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    Loathsome Characters Wiki

    Crusher (Blaze and the Monster Machines)

    "Crusher is Blaze's biggest rival, an egomaniacal tractor-trailer who will do anything to beat the other racers to the finish line. When it comes to winning, no cheat is too big, and no trick is too underhanded for Crusher"
    Official press release
    "Blaze's biggest rival, Crusher, is an egomaniacal tractor-trailer that will do anything to beat the other racers to the finish line. Cheating is Crusher's specialty. So when it comes to winning, no trick is too underhanded for Crusher. He's constantly building contraptions to stop Blaze and his pals. And despite being the biggest truck around."
    Official description, Nickjr.com and Noggin.com


    Crusher
    Even when he does show his good side on the special occasion, he's still very flawed at his worst. He's still got his crying habits at all.
    Gender: Male
    Type: Dumb, idiotic, immature and improper behaving generic petty scheming villain (bad side)
    Kind, caring, nice, lovely and truthful Anti-hero (good side)
    Age: 18-22
    Species: Monster Truck, Race Car
    Portrayed by: Kevin Michael Richardson (US)
    Status: Alive
    Media of origin: Blaze and the Monster Machines


    Crusher is the main antagonist, and one of the main characters of Blaze and the Monster Machines, serving as the anti-hero of the show. He is voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson. He resembles a large 18-wheeler cargo-truck, such as a Peterbilt 386 or Kenworth T680.

    Why He Should Be Crushed (No Pun Intended)

