#and April’s aunt’s name is Aggie

[fabuloustrash05]

In TMNT 2012 canon, April mentions she has an aunt that she was living with during the course of season 1 when her dad was kidnapped by the Kraang.

When we meet Casey we learn that he has a dad and a little sister, with a mom who is hinted to be out of the picture (most likely divorce).

I’m still so upset that the 2012 series never explored April and Casey’s personal lives more and we never got to meet their families. I would’ve love to have met April’s aunt and Casey’s little sister!

[turtlethon]

“Night of the Rogues” (part 2)

PREVIOUSLY: In an attempt to defeat the Turtles once and for all, Shredder assembled a group of some of the team’s deadliest enemies: Rat King, Tempestra, Leatherhead, Scumbug, Antrax, Chrome Dome and Slash. This new villainous supergroup caused chaos throughout the city to lure the Turtles out of the sewers, and after capturing our heroes placed them inside the mascot statue of a pest control company, with a time bomb about to eliminate the green teens.

The Rogues seem to have made a significant mistake in not taking April and the rest of the Channel 6 bunch hostage too. April and Irma find themselves unable to reach any of the team via Turtlecom, but meet up with Splinter, whose “sixth sense” has informed him that his students are in danger. He suggests that April contact Casey Jones by phone, while he will use the her Turtlecom to reach... Zach.

No! Flat no!

Really, Splinter? Insufferable child Zach is the second person you reach out to when you need help after Casey? Not REX-1, the super robot cop? Not Bugman, a legit superhero and friend of the Turtles? Not Usagi Yojimbo, a samurai warrior who as far as we know never did get back to his own dimension? Not Mondo Gecko, who was set up to effectively be a neighbour living near the Turtles in the sewers? Not Aunt Aggie, who may be an older lady but is nevertheless one of the most all-round capable heroes in the series? Hell, you could even dig Metalhead out of storage. I guess somehow all of these options escaped Splinter, the guy the Turtles turn to for wisdom, and so for one final time in Turtlethon we’ve gotta accept that this is now a Zach episode.

To her credit, April does get in a shot by saying that she doesn’t think either Zach or Casey will be much help. Splinter, apparently unable to think for more than half a second, insists they’re “the only hope [they] have”, adding that he believes the Turtles “are in the greatest danger of their entire lives”. As much as I enjoy an adventure with high stakes, time bombs are standard fare for the Turtles to deal with, in broadcast time we just watched Donatello disarm one last week.

Did you think that the friends of the Turtles could just use a homing signal to determine where the Turtlecoms are? The next scene seems to exist entirely to shoot down that idea, as Donatello explains to the other Turtles that the metal frame of the pest control statue they’re trapped inside will make it impossible to reach them. Meanwhile, Krang’s excavation project is complete, and has revealed the starship of a legendary space pirate named Captain Logos, which crash-landed a thousand years prior to the city being built. Inside, Shredder and Krang find the Captain’s treasures. Shredder suggests having the Foot Soldiers begin dis-assembling the starship so that it can be rebuilt on the surface, but Krang has another idea, ordering the setup of a teleportation ray instead.

Zach and Casey meet up with April, Irma and Splinter outside the Channel 6 building. Splinter now has some undefined handheld tracking device that doesn’t work in determining the location of the Turtles, and so Zach guides the group in searching for them by foot. (I don’t know why Zach gets to lead, I’d argue that he’s the least capable person here, even Irma has greater credibility.)

The one member of the Channel 6 crew that The Rogues considered worth capturing was Vernon, who is dragged along by Leatherhead as he marches through town with the rest of the group. Cracks start to appear in the Rogues’ united front as Antrax makes an off-hand comment about how the world will soon be ruled by insects, agitating Rat King who dreams of a world conquered by rodents. Tempestra does her best to hold the operation together as Chrome Dome breaks off from the team to recharge, noting that he “has no use for money anyway”. Okay, but... neither do you, Tempestra, you’re basically an overgrown video game sprite.

Splinter and the other allies of the Turtles watch Chrome Dome break into a nearby building and follow him. Inside, Casey attempts to take on the robot but is hopelessly outmatched, getting tossed through the air without ever seen landing, presumably due to Saturday morning rules about how normal humans can be treated. Splinter and Zach attempt to double team the enormous warrior but are easily brushed aside. Eventually the group outwit Chrome Dome by luring him into a hydraulic press, rendering him non-functional.

