4 out of 5

Obviously this is a niche thing, but for $2, this is a pretty fun, cleanly designed sourcebook.  For Turtles fans, you get some recognizable names on art, albeit in the 4Kids style – Dooney, Talbot, Brizuela, Berger – and the text actually sounds like the writers (“4Kids and Steve Murphy”) were enjoying themselves and the TMNT world, not just following a cut-and-paste model for each description.  Compare it to the text on the back of the bonus Fleer Collector’s Cards contained within: while it’s certainly possible the cards were written by the same people, they’re very dry and eye-glossing standard Rah Rah blurbs.

The book is a bit lacking, of course; even if this only covered the first season, they sort of skimped on characters, only covering the main people – and sort of humorously, half the Turtle’s lair (only Don and Mike have a room, according to this map), so calling it a source book isn’t quite true, at least in my definition of a sourcebook.  And while, on the one hand, I like the simplistic figure-on-white-background design, it’s obviously very, very plain, so maybe some dashes of pop colors here and there could’ve livened it up.

Still, as one of the 10 people who enjoyed the majority of this incarnation of the Turtles, I’m glad to own this; the current Nick / IDW run is pretty amazing, but it’s mostly new talent.  The 4Kids era had this fun in-house feel to it, still within Mirage, and owning thing like this Sourcebook help underline that feeling of familiarity.  Plus, it’s well composed and produced for what’s essentially a promo book.