Why frogs?
 

I've been thinking about the OT episode where the punk frogs were introduced and it suddenly occured to me to wonder: why did Shredder choose to use frogs to fight the turtles? Aside from having an incredible jumping ability, frogs don't seem especially well suited to fighting. There are plenty of other animals tha could be more dangerous. I think kangaroos might have been a better choice. And they woyld have sounded cooler, too!

Maybe because they're green, and can easier be misstaken for the turtles.

I think Leatherhead, Mona Lisa, Mondo Gecko the Punk Frogs and Slash are among the more popular mutant characters. A lot of other mutant characters (except Bebop and Rocksteady) are not that popular.

He really had no choice, Krang misplace the mutantion in the fl swamp, which of couse made the punk frogs, So in Shredders case, beggers cant be picky.

Exactly. Turtles also aren't exactly an animal I'd expect to mutate into an awesome fighter. I'm also surprised Shredder expected a fighting lesson or two and giving them weapons will already prepare them to fight highly trained ninja turtles that trained for years.

Shredder did NOT choose Frogs. Did you watch the episode? When Shredder sees them mutated he's disappointed and says, "4 overgrown frogs? This is my army of mutants!?"

Krang also says the ionic storm in Dimension X interfered with the portals trajectory. They did not want mutant frogs.

Don't ask why frogs, ask why not.

The most important answer is that frogs are amphibians, which are more closely related to reptiles than mammals are. Shredder felt that the moment he mutated frogs he knew he was going to lose in the long run. The reason Shredder failed is he ignored Krang's Dimension X ion storm and caused the mutagen to land far from where Shredder was. He could have asked Krang about how long the storm lasted and research a better plan to take care of the Turtles.

But kudos to Fred Wolf to creating a Turtle knock-off in the parent series before anyone else! Leonardo was excited perhaps that the frogs were like him, and they made decent recurring villains.

The frogs were recurring villains? I thought they turned good in their first appearance.

They were recurring, but not as villians, more like allies or partners. I like the Frogs. They were cool, I had one of em, I think the Nick cartoon should bring them in. First as enemys turn buddys. The Frogs rule.

They've been replaced by the Newtralizer. He practically moves just like them and acts what an updated version of them would be.

Yeah and I'm Donald Trump.

There's no official word saying that, they could possibly come in future seasons. And newt =/= frogs. Fact.

He's a different animal, but his design and the way he moves in battle is very frog like. I don't see them introducing the frogs on top of him.

A different reptile like Mondo Gecko would probably work though.

With the exception of slash I really haven't seen any if the classic animal mutants coming back here. Mutagen man isn't an animal, metal head is a robot and leatherhead is a mirage character anyway. But yeah, we haven't really heard anything about any old school mutants I guess except for fly Baxter. But what about mondo gecko and them?

Krang should refuse to launch the cannister until the storm was over.

But then we wouldn't have a story.

I know, but I say what I would to if I was Krang. But if it had worked, Shredder could have created his own mutant army by chosing animal himself.