Characters / Crash Bandicoot: Other Characters

Crash Bandicoot Main Character Index
Heroes (Coco Bandicoot) | Villains (Scientists, Evolved Animals) | Other Characters

Other characters in the Crash Bandicoot franchise.

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Warthogs

First appearance: Crash Bandicoot (1996)

Tusked animals that reside in Papu Papu's village as one of their major food sources. Crash rides one through the village in a couple levels in the first game before later encountering them as recurring enemies.

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• All Animals Are Dogs: Their NST incarnations happily sit down and pant like a dog if they manage to kill Crash.
• Full-Boar Action: They're either considered warthogs or boars, and they range from Power Up Mounts to tough enemies depending on the level.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Depending on the level, Hogs can either be allies that Crash can ride or enemies that hurt Crash on contact.
• Invincible Minor Minion: In the first game they're invulnerable if encountered as enemies. Their NST incarnations could only be killed if Crash took a mask hit or had invulnerability. Averted in It's About Time, where the sole warthog in the game can be spun away just like most enemies.
• Power Up Mount: Crash rides a hog for a couple stages in the first game.
• Put on a Bus: While the species has made several sporadic appearances here and there, the one Crash rides hasn't reappeared in any major capacity like the other mounts. However, given that Crash rides a hog in two separate villages on two separate islands in the first game, and neither looks any different from the ones encountered as enemies or being roasted on spikes in those same levels, it is debatable whether the hog Crash mounts can be considered a distinct character in the first place.
• Unique Enemy: In It's About Time, the very first level (and its N.Verted variant) has one warthog near the start, and it is the only one in the entire game.

Fake Crash

"Wow!"

Voiced by: Michael Connor (1999), Dwight Schultz (2003), Andrew Morgado (2019)

First appearance: Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (1998)

A random version of Crash Bandicoot with thicker eyebrows, a bigger nose, longer ears and an overbite (and, ocassionally, green pants). Described as the result of an experiment Gone Horribly Wrong. He was created by the Japanese marketing team in advertisements for Crash Bandicoot 2, and he was eventually added into the games themselves as a joke, usually through Easter Egg.

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• Ambiguously Evil: He changes alignments every other game. In CTR, Uka Uka protects him, implying that he's evil, but Nitro Kart has him protected by Aku Aku. Also, in Skylanders Imaginators, it appears he crawls inside of Cortex's machine and causes the islands' rhythm to be thrown off out of sheer stupidity, but the level ends with a boss fight against him, and he actually does start attacking the player. He returns as a boss once again in On The Run, with the launch trailer showcasing him alongside the Cortexes.
• Ascended Extra: Originally started off for advertisements in Japan, made cameos in the games, and became a plot point and full-on boss fight in N-Tranced on the GBA. Nitro-Fueled gives him a home track via DLC.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Crash already has thick eyebrows, and Fake Crash's takes them up a notch.
• Blowing a Raspberry: One of Fake Crash's quips in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is to perform this action onto the other racers.
• The Cameo: Most of his appearances in the games are this, although he has a larger role on rare occasions.
• Canon Immigrant: He was originally created for Japanese Crash Bandicoot 2 advertisements before making it into the games themselves.
• Chaotic Stupid: Many of his more destructive actions seem to fall under this more than actively being evil.
• Divergent Character Evolution: Some games give Fake Crash green pants to differentiate him from Crash, who wears blue pants.
• Driven by Envy: In the Japanese CTR bonus video, it is shown that Fake Crash greatly envies the success of Crash Bandicoot.
• Endearingly Dorky: All the loveability of the real Crash, but much doofier.
• Evil Knockoff: Well, maybe. In CTR, Fake Crash is protected by Uka Uka, suggesting he was originally meant to be a bad guy. In Crash Nitro Kart, he is, however, protected by Aku Aku. In On The Run, he is a bad guy once again, seemingly working for Cortex.
• Funny Background Event: His cameos in Warped and It's About Time amount to him appearing either in the background or on an otherwise unimportant platform attempting to dance.
• Gag Nose: He's got a bigger nose than Crash.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: In some games he's evil and in others he's good. In others, it's not made clear.
• Hostile Show Takeover: On November 17, 2020, he hijacked the Twitter account for On The Run.
• Hypocritical Humor: His character profile states that he dislikes fakes... which he is.
• Jack of All Stats: Like Crash, he has similar balanced stats in the racing games.
• Joke Character: In Nitro Kart, where all his stats are rock-bottom. This does not apply in the GBA version, where he's a Master of All in every stat except handling (and since power-sliding is the be-all-end-all of the racing games...).
• Leitmotif: He gains his own boss theme in On The Run, which is a discordant version of the classic N. Sanity Beach/Crash Bandicoot theme.
• Mistaken Identity: The villain's plot in N-Tranced is foiled because they thought Fake Crash was the real one, which left the actual Crash to undo it all.
• Mirror Match: In N-Tranced, he copies your every move. Hint: the traps at both sides of the arena aren't mirrored.
• Moveset Clone: Has the same set of abilities as Crash himself in the Japanese version of Crash Bash. Notably, his inclusion there means the "bandicoot" character type (consisting of Crash, Coco and Fake Crash) is the only type to get more than two playable characters.
• Oddball Doppelgänger: He's Crash, but with large eyebrows and giant teeth, is even dimmer, and he even has his own attempt at a Crash dance.
• Puzzle Boss: He can't be attacked directly in N-Tranced, as he mirrors every movement you make. To damage him, you have to trick him into walking into traps without you getting hit yourself.
• Regional Bonus: He appears as a playable character in Crash Bash, but only in the Japanese version of the game, known as Crash Carnival.
• Secondary Color Nemesis: In N-Tranced, his pants are colored green instead of blue, in order to differentiate him from the real Crash with the limited screen size. The green pants make a comeback in Nitro Kart as well, for some reason. They also accompany his return as a boss in On The Run.
• Secret Character:
  • In Crash Team Racing and its remake, he's unlocked by winning the Purple Gem Cup in Adventure Mode.
  • In Crash Nitro Kart, he's unlocked by performing 50 boosts in a row with Team Cortex in Adventure Mode. Unlocking him in the GBA version however is a bit more awkward to do, as it requires you to find a gap in the wall in Out of Time, then drive westwards towards the center until you find a campfire where Fake Crash is.
• Simpleton Voice: Arguably even dumber sounding than Crash himself, and that says a lot.
• Spanner in the Works: As mentioned above in Mistaken Identity, the villains' plans in N-Tranced would've gone off without a hitch if they hadn't mistaken him for the original Crash, allowing the real one to free his friends and undo everything.
• Sucks at Dancing: He has his own, considerably goofier version of the Crash dance. This even becomes a plot point in Skylanders Imaginators, where his complete lack of rhythm combined with Cortex's latest invention threaten to tear the Wumpa Islands apart.
• The Unintelligible: Downplayed compared to the real Crash, but still present: he usually speaks in complete gibberish, but every once in a while he actually can spout out a coherent word. Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled in particular gives him complete (albeit mumbled) sentences for his win quotes.
  They said it was impossible!
  You like me, you really, really like me! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
• Unusual Ears: One of the more subtle details that differentiates him from Crash is his longer, floppier ears.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Fake Crash appears in Skylanders Imaginators, and plays this role in the special Wumpa Island level. He crawls inside the Cortex Matrix Chamber, completely throwing off the rhythm of the island, which threatens to tear the islands apart. This might have stopped Cortex from using Mind Control on everyone there, but now everyone, including Cortex, has to band together to stop Fake Crash's bad rhythm. However, he does attack the player at the end of the level in a boss fight, so it's rather hard to tell if he had malicious intent to begin with or not.
• Wild Card: As evidenced by him being protected in CTR by Uka Uka, he was originally evil, but as the series progressed, he would either be on Crash's side, such as in N-Tranced and Nitro Kart, or completely independent such as in Bash. In Skylanders Imaginators, he takes over Cortex's machine and begins destroying the islands through his bad rhythm, and considering that he does fight you at the end of the level, it's hard to tell whether he had this all planned or not. Nitro-Fueled takes this further in the premise for the Prehistoric Playground track, by having him steal N. Tropy's scepter and warp the Mesozoic period.

