Blaze and the Monster Machines (2024)

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Blaze and the Monster Machines is a CGI interactive musical educational children's television series produced and created by Nickelodeon. It follows the adventures of a monster truck named Blaze and his best friend and driver, AJ, as they explore and teach viewers the concepts of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). It airs on Nick Jr. and Nickelodeon. The show's first episode aired on October 13, 2014 on the main Nickelodeon channel, and is currently in its eighth season.

About[]

Set in an alternate universe mostly populated by sentient vehicles, mainly monster trucks, the series centers around Blaze, an orange-red monster truck who loves racing and adventure, accompanied by his driver AJ. Each episode is based on a series of events that differ depending on the plot, and throughout the adventure the two encounter obstacles which have to be overcome. During these obstacles, he and AJ will have a problem to be solved with "assistance" from the viewing audience, often relating to riddles, counting, or others. Certain problems also feature the episode's featured STEM concept, Crusher stopping Blaze with a cheat which he always manages to get past, and his Blazing Speed, which is used as a last-minute device to get to something super fast and right ontime. The episode always ends with Blaze and AJ finishing their mission and doing something to celebrate.

Blaze and AJ have many friends, mainly the trucks that they mostly hang out with, Stripes, Starla, Darington, Zeg, and later Watts, as well as Gabby the human mechanic, and Blaze's little sister Sparkle. Their main adversary is Crusher, an antagonistic blue truck who likes to cheat, and goes all out to stop Blaze from winning or following him. He is accompanied by a small green car monster truck named Pickle, who serves as the voice of reason for his schemes and idolizes Blaze.

The missions of each episode vary depending on the plot. Some involve Blaze trying to get something in time, others require him to help one of his friends, and others have a race which takes up the entire episode, which always end with Blaze winning. The plot is also accompanied by original songs sung by Blaze and AJ themselves, usually offscreen during montages, whenever they are setting off or demonstrate the STEM concept featured.

In some episodes, mainly those where Blaze has to help a friend, the plot is sometimes altered with a subplot involving Crusher and Pickle with their own predicaments, which do not interfere with the main storyline but follow its theme in some way. In the subplot, Crusher is trying to do something but humorously fails each time. The subplot usually shows up three times in an episode (usually the firstafter the second featured song, the second after the second problem, and the thirdbefore the credits). There are rare occurrences where the subplot intersects with the main plot, in which something causes something to happen to Blaze or the two end up joining him.

Official descriptions (from Nickjr.com)[]

"Blaze and the Monster Machines is a CGI interactive series for preschoolers featuring Blaze, the world's most amazing monster truck, and his driver and best friend, 8-year-old AJ. The series follows their adventures in Axle City--a town populated with big-wheeled vehicles known as "Monster Machines".

Blaze is Axle City's greatest hero and the champion of the racetrack! Whenever there's trouble, he's the truck everyone turns to for help because he can do things no other truck can! Blaze has Blazing Speed--a special turbo boost that lets him accelerate in times of need to go faster than any other monster machine. But Blaze has more than just speed. He also has the power to transform into any other vehicle or machine! Using his knowledge of engineering, Blaze can add new parts to himself and change into anything. From a hydrofoil to a hang glider to even a hair dryer, if you can engineer it, Blaze can become it!

AJ and the home audience help Blaze on his adventures by exploring the physics of how things move, tackling problems through scientific inquiry and mathematics, and discovering the component parts necessary to make everyday technologies work." - Nickjr.com, 2014-15

"Blaze and the Monster Machines features Blaze, the world's most amazing monster truck, and his driver, AJ. Preschoolers help Blaze on his adventures in Axle City, solving problems based on a STEM curriculum (science, technology, engineering, math)." - Nickjr.com, 2015-present

Characters[]

