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So there ya go: Happy Thanksgiving!
In late 1984, Eastman and Laird met entrepreneur and fan Jeff Rudolph from Hartford, Connecticut. They struck a deal with him to issue a limited edition—of a thousand sets each—of four TMNT buttons. "They were pretty straightforward buttons, in black and white," remembers Laird. "I don't know if he ever sold them all—I know it took a long time for him to sell just half of them."
Eastman nods his head in agreement. "I don't think at the time they went over that famously. We put a couple ads in the early issues saying that we were selling them, and it was months and months and months before we sold the last couple sets. The guy had a button-making system at home, where he just got the artwork photocopied and then he hand-colored them with markers, and then numbered them himself." Eastman grins at how primitive it now sounds. "One of those early deals ... that was just a little ahead of its time."