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[[quoteright:330:[[Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tnmt1_3731.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:330:These turtle boys can [[CashCowFranchise cut a paycheck]].]]

A common western action cartoon format that was very popular in the 1980s and 1990s (after the success of ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' [[FountainOfExpies spawned]] a [[FollowTheLeader crop of imitators]]) and still continues to this day.

The format is more or less this: a team of heroic monsters (aliens, mutants, or magical beings) are somehow created, awakened, or transported to the modern world. Usually a [[CityOfAdventure modern American city]]. They are honorable creatures who set out to fight crime, usually under the training of an OldMaster, but the average person fears them for their appearance, so they must hide from {{muggles}}. However, they befriend one or two open-minded humans, usually either children or career women. These women or children end up being the team's friends and guides to modern Earth, and become their [[SecretKeeper secret-keepers]], and/or their KidWithTheLeash. Together, they all fight supervillains and evil creatures while keeping their identities a secret to maintain normalcy.

Since these shows are usually aimed at young boys, expect TheSmurfettePrinciple to be in full swing. The heroes are usually [[LastOfHisKind the last of their kind]] -- a token girl only shows up on rare occasions. Consequently, InterspeciesRomance will usually be explored, [[{{Shipping}} particularly by fans]] and especially with the aforementioned career women.

The secret-keepers will often [[BatmanInMyBasement hide them]] in the beginning, but since the monstrous team usually has at least three members, they typically end up getting their own headquarters. It's a good thing that AbandonedWarehouse/office building/ornate palace was around! Alternatively, they already have an established home in a place where humans generally don't go, such as the WildWilderness or AbsurdlySpaciousSewer.

These series tend to be MerchandiseDriven.

Not to be confused with NinjaPirateZombieRobot, though the RuleOfCool often plays a role.

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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Anime/ChiisanaKyojinMicroman'': Five "Microman", coming from the planet Micro Earth at the far end of the universe, are sent to Earth in order to protect it from Acroyer (who seeks to conquer the universe); their human friend is Kohei Kuji, a young school boy, who receives the package with them and initially mistakes them for action figures.
* ''Anime/Jewelpet2009'' starts out as this, but it's dropped after 11 episodes.
* ''Anime/SamuraiPizzaCats'' is a rare variant of the trope in that, rather than being set on ''Earth'', it's set on a WorldOfFunnyAnimals, so the titular heroes being anthropomorphic cats is the ''least'' remarkable thing about them. It still differs from the traditional superhero team in that the show has much more of a focus on comedy than action--especially in the legendary GagDub.
* ''Anime/SonicX'': Utilized this format with Sonic and his Furry pals as the "monsters" (albeit cute ones) and the Thorndyke family as their human allies. This was ostensibly to give the audience a human identification character -- Chris. They quickly dropped TheMasquerade though, and Sonic became an instant celebrity.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' is the TropeCodifier, of course -- with April O'Neil and Casey Jones as the human allies. Later volumes have humanity meeting aliens like the Utrom, so the Turtles begin going in public but still hide their mutant nature by pretending to be aliens.
* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': Parodied in an early 90's issue set at a toy expo: "Buddy, every ten minutes I've got someone trying to sell me 'the new Turtles'. I've a warehouse full of stupid dinosaurs named after dead presidents!"
* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel'' -- with the Witwicky family and G.B. Blackrock as the human allies.
* Many other anthropomorphic animal superhero comics which were "inspired" by the Turtles. They spawned a bunch of "adjective, adjective, adjective, noun" anthropomorphic imitations/parodies, but those were mostly dreamed up by fans and wannabe pros looking to cash in (TMNT #1 was VERY rare and up to $2-300 in demand). This didn't stop until it crashed the comic market (the famous "black and white implosion" which was a dry run for UsefulNotes/TheGreatComicsCrashOf1996).
** ''ComicBook/AdolescentRadioactiveBlackBeltHamsters''
** ''Preteen Dirty-Gene Kung-Fu Kangaroos''
** ''Geriatric Gangrene Jujitsu Gerbils''
** ''Cold-Blooded Chameleon Commandos''
** ''Mildly Microwaved Pre-Pubescent Kung-Fu Gophers''
** ''Dinosaurs For Hire''
** ''Guerilla Groundhog''.
** ''Naive Inter-Dimensional Commando Koalas''
** Even Creator/MarvelComics got in on it with ''Power Pachyderms'' (parody) and ''ComicBook/{{Brute Force|MarvelComics}}'' (played straight).
