Review New York TMNT Road Trip 2009

[Michaelangelo]

Hey all getting this started, but won't be posting here tonight with this... way too tired, but wow do I got a lot to say about this trip! 

LOVE THE ROAD TRIP!

Pictures, video, and review to come

[Michaelangelo]

Yesterday Miki and I woke up at 6am, got on a subway train at 7am and off the subway a little after 8am (our train had to take the local stops because of a down train blocking the express tracks).  We walked right to the Empire State building, and sure enough parked along side the building was the Turtle van/bus.  It really looks great, it's made to look a lot like the toy with the big orange thing on the top, the orange review mirrors, and the logo... the van looked great, the Turtles are looking out the windows on the side and Splinter and April are looking out the back.

I talked with some of the workers there, and they told me the Turtles will be in the lobby than going to the top.  So Miki and I got our tickets to go up than waited in the lobby we got there a bit early.  People started to show up, as I over heard one being introduced as Steve Barron, the director of TMNT 1!! I went up and said hi to him for a minute, but he got pulled away, as standing there I noticed others were meeting up in the hall across the way where we were not allowed, one of the others I saw there was Ernie Reyes Jr.!!! 

They did a small press thing in the lobby where the Turtles flix the switch to make the tower light green, than a few of the guest such as Gary and Steve talked.  After the Turtles switched the lights on, they did photos than said they were going to the top.  I got in line to get up, took an hour they were done by time I got up there... so Miki and I headed down to the Drive In.   We went out and found the van was moved there, and so we talked with some of the workers found out there was a Karate demo thing going on inside.

So we went in there for that, it was much like the one at NYC Comic Con, but with one thing that made it oh so much better... Ernie Reyes took part in this!

Here's a photo from when Ernie came on stage, I'll be posting more later want to take a short nap.. very tired.

More to come soon!  (maybe a little more tonight... but more likely this weekend I'll get some more written up)

[Michaelangelo]

The show with the Turtles on stage introduces each Turtle, they do some Karate moves than get interviewed by April... with no talking, than they let the Karate team take over.  They come on and do karate moves.  So the Turtles take part in that, this time Ernie did too.  Though the fun part came during this, they asked Ernie to do some more cool moves than asked Ernie to teach the kids some stuff.  So they got a group of people (myself included) into the area in front of the stage to get taught.  They punch, double punch, and front kick. 

This was cool, Ernie got down off the stage to do this... when I got up there he gave me high five.   I knew everything he was teaching, but also what he didn't know is that I'm fighting a cold, and already in a lot of pain from my arm to the point where the pain was in my back.  So using my arm for something like this wasn't a bright thing to do... but how could I pass up this chance?  I didn't do as good as I'd like to have done, but I did my best and had fun doing so.  Miki caught a lot of pictures of this... at the end I got to give Ernie a high five again.

After this they went outside and did pictures around the Turtle Van/Bus... I got to talk a little to Ernie, he signed my T-Shirt as well as a few other things... than he and the Turtles went away for awhile.

This was it... the long wait... the long... long wait... for the real events to start.  We didn't leave this area, because we were already so tired (the night before we got to bed very late and we were up at 6am this morning)...

Things started up with the set up and such, Miki and I got our seats at 5pm front center... so we took turns guarding the seat and even worked with people around us so we could get up and go for photos.  Miki did take a lot of pictures, and I got a few autographs as Steve Barron and Ernie were around.  I was very surprised when Kevin Eastman showed up. 

Kids were getting their face painted... getting free food, taking pictures with the Turtles, learning Karate moves here and there.... it got more and more crowded.   Shredder showed up, Kaz and Raphsgirl showed up, jayjayblnks showed up as well.  It was nice to see people I knew around.  Heh someone in the crowd knew who I was, as I was walking pass once they yelled "HI TURTLE GIRL!!!!!"  I waved, but I didn't get a good look at who it was, just was running to do something left my stuff with strangers for a minute so I didn't want to be gone long otherwise I would of said hello.


More review to come later with photos

[Michaelangelo]

I spent more time at the seat saving our spots than getting into the event... there was free food and drinks, though the lines were long.  At this point I was wishing it was a real drive in, than I could of just left the car to hold my spot with it locked and we could of taken a better part in the activities going on. 

I went through the van, got a lot of video and talked with other fans going through.  It's when I saw JayJay, though being in the van we didn't get to talk too much. 

When the movie was about to come on they did a bit of a stage show, though instead of taking seats for that people stood in our way... I had to go sit on the green carpet to be able to video the stage.  It was the same show they did earlier (which besides for Ernie was the show they did at NYC Comic Con)... Ernie taugh a little but not as much as he did earlier. 

Than they had people come out and do speeches on the stage, Steve Barron, Kevin Eastman, the Producers for the new TMNT Movie, Gary Richardson and Peter sent a video along for them to play.  After the video they had us all pose for pictures to try and break the world record of people wearing TMNT masks.  Than the movie started.

The crowd made this movie great, as they cheered, booed, hissed, and did awwws at all the right moments... the laughter was strong... everything was great besides for the wind and cold.  By the end of the movie we were all ice cubes... though it was so worth it.

