PIN code is a passcode (usually 4 to 6 numbers long), used as a means of security. It can also refer to the index numbers used by India's postal services. But that's not what this page really is about... (although it is somewhat of a Pun-Based Title referencing the former meaning)
PinCode (Пин-Код) is a 2012 CGI spin-off of the KikoRiki series, created to raise interest in inventing, programming and science in younger audiences. It started as a Poorly Disguised Pilot to the original show — a "Runaway Rocket" dualogy, eventually becoming a series of its own 3 years later.
The spin-off is slightly more futuristic. Most episodes take place outside of the KikoRiki Island, as the cast travels through space (and sometimes, other parts of our world) on Umflier - Pin's round-shaped Cool Starship that can fly practically anywhere.
All 104 original episodes can be viewed in English here
. The first half of the show was dubbed by 3Beep (Who previously worked on all of the original show and New Adventures) with almost all previous voice actors reprising their roles. The other half, however, was handled by a different unknown dubbing studio, with new voice actors and bordering on "Blind Idiot" Translation, so be warned. In the United States, Kids Street, a premium children's station, has aired the show.
PinCode provides examples of:
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: In "DNA", Barry eats Dokko's genetically modified carrot and grows into a giant. Peter the chicken later uses the exact same method to become big in "Pete of Jurassic Period". Both times the effect doesn't last, and they eventually shrink back to their regular sizes.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: For unknown reason, the translation team behind the show changed during "Leap to the Future" season (All episodes uploaded to YouTube in 2022), resulting in some weird discrepancies:
- The dub overall turned into an almost literal translation of the original script, without inserting additional jokes or making the dialogue fit better into English like 3Beep would do. This approach wouldn't have been so bad, if it didn't extend to songs as well, which don't even attempt to rhyme.
- While all main characters kept their current names, some of the returning minor ones were changed, and very inconsistently at that.
- The KikoRiki's ship Sharolyot (Шаролёт) was originally translated as the "Umflier" (occasionally it was mentioned as just the "spaceship"). During the new translation's tenure, it was translated as the "Sphere-Jet" (although it briefly went back to its original name in "Horns and Hooves").
- In "Year of The Sheep", the character Igogosha (Winnie in the English dub) and her Distaff Counterpart Zherebyash were mentioned as "Horse" and "Colt". (i.e. their species)
- On the other hand, in "Archaeologist's Day", Barry's favorite explorer Konyash... wasn't translated at all and is referred to by his original Russian name. This wouldn't be out of place only if names of every other character were kept unchanged.
- In "Illusion of Deceit", Chiko's stage name Magnezhidze (Магнежидзе) got translated as... Ezhidze. That name appeared in the original show, and was originally translated as Chikorini, and as Chickster in earlier episodes translated by them.
- This also affected the way episode names and returning location were translated. In case of the former, the third episode of the "Logbook" trilogy is renamed into "On-board Diary". As for the latter, the island where the series takes place is mentioned as Chamomile Valley in "Ancient Titans", instead of KikoRiki Island, as it used to be.
- Surprisingly, Krash's Catchphrase is still "Holy Carrots" (which replaced "Fir trees-Needles" from the original).
- Captain's Log: The "Logbook" trilogy combines this with Clip Show. Pin recaps some of the adventures the crew had, while also arguing with Umflier's AI.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: "Sure Sign". An experiment leaves Barry, Pin and Dokko in an alternate reality, only being able to interact with a Sphere-Scope. To get back to their reality, they have to make Barry's pet worm Resonance to push the cancel button on their machine. After everything was resolved, Barry realizes that they could have just used Sphere-Scope to press the button.
- Darker and Edgier: Some episodes deal with rather dark subjects the original series didn't tackle (at least in that much detail), with one in particular involving preventing the end of the world, characters are often put in life-threatening situations, and a few episodes even have a Bolivian Army Ending with the viewers left guessing if the heroes made it or not. There are also a couple of episodes which end on a borderline sour note with only a slight ray of hope present.
- Earth Day Episode: "Itch for Speed" happens during the "Be good to the Earth" week, and begins with Carlin, Olga and Dokko replacing regular lightbulbs with LED lights and educating Rosa on the leaking faucet. Then most of the episode focuses on Krash and his eco-unfriendly car.
