This is a list of characters from the Nickelodeon animated series My Life as a Teenage Robot.
Contents |
Jennifer "Jenny" Wakeman (XJ-9) (voiced by Janice Kawaye) is the main protagonist and the "16-year-old robot" to which the title refers, a state-of-the-art gynoid automaton created by Dr. Noreen Wakeman five years prior to the series, though she was designed as a 16-year-old girl. Though XJ-9 was designed to be Earth's protector, armed to the teeth with a wide range of weapons, devices, and transformations, she desires to live the life of a normal teenager and often makes this desire quite apparent to her friends and creator.
Jenny's personality is often friendly and optimistic, though this also comes with being rather naive as to her surroundings. Often, people like the Crust Cousins and Vexus take advantage of Jenny's friendliness to further their own goals, though she usually catches on and comes out victorious in the end. Jenny can also be somewhat of a sucker for trends, even when her mechanical designs prevent her from using them, as evidenced when she wanted to pierce her ears at one point despite not having any ears (Ear No Evil). Though capable of human emotions and possessing fully functional tear ducts, Jenny does not seem to possess the ability to dream or experience physical sensations; though there were two episode segments where she received those abilities, in the case of the sense of touch it caused more harm than good and was removed by the end of the episode. She is also able to speak Japanese through a language OS (in actuality it's because her voice actress, Janice Kawaye, is of Japanese descent and can speak fluent Japanese)
Bradley Carbunkle (voiced by Chad Doreck) is Jenny's best friend and next-door neighbor. He's usually seen as outgoing and adventurous, and is the first actual friend Jenny ever made. Although he usually tends to cause more trouble than he prevents, he means well and tries to help Jenny in any way he can.
Brad likes to think of himself as a "ladies' man", but he's almost anything but that, as seen when the local girls reject all his pick-up lines and it is rare for a girl to like him, but in more episodes, he begins to like Melody, then lost her after she was revealed to be a robot herself.
Brad's little brother, Tucker Cornelius Carbunkle (voiced by Audrey Wasilewski, later by Jess Harnell), is usually tagging along with his brother and Jenny, though his aptitude for adventure is significantly less than Brad's. This can be chalked up to his many childish fears, among them the dark and giant wheels. In spite of all his fears, after adventures or life threatening experiences, he will often shout "That was awesome!" and talk about what happened. Despite initial fears of Jenny, Tuck has since warmed up to her as a friend.
Tuck has proven to be more clever than he looks on several occasions, often sweet-talking Jenny and others into doing favors.
Dr. Noreen "Nora" Wakeman (voiced by Candi Milo) is an elderly spinster robotics scientist and the one who built Jenny, who often simply refers to her as "Mother" or "Mom" Though Nora does indeed love her "daughter", she'll often butt into her personal life and is known to call on her at the most awkward moments. Nora seems to be a sort of stereotypical embarrassing parent. She also has a difficult time with modern-day slang and other teenage fads, earning Jenny's annoyance on many occasions. At the beginning of the series, Nora originally insisted on Jenny's existence being kept a secret, restricting her to her bedroom outside of her superhero activities, but she quickly allows her some more freedom, allowing her to socialize with human teenagers and go to public high school.
In one episode it is revealed that Dr. Wakeman has a sister "Wisteria" whom she argues with every time they meet. Aunt Wisteria believes in "fun, peace, and love" and has a strange ability to either accelerate plant life or control it. When Glenn (Wisteria's plant-like son) and Jenny staged a fight, forcing Dr. Wakeman and Wisteria to move past their differences and, for a short time, became friends.
Despite being only human, Nora shows no reluctance in fighting when necessary. In her youth, Nora was a shining officer of the global defense group "The Skyway Patrol" before retiring to Tremorton. Even in her advanced years, Nora is still very able, and can even hold her own in a fight against Vexus.
She has a noticeable habit of pronouncing a one syllable word as two, most notably her pronunciation of the word nine as ny-ine.
It was revealed she was a prodigy. Making her first defense droid when she was 14. Then remodeling it for show business.
It's revealed in "Good Old Sheldon" she uses a special machine to lower her age but due to power restraints no noticeable difference can be seen.
