The Big Picture
- Street Sharks attempted to replicate the success of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by featuring teenage characters transformed into massive shark-like hybrids with destructive abilities.
- Extreme Dinosaurs, a spinoff of Street Sharks, introduced genetically enhanced alien dinosaurs who fought against their mortal enemies the Raptors.
- Battletoads, created to rival TMNT's popularity, gained popularity with its difficult gameplay and marketing campaign, and even received a reboot and its own series of action figures.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have become a bonafide phenomenon over the years. Starting from the original Mirage Comics series by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the heroes in a half-shell have gone on to populate a number of animated series, video games, and movies including this month's Paramount Pictures release, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. The series that most folks remember, however, is the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series. Not only was it responsible for catapulting the Turtles to the forefront of pop culture, but it also helped influence future Turtles adaptations, including the 1990 live-action film.
The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series also saw an explosion of animated series racing to chase its success. Like Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and Star Wars before it, the TMNT franchise has cast a massive shadow over pop culture. So it's not surprising that there are animation studios that launched a fleet of series starring plenty of anthropomorphic animal avengers. Some of these series managed to find a life of their own. Others blatantly tried — and failed — to duplicate the TMNT formula. Whatever the reasons for their existence, these shows have managed to find their footing.
Related: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Donatello Is Underrated — But That May Be About to Change
'Street Sharks' and 'Extreme Dinosaurs' Came Close to 'TMNT's Success
The animated series that came close to replicating Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' success was Street Sharks. But what set it apart from its predecessor is the ways in which it sought to be different from its inspiration. While the Turtles were animals who changed into teenagers via radioactive mutagens, the Sharks were teenagers who were transformed into massive shark-like hybrids. The Turtles were skilled warriors who used their ninja skills to evade capture; the Sharks could literally tear through concrete and chew through steel, leaving a wake of destruction in their path. While the Turtles loved pizza, the Sharks ate hamburgers and hot dogs — and weren't big fans of pizza. But the Sharks, much like the Turtles, were marketing gold as they spawned a line of action figures (that were promoted by Vin Diesel, no less.)
Toward the end of its run, Street Sharks introduced a group of alien dinosaurs known as the "Dino Vengers." These characters proved to be so successful that they eventually got their own spinoff show Extreme Dinosaurs — retooled as dinosaurs who were genetically enhanced to be soldiers. Rocketing to Earth, the Extreme Dinosaurs fought against their mortal enemies the Raptors. Unlike Street Sharks, Extreme Dinosaurs only lasted a single season, though it too had a line of action figures from Mattel.
'Battletoads' Is a Total Ripoff of 'TMNT'
The Turtles weren't the only anthropomorphic green beings to make a splash in the '90's. Battletoads, one of the most popular games of the Nintendo era, was specifically created to be an answer to the Heroes in a Half-Shell's rising popularity. There was a trio of massive frogs who used their super strength to battle alien foes. Said alien foes come from a different dimension, much like the Turtles' cosmic foe Krang. But it was Battletoads' marketing campaign that really sold the difference home; print ads brazenly claimed that the game made "Turtles feel like pond scum."
Battletoads quickly gained popularity due to its high levels of difficulty and concept and gained two sequels — even joining forces with Double Dragon. In 2020, a reboot was launched that took on a meta edge with the Battletoads attempting to reclaim their former glory. Like TMNT, Battletoads would receive its own series of action figures. There were even plans for an animated series from DIC following the success of Street Sharks, but it never got past the pilot stage.
'Cowboys of Moo Mesa' Was Weird, Wild and Wonderful
The title for "strangest series inspired by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" has to go to Wild West C.O.W. Boys of Moo Mesa. The premise itself is fairly ridiculous: a massive comet struck Earth in the late 19th century, creating a massive mesa. Every animal on said mesa was bathed in radiation from the comet, mutating into humanoid forms. Somehow this led to a working society, and with that society came law in order in the form of the C.O.W.-Boys; three anthropomorphic cows that used their gunslinging and lasso skills to bring justice to the town of Moo Mesa. These peacekeepers, known as C.O.W. — Code of the West — were led by Marshal Moo Montana and joined by the Dakota Dude and the Cowlorado Kid.
As one might guess, Moo Mesa was fairly out there. A large part of that is due to creator Ryan Brown actually working on the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, where his experience on the series clearly translated to Moo Mesa with the wide range of animal characters that appeared on the show. Brown also knew how to separate his series from the pack, as the C.O.W. Boys feel like distinct characters rather than Turtle clones. Though it only lasted two seasons, Moo Mesa would receive a video game as well as a comic book series from Archie Comics, not to mention a cult following that lasts to this day.
'Star Wars' and 'TMNT' Gave Us 'Bucky O'Hare'
But Moo Mesa wasn't the only animated series to put an intergalactic spin on the TMNT formula. Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars!, like the heroes in a half-shell, started life as a comic book by G.I. Joe writer Larry Hama and Micronauts artist Michael Golden. In the comic, the titular rabbit battles the forces of the Toad Empire. Like Moo Mesa, Bucky and his friends were part of a peacekeeping organization known as S.P.A.C.E. (Sentient Protoplasm Against Colonial Encroachment.) It also took a page from the Star Wars playbook as Bucky was a roguish hero with a heart of gold in the vein of Han Solo. The animated series, though popular, only lasted a single season. Despite this, Bucky went on to star in a series of video games from Konami and even had his own action figure line. Legendary comic artist Neal Adams would also work on a number of Bucky O'Hare projects, including a film adaptation, prior to his passing.
