Blaster Series

Edutainment Game series from The Nineties created by the company known as Davidson, aimed largely at elementary schoolers, though a few have been aimed at middle schoolers. First there was Math Blaster and then Reading Blaster. Very briefly, there was Science Blaster, Geometry Blaster, Spelling Blaster and Word Blaster (don't ask how that last one is any different than Reading Blaster).

True to being both educating and entertaining, the Blaster series centered on an astronaut called Blasternaut (get it?) and his Robot Buddy Spot, a little blue droid. They worked for the Galactic Commander, who herself helped to run a federation-like organization that spanned the galaxy to apprehend criminals. Eventually Galactic Commander (or GC, as the others called her) joined the team. Their images changed rapidly - for example, Spot eventually became a robotic dog named MEL while G.C. became a 12 year old girl instead of a female adult and Blaster became a 12 year old boy instead of a green astronaut like man. This last version of the characters was featured in the Saturday Morning Cartoon series Blaster's Universe, produced by Nelvana in the early 2000s.

Another universe appeared in the Blaster Series with a kid named Rave going up against the Mad Scientist Dudley Dabble. Rave is a green creature with a yellow horn growing out of his head and most of the other inhabitants of his world appear to be monsters and/or creatures of some description, with the odd exception of Dabble, although he was eventually given blue skin. While generally unrelated to the original universe, there was a readable crossover story featured in Reading Blaster 2000 titled Dr. Dabble's Revenge, wherein the original heroes fought against Dr. Dabble.

Tropes used in Blaster Series include:
  • Alphabet Soup Cans
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The back of the early instruction books lists all of the Blaster series' main antagonists, in the form of a Wanted Poster. Dr. Dabble is wanted for "robbery, grand larceny, and non-payment of electric bill".
  • Badbutt: Most of the main characters (Blasternaut, Galactic Commander).
  • Broken Bridge
  • Butt Monkey: Spot showed occasional shades of this.
  • Characterization Marches On: Does it ever?
  • Choose Your Own Adventure: Reading Blaster 2000 features three stories that function like this. Every five stars you earn, you get another chapter.
  • Continuity Nod: In the introduction of Mega Math Blaster, Spot flies past the prison planet Lock-Em-Up, where the previous games' villains Trash Alien, Illitera, and Dr. Minus are imprisoned.
  • Difficulty Levels
  • Everyone Calls Her Galactic Commander
  • Everything's Better with Monkeys: In Math Blaster Ages 9-12.
  • Fetch Quest
  • Floating Platforms: Pretty ubiquitous.
  • For the Evulz: The Trash Alien just litters around space for the spite of it.
  • Haunted House: Dr. Dabble's mansion, hunted by it's previous owner, Lydia Novella, who also serves as your guide throughout the game.
  • Horned Humanoid: Rave.
  • Idle Animation
  • Impossible Thief: In the first Reading Blaster, Illiteria steals all language from the planet Earth. (Carmen Sandiego would attempt this three years later in Carmen Sandiego: Word Detective.) In Math Blaster Pre-Algebra, Dr. Dabble uses an electrochemical math magnet to steal all math from the world.
  • The Joy of X: The first Reading Blaster game was subtitled Invasion Of The Word Snatchers.
  • Kid Hero: Rave.
  • Mad Scientist Laboratory: Dr. Dabble's laboratory.
  • Multiple Endings: In Mega Math Blaster, determined by how many bonus objects you found in the game.
  • No Ending: Lydia's journal in Reading Blaster 9-12 ends on a cliffhanger with no resolution whatsoever.
  • The Other Darrin: Rave in Reading Blaster 9-12 sounds like a preteen, but in Reading Blaster Vocabulary he sounds like a young child.
  • Robot Buddy: Spot.
  • Robot Dog: MEL in the later versions.
  • Role-Playing Game
  • Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: Naturally.
  • Video Game Remake:
    • Mega Math Blaster is a remake of Math Blaster Episode I: In Search of Spot, which in turn was a remake of Math Blaster Plus, which was yet another remake of a game simply titled Math Blaster.
    • Math Blaster Ages 9-12 is a remake of Math Blaster Episode II: Secret of the Lost City.
    • Reading Blaster 2000 is a remake of Reading Blaster: Invasion of the Word Snatchers.
    • Math Blaster Pre-Algebra is a remake of Math Blaster Mystery: The Great Brain Robbery.
  • The Voice: Lydia the Ghost in Reading Blaster Ages 9-12 is a disembodied voice occasionally represented by floating objects. In the sentence spinner game, a pair of disembodied feminine eyes serve as her avatar while your avatar is a picture of Rave.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair:
    • Galactic Commander, aka GC, has purple hair in her later incarnations.
    • Max (a later version of Blasternaut) has blue hair.
    • Blasternaut's 2006 rendition has spiky blue hair.

Blaster's Universe provides examples of:

Max: Yeah! What a blast!
Pirate: What? Head's up, what?!
MEL: Head's up? (looks up)
Max: No, MEL, "head's up" means... (sees a cannon) ...DUCK!

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