Best Leatherhead debut episode?
 

I think its going to be tradition to have these polls now.

Leatherhead has appeared in all 3 cartoons now, so what was your favorite debut for him? This is a hard choice for me because I thought all 3 Leatherhead debut episodes were very strong and well written for their particular cartoons.

"It Came From The Depths" for me.

Definitely "It Came From The Depths" for me.

I gotta admit, I always liked how "What A Croc" was done. That'll always be a favorite of mine!

It came from the depths.

As much as I like Jim Cumming's villainous cajun Leatherhead of the FW series, the character's intro episode really wasn't one of the OT's stronger episodes. It feels more like a direct sequel to "Invasion of the Punk Frogs" with LH simply filling the role of "new mutant adversary" than anything else.

What a Croc! was a fun episode with lots of great moments (especially the Turtlebot fight and watching the turtles switch weapons... and seeing Donatello embarrass himself trying to use sais), but the ending was pretty dumb. LH seemingly sacrifices himself, the turtles briefly eulogize on his sacrifice, and then Mikey makes some dumb joke and they all walk away and forget about the whole thing.

But yeah... It Came from the Depths was pretty awesome. I'm curious to see where they'll go with LH since he won't be having any Utrom friends to help him with his anger management and living situation.

Definitely "It Came From the Depths" because there's more of a mystery to what will happen to LH now and what he'll do with the Kraang.

Leatherhead from "It Came from the Depths" was crazy bad-ass, and he had an awesome introduction, so I'm gonna go with that one.

Though April in a bikini was a nice touch from the OT episode lol

The 2K3 ending really bugged me. It just seemed they hit the 30 minute mark and desperately needed to end the episode then and there, and throw in some joke to end it on a high note. It could have just ended with the Turtles looking down and whatever. Or edit the episode better so it could have ended at the lair.

Also the Turtlebot and the whole fight scene just really took the focus away from Leatherhead. Yeah, it's cool he was in it, but the whole fight scene was so awesome, I think of it more of a Turtlebot episode than a Leatherhead episode.

And to the answer the question, I liked It came from the Depths better. Even though I do like the cajun gator.

I felt that way about many of the 2k3 episodes. I'm guessing that was probably one of the eps where the writers either didn't heed Peter Laird's notes. I don't think he's posted his thoughts on that episode yet, so it will be interesting to see.

The nice thing about the Fred Wolf series (and many of the 80s cartoons) was that most episodes featured a nice little epilogue back in the lair to at least give the viewers a sense of closure that the episode was about to end. Most of the Nick episodes have done that too (which I like), with this episode being an ironic exception to the precedent.

4kids, but the Nick came in close and has better one liners.

I just rewatched the 4kids episode, I can't believe how similar Leatherhead's personality is between it and the Nick version. Even his voice actor sounds the same.

True but it did it so well. It's like '....it was nice knowing those Kraang.' It still showed that their plans were foiled and Leatherhead is gonna be left alone.

Its close between 4kids and Nick. I think it came from the depths was one of Nicks best episodes. It also had similarities between the 4kids episode where LH is saving the turtles at the end and your not sure what has happened to him.

The 4kids episode is also a little closer to the comic with the transmat and the ending how they talk about at least having each other. It could have done without the flying car they had in the series and the turtlebot which I think was designed for the video game and they put it in the show if I remember correctly (I could be wrong). Those last two things were obviously more for selling toys tho more likely.

The Turtlebot was an action figure, but it was featured in the videogame before it was shown in the cartoon. The game had an extra cut scene about the Turtlebot framing the Turtles by commiting crimes. Obviously before Leatherhead was brought into the picture.

The same thing happened to the Foot Gunners. They were action figures first, and were in the first 2K3 TMNT game. In both versions they were said to be guys with heavy armor and weaponry on. When they came into the cartoon they renamed as the Foot Mechs and were shown as robots.

i prefer the Nick LeatherHead. nick managed to pull off a ruthless but noble LH.. even after getting his leathery butt whooped by splinter. and like most here have mentioned... i am wondering what will become of this version of LH since the kraang are evil. i am assuming he'll just be wandering around the sewers until the next episode to feature him (just like the other mutants in this series). i do have one tiiiiiiiiiny complaint... he looks more like a crocodile. but that's such a minor complaint that it's fathomable.

so with that in mind... my vote goes to "it came from the sewers".
not only did nick managed to capture the essence of LH in the comics... but they also did an awesome job keeping his mirage origin with evil kraang(utroms) without changing his morality from good to evil.

My vote goes to "It came from the depths". The Nick version of the character is just awesome!

It's a real toss up. I agree the 4kids entry ended kinda poorly, FW's LH origin is very much a different beast, and the Nick episode is almost like a bizarro LH origin, where he is created by evil Utroms.