Zach hooks a standard PC up to Chrome Dome’s head and types “Where are the Turtles”. Somehow not only is the offline robot able to offer up this information but also a real-time countdown for the disintegrator device. With only a little over six minutes remaining, the group rush to the aid of our heroes.

I’m sure everyone is itching to see how our favourite characters are going to get out of their current predicament. I refer, of course, to Bebop and Rocksteady, who have built a tower of wooden crates to reach the trap door. Punching their way through it, The Boys rush off to rescue their boss.

Shredder and Krang are setting up to teleport the starship when Tempestra arrives, requesting the money agreed upon as the Turtles have been defeated. The video game villain is assured by Shreds that her payment will be materialising shortly.

Inside the pest control statue Raphael retains his bad attitude, convinced that no human would ever do anything to help them in their time of need. Zach uses his small stature to slip through an air grate – I'm not sure why a roof-mounted statue of a pest control mascot would have all these facilities, but it does – and he soon frees the team, though a minute of time remains until the disintegrator is due to go off.

The Rogues are thrilled to see the starship materialise, Shredder agreeing to share its riches with them. Moments later the Turtles arrive, using the device to blow up the ship and its contents. None of this is enough to placate Tempestra, who still demands what she’s owed on behalf of her team. Shreds counters that if the Turtles had been finished off as agreed, then none of this would have happened, but is outnumbered and forced to flee alongside Krang, the Rogues hot on their tails. With impeccable timing, Bebop and Rocksteady emerge in a transport module, pulling their bosses inside before tunnelling back underground.

Now down to six members, the group of villains find themselves face to face again with the Turtles, with Donnie declaring that they “can’t beat all of us”. (Considering the only capable fighters the Turtles have added to their side since the last time are Casey and Splinter, I’m not convinced this is a monumental shift in the balance of power.) Realising that they won’t get paid for fighting now anyway, the Rogues break up, scattering into the night. In a rather defeatist moment, Michaelangelo remarks that there’s no point in pursuing them as “you know the villains always get away in the end”.

Splinter points out to Raphael that the events of the evening show how wrong he was about all humans being ungrateful and disdainful towards the Turtles. Raph agrees, but his new, kinder stance is immediately put to the test when Vernon emerges to yell at the team for allowing him to be dragged around town by Leatherhead. Michaelangelo gets the last word, pointing out that Vernon barely qualifies as a regular human being anyway. (Ouch!)

Throughout much of the time I’ve been writing Turtlethon “Night of the Rogues” has loomed large on the horizon, a marker that represents the point where the classic era of the series approaches its end. Here we have, at least on paper, one big blow-out that serves as a celebration not only of the many supporting villains the Turtles have encountered over the course of the show, but also the friends they’ve made along the way. There is a sense throughout that this is indeed a big event episode, but I can’t shake the feeling that the finished product pales in comparison to what it could have been. Shredder finally getting fed up and building a supergroup made up of the coolest villains we’ve seen in the show is the kind of fanservice I can get behind, but the line-up we get here could use some tweaking. So let’s do it.

Rat King, Slash and Leatherhead have all earned their place in this group, though how Shreds found Slash following the events of “Donatello Trashes Slash” remains unanswered. Similarly, while I’m a big Tempestra fan, her inclusion here makes absolutely zero sense, both in terms of her prior defeat at the hands of the Turtles and why a video game character is so keen to get paid. Ideally, then, the show would be allowed more time to show Shredder going around and recruiting each of the bad guys: this feels like a significant enough storyline that it deserves to be a two-part episode.

I hate that I have to say this because I do enjoy cool robots, but for all the hype leading up to his creation Chrome Dome was defeated so quickly that it invalidates his inclusion here. The one thing he had going for him was that he was staggeringly huge, and now he doesn’t even have that to the same extent. Scumbug and Antrax don’t fit either, this should be a group entirely consisting of established villains and each would be better served appearing in their own spotlight episodes.

