It’s time for more TMNT reviews! This time, it’s the key mooks of Shredder during the early seasons of the 2012 Nickelodeon series.

DOGPOUND/RAHZAR (Chris Bradford)

-Rocksteady & Bebop were initially not used in the 2012 Nick Toon- instead, Shredder’s top henchmen were two human goons- Chris & Xever. However, both were very quickly turned into mutants themselves. Chris Bradford, voiced by eternal villain Clancy Brown, was a martial arts celebrity with a line of dojos, but was secretly a ninja trained by the Shredder- after facing the Turtles a few times (initially pretending to be friendly with Michelangelo), he came into contact with Mutagen and transformed into a dog-man called Dogpound. Despising this, he was even more angered when, a season later, he contacted MORE Mutagen and became a gigantic, wolflike skeletal creature now called Rahzar (after the movie villain). He spends much of his time bickering with Xever, but is a loyal henchman of Shredder’s, sticking by him constantly.

-Bradford revels in the power of his Rahzar form, but again can’t beat the Turtles. He allies with Rocksteady & Bebop in later seasons, but is killed in a massive group battle when he pins Leonardo down and Leatherhead tackles him, dragging him into the depths around Coney Island, where he drowns. He is resurrected and sides with the boss when he’s possessed by a demon- Tiger Claw helps kill Rahzar here, knocking him into a portal along with the Shredder.

-Dogpound, and even the more powerful “Rahzar” form, were both pretty typical for the genre- High-End Jobbers. He was enough to challenge the Turtles for a short time, but could only handle one himself- the whole group would defeat him easily, as would a solitary Splinter. His asymmetrical body and increased bulk cost him a lot of stealth as Dogpound, much to his chagrin- as a human, he was much stealthier and more acrobatic. As Rahzar, he was faster and stronger, usually taking at least a couple Turtles or trickery to beat.

FISHFACE (Xever Montes, aka Mr. X)

-Xever joins Bradford as one of Shredder’s top two agents in the first season of the 2012 Nick Toon- a slender Afro-Brazilian, he is a lethal crimeboss and doesn’t get along with Bradford, but is mutated along with him. He transforms into a helpless fish-man soon called “Fishface”, and becomes useless until Baxter Stockman builds him some legs, at which point he becomes a speedy adversary. But of course once Rocksteady & Bebop become a thing, he’s rapidly de-emphasized and stops mattering. Eventually his gear is broken again, and he ultimately decides to go back to the simpler life of being a common crook, abandoning a resurrected, demon-possessed Shredder & Rahzar to their doom.

-Fishface got a huge does of “New Villain Stink” when he first mutated and gained his legs, knocking out Michelangelo with a single kick and poisoning Raphael with a venomous bite. But then of course he turns into a jobber.

TIGER CLAW (Takeshi)

-Tiger Claw was introduced very randomly, two years into the run of the 2012 Nick Toon. An assassin from Japan, he was mutated off-camera by the Kraang and just sorta shows up under the Shredder as his new #2 guy. He gets a large amount of “New Villain Stink” immediately, putting the Turtles on the defensive and they have to be bailed out by Splinter. He is sent into a portal and is thought dead, but turns up with an eyepatch and a newfound grudge with the Turtles. The other henchmen of Shredder’s fear him, and he maintains a bit of an aura, but is quickly “just another guy” without many crazy feats- it’s just established that he can beat up Fishface, Bebop & Rocksteady.

-Eventually, we get more backstory- his sister Alopex (a fox mutant originally from the IDW Comics) appears, and it turns out they were mutated by the Kraang DECADES ago, and were eventually rivals- she cut off his tail and disappeared. They fight once more, Alopex winning but choosing to spare his life- ungrateful, he attacks with his freeze gun, and so she slices off his right arm. In the final arc in the series, he discovers that Shredder has been killed by Leonardo, and makes an unholy ritual to summon a dragon to resurrect him & Rahzar. However, this turns out to be a mistake- the Dragon has possessed the villains and plans an apocalypse in New York, so Tiger Claw allies with the Turtles to stop them- he personally throws Rahzar into the netherworld, then teams up with the good guys to push Kavaxas-Shredder in as well.