** Averted with ''Samurai Squirrel'', a two-issue fling that was serious and more story-driven.
** ''ComicBook/JurassicStrikeForceFive'', while created long after ''TMNT'' became a franchise, pays homage to the various comics listed above, along with TV shows like ''WesternAnimation/StreetSharks'' and ''WesternAnimation/ExtremeDinosaurs''.
* ''Mini-Comics Included'' is a series of mini-comics based on toylines that aren't real but could easily have been; Prime-8s, about a squad of 8 intelligent, superpowered apes and monkeys, is partially based on TMNT and this trope in general. This group was a little larger than most, and had two females.
* In a back-up story of a ''WesternAnimation/CountDuckula'' comic book ([[Creator/MarvelComics Marvel]]), WesternAnimation/DangerMouse faces Enraged Mutant Ninja Poodles.
* In ''ComicBook/SuperSons'', Superboy's jamas have a ''Turtles''-like logo reading "Boxer Frogs".
* The Cheetahmen of ''VideoGame/Action52'' had a comic that was filled to the brim with these clichés: a MadScientist named Dr. Morbis and his cyborg hunchback sidekick Cygore kill a mother cheetah, kidnap her three cubs, mutate them, train them in martial arts and other fighting styles, give them themed names (Apollo, Ares and Hercules) and then order them to raid the nearby villages. When the Cheetahmen protest, Morbis kicks them out and creates three new mutants (a hyena, rhino and vulture) that are completely under his control. The Cheetahmen realize Morbis killed their mother and return to his hut, where they fight the new mutants. After defeating them, Morbis and Cygore escape, Morbis swearing to destroy the Cheetahmen, while they swear to protect the world from Morbis and any other evil.
* In issue 17 of Cherry Poptar-[[ScrewedByTheLawyers uh, sorry, Cherry Comics]] Cherry dons a yellow jumpsuit, and as "May O'Doul" reports on the Young Genetically-Altered Samurai Lizards Warhol, Picasso, Lichenstein and Keane. And then of course she has sex with all of them.
* Subversion: Issue #10 of Marvel's ''WesternAnimation/MightyMouse'' run has the hero on the cover on the ''David Udderman Show'' listing the top ten reasons for buying this issue. No. 1: "No teenagers, no mutants, no ninjas, no turtles."
* ''ComicBook/SamiTheSamuraiSquirrel'' is a rare solo example.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* The cover of one ''ComicStrip/{{Bizarro}}'' book parodied this, with two penguins dressed like the TMNT complaining about a newspaper featuring the turtles:
-->'''Penguin:''' When ''we'' were teenagers nobody wanted to hear about mutant ninja ''anythings''.... Now we're over thirty and the whole thing catches on!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/ThisBites'': Not only are the Teenage Dugong Warrior Squad half-turtle already ([[MixAndMatchCritters hybrids between sea turtles and manatees, to be precise]]), their names are Mikey, Donny, Raphey, and Leo, who respectively wield nunchucks, a bo staff, sai, and katana, and have respective headband colors of orange, purple, pink, and blue. Oh, wait, did I say [[PinkIsFeminine pink]]? Yeah, [[TheSmurfettePrinciple Raphey is actually a girl]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AvengingApesOfAfrica'', an 80s Marvista Entertainment animated movie which featured six African gorillas orphaned by an EvilPoacher who gain super-powers and human-like intelligence after being exposed to an ancient healing potion, growing up to become defenders of Africa's wildlife, specifically seeking to defeat the poaching kingpin Harry B. Richbone. Yes. This existed.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/SpacedInvaders'' focuses on five aliens that are clearly inspired by the turtles.
* The ''Film/WarriorsOfVirtue'' are five anthropomorphic kangaroos.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* The ''Ninja Meerkats'' series is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin - four meerkats (Jet Flashfeet, Chuck Cobracrusher, Donnie Dragonjab, and Bruce Willowhammer) use their ninja skills to battle the evil Ringmaster and his Circus Goons.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/AceLightning'': The Lightning Knights are a trio of [[GuardianOfTheMultiverse interdimensional police officers]] from a video game dimension. While they look more human than most examples, they stand out because of their CGI appearances and are known by a select few humans who aid them.
* Often parodied on ''Series/LateNightWithConanOBrien'', where Conan's mock fall previews often feature programs such as ''Embryonic Rockabilly Polka-Dotted Fighter Pilots'' or ''Country Cuckoo-Clock Codpiece Zulu Warriors''.
* Israeli satricial show ''TV from the Future'' also presents a parody in the form of the Krav Maga Stellions, Avigdor, Mordecai, and El'or, who also parody the attitudes of overly-excited IDF brats, chanting chants like "About all those/About all those/who dump warriors/they should all be thrown to Gaza/to be w***s of the Arabs".
