NickToons TMNT Episode 6- Metalhead

  By Mark Rodriguez with thoughts from Johnny Rodriguez

Originally written on October 29, 2012. Keep in mind, these were our thoughts as they were back in 2012 when the show was new and was written shortly after seeing the episodes after their initial broadcast. At the time we had zero way of knowing what to expect.

This episode starts right in the middle of the action as the Turtles are fighting against The Kraang. Donatello however has bad luck with his weapon as his staff breaks when trying to hit one of the robots. The Kraang soon unleash an energy cannon and start shooting at the Turtles. Leo tosses a shuriken that ricochets around and hits a button on a nearby forklift, making it slam into the Kraang robots and their energy cannon. As the little alien Kraangs run from their destroyed robots, Don decides to take one of the robot bodies with them to study it.

At the lair, Donatello studies the robot parts and decides he can't fight against advanced alien technology with a stick anymore and wants to upgrade. Splinter comes in and agrees, joking to perhaps upgrade his 6 foot staff to a 7 foot staff. Don gets the idea to mix combat with videogames and goes to work.

April is surfing the net looking for any information on kidnappings and possible Kraang sightings and finds a place where they might be located. However, the Turtles can't go out in broad daylight and want to wait til nightfall to check it out. April can't wait and heads off on her own.

April does find one of the Kraang and follows it to their hideout. Sneaking inside, she discovers that they plan to poison the city's water supply with mutagen so they can perfect their studies on it. April is discovered by one of The Kraang but manages to knock it down with a fire hydrant and escape.

At the lair, Leo is watching Space Heroes again and sees an episode where one of the heroes is possessed by an alien and has to be destroyed. Suddenly they hear loud footsteps that rattle the lair. Donatello introduces a robot turtle to the rest, that Mike soon calls Metalhead. Raph jokes that it's the coward's way out using a robot to fight their battles for them. Don challenges the Turtles to fight against Metalhead and Raph is more than happy to oblige. The robot soon takes out Raph in battle, and then defeats Leo and Mike just as easily. Splinter enters the room and seems to approve of Don letting him take Metalhead out for a test spin... but not in actual combat.

Later on the Turtles head out, while Don stays home controlling Metalhead to join the others. Unfortunately, Metalhead is slow, clunky and extremely noisy, slowing down the progress of the other Turtles. They find April and she tells them about the Kraang's plans to infect the city's water supply with mutagen. As they prepare to battle, Leo makes Metalhead stay behind because he will only get in the way.

Metalhead stays with April as the Turtles fight a huge amount of Kraang robots. After some awkward moments of Don trying to make conversation with April through Metalhead, they soon see that the fight isn't going as well and the Turtles are trapped. Don sends Metalhead into action and the robot cleans house, taking down the Kraang with lasers, missiles and flying fists.

During the fight, Don loses control of the robot. One of the Kraang leaves its robot body behind and latches onto Metalhead taking control of it. Now the Turtles have to fight against Metalhead, and are having trouble doing so. Don watches unable to do anything, and Splinter tells him it's time to stop with the videogames. Don prepares to head out, and Splinter reminds him to take his staff.

The Turtles are now facing Metalhead and the rest of the Kraang, until Donatello shows up to help. Don faces off with his own invention while the others deal with the rest of the Kraang. Don gets his staff broken and complains again, but he soon finds a way to outsmart Metalhead and outmanuveur him. Don stabs Metalhead with the rest of his staff, which shuts the robot down and The Kraang that was on it soon flees.

Back to the sewers, Don feels bad since this whole his mess was his fault. Splinter says it's true, but it also Don's fault that he ruined the Kraang's plans to poison the water supply and saved the city. Splinter says all he needed to use was his own ingenuity and a stick. Don agrees and still plans to upgrade his staff, showing off what looks like a staff with a missile attached to it. Everybody runs as it looks like it's about to go off.

Mark's Thoughts-

For some reason I found this episode to be a little bland. I don't know and I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it was because Metalhead really wasn't his own character. He was basically a robotic Donatello stand-in that Don can control from the safety of the lair. I'm surprised Don was able to control him fast enough to be able to counter the Turtles' moves when he was being tested, instead of the robot fighting by itself in 'fight mode' or whatever. I guess we can kinda give it a pass, since Metalhead was created from a Kraangdroid, and those don't have their own AI either.. but still, I would have liked it if he had his own personality. It was good to see that he didn't look all that different from his 80's design, but wow, he was so short compared to the Turtles. If asked which version of Metalhead was my favorite... I'd say the one that appeared in Turtles in Time. The whole deal with him speaking like all 4 Turtles and having their personalities mixed up was just so lame in the 80's show... even back when I was a kid.

Mikey's jokes felt a bit forced and his naming of things, or rather explaining why he names them is getting a little old. April finally got to do something, and we see she that she is brave and determined to get her father back... with or without the Turtles' help. With Don using Metalhead to check her out, April has got to know that he likes her by now, but she seems pretty cold and indifferent to it. I guess my favorite lines of the episode were Splinter considering Don upgrading his 6 foot staff to a 7 foot staff and when April overheard Don's affections towards her through Metalhead's mic and reminding him that the robot wasn't set on mute.

As for Raph, he seemed rather douchey to Leo when he beat him in the videogame, especially when he shoved him aside. I kinda get the feeling that the other 3 are too afraid to put him in his place.

One of the stupidest parts though was when the Turtles were fighting the Kraang-controlled Metalhead, and not one of them had the idea to simply smack The Kraang off it. They even yelled out 'It has to have a weakness!!!' while attacking the robot itself and not the delicate squishy alien that was right on top of it and in plain view. I guess since it was a kiddy show they couldn't very well show Leo or Raph slash or stab the alien, but Mikey could have at least have smacked it off with his nunchucks. And no, it wouldn't have made the fight too short. We could have seen the Turtles TRY to attack the Kraang with the Metalhead fighting them off. But yeah, that was a very glaring noticeable detail. 

It reminds me of the old Zelda cartoon where Link used his sword to zap things. In an episode Ganon replaced it with a normal sword... and suddenly Link was completely defenseless since the sword couldn't shoot lasers... despite the fact that it's STILL A SWORD and still could have been used to cut things regardless. Ah, kiddy cartoon censorship logic.

Johnny's Thoughts-

I think this is a nice episode that actually continues with the story of the turtles on a mission to rescue April's dad. Unfortunately, since that story was ignored in the other eps, it seems sudden that NOW they care about The Kraang and April's father again. I liked the idea that April was brave enough to go out find the Kraang by herself. Seeing April snooping around and getting into trouble reminded me of the original 80s April, but she was able to get out of trouble without the  turtles' help. I liked the new Metalhead, and he looks very similar to the Metalhead seen in the Turtles in Time game, and the old 80s cartoon. This episode finally has some great storytelling trying to continue with the Kraang plot, However, it also feels like the other 2 eps were totally ignoring this plot.