Penta Penguin

"Penguin Yay One."

Voiced by: Gavin James (1999, unintentionally), Fred Tatasciore (2019)

First appearance: Dansu! De Jump! Na Daibouken (1998), Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (1998, video game)

A penguin that originally appeared in the Crash Bandicoot manga and was later confirmed to be the penguin from the Dingodile fight in Warped. He later appeared as a secret character in Crash Team Racing.

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• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: He wears a magenta scarf when he's driving and in the manga.
• Ambiguously Evil: Penguins were enemies in Cortex Strikes Back, but Penta was seemingly intended to be the friendly penguin being terrorized by Dingodile in Warped, which was later confirmed to be the case in the N. Sane Trilogy. Despite this, in the original Team Racing, Uka Uka would appear in Penta's item box but it was Aku Aku who actually showed up when he used the item, which was likely due to Penta being a largely unfinished character with many other bugs associated with him. The remake, which pokes fun at said glitches, has him be protected by both Aku Aku and Uka Uka, while also having Penta switch between acting innocent and malicious to make his true allegiance all the more ambiguous.
• Badass Adorable: Despite being a small penguin, Penta is notable for having maxed-out stats in the European version of Crash Team Racing, and even after being nerfed in Nitro-Fueled, he's notable for having Speed-based stats (which puts him on par with titans like Tiny and Dingodile) rather than the Turning-based stats other small animals like Polar and Pura got.
• The Cameo: He appears in Crash Bash as a special obstacle in the Snow Bash stage, sleeping in the middle of the stage. If someone attacks him, he wakes up and gets angry, and proceeds to spin around the arena, sending crates outward that can harm the combatants, until he stops and sleeps again.
• Canon Immigrant: He originally appeared as a character in the manga, although he is based on the penguin enemies that appeared in Cortex Strikes Back, and he uses the same model as them when in the victory circle. He appeared in Warped, being threatened by Dingodile before the boss battle, but it was never stated to be Penta until N. Sane Trilogy, where the trophy for beating Dingodile is called "Penta's Revenge".
• The Dog Bites Back In Warped (both original and remake), he bounces on Dingodile after he’s defeated.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • He actually appears in the intro to Team Racing, if you look closely enough. He is one of the drivers racing in Coco Park when Oxide makes his challenge to Earth, and he also appears in the background behind Polar when he's reading his book. Nitro-Fueled makes this much more obvious, since he also pops up behind Polar and slaps his back, startling him and causing him to flip the book right-side-up.
  • According to the achievements in N-Sane Trilogy, Penta was also the same penguin Dingodile was harassing at the start of his boss fight in Warped.
• Expy: There is also a penguin named Penta in the 1991 Famicom game Yume Penguin Monogatari. The game involves Penta trying to lose weight in order to win back the affections of his girlfriend, Penko. Similarly, Penta's appearance in the Crash manga gives him a girlfriend named Gurin, who he tries to win back after she falls for Crash.
• The Fake Cutie: Possibly in Nitro-Fueled. Penta generally acts cute and innocent but will occasionally rub his hands in a shifty look while snickering malevolently, and he's protected by both Aku Aku and Uka Uka.
• Left It In: Penta was left unfinished and relatively untested in Team Racing, with two of his sound clips being placeholder files uttered by one of the game's programmers, resulting in Penta saying "penguin yay one" and "penguin yay two" in a monotone voice along with his generic penguin noises. This became an in-joke within the fandom, to the point that in Nitro-Fueled, Penta actually says "penguin yay one!" in his own voice.
• Master of All: In the European version of Team Racing, all of his stats are maxed out. In the North American version he's instead a Beginner character like Polar and Pura.
• Mighty Glacier: Nitro-Fueled makes him a speed based character to preserve his status at the Ace.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Comes with being a penguin.
• Secret Character: He's the only character in Team Racing that can only be unlocked through a cheat code. This remains in Nitro-Fueled.
• Species Surname: Penta Penguin.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: He seems to be this for Polar, kicking him to put his book in the right sense.
• Wild Card: Ascended Glitch aside, as Penta is a character based on a Mook from the second game, but is also a friend of Polar, he can have either Aku Aku or Uka Uka to protect him.

Farmer Ernest

"Oh, Crash. The farmer's market is tomorrow and my wumpa trees won't grow, for my orchard is riddled with greedy worms. If you rid my land of these pests, I'll give you this Power Crystal."

Voiced by: Alex Fernandez (2004)

First appearance: Crash Twinsanity (2004)

An emu who farms Wumpa trees, and appears only for a short gag in Twinsanity.

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• Nice Guy: From the little we see of him, he seems to be kind.
• Not Quite Dead: If one decides to inspect him after he gets shot, he appears to be twitching from paralysis.
• Punny Name: Farmer Ernest is an earnest farmer.
• Remember the New Guy?: Another Funny Animal with no stated origin, and he somehow already knows Crash.
• Quest Giver: Parodied, and the entire point for his existence. He promises Crash a crystal in exchange for clearing the worms out of his farm. However, Cortex is also there, and since Cortex doesn't care about helping him, he just shoots him and takes the crystal.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Is introduced in one cutscene, only to be shot by Cortex and immediately forgotten afterwards.