* In ''Series/BeautyAndTheBeast1987'', there's [[WainscotSociety a secret community of outcasts living in tunnels]] beneath UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. Lawyer Catherine Chandler begins keeping their secret after one of their members, the leonine Vincent, rescues her after she's abducted, beaten, slashed and left to die in Central Park.
* The live-action show ''Series/DarkAngel'' was similar in premise, with the exception that most of the [[CatGirl Chimera]] could at least pass for human (with the notable exception of Joshua in season 2). Nevertheless, Logan acted as a SecretKeeper for Max and the rest.
* In-show commercials in the first episode of ''Series/{{Roundhouse}}'' gave us these parody titles: "Adolescent Deformed Tai-Kwon-Do Tortoises", "Pre-teen Genetically-altered Martial Arts Iguanas", and "Kinda Young Really Screwed Up Karate Koalas".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* In the wake of the craze, Music/RayStevens recorded "Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens", about a quartet of fighting chickens.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Radio]]
* ''Radio/HowGreenWasMyCactus'' occasionally had episodes featuring the "Stone Age Mutant Whinging [[UsefulNotes/AustralianPolitics Liberals]]."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'', in its continuing mission to homage every comic book trope ever, finally got round to this one in the ''Superteam Handbook'' supplement, with four rabbits who were mutated into anthropomorphic young women and became the Shadow Knights. (They're even introduced in the same order as their counterparts in the 1987 series.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Toys]]
* ''The Snailiens'': An obscure action figure line, featuring a quartet of anthropomorphic mollusk-like aliens who are named after famous U.S. Presidents (since they were the size of real Earth snails, they decided to get the names off some spare change).
* The ''[[https://en.wikifur.com/wiki/K9_Corps K9 Corps]]'': Another obscure line of action figures that was centered around canine-human hybrid super-soldiers. The premise was very similar to G.I. Joe.
* ''WesternAnimation/HeroesOfGooJitZu'', which about teams of anthropomorphic animals (and later, aliens) with RubberMan powers gained from exposure to a meteor containing MutagenicGoo.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* The VideoGame/{{Battletoads}} from the video game of the same name. Unique in that it doesn't follow many of the sub-tropes, instead taking place in a world that looks like it came from a heavy metal record cover.
* Parodied in the old adventure game ''The Big Red Adventure''. One TV showed the "Teenage Mutant Ninja [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]]", who were four cockroaches [[http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/big-red-adventure/screenshots/gameShotId,258412/ with the faces of the Fab Four]]!
* The Cheetahmen from ''VideoGame/Action52''. They were the "featured" game in the multicart, as series creator and Active Enterprises founder Vince Perri intended to launch a multimedia franchise in the same vein as ''TMNT''. This fell through when it became apparent that the press and the gaming public did not take kindly to a rather subpar game.
* {{Parodied}} in ''VideoGame/GoatSimulator'', where you can find the "Creator/MichaelBay [[ToiletHumor Turdles]]" hanging out in a sewer in Goat City Bay. On the console edition, they look like normal humans wearing green tracksuits and bandanas, but in the PC and mobile versions they much more closely resemble the original Ninja Turtles, except with the head of Franchise/{{Shrek}}.
* ''VideoGame/TheAngryVideoGameNerdIIAssimilation'' features the Battle Frogs as the final boss of "Browntown". A combination of the Turtles and the Battletoads, they are three mutant frogs who consist of Herpez (red mask), Genital Wartz (purple mask) and Gonorrhea (orange mask) with a parody of Splinter included named Sphincter.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/MightyMagiswords'': Parodied in the episode "Working For Scales" with the Dino Patrol.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Master of the subverted trope that it is, ''ComicStrip/ThePerryBibleFellowship'' gives us [[http://pbfcomics.com/198/ this]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* The anime parody ''Japanoschlampen'' by Creator/{{Coldmirror}} features the NINJAMUTANTDUCKS!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' is the TropeCodifier, of course, with April O'Neil, Casey Jones, and Irma (and later on, Carter) as the human allies. Interestingly, the show only kept the idea of the Turtles trying to hide their existence from the world for a short time, with them wearing {{Conspicuous Trenchcoat}}s and human masks in public but soon switching over to them being publicly known heroes. April's career as a news reporter probably helped in that regard.
* ''The Adventures of T-Rex'' is a rather odd take on it. Much like the ''Anime/SamuraiPizzaCats'', T-Rex is an anthro superhero team who live in a vaguely Noir-ish flavored world of [[WorldOfFunnyAnimals humanoid dinosaurs and reptiles]]. The T-Rex are a literal FiveManBand, in that they're five brothers who sing and play music in a night-club vaudeville act, recruited by a benevolent MadScientist and outfitted with PoweredArmor, HarmlessFreezing ray-blasters, a "Rexmobile" transport and a secret base to battle the crime problem in Rep City.
* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' spoofs this. The show centers around a group of anthropomorphic beings and their sole human accomplice. However, unlike its predecessors, the characters in question are fast food items instead of {{Funny Animal}}s, they live in a suburban slum somewhere in [[UsefulNotes/NewJersey South Jersey]] instead of in a city, they almost never fight crime or solve mysteries, they're almost entirely dysfunctional, and their sole human accomplice is a sleazebag who hates them.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvengerPenguins'' was a spoof of this set-up. Three motorcycling humanoid penguins thwarting the plans of an EvilGenius villain once a week.
* ''WesternAnimation/BikerMiceFromMars'': Three alien mice land in UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} and ally with Charley Davidson, a WrenchWench mechanic who owns a garage where their bikes (actually war machines equipped with AI) are repaired and equipped with new gadgets. One of them has a crush on her, as she reminds him of a girl back home.
* ''ComicBook/BuckyOHareAndTheToadWars'' was this [[TropesInSpace In Space]], with the strange twist that the anthropomorphic animals are the norm, and it's the ''human'' character that has to be kept hidden from that reality's "muggles".
* ''WesternAnimation/ButtUglyMartians'' was a 2000s show, unlike most of these, involving Martian commandos sent to conquer Earth... only to discover Earth has a lot more nice stuff than Mars, so they abandon their mission to camp out in an abandoned movie lot with their human {{Secret Keeper}}s and stage fake battles to explain their delay in conquering the planet.
* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainSimianAndTheSpaceMonkeys'': Anthropomorphic monkeys and apes fighting crime InSpace.
* ''WesternAnimation/ChallengeOfTheGoBots'': The initial FiveEpisodePilot was like this. Since the Gobots' cover has been completely blown by the end of that StoryArc (it's not as if Leader-1 didn't ''try'' to observe the ObstructiveCodeOfConduct at first), subsequent episodes show the Guardians interacting with Earth's people and governments completely out in the open.
* ''WesternAnimation/CreepyCrawlers'' combined the ''Ninja Turtles'' format with the ever-popular "Creepy Crawlers" Thingmaker.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Darkstalkers}}'': The cartoon version, with Felicia, Jon Talbain, Sasquatch, Rikuo, and later Hsien-Ko as the good guys, with a wizard named Harry and a butler named Klaus as human allies. Pyron, Demitri, Raptor, Anakaris, and even [[AdaptationalVillainy Morrigan]] were bad guys, and Bishamon, Donovan, and Hutzil showed up as neutrals.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Dinosaucers}}'', in which good and evil teams of evolved dinosaurs engage in more-or-less comic battles on modern day Earth. The good guys have a bunch of human teenagers as their {{Secret Keeper}}s.
* ''WesternAnimation/ExtremeDinosaurs!'': A DivorcedInstallment spun off from ''WesternAnimation/StreetSharks'', featuring anthropomorphic alien dinosaurs.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'': Parodied in the movie "WesternAnimation/ChannelChasers", where one of the TV shows Timmy travels through is "Adolescent Genetically-Altered Karate Cows".
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': An ancient clan of "garagates" (who lived alongside humans) awaken in the '90s, after a thousand years frozen in stone, with policewoman Elisa Maza as their human ally. ''Gargoyles'' was one of the few shows to acknowledge that a [[{{Masquerade}} situation like this]] simply can't last forever, and slowly had the Gargoyles transition from complete secret, to urban myth, to [[TheUnmasquedWorld publicly known]]... and feared. Creator/GregWeisman also said they made the main characters a trio rather than a quartet precisely so they could stand apart from this trope's [[FourTemperamentEnsemble usual fare]].
* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuDinoPosse'', a 40-episode cartoon series that aired on Creator/{{Starz}} in 2009, is an homage to several Secret Mutant Hero Teams before it, including ''WesternAnimation/ExtremeDinosaurs'' and TMNT. In modern times, a quirky science geek accidentally thaws out four anthropomorphic dinosaurs, whereupon they inflict inexplicable Kung Fu upon evil raptor villains and their army of generic mutants. The series is well aware of its own cliches and often leverages them for comic effect.
* The FailedPilotEpisode ''Magical Super Trolls'' revolves around three trolls from an underground civilization who are given super powers and head to the surface world to battle an evil troll wizard, befriending a female police officer in the process.
