Hot Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X

**Hot-Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X** is episode number 4 of the *1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* cartoon series.

It is the fourth episode of season 1 (1987). This episode of the show is part of the *Heroes in a Half Shell* arc. It was written by David Wise and Patti Howeth, and directed by Yoshikatsu Kasai. It originally aired on December 17, 1987, in syndication. It is available on DVD in the box set released on April 20, 2004.

## Synopsis

The Turtles take over what's left of Baxter Stockman's equipment, to help them track Shredder and the Technodrome and create the turtle Van. Shredder opens a portal to Dimension X in hopes to obtain new weapons. Instead, The Nutrinos - three teenage hot-rodders, and two of Krang's militant Stone Warriors, General Traag and one soldier, come through.

## Plot

In the Technodrome deep under New York City, Krang reminds The Shredder that once again he has failed to destroy the Turtles. Krang demands a "body", mentioning his old home, Dimension X - which gives Shredder the idea to open the recently completed "Trans-Dimensional Portal" so that he can retrieve advanced weapons to use against the Turtles. However, when Shredder opens the portal, he lets out three teenage Neutrino in flying cars, chased by a flying jeep piloted by two of Krang's Stone Warriors. The Neutrinos blast through the Technodrome and escape. Bebop and Rocksteady fire on the Stone Warriors, General Traag and Granitor, until Shredder establishes that they work for Krang.

Meanwhile, the Turtles and April O'Neil finish rebuilding Baxter Stockman's old van into the "Turtle Van." It has modern equipment that helps the Turtles locate the Technodrome, which is under the World Trade Center. Suddenly, the Neutrinos burst out from a subway station, and the Turtles decide to pursue them, believing them to be Shredder's agents.

The two Stone Warriors, also chasing the Neutrinos, encounter their old master Krang without a body. Krang blames Shredder for releasing the Neutrinos, whom he labels "juvenile delinquents" that hate war and love fun. Shredder gives the Stone Warriors a "Technorover" to aid their chase of the Neutrinos.

Meanwhile on the streets, the Turtles use the Turtle Van's catapult to catch the Neutrinos. When the Turtles discover the Neutrinos do not work for Shredder, they decide to be friends. They all go to "Clowntime Food and Games" for pizza and arcade games, where the Neutrinos describe the war in Dimension X. April is worried what else may come from Dimension X. Suddenly the building is leveled by a missile attack from the Stone Warriors. The Turtles jump inside the Turtle Van, and the Neutrinos jump into the flying cars. As the Neutrinos fire their laser guns at the Stone Warriors, Leonardo leans out the window and slices the Techno-Rover's wheels with his katana. This allows the Turtles, April, and the Neutrinos to escape before the police arrive. The Stone Warriors retreat back to the Technodrome, after releasing a weather satellite that, instead of providing weather data, "makes weather." Within two hours time, the weather satellite will create a devastating storm and allow them to evade the police and army.

Back in the Turtles' sewer lair, the Neutrinos tell Splinter that Krang was banished from Dimension X, lost his body, and is now just a brain. Splinter and the Turtles conclude that this is the same brain that Michelangelo encountered when they defeated Baxter Stockman's mousers at the end of the episode "A Thing About Rats". Splinter also realizes Shredder has been getting his advanced technology from Dimension X. He fears that Krang will bring his Stone Warriors to Earth. The Neutrinos and the Turtles agree to team up to send Krang and the Stone Warriors back to Dimension X.

Up on the streets, the weather satellite is causing snow in June. The Neutrinos, the Turtles, and April go to the Technodrome, where they find the Transdimensional Portal. The Turtles destroy the Foot Soldiers, defeat Bebop and Rocksteady, and send the Stone Warriors through the portal back to Dimension X. The Neutrinos also go home to Dimension X, after giving one of their flying cars (a "Starcruiser") to the Turtles. The Turtles hurry to the surface to disable the weather satellite. They fly up to it using the star mobile, so that Leonardo can cut the weather satellite in half with his katana, destroying it and saving the city.

