Each Series' Contribution to TMNT as a Whole?
 

Spinning out of my most recent posts on the Nick cartoon, I thought it would be fun to discuss what major characters or concepts each different take have added to the TMNT mythos as a whole...

Mirage: The Turtles and Splinter, Hamato Yoshi, Shredder, April and Casey, Leatherhead, Rat King, Utroms, Foot Clan, Renet, Baxter, Mousers, Triceratons, Shadow, Karai, Nobody

Fred Wolf: Bebop, Rocksteady, Krang, Technodrome, Robot Foot soldiers, Rock Soldiers, Tragg, Baxter the Fly, Slash, Dimension X, Channel 6 News, Metalhead

Films: Tokka, Rahzar

Next Mutation: Venus

Archie: Mutanimals, Ninjara

Image: Shredder's daughter, Raph with an eyepatch, crippled Donny

4Kids: Hun, Bishop, Earth Protection Force, Battle Nexus, Ch'rell, Ninja Tribunal

Nick: Kraang, Dogpound, Fishface, Karai as Splinter's daughter, Tiger Claw

IDW: Reincarnation, Casey's dad as Hun, Bludgeon, Koya, Alopex, Old Hob, Pantheon

Really, looking back, it's easy to see why Fred Wolf dominates: it had the most marketable toys. The TMNT seems to stand evenly distributed with its main two contributing bodies Fred Wolf and Mirage.

What do you think?

I'd put the playmates OT toyline up there. It definitely had a lot of influence on the franchise as a whole.

Yeah, but the main toys everyone remembers were reflected one-to-one with the Fred Wolf cartoon pretty regularly. I don't think many of the toys that didn't show up in the cartoon made huge impact to the franchise.

but yeah, merchandising definitely made the BIGGEST impact to TMNT. :tlol:

Maybe not to the less hardcore fans, but they've certainly had influence on the Archie comics, by givinng them new characters to use.

I think the best thing is to simply think of the "breakout characters" each series had:

- Mirage: The main cast. In terms of major characters Shredder, Karai, Baxter, Mousers, Leatherhead, Rat King. Notice how Karai, Baxter, Leatherhead and Rat King appear in nearly every incarnation

- Fred Wolf: Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady by far. To this day, they're the most recognizable TMNT villains after Shredder. After them Baxter fly, Technodrome, robot Foot, Traag/Rock Soldiers.

- 4kids: Hun and Bishop easily. The two biggest characters that have now returned in multiple series. Hun even debuted in Mirage.

- Archie: Popularized the Mutanimals, Armaggon. Ninjara, Null and Malinga are the two big unique villains.

- Movies: Rahzar/Tokka, to a lesser extent Tatsu.

- Nick: Tigerclaw, Fishface, Dogpound prior to mutation.

- IDW: Old Hob easily. He became the most important and popular character of the series.

One of my favorite things/people to come out of the original cartoon was Lord Dregg.

I have to think it through, but I can suggest you move Raphael with an eye patch under Archie instead of Image. Mayve add Armaggon under there as well if you think the character is big enough.

Under TMNT 1987 you might add unstable mutations and Mutagen Man.

Playmates is the main contributor to the different colored masks and skin tones, and belt buckles, although Playmates and Fred Wolf could be grouped together as the FW show was originally just to promote the toys, and the mask colors where superficial as Mikey originally was the one with a Purple mask.

Do you have a link to cite Michelangelo was originally intended to wear purple instead of Donatello? I know the artwork for TMNT: The Arcade Game mistakes Michleangelo's mask for yellow instead of orange. Aside from unrelated incident that I am not familiar with that.

I'd have to check publication dates to find out which came first, Archie or Image.

(Asks for a mention of Eric Sachs in the movie section, runs for life)

I don't know if this may be worth an add, but I'd say Tatsu in the movie section, or make mention of Metalhead the superhero in Mirage. Also Armaggon and the Dark Turtles for their respective series.

Lastly, are you looking for specific stories from each saga that were later adapted dude, like What Goes Around.... Comes Around! or anything to that extent?

I think the Archie series comics contributed to TMNT the most for me, it brought character development to the characters, which was missing in the Fred Wolf series that it's based on.

