Toy Placement in the FW series?
 

Many cartoons of the 1980's are considered nothing but mere 22 minute toy ads. what are some things in the FW cartoon that would fit that?
The Knucklehead is only one that I can thing of right now. The Blimp,Van,Technodrome all had story purposes but the Knucklehead seems to have just appeared out of nowhere.

There were those inner tubes, but I can't think of anything else right off the top of my head.

Flush-a-matic was in one...was it Michelangelo's Birthday?

Donnie's Retro-Catapult had a couple of episodes.

I'd say the Technodrome Scout Vehicle was the mini-Drome from Planet of the Turtleoids.

Technically any time a one-off mutant/alien appeared.

Its pretty obvious the only reason Scumbug, Antrax, Metalhead, Chrome Dome, Mona Lisa, Muckman, Mutage Man, etc. showed up was to sell toys.

That pretty much is also why almost all these characters only ever had one episode. They were not intended to be recurring characters like Leatherhead, Rat King, Baxter, etc.

You'll find a lot of toys served "story purposes" in the 80s.

I don't like the term "30 minute toy commercial", as ever since the days of Mickey Mouse we've always had merchandising for profit in not just cartoons, but other live action pictures. It's just that the '80s get an unfortunate bash on its shows (part of the Reaganomics theory when the FCC lifted a ban on merchandising), that persists to this day with Avatar and Kung Fu Panda. They were just mostly lame, cliched plots more than anything else with a plot, though often funny. Kids just thought they were part of a good story and bought the figures to not only imitate what is shown on the screen but also to create new plot ideas and what-ifs.

Flush-O-Matic
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56.../flushomat.jpg
In Michaelangelo.'s Birthday, Shredder captures Mikey to use him as bait (but planned to kill him anyway). Shredder already had his mutagen-sprayer, laser-blaster armed goons, etc. So why go to all the trouble to haul this thing all the way up from the Technodrome? In fact, why even waste time building it? It's just mutagen poured into a funnel that drips down on a turtle tied to the base. Is a machine like this really necessary if you already have the mutagen AND the captured Turtle?!? Seems like Shredder was giving a sly nod to Playmates on this one. I wonder how much he got paid?

Foot Ski
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...ys/footski.jpg
The foot-ski from Pizza by the Shred. Can that thing really fit down a manhole? Apparently it can, but not without a lot of sweat from Rocksteady and Bebop! Isn't it odd that the villains JUST HAPPENED to be carrying this thing around? And doesn't it seem like they go through unnecessary trouble to use it? Again, Playmates is likely sending the Benjamins to Krang.

The TurtleCycle
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...rtlecycle1.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...rtlecycle2.jpg
Donatello and April's Aunt Agatha need a mundane means of transportation. Turtle Van is the logical choice right?

Not when we can show off this nifty Turtlecycle which apparently comes out of nowhere!

Now I know the TMNT get criticized as being hypocritical for driving around in a van that has their name all over it, but at least the van enclosed them (I always thought the Party Wagon could have benefited from some tinted windows), but this Turtlecycle business completely throws any notion of ninjitsu-shadow-warriors out the door. Splinter must have completely given up on his teaching at this point.

Still, you have to hand it to the Playmates company... with packaging like this it was nearly impossible not to want to buy this thing and see it in every episode!
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...urtlecycle.jpg
Who would have thought Leo and Raph could make a garbage can strapped on a motorbike look so good? Sorry, Don and Agatha just can't compare to the Toy packaging on this one.

Behold...
The RETRO-CATAPULT

This cutting edge technological marvel debuted in the classic 3rd season episode, "Corporate Raiders from Dimension X." What exactly made it retro wasn't stated explicitly, but Donatello was confident in his invention to get his brothers out of a tight spot. The results, however, were not ideal at first:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...rocatapult.gif

So frustrated was Rapheal with this trial run that he went on record as saying, "A gizmo that throws garbage? The Forces of Evil everywhere are quaking in terror."

Yet, Donatello was not discouraged and decided to try again, this time using water instead of garbage:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...ocatapult2.gif
But again, the Retro-Catapult failed to save the day. Raph continued to belittle his brother's vision with the blunt statement that he considered the Retro-Catapult a "rolling booby trap."

