Lair (Rise of the TMNT)

The lair is the home of Splinter and the Mad Dogs in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It is located underground in the sewers of New York City, but the lair along with all of New York's underground infrastructure is still located above the Hidden City, which is even deeper underground.

Description

Atrium

In the center of the lair is an atrium with three different floors lit by string lights and natural light from the ceiling. The first floor is a concrete platform surrounded by water (reminiscent of a moat) with a pair of wood skate ramps that reach the second atrium floor and bridge the gap between the concrete platform and the wall. On the first floor are the Turtles' bedrooms. Raphael and Leonardo's bedrooms are below the arcade while Donatello and Michelangelo's bedrooms are on the other side of the skate ramps. Between Donnie and Mikey's bedrooms is an entryway to another room and between Raph and Leo's bedrooms is a small sewer tube that fountains water. There is another larger sewer tube with a grate that fountains water between Raph and Donnie's bedrooms. Boards connect the platform to the sewer tubes for easy crossing, though Mikey's bedroom often has a ladder instead of a board.

On the second floor is Splinter's bedroom, the kitchen, arcade, a vault, and a room with a rectangular entryway decorated with string pennants that is implied to lead to the greater sewers in "Flushed, but Never Forgotten". There is also a mounted basketball hoop on the second floor, a slab of concrete on both sides of the arcade door with the slab near Splinter's bedroom door having a metal rail, and various boxes and milk crates.

On the third floor is Donnie's laboratory and next to its entryway is a basketball hoop and a ceiling-suspended platform with four red lanterns hanging from the bottom. On the other side of the floor is a mounted basketball hoop with a wood crate for a hoop and a punching bag.

TV room

Blue noren hang in the TV room's entrance with かめろんパン, "melon bread" written on them. The TV room is separated from the water below it by metal grate flooring and is lit by string lights and red lanterns. On the wall is a large projector screen for the projector which acts as the family's TV. The projector stand is an overturned milk crate and placed behind it is Splinter's recliner with a blue bean bag on the right and an orange bean bag on the left. The room features three-tier leveled flooring: the recliner is on the second floor tier and the projector is on the lowest floor tier along with the bean bags. To the right of the recliner is Splinter's Do Not Touch Cabinet that stores various items including Skully and a small table that holds a microwave with a toaster stacked on top of it and placed directly next to it is a refrigerator. Behind the recliner, against the wall, is a diner booth with a round table that is lit by a pendant light. Above the diner booth is a wall-mounted Albearto cutout with a Lou Jitsu standee placed next to it. The TV room has ladder rungs and several posters on the wall as well as various weapons placed against the wall. It often has stacks of pizza boxes, cinderblocks used as end tables, various crates, and large speakers around the room.

Kitchen

The kitchen seemingly has metal plate flooring and is lit by string lights and wall sconces. It has multiple dark brown wood cabinets with off-white countertops placed along the perimeter of the kitchen wall and a gas stove with a kitchen hood. The kitchen table placed in the center of the room is reminiscent of a prep table with a dark brown wood top and a metal storage rack beneath it. A wire shelf that is used as a pot rack is often placed on the table and is seemingly removable as there are multiple scenes where the table is depicted without it. The kitchen has another wire shelving unit placed against the wall and ceiling-mounted hanging pot racks near the kitchen entryway. There is a neon "open 24 hours" sign on the wall as well as a "pizza, hot & delicious" poster and various sticky notes.

Bathrooms

The lair seemingly has two bathrooms: one shown in "Bullhop" and another in "Flushed, but Never Forgotten". It is not shown where in the lair the first bathroom is located, however, it possesses a toilet with a wall-mounted towel rack above it. Directly next to it is a wall-mount sink with a rectangular mirror and a wall-mounted open wood cabinet. A bathtub is placed against the wall opposite from the toilet and sink. The bathtub has a yellow curtain with an orange diamond print and its showerhead allows it to also be used as a shower. This bathroom is small compared to the other lair bathroom shown in "Flushed, but Never Forgotten".

The other bathroom possesses a checker tile floor, four wall-mount sinks with their own rectangular mirror, and a toilet placed on the wall opposite from the bathroom entryway. The toilet is seemingly a large halved pipe and another pipe directly over it dispenses water into the bowl as its flushing mechanism. A bathtub with a brown curtain is placed against the wall opposite from the sinks.

Arcade

The arcade is sealed by a rolling service door and is always dark, lit by the lights of the arcade machines themselves and ceiling-mounted fluorescent tubes. Among dozens of other games, the arcade possesses a Carlynator air hockey table, World Fighter II, Meteor, Iron Fist, a crane and pinball machine, Pants Pants Revolution, Konga!, Mortal Fist, Time Problem, a sit-down driving arcade machine, Zaroos, Chopper Mania, Zombie Unicorn, and Area 31. The arcade also has a red storage locker.