• Blaze: The main protagonist, an orange-red monster truck who loves racing and going on adventures. He asks the viewers at home to help him on his missions and to teach the STEM concept featured. His signature power is Blazing Speed, which allows him to go super fast. He can also transform into various other vehicles and artifacts.
  • Voiced by Nolan North.
• AJ: The deuteragonist, Blaze's best friend, an 8-year old boy who is his driver. He is an expert at technology.
  • Voiced by Dusan Brown (S1), Caleel Harris (S2-3), Ramone Hamilton (S4-S5) and Jakari Fraser (S6-onward).
  • Singing by Dusan Brown (S1), Jacquez Swanigan (S1-2), Reed L. Shannon (S3-S5), Ramone Hamilton (S5-S6), Artyon Celestine (S6), Judah Edwards (S7) and Leo Abelo Perry (S8-onward).
• Crusher: Blaze and AJ's rival and the show's anti-hero. A dark blue 18-wheeler cargo truck monster truck with a lighter blue flame who's sneaky and cunning, and is so determined to win every race that he even cheats, and gets upset when he doesn’t get what he wants. He constructs various inventions using junk from the bag on his chassis.
  • Voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson.
• Pickle: A small green car monster truck and Crusher's underappreciated and goofy sidekick. He often watches out for Crusher and always looks on the good side of things. He's good friends with Blaze and the others.
  • Voiced by Nat Faxon.
• Gabby: A 9-year old girl mechanic who fixes broken trucks. She owns a toolbox that is equipped every tool she can use. She's close friends with Blaze and AJ. In Season 3, she becomes Watts' driver.
  • Voiced by Angelina Wahler (S1-3), Molly Jackson (S4-S5), Luna Bella Zamora (S6) and Kensington Tallman (S7-onward).
• Stripes: A yellow-orange tiger monster truck with purple stripes. He hasthe abilities of a tiger, such as a huge sense of smell and retractable claws in his tires.
  • Voiced by Sunil Malhotra.
• Starla: A purple cowgirl monster truck who is a lasso expert and speaks with a Southern accent.
  • Voiced by Kate Higgins.
• Darington: A blue and white stunt monster truck who enjoys doing tricks and stunts.
  • Voiced by Alexander Polinsky.
• Zeg: A light green dinosaur monster truck who's half triceratops, has limited vocabulary and likes smashing things.
  • Voiced by James Patrick Stuart.
• Watts: A hot pink and silver monster truck with electric tires, she joins the main cast in Season 3. She can make electricity with her Electric Charging powers.
  • Voiced by Melanie Minichino.
• Sparkle: A pinkish orange truck who is Blaze's little sister and bears an uncanny resemblance to him. She made one guest appearance each in Seasons 5 and 6, before joining the main cast in Season 7.
  • Voiced by Julieta Cortes.

Format[]

All episodes generally follow a similar format, including the following:

• Blaze and AJ doing something that sets up the episode's plot.
• Breaking the fourth wall and viewer participation. Blaze and AJ will often ask the viewers at home to help them with what's going on at the moment to solve the problem, either finding something, counting to a specific number, choosing the right object or path, or other reasons. Usually three major problems would occur throughout the episode.
• The STEM concepts. Each episode focuses on a specific topic, which becomes the main theme of the episode and is used several times throughout. The "Wild Wheels" episodes do not feature STEM concepts, instead focusing on various animal facts.
• The various episodic songs. Usually two songs would play per episode, the first when Blaze and AJ are starting their mission, the second focusing on the episode's featured STEM concept and the two demonstrate such. Songs are normally sung by Blaze and AJ, and are usually sung offscreen during montages, though there are rare occasions where characters sing onscreen as well (aside from Darington's catchphrase being his own name).
• Crusher sending out an invention of his to stop Blaze from following him, but Blaze finds a way to stop it.
• Blaze transforming into something else to get through an obstacle.
• In some episodes, Crusher and Pickle have their own subplot that's related to the episode's plot, but is separate from the main story. In these subplots, Crusher is trying to do something but keeps messing up and always fails at what he wants to do. The subplots show up three times, with the third usually being the episode's final scene (though this became rarer in newer seasons).
• Blazing Speed. When the time is running short, Blaze will use Blazing Speed to go super fast and get there just in time. He will deploy his special speed boosters and ask the viewer to help him go super fast by saying "Let's Blaze!". After such, he will unleash the speed. It is used usually once per episode.
• Crusher getting the episode's last laugh, followed by an iris out on him.

Episodes[]

The first five seasons consist of 20 episodes each. Starting with Season 6, the seasons now consist of 26 episodes.

Season 1[]

Main article: Season 1

The first season started on October 13, 2014 and ended on February 18, 2016. This is the first season of the show, which began with the premiere episode Blaze of Glory. The last episode didn't air until a few episodes after Season 2 began airing. Until Season 5, this was the only season not to include special themed episodes.

Season 2[]

Main article: Season 2

The second season started on September 25, 2015 and ended on April 14, 2017. Season 1 still had one episode left to air when it started. Basically, the case was Sneezing Cold. This season featured the "Race Car Adventures" themed episodes, which feature Blaze going to VelocityVille and turning into a race car; the STEM concepts featured in those episodes are congruent to what race cars use. Six episodes were planned for this theme, but only four aired this season, with the last two airing as part of Season 3. Similar to Season 1, the last episode was not aired until a little while into Season 3.