Ebenezer Von Clutch

"Is there no dummkopfs among you to accept the challenge of the greatest race of all time!?"

Voiced by: Danny Mann (2005), John DiMaggio (2019)

First appearance: Crash Tag Team Racing (2005)

A rather zany German cyborg who owns the amusement park "Von Clutch's MotorWorld". He appeared in Crash Tag Team Racing, in which he begs for Crash and the others to find the Power Gems that keep his park up and running: as well his own life source, the Black Power Gem.

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• Amazing Technicolor Population: He has bright green skin.
• Apologetic Attacker: Subverted in one of his racing lines.
  Von Clutch (when using an item): I'm terribly sorry! NOT!
• Bilingual Bonus: He occasionally throws German words into his dialogue.
  Von Clutch: Try to pass me... and I will get you kaput!
• The Bus Came Back: Fourteen years after his first appearance, Von Clutch returns as part of the Fifth Grand Prix (Neon Circus) in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: He sports a prominent one whenever he's jovial, which is most of the time.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He's a very eccentric individual, to say the least: both his age and cybernetic enhancements are implied to be at least part of the reason why.
• Cool Old Guy: Von Clutch is shown to be at least old enough to have served in World War II, is amicable enough if somewhat nuts, and is still just as accomplished a driver as ever despite his age.
• Creepy Good: Fits right in alongside Cortex, N. Gin, and N. Brio, but outside of being a Bad Boss he's perfectly benevolent and is even protected by Aku Aku in Nitro-Fueled.
• Cyborg: Von Clutch has a monocle-like artificial eye, two mechanical arms with hands modelled on his normal ones, and an entirely-mechanical left leg. Of all his limbs, only his right leg remains normal.
• Disney Death: Shuts down without his black heart gem, which Crash accidentally recovers, bringing him back to life. As he celebrates with Crash, he pats it back out by mistake, shutting down again. He can obviously be reactivated, making the second time more awkward than devastating.
• Drives Like Crazy: Given that he drives with one hand, holds his megaphone in the other, and stands up in the seat (and that's not even getting to his usual tendencies), what else can you say about the guy's driving style?
• Foil: He is this to Oxide and Velo, the other race organizers. While all three are green-skinned, accomplished racers, Oxide and Velo are smug alien champions that make the competitors race against their will for the fate of their planet. As for Von Clutch, he's a regular (albeit cyborg) human whose only notable flaw is poor maintenance of his park and employees, otherwise his challenge is low-stakes and he's quite amiable.
• Gratuitous German: He peppers his speech with German words.
• High-Class Glass: He's got a cybernetic right eye that's designed to look like a monocle.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: He knows who Crash and Cortex are prior to meeting them, mentions that he has all their games, and calls them his favorite "video heroes".
• Jack of All Stats: In Nitro-Fueled.
• Miniature Senior Citizens: Von Clutch is both very old and very short, even more so than the likes of Cortex in Nitro-Fueled. He barely even comes past Pura or Polar's height!
• Ow, My Body Part!: In Nitro-Fueled, he occasionally says this when he is attacked:
  Von Clutch: Ohhh, my neck bones!
• Pointy-Haired Boss: At least, from what his employees imply in gameplay cutscenes. Gives more logic as to why Willie would try to kill off the guy.
• Poirot Speak: Speaks in a heavy German accent, and often throws German words into his dialogue.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: He might say "Beep Beep! German cyborg coming through! Ja!" when speeding past someone.
• Signature Headgear: A tall, monogrammed German pickelhaube that's styled to look like an army helmet. With how tall it is, it actually makes up most of Von Clutch's height.
• Those Wacky Nazis: It is heavily implied that long ago, Von Clutch served in World War II under the Axis side.
  Von Clutch: Crash, did I ever tell you about mein service in ze var? Nein? Good.
• Token Heroic Orc: Is about the only human character in the entire series (if one doesn't count Aku Aku, who is a human spirit reincarnated in a mask) who never attempts to do anything outright evil, and is more a chaotic and incompetent manager than malicious. Though some of his quotes imply that he wasn't always this "soft" (check Those Wacky Nazis above).
• The Von Trope Family: He has "Von" in his name, hinting at both his status and Germanic heritage.
• Your Size May Vary: Von Clutch's character model in Nitro Fueled is considerably smaller than he was in Crash Tag Team Racing. In the latter game, he was of similar stature as the scientist characters and only a head or so shorter than Crash. In the former, he's almost gremlin-sized and is only barely larger than King Chicken.

Pasadena O'Possum

"Not so fast! I'm Pasadena O'Possum. I'm racin' for ol' Von Clutch, and I'm gonna whup you, that's for sure!"

Voiced by: Shanelle Workman (2005), Debi Derryberry (2019)

First appearance: Crash Tag Team Racing (2005)

A Texan-accented racing champion and devoted subordinate of Von Clutch. She first appeared in Crash Tag Team Racing, and shows a clear infatuation for Crash, something that Crash himself is... less than enthusiastic about. Well, sometimes.

