The Foot Clan In The 1987 Series
 

One thing I noticed about the 1987 OT series is that the Foot Clan hardly existed, at least not in the episodes I saw. All there were were Shredder and the Foot Clan robots (presumably manufactured in the Technodrome). Other than in "Turtle Tracks", did any non-robotic Foot Clan members actually appear?

Probably the closest would be in Season 7 where we see the Foot Clan of the past and one of Splinter's sensei in "White Belt, Black Heart."

You mean its creation in Legend of Koji?

Yes. I do.

It's a bit odd even with the OTs logic.

The Missing Map stated that they had proof that Splinter was really the rightful leader of the Foot Clan. Since the Foot by the time the turtles were mutated seemed to be all robots than why was proof so important? If there was a human Foot Clan still around somewhere then why didn't they use this proof to oast Saki?

Which episode had the framing device where Saki helped Bebop and Rocksteady into super-ninjas, requiring an amnesiac Splinter to have the pilot season explained to him, and then use the Cur-lee Maneuver to prove he's the rightful leader of the Clan?

"Blast From The Past".

There was likely still a human Foot Clan in Japan. Shame we never saw Shredder reunite with them.

I did write a fanfic, "The Shredder Is Born", as a possible way of answering many questions in the OT, such as why Hamato Yoshi went to America, why were the two ninjas accompanying the old master so quick to believe Hamato was about to assassinate the master (I assumed they had to be in league with Oroku Saki on this), why there are no human ninjas (they couldn't readily bring them to the USA), how Oroku Saki would meet an alien brain living far underground, why Shredder knew English so well (programmed for it by Krang), etc. I didn't say what the proof was, other than it was something that Hamato Yoshi would have to present in person-hard to do as a mutant rat.

Maybe the real foot clan was to hard to corrupt, so Krang suggest to build robots that had no remorse. Otherwise having a human foot clan means he needs to supply food, healthcare, accomodation. I don't think shredder has that time or money for that.

I believe the Foot were made into robots to make it more kid friendly, since killing human foot would be seen as too violent. Lotus Blossom could have qualified since she was requested by Shredder to try to capture the Turtles/Splinter, thus making her part of Shredder's clan, and she even says the word clan as well.

Makes sense to me

Even the robot foot soldiers are seldomly utilized in the OT. Counting they had an army of infinite foot soldiers for the turtles to fight in any episode they kept using rocksteady/beebop alone for most episodes instead of having the turtles fight robots. Wasted opportunity.

Not necessarily. The robotic Foot Soldiers themselves were not that powerful and were rather fragile. Also, complicated mechanical contrivances aren't exactly simple and cheap to make, and like any mechanical device a million things can go wrong. On top of that, early in the series the Technodrome had a diminishing supply of power-try doing manufacturing of robots when there were so many other essential tasks that had to be performed just for everyday survival.

i just wonder where that "vast army" of Foot Soldiers from "Return of the Technodrome" vanished afterwards

I always assumed that the Foot were humans but then Shredder found it easier to use Krang's technology to build robot foot. They were easier to expend and they didn't have to work to keep them up. Plus no need to "brainwash" them into being evil.

In the movie it's pointed out how hard it is for Shredder to find good Foot Soldiers, hence all the punk kids, so to me it makes sense that he would "upgrade" to the other robot Foot.

That said, I always assumed there were some human Foot guys as well, still hanging around in the background. Maybe they were the ones that help teach and program the robots the way of the Foot.

I always assumed the Foot's army size depended heavily on the resources that Shredder and Krang had at any given moment. So sometimes they had hundreds and other times they had only a few or none.

Makes sense...except why not take the Blimp to Japan and use this proof to control of the Foot. Pretty sure the turtles could use a band of ninjas to help fight Shredder and co.

Also if Yoshi had proof he's the rightful leader then why did he allow himself himself to be ousted in the first place?

Also after Shredder took over why didn't he learn the Cur-Lee Manoevre?

Uh... Plot device?

These are good theories that even makes me wonder.

If I am not mistaken I do believe Lotus Blossom was a hired Kunoichi(female ninja) acting on her own then being part of the foot. Leonardo even mentioned that she had no clan.

Foot
 

And it's here on the Technodrome? Why aren't more fanfics published anymore here? Nothing has happened since 2004 or whatever, would be nice with new even if Fan Fiction Net is around.

I wondered about that myself.