Season 3[]

Main article: Season 3

The third season was announced June 15, 2015. It started on October 10, 2016 and ended on February 22, 2018. Like Season 1, the past season had only one episode left to air when it began. Like Season 2, this episode features six special episodes with a theme of "Wild Wheels", which feature Blaze going to Animal Island and hanging out with all kinds of animals. Unlike other episodes, these episodes don't feature STEM concepts but instead feature various animal facts and focus on one particular animal.

Season 4[]

Main article: Season 4

The fourth season was announced June 21, 2016. It started onMarch 26, 2018. Like the past two seasons, it features six special themed episodes, this time the theme is "Robot Riders". These episodes feature Blaze transforming into a robot to handle really dangerous tasks a monster truck can't do. The STEM concepts featured in these episodes generally involve robotics and are congruent to what robots are meant for.

Season 5[]

Main article: Season 5

The fifth season was announced May 22, 2018. According to Nickelodeon's press release, Season 5 "takes all terrain to a new level with monster-sized racing adventures. Monster truck Blaze and his eight-year-old driver AJ will travel over land, under the sea and into orbit as Blaze transforms into awesome new vehicles designed to push the limit while helping his friends cross the finish line." It is the first season since Season 1 not to have special themed episodes.

Season 6[]

Main article: Season 6

The sixth season was announced February 19, 2020. According to Nickelodeon's press release, Blaze and the Monster Machines speed into a new season with the most epic races and rescues yet, including next-level transformations into fire rescue vehicles, big rigs, construction trucks and even a fire-breathing dragon.

Season 7[]

Main article: Season 7

The seventh season was announced March 24, 2022. According to Nickelodeon's press release, Blaze and the Monster Machines will speed into an all-new season for preschoolers with themed storylines including epic special missions, mighty mechanical rescues with Robot Riders and high-flying adventures with Super Wheels.

Season 8[]

Main article: Season 8

TBA

Changes to Season 2[]

• Crusher and Pickle's subplots became more common as of Fired Up!.
• Backing music has been added to the transformation scenes.

Changes to Season 3 onward[]

• The animation changes as of the Wild Wheels episodes, with the only exception of Tow Truck Tough.
• Viewer greetings became rare.
• AJ's skywriting is gone completely, and the abstract animations are now seen on either his wristwatch or Blaze's screen.
• In the first two seasons, Blaze usually described the STEM concept; by the time the animation changed, AJ describes it more times than Blaze does.
• In most of Seasons 4 and 5, AJ does not use his Visor View, instead checking where to go without any technology needed. Blaze also shows what to do or where to go with no technology either.
• Beginning in Season 4, Blaze's friends now transform by themselves instead of Blaze sending the magic to them in the Wild Wheels episodes.
• Beginning late into the season, during Blaze's transformation, the camera now zooms to a close-up of the parts as he describes them and they materialize on.

Character design notes[]

Notice the symbols when Blaze's eyes are closed; a thin strip when lightly closed (left), a squished 3 when tightly closed (right).

• All vehicles are designed with their eyes positioned where their headlights go, like most cartoon cars.
• All trucks have black eyes; the only exceptions areBlaze himself, whose are blue, the dragon in Knighty Knights, whose are golden, and the former's relatives, who share Blaze's blue eyes with the exception of his dad, who has brown eyes.
• Most trucks have generic tread marks, while the Monster Machines and some special guest stars have a special shape as such (example: Blaze's tires have flame designs).
• Whenever a truck's eyes are closed, a thin strip is seen on their eyelids; when squeezed tightly shut, a squished, thicknumber 3 symbol is used.
  • By the time the animation was redesigned mid-Season 3, these graphics became smaller.
• All trucks are designed with closed roofs and opaque windows; Blaze, Stripes, Watts, the former's dad, the Cowboy and Pirate from The Mechanic Team! are the sole exceptions (the last two have a roof, but not opaque windows).

