Post by: Markio on April 29, 2005, 07:26:13 PM
Anyway, yesterday an episode of TMNT was halfway over on Cartoon Network, so I left it on for the heck of it. Suddenly, the most incredible thing came to my attention. It wasn't Raphael drinking tea with a blind woman, nor was it Splinter and Michelangelo figting Misters Touch and Go, but something better. Without warning, there was a shot of the other turtles in their lair and something caught my eye. An extra turtle, twice the size of the others and with a long tail and snout, was adjusting some satellite project for Donatello. It was a crocodile! Having missed out on any previous mention of this character, I watched the remaining 30 seconds of that scene in awe, hearing him utter "Haven't seen him" to Leonardo who was looking for Raphael. This was the coolest thing, a walking, talking, gigantic crocodile on the ninja turtles! It's like a two-in-one deal! Rewinding and listening to what his name was, "Leatherhead", I looked him up on the internet. Apparently he had been a villian in the previous TMNT series in the late 1980s, but also appeared in like two of the comics.
I watched the next episode today, and there he was again, plus the episode focused on him and hallucinations he had in his dreams of when some guy messed up his brain so he usually couldn't control sudden bouts of anger, which was pretty bad since he was the biggest guy in the sewer and knocked down a few friends in his "Mr. Hyde" rampages(thank goodness they only lasted about ten seconds each). The episode is about how he thinks his uncontrollable mood swings is a threat to the turtles and that he's a monster, so he runs away only to be found by this Australian hunter who uses high tech guns to ...hunt. He came to get rid of the alligator/crocodile that the newspaper mentioned, plus now he wants to catch the four walking turtles whose footprints he somehow can read. The turtles come looking for Leatherhead, find him and the hunter, beat the hunter and get Leatherhead a home in a ninteenth century underground train station that is just three minutes away from their own lair, so he can work on controlling his temper and still be in contact with the ninja turtles.
I looked him up on the internet again, and found that this episode was based on the first comic he appeared in, when they first meet him as an enemy because of his temper but become friends when the weird hunter guy comes along. Not much information there. Then in the second comic book he appeared in, he has turned his new home into a laboratory where he is working on a device that will reunite him with his family. His "family" is a group of aliens from another planet(the Untrons I think) that raised him from a baby alligator, after he came in contact with the same chemical the ninja turtles did. Sadly, when they returned to their home planet, they left/forgot him behind, so he was building a device to get him there. Because of his size though, he needed help from smaller people to do the finer details on the machine. He got the turtles and some foot ninjas somehow to help him, but a foot ninja had removed an integral piece from the machine(accident or purposely I don't know) that caused it to fail and blow up. Because of the failure, Leatherhead goes on another rampage and swears that he will have revenge on them all someday. He flees the scene, and the last we see of him is when he's in some deserted part of the sewer. He looks at his reflection in the water and thinks, "Now I'm alone... forever...". The turtles are later on a rooftop discussing what happened, what it must be like to be all alone like Leatherhead must be right then. And Leonardo says "At least WE have each other." It was really sad, and I wished Leatherhead had re-befriended the turtles, or at least gotten back to his home planet.
At least in the modern cartoon, they sort of changed it around. They first meet him a little violently, as Michelangelo walks in on him and in blind rage chases Mikey around underwater, until Mikey is cornered in some room and successfully reasons with the reptile who was having an uncontrollable anger moment. The other turtles try to save Mikey, and somehow pin the giant "monster" to the ground, even though a truce was met before they got there. They all become friends(Yay). They learn that he is creating a device to get him home, but they find out that he was working with Dr. Stockman, who was really using him so he could get to the other planet and probably seize power. Discovering his plans, Stockman flees but throws some science thing on the ground that causes an explosion and the ceiling to cave in. The mighty Leatherhead holds up the ceiling so the turtles can escape but doesn't escape with them, as "life isn't worth living if you can't have a family" or something. The ceiling falls, leaving a bunch of rubble and no Leatherhead in sight, and the turtles repeat their "At least WE have each other" conversation, and it ends.
Somehow Leatherhead must have survived, since he appeared in the episode I saw today with the hunter. In that episode they find him the train station home, so I'm guessing that's the conclusion for Leatherhead, as he can contact the turtles but doesn't need to appear in the episodes anymore. It would be REALLY sad if they made another episode where he rebuilds the machine, it fails, he blames and abandons the turtles and is going to be alone forever again, because reading that for the first time made me cry, because I had also felt depressed for the turtles at the end of the third movie, because even though they had each other, they were still kind of stuck underground all their lives, but not so severely or sadly as Leatherhead was.
There, that's my long, obsessive, possibly boring rant about the ninja turtles. Does anybody else know about Leatherhead, watch the new or old episodes, or the movies or play the new or old games?
