Who do you consider the breakout characters of each series?
 

Each Turtle universes introduces new characters who wind up being incredibly popular and become "the breakout characters." After Mirage who introduced the core cast and villains, who do you consider the breakout characters of each series?

- Original cartoon: Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady of course

- Movies: Tatsu. One of the most popular original characters from the movies

- 4kids: Hun and Bishop. Two of the most popular new unique villains of the series. Hun went on to appear in both Mirage and IDW and will appear in Nick. Bishop is likely to return as well.

- Archie: Armaggon as a popular shark mutant people love to see again

- IDW: Old Hob. The main cat mutant has become the new breakout character. One of the biggest characters of the series

- Nick: Tiger Claw, or Chris Bradford as Dogpound/Rahzar and Fishface. Three of the most popular new mutant characters

original cartoon- Shredder. Basically a one-shot character that died in the first issue.... now people can't even think about the TMNT without thinking of the Shredder...

Great point Coola.

I disagree with your the OP choices though..

Tatsu? I like him but the break out star from the movies are clearly Tokka/Rahzar. Tatsu is a popular obscure character but the average person doesn't even know his name. Tokka/Rahzar on the other hand have made the jump to videogames/2k3/OT/toys/Nick.

For Archie I'd say its easily Ninjara I mean she has a huge fanbase counting she only appeared there. You could argue the "Mutanimals" were made popular because of Archie but I disagree since I loved the characters as a kid but only because of the toys (I hadn't read Archie yet) and I'm sure most people know those characters because of the toys. Armaggon is probably more famous because of the videogame and not Archie, heck he's pretty much a forgotten character and that sucks counting how cool he is, Ninjara is definitely more popular and I don't even like her.

As far as Nick well they tried to shove Dogpound down our face and he could've been relevant but he suffered from Villain decay fairly quickly and now he's just another grunt and is now Rahzar...Not sure if he'd count. And that's too bad because Bradford was a great character and Dogpound had potential. Fishface suffers from the same problem as Dogpound but he made even less of an impact, hell they got downgraded in the title screen of the second season even though they were meant to be the Rocksteady/Beebop of this show. Tigerclaw might be a good contender, pretty cool character so far but its too early to tell he has already shown some villain decay and he might suffer the same fate as the other two.


What about The Next Mutation? Before Venus suffered the Scrappy effect she was fairly popular. Nowadays Vammi is seen as the only redeemable character by the general consensus even if I highly disagree, when written correctly Dr. Quease and Bonesteel were clearly superior characters.

OT- R&B, Irma, and possibly Lotus, since she was the fore-runner of Karai
Mirage- Hard to say, I haven't read enough of them
Movies- Tatsu and Keno, and of course Tokka/Rahzar.
2K3- Bishop and Hun, definitely.
Nick- Bradford/Dogpound, Xever, and Murikami are all great. Maybe Kirby and Timothy, too.
IDW- Hob, Alopex, and Woody!

I like to rank it after who got the most appearences after their respective series ended. So for example Harley Quinn would be the breakout character of Batman TAS, since she's the original character from that show who has become a staple of the franchise.

Anyway:

The Fred Wolf cartoon, Krang.

The movies, Rahzar.

The 4kids cartoon, Hun, maybe (oddly enough) Angel if she shows up in another cartoon or a movie. I was kind of hoping it would be Bishop but whatever.

The Archie series? Uh... Not sure.

As IDW and Nick, it's too soon to tell.

I guess going by series and only listing the main ones it has to be:

Original 1987 Cartoon: The Shredder (to a certain degree), Krang, Bebop, Rocksteady, and Fly Baxter Stockman.

Playmates: Slash (and maybe Scratch?)

Archie: Ninjara and Armaggon. (Personally: The Mighty Mutanimals!)

The movies: Tokka, Rahzar, Tatsu, Super Shredder, and Keno.

2003 4kids Cartoon: Hun, Ch'rell (since he was a mix of the Utroms, Krang, and The Shredder), and Bishop.

IDW: Old Hob and Alopex. (This is just based off of hearsay because I don't read this series.)

