Varner Studios Turtle Sketchbook | Original TMNT Concept Art Book

Hundreds of original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles concept designs, lost for decades, now yours to hold.

In 2021, a weathered plastic shed behind Steve Varner's house gave up a secret it had been keeping since the 1990s: the complete original concept art archive for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys, soaked by rain, buried under boxes, and somehow untouched by time.

The Varner Studios Turtle Sketchbook brings that discovery to you. Inside are hundreds of concept drawings that shaped a generation of action figures, drawn by the artists who worked the pencils and paint at Varner Studios during the golden era of licensed toys, including Howard "Quiggly" Chang and Russell Vossler. Some of these designs became the figures that filled toy chests everywhere. Others never made it past the sketch stage and are seeing daylight for the first time in this book.

This is concept art in its rawest form: pitch sketches, character studies, and design iterations straight from the studio floor, collected exactly as they were found. No embellishment, no reconstruction, just the archive as it survived.

For collectors of vintage toy design, TMNT history, and the golden era of character-driven collectibles, this is a rare look behind the curtain at how iconic figures actually came to life on paper before they ever hit a sculptor's table.

• Designs spanning approved figures and never-produced concepts
• Artwork from the team behind decades of licensed toy design, including Howard "Quiggly" Chang and Russell Vossler
• Presented as found: unedited, undated where applicable, straight from the source

Specs:

• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 450
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 11.25" x 1.5"

From Varner Studios.