevin Munroe, director of 2007’s TMNT, said in an interview that he was told to make “absolutely no mention” of Venus, a character that Laird apparently “hates with a passion.” Three animated series, two live-action films and one CGI movie have since been released, none of which even alluded to the forgotten female character. When The Next Mutation ended its run in 1998, so too did Venus’ career as a Ninja Turtle. So we got a good 26 episodes out of that.” But we were getting 26 episodes a season in those days. Saban never had any problem saying, ‘We don’t care about ratings, only if they drive toy sales.’ So that’s probably why we had to leave it after one season. Maybe they just didn’t sell as as they had planned. 1 in our timeslot and always at the top of the ratings. “There were many shows where, if the toys did not sell a certain amount and weren’t making money, Saban would cancel them. “Everything about Saban was toy-driven,” Robbins says. We wanted to create an action figure for girls they could be proud of.

“ Sweet Valley High was doing well, and we were also doing a live-action series on a boat, We were always making an effort to put girls into the mix, not just because we thought it would be interesting and could add a new audience for Ninja Turtles besides boys 6-11, but also because we wanted to test the market for toys for girls.

She got sayings mixed up, like ‘piece of cake’ and ‘easy as pie.’ We thought it was a good offset for her humor with the other turtles’ surfer lingo.”Īdding a female turtle into the mix was “a deliberate move by Saban,” Robbins explains. “She was raised as a shinobi, a very mystical person. Unlike the male turtles, who have always inexplicably talked like west coast surfers despite being born and raised in New York City, Venus brought a more even-keeled tone to the conversation. … Everything had to be approved by, and we made sure they were happy with it.” Fox Kids also did plenty of focus groups, “and we would not have gone ahead with Venus if we did not have some very good feedback from girls.” Believe me, we had a ton of conversations before we moved forward. “We had the discussion of whether she should be in pink, but we decided we weren’t going to do that just because she was a girl,” Robbins says. Her turquoise mask also included a long braid, unlike the male turtles’ masks, which simply tied in the back.

In an effort to distinguish her from the other turtles, Venus was given a more slender frame, along with - to quote the Duchess herself, Stacy Ferguson - some lady lumps. “Naming her after a statue famous for her figure… I don’t know if we could have created that kind of character today on a boy’s show,” Robbins admits.Īnd Venus indeed had a figure. Patricia Richardson: Tim Allen Has Been ‘Lying to People’ About a Home Improvement Revival

Venus de milo tmnt