Trivia[]

• The show's title came from a quote from the 2001 film Monsters, Inc.'.
  • It could be inspired by the 1985 series "Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines", which coincidentally is also animated, and about monster trucks (albeit not anthropomorphic though).
  • The in-universe term "Monster Machine" could also be named after the 2013 horror film of the same name.
• The animal characters are very reminiscent of the characters from Jungle Junction.
• It even manages to avoid coming off as a rip-off to Bigfoot Presents: Meteor and the Mighty Monster Trucks (another animated TV series very similarly also about anthropomorphic monster trucks), which was originally released on Discovery Kids from September 2006 until its cancellation in October 2008, or even The Adventures of Chuck and Friends, which was released on Hub Network in 2010.
  • Thankfully, the show itself and the characters also even look nothing like a copy of those two said shows.
  • There was a non-secular, religious and biblical version of the former mentioned series renamed to "Monster Truck Adventures", released later in 2013.
• The original copyright for this show was filed on October 2, 2012. This pilot was never aired but was developed around 2012 and became a full series animated by the people who made Storm Hawks. Nothing is really known about this pilot, but around this time, the show was basically about an 8-year-old boy named AJ, and his incredible monster truck "Blaze", and their friend, a girl named Maddie (later changed to Gabby), fighting their arch nemesis Crusher along with a fleet of other trucks. No footage of the pilot has been found except there's the two images that can potentially be the images of the pilot.
• This was the last interactive Nick Jr. show until Blue's Clues & You! in 2019.
• The show is currently one of the only four first-run shows to air new episodes on the Nick Jr. block as all other shows have moved to the Nick Jr. channel, with the other three being PAW Patrol and Blue's Clues & You.
• The Hungarian title of the series is Láng és a szuperverdák (Fire and the Super Cars). The last word szuperverdák may refer to the 2006 film Cars, known in Hungarian as Verdák, and its two sequels Cars 2 (2011) and Cars 3 (2017).
• Despite being a Nick Jr. show, it aired on Nicktoons for some unknown reasons.
• It marks the first Nick Jr. show from Nickelodeon Animation Studios not to use the Nickelodeon normal music logo, since it used end credits music instead.
• The creator, Jeff Borkin, has worked on several other shows, such as The Backyardigans, Little Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Team Umizoomi.
• The infamous "Call Blaze" app on the Google Play Store that scared kids became an internet meme. Every time one would beat the game, someone only known as "Happy Slappy" would call you, threatening to stab you to death with his knife. Needless to say, this was a cause of concern for many parents with children who were left terrified by the unsettling call. Thankfully, the app has since been banned from Google Play.
• Much like with Bubble Guppies, the end credits don't list which actor voices which character, with the only credited actors being the celebrity guest stars after the opening theme.
• The Season 5 finale "The Gold Medal Games" was originally set to air in the US on June 12, 2020, but was delayed to July 23, 2021 due to the episode having similarities with the Olympic Games, which were postponed in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• AJ's voice actor in seasons 2-4, Caleel Harris, also voices Clyde McBride from The Loud House in seasons 1-2.
• The Nick Jr. Remix of "Ninjas!" includes footage from Team Umizoomi, Paw Patrol, Abby Hatcher, Wallykazam, Butterbean's Cafe, Bubble Guppies, and Top Wing as well as Blaze and the Monster Machines. Some footage is repeated in the music video, however, with some variations, including mirrored shots. An audio clip of DJ Khaled reading the Ninja Blaze title card as Blackbelt is also reused several times.
• With the exception of Paw Patrol, Abby Hatcher and Top Wing, Blaze and the Monster Machines, Team Umizoomi, Wallykazam, Butterbean's Cafe, and Bubble Guppies were produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio in American.
• Even in later seasons, promotional artworks will always feature the characters in their pre-Season 2 appearances, with no signs of art evolution.
• Though the show is generally popular in ways, it falls into this now and then. The number of times it runs daily has gotten fewer later into the show's run, and as of now, it only airs on Nick Jr. channel about two to six times a day, whereas it only airs once on Nick Jr. on Nick (shared with Ryan's Mystery Playdate) in favor of consecutive reruns of PAW Patrol, which became the only show aired on the block (aside from single reruns of one other show) throughout the summer of 2019. Thankfully, it is the only pre-2019 first run show other than PAW Patrol and the un-cancelled Bubble Guppies that has not been moved to the Nick Jr. channel for new episodes.
• WildBrain Studios (formerly DHX Media), the same company that animated other shows, including LEGO Ninjago from seasons 11 onwards, did the animation and produced on this show from seasons 2 onwards.
• Just like from Pixar's Cars, it also spawned the following merchandise: a variety of DVD's based on the episodes, a large toy line (diecasts, playsets, etc.), several mobile games, and a console game, titled Axle City Racers, likely due to its popularity.

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