ThreeZero is summoning more Turtle Power, this time with some help from Kevin Eastman.

The Hong Kong toymaker has announced it's collaborating with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator on a new line of 12-inch action figures. As you can see from the photos of the clay sculpts, which were displayed early last month at IDW Publishing's new San Diego Comic Art Gallery, these versions of the Turtles draw from the formative years of the comic for inspiration.

"From some of the earliest versions of the TMNT," Eastman explains in an interview with ThreeZero, "say around issue numbers five and six of the original Eastman and Laird comics, I started drawing them a lot more muscular, more traditional superhero stylized look – considering the kinds of stories we were putting them in, it over all made more sense – as they are always training and fighting – that they would become stronger, in look and reality, to do the things they are doing. Also, when we were working on a fourth TMNT film with New Line Cinema in the early nineties, it was never made, but I designed a fifth Turtle named Kirby, and he was bigger and stronger than the originals – I wanted to explore that design concept for this special edition series/sculptures."

According to ThreeZero, the mixed-media figures will feature more than 25 points of articulation. No release date has been announced, but Eastman teased that after the four Turtles, he'd like to tackle Shredder, April O'Neal, Elite Foot Soldiers and Slash.

(via Nerd Approved, ComicsAlliance)