Crashbox is an American–Canadian children's educational animated series that first aired on HBO Family in February 1, 1999 alongside other shows, like A Little Curious. The show ended on April 1, 2000, with reruns still airing to this day. The show has 52 episodes. The show was produced by Planet Grande and animated by Cuppa Coffee. Though the show may be still airing, some of the show's episodes, the interstitials, dubs, and pilot had been lost over time.
Plot[]
The series featured segments (or as it called, Games) with it being differently-animated such as, traditional 2D, stop motion, Claymation, and cutout animation. These segments teaches grade-school children math (Psycho Math, Captain Bones), history (Haunted House Party, Dirty Pictures), facts (Poop or Scoop, Distraction News), and riddles (Sketch Pad, Think Tank, Riddle Snake). At the end of each episode, the show does a "Crashbox Rewind".
Lost Episodes[]
Prior to January 2016, the show had aired all the episodes in their entirety on Magnet (2001 to 2005), and Jam (2005 to 2016), blocks that have aired on HBO Family. Episodes 27-39 were considered somewhat lost as they stopped airing in January 2016 when the Jam block was discontinued and replaced by HBO Kids, and it's no longer available. Episodes 1-26 and 40-52 are still airing on demand and on TV. The segments used in the lost episodes were reused from earlier Season 1 episodes. The only way you could view them after the HBO Kids rebrand was on Crave's website but only if you're in Canada and have a subscription to it, not in the United States. The website also revealed the previously lost episodes' airdates which aired from August 1st-September 12th, 1999. There's a Crashbox-related Discord server made for finding these lost episodes. The episodes were also available on HBO Family's on demand service until January 2016. The episodes may be still airing on the Asia version of the HBO Family channel.
On October 25th, 2020, episode 36 was discovered by the Crashbox Discord server, proving that earlier segments from Season 1 were reused for these episodes. It can be viewed here.
Two days later, a 6-hour Crashbox VHS tape was uploaded to YouTube with episodes 34 and 35 (they start at 0:00:25 and 0:30:15 respectively). Days later, they were separated as their own episode.
Later on November 6, 2020, another 7-hour Crashbox VHS tape was uploaded on YouTube, which showed Episode 27, only partially found.
Finally, on December 17, 2020, Garry and Gordy, the Crashbox Server admins were able to record and upload episodes 27 and 28, courtesy of AverageDoggo. They uploaded episodes 29-32 the next day, and uploaded episodes 33-36 the following morning. Episodes 37-39 were uploaded by later that night, making the entire series available (barring international dubs).
UPDATE 03/10/21: Crashbox Fan's channel had been taken down due to copyright strikes from HBO, but all 52 episodes have been reuploaded by David Silver Loves Crashbox and HBO.
Lost Interstitials[]
Who Knew?[]
A short series that featured Professor Rocket from the Psycho Math segment on Crashbox. Each episode includes Professor Rocket telling an unlikely fact, in a room called Who Knew? Labs. There were 80 episodes produced. The interstitial aired in commercial breaks on HBO Family in 1999, until by August 2001 when it moved to the Magnet tween block until it's discontinuation in 2005.
Only 5 episodes have been surfaced. 3 on YouTube, and 2 in a compilation on Vimeo and a website called NITROUS.tv. Also, it was said that YouTube user Vance's TV Archive have a HBO Family tape that featured this series.
Smart Mouth[]
A short series that featured Dora Smarmy from the Distraction News segment on Crashbox. Each episode includes Dora Smarmy teaching viewers new, fancy words. This series also has 80 episodes just like Who Knew?. This interstitial also aired in commercial breaks on HBO Family in 1999, until by August 2001 when it moved to the Magnet tween block until it's discontinuation in 2005.
Not a single episode have been found as of now. Though, it was said that YouTube user Vance's TV Archive have a HBO Family tape that featured this series.
Lost Dubs[]
The show had also aired internationally, such as in Latin America and Asia. The show is still currently airing on the Asian HBO Family channel, but it’s other dubs are partially found.
Latin America (Spanish)[]
As mentioned before, this dub is lost. Though a Latin American HBO Family channel exists, the show have either aired on that channel or somewhere else. The dub probably no longer airs on the country.
A Spanish version of the show exists and can be heard when put on SAP or DV (Descriptive Video).
Only Episode 20, 5, 21, and a segment of Mug Shots has been found in Spanish, but besides that, most of the dub isn't put anywhere else online besides the HBO Max streaming service and on the HBO Family channel.
Brazilian Portuguese[]
There’s also an Brazilian Portuguese dub that aired on HBO Family in Brazil. It first aired in 2001. The title for the dub is called “Caixa de Jogos”. The only known footage of this dub is a video featuring the intro plus an “Crashbox Rewind” scene and a Eddie Bull segment. It also has it’s own page on HBO Brazil’s website, and accordingly, the dub is available to watch on the Brazilian version of the HBO Go app.
Polish[]
There is also a Polish dub of the show, Crashbox which aired on HBO Europe. It aired possibly around in the 2000s or 2010s. The title of the dub is called, "Maszyna pełna gier". It has all of the 52 episodes of the show through both hbogo.pl and upctv.pl, and it's only available if you live in Poland.
Lost Pilot[]
There's a rumored Crashbox pilot called "Crashbox! Crashbox!" which was likely produced in 1998 and was rumored to be aired on January 6, 1999, a month before the series premiered. There are 3 linked websites that bring it up, with two having this description: (note that the original description has bad spelling, grammar, and spacing, so it was edited)
"All the robots will celebrate their new factory. They will do things they have never done before. They will jump off buildings! They will also create Crashbox. They create some of the greatest master-minded games ever crated to man!"
The only possible footage there is of this pilot is a HBO Family commercial from 1999 that showed a Crashbox transition. While said transition resembles a used transition, it does show slight differences from its final version. These likely could've been used for the pilot.
Online Games[]
The show had online Shockwave games that were originally on HBO4Kids.com in 1999. Later,they were moved to HBO Family's website (Before then, it was actually moved to HBOMagnet.com). Due to Adobe Shockwave's decrease in popularity, these games were removed in early 2014 when the website shut down due to lack of popularity. These games are based off the segments Ear We Are and Dirty Pictures.
You can still play these games by downloading Flashpoint.
See Also[]
- HBO Family Jam and Magnet Bumpers (partially lost/found Jam and Magnet bumpers and interstitials)
- HBO Family 411 (lost animated series) (a HBO Family interstitial made by Cuppa Coffee, the company that animated Crashbox)
- Page on HBO Family Wiki
- A Little Curious (partially found HBO series; 1999-2000) (A show that also aired on HBO Family that is also partially lost/found media)