NickToons TMNT Episode 16 The Pulverizer

 By Mark Rodriguez

Originally written on Saturday, February 16, 2013. 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 was sure a hell of an episode. Similar to Alien Agenda, this one ties together several plot threads and characters which makes it an awesome episode, despite the lame character in the title. Luckily the episode doesn't focus too much on The Pulverizer. The real stars of the show were the Shell Raiser and finally seeing the Xeverfish back in action. Let's begin.

The episode opens with The Kraang being frustrated since they can't find the location of the Power Cell Leatherhead gave to the Turtles in an earlier episode. Without it they can't open the portal to their home dimension and begin their true plan.

In the sewers, Donatello shows the Turtles that he has rigged up the subway car from the Leatherhead episode into their new Turtle Vehicle. Mike soon names it the Shell Raiser and everyone agrees that it's the perfect name. Don shows them that the vehicle is powered by the Power Cell, and as long as it's being kept in a special lead container, The Kraang won't be able to detect it. The Turtles all hop inside and go out on the town with their new ride.

As they drive, they spot the Purple Dragons robbing something. Before the Turtles hop in, a guy dressed like the Turtles hops in to stop them. Calling himself  'The Pulverizer', he talks the talk.... but is soon beat up by the Purple Dragons. The Turtles jump in to save him, but The Pulverizer keeps getting in the way, making the fight a lot more complicated. During this, Fong, one of the Purple Dragons (that Leo somehow knows by name...???) runs off with the objects they stole.

The Turtles are angry and annoyed at The Pulverizer messed up what could have been an easy fight with the Purple Dragons and tell him to leave. The Turtles go back in their Shell Raiser and drive off. However, the back of Pulverizer's bandana got caught in the car door... so he is dragged off and winds up in their lair.

The Turtles aren't sure what to do with Pulverizer and ask how he even knew about them. The costumed fanboy tells them he saw them when they were fighting the giant Baxter robot in the 'I think his name is Baxter Stockman' episode. This inspired him to make his own Turtle costume and fight crime. The Pulverizer sees some of Don's stuff and says it looks like what the Purple Dragons were stealing. Don says it's Kraang tech and wonder why they'd be stealing it. They figure out that Baxter Stockman must be sending them to do it. Sure enough we see that Baxter has finally finished perfecting Xever's robot legs and breathing machine, and now he can use them as good as when he was human.

Leo, Raph and Mike head off to find Baxter, leaving Don with Pulverizer. Don stays behind to work on the Shell Raiser and The Pulverizer continues to bug him. Don offers to train him so he can see how difficult it is to be a hero. During the training, Pulverizer accidently rolls into Splinter's room. Splinter asks Don what the guy is doing in the lair. Don says he will go put himself in danger regardless of what he says so he might as well train him to defend himself. Splinter agrees to it but reminds Don that he is responsible for anything The Pulverizer might do.

The Turtles find Baxter and demand to know what he's up to. Baxter unveils Xever with his new robot legs and Leo jokes, calling him 'sushi that delivers itself'. Xever soon shows he's still got his dangerous kick moves and Mike calls him Fishface. Raph manages to pin Fishface's legs to the wall and asks what else he has besides legs. Fishface bites Raph on the shoulder, and even though the Turtle manages to push him off, he is now poisoned.

Mikey watches over Raph and texts Don about the situation while Leo tries to stop Fishface. The Pulverizer drives the Shell Raiser as Don works on an antidote based on the symptoms that Mikey is describing to him. Leo is soon defeated by Xever, leaving Mikey alone to face him as well as Baxter and the Purple Dragons.

The Shell Raiser crashes through the wall and shoots Xever out of the scene. Unfortunately this caused the lead container with the Power Cell in it to crack and now they have to go back underground before The Kraang can find them.

