Blaze and the Monster Machines is a CGI-animated interactive children's television franchise with a focus on teaching STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) made and created by Jeff Borkin, Ellen Martin, Nickelodeon Animation Studio and WildBrain Studios for the Nickelodeon Group that originally debuted as a 2012 unaired tv pilot during the development of the 2014 animated tv series that premiered on Nickelodeon on October 13th, 2014. The series revolves around Blaze and AJ, a monster truck and human driver duo, respectively, as they have adventures in Axle City and learn about various STEM concepts which help them on their way. Joining them is the human mechanic Gabby and their monster truck friends Stripes, Starla, Darington and Zeg as well as their rival Crusher and his sidekick Pickle. Then later on, Watts join the main cast in the tv show's third season.
Characters[]
Main[]
- Blaze; Blaze is the show's host and central character, an orange-red monster truck with blue eyes and a flame emblem, who is good-hearted, loyal, and brave. He is Axle City's number one racer, especially with help from his Blazing Speed which is initiated by saying "Let's Blaze!" At the start of Season 2, Blaze becomes the newest member of the Axle City Fire Department and Season 4 has him join the Axle City Police Department to help Officer Anna. In the Season 5 episode "The Blaze Family," Blaze has a family: a mom, a dad and a little sister named Sparkle. He and his friends would also visit VelocityVille (where they turn into Race Cars to take part in adventures and Race Car Events) and Animal Island (to visit their animal friends and transform into animals for competitions or to take care of problems and/or obstacles). As revealed in a Season 3 episode "Need for Blazing Speed," Blaze's Blazing Speed engine is not only what he uses to unleash his Blazing Speed, but it is also what allows him to drive around in general. As of Season 3, starting with the "Wild Wheels" episodes, Blaze's design has been slightly upgraded to have the addition of taillights, coinciding with the series' upgraded animation. Blaze, along with his Monster Machine friends and Gabby's ATV, also have additional features as well, such as grappling lines to tow fellow Monster Machines out of trouble and Speed Lights to illuminate themselves in the dark and race in the dark in one of Axle City's outdoor race tracks. On his tires, he has flame patterns.
- AJ; AJ is the show's co-host and Blaze's human best friend and driver, a science and technology expert with medium skin, brown eyes and brown hair, and wears a white and red racing suit and helmet. AJ's racing suit technology includes his Visor View in his helmet which allows him to see things no one else can. When AJ activates his Visor View, the background usually turns orange in Season 1. But from Season 2 and onwards, it doesn't do that anymore. His skywriting gloves which allow him to draw pictures in mid-air (which has been mostly abandoned since Season 3) and a wrist-com video watch worn on his left arm to call others. His uniform can also undergo minor changes in appearance, such as when Blaze transforms into a race car, and Blaze using his speed lights. As the show progressed, AJ become the one to describe the STEM concept instead of Blaze in earlier seasons.
- Crusher; Crusher is a deep blue monster truck with a lighter blue lightning bolt motif and Blaze and AJ's rival. He cheats in most episodes because he would get lampooned by Blaze in a fair race. He constructs various cheating gadgets from parts that he keeps in a bag on his chassis. A running gag of the show is where Crusher gets himself into trouble in various situations, especially when he crashes into something and ends up dizzy or messy. Crusher often stars in his own subplots along with Pickle which are separate from the main story, in which he constantly messes up doing something that Pickle is trying out. While he is known for his cheating and mischievous ways, he is not all bad and not really evil. In fact, there are times where Crusher is still good at heart at times. Examples of are shown when Crusher is willing to help Blaze save the Christmas Presents and when he admits that he'd never steal anyone else's birthday cake when he realizes that it was Darington's birthday cake that he was trying to take. Once, Crusher even ran a restaurant to serve spaghetti with big meatballs. In addition, Blaze and his friends are even willing to help Crusher in some instances, such as helping him find his toy truck "Little Trucky," Gasqautch saving him by sneezing away a thundercloud and then bringing him down from Mud Mountain, Gabby fixing his muffler/exhaust pipe when it got broken, Blaze saving him and Pickle when they got stuck in a snowball, Blaze saving him and Pickle on a rocket or a hot air balloon, Blaze and Grammy saving him when his rocket skis got a malfunction in "Rocket Ski Rescue" and Blaze helped convince Crusher not to cheat when they've teamed up in a Team Truck Challenge in "Defeat the Cheat." In fact, in that race, Crusher (along with Blaze) finally scored himself his first ever win fair and square and it is also the first time where Crusher's running gag does not end with Crusher disgusted, but actually ends with Crusher being happy (as Crusher did bump into an ice cream cart and ended up messy, but happy about his win, he happily eats the dripping ice cream as he says, "Tastes like Winning!"). On his tires, he has lightning bolt patterns.
