Did Zach originally own the OT turtles?
 

I've wondered about this for quite a while, but I have always forgot to post about it. I'm not sure if anyone else has pondered over this in the forums, but I'll post it anyway.

In the episode "Turtle Tracks" and "Michealangalo Meets Mondo Gecko" we are shown a kid carrying the four turtles in a glass bowl before accidentally dropping them in the sewers.

Later, in "The Fifth Turtle", a kid known as Zach finds out about the ninja turtles, being a huge fan of them and even locates their secret lair, upon looking at both episodes side by side, I was surprised by how similar he looks to the kid who was carrying the baby turtles in the first episode, do you think its possible that Zach was actually their original owner from the first episode and that he is unaware that his friends were the same pets whom he lost a long time ago? Leave your thoughts below.

I've honestly never noticed the similarities and never once considered Zach to be their original owner.

I seriously doubt he is their original owner and am glad they didn't make him be.

If we're going by movie logic, that's impossible since the Turtles and Splinter had been underground for 15 years before they started taking on criminals/the Foot. They were babies when they fell underground.

I never thought Zach was their original owner, but, to be honest, I never paid much attention to the flashback where a kid drops them down a drain anyway, probably because the kid is never mentioned in the series after that.

Well actually. As far as I recall, they never definitively stated that 15 years had gone by. Plus, for whatever it's worth the mutation flashback made it looked like they grew to full size instantaneously. So it is at least possible that the kid could be Zack.

And for the record, I do think the kid looked quite a bit like Zack. Though I don't think the creators necessarily intended them to be the same character.

You know they kinda missed the opportunity to make an interesting plot twist and have Zach's older brother Walt be the Turtles' original owner.

The kid in the flashback looks like both Zach and Walt quite alot but his hair colour matches Walt more a little bit.

Interesting
I once thought about this. May have to go back and check out the first episode again.

I've always thought the kid looked like Zach, although the ages probably wouldn't balance out by the time they officially meet. However, I do think Wally being the original owner would have been a great twist, considering how jaded he appears to be about the idea of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."

They didn't look too similar where I thought they could be the same character. Though as oldmanwinters stated, it would have been an interesting plot twist if Walt was the original owner.

...But it brings up a conflicting backstory of the Turtles' mutation. In "Turtle Tracks" before the Turtles mutate, they show the Turtles falling onto Hamato Yoshi's location, and then some time afterward, he discovers the Turtles walking in the pink mutagen when he returns.

In Season 5's "Michelangelo Meets Mondo Gecko", immediately after the Turtles fall, it shows them already walking onto the green mutagen with Mondo Gecko nearby and being taken. It then brings up the question of how Hamato Yoshi met up with the Turtles, and why didn't the Turtles immediately mutate afterward? It makes Hamato Yoshi's bonding experience with the Turtles somewhat different since they would have already been mutated into humanoids beforehand.

But meh **shrug**, the series has had conflicting, or at least convoluted, backstories before (i.e. Krang's backstory), so it's not unique.