Inanimate Insanity
Concept art for the season 3 newcomers.
What Could Have Been In this series.- Before the show’s voting system was switched to viewer votes, the final 3 would have consisted of Balloon, Salt, and Knife, none of whom made it past the merge.
- For the recommended character contest from early on in Season 1, the other contenders who could've made it in were Teddy Bear, Dictionary, and Spikey Mervert. Teddy Bear could have added drama, Dictionary could have provided some smart jokes, and Spikey Mervert was special in his own way. The decision was slowly moving in favor of Teddy Bear, but Apple ultimately joined the show because of her innocent, forgetful personality, which made her more relatable and likable according to Taylor.
- Pepper was originally going to be Killed Off for Real in the Season 1 finale, with Salt and Pepper getting into a fight and Pepper getting hit by something, but Salt would have been the only one who cared about her death. This idea was scrapped because it was distasteful and unnecessary, as the creators figured nobody would care if Pepper was killed off, and even if her death gave Salt more to do, the creators didn't want her in Season 2.
- Several characters were created as newbies for Season 2, only for them to be scrapped. They are:
- Chip: A french fry with a British accent. He hated being called "French Fry" and insisted on being referred to as "Chip" instead. Taylor thought he was a ripoff of Needle from Battle for Dream Island.
- Hot Sauce: Only spoke Spanish and would've been something of a ladies' man.
- Game Boy Color: An old-timer who complained about everything "new". He would've had a similar appearance to BMO.
- Pearl: A Spoiled Brat who wanted to be treated like royalty. According to Taylor, her voice would’ve been similar to that of Lumpy Space Princess.
- Frank: A hot dog, his name was short for "Frankfurter". He behaved much like a New Yorker and was very close to making it in, as Derek Napolitano was given the option to voice either him or Cherries, though in the end he picked Cherries and Frank did not make it in.
- Goggles and Textbook: Beta versions of Test Tube. Textbook snorted and was snobby, but looked too similar to Book. Goggles was rejected because the creators had trouble designing him.
- Hay Bale: A proud Westerner. She was going to be a team captain alongside Lightbulb, but was removed to make room for more female newbies.
- The Infinity timeline characters could have been knockoffs of the regular II 2 contestants. One such character who ultimately didn't make the cut was Yarn, a Soap knockoff with a knitting obsession. There was also going to be a Fan knockoff that simultaneously made fun of a particular member of the fandom, but the creators quickly realized that would be problematic, so he was scrapped.
- The Patreon-exclusive Inanimate Podcast reveals that just like Season 2, Invitational had several newbies who were scrapped:
- Magnet: A girl everyone was attracted to, despite the fact that she was pretty rude. She was described as having a similar energy to Regina George from Mean Girls.
- Crystal Ball: Could see the future, making everyone want them on their team, but that was also the only reason anyone liked them.
- Door and Doorstop: A duo mostly intended as a joke, who had been rivals for years.
- Onion: A hillbilly who constantly made himself cry but was too masculine to let it show.
- Shades: "Aloof beyond belief", similar to Frank above, but taken to the extreme.
- Umbrella: Was constantly squished up and uncomfortable, since she didn't want to risk giving herself or her teammates bad luck by opening.
- Music Box: A friendly character who only spoke in music.
- In a drawing and Q&A stream
, Taylor Grodin revealed that if Tissues had stayed in the show, new symptoms would've been added to his "condishawn" for every episode, some of which may have even ended up being beneficial to him in terms of challenges. - Concept art◊ revealed several differences in character designs for season 3:
- Goo originally had arms.
- Clover's face was going to only cover her top 2 leaves, but was decided against for being "too lanky".
- Candle was supposed to be armless
- Cabby was supposed to be white, and her face drawer could open up.
- Candle was planned to be a jar candle complete with lid.
- Silver was supposed to wear a tie, or have a simpler asset.
- Tea Kettle was supposed to have a simpler design on her.
- Paintbrush was supposed to have a rounded out shape on their new design.
