TMNT Saturday Morning Adventures Continued # 19

By Mark Rodriguez

Over the course of several adventures, the Shredder ended being trapped between dimensions while Krang tries to figure out how to bring him back. Meanwhile the Turtles had recently fought against a new group of villains called The Pantheon. While they returned home, the leader of the Pantheon, Old Hob, ended up stranded on Earth.

"Bullion for You" opens with April O'Neil covering a story at a gold depository in New York City. She interviews a man named Ken Ziff who states the gold is protected by his security system which he considers unbeatable. Krang and Shredder watch this on TV as the alien brain surmises that they could use the gold to reinforce the circuits of the dimensional portal. Elsewhere, Old Hob also watches, having been living in someone's apartment while the owner is being held captive.

Ken states his security has laser grids, pressure sensitive plates, silent alarms and more. He comments that if a thief somehow got past all of the 'usual stuff', they would have to deal with G.R.E.G.G. April inquires about what that is, and Ken says it's the crown jewel of his security system. The reason for this interview is to personally dare anyone to try to break into the vault. April asks if that is such a good idea, and Ken says if a thief manages to so much as touch one of the gold bars, he will pay for their bail himself.

Later on, April tells the Turtles about this as they play tennis in the lair. April can't believe Ken would dare people to rob him. Leo asks if the city will shut him down, but April says he convinced everyone that things will be safe. April doubts that since Ken even mentioned that one of the security features he is most proud of is the magnetic floor to keep the floor there. Donatello points out that gold isn't magnetic so that won't do any good. Raphael cheers as his team won the game.

April says the security system would keep all the regular crooks out, but she's worried about the ones with more advanced technology. Splinter agrees he wouldn't want their enemies to have millions of dollars worth of gold at their disposal. He tells the Turtles it might be worth to watch over the bank for a few nights.

A few nights later, the Turtles are watching over the gold depository being bored out of their minds since nothing exciting has happened. Raphael points out all they seen was three of Don Turtelli's goons getting zapped by a taser hidden in a wall, which was at least funny to watch. Michealangelo says maybe the security system isn't so bad. Leonardo says they're about to find out as they noticed that Bebop has arrived on the scene. 

Bebop heads over towards the front gate, as the ghostly forms of Shredder and Rocksteady (Rocksteady was also stuck between dimensions in a failed attempt to free the Shredder) follow him. Bebop uses his communicator as a camera so Krang can see what's going on. Once inside, Krang's sensors detect another presence inside. Shredder asks if it's the Turtles. Krang wisecracks that he's sure the Turtles broke into the vault before they could.

Bebop asks if he should leave. Krang says he should do what he does best and destroy whoever he finds in the vault. Bebop rips the meta door off its hinges as a voice tells him to stop. Bebop steps on the pressure-sensitive floor which triggers the alarm. Old Hob was already in the middle of robbing the place when he tell Bebop he just ruined days of him reprogramming the computers that monitor the pressure-sensitive floor.

Bebop charges towards Hob, who flips over him. Hob says he disabled the alarms but the G.R.E.G.G feature will activate soon. Hob kicks Bebop towards the pile of gold. Bebop says he needs the gold to fix the dimensional portal so he can get his friends back. He grabs one of the gold bars and chucks it towards Hob, who ducks under it. 

Bebop and Hob are at each other's throats when the Turtles arrive. Raphael says they would have arrived sooner but someone forgot the grappling hooks and they had to take the long way in. Michealangelo recognizes Old Hob and Donatello says he must have followed them through the portal when they escaped the Pantheon's pocket dimension.

Bebop and Hob realize that both of them hate the Turtles, so they form a temporary truce so they can fight them. Bebop runs towards the Turtles, who ask about Rocksteady. Hob says he won't let 'these punks' ruin his plans. Raphael says he's confused, since the Frogs are the Punks. Personally I never saw it with their brightly colored Florida shirts, but ok.

