The Rat King is a disgusting human who has been forced by circumstances (perhaps?) out of his control to live in the sewers and hang out with vermin. Depending on the continuity, sometime he can communicate and control with rats telepathically, and sometimes it requires external forces such as a flute. Either way, he’s especially dangerous to the Ninja Turtles since their father figure, Splinter, is, y’know, a rat.
Despite debuting in the Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles‘ fourth issue, “I, Monster,” I’d say that the 1987 cartoon’s interpretation of the character is probably the most iconic. Although, let’s be honest, the 1987 cartoon version of basically every TMNT character is arguably the most iconic version of that character with most Xennials.
Anyways, the Playmates’ Toys 1989 interpretation of the Rat King has an awesome sculpt, but maybe not the most intricate paint apps. It represents the character fairly well, while still being as gross and disgusting as a lot of the earlier TMNT toys.
One of the things that bothered me about the entire ’87 cartoon interpretation of The Rat King, was the color choices. Who wears green pants? Why are all his bandages orange and mustard? Why is his hair so thick and clean? This is a man who lives in potty water. Plus, Look at all those bugs and stitches and everything crawling all over him that never got painted!
So I got to work, and mucked him up something fierce:
MUCH grosser.