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• Abhorrent Admirer: Zig-zagged; in Tag Team Racing, Crash's attitude towards Pasadena's flirting veers between this and him legitimately taking interest in her. When he does get unnerved, it's typically when she comes off a bit too strong.
• Art Evolution: In Nitro-Fueled, Pasadena becomes much more vibrant and expressive, and her mouth is moved further up her muzzle. Her proportions are also much taller and of human bulk akin to the Nitro Squad, while her racing overalls are also more form-fitting to befit this, showing off her curves.
• Badass Driver: She's one of Von Clutch's most skilled racers, and is heavily implied to be his second-in command. Fittingly, she's a Speed-type racer in Nitro-Fueled.
• Blood Knight: When it comes to racing, for sure. On top of being a speed-based racer who loves to race (and win) and is incredibly passionate about what she does, Pasadena is also clearly very eager to use her improved weapon systems on Team Cortex in Tag Team Racing.
  Pasadena: WOOHOO, now we's talkin'! I'll tell ya, this is the machine from Cortex's nightmares. Go fire up a race, and we'll blow those weasels to Kingdom Come! (sotto voice) Weasels bein' much worse than possums and bandicoots, ya understand?
• The Bus Came Back: Fourteen years after her original appearance, Pasadena returns to the track as part of the Fifth Grand Prix (Neon Circus) in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Whenever Crash is around, she really enjoys cracking innuendos around and flirting with him. Of course, it tends to vary from conversation to conversation how well they work on him.
• Combat Sadomasochist: Implied, by one of her racing lines (and it's easy to take out of context):
  Pasadena: (When using an item) I know I shouldn't like that... but I do!
• Cute Clumsy Girl: On top of her usual eccentricity, Pasadena shows shades of this as well in her Nitro-Fueled podium animations. When she wins, she trips and drops her bottle of Wumpa Whip off the side, causing her to look up at the screen sheepishly. If she loses, she tries to do the same bottle-spraying routine... but humorously stumbles around while trying (in vain) to pull the cork out.
• Cute Little Fangs: They're kind of hard to spot, but Nitro-Fueled shows Pasadena to have four tiny fangs, befitting her species. Look closely when she talks in her Grand Prix intro.
• The Cutie: While very competitive and determined, Pasadena is also endearingly eccentric, upbeat and dorky. She tends to be especially sweet when near Crash, and by the end of Tag Team Racing, she's become fast friends with the bandicoots despite them starting on opposing sides.
• Deep South: She has a very obvious Southern US (hinted in particular to be from Texas or Tennessee) upbringing, with the accent and various country-isms to match.
  Pasadena: Ah think it's time to change the horseshoes on that car!
• Dumb Blonde: May slide more towards Cloudcuckoolander or Genius Ditz territory; nevertheless, someone who doesn't know what 2 plus 2 equals ("Uh... cornbread?") probably has a few issues with intelligence. Whenever she loses a race in Nitro-Fueled, she barely even notices her predicament.
• Endearingly Dorky: Although Pasadena is a very skilled and passionate driver, she's friendly, ditzy and adorably eccentric all the while. It's especially evident through her Southern accent, non-sequiturs, klutziness, upbeat nature, and being very sweet around Crash in particular.
• Expy: Basically an offbeat version of Hanna Barbera's Penelope Pitstop.
• Flanderization: Inverted in Nitro-Fueled, as Pasadena's usual air-headedness is toned down a bit and her lust for Crash shockingly isn't brought up at all, being more concerned with beating Dr. Neo Cortex on the track.
• Frothy Mugs of Water: In Nitro-Fueled, Pasadena's 1st place podium animation shows her shaking up and spraying a bottle of Wumpa Whip in victory, much as a real racing driver would do the same with champagne. It's Played for Laughs, as she has trouble pulling the cork out and controlling the resulting spray, then stumbles and drops the bottle afterward.
• Furry Reminder: In Tag Team Racing, she makes passing mentions of having a pouch (and keeping various things in it) and an affinity for garbage and scavenging food, all things opossums are known for in real life.
• Genius Ditz: While she's wacky, a bit of a klutz and clearly not all there academically (see above), Pasadena is both a highly-skilled driver and — as seen in Tag Team Racing — does all her own engineering, maintenance and modifications for her vehicles.
• Genki Girl: She's always very energetic and boisterous, especially when she's behind the wheel, improving her vehicles, or just around Crash in general.
  Pasadena: WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO! Score one for the possum girl!
• Girlish Pigtails: Has a big pair of blonde pigtails that come up from underneath the top of her helmet.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Randomly spouts this in one of her lines, likely referencing one of her implied home states (Texas, the other being Tennessee) having close ties with Mexico.
  Pasadena: Adios, mi amigo!
• Hot Blooded Sideburns: To go with her pigtails, she has a pair of hair locks with this kind of effect. And they're even bushier in Nitro-Fueled!
• Humanoid Female Animal: Pasadena's design looks rather humanoid, possum head and tail aside. Though her Nitro-Fueled redesign slightly emphasizes it with a taller Tawna-esque stature and skintight overalls, most of her humanoid features were already present in her original design, if somewhat more cartoony proportioned.
• Mighty Glacier: In Nitro-Fueled, she's a speed-based character to emphasize her status as an ace driver.
• Ms. Fanservice: In Tag Team Racing, she's this in the sense that she frequently slips innuendos into her dialogue. It's emphasised more visually in her Nitro-Fueled redesign, which gives her skin-tight overalls and a taller, more curvaceous figure than previously.
• The Nicknamer: She refers to Crash with lots of different (mostly flirtatious) ones in Tag Team Racing, including "Cutie", "Fuzzy-Pants", "Furry Buns", and "Sweet Pickle".
• Non-Indicative Name: Her surname of O'Possum is based off of the opossum, an American marsupial, when she's actually a possum, another Australian marsupial.
• Non-Mammal Mammaries: Much like with Coco, Tawna and the Nitro Squad, she's a marsupial yet has a visible bust, particularly emphasized by her skin-tight racing suit, despite mentioning having a pouch, where the real-life marsupials' mammaries are.
• Number Two: She is arguably this to Von Clutch, or at least shares the role with Willie Wumpa Cheeks. As it turns out, she is most likely such after Willie turns on them.
• Ow, My Body Part!:
  • Sometimes if she is attacked, she will respond as such:
    Pasadena: Ow, right in the pancreas!
    Pasadena: Ooh, that rattled mah brain-meat!
  • Nitro-Fueled goes with this:
    Pasadena: Oh, mah head!
• Passionate Sports Girl: Pasadena is all about racing and actually dresses like a legitimate race car driver, right down to the protective overalls and helmet with goggles.
• Prehensile Tail: In Crash Tag Team Racing, Pasadena picks up, holds and throws weapons at opponents using her long tail. Curiously, this trait is absent altogether in Nitro-Fueled: although it may have something to do with the fact that like everyone else, she's sat more in the karts rather than standing on the back of them like she previously would had to do so.^note On the other hand, her tail still reacts to what her current emotion is, during her victory podium animation.
• Punny Name: Pasadena's surname (O'Possum) is a not-so subtle reference to her species (Opossum).
• Remember the New Guy?: Another Funny Animal that is never implied to have been modified by Cortex or another scientist. Then again, her business partners are a German cyborg (who is a big fan of Cortex) and a giant anthropomorphic Wumpa Fruit, so it's not really stand out there. Her Grand Prix intro in Nitro-Fueled does at least imply that she has a grudge against Cortex, since she's "here to teach [him] a lesson".
• Scarf of Asskicking: She wears a long pink scarf that matches her helmet, certainly adding to her Badass Driver credentials.
• Ship Tease: With Crash in Tag Team Racing. When not seeming physically sickened by Pasadena's charms, he does seem to display a slight mutual affection. On the other hand though, it is Crash we're talking about.
• Sitcom Archnemesis: In Nitro-Fueled, she makes it a point to defeat Cortex on the race track. This is a carry-over from Tag Team Racing, where she vowed to do the same thing to stop him from taking over MotorWorld for a new base. But all the while, he never pays her much notice.
• Southern Belle: To an extent; her upbringing is VERY obvious, anyway.
• Species Surname: Pasadena O'Possum.
• Statuesque Stunner: Not so much originally (she was only a few inches taller than Crash and Coco before), but in Nitro-Fueled she clearly towers over most of the cast, having had her height increased to about the same as Tawna and the Nitro Squad.
• Trademark Favorite Food: According to Tag Team Racing, Pasadena loves chicharonnes (pork rinds). Likewise, in Nitro-Fueled, she's also frequently associated with Wumpa Whip, to the point where it features in both her podium win and loss animations.
• True Blue Femininity: Her helmet and scarf are the only parts of her outfit that aren't a variation of blue.
• Undying Loyalty: One of very few subordinates of Von Clutch that thinks highly of him and is more than willing to help him keep his beloved park by racing.
• Wrench Wench: While predominantly known as a racer, Pasadena is also a surprisingly skilled mechanic. As seen in her side missions for Tag Team Racing, she does all of her own engineering, maintenance and modifications on her vehicles.
• Your Size May Vary: In Tag Team Racing, while still one of the lankier characters in the game, she's only slightly taller than Crash and completely dwarfed by Crunch, but Nitro-Fueled tweaks her to be around the same height as Tawna and the Nitro Squad, making her one of the tallest characters series-wide.