That leaves us with three spots to fill, though admittedly it’s tough to select villains who are a good fit for this group. I would like to humbly suggest Alpha-1, the super-intelligent Foot Soldier: though Shredder didn’t get along with him, it’s not hard to envision a scenario where Shreds pulls the robot out of whatever dimension he wound up in and is somehow able to regain control over him, forcing him to work as part of the group. Rudolph Cobrato was a one-and-done villain who was defeated at the end of “Snakes Alive!”, but would work great within this group were he to somehow revert to his mutant form; finally Wingnut and Screwloose would provide two villains for the price of one: they were woefully underused in their one and only appearance, and if Zach must appear they have a prior history with him that could be worked into the proceedings too.

As alluded to earlier, Splinter only being able to come up with two allies to call for help and one of them being Zach, of all people, is some weak sauce. My ideal line up, I think, would retain Casey alongside Usagi, Mona Lisa, REX-1 and Aunt Aggie, with April, Irma and Splinter on the sidelines offering support in their own way. Again, we’d need at least two episodes to convincingly round up all these past characters and integrate them into the story, though with only fourteen episodes produced for broadcast in 1993 that’s a bigger ask than it was in years prior.

Armchair booking notwithstanding, the finished product is hampered by the diminished cast of voice actors. James Avery is gone, but I wish this could have been his last appearance instead of “White Belt, Black Heart”, as Shredder’s frustrations boiling over and leading to the creation of his villain supergroup feels like a big enough and fitting way to bow out. The absence of Jim Cummings as Leatherhead doesn’t help either.

And now the goodbyes. Zach (YES!), Tempestra, Leatherhead, Chrome Dome and Slash all appear for the last time here. Antrax and Scumbug won’t be back either, though given that we’d never seen them in the show prior to this, admittedly that doesn’t count for much. Departures will continue through much of the rest of the season, as David Wise begins the process of restructuring the show ahead of the radical departure to come in season eight: of the next five episodes, four will mark the last appearance of established supporting heroes or villains. The first of these will feature the hip-talking friends of the Turtles from Dimension X in “Attack of the Neutrinos”.

[turtlethon]

“Sleuth on the Loose”

Season 6, Episode 16 First US Airdate: December 26, 1992

The Turtles team up again with Agatha Marbles to investigate a series of thefts.

“Sleuth on the Loose” is the season finale of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles season six. This is the only episode of the series credited to Matt Uitz, and is a sequel of-sorts to season three’s “Case of the Hot Kimono”.

April’s Aunt Aggie (Agatha Marbles) makes a return to the series, appearing on TV as she prepares to reveal the answer to a mystery for the assembled cast on a series called “Sleuth on the Loose”. The Turtles enthusiastically watch the show from the Lair, taking bets on who the guilty party is. The broadcast is interrupted by a newsflash from April, reporting on the theft of security equipment from Dynamatic Science Labs. Putting their interest in the show’s “Case of the Missing Guppy” on-hold, the team head to the surface to investigate.

Taking the Turtle Van, our heroes arrive outside the Dynamatic building and meet up with April. She reveals that the crime was pulled off without leaving any signs of a break-in, and introduces the Turtles to Doctor Webb, the company’s director. He provides a tour of the premises, showing the team the last two elements of the security system which “must be protected at all costs”. Later, the Turtles stand guard outside the vault, preparing for a fight, and are flummoxed when one of the components somehow vanishes.

The Turtles meet up with Doctor Webb again, with Leonardo suggesting that the team should take the remaining part back to the Lair to prevent it from being stolen. Webb agrees, but cautions that if it should also fall into the thief’s hands, they could “create something of unspeakable horror”.

While the other members of the team seek further clues regarding the thefts, Michaelangelo is assigned guard duty, staying behind in the Lair’s living room with the last component and watching a monster movie. Suddenly, a beam of light emerges from the TV, pulling the device inside. The other Turtles are stunned upon returning to learn of what has transpired. A further unpleasant surprise follows as April informs the team via Turtlecom that she’s learned the assembled pieces will form a doomsday device. Donatello suggests that the theft of this and the other components must have been performed using a molecular disintegration beam.

Next, we drop in on a laboratory across town, where today’s villain is introduced: yet another mad scientist. This one is the monocle-sporting Professor von Volt, who carries with him an aggressive white cat named Princess. It will come as no surprise to you in this, the one-hundred-and-forty-second episode of the show, to learn that von Volt has approximately two (2) underlings to do his bidding, a tall, dopey guy called Knuckles and a tubby fellow, Garth. After von Volt admonishes Garth for eating his cat’s imported caviar, the group watch as the component that vanished under Michaelangelo’s watch appears in their re-molecularising chamber. Having acquired the last part, von Volt is now ready to assemble his doomsday device.