* ''WesternAnimation/MightyDucksTheAnimatedSeries'', which may as well been called "Hockey-Playing Twentysomething Extraterrestrial Mallards". About a group of anthropomorphic ducks from a world surrounded by puck-shaped asteroids where hockey is SeriousBusiness (...you mean they're Canadian? *[[http://www.instantrimshot.com/ rimshot]]*) fighting space dragons and villains-of-the-week by posing as a regular hockey team in modern-day [[UsefulNotes/LosAngeles Anaheim]], though to be fair, they 'pose' as a hockey team by actually playing hockey in a league. They're pretty much outed as aliens in the first few episodes.
* ''WesternAnimation/MummiesAlive'': Centuries old Mummies able to summon PoweredArmor, one of them a [[SweetPollyOliver Sweet Polly ... Cleopatra]]?... Ride around in [[{{Magitek}} weird ancient Egyptian vehicles]] and get an Egyptian version of a boomerang whilst protecting a child reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh from an [[EvilChancellor advisor of said Pharaoh.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/RoadRovers'' is Creator/WarnerBros' equivalent, although in this case, they were normal dogs owned by world leaders that were routinely summoned by their ally and then transformed into humanoid forms and garbed in battlesuits.
* One ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' sketch features a team of motorcycle-riding combat mice called the Cheese League, who go by the names of [[TheLeader Colby]], [[TheBigGuy Muenster]], [[TheDandy Cheddar]], Brie, and [[TheBabyOfTheBunch Baby Swiss]]. After an action-packed introductory sequence of the Cheese League battling a team of evil rats, the Cheese League are [[BlackComedy brutally murdered by a cat]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'': Referenced in the episode "[[Recap/RugratsS2E14TheSantaExperience The Santa Experience]]", in which Angelica asks Santa for a "Teenage Nuclear Fusion Squad" video game.
* ''WesternAnimation/StoneProtectors'': A 1993 series that attempted to market the troll doll craze to grade school boys. The heroes are an [[StylisticSuck awful]] FakeBand from UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity who are transformed into troll-like {{super hero}}es by [[MineralMacGuffin magical crystals]], then have to protect the crystals from the Saurians, reptilian bad guys who would use their powers for evil. The problem of hiding the conflict from the public is averted because the heroes are [[TrappedInAnotherWorld quickly transported]] to the MagicalLand where the crystals came from.
* ''WesternAnimation/StreetSharks'': Teens turned anthropomorphic sharks with a SurferDude as their human ally.
* ''WesternAnimation/SuperDuperSumos'' is a twist on this format with human sumo wrestlers. The Sumos aren't aliens or monsters, but they have supernatural sumo powers and were raised apart from contemporary society. They must adjust to life in Generic City; their open-minded "normal human" guide to modern life is [[TheSmurfettePrinciple Prima]], their young cousin. The sumos don't have to hide like most examples, but people find them to be unusual. The villains are [[EvilInc Bad Inc.]], a corporation which wants to take over the world and creates an unusual {{Kaiju}} [[MonsterOfTheWeek each episode]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'': Parodied - Plucky is a fan of the "Immature Radioactive Samurai Slugs" franchise.
* ''WesternAnimation/ToxicCrusaders'', the kid-friendly animated SpinOff of ''Film/TheToxicAvenger'' movies. Creator/PlaymatesToys included fliers advertising TheMerch from this show with their TMNT figures.
* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'': The many animated adaptations zigzag the use of this kind of archetype:
** Although the Autobots never really hid from ''anyone'' in [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers the Sunbow series]]. They were acknowledged by the world's leaders as early as the end of the three-part pilot.
** ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' is more in line with this trope, featuring Sari as the kid, a smaller [[FiveManBand Five 'Bot Band]], and an abandoned UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} car factory as their HQ. The Autobots still don't hide from anyone, though; in fact, they rather visibly help [[HeroInsurance repair the damage their fights cause]], which helps keep them in the city's good graces.
** Played straight with ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime''. The Autobots have a secret base, three kid sidekicks and a government liaison, and both sides try to avoid too much human attention.
* ''WesternAnimation/WildWestCowboysOfMooMesa'' is TMNT in TheWildWest with cowboys who were actual cows, though like the SWAT Kats they lived in a world with others like them (the Mesa in question was a HiddenElfVillage created when an irradiated comet struck the late 19th century Western plains, raising it above the clouds and anthropomorphizing all the cows and some other animals) and they were lawmen. Significant in that the C.O.W.-Boys were created by Ryan Brown, a writer and artist for TMNT who created many of the designs of the action figures and some beloved characters like Leatherhead, and the Mighty Mutanimals as a team. The Turtles also crossed over with the C.O.W.-Boys years after the show went off the air.
[[/folder]]
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