The “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” franchise has been swinging hard in recent years with comics, toys, movies, and television shows, but a sizeable portion of their audience first discovered these turtle boys through animation. Though several different iterations of these reptiles have appeared on the small screen at this point, it’s hard to argue against the enormous impact of the original 1987 cartoon. The iconic look of the show and several character models are still often used for new art and action figures, and even provided a basis for 2022’s “TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge” video game. Now as the show celebrates its 35th anniversary, it’s still easy to look back and see why so many of our much younger selves fell in love with the program and still want to revisit this version of the heroes in a half shell.
Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo, as well as the other mainstays of the franchise are all great, but this show ran for 10 seasons and it’s easy to forget the smaller players. We’re here to talk about some of those characters who may have slipped under the radar or gotten lost in the fog of time. Heroes and villains alike, these are the side characters who are more awesome than we might remember and deserve recognition.
Continue reading this article…
Stephen Wilds 