Dopey was a member of Bebop and Rocksteady's gang that worked for The Shredder in the 1987 TV series. He remained unnamed in all few of his appearances, and also never spoke.
History
Dopey first appeared in "Turtle Tracks" and was one of the first characters to appear on screen. Together with Bebop, Rocksteady, Grunt, Scrag and Dumbo, Dopey was seen wandering the streets of Manhattan and used his Sickle to attack and strip a Red sports car for parts until only the frame remained.
Silencing April
A short time later, the group of six gang members appeared again, this time they had been sent to silence April O'Neil as her news investigation was targeting the Foot Clan's activities in the city. Intercepting April, Vernon and their Channel 6 camera team as during their stakeout of Acme Research, the gang approached the group which caused April's three colleagues to flee, leaving her alone with the thugs. Dopey watched on as Rocksteady confronted her about the news reports. April feigned agreeing to cease the investigation before fleeing as it became clear that the Gang was intending to kill her.
The gang pursued April as she fled into the Sewers, catching up with her after she ran headfirst into a wall. Rocksteady was about to execute her when the gang were surprised and attacked by the shadowy forms of the Turtles. Dopey attempted to attack Leonardo but was shocked as his Bat was cut in half by a Katana. Now unarmed, he charged towards one of the Shadowy figures with his fists ready alongside Bebop but was thrown into a wall and knocked unconscious.
Dopey and Scrag were both not present when four of the thugs later reported their defeat to Shredder and Dopey was also not present when Shredder approached the Gang members to obtain volunteers for the initial mutation experiments.
Partial mutation
Dopey, along with the Grunt, Scrag and Dumbo later reappeared in "Hot Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X" when Shredder activates a view screen in the Technodrome to update Krang on the status of the punks. All four members were relaxing in a similar hangout room they had been in earlier, however the group were no longer human and had each taken on mutated animal characteristics. Dopey appearance was the most human of the four, but had been mutated partially into an elephant and his nose had become a small flesh-colored trunk and he stood mostly obscured at the back of the group.
During this scene, Shredder stated that he was still refining my mutations on the punks and that he had hoped to make the four into infinitely superior mutant henchmen than the previously mutated Bebop and Rocksteady. This ongoing refinement of the punk's mutations is likely the reason Dopey only appeared partially mutated and had not grown physically larger as happened with Bebop and Rocksteady.
Imprisonment
Dopey appeared one final time in the episode "Shredder and Splintered" once again alongside Scrag, Grunt and Dumbo. However this time the four Mutants were locked behind bars in a prison cell, located in the Main Control room of the Technodrome near the Trans-Dimensional Portal. It is not known why Shredder had the mutants imprisoned, however Scrag had appeared hostile earlier when Shredder had been used him as a test subject for the Retro Mutagen Ray Generator. Dopey and the other three mutants were trapped inside the Technodrome when it was sucked into Dimension X.
Later appearances
He made a cameo in "Turtles Forever" when the Turtles arrive in the dimension where the 1987 TV series Turtles reside and is seen on the streets with the human forms of the other gang members.
He was omitted from several adaptations of Season 1, as he was not present in the coloring books or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comics.
Trivia
- Dopey's cap, appearance and partial elephant mutation were in reference to the 1980 film adaptation The Elephant Man.
- His name "Dopey" was discovered[1] in 2020 from an official storyboard of "Turtle Tracks", until that point he had been referred to as "Sailor Punk" or "Hat Punk" by the fandom.
- Similar to Bebop and Rocksteady, who are both named after musical styles, Dumbo and Dopey share a naming scheme, with both punks having names of characters from early animated Disney films.
- There is some evidence that Dopey and Dumbo may have had their names switched, or that they were mislabeled on the storyboard. Dumbo's shared several physical similarities with Disney's character Dopey - particularly in the storyboard art, and Dopey's mutation into an elephant with a small trunk linked him the juvenile elephant character Dumbo. It is also possible that these were placeholder production nicknames for the characters not intended for release.
- In 2023, NECA released an action figure of Dopey under the name "Tall Thug," possibly to avoid trademark contention.