Is the eye thing borrowed from the comics? Because that seems like an odd piece of business to borrow from the 4Kids series. May have to crack open Tales Vol 1.6 some time and see.

I was like 12 or 13 when "What a Croc" aired, and was totally amped up by the fight with the Turtle-bot. That was probably the most excited the show had me since Return to New York. So nostalgia almost wins.

The Nick entry gets the nod though. It's one of the best episodes yet, and I love that they've finally made sense of Leatherhead's name. I can totally buy Mikey giving him that goofy name, but not the freakin' Utroms (looking at you 4kids and Mirage... and Fred Wolf for giving no reason at all).

It's not. I don't think it's borrowed from the 4kids series either. It's just a cool effect to demonstrate that he's not in control.

I'm not sure if it shows up in What a Croc, but after his time in Bishop's clutches, I could swear his eyes do that transition thing just like they did in this last episode.

Oh yeah yeah, it definitely happened in the 4kids show, I just don't think the Nickelodeon crew got it from that. I could be wrong though.

Oh...I see.

If they didn't borrow it from the 4Kids series, then it seems odd they'd both use that same device to show that LH is losing control.

Not really. Real gators and crocs have that extra lid for when they swim, so it's just a cool effect that the animators can play with that makes real-world anatomical sense.

I love this version of leatherhead he has really badass moments but at the same time I still can't get over on how cute he looked when Mike was feeding him soup.

Goes to show how little I know about reptile biology. :P

^ that is cool!

by the way... do their outter lids close? i know snakes don't blink. but is it the same for gators and crocs?

I loved It came form the Depths, Leatherhead was great

'Terror of the Swamps' and 'It Came from the Depths' were both great.

But 'What a Croc!' is just a whole other level of awesomeness! I mean we had Baxter Stockman, Metalhead and Leatherhead ALL in the same Episode. And the Turtles fought all of them, which was the icing on the cake.

I felt the same exact way watching the new episode but I liked it a lot and it gets my vote.

"It Came from the Depths" for me. This show doesn't cease to amaze me.

While we're on the subject of eyes, isn't it cool how Leatherehead's "Rage" eyes have a white out appearance so they match the turtles? I think it would be awesome to one day see a battle pose with all of them in their "white eye modes". Judging by the end scene, it looks as though he has gained slightly more control over it.

No doubt the Nick entry, it just felt like a true Leatherhead episode. The other two had so much going on in them. Punk Frogs and Turtlebots and whatnot that he kind of lost the focus. Plus I liked how they adapted the Transmat stuff to the Kraang and it being a portal

Nick. Not only beset Leatherhead intro to-date, but best TMNT animated series overall to-date (I grew up watching the OT and loved it then, but this is way better!)

Yeah, but the Nick ep spent most of it fighting the Kraang too, so its not like it was all Leatherhead either even if they were connected to his backstory. I saw no problem with involving the Punk Frogs or Baxter/Turtlebot in the previous episodes.

If anything its funny how Krang's/Utroms/The Kraang's accidental mutagen mutates him in all 3 versions.

In the OT it was the leftover mutagen of Krang's that they used on the Punk Frogs that also transformed Leatherhead.

I was sort of thinking something similar the other day..

The Nick cartoon may be great so far, but we don't know if it'll dip in quality as it progresses. Look at the 4kids series for a good example of a show that was stronger in its early seasons than the later ones.

I know.. that's why I said I thought about it, not that I was certain.

Completely agree. While I personally like the 2K3 episode better because of the action and can't get enough of that awesome looking Turtlebot, as a debut for Leatherhead, the Nick episode is definitely better. Baxter Stockman kind of steals the episode once he's revealed and there isn't much more development for LH beyond him sacrificing himself at the end. Sure, the Kraang are in the Nick episode, but it is still focused around LH's struggle against them and Baxter is furthering a different plot point (not that there is anything wrong with that, it just doesn't contribute to LH's story).

We also don't know if it'll get better too. You can look at other shows for examples of any point you want to make, so may as well focus on thinking positive. You'll be happier that way :)

Exactly, the Kraang are overall a very light on any sort of personality, which means that you can have them act as villian fodder in an episode without them taking away from the story, since they don't really bring anything to the table accept for conflict. Not to mention the fact that they created him and he hates them and will fight against them means adding the Kraang actually increased the development of Leatherhead.

Besides saying that the kraang drew focus from Leatherhead in the Nick episode would be like saying the Robotic Foot Soldiers from the OT drew focus from something. Since both are just the bad guys that the turtles can kill without fear of reprieve from Parent Watchdog Groups

The Turtlebot fight only took about 5 minutes of screentime anyway, the fight was extremely short. I just wish they called the robot, "Metalhead" even though the name already belonged to the Justice Force character.