| Retro Mutagen Ray Generator | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||
| [Source] | |||||||||||||||||
Retromutagen Ray Generator is a device in the 1987 TV series that undoes mutations. It appears as a small handgun with a barrel-length "laser sight" and three circles where a traditional chamber would be.
In the 1987 TV series episode "Shredder & Splintered", Shredder displays what appears to be a ray gun and explains that it is a Retro-Mutagen Ray Generator - a device that undoes mutations. He suggest that it is the only thing that will transform Splinter back into Hamato Yoshi and invites them to "come and get it." The Turtles are more than anxious to accept Shredder's offer, however, Splinter suggests that he alone must go after Shredder for fear that he might use the Retro-Mutagen Ray Generator on the TMNT - thus transforming them back into ordinary turtles. Splinter sneaks inside the Technodrome to find the Retro Mutagen Ray Generator.
Splinter discovers that the Retro Mutagen Ray Generator is actually just a hologram. Once again the Sensei has been duped by Shredder, who tells him if he wants the Retro Mutagen Ray that he must first taste his blades, and once again Shredder engages him in marital arts combat. Krang feels ill-prepared to handle the "boys in green" by himself, so he summons Shredder. With the flip of a switch, Shredder imprisons Splinter in an electric cage and disappears to save Krang. Fearing that Shredder will use the Retro Mutagen Ray Generator on the Turtles in his effort to save Krang, Splinter uses one of his long fingernails to remove a metal screw in the floor, heaves it through the electrical cage and destroys its generator.
Up on the streets, as the Turtles are about to be reverted to their natural state, Splinter arrives in the nick of time and hurls his staff at Shredder, knocking the Retro Mutagen Ray Generator out of his hands and destroying it. While the Turtles thank Splinter and sadly acknowledge that the RMRG was his only chance to become human again, Shredder and Krang escape back to the Technodrome.
In "Revenge of the Fly", Shredder rebuilds the retro-mutagen ray, however this version resembles a recolored Muta-Zoo Ray Gun. It is stolen by Baxter Stockman and eventually the Turtles who use it to demutate everyone in the city mutated by Baxter.
In "Wrath of the Rat King", the Turtles still had Shredder's RetroMutagen Ray. However it now resembled an assault rifle and was used by Donatello to demuatate the Rat King's lair's rats.
Shredder suddenly had a Retro-mutagen cannon in the season 8 episode "Turtle Trek".
The original gun is available as an accessory for the NECA '87 cartoon Splinter vs. Baxter figures produced in 2020. Due to a production error, the Muta-Zoo Ray Gun in the set is also painted white and purple, resembling the "Revenge of the Fly" version of the Retro-Mutagen Ray, and thus could theoretically be used as either weapon for play/display purposes.
Trivia[]
- Shredder used the Retro-mutagen Ray Generator to reverse Scrag's Bat mutation as a demonstration of the device effectiveness. However as Scrag was seen at end of the episode once again as a mutant bat it is possible that the Retro-mutagen Ray Generator's effects were not permanent and it was only ever intended to bait Splinter into a trap. This theory is supported by the episode "Splinter No More" where an unrelated attempt to de-mutate Splinter is slowly reverted over the course of the episode, indicating that his new physiology cannot be changed.