Chick and Stew

Left: Chick. Right: Stew.

Chick voiced by: Quinton Flynn (2005), Roger Craig Smith (2019-present)
Stew voiced by: Duane Shepard (2005), Kevin Michael Richardson (2019-present)

First appearance: Crash Tag Team Racing (2005)

A pair of veteran sportscasters who serve as the tutors of Crash Tag Team Racing. They return in Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled to introduce the monthly Grand Prix events.

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• Art Evolution: In Nitro-Fueled, they benefit from updated designs like everyone else, including added feather definition and dents on their beaks.
• Ascended Extra: They merely had background roles in Tag Team Racing. For their return in Nitro-Fueled, they did frequent reports for the Grand Prixes, and even became playable come the Winter Festival Grand Prix.
• Ascended Fanboy: Needless to say, Stew is more than thrilled once he gets the opportunity to race, and he whoops it up during his victory podium animation.
• Beware the Silly Ones: One of the Die-O-Ramas in Tag Team Racing has Stew retaliate against Crash for spinning into him, flattening Crash with a single punch and punting him away.
• Big Eater: The Winter Festival Grand Prix has Chick doing most of the commentating while Stew chows down on the giant sweets in Gingerbread Joyride.
• Brief Accent Imitation: Stew picks up a Transylvanian accent when introducing the Spooky Grand Prix, which Chick compliments him on.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: In Nitro-Fueled, both prove themselves capable of driving karts, while holding their microphones at the same time.
• The Bus Came Back: They return in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled to introduce the Grand Prix, and are seen on a giant screen in Turbo Track. And six months later, they join the roster for real.
• The Cameo:
  • They appear in one of the still images in the 106% ending of Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time.
  • Their visages also appear on the flags in Capture the Flag mode in Crash Team Rumble.
• Combat Commentator: Uniquely, Chick comments on his own races when he becomes playable.
  Chick: (When speeding past someone) Chick Gizzard Lips overtakes the competition!
  Chick: (When hit while shielded) A valiant attempt, to be sure.
  Chick: (When spinning out) Newscaster down!
  Chick: (When winning a race) A decisive win for the chicken!
  Chick: (When losing a race) A loss? This is unprecedented, folks.
• The Comically Serious: Chick remains focused and professional, even when a regular chicken shows up without warning. He keeps his cool even while racing.
• Compressed Hair: Stew has managed to comb down and slick back his big cowlick for his vampire costume, in the Spooky Grand Prix intro.
• Cuteness Proximity: When Nitro-Fueled's baby racers are introduced for the Back N. Time Grand Prix, Stew is heard gushing over them.
• Deadpan Snarker: If attacked by Crash in Tag Team Racing, Chick will dryly remark, "Oh good, more abuse." This line returns in Nitro-Fueled, if Chick gets hit by an item.
• Flanderization: Inverted with Stew in Nitro-Fueled. While still excitable, he's considerably less crazy than he was before (no constant hat-swapping, for one).
• Fragile Speedster: Stew in Nitro-Fueled, to emphasize his excitable demeanor.
• Furry Reminder: Well, feathery reminder. They peck the ground during their Tag Team Racing idle animations, and Stew occasionally clucks when he speeds past someone in Nitro-Fueled.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Both wear suit jackets but lack pants.
• Jack of All Stats: Chick in Nitro-Fueled to emphasize his careful demeanor.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Chick's voice in Tag Team Racing is clearly channeling Howard Cosell, while Stew's voice has been compared to Charles Barkley and George Foreman. This is averted in Nitro-Fueled, where their voices are more their own.
• Noodle Incident: Stew claims to have once shoved a baked ham into a wood chipper. It's anyone's guess as to why he did it.
• Ow, My Body Part!: Parodied by Chick in Tag Team Racing with "Ow, my dignity!", when Crash attacks him. For his part, Stew can say this when he spins out in Nitro-Fueled:
  Stew: Owwwww, my stuffing!
• Only One Name: Chick's full name is Chick Gizzardlips, while Stew is only ever referred to as just Stew.
• Promoted to Playable: After sitting on the sidelines commentating for Tag Team Racing and the launch of Nitro-Fueled, the Winter Festival Grand Prix gives them the opportunity to race on the track themselves.
• Pungeon Master: They're proficient at constantly delivering puns and double-speak in their reports, both in the sidelines and on the field.
• Punny Name: Chick and Stew, when said together, sounds like "chicken stew".
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Despite their colors, Chick is the blue oni while Stew is the red. This is reflected in their driving styles, with Chick being more careful and Stew having less control.
• Remember the New Guy?: More Funny Animals with no stated origin.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: Chick provides the straight commentary while Stew provides the color commentary.
• Sweet Tooth: Stew spends the Winter Festival intro gorging on giant pretzels, giant cookies, giant cupcakes...
• Vocal Evolution: Chick's voice in Tag Team Racing was a parody of Howard Cosell, but later voices gave him a more generic race announcer type voice.
• Woman Scorned: Seemingly implied that Chick's wife has it out for the two when Crash hits them in Tag Team Racing. It's one thing for Chick to have marital issues, but even Stew fears for his life.
  Chick: Did my wife send you?!
  Stew: Daaang! Did Chick's wife send you?!

The Viscount

"I'll con them into working for me, and the Super Big Power Crystal will be mine at last!"

