Best Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Villains of All-Time

We’re starting this list of the top 10 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles villains off with a character from the live action movies, Tatsu. Tatsu was Shredder’s number two and after the events of the first movie, he even tried to take charge of the Foot Clan. He is a skilled martial artist who never really got to shine in the movies. He would appear in other incarnations, but even if people don’t remember his name, they remember him as the guy who worked for Shredder. NECA, a toy company who made a whole bunch of cool action figures based on the original live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies, have finally made a Tatsu figure. The fact that fans went so crazy for it shows that he is a very popular and important TMNT villain.

While this list is focusing on the classic 80s animated version of Leatherhead, I do want to say that Leatherhead is one of the most interesting characters in the history of the TMNT. He has been both an ally and villain and even a murderous monster in the recent IDW comic series.

However, many people fondly remember the classic animated version of Leatherhead where he and his Cajun accent would hunt down The Punk Frogs and then the Turtles. Leatherhead also had a very fun team-up with The Rat King in the animated series. He is a really fun character and I also have to say that his boss fight in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time is one of the most fun and memorable boss encounters in that game.

We are going back to the live action movies here, specifically, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. I was debating if I should put Super Shredder on this top 10 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles villains list, but he is certainly one of the most memorable aspects of the live action trilogy of the 90s, despite only having a few minutes of screen time.

After the turtle boys defeated Toka, Rhazar, and Shredder to the pumping beats of Vanilla Ice, Shredder ends up mutated and becomes Super Shredder. He looks so imposing and menacing, but he is ultimately taken down by his own rage and his rampage causes a dock to fall on him. It’s a real shame we never actually saw him fight the Turtles or come back in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III. Of course, you cannot talk about Super Shredder without mentioning that hall of fame WWE wrestler Kevin Nash portrayed him.

Like Leatherhead, Slash has also gone through many different incarnations in the various versions of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but many fans fondly remember the wacky and weird Slash from the original animated series who is probably way more of a comic relief character than you remember.

The thing is, the toy version of Slash had a really vicious and dangerous look about him that was quite different from what we were seeing in the show. While many people have debated about a fifth Turtle and we have even had it with the likes of Venus and Jennika, there are many people who claim that Slash is the original fifth Turtle, even though he was an antagonist and not on the side of the Turtles. 

Next up we have another memorable villain and one who had to be on my top 10 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles villains list: The Rat King! The Rat King had such a cool appearance in the animated series and he was one of the few villains who was well and truly able to rattle Splinter and get under his skin. At the time, this was quite shocking to see, as Splinter is notoriously zen. While his classic design from the animated series is what we’re talking about here, like other characters on this list, The Rat King has gone through some radical changes over the years, becoming much more sinister. In the most recent IDW comic book series, The Rat King is part of a pantheon of Demi-Gods that cause chaos!

One of the most interesting villains on this list is Baxter Stockman. You see, I’m not sure what version of Baxter Stockman deserves to be mentioned here. In the original comics, he is a super smart scientist who creates the Mousers and he is one of the first major antagonists the Turtles come up against. However, most people remember him as the bumbling scientist that Shredder abuses and who eventually gets turned into a fly!

Fly Baxter Stockman is a lot of fun, but to be honest with you, I prefer the Baxter Stockman from the comic books so I am putting them both here on the list at number 5. Baxter is another character that has seen some truly awesome different versions over the years. The 2012 series for example had a truly grotesque-looking version of Fly Baxter Stockman.

We are heading back to The Secret of the Ooze on our top 10 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles villains list with Tokka & Rahzar. These guys had to be listed as a pair as you cannot have one without the other. While we did not get Bebop & Rocksteady in the original live action movies, we did get Tokka & Rahzar! Shredder got his hands on some mutagen and wanted his own mutants and thus, Tokka & Rahzar were born.

These are the two most impressive looking animatronics that were part of the live action movies! These two villains look amazing and it is so much fun to see the Turtles fight them. What they lack in brain power, they make up for in muscle power. Tokka & Rahzar were so popular that they would be added to the animated series and featured in the Turtles in Time video game. NECA made two absolutely stunning figures of Tokka & Rahzar and I would go as far as to say that they are two of the greatest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures of all time!

How could Krang not be on this list? Krang and Shredder are just so iconic, two of the most iconic villains of the 80s! The tyrant and warlord from Dimension X and his Technodrome would cause so many problems for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. No matter if he is in his little walker or his big android body, Krang was always a ton of fun in the show and his bickering with Shredder was a major highlight.

It’s a real shame that we never got Krang in any of the 90s live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies, but he would eventually get the live action treatment in the 2016 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows movie. While we all love the 80s Krang, he is another character that has had some very interesting character variations over the years.

How can you not love Bebop & Rocksteady? When it comes to the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, Bebop & Rocksteady are two of the most iconic characters. These were actually made specifically for the animated series and they would always get into hilarious and fun scrapes with the Turtles. For many fans, despite loving the live action movies (well the first two) the lack of Bebop & Rocksteady was something that was always missed.

Like Krang, Bebop & Rocksteady would be eventually be featured in the live action movie Out of the Shadows. In a fun bit of history repeating itself, the live action Rocksteady was played by WWE wrestler Sheamus, which would make the second time a wrestler would portray a TMNT villain. While Bebop & Rocksteady were goofy in the animated series, in the recent IDW comics, they are much more brutal, even going as far as to smash Donnie’s shell and leave him for dead!

No matter if its the original comic books, the live action movies, or the animated series where he is voiced by Uncle Phil from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Shredder is the ultimate antagonist for the Turtles and he is always willing to do whatever it takes to stop them or flat out kill them in some incarnations of the TMNT.

Shredder is a great villain and one that I would argue has just gone from strength to strength over the years. Each incarnation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has a new Shredder. The recent comic books have even seen him fight his way through Hell and become an ally of the Turtles! While he is the greatest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles villain of all time, I would actually rank Shredder as one of the greatest villains of all time in general!