Who the Clix? is a series of articles featuring information on comic book characters that have been made into figures for the popular tabletop game Heroclix. These articles are meant to help Heroclix players learn more about the characters behind their favorite pieces.

What Else editions take a look at some of the greater storylines and alternate realities that have been represented in Heroclix through the years.

Today we look at the most well known version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The 1987 Animated Series



Appearances in Heroclix: TMNT, TMNT 2: Heroes in a Half-Shell

First Appearance: CBS October 1, 1988

Notable Members: Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello, Turtle Van, Krang, Shredder, Bebop, Rocksteady, Baxter Stockman

The Beginning

Hamato Yoshi is a member of the Foot Clan that loves art history. He is banished from the Foot Clan when one of his students, Oroku Saki, pins his dogi to the wall with a knife. When Yoshi goes to bow to a visiting master he is unable to and pulls out the knife. This turns an insult into an assassination attempt and leads to Yoshi’s banishment.

Splinter and the Turtles

Yoshi arrives in New York City without resources or friends. He turns to living in the sewers to survive and takes the rats on as friends. One day, four baby turtles are accidentally dropped down a sewer grate and taken in by Yoshi. Some time later he returns to find them covered in a strange glowing ooze. Yoshi tries to clean the turtles off and instead exposes them to his dna, transforming them into humanoid creatures. The ooze also interacts with rat hairs on Yoshi, transforming him into a humanoid rat.

Yoshi raises the turtles as his sons, training them in the ways of ninjitsu. He also names them after his favorite Renaissance artists. One day, the Foot arrive in New York City and the old rivalry is renewed with Splinter and his Turtle apprentices battling against Oroku and his minions.

Early on, the Turtles go to Baxter Stockman’s laboratory and discover his Volkswagen van. Donatello modifies this van (after driving it down the stairs) and transforms it into the Turtle Van.

Shredder, Krang, Bebop, Rocksteady, Baxter Stockman and the Foot

After framing Yoshi, Oroku is given leadership of the Foot Clan. Oroku wastes no time in turning the once honorable Foot into a criminal organization that terrorizes Japan. Oroku tracks Hamato to New York City, planning to finish his rival’s destruction. While in New York he allies himself with the alien brain from Dimesion X, Krang. Krang had ruled Dimension X with an iron fist until he was overthrown and stripped of his body. Oroku builds himself armor and begins calling himself the Shredder, plotting and scheming with Krang from the massive war machine the Technodrome.

After encountering the Turtles for the first time, Shredder realizes that he must even the scales of battle. He uses the same ooze he had poured down the sewers years before to transform two of the criminals in his employ into the mutants Bebop, a warthog, and Rocksteady, a rhino. The pair prove ineffectual time and time again, leading Shredder to reach out to others.

Shredder eventually employs the inventor, Baxter Stockman, to build an army of rat catching “mousers.” Though this plan is also foiled by the Turtles, Shredder continues to use Baxter’s genius in his plans. Stockman eventually proves to be more trouble than he is worth and Shredder trades him for Bebop and Rocksteady, who had are trapped in Dimension X with Krang. During the teleportation, a fly is on Baxter’s clothes and the dna is intermingled. This leads to Baxter being transformed into a giant mutant fly. The transformation drives Baxter crazy, leading to him attacking both the Shredder and the Turtles. However, his madness eventually leads him back to the Shredder’s side.

The End

After years of battle, the Turtles are finally able to banish the villains and the Technodrome to Dimension X, destroying its engines and portal generators. Without a means to return to the Earth, Shredder, Krang and their ilk are trapped and no longer a threat to the Turtles. Baxter’s fate is less appealing as he is lost in dimensional limbo.

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