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Description
"Even a journalist who is pure of bias and credits her sources by night, might become a tabby scrivener when the Ooze drips and the autumn moon is bright."

I applied some digital color layers to 's recent take on April O'Neil as a cat mutant:
www.deviantart.com/michaeldoon…
www.instagram.com/p/Bms_vyhHjs…

During the early years of the Playmates TMNT toy line, there were plans to release an action figure based on April O'Neil's transformation in the 1988 episode "The Cat Woman from Channel Six." Mirage Studios artist Jim Lawson submitted an early take on the concept with a 1989 design titled "April O'Neill as Catwoman," which would have humorously included accessories with punny names such as "Cat O'Ninetails" whip, "Kitty Litter Ninja Spikes," and the hairball-launching "Cat-a-pult gun!" Hilarious concept but Playmates Toys apparently wanted to go in a different direction.

In April of 1990, Michael Dooney drew up various concept sketches that would have given Cat April over-sized mutant hands (possibly to add to the toy's "play value"), big hair, and only the bare-minimum of tattered clothes required for retail shelves. The toy made it all the way to the wax sculpt stage, but never saw an official release or solicitation. Pictures of the Cat Mutant April sculpt recently surfaced online courtesy of a private collector via social media channels, and I think it bears strong similarities to the 1998 Vam Mi action figure, released by Playmates as part of their Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation line. In 1993, a significantly different take on Cat Mutant April finally got released as a part of the 2nd wave of the "Mutations" series, alongside Mutatin' Shredder, Mutatin' Rahzar, Mutatin' Tokka, and Mutatin' Foot Soldier. The original toy packaging advised "don't Mutate April and Splinter in the same room together! Me-ow!" The toy had some neat ideas but none of the sleek style of Dooney's earlier concepts.

As for Dooney, he published a few of his Cat Mutant April sketches in a 1991 Tundra Sketchbook but simply captioned the drawings a "a cat mutant," without reference to the action figure pitches. Some of the Dooney sketches along with a photograph of the wax sculpt can be seen in Blake Wright's "Toys That Time Forgot: A Visual History of Unproduced Action Figures, Volume Two" (2019). And look for additional information on this and other TMNT prototypes in Chris Fawcett's "Rad Plastic: The Totally Awesome History of the Original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Toys" (2021).

This new take on Cat Mutant April strongly echos his original sketches, but now with much more detail resulting from almost three decades of finely honed artistic techniques.

Happy Halloween and Happy Birthday to Mr. Dooney!

Description
"Even a journalist who is pure of bias and credits her sources by night, might become a tabby scrivener when the Ooze drips and the autumn moon is bright."

I applied some digital color layers to 's recent take on April O'Neil as a cat mutant:
www.deviantart.com/michaeldoon…
www.instagram.com/p/Bms_vyhHjs…

During the early years of the Playmates TMNT toy line, there were plans to release an action figure based on April O'Neil's transformation in the 1988 episode "The Cat Woman from Channel Six." Mirage Studios artist Jim Lawson submitted an early take on the concept with a 1989 design titled "April O'Neill as Catwoman," which would have humorously included accessories with punny names such as "Cat O'Ninetails" whip, "Kitty Litter Ninja Spikes," and the hairball-launching "Cat-a-pult gun!" Hilarious concept but Playmates Toys apparently wanted to go in a different direction.

In April of 1990, Michael Dooney drew up various concept sketches that would have given Cat April over-sized mutant hands (possibly to add to the toy's "play value"), big hair, and only the bare-minimum of tattered clothes required for retail shelves. The toy made it all the way to the wax sculpt stage, but never saw an official release or solicitation. Pictures of the Cat Mutant April sculpt recently surfaced online courtesy of a private collector via social media channels, and I think it bears strong similarities to the 1998 Vam Mi action figure, released by Playmates as part of their Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation line. In 1993, a significantly different take on Cat Mutant April finally got released as a part of the 2nd wave of the "Mutations" series, alongside Mutatin' Shredder, Mutatin' Rahzar, Mutatin' Tokka, and Mutatin' Foot Soldier. The original toy packaging advised "don't Mutate April and Splinter in the same room together! Me-ow!" The toy had some neat ideas but none of the sleek style of Dooney's earlier concepts.

As for Dooney, he published a few of his Cat Mutant April sketches in a 1991 Tundra Sketchbook but simply captioned the drawings a "a cat mutant," without reference to the action figure pitches. Some of the Dooney sketches along with a photograph of the wax sculpt can be seen in Blake Wright's "Toys That Time Forgot: A Visual History of Unproduced Action Figures, Volume Two" (2019). And look for additional information on this and other TMNT prototypes in Chris Fawcett's "Rad Plastic: The Totally Awesome History of the Original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Toys" (2021).

This new take on Cat Mutant April strongly echos his original sketches, but now with much more detail resulting from almost three decades of finely honed artistic techniques.

Happy Halloween and Happy Birthday to Mr. Dooney!