First appearance: Crash Boom Bang (2006)

A wealthy Tasmanian Devil who appeared in Crash Boom Bang. He organizes a tournament, and the victor will win the Viscount's fortune of $100,000,000: although this is just a distraction for the heroes so that he can find the Super Big Power Crystal, which grants whoever touches it their greatest wish.

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• All for Nothing: In the end, Crash just barely beats him to the Super Big Power Crystal and uses up the wish on a giant pile of Wumpa Fruit.
• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: He's a purple Tasmanian Devil.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Well, evil might be pushing it, but he's certainly greedy and manipulative.
• Bowdlerize: His full name is Viscount Devil. While this is in reference to his species the Tasmanian Devil, he is never referred to as such outside Japan, likely to avoid any unintentional religious references.
• A Glass of Chianti: The intro to Boom Bang shows him with a glass of wine.
• Mysterious Grandparent: After Cortex tears up his map, he reveals that his grandfather disappeared searching for the same Crystal he's after.
• Remember the New Guy?: Yet another Funny Animal that shows up without any fanfare. Made even more confusing by the fact that he knows his grandfather, who apparently was also an anthropomorphic animal despite having lived long before the Evolvo-Ray's creation.
• Upperclass Twit: An implicit case.
• Volatile Tasmanian Devil: Not necessarily aggressive, but still greedy and manipulative, as mentioned above.

Yaya Panda

"Bet you didn't see me coming!"

Voiced by: Stephanie Sheh (2019)

First appearance: Crash Nitro Kart 2 (2008)

A female panda whose cute and cuddly exterior hides the heart of a talented racer. She made her debut in Crash Nitro Kart 2, where she teamed up with Crash and Coco to stop Cortex, Oxide and Ripper Roo from deforesting her homeland and taking over the world, making return appearances for the next two phone racing games before finally making her main series debut in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.

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• All Asians Know Martial Arts: Downplayed, as she's really flexible and does a split kick during her trick jump and victory podium animation.
• Anime Chinese Girl: Yaya's Nitro-Fueled redesign plays up this side to her a lot: giving her cute hair decs, big expressive green eyes, chubbier cheeks with Blush Stickers, and a qipao-style dress shirt with a waist ribbon, sandal-like slippers and short puffy pants.
• Ascended Extra: Despite starting out as a relatively obscure "filler" character for a mobile phone game spin-off, Yaya — with her appealing design, sunny Badass Adorable disposition and status as one of the series' rare female characters — proved popular enough with the fans for her to make an appearance in the main console games in Nitro-Fueled several years after her last game.
• Badass Adorable: A cute little panda who's also a Badass Driver. She's even more so in Nitro-Fueled, with a more streamlined and modernised design that really brings out her Anime Chinese Girl side, and a bright, tomboyish personality brimming with energy to spare.
  Yaya: (when selected) I'm fluffy and fast!
  Yaya: (when spinning out) Gah! I'm too cute to die!
• Bears Are Bad News: She tries to invoke this, but it's clear she's too cute and nice to pull it off. Some of her dialogue has her exclaim that she's a bear/panda, and another has her try to growl, but giggle immediately afterwards. Also, one of her idle animations has her turn to her opponent and swipe toward them with her hands while growling, but again, she giggles afterwards.
• Blush Stickers: Yaya has always had permanent pink blushes to her cheeks, which her redesign continues making sure to emphasise.
• The Bus Came Back: Like Rilla Roo, Yaya makes her comeback in the Winter Festival Grand Prix for Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled. Compared to Roo though, she doubles down in this regard, seeing as she'd never even appeared in a main console Crash game before, and makes sure to reference it in her dialogue.
• Canon Immigrant: She was created exclusively for the spin-off phone racing games, and made no main series appearances until her Nitro-Fueled appearance.
• Characterization Marches On: In her original mobile game appearances, Yaya naturally ended up having precious little character to go off of, beyond being a great driver who wants to protect the bamboo forest she called home. When she returns almost a decade later, Nitro-Fueled firmly establishes her to be very perky and competitive, with a noticeable Tomboy streak.
• Endearingly Dorky: Tough and tomboyish as Yaya is, she's also dorky at times: her Badass Boast in her Grand Prix intro comes off more cute rather than as badass as she was evidently trying to go for, and things like her playing with her hair, trying to act tough but quickly breaking into giggles afterward and her voice cracking when she gets excited are flat-out adorable.
• Expy: Being a very short and tomboyish Genki Girl in a predominantly green outfit, with a huge passion for racing despite not being able to (officially) do so for a long time, and being introduced on a candy-themed track (ala Sugar Rush), the Nitro-Fueled incarnation of Yaya is very reminiscent of Vanellope Von Schweetz. Right down to the two even having similar voices!
• Genki Girl: Nitro-Fueled establishes Yaya to be one of these right off the bat, being very energetic and upbeat with a big tomboyish competitive streak to her. It's most noticeable in her Grand Prix intro — when she hops up onto Hasty's antlers and stands tall on them to give a Badass Boast to the camera — and in the sheer unbridled joy she gets from racing.
  Yaya: You've never seen speed like mine!
• Hot-Blooded: She's the most spirited, reckless and impulsive of all the female racers in Nitro-Fueled, which is really saying something.
• Irony: Despite being a giant panda — which are known for being the largest of their subspecies — she's actually one of the shortest bipedal characters in the game.
• Mighty Glacier: She becomes this in Nitro-Fueled to emphasize her competitive personality.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She's one of the shortest bipedal characters in Nitro-Fueled, yet she's still just as strong a contender as anyone.
• Remember the New Guy?: Much like Pasadena and Viscount before her, she's another Funny Animal with no official origin, though she's generally assumed to be a mutant regardless.
• Species Surname: Yaya Panda.
• Token Mini-Moe: Most characters in Nitro-Fueled tower over her, and it's safe to say that she's certainly one of the cutest competitors around. Yet, it doesn't make her any less of a force to be reckoned with!
• Tomboyish Voice: As seen in Nitro-Fueled, she's got the classic example: having a slightly deep and noticeably raspy and energetic voice that often tends to adorably crack when she gets really excited.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She is a Hot-Blooded, passionate and tomboyish racer who tries her best to be intimidating with her dramatic poses and taunts. That being said, it's clear that she's still got a feminine streak to her, given not only how cute and nice she is, but in her attire and sweet, awkward habits such as playing with her hair, her voice cracking, or breaking into giggles when she tries to be tough.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Bamboo, befitting her species. Protecting her forest's abundant supply of it from the villains is one of her main motivations to race in her debut appearance.

King Chicken

"Buh-gawk!"

Voiced by: Fred Tatasciore (2019)

First appearance: Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (2019)

A chicken with a crown who was added as a racer in Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled.