    1. First of all, as said in the caption, if he does show his good side, he isn't really smart, and perhaps, otherwise or besides, still very flawed at his worst, as he is often too dumb to live and always choosing guesses that would lead him to something unfortunate, and also believing by the fact he thinks that cheating is the only way to win, and never learning his lesson (until the episode as further mentioned below). Even Pickle (his best friend) too, who is crazy (but adorable), and often a simpleton, has been shown silently snarking when he decided to cheat.
      • Also infuriating was that he never got caught by race officials for cheating, meaning that, even if he doesn't win (which he never did; until "Defeat the Cheat"), he always gets off scot-free (though he tends to suffer plenty of humiliation by the end of the episode).
    2. He plays dirty too much.
    3. He'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.
    4. He also holds a rather mischievous side to himself, which results him into cheating.
    5. He's rather very confident for the most part in his actions, but sometimes the results could result in a faulty action (he is also sometimes reckless).
    6. He mostly acts a lot immature. And to make matters even worse, he also never shuts up.
    7. Something misleading: Not true to his name, despite it trying to refer to "crushing", crush cars (like what you see at real-life monster truck-based stadiums and/or arenas) never actually even exist throughout the show's whole entire universe. He should've been called either Cheater, Crier, or even have Crying Cheater/Sobbing Cheater/Cheater Crier/Crier Cheater be his full name so it would make much more sense, because those are his two major, and huge habits.
    8. Much like Jackson Storm from a later Pixar film, Cars 3, who is also poorly-written, he exactly came across as pretty much a one-dimensional character (even for Nick Jr. standards), since both are cheaters. He was not even well-developed as Chick Hicks from the first Cars film, just to make him partially entertaining.
    9. Because of Blaze's winning habits and his Blazing Speed to races, he never won any race he is in (until the episode mentioned in BQ#1). But while this does make some sense, it is because Blaze is the main protagonist of the series and he is usually the villain who loses at the end (though he, thankfully, is not all bad and really evil).
    10. While actually hilarious and Kevin Michael Richardson did a good job voicing him, it sounds really whiny. And his either crying, sobbing, whining, wailing, bawling, and/or even weeping of course, can get an awful lot annoying in tons of episodes (especially in "The Mystery Bandit" and even "Ninja Blaze"; see the two videos below), though there are plenty of exceptions in other episodes, like for example, "Cake-tastrophe!".
      • On that topic, unlike other animated shows (like for example, SpongeBob SquarePants and Peppa Pig), despite it sounding like any of those six effects, and while the show is technically well-designed in many ways, and there are barely any major animation errors, there's actually no tear effect at all. Though this has been a true standard for animated character industry. This is in a similar manner to how the creator of A Car's Life: Sparky's Big Adventure (Michael Schelp), the Cars-based mockbuster by Spark Plug Entertainment, didn't bother to animate tire smoke effects whenever a tire squealing/screeching sound is heard in that film, and near its ending, during the Badlands scene, a police car (named Officer Clutch) has a rocket launcher, but when it hits Diesel (that film's main antagonist), despite it looking like a rocket, it didn't show an explosion effect at all, or it could be invisible. In BATMM, actual tire smoke actually is present. An example is where he, Crusher, in "The Mystery Bandit", where he suddenly spins out of control and crashes into a pile of boxes near the alleyway where the tracks go, spilling a huge pile of nails onto the street (by an accident).
        • Speaking back to the tear effect, also, even when the animation did improve in the Wild Wheels mini-series and late seasons-3 onwards (with the only exception of "Tow Truck Tough"), the animators still didn't bother to animate it.
        • Again, even Zeg and Starla suffered from this same problem too.
        • That is because they all don't even have or show tears, which could make some sense why they couldn't bother to do it.
        • Or also possibly because it would be too difficult and/or expensive to animate in either or both the original and current style overall.
      • Due to his constant crying, despite being like an adult, like, he somehow acts like a 3-4 year old child.
