Character Discussion: Pigeon Pete
 

He may not be the easiest on the eyes, but you got to love that bread-crazy birdman! Personally, I think he's sweet and absolutely hilarious! I love his klutzy flight and the cooing noises he makes. He will literally bulldoze anyone and anything to have a piece of that sourdough bread!
What are your thoughts?

I think your post reads like one of the crappier bio-cards for a vintage Playmates action figure.

You know, the IDW version of this character is written to be annoying but he's somehow less annoying than this version, maybe because he's not just a running gag about bread or maybe it is because you don't have to hear his voice. Regardless of which, the bottomline is that the character is far too annoying in this show.

Pete really hasn't done much to stand out at all.

His design I don't care for, except the hat after he joins the Mighty Mutanimals. After that, he's just bland in all of his appearances and hasn't stood out personally. There have been better mutants introduced in this series.

As pointed out by neatoman, he's better in IDW. He's expanded on much more there by a small amount.

IDW's Pete is exactly the same character as the Nick version. It's probably just because as you said, he's not really in your face and is just kept to the background. He's the one IDW verse character that's about the Nick cartoon.

I can see why people would be annoyed by Pete. I mean, Raph practically hated him.

IDW Pete > Nick Pete

And in the next battle for popularity, having an open wound or an open wound with salt on it!

To this day, we still have no inkling what happened to Pete. Either he quit the Mutanimals for an unknown reason, he was kicked off, or the reception was so negative, they simply dropped him.
The world may never know.

The last time we see him is during Splinter's funeral service. But yeah, this character does absolutely nothing to the story. He could work as a messenger between the Mutanimals and the Turtles, same thing with Mondo Gecko. But as a fighter, he really doesn't have much to offer. And I don't think I would care if this character never gets recycled into the TMNT lore like other characters have in the past.

I know this is off topic, but it could be possible for Mondo to be taught some new moves.
Anyway, I'm still kind of hoping Pete will make an appearance this season.

We see him attending Splinter's funeral at the beginning of this season. The reason he doesn't fight alongside the Mutanimals is for the obvious reason he's helpless, so they obviously don't want him hurt on the team.

Granted you can say the same for Mondo Gecko, but he was essentially his replacement.

So they replaced a useless character with a more useless character, that makes sense.

Mondo Gecko is a popular old school character and his voice actor is the live-action Michaelangelo from the original movie trilogy. So it makes sense why they have him here instead.

I wonder what would happen if Pete tried to rejoin the Mutanimals. It probably wouldn't go too well.

I seriously doubt Mondo Gecko is actually popular.

Pigeon Pete was Michaelangelo's pet in the original cartoon.

Raph's Not the only one who hates him

Mondo Gecko was tremendously popular in the 80's and 90's. It's one of the main reasons both IDW and Nick revived him rather quickly.

A character who only appeared twice in a TV show and was killed off in a comic because his team-book got cancelled after nine issues? Yeah, sounds like kids couldn't get enough of him...

Mondo and most other toy characters being brought back has a more likely reason, they're blank slates for writers to do whatever they want with. Someone out there will kinda remember them but not enough to care if any changes were made.