Back in the Technodrome, Shredder finally agrees to give Krang a body so Krang himself can destroy the Turtles.

At the Turtles' sewer lair, April reads the story "The Tortoise and the Hare" out loud as Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael drift to sleep. Leonardo enters the room, cleaning his katana, and suggests that they need their rest, vowing to find Shredder on the morrow...

## Characters

* Donatello
* Leonardo
* Michelangelo
* Raphael
* Splinter
* April O'Neil
* Dask (debut)
* Zak (debut)
* Kala (debut)
* Shredder
* Krang
* Rocksteady
* Bebop
* Scrag (mutates)
* Grunt (mutates)
* Dumbo (mutates)
* Dopey (mutates)
* General Traag (debut)
* Granitor (debut)
* Police Chief
* First Clown
* Second Clown

## Vehicles

* Turtle Van (debut)
* Flying Rock Soldier Jeep (debut)
* Neutrino Starcruisers (debut)
* Technodrome
* Technorover (debut)
* Pick-Up Truck

## Locations

* Turtle Lair
* Earth's crust
* Technodrome
* Baxter's lab
* City streets
* Clowntime Food 'n' Games

## Home media releases

### VHS

* *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Hot Rodding Teenagers*
* *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Epic Begins*

### DVD

* *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume 1*
* *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Complete Classic Series Collection*

## Notes

* First appearance of the Technodrome's portal chamber and Krang and Shredder's dimensional portal generator.
* First appearance of the Turtle Van in its current form.
* First appearance of General Traag and the only appearance of Granitor.
* First appearance of a Techno-Rover.
* Some of the members of Bebop and Rocksteady's gang make cameos in their mutated form. Scrag is a mutant bat, Grunt is a mutant lizard, the Bald Punk is a mutant bear, and Dopey seen is an unspecified mutant. The punks mutations also seem incomplete, as with Shredder mentioning this, with Scrag having no visible wings, despite being a bat, the Mohawk Punk not having a tail as he is a mutant lizard, the Bald Punk's arm colouring is off with the colour of his head, (however this could just be an animation error) and the Punk with the cap looking completely deformed and ugly in appearance.
* Granitor's name is never spoken in the show and he remained unnamed until the release of his bio in *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game.*

### Animation Errors

* Donatello's Bō staff is drawn short in some instances in the episode, particularly when he's fixing up the Turtle van.
* When Shredder turns towards Bebop and Rocksteady to call them losers, Bebop's visor is black.
* Donatello straps himself in next to Michelangelo in the Turtle van's maiden voyage down a flight of stairs, but if you look closely through the windows, some shots show him in the back seat. Later on, it's Raphael in the front seat..
* There's a scene where the Turtles try to make a break for the Turtle Van, while the Stone Warriors fire on them. Strangely, while the sound effects indicate that they're shooting, the animators apparently forgot to draw the laser beams for a couple of shots.
* Inside the Techno-Rover, Granitor speaks in General Tragg's voice.
* When the police surround the Stone Warriors, the police cars are rendered in all sorts of different colors.
* Leonardo fights his way through a few foot soldiers and knocks them down, but when Bebop grabs him and tosses him aside, the soldiers are all gone.
* In some shots, the Foot Soldiers are towering over the Turtles.
* Leonardo's katana is the size of a bread knife when he's done polishing it.
* After Donatello turns Baxter's van into the Turtle Van, he has the bottom of a duplicate Bō-staff. And Raphael is seen with Leonardo's colors.
* When Donatello said "Just what we needed! Company!!" when Bebop and Rocksteady enter the Techndrome's portal chamber, he was animated differently.
* Raphael had Leonardo's colors in the first shot of the third scene after Donatello finished touching up the Turtle Van.

### Continuity Errors

* Michelangelo's nunchucks can easily destroy metal, but it snaps on contact with a Stone Warrior.
* In this episode, the Star Cruiser that the Neutrinos leave the Turtles is blue, but in future episodes, it is red.