      • According to the Villains Wiki, his crying sound effect (probably especially from "The Mystery Bandit") kind of sounds like Brian Griffin from Family Guy vomiting for about 28 seconds. Here is a preview of the sound effect about the said cry.[1]
    11. He also cried too when something was often stolen from him, especially in the episode "The Mystery Bandit". In that episode, he got his favorite metal toy truck "Little Trucky" stolen, specifically. But thankfully, Ferris (who soon reveals that he was actually the one that took all the stuff from one of Blaze's friends; which falsely implies there's no Mystery Bandit) finally got it and even the rest of all the other things left back to him. Currently, the only true exception to date was in "The Treat Thief", as instead of him crying, he starts freaking out in panic (see below on Trivia again).
    12. He deploys a stupid cheat in almost every episode except for example, while interestingly, throughout the first half of season 4, between "Defeat the Cheat" and "Power Tires".
      • He cheats in most episodes because he would get Blaze in a fair race.
      • Whenever the episode involves a race, he was so obsessed with cheating in many races too.
        • However, it's actually noted that he actually hasn't cheated over 62 times to date.
    13. Because of his cheating habits and always expressing improper behavior, he may be in fact the worst racer in Axle City.
      • Whenever he is introduced in a race, the audience applaud slow and quiet, and voice dull and boring cheers. This probably hints that he is hated for his cheating.
    14. Despite being the main antagonist, as you judge from his stupid actions (like his quote "Oh, I can't wait to get that piston! Then, I'll be the best Monster Machine, even better than Blaze!"), he pretends to be a secondary protagonist, which makes no sense, even for Nick Jr. standards.
      • Also, the problem is, if he did get the piston anyways, given his idiocy, overconfidence and general technological disabilities, he would most broken his own engine instead of upgrading it while trying to install an extra piston.
        • But Blaze did ask it belongs to Starla, not him.
    15. As his cheating implies, he thinks he's the best racer in the world (a brief mention by Gabby in the premiere episode "Blaze of Glory" when he was first introduced after honking his horn pushing his way to the front of a crowd). The mention was a line "His name is Crusher, and he thinks he's the best racer ever. That guy will do anything to win."
    16. In the very first (or plus, second) episode of the show, "Blaze of Glory", meanwhile, he is pleased that the racers are gone, but Gabby is against him and shows what's happening on the jumbotron. He is shocked to see Blaze finding the other racers, and thinks of another way to cheat: he constructs a mechanical mudslinger to stop them.
    17. In that same episode as mentioned in BQ#13, back at the Monster Dome, he is upset that Blaze will make it back and starts to cry, deeming there's only one thing left to do. Pickle thinks he should race fair and square, only for him to get another idea and unleashes one last cheat: an army of robot knights which are his worst cheats yet. Blaze and the gang encounter them, and they use the magnet from earlier to take away their shields which deactivates them one at a time.
    18. This ruined the whole entire episode: Sadly, in "Blaze of Glory" as mentioned above, while one of the best top-notch episodes of all time, with his Trouble Bubble Wand cheat, it kind of ruins the whole plot. This matter is even more worse than ever. And while another good episode, in Trouble at the Truck Wash, even though he understood all the rest of the Monster Machines to press the button only one time, the real reason why he accidentally destroyed the Truck Wash is just because he tries to be the cleanest Monster Machine ever (though he actually rather referred himself to as the proper term "truck" in that scene). He pushes himself forward and is given a warning: to use the truck wash, he has to press the soap button only once. He does such, only to get an idea and get super clean by pressing it a million times. When doing so however, it causes the truck wash to malfunction and all the parts fly out and away. Because the truck wash is broken, he worries he'll be dirty forever, but Gabby doubts it. To her request, Blaze and AJ decide to find the missing parts and bring them back so she can fix it (hence this episode's title which is why it's implied).
      • But to be fair, the episode would've been just only a short called "Truck Wash" had him not cause the trouble (although official shorts did not exist until eight months later (November after that episode; it is called "Blazing Challenge").