Though not as heavily featured as the rest of the main cast, Sheldon Oswald Lee (voiced by Quinton Flynn) arguably qualifies as a core member of the group. Sheldon is Jenny's self-proclaimed romantic admirer. However, no matter what he tries, Jenny still refuses his romantic advances, though she does care for him as a friend.
Being skilled in robotics, Sheldon has created gadgets and modifications for Jenny, usually very unnecessarily bulky and extravagant, as well as doing minor repair work. He has even done more extreme modifications when requested by XJ9, usually when Dr. Wakeman refuses to do them herself.
His skill has led to his creating a robotic alter-ego, The Silver Shell. Sheldon originally created the identity in an attempt to convince Jenny that robot boys were jerks, though this backfired when Jenny's affection for the robot grew even greater. As a hero, the Silver Shell has an imposing appearance, and a 'smooth' demeanor, and an excess of confidence, all qualities the human Sheldon lacks in his normal guise.
Although his age in the series is confirmed to be 15, a mishap in the space-time continuum caused him to live 75 years in space, doing odd jobs to earn money, and even captaining a space pirate ship. Due to the theory of relativity, he returns to Earth as an old man, while Jenny and the others haven't aged a day. Using Wakeman's age reverser, Jenny accidentally de-ages him into an infant. His space pirate crew returns and takes him into space to age him further. One day later he is 15 again. Therefore, his true age is about 105.
In an interview with Rob Renzetti, he revealed that he and his team would've loved to see Sheldon and Jenny as a couple before the series' premature cancellation.[1]
Princess Vega (Voiced by Golden Globe-nominee Thora Birch) Vega was the princess and now is the current queen of The Cluster and estranged daughter of the former Queen Vexus. She had befriended fugitive Jenny, after Jenny was able to escape out of Vexus' clutches. She and Jenny are similar as she is also a teenager and has robot friends that look just like Jenny's friends. Originally Vega generally was unaware of her mother's evilness and believed her when she framed X-J9 for stealing all of the golden computer chips. However after discovering that all the computer chips were actually in her palace she realized that Vexus was behind the whole thing. She and Jenny both fought her and got her to admit the crime, Vexus was later dethroned as queen and Vega took over. She asked Jenny to stay in Cluster Prime, but Jenny claimed that she belonged on Earth. Vega understood, but she wanted Jenny to come visit her sometime; Jenny happily promised to do that when she could.
Misty (Voiced by Audrey Wasilewski): Misty (formally known as Mist-ery) Jenny's on-and-off again friend. She is a mercenary who is skilled in martial arts, has super-strength, can fly, turn into purple mist and control people's minds (hence her name), and can shoot laser beams. She enjoys meditating with incense and hanging out. She was formally a member of Teen Team, a group of teenage aliens who work as superheros, which Jenny temporarily joined, however when they had to leave to another galaxy, Jenny chose to stay in Tremorton. While the other teammates made fun of her for that, Misty was the only who supported her. Misty appeared again in which she was working solo after Team Teen broke up, she and Jenny started hanging out and she enrolled in Tremorton High, though she made enemies with the Crust Cousins and they began an out-of-control prank war that Misty got expelled for after. Misty later returned in Mist Opportunities in which she came back to Tremorton after meditating in New Jersey. She took over Jenny's superhero shift, making Jenny happy because she could be a normal teenager. However, Jenny was becoming weak due to lack of training and she was later shocked to find out that Misty was not helping the town anymore. Misty said it was because they refused to pay her anymore, which showed her true intentions that she was a hero-for-hire. Jenny later told her to leave which led to a vicious fight between them. Misty later flew away disgusted and never returned.
