Gadgeteer Genius / Western Animation

Gadgeteer Geniuses in Western Animation.

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• Jimmy Neutron from The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius is only a kid, but he has already surpassed any known scientist in capability. Each episode focuses on one of his inventions, although they usually fall prey to "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome.
• Alan of The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan programmed the iconic Chan Van to be able to transform into just about anything. Even a dynamite truck.
• Buckle from American Dad!, a former Disney Imagineer who became a mountain man. Just look at his haunted house:
  Francine: [disturbed] I actually don't know how I got out. The front hallway spiraled into a black hole and the weather kept changing and I was a child again.
• Arcane:
  • Despite all her bombs being duds until Episode 3, Jinx is still gifted enough with machinery that she built a working panic button in Vander's bar, which he uses to successfully alert Vi's crew to the incoming Enforcers out to arrest them. Her naming her weaponry like she did with her bombs in childhood implies that they were also made by herself. Silco even outright states that she's his best option for actually weaponizing the Piltie tech she stole, seeming to show that she's become this for his whole gang. She's shown to be able to reproduce Jayce's first Hextech experiment with reasonable accuracy (if not similar quality) and demonstrates an understanding of the underlying principles from reading his notes, which she managed to learn within the span of hours. This shows that her childish behavior belies her intelligence.
  • Ekko works as a mechanic in Benzo's pawn shop and tinkers with what's inside, and has built an impressive system to spy on the inside of the store. He's the one who designed the hoverboards the Firelights use and can talk shop with Heimerdinger about one's parts.
• The Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise:
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • The Mechanist is capable of creating a number of Schizo Tech contraptions like tanks, hot air balloons, and even submarines.
    • Sokka, who is the Mechanist's protege, came up with the idea for the submarine in the first place.
  • The Legend of Korra:
    • Varrick may be an Eccentric Millionaire, but he's also a very capable scientist and engineer, and quite capable of building what he needs on the fly.
    • Asami Sato didn't just inherit her father's industrial company, she also inherited his engineering genius. She can build a sand glider out of ship scraps, come up with innovative infrastructure ideas to incorporate spirit wilds into the city, and design biomimetic flying mech suits, among other things.
• The Falcon is characterized in this manner in Avengers Assemble, even though that's not how he's traditionally depicted in the comics. Compared to Stark, Falcon's inventions tend to be smaller, but fulfill more specific functions. He basically becomes the team's Batman.
• Arthur in Babar designs a bicycle-impulsed flying machine, two robots, and a submarine, among other things.
• Rattrap in Beast Machines was stripped of all weapons upon being reformatted, so compensated by developing all sorts of handy devices to stop the Vehicons.
• The later Betty Boop cartoons often feature Grampy, who creates all kinds of creative gadgets and machines from discarded junk.
• Mouse from Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese builds robots and gadgets which serve various functions.
• Grumpy from Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot straddles the line between this and Bungling Inventor. He apparently built an entire theme park at one point, not to mention a cloning device, among many others, but his inventions sometimes turn on him (i.e. the clone clones itself and both clones kick him out for not being "Grumpy" enough) or fail because of (unwanted) help from Oopsy.
• In addition to commentary, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin provides this service in the original run of Celebrity Deathmatch. His technological expertise yielded a fully-functional cloning machine (used to combine DNA from dead celebrites into fighting mutants) and a rickety time machine (used to bring to life such matches as The Three Tenors vs. The Three Stooges).
• Gadget Hackwrench from Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, who builds the team's vehicles and equipment. The stuff she makes is particularly impressive because all she usually has to work with is discarded junk from the humans. When Gadget returns as Big Good of the titular Heroes "R" Us team in The Mouse Watch, she's no longer restricted to Bamboo Technology. She now invents sci-fi tech such as "Smart Goggles" that act as Everything Sensors and create holographic disguises, a Cool Bike that is assembled by Nanomachines at the push of a button, and a worldwide subway system that can go from Los Angeles to New York City in ten minutes.
• Philly Phil from Class of 3000 is the class's go-to guy when they need some kind of gadget. They do have a tendency to malfunction, though.
