Random Most Blatant Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ripoffs (10 items)

(#3) Biker Mice from Mars
- Clancy Brown, Rob Paulsen, Ian Ziering, Jess Harnell, Dorian Harewood, Lisa Zane, Jim Ward
Throttle, Modo, and Vinnie are three anthropomorphic alien mice with a penchant for motorcycles who crash-land on Earth in the city of Chicago. Biker Mice from Mars went three seasons, wrapping up in 1996, and unlike the rest of the chumps on this list, actually received an inexplicable reboot in 2006. No slouches, these hog-riding rodents had lines of action figures, comic books, and even video games, but no matter how successful they've been, they're still products of what is basically Ninja Turtles Mad Libs.
(#5) Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa
- Jim Cummings, Jeff Bennett, Pat Fraley
Yet another instance of animal mutations, these ruminants weren't changed by some mysterious ooze, but rather by an irradiated comet (or "cow-met"). For two seasons (in 1992 and 1993), Marshal Moo Montana, the Dakota Dude, and the Cowlorado Kid swore to uphold the Code of the West by protecting their fair town from the villainous Mayor Oscar Bulloney and Sheriff Terrorbull. They even had a line of action figures, a comic book, and an arcade game.
Hey, at least the Cowboys of Moo Mesa took a different approach to the TMNT ripoff by adding a little Southern twang and endless bovine puns.
(#1) Street Sharks
- Andrew Rannells, Matt Hill, Lee Tockar
Here's an original idea: a team of four totally rad skateboarding, roller-skating mutants take on the forces of evil on the city streets. Sound familiar? That's because it's the premise for Street Sharks. From 1994-1997, Ripster, Jab, Streex, and Big Slammu extreme sports-ed their way into America's heart taking on the evil Dr. Piranoid.
They even had their own toy line, Don't believe it? Just ask a young Vin Diesel. No, seriously, click that link. You won't regret it.
(#8) Stone Protectors
- Jim Byrnes, Ian James Corlett, Stevie Vallance, Don Brown
The beautiful thing about the Stone Protectors is that it wasn't enough to knockoff one established hit. Because one hook just won't do, the Stone Protectors are also in a rock band, have magical stones, and take advantage of the inexplicable return in popularity of Troll dolls in the mid-'90s.
What do you get when you mash together entirely too many ideas? Apparently a 13-episode run, a somewhat successful toy line, a video game, comic books, and even a board game.
(#10) The Bots Master
- Ian James Corlett, Richard Ian Cox, Michael Donovan
In 1993, Bots Master attempted to break the teenage-led super team mold that the Turtles laid out by trying something different - having entirely too many characters to keep up with. Oh, and incorporating occasional 3D into the animation.
Our hero is Ziv "ZZ' Zulander (the titular Bots Master), a robotic engineer who works for RM Corp, owned by the tyrannical Sir Lewis Leon Paradim. ZZ's distincly uncomfortable with Paradim's desire for world domination, so he creates a slew of robot freedom fighters. Like, way too many of them to keep track of - there's a rapper, a doctor, a ninja, a cook, a shelf of talking heads, some sports-themed bots, a few that merge together like Voltron, and at least a dozen or so more. The poorly-received toy line didn't even manage to cover them all.
(#7) Creepy Crawlers
- Joey Camen, Heidi Lenhart
Loosely based on the popular toy oven that allowed kids to bake spiders, insects, and assorted bugs using "Plasti-Goop," Creepy Crawlers the animated series aired from '94-'96 with 23 Goop-tastic episodes. In the series, teenager Chris Carter builds a device called "The Magic Maker" (identical to the toy oven) which, combined with cosmic energies that rain down from the sky due to a conveniently-timed planetary alignment, result in the creation of human-sized magic/bug creatures who Chris dubs "Goop-Mandos." Together, they regularly thwart the evil Dr. Googengrime's schemes of world domination.