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• Achievements in Ignorance: His victory podium animation clearly shows that he doesn't realise that he's won.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Being an unevolved chicken, he looks completely clueless and barely pays attention to his surroundings to the point that his podium animation whether he wins or loses has him preoccupied with pecking on bird seeds.
• Cool Crown: This and the ability to drive are what set him apart from the many other chickens.
• Fish Eyes: Has big, bulbous eyeballs that never look in the same direction.
• Foreshadowing: The suspicious-looking wall used to unlock King Chicken in the Lost Ruins (which wasn't there in the original game) was always there from the day the game came out, which got the fans' attention when it was first noticed.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: The first racer to be Drift class by default.
• Nearly Normal Animal: Unlike the other unevolved animals, who are seemingly intelligent but lack the ability to walk on two legs, speak and normally don't wear clothing, King Chicken doesn't do much to show that he's anything more than a regular chicken with a crown. When racing, he doesn't seem to do anything to guide his kart, as he never actually touches the steering wheel, and he barely seems cognizant enough to realize he is even racing in the first place. To further illustrate this, his podium animation is the same whether he wins or loses, where he's just pecking at a pile of bird seeds.
• Original Generation: Has the distinction of being the first character in Nitro-Fueled to have never appeared in any prior games, and not be based on an existing one (e.g. Baby Coco).
• Really Royalty Reveal: According to this post on Activision blog, King Chicken is the benevolent overlord of the galaxy!
• Secret Character: The method of unlocking him is unlike any other character in Nitro-Fueled, who are either earned through beating them in Adventure Mode, as Nitro Point unlocks, or purchased through the Pit Stop. King Chicken is unlocked by finding five golden eggs scattered around the five hub worlds in Adventure Mode, and taking them to a fresco of a chicken in the Lost Ruins hub.
• The Spook: Unlike nearly every character in the series, we know nothing about this regal fowl. Who is he? Why is he a king? Where does he come from? Not even Chick and Stew say anything about him on CTR TV.
• Wild Card: He originally swapped between Aku-Aku and Uka-Uka like Penta, but a later update made it so he swaps between every invulnerability mask in the game, including the Velo Mask, Sparx and Apo-Apo.

Hasty

"I'm the pilot in command!"

Voiced by: Robbie Daymond (2019)

First appearance: Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (2019)

An aviator moose who first appeared during the Winter Festival Grand Prix in Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled.

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• The Ace: He has the most professional demeanor out of every racer, is a better driver than Speed class users thanks to his Drift attribute, and he exudes charisma by showing off to the audience when he wins.
• Ace Pilot: His outfit is clearly meant to evoke a retro airplane pilot, and he also makes references to being an aviator in his racing banter, using aeronautical terms like "nacelle" or "absolute ceiling". He's also got patches on his jacket referencing old Activision Atari games, all of which are games involving piloting aircraft.
• Bad Liar: He's such a good sport that he has trouble covering up any mistakes or misfortunes during races.
  Hasty: (when spinning out) I... totally intended to do that.
  Hasty: (when losing a race) I didn't have my compass. It doesn't count.
• Captain Ersatz: To Trippo the Hippo, AKA "Fasty", as detailed below. Since Trippo was not actually created as a Crash Team Racing character, Beenox had to make some alterations to keep him legally distinct. This makes him an unusual case, since this means he's an alternate version of a character that never actually manifested itself as anything more than a concept art sketch.
• Didn't See That Coming: His race loss animation has him clearly look distraught, having seemingly not considered the possibility that he might lose. He says the trope name word for word in one of his loss lines, as well.
• Graceful Loser: Although he is a little upset when he loses a race based upon his losing animation, he takes it in better stride than some other characters, even shrugging to indicate he knows he can’t win every race.
• Lovable Jock: He has a bit of a sporty attitude when it comes to racing, and him being protected by Aku Aku places him firmly on the side of the good guys. His unlockable Blizzard Rider outfit takes this further, which dresses him up in a brightly colored ski outfit that looks like it came straight out of an 80's sports movie.
• Meaningful Name: He is, indeed, one of the faster racers in the game.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: He is the second racer with the Drift class by default.
• Moose and Maple Syrup: He's a friendly, sport-oriented moose, and a hockey organ can be heard playing when he finishes posing for his victory podium animation. Nitro-Fueled, his debut game, is made by the Canadian studio Beenox, so this is definitely intentional.
• Moose Are Idiots: Completely averted, as he's an ace racer who is shown to be highly knowledgeable about planes and aeronautics.
• Mythology Gag: Hasty's appearance in the game is one big homage to an old Urban Legend of Zelda centered around a rumor of a cut character from the original Crash Team Racing. The story goes that datamining the original game turned up a supposedly cut racer named "Fasty". Meanwhile, Crash Team Racing concept artist Bob Rafei had a picture on his portfolio website of a blue hippo wearing pilot's gear that he had listed under the CTR section. People put the two together and created the myth of Fasty the Hippo. However, it was all actually a big misunderstanding. The name "Fasty" wasn't actually connected to any cut content, and the hippo Bob Rafei drew wasn't even designed for CTR in the first place. His name was actually Trippo, and he was a proposed mascot he drew for a friend of his who wanted to start a website for comparing airline prices, and he put the picture in the CTR section of his website by mistake. Hasty takes this old rumor and runs with it, as his name is just one letter off from "Fasty", his silhouette is practically the same as Trippo's apart from his antlers, and he wears a nearly identical pilot's outfit.
• Original Generation: He debuted in Nitro-Fueled as a new character, although he has a clear basis on an old Urban Legend of Zelda from the original Crash Team Racing as explained under Mythology Gag.
• Remember the New Guy?: As with many of the post-Naughty Dog characters, he's an anthropomorphic animal of unknown origin. But there's no plot for the DLC in Nitro-Fueled, so it's less glaring here.
• Shout-Out: The patches on his jacket are promotional items Activision gave out back in the Atari 2600 days for achieving high scores in their games. The one on his chest is for Barnstorming, the one on his right arm is for River Raid and the one on his left arm is for Chopper Command.
• Spectacular Spinning: His victory animation when wearing his Blizzard Rider outfit has him spinning to create a miniature tornado.

Apo-Apo

First appearance: Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (2020^note the game was released in 2019, but Apo Apo was added in the Rustland Grand Prix DLC, which came out in 2020)

A mask that protects anyone wearing a Rustland costume and/or racing on Megamix Mania in Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled.