• Jérémie from Code Lyoko. His gadgeteering occurs more in the virtual world, however, as he is the primary programmer and the one who is most adept at using the Supercomputer. However, it is a confirmed fact that he can build robots, participating in a robot competition in Season 1. He also creates an EMP bomb in the episode "Ultimatum", which efficiently stuns a XANAfied person.
• Codename: Kids Next Door:
  • They make holographic projectors out of steam engines and lasers out of a flashlight, a piece of wood, and a bottle!
  • If you're looking for a person example, Numbuh 2 would be the man. Once you get past his punny way of life, he is one of the KND's best of these, if not arguably the best. In fact, he's considered so good that when plenty of other scientist kids are kidnapped by the supposed "Splinter Cell", special interest is put into protecting him by putting him into hiding. As Numbuh One puts it, if they get their hands on Numbuh 2, they'll be able to build almost anything.
• Jack and Maddie Fenton in Danny Phantom seem to fit this trope, with their inventions being proven inoperable by a normal person, or even The Guys In White, due to their quirks because of their "tin cans and an old transistor radio" method of construction.
• Dexter's Laboratory has a gadgeteer for its titular main character, who creates a lot of science inventions throughout the series.
• Edd from Ed, Edd n Eddy. He makes an industrial-grade excavator out of junk he found around his neighborhood.
• AJ from The Fairly Oddparents has a secret lab in his bedroom which he uses to create clones, inventions, and conduct scientific research.
• The title character of Flavio the Goat wishes to be the next Leonardo da Vinci. He makes a lot of inventions in his spare time.
• Kin Kujira from Grojband is very nifty with gizmos and gadgets, creating machinery ranging from robots to time machines.
• The Old Gummies in Gummi Bears made such advanced technology (including a complex underground road system and interoceanic communication devices in the Middle Ages) that they became a target for humans due to it.
• Froggo from Histeria! is always asking for things because, as he puts it, "You've got your inventions, and I've got mine."
• Kai from The Hollow is able to get himself and his team out of a desert by building an airplane using the Four Horsemen's junkyard.
• Inspector Gadget: Professor Von Slickstein, who even incorporated gadgets into the title character's body.
• Jade Armor:
  • Black Tiger has created a number of gadgets to help her. She also knows how to combine them with Shards.
  • Will has created a drone that can integrate with the Crimson Lord and nearly perfectly replicate all the powers of his missing Beasticons.
• Jingaroo has Toot and Snoot Groote, a pair of marspial moles who are particularly adept at mechanical engineering.
• Ernest the Kiwi from The Jungle Bunch is capable of building massive machines. Though these machines tend to become a danger to the jungle that The Jungle Bunch have to deal with.
• Kaeloo:
  • Mr. Cat builds random gadgets when necessary, such as a cloning machine, and is also able to fix things (including a damaged time machine).
  • Olaf has his own robot slave, and over the course of the show builds an army of Mecha-Mooks and a Freeze Ray and turns Stumpy into a Cyborg.
• Kim Possible:
  • Wade is able to build more or less anything that the plot demands, and he's just 10 years old.
  • The Tweebs, who are the same age as Wade, are able to really pimp Kim's car.
  • On the villainous side, Motor Ed is a mechanical genius. Seriously!
  • In his "bad boy" mode, Ron Stoppable is this. It's even latent in his "good" mode, when he builds a weapon (at Drakken's insistence) IN A LAIR, from A BOX OF SCRAPS!
• On The Little Rascals, Buckwheat has built complex devices from scavenged components. They include a firefly-powered flashlight, a musical baby carriage, and even a voice-activated robot.
• The Looney Tunes franchise: In Loonatics Unleashed, Tech E. Coyote manages to cobble together a model of the city in his spare time. This model comes complete with trains that actually run on time. When not in his spare time, he makes the heroes' arsenal.
• In the Ruby-Spears Mega Man show, Roll modifies her Utility Arm herself. This includes such appliances as a vacuum, a blender, a circular saw, and modifying a baking sensor to detect earthquakes.
• Coop from Megas XLR tuned up a Humongous Mecha until it worked better than the original, even despite all the parts he keeps breaking on account of not being all that bright besides.
