During the height of their popularity ('89–'93) the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) had a vast number of food tie-ins ranging from inevitable to obscure, many of which have become very rare, with some fans looking for the food packages to many of these items.
Ninja Turtles Cereal: Easily described as lightly sweetened Rice Chex (described in advertising as "ninja nets") with TMNT themed marshmallows. The cereal had many gimmicks and contests, such as one to win a complete collection of TMNT action figures, as well as free premiums inside the box like mini-comics, a pouch of "green ooze" syrup topping, and even the famous "Turtle Bowls", cereal bowls in the shape of a Ninja Turtle.
While the "ninja net" cereal wasn't available in most of Canada, there was another TMNT themed cereal. The cereal was in the shape of the Turtles' heads, and tasted like a less-sweet version of Froot Loops.
Chef Boyardee TMNT Pasta: Pasta pieces in the shape of the Turtles (in different poses to represent each individual Turtle), canned in tomato sauce; a Shredder piece was later added to the pasta and the character added to the package art. Chef Boyardee also made "Ninja Turtles Cheese Pasta Dinner", the same pasta shapes were used.
Ninja Turtles Cookies: The Delicious company made a huge production of Cookies in the shape of the Turtles and later their allies and enemies. The plastic cookie "jar" doubled as a coin bank featuring a removable head and a coin slot. Flavors included Natural Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter Graham, and Apple Cinnamon Graham.
Another version of the cookies was released called TMNT Sandwich Cremes. It consisted of vanilla or chocolate cookies sandwiched together like an Oreo. The cookies were shaped like the turtles.
TMNT Cracks: Basically goldfish crackers shaped like the various ninja turtle characters, including Shredder. Came in Pizza or Cheese flavor.
Fruit Snacks: "Farley's" made these in the shape of ninja turtles and villains. Assorted flavors.
Pizza Crunchabungas: Pizza flavored corn snacks in the shape of pizzas. The commercial starred the Ninja Turtles depicted in Will Vinton (California Raisins) claymation.
McCain TMNT Frozen Pizza: Frozen Pizza featuring the ninja turtles on the box. Also released was Pizza Mini Slices which had the odd topping of apple with a green colored crust.
Hostess Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pies: One of the rarest TMNT food products was made by Hostess and was designed as an in-out-promotion for a 20-week period beginning in February 1991. It was the "Hostess Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pie" - with a green glazed pie crust and "Vanilla Puddin' Power" inside. A commercial for the pies featured all four turtles, performing a rap song with the memorable line, "Fresh from the sewers to you!" Hostess printed 5 variations of artwork on the wrappers; 1 for each of the individual four turtles, and 1 had all four turtles in a group shot. The wrappers with individual turtles on them also included a red advertisement “burst” promoting the in-pack premiums. The first wave promoted stickers and the second wave promoted collectible “trading cards” — for a grand total of 9 different wrappers. The first run of pies included a yellow sticker with each pie — the stickers mirrored the 5 different pie wrappers, except on the stickers the turtles were holding their respective weapons instead of pies in their hands. Later, with the release of the "Secret of the Ooze" movie, a new run of pies was released, and a “trading card” (they were thin and shiny like stickers) was included with the pies. The trading cards featured 1 of 5 different photos from the movie. Despite some confusion, no alternate versions of the Hostess TMNT pie were ever created. Each pudding pie wrapper also included 1 "Pudding Point" on the back, which could be used to acquire 1 of 4 mail away items. Consumers could choose from: 1. a pack of two "Battle Signal Clickers" - metal clickers featuring Leonardo's face and the "Turtles Pies" logo printed on them, along with instruction cards explaining a secret "Turtles Morse Code" for use with the clickers; 2. A turtle shell belt buckle which could store items inside of it; 3. A Painter's style hat featuring all four turtles; 4. A black Ninja Turtles T-shirt with a "puff-print" design.
Royal OOZE Gelatin Desserts: Distributed by Nabisco under "Royal Gelatin". Three flavors were made, orange, strawberry, and lime. Each box had a live action Turtle from the second movie on the box.
Ninja Turtle Ice Bars: Sugar ice Popsicles in the shape of the ninja turtles heads, with bubblegum eyes. They were green with headband flavors, being that they are blueberry for Leonardo, orange for Michelangelo, grape for Donatello, and cherry for Raphael. The bars have been re-released to tie in with the new series with no change in appearance.
Ninja Turtle Juice: These were just like normal boxes of juice (like Hi-C) but they had artwork of the different turtles based on what flavor you had. There was Leonardo's Citrus Cooler, Raphael's Primo Punch, Michelangelo's Outrageous Orange, and Donatello's Rad Grape.
Ninja Turtles Gummies: These were extremely chewy, large gummy candies. Packaged in single blister packs, shaped in various turtle attack poses and sold at the registers of such fare as family dollar these candies were a staple of the 90s.