Donatello builds his own disintegration device, which connects to the Lair’s TV in order to pull the team through it, reforming them in the same location where the stolen part ended up. “Sleuth on the Loose” happens to be airing again as the Turtles prepare to make the jump, and instead of pulling them in, Aunt Aggie – who must have been on-air during a live broadcast – is disintegrated and re-forms in the Lair instead. Weirdly, Aggie initially seems to have no recollection of being in the Lair previously, and it takes her a moment to remember who our heroes are, mistakenly calling them “the Teenage Mutant Ninja Tortoises”. 

In his lab, von Volt picks up on the resulting energy surge from Donatello’s invention, and sends his henchmen off to investigate. Meanwhile, Aunt Aggie – who the Turtles always address as “Miss Agatha” in this episode – agrees to help them investigate the component thefts. She elects to head to the surface with Raphael, picking him as red is her favourite colour.

Aggie takes Raphael to the library, along the way attracting the attention of a passing Knuckles and Garth. The goons peek through the library’s windows, watching as Aggie picks up a copy of Genius Quartely with Professor von Volt’s face on the cover. Having identified the scientist as a likely culprit, Aggie and Raph head to Channel 6 to meet up with April. There, they learn that von Volt was “drummed out of science for his hare-brained theories”, going on to vow revenge on the world.

Now convinced von Volt is the culprit, Aggie travels with Raph to continue their investigations. Along the way they’re jumped by Knuckles and Garth, who trap Aggie in a trash can, rolling her downhill. The TV sleuth almost collides with a passing truck, but is saved thanks to the quick intervention of Raphael, whose sais act as a pair of makeshift barriers that halt her momentum. As Raph frees Aggie from the trash can, Knuckles and Garth use the distraction as an opportunity to escape.

Aggie reveals to Raphael that in the altercation with Garth she was able to pull a white cat hair off his lapel, as well as a glob of a black substance. Further dangers follow, as Aggie almost gets hit by an approaching van before we head into a commercial break. As we return, April’s aunt appears to have vanished following the apparent collision; in a spot we’ve seen before, it’s revealed that she dropped into the sewers via a manhole cover. Along the way, Aggie also managed to mark the bottom of the vehicle with pink lipstick for easy identification later.

In Donatello’s lab, Aggie examines the cat hair under a microscope, determining that it belongs to a breed only found in central Afghanistan. The black glob is a rare type of caviar that the cat has been eating in large quantities. Our heroes now split up to find a gourmet shop where such an item might be sold, and to track down the van marked with the pink lipstick.

Later, Raphael and Aggie spot Knuckles and Garth leaving a store where Solobovian caviar is sold, and watch as the henchmen leave in the same blue van from the earlier incident. Raphael attempts to give chase by requesting the use of a passing boy’s skateboard. The youngster isn’t wowed by one of the Turtles asking for help but is thrilled to meet “Miss Agatha, from TV”, and happily offers up his skateboard to her. The duo uses the skateboard to follow the van back to von Volt’s premises, but find an electrified fence blocking their way in, and wind up climbing a tree to bypass it.

Von Volt becomes aware of the intruders, and deploys a heavily armed “destroyer” robot. Raphael is able to call for backup, however, and the Turtle Van soon smashes through the fencing, with Leo, Mikey and Donnie emerging to do battle. The metallic enemy is soon defeated, but von Volt has another challenge for the Turtles in the shape of an enormous robotic octopus. While the other members of the team take on this machine, Raph watches Aggie use a pole to launch herself onto the now-blinded destroyer robot, relying on the abilities she honed as an Olympic medallist competing in the pole vault event during the 1956 games.

Aggie and Raph turn the robot into a makeshift Kool-Aid Man, travelling on its shoulders as it barges through the exterior of the building. They confront Professor von Volt, who has his men launch further traps to deter our heroes. As the other Turtles continue to battle the robot octopus, Aggie engages in a light sabre battle with Knuckles, demonstrating both her sword-fighting abilities and staggering athleticism as she backflips around the lab before dis-arming the underling. The villain’s sword is sent flying and lands in a nearby control panel, disabling the traps which were preventing Raphael from making progress.

