Why didn't the Triceratons show up earlier in the old toon?
 

The Triceratons fit in perfectly with the old toon, which makes me wonder why they were not introduced back in say Season 3 or so. There were so many aliens in the series that its mind boggling that alien dinosaurs were not used early on at all.

It takes them all the way till Season 7 to give them an ep, and then that's the only episode they're in.

I understand David Wise ignoring the Utroms (due to Krang), and to a lesser extent Fugitoid (although with all the robots in the show, it never appearing either is strange), but the Triceratons should have been used from the start.

The Triceratons were not nearly as established as they would become over the years when the original 'toon came out. TMNT was still in it's teething stages as a comic and a 'toon needed to be made out of it rather quickly to capatalise on it's whirlwind success, neccesiating all the original characters and concepts contained within.

It's precisly why the 60s Spider-Man cartoon spent so much of it's time with original villains and barely scratched the surface of the comics gallery, most of them had yet to become the household names that the context of history would make them out to be.

I've been wondering this as well as I've been watching the OT, especially fugitoid, we got a few robots that easily could've been him, and all was needed was a name/appearance change for the robot but keep the same script, especially the one about that robot from the future. The fact that he had a toy makes it even more odd.

Triceratons as well I think the toy was fairly popular right? And we got so many generic aliens through out the show, heck I wish they had stuck with one or three alien races through out the show, I think so far I've already seen over 8 different ones.

I would be curious to know if Wise got his inspiration for the "Planet of the Turtleoids" episode from some of the early Mirage issues.

At the time he drafted his interpretation of the franchise for the FW pilot episodes, there would not have been many comics to work with.

The episode "Turtles at the Earth's Core" could have been a great opportunity to introduce the Triceratons with the dinos in that episode. And there were already 15 comics released when the pilot was written probably during the spring of 1987 (in a Rob Paulsen interview, the episodes were recorded that summer). Issue 10 came out in April of '87, and Shredder on the cover looks quite close to the OT design, and probably came out around the time that the storyboards were being written. Issue 11 came out in June, and probably by then wasn't influenced in April's OT character design since it was quite a contrast from the jumpsuit of #2 and #3. It was just overlooked at the time. Then the Triceraton toy came out in 1990 and helped to build some attention, but sadly was still overlooked. I'm still glad it made an appearance in the OT, like Tokka and Rahzar did.

Season 3
 

Yeah, season 3 is directly what I think of when I think of the Earth being visited by aliens from other planets in that show.

i'm surprised they werent aired as early as season two. alien/mutant dinos fit in perfectly with all the OT was putting out. season seven seemed too long of a wait.

I personaly could not stand the "Turtles at the Earth Core" episode. Adding sentient dinos like the triceratons along with the regular dino's would have been cool. It could have worked like the humanoid dinos that tv series Land of the Lost from the 90's. That would have been cool.

What are you talking about, it's a great episode! Shredder and Krang are really funny in it again too.

*Krang is working on a crystal with a laser when Shredder walks in*
Shredder: A little more to the left!
Krang: Don't you have something better to do!?
Shredder: Actually no, I already set up foot and rock soldier patrols to guard the perimeter.
Krang: Hmm, good Idea. I'm surprised you thought of it!

What's not to like about it? Other than the fact the dinosaurs are a little unreallsticly friendly

I thought episode was decent enough from what I remember of it, but it;s been years since I've popped this particular episode in to watch. The one thing that sticks out to me Shredder, Krang, and the turtles having a football game with the crystal thing that was keeping the place alive. It amused me I remember.

Confusion
 

It would only lead to confusion between the dinosaurs in that underground cave, and the Tricerations. Separate episodes would be better.

"Sure thing Banana"

Divide & Conquer
 

Isn't it Divide & Conquer that has some asteroid that looks like the one the Triceratons lived on in Mirage?

I did remember there being a Triceraton and Fugitoid in the original toyline. I didn't know better back then but now it feels kind of wrong that the Triceratons were written as one-off characters instead of being more prominent like they were in the 2K3 series.

Big Trilogy
 

Isn't that the Big Trilogy? And in "Turtles at the Earth's Core", Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady play ball games with the crystal.

Sage was talking about TATEC

I just think that the creators weren't taking stories/characters from the comics, them were just coming up with mostly new ideas for the cartoon. But then again, there was the Triceraton toy that was out earlier than the episode in which they were featured. So I'm kinda stumped.

They took Casey Jones, Rat King, Leatherhead, Baxter and Mousers, etc. from the comics. They did their own things with them, but they took many Mirage characters at the time.

The only Mirage characters they seemingly ignored were the Triceratons for a long time, Fugitoid, and Savanti Romero/Renet.

Casey Jones
 

They could show more Casey Jones (not every episode), and the farmhouse. Perfect place for Splinter to meditate.