It showed us that Raph was the mature one in the group, he was the only Turtle to have a legitimate girlfriend for a while, and every incarnation they always try to hook him up with a female companion.

The IDW comics recently started pairing Raph with Alopex, they seem to go well together.

The Future Shark Trilogy was printed from Christmas 1992 to Spring 1993. Image did start it's run until mid 1996.

The Future Shark Trilogy was one of my favorite stories from the Archie series comic, along with the Cyber Samurai Mutant Ninja Turtles story.

Who did they try to hook him up with in the movies?
Mirage showed Raphael with an eye patch in 1988.

We have a thread for it, the toys didn't just swap masks but also skin color. But you can still see that the Mikey figure still have Mikey's head sculpt and vice versa.

http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=44940

There's also some artwork of Donnie in orange where he (iirc) jumps from the blimp, I think Powder shared it somewhere on the forums.

It may have been the TMNT strip in Puma Blues from 1987 or so that first had Raphael with an eyepatch, IINM.

Fred Wolf gave us Yoshi as Splinter.

I'd add Mona Lisa, Mondo Gecko, and the Frogs to the OT's contribution, Draco to Mirage(or was that 2K3?), and Professor Perry to the movies. Imagi added Max Winters and the Generals.

They didnt hook him with anyone in the movies, Just recently they hooked him up with Alopex in the IDW comics.

Love the Punk Frogs. Wish more could be done with them.

Drako is from the 2003 cartoon. Professor Perry has not really had an impact beyond the one film. I love SotO, but I don't know if the movies really added much that carried over aside from Razhar and Tokka.

That is an interesting Tokka made with the masl/skin swap. I would love to have it commented on by someone.

Secret of the Ooze contributed to TMNT, because Tokka and Rahzar were added to the Fred Wolf cartoon cannon afterward, So they weren't just created for the movie, They also appeared as bosses in the TMNT arcade games.

Unless you factor in that Hoag and the actor who played Raphael were dating at the time, and that actually influenced how their characters interacted in the movie.

Actually Perry was also referenced in IDW. It was in the Donatello micro. So apparently he exists in that incarnation too! It was also rumored he was supposed to have been an Utrom originally, which would have connected him to the comic origin. I knew Draco was in 2K3, but wasn't sure if he had appeared in the comics first or not.

Really? That's pretty cool... explains how they had such easy chemistry onscreen. :tlol: The first shipping couple, probably. :trazz:

Mondo Gecko definitely; I kinda want to agree with Punk Frogs and Mona Lisa because I personally really like them and they showed up in Nick, but honestly, I'm not sure they're as memorable to most...

Drako, Perry, and Max Winters, though, are definitely not major contributions. Obscure characters, all of them.

Not rumored at all; Peter Laird has explicitly stated this was the original intention but they nixed it in OotS because they knew kids would mistake him for Krang.

The OT didn't create Mondo, Ryan Brown did, if I'm not mistaken, for Playmates.

So some characters actually debuted as toys before ever appearing in the OT?

Yeah, a few.

Any others that you know of?

Merdude and Muckman I know appeared in toy form a full year before their respective debut appearance occured. There could be others, but I associate Muckman with TMNT 1987 and Merdude with Archie. Pkaymates original line and rhe original cartoon were interwoven in some respect.

Yeah, there's also Mutagen Man, Chrome Dome, Antrax, Dirtbag, Groundchuck, & others. Basically, any character who actually looked like their toy, came after their toy.

:tlol: That's a pretty good way to put it--sounds like a lot of them!

Its funny that despite the literally hundreds of characters in the TMNT universe, only a chosen few become staples of every series:

- Shredder, The Foot, Karai, Baxter, Mousers, Leatherhead, Rat King, Utroms/Krang/The Kraang, Triceratons, etc.

Sure they're not in every universe, but these ones I listed above tend to appear in almost all of them.

I think now we can also add Bebop/Rocksteady to the list too because they're in nearly all of them:

- Fred Wolf (original incarnations)
- Archie comics Bebop/Rocksteady
- 4kids original ones appeared in Turtles Forever
- Nick Bebop/Rocksteady
- IDW Bebop/Rocksteady
- Bay movies Bebop/Rocksteady


Hell if you count their cameo in one of the Mirage Tales of the TMNT issues...Bebop/Rocksteady also appear briefly in Mirage too. That was the issue with Cudley (so it was the Archie Bebop/Rocksteady in the panel)

Armaggon is starting get more spot light, with his recent appearance in Mutant in Manhattan.

