Technodrome (1987 TV series)

Technodrome Production information Technical specifications Crew Foot Clan Other systems Usage Role(s) Base Era(s) 1987 TV series, Turtles Forever, 2012 TV series Affiliation Foot Clan
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In the 1987 TV series, the Technodrome served as the Foot Clan's base. Although a large skyscraper was seen at the beginning of the series as a corporate headquarters for the Foot, it was revealed that underground passages lead from it directly to the Technodrome. It was a base of the Shredder and Krang and served as transportation and a battle fortress. The Technodrome was constantly moved throughout the 1987 series, but always maintained itself as the center of the Foot Clan leadership, until it was rendered inoperable and abandoned.

It is unknown what became of the headquarters of the Foot Clan for the 1987 series after the destruction of the Technodrome. However, it is known that Krang and Shredder are alive and well living in Dimension X, and that the Rock Soldiers army is still active.

The Technodrome is one of the toughest war machines ever created, surviving in some of the harshest environments on Earth and in Dimension X. The Technodrome is covered in foot-thick titanium armor, has a massive number of weapons, and stands several stories tall. In addition to its massive size and armaments, the Technodrome is equipped with a Trans-Dimensional Portal that allows it and its occupants to travel between various dimensions.

History[]

The Technodrome was designed and built by Krang and his main engineer, Drakus, in Dimension X, Krang's home. At some point before the series, Krang took the completed Technodrome and banished Drakus to Earth. Krang is later separated from his body and banished to Earth himself along with the Technodrome. He meets Shredder and they begin their partnership and therefore the capacity of the Technodrome was also made available to him.

Although menacing at first glance, through the course of the series the Technodrome is almost always powerless and stuck at some remote location (be it encased in ice under the North Pole, sunken under the ocean, embedded in Earth's core, or repeatedly trapped in Dimension X, even in a dark pit), making its full capabilities never realized. The closest the Technodrome came to showing its full capabilities was in the finale of Season 3 ("The Big Blow Out"), and to a lesser extent the Season 7 finale "Shredder Triumphant!". In that episode, the Technodrome produced cutting equipment from hatches, raised up on hydraulic legs and expanded the dimensional portal outwards. Though the Technodrome often manages to acquire enough power to operate, it is always quickly deactivated by the Turtles, especially Donatello, before any real havoc can ensue - usually by activating the dimensional portal, which then moved the Technodrome into Dimension X.

The Technodrome is capable of surface, subterranean, and underwater travel. If equipped with an engine powerful enough, it can also journey into outer space. The Technodrome is also equipped with a super portal that can transport the structure through dimensions. Krang utilized this to bring the Technodrome back to Earth, but the Turtles later used this to banish the Technodrome permanently to Dimension X, where the Technodrome finally landed on the planet Balaraphon.

In the last episode of the eighth season, "Turtle Trek", the Turtles destroy the Technodrome's main engines and trap Krang and Shredder in Dimension X. The Technodrome gets trapped in Dimension X for good, and it is pulled into the pit of a ferocious tentacled alien plant whose size rivals the Technodrome itself. This finally renders it inoperable, and it is not seen again until the very end of the series.

In the final episode, Donatello and Michelangelo travel to Dimension X and enter the Technodrome to retrieve Krang's old android body for the fight against Lord Dregg. By that point, the Technodrome has been badly damaged and long abandoned except for a few androids.

Location[]

1987 TV series[]

Season 1 (1987)

The Technodrome is first encountered under New York City. Although it was already known to be there in the pilot episode, "Turtle Tracks", it was only actually seen later, in "Enter the Shredder". In the last episode of the season, "Shredder & Splintered", Donatello reverses the Technodrome's dimensional portal, causing the battle machine to be sucked into Dimension X just before Krang's forces could gain a foothold on Earth.

Season 2 (1988)

The Technodrome spends most of the season in Dimension X. In the last episode of the season, "Return of the Technodrome", Krang decides to bring himself and the Technodrome back to Earth and tries to commence the invasion. Shredder diverts power from the power plant situated at Niagara Falls, allowing Krang to open a portal big enough to enable the Technodrome to return to Earth, but the task drains the machine of much of its energy. Krang then burrows beneath New York City, and uses an earthquake generator to threaten the residents of the city into surrendering. The Turtles break into the Technodrome and Donatello tampers with the generator. When Krang activates it again, the Technodrome burrows itself further underground, and goes all the way down to the Earth's core.