    19. In "Race to the Top of the World", he pushes a lever which opens it, causing everyone to stop, but Blaze says they can't give up and they jump over it. He is upset that his cheat never worked and Pickle tries to reassure him with Blaze's moral, but this inspires him to cheat his biggest cheat ever.
      • Also, in the same episode, he keeps on taking a bunch of shortcuts, but they fail.
    20. Although not countless plot holes, there are these ironies in the following episodes:
      • In "The Puppy Chase", he could've told Pickle that a pet is an animal.
      • In "Truck or Treat!", he could've pressed a stop button on the candy stealer to stop it from sucking the candy up.
      • In "Toy Trouble!", Blaze and Watts could've given him one of the toys after they shrunk them.
      • In "The Team Truck Challenge", if he blocked the mine entrance and Blaze and Pickle come to knock the rocks down, then they shouldn’t have encountered the other teams when they come out the other side; they should’ve been in front of him by the time he blocks the mine.
      • And of course, the BIGGEST out of all: In "Stuntmania!", even though he does say Darington's name and kicks him out away, they never actually speak to each other throughout the entire episode. Even more infuriating, this suffers in every later episode with Darington to date.
        • Also ironically, in the same episode, even though Blaze, AJ and Darington saw Pickle with him, neither of them spoke to him.
    21. Confusing goofs:
      • In need for Blazing Speed, Blaze states that he doesn't know how Blazing Speed works, despite the fact that he has used Blazing Speed before in "The Wishing Wheel" and "Catch That Cake!". However, it is possible that this episode could take place before those two.
      • In "Pickle Power", Pickle claims he and Crusher never done a giant loop before, but in the previous episode "The Wishing Wheel", they see a giant loop and use tire rockets to get through it.
      • In "Sky Track", thanks to his idiocy, he forgot water plus Robo Cloud equals mass destruction.
      • In "The Jungle Horn", he has the fruit on him in one shot but in the next the fruit is missing and there is a hiccup in one shot.
      • In "Mail Truck Blaze", he should've made a machine in order to give the mail to Pickle, but he never thought of that.
    22. In "Gasquatch!", he gets one lie; he claims that Gasquatch (the character of the same name) is a scary mud (or muddy) monster, but when he comes to him at the top of the Mud Mountain, he seems to be not afraid of him anymore. He is confused and thought Gasquatch was a monster all this time, but Gasquatch isn't a monster at all, he just loves mud, and he admits he should've gotten to know him better and Gasquatch makes him his friend.
    23. During "Defeat the Cheat", he then spies a small cave and thinks of using it as a shortcut to get ahead, but worries as it would be cheating. When he tries to go through anyway, he gets stuck because he's too big. When Blaze hears his whine for help, he and AJ cannot get him out as usual because he's really stuck, so they need something with super pulling power. Blaze transforms into a tow truck and proceeds to pull him out, but then he hears a growl and realizes it's from a group of grizzly trucks and begins to panic.
    24. While the Transformers-esque "Robot Riders" episodes are awesome, and along with everyone else in the form of a robot, it's so very sad that Crusher was the only one not to become this transformation, which saddened every fan of the series.
    25. He is shown to have a hard time saying "thank you" to someone.
    26. He is often jealous of Blaze and what he does. His jealousy is mentioned in "The Driving Force" after Blaze beats him, and in "Fired Up!", when Pickle says Blaze is doing his best to be a firefighter, he wishes he were a firefighter, too.
    27. He is so idiotic, as he thinks that cheating helps him win and he literally never learned except "Defeat the Cheat“, so it is justified why the spectators are not cheering for him. He is the Waluigi from the overall Mario series of the show, as Waluigi hates losing and says that everyone cheated whenever he loses, though he himself cheats as well.
    28. Also because of his cheating and wanting to get something lost, he thinks he's the best racer ever. He'll do anything to win (mentioned by Gabby in "Blaze of Glory").
    29. And to top it all off, very sadly too, he is quite arguably the worst character of the entire show, that the writers are completely wasting it by giving him way too much screen time. He is unimportant to the show, all he ever does is whine, and complain all the time. He won't stop interrupting the show.

