Mean Machines Review

It is now time to review the ninth episode of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series, the fourth episode of the second season, entitled the Mean Machines. In this episode. Shredder and Baxter Stockman find the second fragment of the Eye of the Sarnoth/Zarnov, Things get bothersome for our heroes, when Shredder hooks up the fragment to a super computer, causing machines to go rather chaotic throughout the entire city.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Episode 9 the Mean Machines Review

Donatello creates a tracking device to locate the second fragment but it is a touchy thing. And apparently does not interface with the Turtle Van rather well, which actually did come in handy. The Turtles spend some time trashing some street punks, but Shredder and Baxter Stockman beat them to the punch and get the fragment, which Stockman believes they can hook it up to a super computer for power. Shredder wants to open a portal to Dimension X.

Stockman is not too happy with apparently being replaced with a computer. That is rather interesting as years later, many jobs have been taken by computers. Omniss proves its worth by taking over every machine right in the city. It does not stop the Turtles, despite a couple of honest attempts, with some construction equipment in a rather cool fight scene. Then it decides the more direct approach of hijacking the Turtle Van and trying to crash it right into the wall.

It is honestly good that tracking device worked as it did, or they’d be in the soup. The Turtle soup that is. More battles, as the Turtles, along with April, make it to where Stockman and Shredder are holed right up.

We have a fight scene, that was pretty much standard fare, until Omnis just shorts out. And it was April who pulled the plug. Well that seems to be the most obvious thing in the world to do. Shredder and Baxter make a quick get away in this episode, because that was the style in cartoons in the eighties.

I will say that the interaction between Stockman and Shredder is pretty underrated, although nowhere as near as fun as the interaction between Shredder, Krang, Bebop, and Rocksteady that happened throughout this serious. The entertainment value of this series was tied right into the villains. So very much it was, no doubt about it whatsoever.

A grim assessment of this episode is that Shredder has two of the three Fragments and if he puts all three together, that could give him power behind his wildest dreams. That sets up the fourth and final part of this multi-part story arc.

A pretty good episode, but not the best episode in this series, so I would have to give this episode a solid 7.5/10 rating. You can watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Episode 9 the Mean Machines on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume 2 DVD.