As Leo, Mikey and Donnie struggle with but ultimately defeat the octopus, Aggie confronts Professor von Volt. The villain reveals that it’s too late for her to do anything as the doomsday device has been activated, making a point of disintegrating its key in front of her. The other Turtles arrive to find only twenty seconds are left until the end of the world, but Aggie has a plan, using a nail file as a makeshift key to turn the machine off.

A further problem arises as bolts of electricity begin damaging the roof. Donatello explains that the electromagnetic field generated by von Volt’s machine is attracting a thunderbolt disturbance. With the building now falling down around them, the Turtles and Aggie rush to get the villains, the doomsday device and von Volt’s cat Princess outside before it’s too late. The Turtle van is seen fleeing the site moments before it’s decimated in a huge explosion.

Later, the Turtles say goodbye to Aunt Aggie, but have one last request before she departs, all of them still perplexed by the Case of the Missing Guppy. Before she can finally reveal the solution, a limousine rolls up. Aggie is called away to complete her unfinished episode of “Sleuth on the Loose”, leaving the Turtles frustrated as she drives off without telling them anything.

I don’t know how to feel about this one. You may recall that the first Aggie episode, “Case of the Hot Kimono”, was a mixed bag in itself, a rare-at-the-time adventure with a villain other than Shredder, the mobster Don Turtelli, which was hampered by some particularly wonky animation. As I wrote in my Turtlethon entry for that adventure, watching Aunt Aggie upstage the Turtles and their high-kicking heroics using her more thoughtful approach to crime-fighting had little appeal to me when I was ten, but I had a newfound appreciation for her upon rewatching the episode as an adult; I suspect I’m in the minority on this one and that most of the fandom finds her about as likable as the other human hangers-on the Turtles have repeatedly encountered (Zach, Walt, Howie and their ilk.)

Whatever your personal stance on Agatha Marbles is, I imagine it’ll be solidified by her appearance here, which builds upon the idea established previously that she’s the Ace of all Aces, a person who excels at everything she turns her hand to. I find her entertaining, but fully understand that you may consider her to be absurdly overpowered, particularly in this adventure. Notably, the quiet resentment that the Turtles seemed to have towards Aggie for upstaging them in “Hot Kimono” is nowhere to be found here; presumably they had a newfound respect for her following their time together working to defeat Don Turtelli.

For me, then, having Aunt Aggie get to make a return appearance three years on is more than welcome, guest spots like this helping to anchor the series somewhat and make the 1987 TMNT cartoon feel like a cohesive, ongoing continuity rather than a decade-long stream of endless unrelated stories going nowhere. But just as her first episode was weighed down by a mediocre guest villain and lousy visuals, here we see the same thing happening again. “Sleuth on the Loose” looks okay in screencaps, but must be the jankiest episode in recent memory, with everyone moving and talking in a herky-jerky fashion throughout.

The bigger problem is Professor von Volt, a total zero of a villain with nothing going for him. His henchmen are indistinguishable from those supporting every other D-list TMNT bad guy, his character design and voice actor’s performance entirely unremarkable. Every Turtlethon entry requires me to watch the relevant episode at least a few times – for screen-capping purposes, during the writing process and sometimes in parts afterwards just to double-check things. At no point in any of my exposure to von Volt did I care about the guy or what he was up to. He exists entirely to give Aggie and Raph a mystery to solve, and while it’s fine that the story is largely centred around their sleuthing, it’s regrettable that April’s aunt is leaving the show having never faced off with a villain worthy of her abilities. Naturally, Professor von Volt won’t appear again.

Season six draws to a close with this adventure airing the morning after Christmas Day of 1992, the year of Vernon, “NOT!” and a surprising dearth of Shredder episodes now behind us. Next time on Turtlethon, we go back in order to move forward, as we join the Turtles in the first leg of their notorious European vacation arc.

[turtlethon]

“Case of the Hot Kimono”

Season 3, Episode 33  

First US Airdate: December 4, 1989   First BBC UK broadcast: February 3, 1992

The Turtles and April’s master detective aunt investigate a string of kimono robberies.