Melody (Voiced by Sandy Fox): Melody is an android with an exoskin which makes her look like a normal teenage girl (Similar to when Jenny wore synthoskin). Melody is sweet and polite girl who falls in love with Brad. Melody was created by a mad scientist whom is also her father. When Brad fell into a hole which was a secret passage to a mad scientist's lab he ran into Melody who wanted to show him to her father, after he found out Brad knew X-J9 he wanted to use Brad as bait to lure Jenny there. Melody had secretly helped Brad and Jenny escape, which revealed she too is a robot. Melody later appeared in season 3 after running away from her father, she and Brad start dating much to Jenny's dismay, Jenny thinks Melody is up to something, though Jenny is actually jealous. Jenny later slaps Melody and accuses her of trying to take over the town, Melody becomes angry and punches Jenny, which leads to another vicious catfight, in which it is revealed Melody is much more powerful than Jenny is (presumably due to her father equipping her with Jenny's weapon systems) and nearly kills her however she stops after seeing that everyone is afraid of her including Brad, she flies away crying and is never seen again.
Created by Dr. Wakeman about twenty years before Jenny, Armageddroid (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) was, for its time, the most advanced and powerful robot ever created. He is the size of a city block and possesses an arsenal of weapons, all of which to serve his programmed duty of disarming and destroying enemy weaponry.
Armageddroid was built during a major war between Skyway Patrol and a massive invasion of various alien attackers. Unfortunately, after the alien attackers were deflected, Armageddroid, being unable to discern friend from foe, began to destroy Earth's own weaponry out of a righteous crusade. In the end, Dr. Wakeman managed to convince her creation that the ultimate weapon was hidden at the core of the planet and he dug himself down through Earth's crust. He fell for it, and Armageddroid was supposedly gone forever.
Twenty years later he returned to the surface, apparently having ascertained that there were, in fact, no weapons at Earth's core. He was soon confronted by Jenny, but he easily overpowered his "little sister". Thankfully, in his restless search for weapons to destroy, Dr. Wakeman and Jenny managed to trick him into ingesting a proton bomb into his internal melting oven and he exploded.
Later, Armageddroid returned, having been rebuilt by the diminutive Killgore in a joint-effort towards revenge on Jenny (though it was never revealed how it was even possible for Killgore to have done that). Once again, Jenny proved that Armageddroid's worst enemy was himself, as she convinced him that he himself was a weapon. With no clue as to self-preservation or irony, Armageddroid literally tore himself apart upon hearing those words.
To fans, he's sometimes referred to as XJ-0, due to the fact the XJ series was made to replace him.
A pint-sized terror with a mammoth ego; he is actually a 10½ inch tall wind-up toy who will wind down and stop functioning unless his key is turned regularly. While he considers himself an evil overlord (possibly because a card bearing the word villain is tied to his diminutive frame) most people, especially girls, find his tiny form and protestations of his terrible evil endearing. Unfortunately, he is capable of almost anything to show he really is dangerous, including reconstructing Armagedroid to do his bidding. He uses a mental attack on his enemy (Repeatedly saying "surrender!" over at inconvenient and unusual places). He is also the only being to "defeat" Jenny by driving her crazy. (Voiced by Tara Strong)
A cunning and cruel robot queen, Vexus (voiced by Eartha Kitt) is bent on the enslavement of the human race. She is the main antagonist of the series. A sneaky android, photographer in "Hostile Makeover", the robot nurse Vee in "Tradeshow Showdown", the flirtatious teenage robot QT2 (pronounced "Cutie 2") in "Designing Women",and even the transfer student Vicky in "Queen Bee". Vexus was enemies with Dr. Wakeman. First appearing in "Hostile Makeover", Vexus infected Jenny with a nanobot, "slowly changing her from within, into a... monster "A HIDEOUS MONSTER!" Her plan is foiled when Wakeman manages to short-circuit her creation and remove the nanobot. She later showed up in "Tradeshow Showdown" where she assimilated all the robots in the convention, only for Jenny to deactivate her whole new army. Eventually, in "Designing Women", Vexus grew tired of Jenny always defeating her drones with the seemingly endless gadgets she can pull out at will. In disguise as "QT2" (as mentioned before), Vexus coaxed Sheldon out of Jenny's master blueprints (which he originally stole to find the way to her heart). Vexus nearly had Jenny beat, now able to calculate her every move, but some quick thinking outside the box left Jenny the victor in the end.