• Tanya from Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series is introduced as, "She was so smart, she actually knew how to program a timer on a VCR!" As well as building the team's machines and blowing up those of the enemy, she uses a wrist-mounted chainsaw in battle. She also has a stutter due to her brain going so fast (and trying to explain things in terms the others can understand).
• Molly of Denali: Walter has a gift for working with machines.
• Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2023): Lunella has several inventions under her belt: such as the temporal vortex generator that brought Devil to the Big Apple, and has incorporated several into her Moon Girl costume; such as a jet pack made from fans, a pair of shoes that double as rollerskates equipped with retractable metal claws to kick in windows, a squirt gun that blasts liquid that traps foes in large blue bubbles, and her signature red boxing glove launchers.
• Motorcity:
  • Tennie, who even built the home she and her father live in.
  • Jacob is this as well, having invented the Utility Bots.
  • Dutch is a mechanic and engineer, usually repairing the Burners' cars, and building robots like R.O.T.H.
• My Life as a Teenage Robot: Ms. Wakeman. She built the protagonist herself.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Pinkie Pie, despite possibly being completely insane, has built a DaVinci-ish flying machine, a "Welcoming Machine", and her signature party cannon... which she (except for one occasion) successfully uses to literally decorate for parties.
  • The Flim Flam Brothers have the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 from the episode of the same name, which looks years more advanced than anything else that's ever popped up in Equestria.
• Dinko from Pet Alien comes from a species of aliens known for their technical knowhow. He's made countless inventions out of the junk lying around Tommy's lighthouse.
• Phineas and Ferb:
  • Phineas and Ferb. Ferb does most of the engineering for their projects, but Phineas is quite handy with tools as well.
  • Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz. Despite being a normally Harmless Villain, he is capable of building -inators that are as impressive as the inventions of the title characters.
  • The Fireside Girls, led by Isabella. They're usually just helping the boys out, which is impressive in itself, but they can build a time machine.
• The Brain in Pinky and the Brain. This is arguably his real strength. His many devices include a functional Mobile-Suit Human and a mechanical arm that turns him into a star basketball player. He's also modified others' inventions to turn a Shrink Ray into a growth ray and make a tornado-proof suit much more... well, tornado-proof.
• Strudel from The Hub's Pound Puppies tends to make her inventions from discarded items and the occasional more sophisticated electronics she comes across.
• Professor Utonium from The Powerpuff Girls creates things like a supersuit or a giant robot or a car that can turn into a giant robot.
• Dr. Skelley, Sydney's mom from Ready Jet Go!. She knows all about robotics, engineering, and technology. She also holds a strong belief that robots are the future, and teaches the kids about the types of jobs robots have, like helping out at a grocery store, rescuing trapped animals during a flood, collecting comet dust samples, and exploring volcanoes on Mars. She even rebuilds Jet's robot clone, Jet 2, at the end of the episode and makes him into a Do-Anything Robot. Now that is awesome.
• Gretchen Grundler from Recess. Being the Smart Girl of the group, she's easily able to construct gadgets and devices if the need for them arises.
  Gretchen: Oh, you could make lots of devices out of the spare parts out of your family's garage. Why, I once fashioned a particle accelerator out of a broken hair dryer and a four slice toaster oven.
• The Geek from Sam & Max: Freelance Police fits the original mold perfectly, as a young genius girl who built a gigantic robot Max in her underground lair.
• In The Secret World of Santa Claus, Jordi always comes up with new toys and gadgets for Santa. They often malfunction, but they are also often a great help.
• Handy in The Smurfs (1981) is capable of making all sorts of advanced machinery like harvesting machines, telephone lines, a fire pump, and even a robot in the Middle Ages.
• The Spectacular Spider-Man has two:
  • Adrian Toomes is the inventor of the Magnetic Air Transport System, a suit of flight-capable Powered Armor that he uses as the Supervillain Vulture to antagonize Norman Osborn for stealing his designs.
  • Chameleon's henchman Mason (aka, the Tinkerer) is responsible for developing all the Shoe Phone technology the Chameleon needs for his work as a Master of Disguise.
• In Spicy City, M&G technician Otaku uses his technological skills to extract the consciousness of prostitutes, and program them into being complacent as virtual sex programs.