Our long journey through season three of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles continues with "Case of the Hot Kimono". This episode is brought to us by the duo of David Carren and J. Larry Carroll, who were also the writers of the excellent "Super Bebop & Mighty Rocksteady".

At Channel 6, April has some sort of late-night chat show setup going, where she’s sitting behind a desk and interviewing guests. Today she’s talking to her own Aunt Aggie (Agatha Marbles). After Burne slips on a banana skin during the broadcast, Aggie uses her master sleuth skills to determine Vernon had been littering. It’s revealed here that Vernon is five foot nine inches tall, which might be useful if you ever find yourself wondering about the relative size of different TMNT characters.

After the broadcast, Aunt Aggie reveals in conversation that she’s aware of April’s connection to the Turtles. April is astonished but with her cover now well and truly blown, she takes it well. The two head off to see what our heroes are up to.

Leonardo and Michaelangelo have just picked up their pizza order. They’re about to get to their next task and get Splinter’s kimono from the nearby dry cleaner when they see the establishment being robbed by two gangsters: Rodney (the taller one who seems to be modelled on Sammy Davis Jr.), and stubby, moustachioed Bruce. Leo and Mikey intervene by hurling what looks to be about two dozen pizzas at the crooks until they retreat. They pull off in their car, having only managed to steal a single kimono - Splinter’s.

In the lair, April introduces Aunt Aggie to Splinter, who’s reduced to wearing a bath robe due to the absence of his kimono. The two have an amusing but revealing exchange where Agatha calls him Mister Splinter, only for him to correct her: “Not Mister, please. Just call me... Master”.

Leo and Mikey barge in and explain how they witnessed the theft of Splinter’s kimono, which he reveals was “his most prized possession”. I guess we can add that to our collection of TMNT lore factoids right next to Vernon’s height. The team – now accompanied by Aggie – vow to get the kimono back.

In a fancy high-rise building we get the kind-of sort-of (re)debut of mob boss Don Turtelli, who chews out Bruce and Rodney for only managing to get a single kimono, ordering them to rob the same establishment a second time. You may recall that another mob boss character with the same name but a very different appearance popped up briefly earlier this season in “Burne’s Blues”. It’s all quite odd; what I suspect happened was that someone liked the idea of v1 Turtelli but he wasn’t considered to be up to the task of being a worthy recurring villain for the Turtles, hence they had another go at the concept.

The Turtles, Aggie, and a horrifically-drawn April hit the streets looking for clues, and just happen to be in front of the same dry cleaners as Bruce and Rodney rob it for a second time. The crooks take off in their limo, with the Turtles meekly chasing after them on foot until a trick oil slick puddle is deployed to send the green team tumbling. Aunt Aggie suggests the oil they used might provide a clue, and she returns with the Turtles to the lair for analysis while April films a report on the robbery.

Don Turtelli watches April’s report and orders his men to capture her. Meanwhile, Donatello works in the lab to determine the source of the oil without success. Aggie steps in, determining that it’s a rare olive oil from the island of Turtelli. Donatello discovers the only place in town where this oil is shipped to is a warehouse on Elm Street – the same one April and Vernon are about to investigate, having just received a tip-off from an informant. Leonardo calls April, attempting to warn her of the danger, but both she and Vernon have just been spotted by Turtelli’s men as we head into the first commercial break.

The Turtles and Aggie drive to the warehouse only to find no-one there. Aggie is on the case looking for clues, and it’s becoming clear by this point that the Turtles are quietly resentful of someone else stealing their crime-fighting thunder.

Across town, Rodney and Bruce have delivered April and Vernon to Turtelli, who deploys his trademark weapon to make them talk: a feather, which he tickles them on the feet with. April refuses to crack but Vernon instantly gives in, revealing everything that’s ever happened in his life from the time he cheated on an English test in school to income tax fraud. Turtelli only ceases his torture of Vernon when his men alert him to events on TV: a fake commercial set up by the Turtles that I can only describe as fuckin’ LEGENDARY.

Donatello is wearing a flimsy cowboy disguise and announces himself as “Kimono Kal”, owner of the new store “Kal’s Klassy Kimonos”, which is an unfortunate acronym to be sure. Upon hearing this, Don Turtelli orders his men to raid this new store.