Just then G.R.E.G.G shows up which turns out to be a golden-colored Chrome Dome. G.RE.E.G.G says the acronym stands for Guardian Robot That Excels at Guarding Goods. He says he's aware that Guard is used twice in there, but he didn't choose the acronym. Bebop punches the robot, knocking it back. Old Hob decides to make a break for it while everyone is distracted, and forgets just how heavy a bag full of gold is.

Bebop and Chrome Dome trade punches and the Turtles figure there's not much they can do since the robot plans to arrest the mutant warthog anyway. Leonardo turns his attention back towards where Old Hob could have gone. Bebop headbutts Chrome Dome which rattles his circuitry which reboots him back to his original programming. Chrome Dome uses his chest laser to blast Bebop away and now turns his attention to getting revenge on the Turtles.

Chrome Dome fights the Turtles and tells them he was disassembled and sold at an auction, where Ziff purchased him. He blames the Turtles for being forced to obey Ziff's orders. Bebop gets up and decides to make a run for it while the Turtles are still fighting the robot. Leonardo says Splinter will be disappointed that both Hob and Bebop got away. Raphael says at least they stopped them from emptying out the vault.

Raphael goes behind Chrome Dome and tries to access the panel behind his head. Chrome Dome tosses Raph into the others and says Ziff was at least smart enough to reinforce his brain casing. Chrome Dome says he would have to be completely immobilized if they want to get to his circuit boards. Raphael complains about about being the one being thrown into people. Donatello gets an idea and runs off, telling the others to keep the gold-plated robot busy.

The Turtles continue to fight with Chrome Dome to no avail, when the robot suddenly feels heavy. Chrome Dome falls to the floor and is unable to move. Donatello explains that the security system includes an electromagnet that won't affect the gold but will affect the robot. Donatello says he can find a control panel to shut Chrome Dome off and let the police guard the gold. Raphael asks if he can hurry up so he can shut off the magnet. His favorite sai is also stuck to the floor and he wants it back.

Hours later at Krang and Shredder's lair, Krang is berating Bebop over getting away without snatching a single gold bar, despite the fact that Turtles were distracted. Old Hob shows up and he says he's not there to sell cookies. Krang is surprised and Hob says he knows who 'General Krang' is, and he figured out how to find him. Hob says Krang has something he needs, which Bebop mentioned during their fight. Hob tells Krang it's time they talk about dimensional portals.

My Thoughts-

I didn't notice that Chrome Dome's legs were on the cover, which would have given the surprise reveal away. It's easy to miss because the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' logo is right on top of it, but the variant cover showcase that's at the end of each issue shows the cover art without the logo in the way.

So this was a fun story. I've always enjoyed the rare moments that Bebop worked on his own or was the major focus of an episode. Maybe I just really liked his voice, but he was always my favorite of the two henchmutants. I do have to say though, even I thought it was dumb for Bebop to not even steal a few gold bars when he decided to make a break for it.

I do have to say, there are a lot more punches thrown around here when compared to the old show. Most of the time, Bebop and Rocksteady would just use their laser guns, and as the seasons got sillier and sillier, we rarely saw them take a swing at the Turtles. I do wish Bebop landed a few hits on Hob though, but he did lay the smackdown on Chrome Dome. 

Speaking of which, this is the second time that Chrome Dome was involved and Shredder and Krang haven't made any attempts to get him back. I don't think they were in issue 6, but Chrome Dome was all over TV for weeks. You think they would notice.

Other than callbacks to previous issues, and a shoutout to Don Turtelli and the Punk Frogs, this issue wasn't packed with tons of deep cuts, but that's also a good thing. We don't need that in every issue. I don't recall Raphael specifically being the Turtle that gets thrown around the most. Due to the limits of what characters were allowed to do during a fight back in the day, most of the time the bad guys are reduced to throwing objects at the Turtles, or throwing the Turtles around. That would be towards all four of the Turtles, not just Raphael.

Pretty fun issue. Most of all, now we got Hob meeting up with Krang. They both want to fix the dimensional portal for different reasons, so we'll see what plans they'll come up with when working together. Old Hob does seem much more serious than the usual people that Krang surrounds himself with.