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I was bored looking at all the various deviations I made on this website today. In my state of boredom, I decided to check out the group GoGoGadgetClub, which features some of my Inspector Gadget fan art in its gallery. (They requested it, so I accepted to let them have my art in their gallery).

I saw the message entry of the group and was surprised to learn that we're getting a new Inspector Gadget cartoon this year. It's especially wonderful that they've waited to do this for the 30th anniversary of the bumbling bionic detective. In this picture, he is notified of this new development by Chief Quimby while Brain, Penny, the Gadgetinis Digit and Fidget, Gadget's son Donald Maxwell Gadget, and his wife Christine look on. Donald Maxwell Gadget and Christine are original creations of mine.

While I'm here, I may as well give a quick review of every incarnation of the Inspector, ranking everything from worst to best. This doesn't mean I really hate any versions of the Inspector. I'm the kind of guy who enjoys the entire franchise and even has some love for the hated parts. When it comes to the many franchises I like, I'm just not satisfied until I've seen everything, no matter how bad it is.

The Disney movies- In the Inspector Gadget fandom, many people detest the live-action movies. Boy, did those films divide up the base! There are fans who like the movies better than the original animated series, even fans who are divided over the original film and the sequel. I don't really mind either of them, but it was mighty annoying how little they had in common with the cartoon.

Both films did have their pros and cons. The first movie was neat to be a little darker than the cartoons and to make it so Inspector Gadget and Dr. Claw had connected origins. I always find it interesting when the hero and the villain were created in the same accident, since it makes their hatred for one another a bit more personal. What's not so great about the first movie was the long amount of inconsistencies with the cartoon, and it is annoying that Claw always had his face visible. (He does have it obscured at one point, but it is very brief and it happened when he was still Sanford Scolex.)

There are fans who like the sequel better for being closer to the cartoon in that Gadget is bumbling and incompetent, his gadgets frequently malfunction, and Claw's face was obscured. Most would consider it even worse than the first film. The main flaws would have to be Chief Quimby missing his moustache and being a big jerk this time around, Claw's face only being obscured partially, and how it still has inconsistencies.

The DTV Movies- There were two animated movies called Inspector Gadget's Last Case and Inspector Gadget's Biggest Caper Ever. The former came out in 2003 and used character models from Gadget and the Gadgetinis. The latter was a CGI film that was made with help from Lionsgate and was meant to be part of a series, but that didn't come to fruition due to poor sales. I have both of these, and I actually enjoyed them. For me, they get better each time you watch them, mainly because of stuff you don't notice the first time you see it(in Last Case, there are some brief glimpses of the Gadgetmobile's original design with a black color scheme in the background near the end), and there was some adult humor in both, too.

One of my favorites was in Last Case, when Gadget told the Gadgetmobile one of the perks to retirement is that he could possibly go to Florida, mentioning that he could be surrounded by "hot convertibles with their tops down." That joke flew over my head when I was a kid, and I just can't believe they got away with that line!

Another one comes from Biggest Caper Ever when Chief Quimby tells the crazy Mayor Markham that he shouldn't have payed the city workers bonuses using the Police Department pension fund. Realizing how dumb his decision was, Markham asks Quimby where his brain was, and he answers "I don't know. Neptune, or Uranus maybe?" Given what Uranus sounds like, it seems Quimby was implicitly telling Markham that his head was up his, well, you know.

Gadget Boy- Many people loathe this version if Inspector Gadget. It could be considered the Inspector Gadget equivalent of Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, since many Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans hate that incarnation of the TMNT. Another similarity is that I actually like both of those shows even though I favor the better versions(My favorite incarnations of the Turtles are the 1987 cartoon, the Archie Comics TMNT Adventures series, the movies, the 2003 cartoon, the IDW Comics, and the new Nickelodeon cartoon).

Gadget Boy was about a kid that looked and acted like Inspector Gadget as a child, including his own gadgets. There are even some fans who believe that Gadget Boy was in fact the Inspector in his youth. I do happen to be one of them. Others believe that he is simply a successor, since his creator Myron Dabble did mention programming his mind to have the personality of an adult detective, which may have been Gadget.

Gadget Boy's allies were Agent Heather, who was a lot like an adult and red-haired version of Penny, and G-9, who was similar to Brain in that the shape-changing robot was a dog and frequently had to risk his own safety to save Gadget Boy. They would learn of their missions from Chief Strombolli, an elderly Italian pastiche of Quimby who was way more accident prone. Even when Gadget Boy isn't bothering him, Strombolli just can't go two minutes without getting injured.

The main villain was Spydra, a vain woman who wore a spider costume and wore a facemask to hide her face. Her true appearance, apparently, was so hideous that seeing it would turn you to stone. Much like Dr. Claw, she would antagonize Gadget Boy with the aid of her sarcastic gluttonous Russian vulture Boris and the twin thugs Mulch and Hummus. She even frequently said "I'll get you yet, Gadget Boy", which was very similar to Claw's "I'll get you next time, Gadget. Next time".

Among those who actually liked Gadget Boy, there are some who hated the Adventures in History season merely for being educational. I really am peeved about people like that. What's good is that they were actually pretty accurate about history(I even learned from this show that Albert Einstein was married) and had some episodes with better animation. They even had Gadget Boy use lines by Maxwell Smart from Get Smart, another role that the late Don Adams is famous for.

While many episodes were formulaic with Gadget Boy, Heather, and G-9 going back in time to stop Spydra from changing history, there were some episodes with variations in the plot. One memorable episode was Three Geniuses in Search of a Foundation, which was the only episode where they went to more than one time period in the same episode. Spydra kidnaps Einstein, Marie Curie, and Louis Pasteur and has her minions replace them. Heather uses her wits to save the day by tricking Spydra into thinking that G-9 and Gadget Boy have been destroyed and temporarily rebuilding the two into a time machine to set the past right once again.

Gadget and the Gadgetinis- A sequel to the original cartoon where Gadget was now a Lieutenant and works for an elite crime-fighting agency known as W.O.M.P. (World Order of Mega Powers). Chief Quimby and Brain were both phased out, Quimby because he works elsewhere in the field of W.O.M.P. and Brain because he had gotten sick of the abuse Gadget gave him(rather out of character, since I recall many scenes in the old cartoon where Brain was shown to be as upset as Penny when it was believed Gadget got killed) and was traumatized by all his years of pain to the point that he can't stand even the mention of the word "gadget". Penny has replaced Brain by creating a pair of miniature robots in the image of Gadget, the titular Gadgetinis.

They were Fidget, who was orange, and Digit, who was blue. Digit was more intelligent and cynical, while Fidget was clumsy, ignorant, and would often believe himself to have body parts and needs that he doesn't technically have since he's not a living creature, much to Digit's annoyance.

Instead of Chief Quimby's exploding messages, Gadget got his mission debriefings from two superiors: The jolly leader of W.O.M.P. General Sir and the grouchy Colonel Nozzaire. Nozzaire was a rather pompous jerk who hated Gadget. At first, you would sympathize with him since Gadget's always unintentionally harming and humiliating him, but you might not feel sorry for him after you see him fantasizing about Gadget being dead while dancing on his grave or even painting a picture of Lt. Gadget being eaten by sharks.

Dr. Claw and his M.A.D. Agents were still there, but we also learned a little more about his family. He has a mother, who even he fears, a twin brother named Dr. Thaw, and a nephew named William, who is actually a good guy unlike his evil family. They weren't so bad, but giving Dr. Claw a family did kind of clash with his ambiguous and mysterious nature. After all, one of the things that made Dr. Claw such an awesome villain in the first place was how little we knew about him. For all we know, he might not even be human!

Last, but not least: The original cartoon- I don't really need to say anything other than my favorite aspects of the franchise. I did not hate Corporal Capeman as most fans did, but I do not expect him to make a comeback. Even if I found him amusing, he was a rather useless character and he was not very nice to Brain.

My favorite things about the original cartoon include the villain-of-the-week formula(aside from the generic agents in black jumpsuits, the majority of the show's episodes featured a one-time M.A.D. Agent with a name and a specific motif. Among my favorites are master of disguise Presto Change-O, movie actress Lana Lamour, the unfortunately named Professor Dummkopf, and the Rat), Gadget's varying degrees of competence(there are times where he's smart enough to barely need Penny and Brain's help at all and there are others where he's so stupid he's completely oblivious to what's happening around him), and the theme music that all the characters had.

I am also aware of two failed attempts at reviving the franchise that happened recently. The first was a reboot that was announced in 2009 and scheduled to premiere in 2010. It was meant to have a darker and more serious tone and a premise of Gadget fighting ghosts. The first time I heard of this, I thought it was a hoax, since I found the idea of Inspector Gadget as a Ghostbuster to be ridiculous and absurd. It also could be that I never heard of this until 2011, two years after that announcement was made. Even if the concept of Gadget hunting ghosts is remotely interesting, it just isn't the same as battling Dr. Claw and M.A.D.(Mean And Dirty or Malevolent Agency of Destruction depending on who you ask).

I also heard once of a considered sequel show called Son of Inspector Gadget. Before it fell through, I never found any information about it other than that it would be about the adventures of Gadget's son. Some are glad this one fell through, as am I. I actually think a show about the next generation of the Gadget family would be interesting, but I'd much prefer to see Gadget himself defending Metro City from Dr. Claw and M.A.D. with the help of his niece Penny and their dog Brain.

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Inspector Gadget, Gadget Boy & Heather, Gadget Boy's Adventures in History, Gadget and the Gadgetinis, and all related characters and elements (c) DiC/Cookie Jar Entertainment

Donald Maxwell Gadget and Christine Gadget (c) Me

Description
Made with deviantART muro

I was bored looking at all the various deviations I made on this website today. In my state of boredom, I decided to check out the group GoGoGadgetClub, which features some of my Inspector Gadget fan art in its gallery. (They requested it, so I accepted to let them have my art in their gallery).

I saw the message entry of the group and was surprised to learn that we're getting a new Inspector Gadget cartoon this year. It's especially wonderful that they've waited to do this for the 30th anniversary of the bumbling bionic detective. In this picture, he is notified of this new development by Chief Quimby while Brain, Penny, the Gadgetinis Digit and Fidget, Gadget's son Donald Maxwell Gadget, and his wife Christine look on. Donald Maxwell Gadget and Christine are original creations of mine.

While I'm here, I may as well give a quick review of every incarnation of the Inspector, ranking everything from worst to best. This doesn't mean I really hate any versions of the Inspector. I'm the kind of guy who enjoys the entire franchise and even has some love for the hated parts. When it comes to the many franchises I like, I'm just not satisfied until I've seen everything, no matter how bad it is.

The Disney movies- In the Inspector Gadget fandom, many people detest the live-action movies. Boy, did those films divide up the base! There are fans who like the movies better than the original animated series, even fans who are divided over the original film and the sequel. I don't really mind either of them, but it was mighty annoying how little they had in common with the cartoon.

Both films did have their pros and cons. The first movie was neat to be a little darker than the cartoons and to make it so Inspector Gadget and Dr. Claw had connected origins. I always find it interesting when the hero and the villain were created in the same accident, since it makes their hatred for one another a bit more personal. What's not so great about the first movie was the long amount of inconsistencies with the cartoon, and it is annoying that Claw always had his face visible. (He does have it obscured at one point, but it is very brief and it happened when he was still Sanford Scolex.)

There are fans who like the sequel better for being closer to the cartoon in that Gadget is bumbling and incompetent, his gadgets frequently malfunction, and Claw's face was obscured. Most would consider it even worse than the first film. The main flaws would have to be Chief Quimby missing his moustache and being a big jerk this time around, Claw's face only being obscured partially, and how it still has inconsistencies.

The DTV Movies- There were two animated movies called Inspector Gadget's Last Case and Inspector Gadget's Biggest Caper Ever. The former came out in 2003 and used character models from Gadget and the Gadgetinis. The latter was a CGI film that was made with help from Lionsgate and was meant to be part of a series, but that didn't come to fruition due to poor sales. I have both of these, and I actually enjoyed them. For me, they get better each time you watch them, mainly because of stuff you don't notice the first time you see it(in Last Case, there are some brief glimpses of the Gadgetmobile's original design with a black color scheme in the background near the end), and there was some adult humor in both, too.

One of my favorites was in Last Case, when Gadget told the Gadgetmobile one of the perks to retirement is that he could possibly go to Florida, mentioning that he could be surrounded by "hot convertibles with their tops down." That joke flew over my head when I was a kid, and I just can't believe they got away with that line!

Another one comes from Biggest Caper Ever when Chief Quimby tells the crazy Mayor Markham that he shouldn't have payed the city workers bonuses using the Police Department pension fund. Realizing how dumb his decision was, Markham asks Quimby where his brain was, and he answers "I don't know. Neptune, or Uranus maybe?" Given what Uranus sounds like, it seems Quimby was implicitly telling Markham that his head was up his, well, you know.

Gadget Boy- Many people loathe this version if Inspector Gadget. It could be considered the Inspector Gadget equivalent of Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, since many Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans hate that incarnation of the TMNT. Another similarity is that I actually like both of those shows even though I favor the better versions(My favorite incarnations of the Turtles are the 1987 cartoon, the Archie Comics TMNT Adventures series, the movies, the 2003 cartoon, the IDW Comics, and the new Nickelodeon cartoon).

Gadget Boy was about a kid that looked and acted like Inspector Gadget as a child, including his own gadgets. There are even some fans who believe that Gadget Boy was in fact the Inspector in his youth. I do happen to be one of them. Others believe that he is simply a successor, since his creator Myron Dabble did mention programming his mind to have the personality of an adult detective, which may have been Gadget.

Gadget Boy's allies were Agent Heather, who was a lot like an adult and red-haired version of Penny, and G-9, who was similar to Brain in that the shape-changing robot was a dog and frequently had to risk his own safety to save Gadget Boy. They would learn of their missions from Chief Strombolli, an elderly Italian pastiche of Quimby who was way more accident prone. Even when Gadget Boy isn't bothering him, Strombolli just can't go two minutes without getting injured.

The main villain was Spydra, a vain woman who wore a spider costume and wore a facemask to hide her face. Her true appearance, apparently, was so hideous that seeing it would turn you to stone. Much like Dr. Claw, she would antagonize Gadget Boy with the aid of her sarcastic gluttonous Russian vulture Boris and the twin thugs Mulch and Hummus. She even frequently said "I'll get you yet, Gadget Boy", which was very similar to Claw's "I'll get you next time, Gadget. Next time".

Among those who actually liked Gadget Boy, there are some who hated the Adventures in History season merely for being educational. I really am peeved about people like that. What's good is that they were actually pretty accurate about history(I even learned from this show that Albert Einstein was married) and had some episodes with better animation. They even had Gadget Boy use lines by Maxwell Smart from Get Smart, another role that the late Don Adams is famous for.

While many episodes were formulaic with Gadget Boy, Heather, and G-9 going back in time to stop Spydra from changing history, there were some episodes with variations in the plot. One memorable episode was Three Geniuses in Search of a Foundation, which was the only episode where they went to more than one time period in the same episode. Spydra kidnaps Einstein, Marie Curie, and Louis Pasteur and has her minions replace them. Heather uses her wits to save the day by tricking Spydra into thinking that G-9 and Gadget Boy have been destroyed and temporarily rebuilding the two into a time machine to set the past right once again.

Gadget and the Gadgetinis- A sequel to the original cartoon where Gadget was now a Lieutenant and works for an elite crime-fighting agency known as W.O.M.P. (World Order of Mega Powers). Chief Quimby and Brain were both phased out, Quimby because he works elsewhere in the field of W.O.M.P. and Brain because he had gotten sick of the abuse Gadget gave him(rather out of character, since I recall many scenes in the old cartoon where Brain was shown to be as upset as Penny when it was believed Gadget got killed) and was traumatized by all his years of pain to the point that he can't stand even the mention of the word "gadget". Penny has replaced Brain by creating a pair of miniature robots in the image of Gadget, the titular Gadgetinis.

They were Fidget, who was orange, and Digit, who was blue. Digit was more intelligent and cynical, while Fidget was clumsy, ignorant, and would often believe himself to have body parts and needs that he doesn't technically have since he's not a living creature, much to Digit's annoyance.

Instead of Chief Quimby's exploding messages, Gadget got his mission debriefings from two superiors: The jolly leader of W.O.M.P. General Sir and the grouchy Colonel Nozzaire. Nozzaire was a rather pompous jerk who hated Gadget. At first, you would sympathize with him since Gadget's always unintentionally harming and humiliating him, but you might not feel sorry for him after you see him fantasizing about Gadget being dead while dancing on his grave or even painting a picture of Lt. Gadget being eaten by sharks.

Dr. Claw and his M.A.D. Agents were still there, but we also learned a little more about his family. He has a mother, who even he fears, a twin brother named Dr. Thaw, and a nephew named William, who is actually a good guy unlike his evil family. They weren't so bad, but giving Dr. Claw a family did kind of clash with his ambiguous and mysterious nature. After all, one of the things that made Dr. Claw such an awesome villain in the first place was how little we knew about him. For all we know, he might not even be human!

Last, but not least: The original cartoon- I don't really need to say anything other than my favorite aspects of the franchise. I did not hate Corporal Capeman as most fans did, but I do not expect him to make a comeback. Even if I found him amusing, he was a rather useless character and he was not very nice to Brain.

My favorite things about the original cartoon include the villain-of-the-week formula(aside from the generic agents in black jumpsuits, the majority of the show's episodes featured a one-time M.A.D. Agent with a name and a specific motif. Among my favorites are master of disguise Presto Change-O, movie actress Lana Lamour, the unfortunately named Professor Dummkopf, and the Rat), Gadget's varying degrees of competence(there are times where he's smart enough to barely need Penny and Brain's help at all and there are others where he's so stupid he's completely oblivious to what's happening around him), and the theme music that all the characters had.

I am also aware of two failed attempts at reviving the franchise that happened recently. The first was a reboot that was announced in 2009 and scheduled to premiere in 2010. It was meant to have a darker and more serious tone and a premise of Gadget fighting ghosts. The first time I heard of this, I thought it was a hoax, since I found the idea of Inspector Gadget as a Ghostbuster to be ridiculous and absurd. It also could be that I never heard of this until 2011, two years after that announcement was made. Even if the concept of Gadget hunting ghosts is remotely interesting, it just isn't the same as battling Dr. Claw and M.A.D.(Mean And Dirty or Malevolent Agency of Destruction depending on who you ask).

I also heard once of a considered sequel show called Son of Inspector Gadget. Before it fell through, I never found any information about it other than that it would be about the adventures of Gadget's son. Some are glad this one fell through, as am I. I actually think a show about the next generation of the Gadget family would be interesting, but I'd much prefer to see Gadget himself defending Metro City from Dr. Claw and M.A.D. with the help of his niece Penny and their dog Brain.

This message will self-destruct

Inspector Gadget, Gadget Boy & Heather, Gadget Boy's Adventures in History, Gadget and the Gadgetinis, and all related characters and elements (c) DiC/Cookie Jar Entertainment

Donald Maxwell Gadget and Christine Gadget (c) Me