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1987 animated series

TV/Cartoon Series

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) Review – It Came From Beneath the Sewers

by Kyle Tobey
written by Kyle Tobey

I love a story arch that connects a season.

It makes sense that some things would carry over to the next episode. Sometimes an entire quest to find space fragments can’t wrap up in the span of 23 minutes. It Came From Beneath the Sewers continues the story line laid out in the episode before it, but works from two very different ideas.

The turtles are hunting the shards of the Eye of Sornoth dropped by the mysterious space alien in the previous episode. April wants to report on it, but seems to realize that not everything is a story, finally. The mission has become more important than the news.

Krang, however, is increasingly upset with Shredder as he brings him back to Dimension X. Shredder is filled with excuses and proclaims he “lost” the turtles. Krang doesn’t stand for this and sends him back to our Dimension with coordinates for a crystal shard.

The turtles and the Shredder are honing in on the fragment, which ends up at a carnival. Michelangelo is great at carnival games and, in the world without disguises, the turtles get taken in for the sideshow act. Eventually, they track the crystal’s location. It was picked up by 2 young boys. April insists that $3 can buy off the kids. In the 80’s, $3 still wasn’t enough. April needs to look elsewhere for more cash. Shredder steps in and tries a new approach. He just robs the kids.

Shredder brings the crystal back to his lab. Baxter Stockman has become more of a blithering idiot than in the 1st season. He has gone from genius to worthless in 3 episodes. Shredder’s previous trip to Dimension X leaves him with mud on his boots. The crystal interacts with the mud to create a plant creature big enough to wreak havoc on the city.

The crystal is no longer important in this episode.

The plant creature is destroying the city and even breaks in to the turtles lair. The turtles continually hack and slash their way through the city taking out any vines that come their way. They reach the center where the head has giant sharp teeth and a dozen eyes. The plant is able to take them out a few times.

Shredder actually lures the turtles to him with a note. It was as simple as signing a note from “April” and they came running. I don’t know why he doesn’t try this more often. Just when they back Shredder in to a corner the plant creature reappears to save him. The turtles need to find a way to take out the plant for good.

Without spoiling the end of the episode, it’s bad. This is an instance of something in a cartoon that probably wouldn’t hold up today. I wish they took a smarter approach, but it could be a sign of the times. Even something like plant killer or a “it’s allergic to turtles!” would have been better. It’s a small blip in the episode, but still a blip.

The episode has a lot of action and some funny bits, but still suffers from the time period. I love that it connects a storyline to other episodes, but it feels disconnected. The turtles have a 1 track mind and can only focus on one thing at a time. It’s still a fun episode featuring a mutant creature. But we still havent been introduced to any new, classic villains or characters. Hopefully it’s just a small piece of a better overall story.

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ReviewsTV/Cartoon Series

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) Review – The Incredible Shrinking Turtles

by Kyle Tobey
written by Kyle Tobey

The first episode of the second season made me nervous for the return of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

It was a bit boring and lacked both the weirdness we love with the Ninja Turtles, as well as the character interactions that make the show special. The second episode, The Incredible Shrinking Turtles, turns this around quickly, introducing new alien species and mysterious crystals to the turtles adventures.

We’re introduced with the turtles practicing their combat skills in a park. During training, a spacecraft crash lands in the lake nearby. The turtles rush on the scene and rescue the alien creature.  He tells them the Eye of Sornoth has been split in to 3 fragments, and now it’s up to the turtles to find the rest. Of course, Shredder is a master hacker and has cameras everywhere. He decides it’s up to him to find the fragments before the Turtles. Krang still wont help him, so he needs to go it alone.

Just as the turtles find the first fragment, Shredder appears to ruin their treasure hunt.

Shredder gets the upper hand and takes the shard of the Eye, to find out that it has a mysterious power. He causes the 4 turtles to shrink to the size of ants where the street curb seems 8 feet high. They escape with a shard but remain tiny and vulnerable.

While the turtles escape, the Shredder has quickly made use of the fragment. He starts shrinking buildings with people inside. Soon the Empire State Building is no larger than a dollhouse. The turtles continue coping with their new size limitations, facing tidal waves and sewer snakes.

Shredder is proud of his work, but Krang is determined to find the turtles. Baxter Stockman is a permanent ally of the Shredder now. His primary function is equipping Shredder with new machinery to help find, and destroy, the Turtles.

The episode is filled with coincidences that cartoons of the generation were known for to advance the story. While the turtles are being chased by a fish, Baxter Stockman is able to find them in a giant lake. Yes, he had the tech, but it’s impressive how quickly he could find them. In a fight scene, the captured turtles are knocked over to the floor in an easy spot for April to find them, and the Eye of Sornoth fragment.

Despite these clichés, this episode returns to what we love about the Ninja Turtles.

The turtles have a clear mission, and the action is spread through. We get a solid dose of weirdness to move the story, but it’s grounded in a reality we can accept. Part of me wonders if this episode was originally supposed to air first in the season to set up the rest. This episode not only returns us to the world we love, but gives us a new story to continue for potentially a whole season.

While Shredder’s plan is good, it moves so fast we never get the full drama of it. It’s an actual evil plan, and it seems to get glossed over. We didn’t get the full supporting cast of Bebop and Rocksteady back, but this is a really good episode to get us back to the Ninja Turtles Universe.

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ReviewsTV/Cartoon Series

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) Review – Return of the Shredder

by Kyle Tobey
written by Kyle Tobey

The first season of the classic cartoon is the best version of the idea of the cartoon.

