Cracked has put together a great article on these terrible action figures from iconic lines, like the one featured above-April O’Neil’s Boss from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line.

These are the kind of toys that had kids yelling “Awwww man! Not this one!” at their birthday party, and they were always given (in my experience, anyway) by a relative who thought they were being cool by giving you a toy from one of the hottest lines. Thanks anyways Grandma! *forced smile*

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At the height of the TMNT fad (circa 1994), the heroes in a half-shell put out a Christmas special, full of their own unique brand of self promotion. See how the Turtles can turn most any Christmas carol into a song about themselves, or food, and watch as their rubber lips flap to the beat. It’s a nostalgic Christmas clip for all the Ninja Turtles fans from way back!

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Photo: CollectSpace

Wired has a list of some of the strangest mission patches that NASA has produced. The patch above was for the creation of the Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules of the International Space Station. NASA selected a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle to represent the project because three of the four modules share names with those characters. The modules were built by the Italian Space Agency, so they are named after the Italian Renaissance artists, rather than the turtles.

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Photo: Daniel A. Anderson / The Orange Country Register

It’s time for another Neatorama and Ape Lad’s Hobotopia Caption Monkey game, but first, the story: that’s Sandy Hartness of Yucaipa Valley, California, who turned this poodle into a Ninja Turtle named Leonardoodle at the SuperGroom 2007.

What’s SuperGroom? It’s just about the hottest contest in creative dog grooming industry where first place winner gets $5,000. Too bad the Ninja Turtle didn’t win first place (how could it not? A travesty!). OC Register has the full story (and photo gallery, of course) – Thanks Julie Anne!

Now, the Caption Monkey game: Funniest caption wins a Free Monkey (or any other critter) Drawing by Ape Lad of Hobotopia. Contest rule is simple: place your caption in the comment, one caption per comment but you can submit as many funny ones as you can think of. You can also vote for your favorite comment, but not your own.

If you don’t win, but still want a drawing (definitely worth it, IMHO!), you can get one directly from Ape Lad for a nominal fee.

Update 11/4/07 (yeah, it’s that late!) – Congrats to Eric #9 for the winning caption!