Kal’s Klassy Kimonos is in reality an elaborate sting operation set up by the Turtles and Aunt Aggie. Bruce and Rodney take the bait, spotting “Kal” outside his store hocking his wares. Leo, Raph and Mikey stow away in a crate of Kal’s goods that he hands over to the gangsters. After Bruce and Rodney head off in their limo, Donatello and Aggie track them on the Turtlecycle, a new toy making its debut here.

While Turtelli takes receipt of his crate of supposed kimonos, a blindfolded and restrained April and Vernon use the distraction to try and escape. A showdown between the Turtles and the mobsters is cut short when our heroes discover April and Vernon have unwittingly ended up on the outside ledge of the building. After the Turtles alert them to their situation, a terrified Vernon knocks both himself and April off the ledge, sending them plummeting.

Act three begins with an awning breaking the fall of both April and Vernon. During all of this, the villains have been able to escape. The team head back up to Turtelli’s penthouse, where they find some scrap paper containing the message “shipping high at 77”. Aggie explains this is a nautical term, meaning they’ll set sail at high tide. The team head off in the Turtle van to the harbour to stop the crooks.

At pier 77, the group split into three teams: Raph & Donnie (in the Sewer Party and Army Tubes), Leo & Mikey (manning the Retrocatapult) and finally April & Aggie, who discover Splinter’s kimono atop a pile of robes right before they’re spotted by the bad guys. The Turtles descend upon the boat and capture Turtelli’s men, but the mob boss is able to escape in a stowed-away speedboat. The Turtles give chase in the sewer tube, eventually forcing the speedboat into a collision with a nearby trash barge.

With all three gangsters tied up, Leonardo presses Turtelli to explain why he was after kimonos. He reveals one of the kimonos has a map sewn into it that leads “to a fabulous buried treasure”, and he needed to obtain all of them to make sure he could secure it. Perhaps inevitably it just so happens that Splinter’s one had the map inside it; even more improbably, Aunt Aggie was aware of it because she helped to help dig up The Lost Treasure of Emperor Nakamura the previous year.

Wait, hold up. Does this mean Aggie got her share of the “fabulous” treasure? Also, sucks to be Splinter because he definitely had that kimono for some time prior to that, he was wearing it when he was penniless and living in the sewers prior to being mutated. If he’d put two and two together, he’d have been way better off.

I also enjoy the shade deployed by Aggie here in that she’s still calling him “Mister Splinter” rather than “Master”. Presumably she can afford to, she’s got “Fuck You” money.

Later, in the lair, Aggie bakes a pizza for the Turtles with a topping of “yak cheese, spinach root and soy bean substitute”. This entire bit seems to be a means of giving the Turtles a way to get back at Aggie after having been upstaged throughout the episode; they tell her when it comes to pizzas, she doesn’t have a clue and laugh in her face as the show ends.

"Case of the Hot Kimono" is that rarest of things during this era, a non-Shredder/Krang Turtles outing. These episodes always felt like the kiss of death back in the day, but watching them back now for Turtlethon I appreciate a little bit of variety; it’s also a nice change to see the team actually be able to successfully capture a villain, even if they can’t take all the credit. Far less enticing is the animation here, which I suspect was handled by the same team behind “Corporate Raiders from Dimension X” as many of the same issues are present: barely drawn characters, mismatched voices and repeating animation being used to paste over visual cracks are all on display again here.

Aunt Aggie completely overshadowing the Turtles is also something I’m a lot more on-board with than I was in 1990, perhaps just because I’m closer in age to her now than I am to the green teens. I would absolutely watch a spin-off series set in the TMNT universe that's just Aggie solving mysteries, perhaps with only occasional appearances by the regular Turtles cast. We’ll see her again in a few years, as she’ll in season six’s “Sleuth on the Loose”.

The undisputed highlight of this episode is the “Kimono Kal” commercial. It was completely lost on me at the time as a UK viewer that "Kimono Kal" was a nod to Cal Worthington, whose ads were a regular fixture on local TV throughout the west coast of the US for decades. It’s a familiar trope as every time a shady used car dealer in a cowboy hat appears in a movie or TV show this is who they're referencing (see also the RV dealer in "Call of the Simpsons").

NEXT TIME: Shredder and Krang return as normal service resumes with “Usagi Come Home”!