Descended from giant mutant Earth pandas, a thousand years in the future, Panda Khan is the Samurai ruler of a genetically improved tribe of battlin’ bears. Leaving his alien world in search of great adventure, Khan boarded a Tong pirate ship and using the ancient art of Ting Zing Pao, time-traveled to Earth, 1990. Landing in the sewers, Panda Khan linked up with the Turtles for an unbearably good time.

Living by the code of the Khan, Panda Khan “Khantinues” to help the Turtles combat crime and cruelty wherever he finds it. Outfitted with his protective chain mail and samurai armor, Panda Khan’s hard for the Foot Clan to “bear.”

PANDA KHAN:

Panda Khan was one of my favorite TMNT toys back in the day, so imagine my surprise when I did some research for this build and discovered that he’s NOT an original TMNT creation at all! He was created by a pair (Monica Sharp & David Garcia) who had links to Mirage Studios, and was originally going to appear in the cartoon as well. This is very similar to how Usagi Yojimbo ended up in both the toy & cartoon lines. Panda Khan would appear in a handful of Anthology comics and a Limited Series in the ’80s, and crossed over with both Usagi and the Mirage TMNT. His backstory is that he’s descended from Giant Panda Mutants in a story set a thousand years in the future. Panda Khan is the Samurai ruler of a tribe of powerful “battlin’ bears”- kind of a hallmark of the earlier days of “Anthropomorphic Comics”, back before the Furry Fandom became… what it became.

Maybe he’s goin’ coconuts; maybe he’s goin’ ape-but for sure, he’s bananas-Sergeant Bananas, that is! This crazed critter of the Congo’s got the mutant muscle of a million monkeys! And he’s ready to wreak havoc on the Foot Clan. All because Shredder slopped Retromutagen Ooze over his jungle gym. After wandering through the muck, this soldier of misfortune mutated with a hairy gorilla. Now he’s a gorilla guerilla. Or is that guerilla gorilla? In any case, he’s gonna swing into civilization and sway through the sewers to help the Turtles put an end to the Foot Clan’s reign of terror. With the aid of his pesky primate pal, Larry the Lemur, Sergeant Bananas is just crazy enough to use his iguana gun at the first sight of trouble. So stand back-Sergeant Bananas isn’t monkeyin’ around!

SGT. BANANAS:

A character I always thought was called “Guerilla Gorilla” (apparently, that was his name in a TMNT Magazine), Sgt. Bananas is one of the better-looking “Non-Show” figures. The figure is well-detailed, colorful and comes with some solid accessories. And like a lot of side figures, he comes with a monochromatic “Sidekick”- Larry the Lemur, who has a punk hairstyle and is… completely blue? Now THAT’s a peculiar color choice, given they could have gone with anything.

Just a hop, skip and a jump away from the sewers is another land down under – a place called Australia. It’s outback country, mostly. And there’s not much to do there besides hunting crocodiles and talkin’ a gutful to ratbags and deadheads. That’s why Walkabout took for the States like a possum up a gum tree. He heard all about the Turtles havin’ to do the lolly to make sure the city stays fair dinkum from the Foot Clan. To make himself feel at home, Walkabout became a swagman and lived down under – in the sewers, that is. That’s how he made mates of the Turtle Teens. Together, they chuck a willy against Shredder and his motley goons. And when the boomerang’s hung up for the day, the greenies and Walkabout kick back and enjoy “pizza on the barbie.”

WALKABOUT:

Just when you think they’d topped out on the obvious stereotype by having the guy named “Walkabout” be a kangaroo, it turns out he’s also a CROCODILE HUNTER. And this is in like 1991, remember. So Walkabout is a pal of the Turtles, and intends to “chuck a willy” against the Shredder (I hear that was illegal in Australia until the eighties!). Not the greatest toy, but he’s colorful, has a mean face, and some solid weaponry. As he’s Toy-Only, there’s not much to him, so I made him a full hunter archetype (he’s got an Elephant Gun, after all).