Nick (so far): Tiger Claw

The thread is for characters who became very popular and thought of when that incarnation comes up, some of the picks in this thread seem to be more of a "favorite characters".

OT: Krang, B&R, Baxterfly, Irma, Mona Lisa (to an extent)

Archie: Ninjara (fandom only), Armaggon

Movies: Rahzar, Tokka

Playmates: Slash, Metalhead, Mondo

Konami Games: Aska

TNM: Venus

2K3: Hun, Angel, Bishop

Nick: Too early to tell, but I'm leaning on TigerClaw, Newtralizer, and Brad/Xever

IDW: Old Hob, Alopex

BayTurtles: None.

Haha, Bay Turtles. Eric Sachs will never appear in anything else.

- Original cartoon: April O' Neil, Shredder, Kraang, Bebop & Rocksteady.

- Old Movies: Judith Hoag's April O' Neil

- 4kids: Usagi Yojimbo (Miyamoto Usagi).

- IDW: Raphael & Mikey. The whole amnesia and trying to find himself adds a new light to his character. Plus we got Donnie vs Leo banter which is just delicious to read. Mikey lost a human friend (pizza supplier) and also he confronted Raph when he went berserk hitting people to find Leo. Pretty great character development for him.

- Nick: All 4 turtles and Splinter. And Leatherhead.

- 2014 movie: Megan Fox's April O' Neil.

Original 1987 Cartoon: The rat king. Loved him and his ability to turn Splinter, something that could never happen without his evil influence.

The live action movies (1-3) : Keno. Literally. He broke out of the Donatello suit and became a character in his own right ;)

2007 movie : Karai. Loved her scenes and the powerful woman with honour that she accomplished.

2003 4kids Cartoon: Usagi! Loved Usagi!

IDW: Alopex. And evil Leo. Loved evil Leo. Although, he wasn't really evil Leo. More confused by memory-warping Leo.

Nick : There are just too many characters for one to stand out. I think Splinter is my favourite incarnation to date - love the origin story and his humour.

And also Bernadette Thompson. I also think no character from Image or Division TMNT will live on.

Nick and IDW don't count. There is no other series after this to use any of these characters yet. If tiger claw was in the 2014 movie for example that would make him a breakout character since he was originally from the nick cartoon.

Right now NOONE from nick or IDW is a break out character. Wait until they make yet another tmnt series and see if they bring back Hob or Fishface.

No, you can say they're the breakout character already. Old Hob is definitely IDW's biggest new character simply because he's always around and a fan favorite.

Nope. That's not what breakout means. It means they become so big they start appearing in other media. Like Hun jumped to mirage, IDW and now this show.

There isn't so much as a hob action figure out yet and the public at large had no idea who that is.

Googled breakout meaning, got this:

Original comics: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, Splinter, Tang Shen, Kirby. Shredder was only in two issues and didn't really become popular until the original cartoon, which was a big reason why it was successful.
Fred Wolf: Shredder, Krang, Bebop, Rocksteady, April, Irma, Vernon, and Burne
Early video games: Foot Soldiers, Baxter, Roadkill Rodney, Leatherhead, Rat King, Slash, General Traag. While these were all featured in the ongoing cartoon and some in the comics, the familiarity of these villains provided
Playmates vintage action figures: Ace Duck, Usaji Yojimbo, Pizzaface, Punk Frogs, Walkabout, Dirtbag, Groundchuck
Archie: The Mighty Mutanimals (especially Ray Fillet), Ninjara
1990 Movie: Tatsu, Elias Koteas' Casey Jones
Secret of the Oooze: Professor Perry, Tokka, Rahzar
Next Mutation: Venus, Dr. Quease
4kids: Utrom Shredder, Hun, Bishop, Karai, Triceratons, Professor Honeycutt (Fugitoid)
2007 Movie: Max Winters
IDW: Old Hob, Alopex
Nick Series: The Kraang, Tigerclaw, Dogpound
2014 Movie: Eric Sachs

naaaah...breakout just means "got real popular". has NOTHING to do with other media.

A band can "break out". doesn't mean they also have a movie or tv show or even deal in other genres of music.

pretty common sense, really.

Don't forget Mona Lisa and Dregg for the OT!