Season 3 (1989)

For most of the season, the Technodrome lies powerless near Earth's core. In the third-to-last episode of the season, "The Big Rip-Off", Krang and Shredder manage to steal power cells and recharge the Technodrome. Then, in the following episode "The Big Break-In", the Technodrome returns to the surface, fully powered up. The Turtles take control of a device Krang created called the The Minimizer. With the Minimizer, the Turtles shrink the Technodrome and it retreats to the hole it came out of, but Krang restores the Technodrome to its original size. In the final episode of the season, "The Big Blow Out", the Technodrome is on the surface and powered up, and has opened a giant portal to Dimension X in the sky over it using the World Trade Center. The Turtles humiliate Shredder and trick him into positioning the Technodrome over a particular spot, where they had set up a missile launcher they borrowed from the U.S. Army. They launch the missile straight up; it picks up the Technodrome and carries it through the sky portal and into Dimension X and the Rock Soldiers mistake it for Earth and shoot it.

Season 4 (1990)

In the first episode of the season, "Plan Six From Outer Space", it is learned that the Technodrome landed on a Volcanic Asteroid in Dimension X. In the episode "The Dimension X Story", Krang finds out that the asteroid has a volcano. He comes up with a plan to make the volcano erupt, and break the Technodrome free. But due to the Turtles' interference, the eruption instead causes a flow of lava, which quickly solidifies, causing the Technodrome to become buried even deeper in solid rock.

Season 5 (1991)

The Technodrome begins the season in Dimension X. Early in the season, in the episode "My Brother, the Bad Guy", Krang and Shredder finally come up with a plan to get it back to Earth. However, the Turtles intervene, and although they do get to Earth, they end up trapped in the North Pole. It would remain there, trapped in ice, for the rest of the season.

Season 6 (1992)

In the first episode of the season, "Rock Around the Block", Krang sets up a super-laser to free the Technodrome from its icy prison. This time, the Ninja Turtles are powerless to stop him. However, Bebop and Rocksteady's own incompetence causes the plan to fail, as they accidentally hit the super-laser's controls and direct it to melt the ice directly under the Technodrome. As a result, the Technodrome sinks to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, where it will remain for two seasons.

Season 7 (1993)

The Technodrome remains trapped at the bottom of the ocean until the final episode of the season, "Shredder Triumphant". Then, Krang steals some Regenerative Power Cells and uses them to re-power the Technodrome, and move it to New York City. But the Turtles get into the Technodrome, and after defeating Shredder, they reprogram the Technodrome's dimensional portal and send the Technodrome to Dimension X, but without Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady.

Season 8 (1994)

After falling into Dimension X, the Technodrome fell into a black hole. The intense gravity kept the Technodrome trapped there, and all the Rock Soldiers and Foot Soldiers locked inside it. The black hole also caused the Technodrome's dimensional portal to have difficulty opening where they wanted it to. Due to this Shredder and Krang choose to remain on Earth, working out of an old science building.

Working around the clock, the Rock Warriors eventually manage to free the Technodrome and repair it. Shredder and Krang finally make their way back to the Technodrome in the final episode of the season, "Turtle Trek". The Turtles follow them to Dimension X, where they learn that the Technodrome is on the planet Balaraphon. They go to the planet, defeat Shredder and blow up the Technodrome's main engines, finally disabling it for good. A giant plant pulls the disabled Technodrome into a large hole where it lands upside down, causing severe structural damage.

Season 9 (1995)

The Technodrome is not seen in this season.

Season 10 (1996)

The Turtles travel to the Technodrome once, in the series' finale "Divide and Conquer", in order to retrieve Krang's Android Body to fight Lord Dregg. Donatello and Michelangelo go to Dimension X and find the Technodrome, abandoned and badly damaged on the planet Balaraphon, following the events of "Turtle Trek". There is no sign of Shredder, Krang, Bebop, Rocksteady, Traag or any of their soldiers; only a few robots remain. They find Krang's old body and use the Technodrome's dimensional portal to return home. After fighting Dregg, Donatello activates the Technodrome's portal remotely and sends Dregg and the android body through it, before the strain of atoms in the android body caused it to self-destruct on Dregg.

