It’s always tricky looking back at something you have nostalgic love for. The things we loved in our childhood have a way of not exactly living up to the memories we’ve built up around them and something you would have sworn was absolute genius as a kid might be, well, the other thing when viewed now.

Having reviewed a couple such DVD sets for IGN before, including G.I. Joe and Power Rangers, I knew to go into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Complete Classic Series Collection fully prepared for anything. And what I found was… Well, a big mess. But a lovable one.

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It may have begun as a cult black and white comic book aimed at an older audience, but the first animated incarnation of TMNT (and accompanying toy line) proved that there was something about this ridiculous mash up idea that was like crack cocaine to kids. Ninja… TURTLES? That’s brilliant! And TMNT, while still an ongoing phenomenon – including a well-received new series on Nickelodeon – probably will never recapture the absolute mania that surrounded it in the 1980s and early 90s, thanks to this series.The actual quality of the show, when viewed now, is all over the place. There are some legitimately funny and clever episodes, some very strange and just plain out there ones and plenty of outright terrible storylines to suffer through – particularly in the middle years. This series went for 10 seasons and 193 episodes. Animated or live-action, how many shows can you name that go that long that stay consistently good? Especially when you’re pumping out 40 or more episodes a year, as TMNT was at its height.It’s been a long road getting this complete series set. The Season 1 set was released way back in April 2004 and subsequent seasons were released on an erratic schedule and sometimes in a very frustrating manner – split up into multiple volumes and with no consistency to the packaging or style. On top of that, there were multiple episodes that ended up on the wrong season releases and even episodes that appeared on more than one release. Season 5 and Season 6 are a complete mess, with a ton of episodes out of order and missing episodes that would then be put on later releases.

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That being the case, it would have been very appreciated if Lionsgate had gone back and done some work to fix these past errors – re-organizing things, so that these episodes appear in the proper order. It would have been nice, but that’s not what occurred. No, these are the exact same discs that were previously released, with all the same errors. Having them all in one collection means yes, all the episodes are here in the set, but you’ll still be doing a fair amount of ridiculous disc-swapping if you want to watch them in the order they aired.Obviously it goes without saying that the audio and video quality remain the same as on the previous sets, which is “better than VHS” and overall okay, but not great. Though that’s usually par for the course with these old animated series, which were clearly not preserved well, and which, unfortunately, no one is investing enough money into for a proper restoration.The special features are all the pre-existing ones. There are some fun interviews with several cast members, including James Avery (“Shredder”), Pat Fraley (“Krang”), Barry Gordon (“Donatello”), Rob Paulsen (“Raphael”), Cam Clarke (“Leonardo”) and Townsend Coleman (“Michelangelo”), plus interviews with artists from the show, a look at the show’s toys and merchandise and a chat with TMNT creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.Especially given the screw ups along the way with the previous sets, the inclusion of a new bonus disc would have been greatly appreciated. The show is now 25 years old and there’s plenty of opportunity to look back at its impact and to bring together a large group of the cast and creators for one big discussion. But unfortunately, there is zero in the way of new content.Of course, the big attention-getting here is the packaging – with the set coming in a plastic case shaped like the Turtles’ van. And look, the case is pretty awesome! It’s bright, it’s fun and it rolls on its wheels! Though it also features stickers used as labeling that both evoke childhood toy memories and childhood toy frustrations, as they clearly could easily be peeled or torn if you’re not careful.So, if you’re a big TMNT fan, do you get this set? I think the simple answer is yes, if you didn’t buy the previous releases. All of the episodes are included (even though you’ll need to do some work to figure out their insane order!) in one neat-looking set, for a decent price -- less than $100 -- given this is 73 hours of content. There don’t appear to be any plans to re-do the original releases properly, so this may be all we ever get in terms of the original TMNT series. On the other hand, if you have those earlier releases, the only selling point here is the packaging and as amusing as it is, that alone isn’t enough to justify buying them all again.