It would appear that Nickelodeon is actually making some real progress with their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles DVD releases. Although they initially entered the home video market with hesitation, producing few extras and throwing only a handful of episodes on each release, their latest DVD set actually shows quite a bit of promise. Not only have they decided to stuff this release with 12 episodes, but they’ve also provided extras for each individual episode. Although we’re still missing a proper blu-ray release and we have yet to see individual season sets for each season of Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, this release may be a small step in the right direction.

Simply entitled Revenge, the latest TMNT DVD release features the last dozen episodes from Season 3 of the series. Each episode includes a “Mutation of a Scene” featurette, an extra that has been added to all of Nickelodeon’s most recent releases. They’ve also included a sneak peek of Season 4, which will be a welcome addition to any fan who cannot watch the show on television. When you consider how sparse special features have been in previous releases of the 1987 series and the original movies, it’s actually kind of nice to see that kind of devotion to the franchise for once. Of course, this isn’t a proper season set and it still isn’t available in high definition, but at least they are putting more effort into their TMNT DVDs.

All twelve episodes will be spread across two DVDs, which means that we can expect some fairly decent quality on each episode. As you may have guessed, I still want to see this series released in season sets on blu-ray, but at least their latest efforts show promise. In addition to the episode selection and the slew of special features, Nickelodeon will apparently be releasing this set with an embossed slipcover and a Leonardo zipper pull gift. This wouldn’t be the first time that we saw that level of detail put into one of their releases, but it definitely isn’t the norm.

Set for release on December 1st, it’s clear that Nick is attempting to give fans a set with more recent episodes that will make for an excellent gift during the holiday season. Unfortunately, it remains unclear whether this is a sign of things to come or just an attempt to drum up some sales during one of the most profitable times of the year. Here’s hoping they take the next step and start producing the TMNT DVD sets that fans have been demanding for quite some time.

What do you think? Is this a sign of things to come, or is it just more of the same from Nick? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!