It’s filled with mutant turtles, fighting, alien brains in robot suits and ninja masters. The Shredder and his gang of morons would scheme together to take out the turtles in an action packed mini-series that would wrap up nicely with a terrible pizza in the lair. This is the version people think of when they think of the cartoon. They think of how weird everything in the world can be.

Some of these things happen in the first episode of Season 2, “Return of the Shredder.” There are mutant turtles, and alien brains, but the first entry back in the series feels like an unneeded grounding of the universe.

We return to see the turtles carrying on their normal life. A couple of thieves come to rob the same grocery store the turtles shop at. After they ditch the trench coats, the turtles save the day, pay for groceries, and leave the scene before the cops arrive.

We head back to Dimension X to check in on Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady. It’s rare for cartoons around this time to show any continuation, so that alone gives it bonus points. Shredder wants to head back to Earth. He knows he can take out the turtles because he has a plan! Krang obliges, but Bebop, Rocksteady, and the foot clan won’t be helping him.

The best part of this episode is seeing how scary Shredder can be.

He can’t hide behind anyone in this, so anyone who comes across him gets beat in to submission. He takes over the “Slash for Cash” dojo and has the students run his errands. Of course, errands means robbing stores. When confronted in a park by two thugs holding, 

Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang

This is where the quality drops off. In the first season, any time I could find a plot hole it was almost immediately shot down with a 4th wall breaking one liner.

In this, we’re led to believe the people in the city can’t tell the difference between 4 mutated turtles and a corrupt street gang in turtle t-shirts. The same grocer who was rescued by the turtles now gets fooled by a henchman with business cards that say “Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang.”

We get the return of Baxter Stockman, who’s been spending his time in a Mental Asylum. We’re also introduced to April’s valley girl friend Irma and April’s boss’ girlfriend. The city has a Spider-Man complex with TMNT, but the girlfriend brings it to the next level. The city is undecided, but April’s boss wants to expose them as criminals. It’s a unnecessary turn in the universe.

The lady in black really, really hates turtles.

While the story leaves a lot to be desired, the character’s personalities are starting to show more.

Michelangelo jokes more and loves a good time. April is finally taking sides with the turtles when they need defending. She’s much stronger and much more willing to help. This is also the first time she’s talking to them directly while reporting on the news.

However, the overall quality dips significantly. Turtle bandanas are the wrong color, animations are wonky, and designs need work. At one point Baxter goes to trap Splinter and the animation bumps around until Splinter ends up in a cage. April is powerful enough to hold a grappling hook while 4 giant turtles slide down. Although what is most disappointing is that after seeing Dimension X and being introduced to this strange world of mutant creatures and aliens, the first villains we get on return are humans. Boring thug humans wearing paper bags. It’s a disappointing return to a well beloved franchise. 

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It looks like these turtles are almost ready to come out of the shadows! Image Source: NECA, ToyArk.
NewsToy/Action Figures

NECA Reveals New TMNT Figures Based on the Original Animated Series

by Justin W
written by Justin W

Over the past few days, NECA has been teasing a brand new set of TMNT figures on their Twitter page. Although we haven’t gotten a fantastic look at the new toys, what we have seen looks pretty awesome. Fans of the original animated series will be happy to hear that they have decided to produce some action figures based on the old cartoon.

The first image of these collectibles came in the form of a somewhat blurry and dark profile picture. That being said, you can clearly see some of the more important details of each turtle, and they all look pretty darn good.

Additional teaser images revealed one of the accessories that are already planned for this set – an entire pizza complete with action slice! Okay, so it’s not actually an “action slice,” but it looks like at least one of the turtles will be able to pick up a piece of pizza.

Anybody want a slice of pizza? Image Source: NECA, ToyArk.
Huh, this mold looks pretty familiar as well. But what is that gun for? Image Source: NECA, ToyArk.
That arm looks very familiar. It's almost as if the bad guy behind this image is hungry for Turtle Soup! Image Source: NECA, ToyArk.

As if that weren’t enough, two more teasers featured a mold that looked suspiciously like Shredder and a picture of Shredder’s hand punching through the earlier image of the turtles. It looks like they have plans to give these heroes in a half shell at least one enemy to battle.

The final teaser featured a full look at the turtles from behind. At the very least, this allows us to see the amount of detail that went into creating the shells on their backs. Sure enough, these are some of the finest looking turtle shells we have ever seen on a collectible TMNT action figure.

As you may have noticed, the turtles are clearly attempting to give a slice of pizza to their much bigger brothers. For those who weren’t aware, these are representations of the insanely popular figures NECA made based on the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.

They may be a bit smaller than some of the other products NECA has released, but these heroes in a half shell look pretty darn good! Image Source: NECA, ToyArk.

They may be a bit smaller than some of the other products NECA has released, but these heroes in a half shell look pretty darn good! Image Source: NECA, ToyArk.

When it comes to the turtles, it seems like NECA can do no wrong. Every time they make a new set of TMNT action figures, they are some of the finest collectibles we have ever seen. Fans really seem to love the work this company does, and something tells me they’re going to have a lot of fun with this latest set of toys as well.

Chances are that these will be SDCC 2017 exclusives, but they may offer them on their website for a short time. Keep your eyes peeled for more information about these new TMNT figures in the coming months!

Are you already sold on these new TMNT figures from NECA? Do you want to see more before making a decision to buy them? Share your thoughts either in the comments below or on Facebook/Twitter.

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