Ace Duck

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Ace Duck is a fictional character from the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.

[edit] Toy Line

His action figure was released in 1989, part of the second wave of toys to follow the original ten figures. His origin, as described in the biography on his toy packaging, explains how Krang had a craving for Earth duck and arranged for one to be transported to Dimension X, but a test pilot named Ace Conrad was caught in the transport beam and cross-mutated with the duck. After crashing his plane and landing in the sewers, he came across the Turtles and eventually found himself in their employment. Some fans believe that Ace Duck was actually a spoof of Howard the Duck.

It is notable that the while the original Ace Duck figure was in the package wearing his pilot's cap, later versions of the toy were packaged with the hat as a separate accessory. (The second version of the toy was modified so that the hat has a peg that plugs into the top of Ace Duck's head.) The version wearing the hat had a more limited production run and is considered valuable to collectors. Other accessories included a small service pistol, a belt with "egg grenade" accessories, and a set of wings which plugged into his back.

[edit] Cartoon Series

As with several action figures from the TMNT toy line, Ace Duck eventually made it into the cartoon series. Unlike the other characters in supporting roles, however, Ace Duck's appearance in the series was incredibly brief. In the third-season episode "Attack of Big MACC," Michaelangelo was watching an Ace Duck film festival on television. Ace can be seen on the Turtles' TV screen in close-up, cackling in a manner highly reminiscent of Donald Duck, but his cameo is brief, lasting only seconds.

Given that the Turtles were shunned by the general populace due to their unusual appearance, it seems extremely unlikely that Ace Duck would have received a warm welcome by the film industry and have ascended so quickly to television stardom. More likely, the Ace Duck who appears in the TMNT cartoon is a fictional character within the fictional universe, rather than the mutant pilot-for-hire described in his toy package biography, probably intended to be a parody of Launchpad McQuack.

[edit] Archie TMNT Adventures Comics

In the Archie comics, Ace Duck was a wrestler at the Stump Asteroid. He would appear a few times, most notably in issue 7 where he would be introduced as a wrestler from planet Perdufus. He'd face Leatherhead and lose quite easily. He'd also return in issue 37 where he'd fight a werewolf creature named Bloodbath and also lose. Compared to his action figure, Ace Duck would appear in wrestler trunks and is very muscular. Despite his physique and agility, Ace Duck is also extremely full of himself. His constant babbling about how perfect he is is what leads him to lose his matches. Despite losing to Leatherhead and Bloodbath, he somehow maintains his championship status amongst the wrestlers in the Stump Arena. His matches were always before the Turtles would get thrown into their own matches, so Ace Duck never actually fought the Turtles or interacted with them in the series.