- Pickle; Pickle is a small green singing monster truck based on an AMC Eagle with darker green stripes and bumps on his sides, who is Crusher's sidekick despite Crusher's indifference towards him, although the two are known to be close friends most of the time. In the Season 4 episode "The Pickle Family Campout," he has a family: three cousins named Ben, Ken and Sven, four sisters named Lilly, Milly, Tilly and Frilly and Grandpa. He tends to look on the brighter side of things and is quite goofy and has an extremely high pitch voice. Although he is by Crusher's side, Pickle is actually quite friendly towards Blaze and his friends. On his tires, he has wavy line patterns.
- Gabby (voiced by Angelina Wahler in Season 1 through "Tow Truck Tough", Molly Jackson in "Need for Blazing Speed" through Season 5 and Luna Bella Zamora in Season 6 through present) is a knowledgeable human mechanic with light skin, blue eyes and purple hair in a ponytail and wears a white shirt with blue overalls, though she switches to a white and blue racing suit and helmet with goggles when riding with Blaze. She fixes up the trucks when they are damaged and sometimes rides with AJ and Blaze to take part in some of their adventures. Gabby's uniform and helmet undergoes changes like AJ's, but it has only happened once (when Gabby's ATV uses Speed Lights). Gabby also drives a purple ATV, but she no longer drives it anymore after "Light Riders" because starting with "Fast Friends", she is now a Monster Machine driver for Watts. This makes her the second character to become one and to be partnered with a Monster Machine (in this case: Watts), the first being AJ who partners with Blaze. When Gabby competes in a Monster Machine event with Watts, she wears a white and magenta version of her racing suit.
- Stripes; Stripes is a yellow-orange and violet striped truck with the abilities of a tiger, such as a high sense of smell and retractable spike-claws in his tires. Because of this, he is good at jumping and climbing. In Season 3's "Wild Wheels" episodes, when Blaze transforms into a Lion Monster Machine, he shares his engineering powers to transform Stripes into a tiger named Super Tiger Stripes. In "Babysitting Heroes," it reveals that Stripes can babysit baby animals. His home is a treehouse in a jungle outside Axle City. On his tires, he has stripe patterns. In "The Monster Machine Christmas Extravaganza", he is an Axle City Caroler.
- Starla; Starla is a purple pickup truck with a sparkly silver cowgirl hat, who's a roping expert and speaks with a thick Southern accent. She runs a farm outside Axle City. She was the only female Monster Machine to be a main cast member until Season 3, when Watts was added to the main cast. On her tires, she has horseshoe patterns. In "The Monster Machine Christmas Extravaganza", she is an Axle City Caroler.
- Darington; Darlington is a clumsy yet fearless starry blue and white monster truck with a gold star motif, helmet and cape-like spoiler, who loves stunts, and often becomes happy. His catchphrase is "Daringtooooon!" In "The Chicken Circus," it reveals that Darington can speak chicken. In "The Amazing Stunt Kitty," it is also revealed that Darington has a kitty cat named Stunt Kitty as his pet and sidekick. On his tires, he has star patterns. In "The Monster Machine Christmas Extravaganza", he is a Axle City Caroler.
- Zeg; Zeg is a light green half-dinosaur triceratops, half-monster truck with brute tendencies. He has a short vocabulary and tends to refer to himself in the third person. Like most ceratopside dinosaurs, Zeg likes to smash, but in "Race to the Top of the World," Zeg reveals that he can't swim. He also has a low, Hulk-like voice. His home is a prehistoric cave outside Axle City. On his tires, he has rock patterns. In "The Monster Machine Christmas Extravaganza", he is a Axle City Caroler.