The history of American engineering is littered with stories of brilliant inventors whose work changed the world simply because they refused to give in to failure. Rather, they labored on, wiser from their mistakes, and finally succeeded. It was said that man would never fly, let alone land on the moon. But tireless ingenuity prevailed for Americans in the past, and Donatello proved himself worthy of elite company and finally succeeded by arming the catapult with a garbage can.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...ocatapult3.gif
Simple, but effective. In spite of all Rapheal's doubts, Donatello proved himself a true role-model for the next generation of Disney's Imagi-Neers.

Hey Winters, isn't the Foot-ski featured prominently in Splinter No More?

The foot-ski was featured in a few episodes, I always liked how the Rat King used it in the Turtles in Time videogame. As far as the knuckle head at least it was mentioned that it was created even if it wasn't really used after that. Same with the retro-catapult, it was mentioned as a new invention and they even lamp shaded how silly of an idea it was. The other. But the other ones just randomly show up, quite a few toy vehicles appear once in S3 without explanation, I actually kind of like seeing the toy vehicles in animated form but that's just me.

"Ninja Pizza: Home of the Nice Slice" was something I remember seeing in both the cartoons early episodes and in the toy line.

Foot-Ski was a big part of "Making Of Metalhead" too.

There are a couple others that we'rent released until 1993, but the memorable episodes released beforehand may have been used to try to sell the toys. For example, the Mutatin' April from inspired from the episode "Catwoman From Channel Six", along with Robtic Bebop and Robotic Rocksteady, which roughly resembles the "Super Mutants" created in "Super Bebop & Mighty Rocksteady".

I've also seen Ninja Pizza used on some Roseart puzzles as well. Then of course you have that 180-sticker book that consists of nothing but scenes from the first episode, along with Topps Series 1 that shows nothing but scenes from the first two episodes, so it goes beyond just Playmates for the cartoon to try to sell products used in the show. One thing I like about TMNT is that they don't quite get the harsh criticism that other cartoons of its era, such as He-Man, Transformers, the Real Ghostbusters, and GI Joe receive just to sell toys. Sometimes, the episode comes years before the toy is introduce and yet are both well received.

Knucklehead
 

Appearing in "Enter the Fly", Shredder told Bebop and Rocksteady that the Knucklehead was Baxter Stockman's latest invention before he was mutated into a fly.

In the Archie Comics, the Knucklehead comes out of nowhere, piloted by a Foot soldier in "Codename: Chameleon".

Pizza by the Shred had to have the record for the most product placements in one episode. The sequence in the sewers had the a Foot-Ski, The Double Barreled Plunger Gun, the Retro-Catapult, the Party Tube and a Cheap Skate. Not to mention the episode is centered around the Star Cruiser which was the animated version of the Foot Cruiser.

Foot Cruiser
 

I would love to see the Foot Cruiser in the 1987 show. Krang would steal a star cruiser from a group of Neutrinos in Dimension X (probably during season 2 or season 4). As we all know, car theft is a problem here on Earth (remember the TMNT stealing Baxter Stockman's van during season 1) so why not in Dimension X too? :)

Or maybe just let Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady keep the Star Cruiser in "Pizza by the Shred".

The Cheap Skate wasn't in very many episodes, either. (More than just one episode, though, I'm sure.)

Leo randomly rode the Turtle-cycle in "The Grybyx".

The Cheap-skate of course.

Can't think of anymore right now :-?

I don't think so. I remember they were in "Bye, Bye Fly" though. Raphael even says: "Those Foot Ski's are awesome!".

Bebop and Rocksteady
 

Bebop and Rocksteady had a motorcycle in the toyline. Was it ever in some episodes?

I'd say they had a fair amount of exposure. Off the top of my head I can think of a few episodes they appeared in "Teenagers From Dimenion-X", ""Return of the Technodrome", "Beneath These Streets", "Turtles on Trial", "The Grybx" and "Pizza by the Shred"

I think that was the intention. The bad guys used the Star Cruiser as their getaway car and as far as the audience is aware the turtles never got it back. Certainly we never saw it again.

I always found it weird that the toy version was a Foot vehicle as it was clearly the based on the nuetrino star cruisers one of which belonged to the turtles.:-? But such is the way of Playmates.

Here's a question...anyone think the Pizza Maker in "The Old Switcheroo" was reminiscent of the toyline Pizza Thrower? A similar device in "The Big Zipp Attack" looked even more like the Pizza Thrower to me.

Colours
 

And why do they use the red one? It's probably wroing as the Neutrinos leave the blue one on Earth and return to Dimension X in the red one themselves.