You guys have mentioned most of the heavy hitters from each version. Only ones I can think of are video game exclusive characters and those are very few.

Edit:Angel I haven't seen her listed.

Did you just now make that up? Because that's complete bull sh*t. She's been married since 1988 and was never dating Pais at any point.

I guess Coming Out of the Shells tour has gotten referenced somehow in various universes by having the turtles pick up instruments of some kind for a quick gag and people still mention how the arcade version of Turtles in Time had Pizza Power in the intro. The Platinum Dunes version referenced the christmas special which wasn't COOTS but it was part of the whole "music" turles phase.

The first NES game's dam level is constantly referenced by gamers and made the Angry Video Game Nerd who he is today not sure if it's ever gotten a reference in any media. The two turtles arcade games have appeared in two different console generations after their original release.

Eric Sachs will soon appear in the new season of he Nick show (right before it's cancelled before it reachers 100 episodes) and will soon have a story arc on IDW where he becomes the new Shredder and is the final boss on the new Platinum Dunes game. ;)

Its always weird when we have redundant/interchangeable mutant characters:

- Alopex and Ninjara

- Slash and Tokka

- Bludgeon and Armaggon

- Verminator X and Old Hob

- Scumbug and Cockroach Terminator (Nick)


I mean along the way people started realizing they were making new characters based on already existing older characters, so they started turning new characters into old characters.

You forgot several things that the '87 cartoon, the films and Next Mutation added to the mythos (even if we haven't seen said things in any other iteration of the franchise):
'87 Cartoon (Fred Wolfe)
Lotus Blossom
Lord Dregg
Irma Langinstein
Carter
Mona Lisa
Zach
Neutrinos
Punk Frogs
Vernon Fenwick

Movies
Keno
Norinaga
Mitsu
Kenshin

Next Mutation
The Rank
Doctor Queese
Simon Bonesteel
Silver
Chung I
Andre

No one mentions to Traximus from the 4kids series, shame, he was a great character and a great contestant of the Battle Nexus. They even created a spiritual successor of Traximus in the 2012 nick tmnt series, Zeno the Undefeatable, but Traximus was first.

Mirage V1 - Established the series. Included the Turtles, Splinter, Shredder, the Hamato Yoshi origin, the Foot, the Purple Dragons, April, Baxter, Casey, Karai, Leatherhead, Rat King, Fugitoid, Renet, Savanti Romero, Triceratons, and Utroms. Here the Turtles first met Usagi, a tradition carried through a few adaptations. Many storylines, like Northampton and City at War, started here.

1987 - Introduced a much lighter tone to the series, added Krang, Bebop & Rocksteady, Fly-Baxter, Irma, Mona Lisa, Lord Dregg, Tragg, Punk Frogs, Neutrinos, and more. Dimension X and Channel 6 were also added. Served as the backbone for 90% of Turtles mass media, and the notochord of the Nick series and SOTO.

Playmates Toyline - Metalhead, Slash, Muckman, Mondo Gecko, Mutagen Man, Ray Fillet, Wingnut, Groundchuck & Dirtbag, Ace Duck, Pizzaface, Wyrm, Chrome Dome, Scaletail, and several vehicles.

1990 Movie - A return to the dark tone of the comics but not as gruesome/pretentious as them, popularized Casey.

Archie - The Mutanimal team concept, Ninjara, Armaggon, world travel and environmental issues, Slash as a hero.

SOTO - Hit the tonal "sweet spot" also used by the Nick series. Tokka and Rahzar.

TNM - Venus. That's about it. Maybe the vehicle-swap tradition.

2K3 - Hun, Bishop, Angel, Traximus (Zeno will probably be named Traximus by Mike), another return to the comic tone. The Battle Nexus and EPA.

IDW - Alopex, Old Hob, establishment of simultaneous dark and light TMNT media.

Nick - TigerClaw, Fishface, Pigeon Pete, use of the "sweet spot" tone.