• Sandy Cheeks from SpongeBob SquarePants is an accomplished inventor, especially in the later seasons.
• Crowbar from StarCom: The U.S. Space Force is a whiz with machines, and some episodes have him cobble together devices to solve the problem of the week, such as jury-rigging a force field generator to protect StarCom's vehicles from the effects of an EMP.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks, being part of Star Trek, has plenty of gadgeteer geniuses and Science Heroes, including main characters D'Vana Tendi and engineering officer Sam Rutherford.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In "Mystery of a Thousand Moons", Anakin and Obi-Wan meet a teenager named Jaybo Hood, who has reprogrammed a lot of abandoned battle droids to serve him.
• Gear from Static Shock, who initially thinks that his power is rather lame: "How am I supposed to fight supervillains, think them into submission? All I can be is your Mega-Mechanic." Which turns out to be a great way to fight supervillains.
• Steven Universe:
  • Pearl at one point builds a nearly fully functional spaceship out of a bunch of junk Greg has lying in storage. Later on, she manages to repair an escape pod five thousand years more advanced than anything she's worked with before, and figures out how to use it to track Warp Pad usage.
  • Peridot is also a major one, considering her role in Gem society is to be a technician/engineer.
• 'Strawberry Shortcake'':
  • T.N. Honey from the original 1980s series is shown to be rather skilled with machines, which comes in handy when she quickly repairs Strawberry’s oven after the Purple Pieman sabotaged it.
  • Ginger Snap from the Classic series is known for having a ton of gadgets and tools that she invented herself, being Strawberryland’s resident inventor.
  • Lemon Meringue in Berry In The Big City is a talented inventor and mechanic, usually seen performing maintenance on her and Lime Chiffon’s juice cart. Dozens of her inventions have been shown off across the series, including a robotic duplicate of Strawberry Shortcake and a Spider Tank that can retract into a small carrying case. Her “Lemon-ventions” do have a random tendency to explode, though.
• Kani on Sushi Pack fits the bill, although others have tried to steal credit for her inventions on occasion.
• Razor from SWAT Kats is the primary force behind the eponymous duo's technology (though T-Bone occasionally demonstrates that he's no slouch at least when it comes to engines), and thus they make military salvage into a working supersonic jet that's armed to the teeth with all kinds of unique missiles. His knowledge has limits, however, as demonstrated in the last episode, when he despairs over fixing a broken radar jammer.
  • Dr. Greenbox of the same series is another example, shown to be a brilliant scientist. In "Chaos in Crystal", he create a prototype mining machine that, somehow, when tampered with by Rex Shard, turns him into a crystalline monster. In the episode "Unlikely Alloys", he invents a special "micro-repair" unit that fix any mechanical or electronic object.
• Donatello from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Considering that he's self taught, living in a sewer, and working mostly with scavanged junk, his inventing abilities are downright super-reptilian.
• Wheeljack, from The Transformers. He created the Dinobots and helped build the Aerialbots, and while some of his inventions don't quite work out in the explode-y sense, his fuel pump is in the right place. He also invents lots of useful things, like the Immobilizer, which works great until it blows up, and the Negavator, which works great until it blows up, and a bomb, which is supposed to blow up, so it definitely works great.
• Wakfu's Nox, a brilliant (if unsuccessful) clockmaker, had a bit of this going on before he went utterly crazy. And then he went on to prove just how scary an evil Gadgeteer Genius could be.
• What's New, Scooby-Doo?:
  • Velma Dinkley produces a number of remarkably sophisticated pieces of equipment in her spare time.
  • Fred makes a few minor modifications to the Mystery Machine, such as equipping it to transform into a submarine at the press of a button.
• Wild Kratts has Aviva Corcovado, The Smart Girl who is responsible for the creations of the Creature Power Suits, as well as many other useful creature-inspired inventions. Her arch-rival, Zach Varmitech, is a downplayed variant, since his Zachbots are used more for Mundane Utilities.
• Tobey from WordGirl is a 10-year-old kid who, in his spare time, builds giant robots to do his bidding.
• Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! had the pink Tomboy Widget, who tackles problems she (or at least one of her three friends) faces by building machines. They often backfire, but once in a while they actually work.