### Logic Errors

* Shouldn't making off with Baxter Stockman's van and confiscating his equipment technically be illegal?
* How did Donatello know there was a barrel of silicone lubricant in that room to begin with?
* Why did Shredder mutate the rest of Rocksteady and Bebop’s gang but never use them to fight the Turtles?

## Trivia

* The turtles are ridiculously super-strong in this episode. Not only are they capable of pushing a van up an entire flight of stairs, but Donatello himself **rips the entire side of the van clean off** like it was a sheet of paper. The loose metal even shakes the ground as he rests it down, indicating it's rather heavy. Take into consideration that one episode earlier, Michelangelo couldn't even get out of being tied up in a wooden chair.
* Ever wonder what happened to the two remaining punks who vanished in "Enter the Shredder"? Shredder apparently made mutants out of both of them, changing one into a lizard, and the other into a bat (named Scrag in the coloring book). Another punk is seen behind them, apparently mutated into a bear
* Leonardo references Michelangelo's past experience with Krang in this episode. Not only that, but he also establishes that the events of that episode happened the day before. Later on, April confirms that these events are happening in June.
* At the time of the episode's airing, some viewers criticized Michelangelo's implied attraction to Kala, accusing the show of promoting pedophilia. However, Michelangelo is a *Teenage* Mutant Ninja Turtle, and Kala is, as the episode's title reminds us, a *Teenager* from Dimension X, so in actual fact the characters are supposed to be roughly the same age, even if they don't look or sound it.
* When this episode was released on VHS, it was actually shown before the episode which preceded it.
* The Global Trade Center refers to the World Trade Towers.
* The wax that Michelangelo uses to repair Donatello's damaged shell is a reference to Turtle Wax.
* The Neutrinos themselves are a wellspring of various cultures. They ride futuristic low riders from the 50's, speak slang in the style of jive turkey and 80's slang, and possess punk hairstyles, most prevalent in the 80's at the time.
* When the cops arrive, Raphael says, "Some dirty rat must've squealed to the coppers about us, nyah!" in the style of Edward G. Robinson, an actor famous in the 1930s and '40s for playing gangsters.
* Granitor speaks in a style reminiscent of Peter Lorre.

## Quotes

**April O'Neil:** "You got 'em! Who are they? Let's interrogate them!"

**Michelangelo:** "It's okay April, they're cool."

**Dask:** "Cool? Daddio, we are frozen!"

- **Dask** passes up a perfectly good Christopher Lloyd reference by *not* saying, "I WAS FROZEN TODAY!"

**Shredder:** ""Stop, stop! STOP!"

**Rocksteady:** "Aw, we was startin' to have fun."

- Shredder interrupts the battle with the Rock Soldiers.

**Raphael:** "Is it my imagination, or did we just get buzzed by a couple of rocket-powered low-riders?"

- You'd think that after his encounters with talking brains and humanoid animals, **Raphael** would be used to things like this by now.

**Donatello:** "Just what we needed--company!"

**Bebop:** "\**snorts*\* Just what you're gonna get--a pounding!"

- Just what *we* needed; corny dialogue!

**Donatello:** "Can you hold them off?"

**Leonardo:** "There's only eight of them."

- **Leonardo**, advocate of quality over quantity.

**General Traag:** "This weather satellite will take care of them."

**Granitor:** "But we don't need to know what the weather is."

**General Traag:** "It doesn't report the weather, you idiot! It *makes* weather!"

**General Traag:** Alright Neutrinos, "Come out fighting!!"

**Donatello: "**Who are *they*?"

**Dask:** "Stone Warriors from Dimension X! They're *baaad*!!!

**Raphael:** Yah...I guessed that. You got any weapons on those hot-rods?

**Dask:** Of course! They're required by law!

**Leonardo:** We said we wouldn't let anyone hurt you and we mean it! C'mon!!

- And to think, parents on *Earth* would raise a fuss about giving their children **cars** in the first place.