Donatello and Michelangelo find the Technodrome upright and sitting on a small hill. Since it was last seen upside down in a deep hole, Krang and Shredder must have attempted to repair the massive fortress before declaring it a lost cause.

The Vacation in Europe episodes, which aired from 1992 to 1993, actually take place during Season 4, with the Technodrome in Dimension X.

Turtles Forever (2009)

As the primary base of operations for Krang and Shredder, the Technodrome makes an appearance in the 2009 animated film Turtles Forever. However, after freeing Ch'rell from his icy prison, he not only takes control of the Technodrome from them, but also converts it into a flying fortress, using Utrom Technology. However, the newly redesigned Technodrome had few new abilities than it had already possessed. The Technodrome already had anti-gravity generators to hover with, and it always had the trans-dimensional portal to travel to and view other dimensions with. The Technodrome already had a powerful forward facing laser cannon, and it was equipped with an impenetrable energy shield.

Unlike the original design of the Technodrome, the new forward energy laser had to be plugged into the wall in order to work. Bebop and Rocksteady turned it off by accident and then turned it on trying to help Utrom Shredder and killed him by mistake.

The only new abilities that the Technodrome gained by its redesign, were that its energy shield could redirect any energy of a weapon fired on it back at its attacker. This was seen when some fighter jets fired on the Technodrome, and the power of their missiles was fired back at them by the energy shield. The Technodrome also gained the ability to fire a powerful energy beam from its top, to complement its forward firing cannon.

The 1987 Shredder left at the end of the movie with the newly redesigned Technodrome along with Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady. The new robot Foot Ninjas were called Robots 2.0 by the 2003 Michelangelo when he first battled them with his brothers at home. It's not known if the new version of the Technodrome could fire missiles, or retained any other of its original abilities.

After the apparent death of Ch'rell, having being destroyed by the Technodrome's primary laser, the Technodrome returned to the 80s Shredder and Krang and they returned to their own dimension. The 2003 Foot Clan presumably returned to Karai's leadership; their current headquarters is unknown.

Equipment[]

• A trans-dimensional portal
• Eyeball missile launchers
• 4 trident-shaped laser cannons
• A mounted surveillance eye on the top
• A Mouser factory
• Training facilities for Shredder's henchmen, Bebop and Rocksteady
• Three-foot-thick titanium armor
• Huge tank treads
• Robot walker legs that can be used instead of tank treads (scene at the end of Season 3)
• Large holding cells
• A disintegrator unit
• A cloning device
• Earthquake machine (used during Season 2)
• Various drilling mechanisms

Design features[]

• 972 rooms (mentioned in episode "The Missing Map")
• A Trans-Dimensional Portal used to transport people and objects between Earth and Dimension X
• Eyeball missile launchers
• 5 trident-shaped laser cannons: two located at the top of the Technodrome at each side of the eye, two on its sides, and one on its front (occasionally, due to animation errors, they're depicted on other places, usually the rear, or more than 5 are seen)
• 2 large laser cannons that can be deployed with multiple eyeball missile racks (seen in "The Big Blow Out")
• A mounted surveillance eye on the top, which doubled as a teleporter (seen in "Shredder Triumphant!")
• A Mouser factory
• Training facilities for Shredder's henchmen, Bebop and Rocksteady
• Three-foot-thick titanium armor
• Huge tank treads, used to move the Technodrome across land or underground from each location.
• Robot walker legs that can be used instead of tank treads (seen in "The Big Blow Out")
• Gigantic saw blades and cutting devices (used in The Big Blow Out to get an energy antenna)
• Pedal Power Generator (used in "The Big Rip-Off" to generate a small amount of power when Technodrome was completely out of power)
• Large holding cells
• Earthquake machine (used in "Return of the Technodrome")
• Various drilling mechanisms
• Motor pool area that houses foot bikes and Technorovers
• Trap door in the center of the main control room as used in "Hot Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X"
• Star fighter deck that houses technowings
• Classical Japanese dōjō rooms
• Balance control (during near the end of Season 3)
• Anti-gravitation generators making the Technodrome able to hover slightly above the ground (used during Season 2)
• Disintegrator unit (Season 2)
• Relay room
• Engine room
• Laundry room

Transport modules[]

The Transport Modules are the vehicles used by Krang, Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady to move from the Technodrome to New York when the Technodrome is located on Earth. Although they are best known in their underground drill form, their physical make-up actually changed as the Technodrome moved.