Edited by - Markio on 4/29/2005 6:43:58 PM
Post by: Lizard Dude on April 29, 2005, 08:46:46 PM
Also, I don't mind the new TMNT series but haven't seen barely any of it.
Thanks for the Leatherhead memories!
“Using the Semicolon can sometimes be a tricky proposition from a syntactical perspective!â€
Post by: Watoad on April 29, 2005, 08:50:09 PM
Wow, I never thought I would post that picture three times. :P
Nice rant, Markio! Although I myself hadn't heard of Leatherhead before now (or just don't remember him), I'm impressed by your long discussion and glad to learn about him. My memory tells me that there hasn't been a TMNT topic before, so I'm glad that you've given us one. And with such a great first post! :)
I consider myself a somewhat substantial TMNT fan because the original series is my favorite TV show of all time, and I'm buying it on DVD as it's being released. Before plans of its release were announced, I voted/begged for it at TVShowsOnDVD.com, and I even got mentioned in one of the site's news articles. (Note: The play on acronym that I devised was "The Monster News Tornado," not "TMNT news tornado.")
The picture above is from a year ago when the first season was released on DVD. The second set of episodes—which came out a few days ago—is sadly not a full season, but I pre-ordered it a long time ago, anyway, and it could be waiting for me right now at my family's house. You may just see a new picture of me with it in the near future. ~_^
I have seen all three movies, and I loved them as a kid, but my memories of them are not as fond as those of the cartoon. However, two of my most favorite games for the NES were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game. I probably preferred the second game because of its two-player option, but I found earning the Turtle Van in the first one to be particularly rewarding.
Oh, and Lizard Dude's post reminds me that my brothers and I used to have a whole bunch of TMNT action figures and toys, but they have long since disappeared.
Here are a couple of lines that stick out in my mind:
From TMNTII:TAG: "Tonight I dine on Turtle Soup!"
From the cartoon: "Heroes in a half-shell! TURTLE POWER!"
"He is not a fool who gives up what he cannot keep for the sake of what he can never lose."
Post by: Lizard Dude on April 29, 2005, 09:07:07 PM
“Using the Semicolon can sometimes be a tricky proposition from a syntactical perspective!â€
Post by: Watoad on April 29, 2005, 10:09:14 PM
"He is not a fool who gives up what he cannot keep for the sake of what he can never lose."
Post by: Markio on April 29, 2005, 10:16:49 PM
The comics were a lot more serious, as most comics are. I remember getting a Sonic the Hedgehog comic book solely because it had Sonic, but all I remember was Sonic looking at his Uncle Chuck, who had become a robot, and Sonic was all sad.
I've watched all three movies too, the second probably being my favorite. The third one's ending made me sad, because it just ends with them in the sewer, and I sat there thinking, "What happens after this? How can they stand being in the sewer all of their lives?" I just wanted to know how their lives would turn out, because if nothing happened after the time traveling adventure that was big enough to make another movie, then do they just sit in the sewer and do nothing?
The new episodes I started watching as soon as they came out, but I must have lost interest for a while, because when I put it back on, they had moved to triceraton in outer space. The two I saw recently were pretty good, probably because it wasn't in the middle of a six part episode or something.
Leatherhead in the comics was sad(not pathetic-sad, sad-sad), but seeing him in the new episodes almost gave me a heart attack. I was like, "When did my imaginary friend get on TV?" He looks exactly like this character I can draw... this is surprisingly GOOD.
I knew you were going to post that pic, Watoad! Thanks for the comment on my first post, too. And thanks to LD, because I don't remember exactly, but I think it had to do with posting in my topic and reminding me that there are Leatherhead action figures(I'm guessing yours is the old Australian-looking LH with the cowboy hat).
I want a TMNT action figure, I've never had an action figure of anything, really.
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.†-Atticus Finch
Edited by - Markio on 4/29/2005 9:23:02 PM
Post by: Screech on April 30, 2005, 12:38:53 PM
"At Dukar, we place our emphasis on serving you, supporting
you, and helping you be as successful as possible."
Post by: Markio on April 30, 2005, 12:45:23 PM
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.†-Atticus Finch
Post by: Markio on April 30, 2005, 04:39:27 PM
Anyway, there are still TMNT comics today, of course, and in a recent one I read via internet by squinting at the four pics they had on the screen, I was able to figure out the next part of what happens to LH. He runs into Raphael and is about to kill him because he thinks it's Donatello, who he blamed for the whole machine-back-home malfunction thing, but he doesn't kill Raph, as they appear later in another shot where both of them are looking at a new machine LH must have started building. There were more aliens by themselves in another shot, the ones LH called family, so it's possible that LH and his alien family will be reunited! I don't care, as long as LH isn't alone forever(I sound like a girl who is concerned with the soap opera characters, huh? Except soap operas don't usually have aliens or mutants)!