    Redeeming Qualities

    1. Despite his idiocy and psychopathic, sociopathic, generic, cheesy and weird behavior, he is actually pretty hilarious to watch. Even on his good side, he's still like that.
    2. At his best, he can be kind, caring, nice, lovely and truthful.
    3. In fact, his crying, etc. is so annoying, that it's unintentionally hilarious for some viewers too, especially if you want to have a good time to laugh, like quotes for example, "Oh...my cheating never wor-or-or-orks!!!" from "Dragon Island Duel" of season 1.
    4. As said above in BQ#10, despite that it can get annoying at some times, Kevin Michael Richardson does a good job voicing him. He does an entertaining performance.
    5. Finally, as said in BQ #1, Defeat the Cheat is the first time he actually resists cheating and wins a race, despite that he still tried to cheat. Could it be because of the episode's title suggestion?
      • Blaze helped convince him not to cheat when they've teamed up in a Team Truck Challenge in that episode. In fact, in the race, he finally scored himself his first ever win fair and square and it is also the first time where his running gag does not end with him disgusted. It actually ends with him being happy (as he did bump into an ice cream cart and ended up messy, but happy about his win).
      • It is also the first time he doesn't show disgust after running into something and getting mud or food on him; instead he praises it.
    6. Thankfully, while he is known for his cheating and mischievous ways, he is not all bad and really evil (as mentioned in WHSBCSBPI #9). In fact, there are times where he is still good at heart at times.
    7. Interestingly, he hasn't cheated nor despised Blaze at all throughout the first half of season 4. Between Defeat the Cheat and Power Tires, this is the longest he went without cheating to date.
    8. He isn't the only antagonist in the show, there are some plenty of other antagonists seen in the show as well for each episode, like Rudy of course, the Light Thief, Speedrick, Lazard, Thunderwing, the Treat Thief (not to be confused with the episode of the same name), the Little Critter, Queen Fastine, Magic Mirror, and Toothbrush Taker (see below), which could be the reason why he is more like an anti-hero character than a generic petty scheming villain.
    9. Entertaining and funny subplots provided by him and Pickle, especially the hilarious running gag where he interrupts and tried to do it but fails and messed up, which has began since season 1's "Cake-tastrophe!", an episode that was released in early of January 2015 after the New Year day. In some episodes, he and Pickle occasionally have their own subplot which follows the story's theme, but does not relate to the main story in any way. In each subplot, he is trying to do something, but ends up failing due to the humorous results.
      • The subplot normally shows up three times in a random episode, usually those with a plot where Blaze has to help a friend or go on an exploration, and he and Pickle don't interact with Blaze nor see him at all. The third scene is usually the last scene of the episode all together, though this became rarer with newer seasons.
    10. Monster Machine Christmas is the first episode where he shows his good side.
    11. Special Mission Blaze is one of the many episodes where he is on his good side.
      • Although he shows his good side, his role as the antagonist is taken by the Toothbrush Taker.
    12. Construction Crew to the Rescue is one of the few episodes where he doesn't antagonize or compete against Blaze at all.
    13. He is on his good side throughout Campfire Stories!.
      • This is because his role of the antagonist was taken up by the cave creatures, Greater Than, and Lord Carburetor.
    14. Despite his antagonizing personality, he does hold some honor in him. Like agreeing on babysitting baby Gherkin and helped cooking for hungry customers at a restaurant.
    15. His cooking skills have improved a bit by Meatball Mayhem, where he works as a meatball chef at a restaurant.
    16. Despite their rivalry toward each other, he is shown to have softened with Blaze at times. One big instance was in Defeat the Cheat when they were partnered with each other for the Team Truck Challenge and he had to race without cheating which was a big first for him. The two had a few moments of bonding with each other as shown throughout the song Inclines, constantly smiling at each other and giving a high tire in mid-air. When he resists cheating and wins along with Blaze, he hugs him happily. Also in Meatball Mayhem, he happily shows Blaze how he makes his famous meatballs, without scorning him.
    17. His Grammy is one of the only Monster Machines who he actually cares for. Grammy in return constantly dotes and supports him, going great lengths to save him when he is in trouble. This doesn't really bother him, and he often tries his hardest whenever she is in the crowd.
    18. Catch That Cake! reveals that he does have moral standards when it comes to stealing food; upon being told he almost ate Darington's birthday cake before the party, he revealed that he would've refrained from eating it without permission, even if he really wanted to.
    19. Actually, plenty of BATMM fans would still like him on his bad side.
    20. It would be sort of cool if they showed his house. As he likes cleanliness, luxuries and order, his house would be nice.
    21. His crying in several dubs are more tolerable to listen to (most notably the German dub).

