Name: The Shredder

Designer: Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird

First Appearance: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1

Weapon: Katana and hand blades

Profile: The most iconic of the TMNT's adverseries and the antagonist in most of the universes. He wears a modified samurai armor with lethal blades covering his arms, shoulders and lower legs, as well as a double hand blade on his left hand.

Despite his status as the main villain, Shredder was only a minor character in the original comic. Shredder, real name Oroku Saki, is the brother of Oroku Nagi, Hamato Yoshi's rival. The TMNT are sent to avenge Yoshi's death which happened at the hands of Saki, and their fight ends to fatal results. However, the Shredder's reputation and aura is far from forgotten after the initial volume.

In the 1987 cartoon, Shredder is the main villain along with Krang, who acts as his superior. Even though it is said that Shredder is the greatest martial artist the Turtles have ever faced, he resorts to hiding in bushes and coming up with schemes akin to The Hooded Claw. Here, Shredder is also responsible for the ooze mutating the Turtles and Splinter in an attempt to murder them.

In Japan, Oroku Saki was changed to Oroku Sawaki due to Saki not being a real name.

Name: Krang

Designer: Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird

First Appearance: Turtle Tracks (1987)

Weapon: Android Body

Profile: Krang is an evil being from the Dimension X, who is sometimes referred to as a criminal stripped off his body for his crimes, or part of a brain like species that eventually evolve into large reptiles. The specifics of this was never established in the 1987 cartoon.

His appearance is based on the Utrom species, an alien race from the original comic, though with noteable differences in origin and behavior. To compensate for his lack of a full body, Krang makes use of an android body with incredible strength and the ability to increase his size.

Even though Krang never appeared in the original comics, he went on to have a prominent role in the Adventures comic series. He is not featured in any of the movies or later cartoon series except for the crossover film Turtles Forever in 2009. An unrelated Utrom with the name Krang appears in the 2003 cartoon as a tribute.

Name: Rocksteady and Bepop

Designer: Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird

First Appearance: Turtle Tracks (1987)

Weapon: Laser rifles

Profile: A bumbling henchmen duo under Shredder's command. Though they are shown to have incredible strength and able to disable the Turtles by brute force, their astonishingly low IQ often results in disaster for Shredder and the Foot Clan. Originally two thugs doing dirty work for the Foot, Shredder opts to use them for his mutant experiment by exposing them to a warthog and a rhinoceros.

Rocksteady and Bepop were originally created as part of the toy line by Playmates as new characters, and put into prominent roles by Fred Wolf and David Wise to add more mutants into the 1987 cartoon. Outside of the Adventures comic, they have never appeared in any of the other universes.

Despite their fame, they would not return until 2009's Turtles Forever.

Name: Foot Ninja / Soldier

Designer: Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird

First Appearance: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1

Weapon: Various

Profile: An ancient Japanese ninja clan, revered as the most lethal and feared of all ninja throughout the land. In contemporary times, they branch out to other continents, and led by Shredder, become stronger than ever before. Their logo is a left foot imprint.

In the original comics, live action movies and the 2003 cartoon, the Foot are all interchangable human clan members trained in Ninjitsu by the clan leaders. Even though they are not completely without honor, they do steal and commit crime to profit themselves.

In the 1987 cartoon, in order to make the use of the Turtles's weapons more acceptable, the Foot was changed into robots, free to be chopped up in ever which way only to explode or electricly discharge. This allowed them to be excellent fodder for the video games.

Name: Hun

Designer: Lloyde Goldfine

First Appearance: Things Change (2003)

Weapon:

Profile: Hun is the leader of the Purple Dragons, the rivaling gang in NYC beside the Foot Clan. Hun is nonetheless loyal to Shredder and serves by Shredder's command. The Purple Dragons are identified by their dragon tattooes.

Hun's size and stature makes him an immidiately striking and intimidating villain, and fans accepted him quickly despite being an all new character made for the 2003 reboot. He appears in every game based on the 2003 series as well.

Due to his fame, he was eventually included into the original Mirage comic book series Tales of the TMNT in 2008. He serves as the leader of the Purple Dragons in this version as well.