Each Series' Contribution to TMNT as a Whole?
 

Spinning out of my most recent posts on the Nick cartoon, I thought it would be fun to discuss what major characters or concepts each different take have added to the TMNT mythos as a whole...

Mirage: The Turtles and Splinter, Hamato Yoshi, Shredder, April and Casey, Leatherhead, Rat King, Utroms, Foot Clan, Renet, Baxter, Mousers, Triceratons, Shadow, Karai, Nobody

Fred Wolf: Bebop, Rocksteady, Krang, Technodrome, Robot Foot soldiers, Rock Soldiers, Tragg, Baxter the Fly, Slash, Dimension X, Channel 6 News, Metalhead

Films: Tokka, Rahzar

Next Mutation: Venus

Archie: Mutanimals, Ninjara

Image: Shredder's daughter, Raph with an eyepatch, crippled Donny

4Kids: Hun, Bishop, Earth Protection Force, Battle Nexus, Ch'rell, Ninja Tribunal

Nick: Kraang, Dogpound, Fishface, Karai as Splinter's daughter, Tiger Claw

IDW: Reincarnation, Casey's dad as Hun, Bludgeon, Koya, Alopex, Old Hob, Pantheon

Really, looking back, it's easy to see why Fred Wolf dominates: it had the most marketable toys. The TMNT seems to stand evenly distributed with its main two contributing bodies Fred Wolf and Mirage.

What do you think?

I'd put the playmates OT toyline up there. It definitely had a lot of influence on the franchise as a whole.

Yeah, but the main toys everyone remembers were reflected one-to-one with the Fred Wolf cartoon pretty regularly. I don't think many of the toys that didn't show up in the cartoon made huge impact to the franchise.

but yeah, merchandising definitely made the BIGGEST impact to TMNT. :tlol:

Maybe not to the less hardcore fans, but they've certainly had influence on the Archie comics, by givinng them new characters to use.

I think the best thing is to simply think of the "breakout characters" each series had:

- Mirage: The main cast. In terms of major characters Shredder, Karai, Baxter, Mousers, Leatherhead, Rat King. Notice how Karai, Baxter, Leatherhead and Rat King appear in nearly every incarnation

- Fred Wolf: Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady by far. To this day, they're the most recognizable TMNT villains after Shredder. After them Baxter fly, Technodrome, robot Foot, Traag/Rock Soldiers.

- 4kids: Hun and Bishop easily. The two biggest characters that have now returned in multiple series. Hun even debuted in Mirage.

- Archie: Popularized the Mutanimals, Armaggon. Ninjara, Null and Malinga are the two big unique villains.

- Movies: Rahzar/Tokka, to a lesser extent Tatsu.

- Nick: Tigerclaw, Fishface, Dogpound prior to mutation.

- IDW: Old Hob easily. He became the most important and popular character of the series.

One of my favorite things/people to come out of the original cartoon was Lord Dregg.

I have to think it through, but I can suggest you move Raphael with an eye patch under Archie instead of Image. Mayve add Armaggon under there as well if you think the character is big enough.

Under TMNT 1987 you might add unstable mutations and Mutagen Man.

Playmates is the main contributor to the different colored masks and skin tones, and belt buckles, although Playmates and Fred Wolf could be grouped together as the FW show was originally just to promote the toys, and the mask colors where superficial as Mikey originally was the one with a Purple mask.

Do you have a link to cite Michelangelo was originally intended to wear purple instead of Donatello? I know the artwork for TMNT: The Arcade Game mistakes Michleangelo's mask for yellow instead of orange. Aside from unrelated incident that I am not familiar with that.

I'd have to check publication dates to find out which came first, Archie or Image.

(Asks for a mention of Eric Sachs in the movie section, runs for life)

I don't know if this may be worth an add, but I'd say Tatsu in the movie section, or make mention of Metalhead the superhero in Mirage. Also Armaggon and the Dark Turtles for their respective series.

Lastly, are you looking for specific stories from each saga that were later adapted dude, like What Goes Around.... Comes Around! or anything to that extent?

I think the Archie series comics contributed to TMNT the most for me, it brought character development to the characters, which was missing in the Fred Wolf series that it's based on.

It showed us that Raph was the mature one in the group, he was the only Turtle to have a legitimate girlfriend for a while, and every incarnation they always try to hook him up with a female companion.

The IDW comics recently started pairing Raph with Alopex, they seem to go well together.

The Future Shark Trilogy was printed from Christmas 1992 to Spring 1993. Image did start it's run until mid 1996.

The Future Shark Trilogy was one of my favorite stories from the Archie series comic, along with the Cyber Samurai Mutant Ninja Turtles story.

Who did they try to hook him up with in the movies?
Mirage showed Raphael with an eye patch in 1988.

We have a thread for it, the toys didn't just swap masks but also skin color. But you can still see that the Mikey figure still have Mikey's head sculpt and vice versa.

http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=44940

There's also some artwork of Donnie in orange where he (iirc) jumps from the blimp, I think Powder shared it somewhere on the forums.

It may have been the TMNT strip in Puma Blues from 1987 or so that first had Raphael with an eyepatch, IINM.

Fred Wolf gave us Yoshi as Splinter.

I'd add Mona Lisa, Mondo Gecko, and the Frogs to the OT's contribution, Draco to Mirage(or was that 2K3?), and Professor Perry to the movies. Imagi added Max Winters and the Generals.

They didnt hook him with anyone in the movies, Just recently they hooked him up with Alopex in the IDW comics.

Love the Punk Frogs. Wish more could be done with them.

Drako is from the 2003 cartoon. Professor Perry has not really had an impact beyond the one film. I love SotO, but I don't know if the movies really added much that carried over aside from Razhar and Tokka.

That is an interesting Tokka made with the masl/skin swap. I would love to have it commented on by someone.