As soon as they're back on the road, they are soon surrounded by Kraang driving all sorts of cars and helicopters. Some of them even have jet packs and fight against the Turtles on top of the vehicle. The Turtles are soon forced to stop and fight it out with The Kraang, leaving Pulverizer alone in the Shell Raiser. One of The Kraang sneaks inside the Shell Raiser and manages to steal the Power Cell. As The Kraang runs off to a helicopter, The Pulverizer tries to stop him but fails. Don is the closest to the helicopter but sees the Pulverizer being attacked by The Kraang. Don sighs and chooses to save him, as The Kraang manage to get away with the Power Cell.

The Turtles are angry that the aliens got away thanks mostly to Pulverizer's interference. Don takes some of blame saying the lead container wouldn't have cracked if he hadn't smashed the Shell Raiser through the wall. The Pulverizer asks if they will continue his training and the Turtles tell him to leave. The fanboy says he will continue to fight crime no matter what they say. As for the Shell Raiser, without the Power Cell to power it, the episode ends with the Turtles being forced to push it all the way home.

My Opnions-

This was an awesome episode in many aspects but the title character himself is kinda lame. I understand he's meant to be lame, but just wow. We never even got to find out his real name, which made it annoying for me having to use Pulverizer every time I mention him. I do like the little shout-out to the 80's toon with him having the initialized belt-buckle though. I wonder if we'll see him again, or if we really want to. I do have to say, he kinda reminds me of Dan Hibiki from Street Fighter with his overconfident 'I can spin a bo so that makes me a full fledged ninja master' attitude, and it was entertaining to see Don fill the role of sensei for a while. And it was funny when even Splinter himself called the guy a doofus.

Now for the other things, The Shell Raiser is an awesome vehicle. Since it is basically a section of a subway car, this makes the vehicle huge on the inside, which makes it perfect to fill it with screens, monitors and other devices. I like how the screens can show them if things are on the roof. I don't question the Turtle Van, but I did wonder how there was all that free space in the back of the van to have a computer with radar and whatnot and stand around it. Having the vehicle be a subway car made it perfect for such space. Plus this vehicle can not only tun along rails like a subway car, it can also roll out wheels for it to hit the road.

 I'm really surprised it took so long to appear since it was in the intro theme and was advertised as the Turtles' new main vehicle since day one. I do like that while the Turtles got to enjoy their joyride through the city, Leo, Mike and Raph still stuck to hopping the rooftops when it came to finding Baxter. Unlike the cartoon shows, no matter which version of the Turtles we're talking about, the Turtles never drove around in their own official Party Wagon or Battle Shell in the comics and were always lurking the shadows and jumping across rooftops. I liked how the new show went with this and was a little afraid we'd never see it again after their new TurtleMobile was unleashed. It's too early to tell now, but I assume we can still see some more rooftop hopping until Don finds a new power source for the Shell Raiser.

Still wondering what the hell are those things the Shell Raiser fires off? Even in the theme song, I can't tell what those things are? Rolled up balls of garbage?

Finally we have Xever, finally back in action, and man, it was about time wasn't it? Since his mutation, he's been stuck swimming around Shredder's moat and the last episode gave hints that he was slowly coming back. Now he's back and more dangerous than ever, and for those that had any doubts that he would lose his sweet kick moves with large clunky robot legs, this episode shows he's still got them. That scene with him bouncing from side to side as he attacked Leonardo in mid-air was just awesome. And to top it off, he has a dangerous venomous bite that nearly took out Raph. I do wonder how the Turtles will avoid his poisonous teeth in future episode, unless they go with Don having everyone injected with the antidote beforehand. Either way, it's going to be a very intense battle whenever Dogpound and Fishface team up against the Turtles.

I loved this episode. Despite the title, coulda used less Pulverizer and more of everything else. Or the episode could been called 'The Shell Raiser' instead. But just like the last episode was more about Karai and The Kraang and not so much about April being chased by an Elvira-voiced schoolteacher, this one had more than just... that guy. Even so, one major threat remains. The Kraang won and now have their Power Cell. What will happen next? And how pissed will Leatherhead be when he finds out the Turtles messed up and couldn't protect the Power Cell as they promised? Cause yeah.... joy riding throughout the city in a subway car powered by it is hardly keeping it out of harm's way.

We also got a cool Metalhead cameo.