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• Ambiguously Evil: While it certainly looks the part, it protects everyone in Megamix Mania regardless of their alliance to Aku-Aku or Uka-Uka, plus its design combines both masks' Crash of the Titans designs into one, effectively making it neutral.
• Composite Character: Has elements of both Aku Aku and Uka Uka combined, specifically their Radical Entertainment incarnations, and protects everyone, good or evil, while they're racing in Megamix Mania.
• Flat Character: Like the Velo Mask, it doesn't actually talk, and serves more as a function than anything. It does, however, observe any Rustland racers who get onto the podium, but it doesn’t appear to react.
• Invincibility Power-Up: Protects anyone racing in Megamix Mania or wearing a Rustland skin.
• Malevolent Masked Man: Taken to its logical extreme by being a mask wearing a mask.
• Meaningful Name: Apo as in apocalypse, as it was introduced during the post-apocalyptic Mad Max inspired Rustland Grand Prix.
• Original Generation: It's the very first new mask to be created for the Activision era of the series.
• Remember the New Guy?: Who Apo-Apo is and where it came from is never really addressed, not even in the Activision blog post announcing the Grand Prix.
• The Speechless: The only noise it makes is a whisper-like growl upon being summoned.

Iron Checkpoint Crate

First appearance: Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (1998)

A variant of Checkpoint Crate introduced in Warped that doesn't count towards a level's destroyed crate total. It also appears as a playable character in Nitro-Fueled, with other crates also available as skins.

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• Adaptational Badass: Racing credentials aside, it becomes an active threat to the bandicoots in On the Run by having gained the ability to crush them with summoned iron checkpoint crates.
• Adaptational Villainy: Its allegiance is clarified to be much less benign in On the Run, where it acts as a mini-boss.
• Adaptational Wimp: Can actually be defeated in "On the Run."
• Animate Inanimate Object: In the loosest sense of the term "animate". While it's just as capable of driving as any other character, it never actually shows any sign of being sentient.
  • It moves a little more in On the Run, mainly to launch attacks, as well as topple over and be sucked away into a portal upon defeat.
• Ascended Meme: Its inclusion seems to be in direct response to a thread on the Crash Bandicoot subreddit jokingly saying it should be playable.
• Audible Gleam: During its victory podium animation, it occasionally shines.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": Like all checkpoint crates, it has the letter C on its sides.
• The Bus Came Back: Not so much the Iron Checkpoint Crate but its exotic skin, the Purple ! Crate, which only appeared in the "Pogo Pandemonium" minigames in Crash Bash.
• Composite Character: The skins for it are other types of crates, such as the ? Crate, the TNT Crate and Nitro Crate.
• Inanimate Competitor: The only non-sentient driver in Nitro-Fueled's cast, though it's still capable of driving with the best of them.
• Ironic Nickname: When some certain fans datamined the game prior to this character's release, they discovered a data for racer code-named "DriverIAmAsImportantAsTheBandicootSoIShouldBeTheMainCharacter", which turns out to be Iron Checkpoint Crate. A good part of it is simply over-stated boast, as this crate only appeared in scant amounts in the third Crash Bandicoot game, confined to the secret areas.
• Made of Iron: Literally. Since it's an iron object, it can take all sorts of item and obstacle abuse, yet never react to it since it doesn't have animations. This also applies to its exotic skin variants that represent other types of crates.
  • Slightly subverted in On the Run, where it's actually defeatable.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: The third character with Drift-type engine by default.
• Promoted to Playable: Perhaps one of the strangest examples of this.
• Secret Character: Unlocking the crate requires the player to visit each track in the game (minus Retro Stadium), find a crate with the Beenox logo on it and break it. Some of these can be hidden in extremely obscure or hard-to-reach places. Break all 39 and the crate is unlocked.
• The Voiceless: It's a crate.
• Wild Card: Like King Chicken, the crate swaps between every invulnerability mask in the game.
• Your Size May Vary: The playable Iron Checkpoint Crate is far smaller than every other crate in the game. Justified, since otherwise it wouldn't be able to fit in a kart, and the crates on the tracks are actually larger than the standard crates from throughout the series, making this one more in-line with the normal crate size.

Fake Coco

"We can stand here and talk 'til the cows turn blue. But let's fight instead!"

Voiced by: Gabriele Griciute (2021)

First appearance: Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (2020)

Introduced in Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time's multiplayer, Fake Coco is Coco's own strange counterpart.

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• Ambiguous Situation: Like Fake Crash, it's unclear where she came from and who made her.
• Ascended Extra: In It's About Time, she was basically just a skin for Coco and not a real character, but she then appears as a boss in Crash Bandicoot: On the Run.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: A trait she shares with Fake Crash.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Much like how the real Coco has started doing her brother's trademark dance, Fake Coco does Fake Crash's dance when she appears in On the Run.
• Dumb and Drummer: She starts her boss encounters in On the Run by tapping her hovercraft with drumsticks to the beat of her theme song.
• Flat Character: Her purpose in It's About Time is to basically be a skin for Coco and a fourth playable character in the multiplayer alongside Crash, Coco and Fake Crash, where she doesn't get any real characterization. Even in On the Run, her behavior is basically the same as Fake Crash's, just with the addition of her having a pair of drumsticks.
• Oddball Doppelgänger: She's Coco but with big eyebrows, goofy teeth, a bigger nose, beadier eyes and green overalls.

Catbat

"Your day of reckoning is here, Cortex. My life wasn't yours to toy with. I will never forgive you for that."

Voiced by: Erika Ishii (2023)

First appearance: Crash Team Rumble (2023)

Another one of Cortex’s previous experiments, who seeks to pay him out for all he did to them.

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• Bat Out of Hell: Downplayed, morality-wise, they are more a Wild Card whose only beef is with Cortex. However they seem to love styling themselves as such cosmetically, with many of their skins and animations applying as them trying to look tough and menacing.
• Death from Above: One of their attacks is a dive bomb from the air.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Before being confirmed for Crash Team Rumble, they made their first appearance in the Golden Ending of It's About Time as a background character.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: A cross between a bat and a cat.
• Non-Human Non-Binary: According to their designer Nicholas Kole, they were designed with they/them pronouns in mind, making them the first queer character in the Crash series.
  • Their origin story implies that their original "components" were a male and a female.
    Catbat: For a long time, I was just "036F" and "299M".
• Revenge: They intend to make Cortex suffer for what he did to them.
• The Rock Star: Best said by Word of God:
  Paul Yan: On the art side, [we had] an interest in this concept, aesthetically, of a David Bowie-like character. A rock star that breaks certain expectations and has a confidence and flair that is just magnetic.
• Trademark Favourite Food: Burgers. They even weaponise them in Crash Team Rumble as a Healing Shiv.
• Unknown Rival: A mutant creation of Cortex who specifically resents him for their horrific experiments. Cortex on his part, can't even remember creating them.

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