Were these characters ever in the show???
 

I was just wondering if anybody knows if Halfcourt, Sandstorm, Hot Spot, Scratch, Scale Tail, and Panda Khan were ever in any episodes of the cartoon series, or did they exist in any other universe of the TMNT besides the toys??

Scratch was in TMNT 3: Radical Rescue for the Gameboy. A version of him also appeared in the Archie comic. Besides that, none of these characters appeared anywhere else (that I know of...correct me if I'm wrong).

Wasn't Hot Spot the dragon in the NES version of Tournament Fighters? I know Panda Khan was toy-only. He was the product of a very short-lived independent comic from when the Turtles were just getting off the ground. Apparently, Eastman and/or Laird were/was tight with the creator of the character.

That was acutally Hothead, but close enough.

ya figured they were left out of the show since i havent seen any of them ever on there. there are tons of original tmnt toys characters that were never in the show, but it would have been awesome to see all of them in the show rather than all those random human characters they threw in. such as sergent bananas, monty moose, king lionheart, etc. they pretty much had every animal from the zoo. woulda been awesome. and now that you mentioned it i remember hot spot was in one of the gameboy games. i always thought panda khan was a friend of Usagi Yojimbo since they are both made by Stan Sakai.

I think another interesting thing about the toy line vs the show was that some of the toys made it into episodes but only for a couple of frames. Such as Ace Duck who's face appears on the TV in the background and Mike makes one comment about him. Others would have their own episodes but might not appear again.

When the introduced a character who would appear again it was also sort of funny because the turtles (on more than one occasion) would say "we haven't seen that last of him" or something like that.

When it came to toys like vehicles or accessories again they could make very small appearances in the show (maybe a little easier than characters appearing in the show). This would happen with things like the Double Barrel Plunge Gun and the Retrocatapult. Or even the blue thing that came with Sewer Swimmin Don apeared in the hands of Leo in at least one episode.

I think one reason these toys didn't appear in the show is that they were released right around the time the "red sky" episodes were being made...which gave the show a darker tone. They didn't use "wacky" characters anymore.

Panda khan wasn't created by Stan Sakai. He was created by a guy named dave garcia. it was a independent black and white series that i think was four issues and pretty so-so. i don't know how he ended up in the ot toy line. maybe he was tight with eastman and laird.

Every time a character (mostly the frogs cause they had the most appearances) were gonna appear, earlier in the episode the turtles are all like 'hey, remember the frogs? i wonder when we'll see em again!' Just wait like 10 minutes guys. LOL

Nah Homie, Panda Kahn was created by Dave Garcia and Monica Sharp. He had his own B&W comic ( I own two). They included him in the turtles toy line up because Dave dealt with the same liscensing company as Kevin and Pete. I think I seen Sgt. Bananas in the turtles magazine, but I think they called him Guerilla Gorilla .

Hothead
 

If you mean "Hothead" with "Hot Spot", he appeared in the Archie TMNT Adventures comics and the Tournament Fighters video game. He is also known as the "Warrior Dragon".

Yeah, what was with 'Red Sky' and the product placement? The only vehicles shown were the Turtle Van and MAYBE the Blimp, and what was left of the Technodrome... and the only guest characters to appear were Rat King and Casey Jones one episode each. Yet they never made Mutated Turtles, Lord Dregg and Carter figures (not that I would buy em, but I'm surprised they never went with that).

Come to think of it... while the CBS episodes DID show alot of the newer toyline characters of the time (Mondo Gecko, Slash, Mona Lisa, Mutagen Man, etc), they never showed any of the newer vehicles besides the ol' Van and Blimp, and maybe the Cheapskate once or twice.

Did Wingnut and Screwloose show up in the cartoon? Or only in the Archie comics?

Ace Duck showed up more in the Archie comics. He was an intergalactic pro-wrestler.

One thing I'm curious about is which came first, Leatherhead and Mondo Gecko's Archie appearances or their cartoon ones?

Yeah, in some really shi**y season 5 episode. They were badguys/aliens/pedophiles who wanted to take over the world using mililtary school boys.

Ace Duck once appeared on the tv screen in the turtles lair. I forget which season. I want to say CBS season 4 but it might have been early in 3 as well.

- Yes they did, but they were villians in the show.

- Ace Duck only showed up on television on the show, and he was the pilot version like in the toys, and not the wrestler n the comics.

- Leatherhead showed up in the toon first. I think Mondo was a toy, then toon, then comic character.

Ace Duck
 

Ace Duck appears on a TV screen in "Attack of Big MACC". It was never mentioned if he was a pilot or a wrestler.

He was the pilot. He had on the pilot's hat and leather jacket. The Wrestler Ace Duck only wears shorts.

Weird... Leatherhead obviously came first in the Mirage comics as a good guy, I wonder why they went with the whole 'bad guy with canjun accent' deal with the toon version?

Same reason the writers made April a reporter in a bright yellow jumpsuit instead of a Antique dealer, Stockman a white man that turns into a fly, Foot Soldiers robots, The only Utrom looking alien a bad guy, etc I guess?