    Trivia

    Character

    • Crusher was the sixth Monster Machine introduced, following his best friend Pickle, Blaze, Stripes, Starla, Darington, and Zeg.
      • Though Blaze first encounters Crusher when he sees him send the other Monster Machines away, they don't actually speak to each other for the first time until before the race begins.
    • He hates mud.
      • He also finds it disgusting.
    • Whenever he gets covered in food or dirt, he gets disgusted (until Defeat the Cheat).
    • He is scared (or afraid) of Blaze.
      • He also seems to hate him too because he always wants to beat Crusher.
    • He doesn't like animal food and getting dirty.
    • The only episodes Crusher do not appear in to date is Race Car Superstar and Animal Island.
    • He may be the only main Monster Machine to run on a diesel engine.
    • He builds structures using different scrap parts, like the Giant Robot Chef in "The Jungle Horn", but no matter what, these structures are always being thwarted by Blaze. However, not all of them are thwarted, though. In the episode "Epic Sail", he makes a machine that creates waves. This structure wasn't thwarted, for example, but his overly impatient personality caused it to crash both boats.
    • He seems to be afraid of Gasquatch until later in the episode of the same name.
      • Also, in the same episode it is revealed that he detests mud, which implies that he would have Mysophobia, that is, he would be afraid or extreme phobia of dirt (mud, dust, skunk stink, among others)
    • Whenever Pickle explains something, Crusher would always just ignore it, believing he might have another way to stop Blaze, but it always led him into trouble.
    • Crusher's horn sound is a low E♭ major tone.
      • As shown in the same episode, it is revealed that Crusher has Mephitophobia, that is, he is afraid of skunks.
    • A running gag throughout the series is him crashing into something and getting dizzy, or getting covered with food or dirt and expressing disgust.
    • Crusher is the second Monster Machine other than Blaze to sing something, as shown when he repeatedly sings to himself about wanting to win.
      • The first was Darington.
      • The third is Starla.
      • The fourth is Pickle.
      • The fifth is Stripes.
      • The sixth is Zeg.
    • So far, the only episodes where Crusher does not use his inventions for cheating are Five Alarm Blaze when he makes an ice cream scooper machine to cheer himself up after losing to Blaze, Pickle Power when he creates Auto-Vac to clean up the trash, Falcon Quest when he makes Super Sneaking Stilts in an attempt to steal some food from the birds, and Tow Truck Tough when he makes a towing crane as he practices being a tow truck.
    • Crusher often made puns when he cheats. For example, in Knight Riders when he releases barrels to trap the Royal Knights, he says, "It's been a... barrel of laughs!", and in Need for Blazing Speed when he spills a hot dog stand to trip Blaze up, he says "Hot diggity dog!". Also, in The Hundred Mile Race, he said when he released the giant coconut blaster, "This is gonna drive Blaze co-co-nuts!"
    • Out of Crusher's inventions, only one has made physical contact with Blaze so far, the ten itchy robots in The Bouncy Tires.
    • Crusher has been saved by Blaze eleven times so far:
      • In The Team Truck Challenge when Blaze and Pickle pull him out of a hole.
      • In The Mystery Bandit when Blaze stops him from getting caught by a magnet in the recycling plant.
      • In Runaway Rocket when Blaze manages to save, he and Pickle on a rocket before hitting a garbage dump.
      • In Monster Machine Christmas when Blaze rescues him from falling off a giant candy cane over a cliff.
      • In Rocket Ski Rescue when Blaze along with Grammy stopped him from hitting a mud mountain.
      • In Tow Truck Tough when Blaze used his tow truck power to tow him to Axle City Garage when his engine went faulty.
      • In Defeat the Cheat when Blaze managed to deactivate his Super Cheat-y Rocket Pack before he crashed into a water tower.
      • In Breaking the Ice when Blaze turns into a robot and frees him from a pile of quick-dry cement.
      • In Meatball Mayhem when Blaze and Pickle became robots and saved him from the giant meatball.
      • In Ninja Blaze' when Blaze and AJ used their ninja skills to free himself and Pickle from a giant snowball.
    • Crusher has his own leitmotif that plays usually when he cheats, consisting of a sneaky-sounding guitar played over a backing bass, usually in the key of B minor.
    • Some of the inventions Crusher makes to stop Blaze would’ve killed him, a few examples being the bigfoot robot in The Driving Force, the giant cheese ball machine in The Team Truck Challenge, and the abominable blaster in The Polar Derby.
    • Though Crusher has seen all of the Monster Machines (other than Pickle), he has only spoken to Blaze, Starla, Watts, Stripes and Zeg, but not (currently) Darington. He did attempt to stop Darington with his cheats, however.
    • Crusher is shown to have an obsession with cake and ice cream, as shown in Cake-tastrophe!, Five Alarm Blaze, Catch That Cake!, Falcon Quest and Robot Power.
    • He doesn’t like ballet as much, as hinted in Runaway Rocket and Fast Friends.
    • Crusher is the only Monster Machine who hasn’t turned into a robot and who hasn’t turned into an animal, along with Pickle, though dressed like one.
    • Crusher has to be at least 18 years old, since he works as a chef in a restaurant and a person has to be at least 18 to work as one.
    • Crusher is the first main character to be shown sleeping or taking a nap in the show.
    • The Treat Thief is the only episode where Crusher does not burst out crying when something is stolen from him; instead, he freaks out in panic.
    • In Sneezing Cold, Crusher is shown making something unknown in his pit, despite still having the Sneezles. This might suggest he isn’t a good cook. Later on in Fired Up!, he makes a pizza but leaves it in for too long, burning it.

    Designs

    • Crusher resembles a large 18-wheeler cargo-truck, such as a Peterbilt 386 or Kenworth T680.
    • He bears a similar resemblance to Dump Truck from Team Umizoomi, another Nick Jr. show.
      • Coincidentally, both are an antagonist (except Dump Truck is rather a supporting character than a main character), have dark blue paint, and do cheating.

    Videos

    Comments

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