Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles copycats were common throughout the '90s. No surprise, since Ninja Turtles remains one of the most famous cartoons/franchises of all time. It's spawned comic books, movies, video games, four different animated series, a live-action series, and more toys than you can shake a stick at. So it's no wonder the premise has been ripped off more times than the fat guy/hot wife sitcom formula.
This list presents some of the most ridiculous and obvious Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles knockoffs to ever grace TV screens and toy shelves. These are the animated shows that blatantly aped TMNT in cash-grabbing attempts to capture the imaginations of children and the wallets of their parents.
The Most Blatant Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ripoffs,
Road Rovers
An all but forgotten series on Kids' WB, Road Rovers aired between September '96 and February '97. The show follows the exploits of five canines who are the pets of world leaders by day, but by night are a team of super-powered anthropomorphic dogs thanks to the experiments of friendly geneticist, Dr. Shepherd (or as they call him, "The Master").
The sixth member of their team is a vicious, rabid rottweiler named Muzzle who is always restrained in a straight jacket and a Hannibal Lecter-esque hand cart. Together, the team is tasked with battling terrorists and bad guys worldwide, particularly the vindictive General Parvo, a name derived from the canine disease that kills puppies. Adorable!
Samurai Pizza Cats
A Japanese-produced cartoon originally airing from 1990-1991, Samurai Pizza Cats is arguably the most blatant ripoff of the Ninja Turtles. A cult hit among anime fans for its rapid-fire pop culture references, Samurai Pizza Cats made no attempt to hide the source of its inspiration. Heck, just look at the title - they're samurai (not ninjas, no, but definitely ninja-adjacent) who love pizza! Have you no shame, Saban Entertainment?
Stone Protectors
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.
Street Sharks
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.
The Bots Master
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.
Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa
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.
Biker Mice from Mars
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.
Battletoads
Battletoads was one of the most popular beat-em-up video games of the early '90s, but not even the people at Tradewest (now a long-forgotten video game company) could deny comparisons to the Ninja Turtles. Just sub out reptiles for amphibians, and nobody will know the difference, right?
In 1992, a pilot for Battletoads (written by none other than David Wise, the head writer of the classic 1987 TMNT animated series) aired, showcasing the sick skills of Rash, Pimple, and Zitz and their adventures in Oxnard, CA, but that was the only episode made. The 'Toads starred in some more video games produced in the mid 90s, including a crossover with Double Dragon, but have since faded into obscurity.
Kung Fu Dino Posse
The most modern series to make the list, the Canadian-South Korean-Singaporean-German-produced 2009 cartoon,Kung Fu Dino Posse managed to actually air in the United States on the Starz Kids & Family channel. The premise is this: Four prehistoric kung-fu fighting dinosaur heroes have spent 65 million years on ice, but they're defrosted in order to battle with the villainous Skor, a dino determined to take over the world or something.
Creepy Crawlers
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.