Also, LD, the comics you were talking about that involved a time-travelling cow head and LH appearing a lot are called "The Mutanimals".
If your day is bad, a nice comment at night can change everything.
Post by: Lizard Dude on April 30, 2005, 06:39:38 PM
P.S. Cudley the Cowlick was not exclusive to The Might Mutanimals. I have some digests with him appearing.
P.P.S. Leatherhead definitely did not end up alone. He hangs out with tons of mutants (the Mutanimals).
“Using the Semicolon can sometimes be a tricky proposition from a syntactical perspective!â€
Post by: Markio on April 30, 2005, 07:05:32 PM
If your day is bad, a nice comment at night can change everything.
Post by: Markio on May 07, 2005, 02:03:10 PM
My favorite quotes:
Raphael: Dang you got big. You on steroids or somethin'?
* * *
Raphael: Leatherhead! you didn't eat me?
Leatherhead: No no, I came to my senses before then.
* * *
LH: Do you notice anything different about me?
Raph: You mean being twice as big as before?
LH: What? Oh that. No, Please come inside.
* * *
Raph: I MUST be sick. Not only am I talkin' to myself, but I'm usin' words like like labyrinth.
* * *
Splinter: I'm making dinner, so don't eat any junk food.
Michelangelo: mymm nothkt eghbng!
Unrelatedly, I left the Fox Box on TV this morning, and my twenty-year-old brother who watched the old cartoon when he was little actually sat and watched it! This is amazing if you knew him, but you don't, and I'm not prepared to talk about my brother to internet people, so sorry.
If your day is bad, a nice comment at night can change everything.
Edited by - Markio on 5/7/2005 1:05:37 PM
Post by: Yoshisaurus Rex on May 26, 2005, 05:53:46 PM
I also have a little toy of Leonardo that I got a long time ago. At least... I think it's Leo. I keep getting their names confused!
"Do you got a mullet goin’ on?"
Post by: Watoad on June 03, 2005, 01:00:06 AM
Yikes! That reminds me that I never replied to Luigison's E3 e-mail! Karblagh!!
"He is not a fool who gives up what he cannot keep for the sake of what he can never lose."
Post by: Yoshisaurus Rex on June 03, 2005, 06:36:47 AM
If this post is edited, as it probably is, you may be wondering why. Well let me tell you. Each of YR’s posts are carefully revised and polished over and over to give you, the reader, the most enjoyable and entertaining material possible. With his posts you have his own personal guarantee that they are of high quality, contain well-thought out wording, and most likely have a bit of humorous content to keep you interested. That, my friend, is the Yoshisaurus difference.
Post by: Watoad on June 03, 2005, 12:00:22 PM
Whenever there is something that I want to do but that looks to me as thought it's going to take a long time to complete, I will continually put it off, thinking that I'll somehow magically have time for it later. Then I'll visit this message board and see an interesting topic, which I'll open thinking, "It'll only take me two minutes to read whatever's in here. No harm done." But then it turns out that there is a book's worth of stuff that I could say, and I end up using a bunch of time to post.
After that I'll feel slightly guilty but still think, "Well, there's still no harm in just checking to see what other topics have received posts since I last went through the list." This will then lead me back to posting again, after which time I'll just repeat and repeat the process until I've used up a seriously large amount of time. All along I could have used the time to do this other thing that I wanted to do, but instead I "accidently" used it to construct posts.
This doesn't happen as much anymore as it used to, but I imagine that it will be a problem for me as long as I'm here.
Conclusion: You will get a reply before I go to Japan. In fact, if you don't get one in the next few days, please send yourself in your next message and pull my hair out. Thank you. ;)
"He is not a fool who gives up what he cannot keep for the sake of what he can never lose."
Post by: Markio on June 03, 2005, 02:40:51 PM
Jeez, I wish they would add the next installment to what happpened to LH after the last issue with him. Lessee, one issue a month, and there's only been three more so far without him since the last one... ARGH! Why do I have to care so much? Or maybe they just don't care enough! At least with the ANIMATED MOVIE MIRAGE STUDIOS IS WORKING ON, they tell us when it will probably come out, 2007.
Thank you for visting my world, come again ... Now entering reality, welcome back.
Post by: Markio on June 04, 2005, 12:50:28 PM
Darn, what is the point of all this? Oh yeah, well, I would want to know what episodes are on that season before I rent it, which means asking Watoad, or looking it up, even though I would want both, for some strange reason.
Thank you for visting my world, come again ... Now entering reality, welcome back.
Post by: Eclipsed Moon on June 05, 2005, 03:43:10 PM
Post by: Markio on June 05, 2005, 05:07:02 PM
The new series Shredder is like a mix of the old series Shredder and Krang, because he's really an Utrom.
Thank you for visting my world, come again ... Now entering reality, welcome back.