Finally, in the TV movie "Escape from Cluster Prime", Vexus attempts to bring Jenny into the Cluster on the tricentennial of Tremorton. When the fight is over, Vexus escaped via teleporter on her hovercraft. After the townsfolk shun Jenny for the damage to the town and the ruined festivities, Jenny is left to clean up the mess, and she accidentally stumbles through the Cluster portal, landing in her enemies' home planet. Completely unaware of this turn of events, Vexus finally loses patience and pulls a full-scale invasion of Earth. During Jenny's time on Cluster Prime, she realizes that Vexus has been lying to her people. There, the robot XJ-9 has been painted as the barbaric android who stole the planet's supply of golden computer chips (the part that functions their weapons systems), when it was really Vexus who was guilty of the crime (however, comically because of the barbaric overtones in her poster, no one on Cluster Prime even realized she was XJ-9). In the end, Vexus was overthrown, and it is assumed her benevolent daughter, Princess Vega, took the throne. However, Vexus appears again in "Trash Talk" and "Queen Bee", repeatedly attempting to exact her revenge of Jenny for her loss of power. However, Vexus was clearly starting to lose control of her mind; as she had created a spaceship for escape that could only contain a hamster. Later, Vexus returns to Tremorton and pretends to be "Violet" at Tremorton High, but Jenny was able to recognize her without having to remove her disguise. The Crust Cousins run into Vexus, and take her with them so that she could learn slang. On the next day, Brit & Tiff introduce Vexus as "Vicky", and she was able to beat Jenny in "fitting in and being popular". However, Vexus (disguised as "Vicky") was becoming even more popular than the Crust Cousins themselves. She had nearly defeated Jenny by using disruptors placed around the school by Brit & Tiff. The Crusts had no other choice but to remove the devices they had planted earlier, so they wouldn't "remain as social outcasts". Vexus is left buried in a pile of ice cubes, but she was no longer popular when Jenny told the students that their "queen was two thousand years old". Despite being unpopular, Vexus is still alive, which means that she is not officially defeated in the series.
Commander Smytus made his first appearance in "Dressed to Kill" where an accident on his ship caused him to lose a case of super-powered Pip-Crystals; the crystals landed on Earth, especially on the dresses Brit and Tiff Krust were examining for the upcoming prom. With the Krust cousins in control of the crystals, Smytus quickly lost and was shrunk to the size of a beetle (it is unknown how he later returned to normal). The fight over the Pip-Crystals ended with Jenny cleverly showed the Krust cousins an article deeming crystals out of style, and the crystal-covered gowns were locked away. Later, Smytus managed to catch Jenny in a trap and then assimilate her into the Cluster, an act that sent out a distress signal which automatically reactivated prototypes XJ-1 through -8. Smytus managed to assimilate the second through eighth prototype XJ robot before XJ-1 inadvertently brought Jenny back to her senses by throwing motor oil up on her face.
In "Escape from Cluster Prime", when Vexus launched her invasion on the Earth, Smytus was put in charge of enslaving everybody on Earth and putting them to work building more robots for their army. When Brad and Tuck rounded up a mini coup to force the Cluster to leave, Smytus set to detonate Earth instead. Once Jenny had left Cluster Prime free of Vexus and with their golden computer chips returned, she came back to save Earth from being blown up. In a last resort, however, Smytus set himself to self destruct, but Jenny evacuated his ship of all her friend and allies, and then she tossed Smytus' ship deep into space where the resulting explosion wouldn't harm her home world. Smytus somehow survived his own detonation and appeared again, along with Vexus and Krackus, on a garbage asteroid. When Jenny happened upon that asteroid in "Trash Talk", Vexus planned to drain her of her energy, but the three got into an argument over how to use it.
Krackus is a crackpot inventor of the Cluster and seen as a joke, even by his own race, as his creations are known for falling apart. His first appearance was in "Around the World in Eighty Pieces", though Jenny had obviously dealt with him before, as the dialogue suggests. In this episode, Krackus appears to be rather absent-minded, as he continues to forget Jenny's name. However, he actually manages to do something productive for the Cluster in this episode: cause Jenny to literally fall to pieces and scatter her pieces across the world; only her head and hands were rescued from the scattering by Brad, Tuck, and Sheldon. Krackus planned on hailing Vexus immediately to summon an invasion, but his communicator fell apart as he tried to call her. Jenny managed to gather up all her pieces before Krackus fixed his communicator except a critical part that held her together, but she and her friends manage to fool Vexus and Krackus with some clever thinking, and the queen angrily pulled the inventor back to Cluster Prime before either could become the wiser. Krackus was onboard Smytus' ship when he detonated in "Escape from Cluster Prime", but he too survived, somehow. He appeared again in "Trash Talk", where he took part in Vexus and Smytus' scheme to drain Jenny's energy.
