When he was younger and in his prime
Gadgetman is an older man who once was an everyday hero in New York City. Burne Thompson liked him when he was younger.[1]
He appears in the episode "Superhero for a Day" of the 1987-1996 animated TV series[2], and decides to make a hero comeback. After trying to stop a schoolbus from falling down a bridge into the river-water below, Shredder offers him to stop faked crimes, preventing the turtles from following Shredder to power stations looking for Technodrome fuel. Over a radio broadcast, Gadgetman learns the turtles are the real heroes, and together, they fight off Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady.