Hero City let's go!
Matchbox Hero City is an American CGI children's television series based on the Matchbox cars and Hero City play sets released in 2004. It was made by Mike Young Productions and Mattel Entertainment; only two 11-minute episodes were produced, each focusing on a location in Hero City that corresponds to a playset in the toyline.
The plot of the show features two brothers, Trey and Bobby, who discover that their ordinary playmat can function as a portal to Hero City, a place inhabited by living cars and trucks.
You can see it right here.
Matchbox Hero City provides examples of:
- Animal-Vehicle Hybrid: A few of the Hero City vehicles resemble animals- Buzz looks like a dragonfly, Pounder has the face and personality of a pit bull, Rocky Hauler looks vaguely, nonspecifically animalistic, and Speedy resembles a snail.
- Catchphrase:
- Buzz's is "I am what's up.".
- Trey is fond of shouting “Revvin!” when something exciting happens.
- Speedy’s is “Aw, lug nuts. I miss everything”.
- Ending Theme: The end credits are accompanied by a reprise of “Hero City Let’s Go”.
- Expository Theme Tune: I know an awesome place where we can go, a rockin’ place where we can play, where the cars and trucks have something to say
- Ironic Name: One character is a snail-like, very slow, delivery van. She’s named Speedy.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rocky Hauler, of the “grump who’s reluctant to help out but is eventually cajoled into learning the value of teamwork” variant.
- Missing the Good Stuff: Speedy the snail-like delivery truck always does this; she's very relieved at the end of "Don't Judge a Ghost by Its Haunting" when she finally shows up in time for something (giving the ghost family a tour of their new house).
- Neat Freak: Rocky Hauler suffered from this in the beginning of "Teamwork", but eventually realized that it's better to get dirty while being helpful than be clean and useless.
- No Antagonist: No episodes have villains; in the first, the problem was caused by a storm, and in the second the ghosts turn out to just have been looking for somewhere quiet to haunt.
- Pun-Based Creature: Buzz is a Dragon Fly 333 helicopter that looks like an actual dragonfly.
- Pungeon Master: Hardly a minute can go by without Rig making some sort of terrible pun.
- Punny Name:
- The snail-like delivery van is properly named S-Cargo, although everyone just calls her “Speedy”.
- Hero City’s resident fire truck is called Chief Hothead.
- Rain, Rain, Go Away: In the first episode, Bobby and Trey are stuck inside due to a thunderstorm, which is predicted to last all weekend. To pass the time, they get out an old car playmat, which turns out to be a portal to Hero City.
- Sentient Vehicle: Hero City is inhabited by living cars and trucks.
- Spectacular Spinning: Vehicles that travel to Hero City from the “normal” world, or vice versa, are depicted as spinning around in circles before vanishing.
- Token Flyer: Buzz the helicopter is the only aircraft seen in Hero City.