- Flanderization: In the original series, Pin's spacecraft computer wasn't as much villainous as incapable of going against her coding, and refused to let Pin back inside the rocket due to it being overloaded. In this series, she is outright evil, willingly endangering her creator and plotting a robot world conquest.
- Foreign Re-Score: Most of the episodes translated by 3Beep have their music replaced with the original compositions. This is downplayed in their later episodes, which mix of both the original and new music, the latter playing in the parts that were originally silent.
- Giant Spider: The crew got to meet two of these. And while the original show depicts spiders as friendly fuzzballs, those two are more realistically shaped and are presented as a threat.
- In "Dancing with Bees", Barry and Pin test Umflier's shrinking modification, but get their ship stuck in a cobweb. The spider was interrupting their attempts to get it off, so they had to use bees to free their ship.
- An example that doesn't involve shrinking happens in the third part of "Fellow Human Beings", where the crew was lead into a trap to be fed to a spider, untill rescued by the Enchantress.
- Gender-Bent Alternate Universe: In "Year of the Sheep", Umflier flies into a black hole and sends Wally in the universe where everyone but Olga is of opposite gender. Characters teleport to the same universe at the beginning of "Fellow Human Beings" three-parter and get stuck in here at the end of the third part, with Pin and his Distaff Counterpart promising to eventually get them back to their original universe.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Surprisingly averted in the dub of "Space Blindman's Bluff", where Pin says a brief "What the hell" at the very end of the episode.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: In "Ten Seconds", Dokko claims to be afraid of speaking foreign languages. Later, he shoots himself with an Anti-phobe gun that removes this fear from him, but also makes him go crazy and start sprouting random lines in other languages, including a Shout-Out to "Gangnam Style".
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: "Bibi's Day" sees Bibi getting stuck in time loop trying to prevent Umflier from exploding as Dokko was making experiments with the remote energy transmissions.
- Later-Installment Weirdness: The last episode to be released, "New Year for Grown-ups", is the only one not to feature 2D sequences explaining episode's topic to audience. Apparently they were planned, and intended to touch socialization and growing up, but scrapped due to the topic being way too specific. (and being pretty much similar to the ones from "Youth Race") This is strange, however, since "Mungabubalupta" and "Sure Sign" both involve semiotics.
- Nanomachines: In appropriately titled episode "NanoBots", Dokko, Carlin, and Pin create many microscopic versions of The Iron Nanny. They are sent inside Wally's body, where they fight off bacteria and viruses.
- Perfectly Cromulent Word: Wally comes up with "Mungabubalupta" in the titular episode, and gives it to Rosa's chamomile-shaped apple pie.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title:
- "Bibi's Day" (Helps that the episode is about "Groundhog Day" Loop)
- "Pete of Jurassic Period" (It makes more sense in Russian, where the movie was translated as "Park of the Jurassic Period")
- Sky Surfing: Part of the intro has Barry, Olga and Krash riding on the futuristic surfboards across the sky.
- Spotlight-Stealing Title: This spin-off is named after Pin and, according to the show's description, he is The Captain of the crew. However, he still has the exact same spotlight time as everybody else from the main Ensemble Cast.
- Spring Cleaning Fever: Olga and Rosa are shown being obsessed with cleaning in "A 1000 Years Timer". Dokko and Carlin decide to snap them out of it by making a fake artifact that girls accidentally ruin and get blamed for.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: "The Great Cleaning" resolves around Wally, Pin and Dokko trying to get the supersuits's colors back to normal after the former washes them by accident. With a special formula, the color is restored and it seems everything will go fine — except the news broadcast goes awry anyway because the suits, like any washed clothes, do not just change color - they become tighter just as well.
- Teleporter Accident: "Cute Little Teleportation", where Krash's attempt to teleport into Barry's garden ends with him becoming a carrot. He gets better, of course.
- Thick-Line Animation: Unlike the original show, the 2D sequences use black outlines.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: In "The Best of All Possible Worlds", Pin lands on a planet that materializes things from his mind, including copies of his friends.