After the movie I said good bye to some friends and learned of the Saturday events going on at Union Square.


Photos:

Empire State Building

Turtle Van Outside


Lady telling us how they're going to light the empire state building green, which is the highest honor, and they're doing this for the Ninja Turtles.


Gary Richardson telling us about the new movie coming out and how it's going to be live action.


Steve Barron talking about the work he did on the TMNT back in 1990.


The Turtles getting ready to switch the green lights on.


The switch was flipped


A group shot with Gary, Steve, Ernie and the Producers from the new TMNT movie.


A group shot in front of Empire State Building statue, which we saw the green light comes on when they switched the switch.


Top of the Empire State Building -  No Turtles

More Photos to come - as well as Saturdays review

[Michaelangelo]

Wanted to share this gif since I just got it uploaded... it's from the daytime demo where no video was allowed... this is snap shots from my sister's camera one after another.

[Michaelangelo]

These are photos from the in door show in the morning over near where the movie was going to take place.  No video was allowed at this event so photos is all we have to share.

April coming out and doing the intro


April introducing Donatello


April introducing Michelangelo


April introducing Raphael


April and all four Turtles.


Ernie Reyes Jr and Michelangelo


This black belt from the Karate place chosen to help this tour is teaching the Turtles a new move... Ernie is taking part in this.


Ernie seems to be amused doing this work out with the Turtles.


Raph doing the moves solo


Leonardo's turn to do the moves


April and Ernie watching them.


Ernie came down to give us some Karate Lessons


Here we are working on Front Kicks


The show is over as April invites us to go outside and take photos with the Turtles.


Here's a group shot of Ernie, the Turtles and I.


The full Karate group with Ernie, April and the Turtles.


Ernie and I

[Kazari]

Ok! My review will be short because sadly I didn't get to see much of the event except Thursday  night! LOL

Since Raph's Girl couldn't get off work till 3:00pm Thursday, I stayed around the hotel till she was able to meet up with me! We took a cab down to the location since it was getting late and there was bad traffic trying to get into the city on a thursday night! Luckily, Ivey and Miki were able to save us seats at the front row! (OMG! I love you guys!)

We made a bee line over to the see the turtle van! Luckily, Don and Mikey were standing out of it so I took my pic with them! I went over and gave Don a hug and of course Mike acted jealous LOL. After Raph's Girl and I got our pics taken, we got in line for the face painting since the line to go inside the van was horribly long. Then of course Raph and Leo come up to replace Don and Mikey so we went back over so Raph's Girl could get her pic with Raph!

We decided against face painting and went to look for Kevin and food! Kevin was busy with interview so we got our food and sat down to wait for the movie.

It was REALLY cold! OMG the wind kept blowing so I was trying not to freeze while watching the movie! It was great to see the little kids with their ninja turtle gear and the older people like me LOL There were lots of fan for Casey! So of course before the movie started and April went out on stage to introduce the turtles, people were asking where casey was LOL

It was SO nostalgic and totally awesome that I got to see the first movie! Especially out in the city! It just felt so surreal that it warmed my heart to see how popular the guys are!

Oh yeah! The entire time we were walking around before the movie started, Raph's Girl and I were stopped for pictures by NY Times and interviewed with Tribeca Film Festival. We had on matching Don and raph shirts and carried around our plushies LOL

I'm so sad that we didn't get a chance to go to the event at Union Square. Raph's Girl had to work Saturday afternoon.

Here are some pics!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v35/Kazari/NYC%20April%202009/DSC00158.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v35/Kazari/NYC%20April%202009/DSC00160.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v35/Kazari/NYC%20April%202009/DSC00170.jpg

[TurtleNinja]

Dude! You were right! He DOES look the same! Maybe just a HAIR older in the face, but dang, you were right! And that kick catch was awesome, too!

Wish I could've seen the lighting of the Empire State Building. I bet that looked awesome in green.

LOVED the tour bus! That looks sooo cool!

[Shredder]

Anyone know if they broke the record of people at the NYC event?  Kind of doubt it.  Rutgers had far more people, it seemed.

[Michaelangelo]

I over heard that there was over 2000 masks given out, though picture wise they counted 1200 or more, I'm trying to remember the number it was either 1200 or 1400... just that it was a lot.  It seemed like more last year cause it was in a gym. 

Now I'm not sure if this is going to count, since this event didn't get everyone to register or anything for it... but they do got their pictures and they're sending them in... let's see what comes of it.

(Moved this topic here, since it's about the NYC events, not the Philly events )

[Michaelangelo]

Saw this posted on http://www.ninjaturtles.com/ thought I'd share it here too since it's around the NYC Stop of the tour.  According to the official website this is someone Shredder knows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MIfUWSaZOQ

[BubblyShell22]

Sounds like you guys had a shelltastic time. Awesome. I would've had so much fun going to that.

[Michaelangelo]

Hey google knew to send this to me some how, so here it is.. *G*

http://www.tribecatrib.com/news/2009/may/180_turtles-turn-25.html

A news write up about the movie night.

[BubblyShell22]

Hey, that's awesome, Ivey.

[Michaelangelo]

An over view of the New York event - photos were taken by Miki for the forum, please let me know what you all think of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP74IA8Iaag