- Watts; Watts is a magenta Monster Machine powered by electricity who speaks with a South American accent and is the latest of Blaze's Monster Machine friends as of Season 3 (as shown from the updated standard Opening Sequence with the upgraded animation as of "Race for the Golden Treasure"). She is also the second female Monster Machine to both be part of the main cast and be part of Blaze's Machine friends, with the first one, being Starla. Watts' features include her electric engine and her special yellow electric tires, both allowing her to drive fast, and her Electric Charge which allows her to give anything electricity so it can work. When Watts met Blaze, AJ and Gabby for the first time, she happily asks Gabby to be her driver, saying that she never had anyone driving her before. Gabby happily accepts Watts' offer, saying that she has never been a Monster Machine's driver before. Since then, Gabby is now a Monster Machine driver for Watts (just like AJ is Blaze's Monster Machine driver) and the two are now very close friends (just like Blaze and AJ). This makes Watts the second Monster Machine to be driven by a human and to be partnered with a Monster Machine driver (in this case, Gabby) with the first being Blaze who partners with AJ. On her tires, she has lightning bolt patterns just like Crusher. In "The Monster Machine Christmas Extravaganza", she is a Axle City Caroler.
Plot of the Franchise[]
The franchise focuses on Blaze, a red monster truck, and his smart young driver, AJ. They live in a world that involves many living monster trucks called "Monster Machines". Their friends include their truck friends, Starla, Stripes, Zeg, Darington, and Watts (as of Season 3), as well as Gabby, who is a mechanic who can fix anything and later on Watts' Monster Machine driver and close friend (as of Season 3). Each episode also features Crusher, a sneaky blue truck who cheats in races, but slowly evolves into a nicer character. Crusher is always accompanied by a small truck named Pickle, his goofy sidekick.
Television media[]
Unaired television pilot[]
:Main article: Blaze And The Monster Machines (TV pilot)
Before the 2014 CGI-tv series premiered on Nick Jr., A pilot was produced in 2012, This pilot was never aired, but was developed around 2012. Nothing is really known about this pilot, but around this time the show was basically about an eight-year-old boy named AJ, and his incredible monster truck Blaze, and their friend, a girl named Maddie, fighting their arch nemesis Crusher along with a fleet of other trucks. No footage of the pilot has been found except there's this 2 images that can potentially be the images of the pilot.
Animated television series[]
- Main article: Blaze and the Monster Machines (television series)
After losing it's own tv pilot for the show, The show is rebranded on the Nick Jr. channel in 2014 as a CGI-animated preschool educated series. The trivia of the show is when The original copyright for this show was filed on October 2, 2012. The show's file was as Nickelodeon's clone & parody to Disney/Pixar's Cars films but with an extra pack of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) teachings for each preschool students to be entertained.
43-minute Television specials[]
These are the Episodes from the tv show that are double-length and last over 30 minutes.;
| Title | Plot | Type | Air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Blaze of Glory" | Blaze and AJ discover a city named Axle City and are introduced to the world of racing Monster Machines after getting diverted by falling rocks. But when a mean racer named Crusher sends Blaze and the other Monster Machines far away thanks to his Trouble Bubble Wand (meaning that Crusher is cheating to win the race), it's up to Blaze and AJ to find the Monster Machines (their new friends) and get back to the race just in time using Blaze's blazing speed engine before Crusher wins and get the Monster Machine World Championship trophy. | Special episode | October 13, 2014 |
| "Race to the Top of the World" | Blaze and his friends are participating in one of their biggest races yet - the Race to the Top of the World. But when Crusher's cheating throws them off course, they must race around the world, battle obstacles, and use skills to get back to the race and finish first before Crusher. | Special episode | November 23, 2015 |
Videogame[]
- Main article: Blaze and the Monster Machines: Axle City Racers
This is the one-&-only videogame in the franchise to get an official debut in 2021. Fasten your seatbelts for the ride of a lifetime as Outright Games, the leading publisher of family friendly interactive entertainment, in partnership with Nickelodeon, today have announced a brand new kart racing game Blaze and the Monster Machines: Axle City Racers.
Merchandises[]
Books[]
During the franchise's run, This is a list of books have been licensed and published by Little Golden Books and Penguin Random House variously for Nickelodeon's Blaze and the Monster Machines merchandise deals.
Digital downloads[]
The Digital Download releases of Blaze and the Monster Machines available to watch on Amazon Instant Video, iTunes and LeapFrog.
Misc.[]
As the amount of Blaze and the Monster Machines items available for sale grows, they will be added to the appropriate sections. Prices will typically be in U.S. dollars, and links to the products may be for U.S. retailers.