Groundchuck just came out of nowhere in 1991, when Playmates was releasing figures of mutants made out of random animals to flesh out the TMNT toy line’s 4th year. To their credit, a mutant steer bounty hunter is a pretty cool idea.
Groundchuck popped up in a couple of episodes of the cartoon, along with his mutant mole buddy, Dirtbag.
And he was even included as the boss of level 2 in TMNT 3: The Manhattan Project for the NES.
I’ve always liked the sculpt of this figure, but his firetruck red and royal blue color scheme always was a bit off-putting. So in 2009, I tried to give my Groundchuck figure a look that was along the same lines, but not such a neon eyesore.
The red fur became somewhat more realistic, although still on the redder side of a brown coat. The bright blue became a drab green, and all of the other accessories got colors that complimented those two main colors.
I still really like this final result. Groundchuck was my first TMNT customs that wasn’t based on anything in particular, and I liked it so much that nearly all the rest of my TMNT customs have been chasing that high ever since.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters are owned by Nickelodeon.