Tammy is part of Olga's Space Bikers gang. She has (or had) a crush on Brad, as revealed in the episode Ball and Chain, where she tries to force Brad to marry her. During Ball and Chain, she is portrayed as an Ariamiganthrophibian, and is also portrayed as pretty to Brad and Tuck.
One of Dr. Wakeman's lab rats, Mr. Scruffles—or as he has renamed himself, Vladimir. He and his mice are a reference to Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Mr. Scruffles speaks in a distinct Eastern European accent and bears a grudge against the elderly scientist for mutating his and the other lab rats' front paws and tails in Mickey Mouse fashion. He first appears in "Pest Control" where he leads the many rats in a coup d'état of Jenny's body, leaving her disembodied head behind in her bedroom, to destroy Wakeman. Jenny managed to defeat Vladmir and his army (with her head attached to Tuck's r/c race car) by luring them into the swimming pool where the rats' natural instincts forced them to "abandon ship" (Jenny's body). Wakeman kept Vladimir for further experiments while his comrades were taken away by Pest Control. Apparently he is supposed to be Disney's "Mickey Mouse". As you can see at the end,Wakeman makes him wear Mickey Mouse pants.
Vladimir returns in the season three episode "The Legion of Evil" where he forms a group of Jenny's old foes—Lancer, the Mudslinger, and the Mad Hammer Brothers—to exact their revenge on Jenny and steal a priceless Egyptian pillow made entirely of diamond. Their plan is thwarted when Brit and two other students—Jenny's partners for a history project at school—come to her aide. Vladimir sounds a bit different from "Pest Control".
Old colleagues in the robotics industry, Dr. Wakeman and Dr. Mogg have a bitter rivalry that dates way back. Apparently, Mogg has had a history of ripping off Wakeman's experiments, or "perfecting them", as he prefers it. Mogg first appeared in "Tradeshow Showdown" where he insulted Wakeman and is unimpressed with Jenny. However, his attitude changed about her when she defeated Vexus' army, and he later set to work on designing his own version of her. As a result, YK-9, or Kenny as he renames himself, makes his appearance in "Love 'Em or Leash 'Em", designed to be the perfect teenage robot boy, though also to be part dog. When Jenny and Kenny secretly went out, in spite of their respective parents' history, Mogg set out to find his creation and was pointed in the right direction by a jealous Sheldon.
Designed by Dr. Mogg, YK-9 renamed himself Kenneth 'Kenny' Mogg, just as XJ-9 did to Jenny. When they first meet, the two teenage robots immediately take an interest in each other. Kenny proves to be very sweet and loyal to Jenny, including using his powers to make the pizza when the party they attended was nearly ruined by a broken oven. However, Kenny had numerous strange behaviors such as showing affection with his tongue. This, along with his robotic name being YK-9 caused Jenny to realize that her date was part dog (she had a dream that they`d get married and a stork delivers their puppies). Jenny kept going out with him due to how popular being with him made her. Unfortunately, this attracted the jealousy of Sheldon. After several failed attempts to expose the truth about Kenny, Sheldon finally ran into Mogg while the scientist was looking for Kenny, and Mogg dragged Kenny home to be punished. YK-9 was again seen in Agent-00 Sheldon, wherein he was one of the captured robots that was sent to destruction by an evil secret organization.