Season 1 (1987)

With the Technodrome located under New York City during Season 1, there is no need for independent transport modules. In the episode "A Thing About Rats", the Shredder uses a kind of transport elevator which extends from, but remains connected to, the Technodrome. This type is also used in the arcade game and the Archie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comics.

Season 3 (1989)

With the Technodrome located in Earth's core during most of Season 3, the first of the more famous type of transport modules is used. It looks similar to a space shuttle without wings and with a drill in the front. Even Bebop and Rocksteady are able to pilot these transport modules.

Season 5 (1991)

After energizing the Technodrome with a giant electromagnet, Shredder and Krang were able to bring it back to Earth from Dimension X, but alterations by Donatello caused the Technodrome to land in the middle of the North Pole. With the Technodrome located in the North Pole during most of Season 5, the transport modules from Season 3 are used once again, this time to drill under the North American continent and towards New York City.

Later, Krang utilizes a laser from outer space to melt the Technodrome free of the ice, and the Turtles are powerless to stop it. Fortunately, Bebop and Rocksteady cause the controls of the laser to malfunction, resulting in the Technodrome ending up at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Once again, these transport modules are used to travel from underwater and into the city.

Season 6 & 7 (1992-1993)

After Krang and Shredder steal an anti-gravity device and make the Technodrome compatible for flight, the Turtles disabled it, resulting in the Technodrome being trapped at the bottom of the ocean once again, this time near New York Harbor. With the Technodrome located under the Arctic Ocean during Season 6 and Season 7, Amphibious Modules, retooled underwater types of transport modules are used to get to the city faster than before.

Trans-Dimensional Portal[]

The Technodrome contained its own Trans-Dimensional Portal in the Main Control Room where most of the scenes of the Technodrome can be seen. The portal allowed Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady to travel between Dimension X and Earth during the seasons where the Technodrome is located in Dimension X and allowed Krang to bring his army of Rock Soldiers to Earth when the Technodrome is located on Earth. The portal could be opened at any location on Earth when the Technodrome was in Dimension X and vice versa when the Technodrome was located on Earth, however as Shredder and his gang didn't know the location of the Turtles' Lair they were unable to travel there. The portal screen could be opened and closed at any time by Shredder or Krang and also doubled as a large video screen. The video screen was often used to allow Shredder and Krang to watch the Channel 6 news presented by April O'Neil even when the Technodrome was located in Dimension X. The video screen was also used to monitor the actions of Bebop and Rocksteady or Shredder when they were on one of their missions.

Powers and abilities[]

Throughout the series, the Technodrome had been restricted of its full potential, usually due to being in a terrible state. It would be stuck in such places as Dimension X or Earth's core with little to no power at all. However, there had been multiple occasions where the Technodrome would be fully powered again and invade the world, showing off some of its capabilities in the process.

Season 3's finale perhaps did the best job in showing off most of what the Technodrome can do. When fully powered up, the Technodrome can launch a barrage of missiles easily capable of shattering hills and mountains. The Technodrome can also knock over and completely crush a smaller mountain by moving into it.

Aside from the Technodrome's intense fire power, with the right equipment the Technodrome can drain the energy from an entire planet as seen in the episodes "Planet Of The Turtles" and "The Big Blow Out" to further increase its power. Because of this, it is likely possible that the Technodrome can do critical damage to an entire planet or possibly even destroy one completely as it was able to open a super-sized dimensional portal so huge that the entire planet Earth seemed like nothing more than a toy in comparison to it. This portal acted as a black hole, slowly pulling the planet in so that it may transport it to Dimension X.

The Technodrome could also summon a very powerful shield to protect itself from harm as shown in the episode, "The Big Blow Out" when it easily blocked a barrage of missiles from the military.

The Technodrome can break through and out of Earth's core casually, and it houses an earthquake-causing generator which, as the name implies, could summon earthquakes powerful enough to level the city of New York.

In Turtles Forever, the Technodrome had been given a massive upgrade by the Utrom Shredder, who modified and upgraded the Technodrome to incredible proportions. This upgraded Technodrome can summon a shield that can absorb the energy of an attack and redirect it back at its attacker. It is also able to erase an entire universe and it could potentially threaten the entire multiverse through means of chain reaction.

Gallery[]

• Technodrome (1987 TV series)/Gallery