Turtle Tank garage

The Turtle Tank garage seems to be accessible through more than one entryway as it shown being entered through a rolling service door in "Sparring Partner" and a sewer tube in "Cloak and Swaggart". The garage is lit by fluorescent tubes, sound-proofed, and several tires and boxes are placed around the room along with training dummies of the Turtles. It has multiple wood wall shelves and small tables holding miscellaneous items as well. The garage has a pair of rectangular doors on opposite sides of the room that lead to storage rooms and a sewer tube large enough to drive the tank through that exits the sewers. The garage also possesses a newly installed 24 hour lockdown protocol as seen in "Cloak and Swaggart" that is activated via a button near its service door.

Other locations

The lair also has a medical bay ("Lair Games"), a comic book safe with various forms of access security ("Jupiter Jim Ahoy!"), and a room shown in "Al Be Back" where the Turtles prepared for their band debut. There are other locations in the sewers that the family uses annually for the Lair Games such as the location for the Handstand Hill-Bomb event and the Pipe Goop Chicken event, but how far they are from the main living quarters and how they are accessed is currently unknown. Part of the sewers' waterways is also regularly used by the Turtles as a lazy river.

The lair has an air conditioner ("Down with the Sickness") as well as Wi-Fi via a wall-mounted router in the atrium ("The Longest Fight").

History

Prior to the start of the series after the newly mutated Splinter escaped captivity in the Hidden City with the Turtles, Splinter chose to reside in the sewers of New York City, converting them into housing and raising his sons there.

The lair was destroyed upon the Foot Clan's invasion to kill Hamato Karai in "Shreddy or Not".

By Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie, Splinter and the Turtles have moved into a new lair, located close to an old subway station. Their new lair is smaller and the Turtles' bedrooms are inside a subway train.

Trivia

• Unlike other incarnations of the Turtles' lair, in which its location is a carefully guarded secret, the Turtles in this series can be very casual about bringing visitors to their lair. Nevertheless, in "Bullhop", Donnie is prepared to sedate the episode's titular character with a tranquilizer dart prior to bringing him to the lair, if needed.
• As a family quirk, when Splinter and his sons mention the lair, they usually say the word "lair" with the same pronunciation as the word "lay-er".
• It was revealed in January 2020 from Rise of the TMNT production coordinator and color stylist Tanya Melendez in a Tweet that the location in the lair that most closely depicts the characters’ neutral colors is the lair TV room.
• According to Rise of the TMNT staff writer Russ Carney, this iteration’s lair may lack a map delineating its layout, stating in July 2020 in a Tweet, “As far as I know, no such map exists. I'm not even sure who would have a good understanding of the layout other than the amazing [background] artist lead [Ben Lee] and maybe [Ant Ward] or [Andy Suriano].”
• When asked how the family moved their arcade machines into the lair in May 2021, Rise of the TMNT staff writer Carney answered in a Tweet, "In the unproduced episode 'Gourd Almighty', where Donnie grows a massive pumpkin for the Halloween Gourdfest, the boys sail it down a huge sewer tube that spews into the Hudson River. So, maybe through there. Or through whatever tube they drive the Turtle Tank through."
  • It was stated in February 2024 by Rise of the TMNT staff writer Ron Corcillo in a Tweet concerning the lack of a lair map that, "It was always kind of tricky for us to figure out exactly how to move the characters from one room to the other."

Appearances

Season 1

• "Mystic Mayhem"
• "Origami Tsunami"
• "War and Pizza"
• "Down with the Sickness"
• "The Fast and the Furriest"
• "Mascot Melee"
• "The Longest Fight"
• "Hypno! Part Deux"
• "The Gumbus"
• "Mrs. Cuddles"
• "Stuck on You"
• "Al Be Back"
• "The Purple Jacket"
• "Smart Lair"
• "Hot Soup: The Game"
• "The Evil League of Mutants"
• "Late Fee"
• "Bullhop"
• "Mind Meld"
• "Shadow of Evil"
• "Sparring Partner"
• "Portal Jacked!"
• "The Purple Game"
• "Flushed, but Never Forgotten"
• "Lair Games"
• "Man vs. Sewer"
• "The Mutant Menace"
• "Turtle-dega Nights: The Ballad of Rat Man"
• "Snow Day"
• "Cloak and Swaggart"
• "Jupiter Jim Ahoy!"
• "Insane in the Mama Train"
• "End Game"

Season 2

• "Todd Scouts"
• "Breaking Purple"
• "Pizza Puffs"
• "Fists of Furry"
• "The Clothes Don't Make the Turtle"
• "E-Turtle Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"
• "Shreddy or Not"
• "Anatawa Hitorijanai"

Shorts

• "Race"
• "Turtle Tots"
• "Sentient Bed"

Comics

• Rise of the TMNT #0
• Rise of the TMNT #1
• 30 Minutes or Less
• Sound Off! part 1
• Sound Off! part 2

Gallery

• Lair (Rise of the TMNT)/Gallery