Brittany "Brit" Crust (Voiced by: Moira Quirk) and Tiffany "Tiff" Crust (Voiced by: Cree Summer), a.k.a. Crust Cousins, are Jenny's classmates. Brit shows stereotypes of the stuck-up rich girl whereas Tiff acts like a street-smart punk-girl. These two are the popular kids in school and will do anything to humiliate Jenny (even getting help from the Mudslinger, a grungy reporter, at one point). They and Jenny are still rivals even though Jenny did saved them at least a couple of times (even without getting a "thank you"). Upon first meeting them, Jenny was eager to be friends with Brit and Tiff and was oblivious to their displeasure towards her, but she soon began seeing them as they truly were and became their biggest rival at Tremorton High. The girls become the main villains in the season one episode "Dressed to Kill" when they harness the power of the Pip Crystals, a highly powerful and dangerous space mineral lost by the Cluster's own Smytus, which were sprinkled all over their prom gowns. The fight over the Pip-Crystals ended when Jenny cleverly showed the Crust cousins an article deeming crystals out of style, and the crystal-covered gowns were locked away.
In another episode, lasting a full 22 minutes ("Victim of Fashion"), Jenny and the Crust Cousins engage in a "down and dirty fashion war" in which Jenny downloads all the latest styles into her transformation data banks to upstage her competition. It was when the Crust Cousins pulled the thin look to counter all of Jenny's "bigger and better" outfits that Jenny had Sheldon remove her weapon systems ("It's better to be fashionable than functional"), ultimately making herself vulnerable to the Space Biker Gang. On the day these events took place, Britt and Tiff had dressed as motor unicycles to "beat [Jenny] at the transformation game," prompting the Space Bikers to use them as their getaway vehicles. It is unknown how and when they were rescued and returned home.
Amidst the many pranks pulled between the Crust Cousins and the newly formed duo of Jenny and Misty, the former member of Teen Team who returns in "Teenage Mutant Ninja Troubles," it is revealed that Brit is afraid of heights, Tiff is afraid of spiders, and both are very afraid of nerds. The cousins play very minor roles in the TV movie Escape from Cluster Prime, siding with whatever side appears to have the upper hand at the time. They get their justice for their flip-flopping "loyalty" when they are caught in the dust fallout from the explosion of the robot factory, ruining their outfits. In the season three episode "Queen Bee," the Crust Cousins help Vexus (disguised as a teenage robot named "Vicky") to become cool at Tremorton High in order to initiate a plan to destroy Jenny under her radar. However, they ultimately save Jenny when Vicky becomes even more popular than them.
(voiced by Candi Milo) is an Asian-American student who hangs out with the Caucasian Pteresa (Candi Milo) and African-American Stephanie (Cree Summer). She, Pteresa and Stephane are divas who hate Jenny. She has long black hair and bangs. She wears two uniforms.
The extremely good-looking teen guy in Tremorton, Donald "Don" Prima (voiced by Quinton Flynn), is considered the most handsomest. He is, however, self-centered and doesn't care about the girls he dates at all, shown when he freaks out about a scuff mark on his shoes than to Jenny's feelings. (Though not necessarily, as he was impressed by Jenny's boom-box feature in Return of the Raggedy Android). He dislikes geeks and nerds such as Sheldon, and often hangs out with the Crust Cousins. His name is a masculine play on "prima donna".
XJ-9 is the ninth robot of the XJ series, meaning she has 8 "sisters," which are actually prototypes. XJ-9 is referred to as the oldest, despite being made last. As the idea of XJ9 was conceived from each of them, she is the oldest in that sense.
The XJ robots make their first appearance in the first season episode, "Sibling Tsunami", and go on to appear in "Sister Sledgehammer", "Agent 00Sheldon" (mostly cameo), and notably "Turncoats." (XJ-8 also appears briefly in "There's No Place Like Home School").
The Skyway Patrol acts as a global defense/ law enforcement group in the series. They are often seen harassing XJ-9 for "unauthorized" aviation. In one episode it is revealed that members of this organization often have to deal with literal mountains of paperwork in order to do virtually anything. This usually makes them more of a nuisance than a help. As a matter of fact, a jealous skyway patrol lieutenant wanted to convince the leader, General Hardscape, to have Jenny permanently shut down, only to succeed in being demoted to private. He kept trying to have Jenny shut down until, in A Spoonful of Mayhem, he succeeded in being fired from the force.