Call them bull-headed, or even short-sighted... whatever the cause, Groundchuck and Dirtbag will choose their own path, even when it might not be the best idea. Accidentally mutated instead of Shredder's chosen animals, these two are determined to chart their own future as henchmen.
Although they were both created by Michael Dooney, Dirtbag and Groundchuck were no more meant to be a duo than,
say, any two characters created by Ryan Brown. Wyrm and Scale Tail. Scumbug and Scratch. Doctor El and Ray Fillet. It was cartoon writer David Wise who turned the two mutants into a duo, because the episode they were in, "Planet of the Turtleoids," was introducing four toy characters, and there just wasn't time to do anything unique with them. Now they show up as a matched pair from JoyToy, in comics, in viodeogames, on Magic cards... and obviously, from NECA.
The text on Dirtbag's 1991 figure painted him as a rival for Splinter, which... isn't that Shredder? Like, isn't "being arch-enemies with Splinter" Shredder's entire deal? Why does Dirtbag suddenly hate Splinter so much? He's just a mole, not even a mole-rat (though the coverage of TMNT III in Nintendo Power did get confused and call him a mouse).
Like, even if his vaguely rodent-like face isn't especially talpine,
he's wearing a mining helmet! He rides into his boss fight stage in a mine cart! He's a miner, and miners are always moles! Just like mailmen are storks, waiters are penguins, teachers are owls, firefighters are dalmatians, or cops are dogs. If you see a furry creature wearing mining gear and tunneling through the ground, that is a mole, my friend. The only thing they didn't give him was the traditional "blindness in daylight" many cartoon moles have (though there are a pair of goggles pushed up onto his helmet).
Dirtbag takes part in one of TMNT's most treasured traditions:
having one leg exposed and one covered. So his right leg is just furry and has a claws on the toes, while the left leg is wearing a boot and just has a hole in the knee. Once you notice how often that happens, you won't be able to un-see it. The cartoon design was very true to the old toy, giving him a shirt that looks like green coveralls (no dirt stains in animation, however), and fingerless red gloves. A green bandana is tied around his tail, something the vintage figure had, but unpainted then. He has red suspenders that connect to his permanently-attached backpack, which is made from PVC and can open, but isn't actually big enough inside to hold anything.
He has three pairs of hands (fists, open, or holding), and his accessories include a shovel, the distinctive blaster he used on the show, and a big drill cannon. He has the standard articulation
(head, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, thighs, knees, ankles) plus his tail and mouth), but there's one more accessory and one fun play feature: since Dirtbag was always tunneling everywhere, he includes a ring of rubble, kind of like the Roadkill Rodneys had, and can pull apart at the waist so it looks like he's just sticking out out of the ground. How neat!
In the cartoon, Dirtbag and Groundchuck were just two random animals Bebop and Rocksteady freed from the zoo when they went there to collect a lion and a gorilla for Shredder, and who then got mutated after Bebop and Rocksteady let the lion and gorilla escape. According to the old toy, he was a Foot Soldier weapons expert
(whether that was before or after getting mutated was unclear; was he a weapons expert who got mutated, or was he a mutant who became a weapons expert?). According to TMNT III, he will just run at you like any other bull in a videogame, then will pull a pipe off the wall and try to smack you with it. Some "weapons expert"!
If you watch "Planet of the Turtleoids" (and you shouldn't, it's awful), pay attention to what happens: Bebop and Rocksteady steal a lion and a gorilla to mutate for Shredder, but a mole and a bull get mutated instead. Ignoring the very concept that a zoo would have both a regular mole and a standard head of cattle as attractions, Shredder tries to make the mistake work by giving the two new mutants all the armor and gear he'd brought for the lion and gorilla. So tell us, please: which of the planned creatures, the lion or the gorilla, was going to be dressed like a miner, and which was going to get the cybernetic horn and the cow-themed armor?
Looking at the original designs, the character who became Groundchuck was back then known as "Bullseye." That's pretty easy to guess on your own even without seeing that: he's got a crosshair lens over his right eye, like Deadshot or Crossfire, and wears a target over his chest. So "marksman" theming on a bull character... you don't need a piece of paper from the '90s to tell you he's gonna be named "Bullseye."
The thing that made Groundchuck stand out in the original toyline was his colorscheme: bright red fur, dark blue clothes, silver cybernetics, and green hair? Oh, you bet! The "metal" parts here are white instead of silver, because that's how animation does it, the red is more muted, and the blue is brighter - so it's not a direct copy of the old toy, but it still looks pretty cool. The cartoon model also did away with
the chainmail on his shirt, just making it plain cloth because that's easier to animate. The Foot Clan logo tattoo on his right arm is light purple, a color also used for his remaining organic horn and his belt. The ywllow bands aeound his wrists make it look like his gloves are just bags he's poked his fingers through and tied in place, which is a cool contrast against the seemingly robotic leg. It does feel like a paint app got missed, though: while the bottom teeth are individually outlined, the top teeth are just a solid white block; presumably NECA was counting on you rarely looking at the toy from an angle that would reveal that.
Everything in this set was created by the man who knows how to turn lead into gold and how to turn light into food, Paul Harding:
both figures, as well as all their accessories. Chuck doesn't get nearly as much stuff as Dirtbag, but he also doesn't use as much. There are the same three kinds of hands, plus the western-themed pistol he uses. Note: "western themed" in this case doesn't mean a realistic six-shooter or something, it means a gun with a stylized bull head (horns and a nose ring) on the tip of the barrel, a tiny saddle on top, and a rattlesnake tail at the back. What the heck, man! A loop dangles off the grip, which is true to the animation, but it doesn't actually have anywhere to hang.
Like many of the sets, this one includes another accessory that doesn't belong to either of the characters. It's a purple remote control
of some sort, and it doesn't appear at all in eithher part of "Planet of the Turtleoids"; instead, it comes from "Planet of the Turtles," which is an entirely different episode. That sounds like a joke, but we're 100% serious: one was a prime time special that opened Season 5, the other was a normal episode in Season 4. Anyway, this is "the all-in-one pocket-sized portable portal! Thousands sold throughout the universe! (Batteries not included.) You, too, can own one of these for only fourteen ninety-five!" The only character (who has a toy) who ever used it was Donatello, so this is just a random inclusion.
This set came out in 2021, one of the first things NECA got out after the pandemic shutdowns, and unfortunately carried a significantly higher price than similar two-packs that had come out before: $65 vs. $50. I saw it in person a couple times, but couldn't bring myself to pay that, even though I actually had both of the vintage figures back in the day and like the update well enough. And while the price has remained pretty steady on the secondary market, I managed to find this set for about $40 plus shipping, which was too good to miss. Both figures have unique new molds, rather than reuing parts like previous sets did, and the "tunneling" feature of Dirtbag is a lot of fun and can really add some great variety to displays. I'm definitely glad I finally picked this pair up.
-- 03/19/26
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