Blinx

Blinx is a young Time Sweeper who is the main protagonist of Blinx: The Time Sweeper and featured as a support character in Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space.

He is the leader of Team Blinx and an exceptionally notable Time Sweeper, having resolved a major incident alone (the B1Q64 incident) and having made a significant contribution to the resolution of another (the Big Crystal incident).

Appearance

In TTS, Blinx has striped red-orange fur that mixes with tannish-white in his ventral areas. He has bright "Xbox green" eyes and wears a large pair of protective goggles on his forehead. He sports a blue, high neck jacket with red pants, along with white steel-toed boots and white gloves. Blinx's outfits can be changed by purchasing clothing sets from various shops in the first game.

In MOTAS, his first jacket is exchanged for a jacket with a sharper style, having a bigger squared collar and no bell. Additionally, it's two-toned, with the torso being bright sky blue and the sleeves and collar a darker shade. During the Time Factory invasion, fabric tears appear on his left sleeve and right pant leg. His goggles have sky blue lenses rather high reflective ones. He gets a large cut on his right cheek after getting swiped by a small rock. This heals after the Big Crystal incident, being absent in the epilogue.

While Blinx appears as an anthropomorphised cat, he is canonically a "fairy of time" and a cat-sith (a fairy creature from Celtic mythology).

Personality

Blinx seems to take out his job very seriously, to the extent of risking his life to accomplish the mission. When he sees someone in need, he has to help them. He has a positive personality and is quick to forget about things that bother him. Blinx often depends on his instincts when acting - when he sets his sights on something, he won't give up. Despite that, his peers see him as laid-back.

He demonstrates a strong sense of commitment and confidence throughout the Big Crystal incident, showing displeasure when called away from the Tom Tom invasion of the Time Factory and insisting that all Sweepers be congratulated for their contributions following the battle at World A000. He’s also a little clumsy despite his courageous and noble demeanour. In one of the MOTAS prize movies, he accidentally breaks the moustache of a bust statue of CEO while cleaning it. He crudely sticks the broken piece back with tape before fleeing.

Role

Prior to the B1Q64 incident, Blinx was a young Sweeper, only having been a Sweeper in training for a short time. He wasn't worried about his low rank but he had some doubts about his abilities as a Sweeper, hence wanting to become fully fledged as soon as possible. He deferred to his team leader and superior Aniki at this time.

At the time of the announcement of World B1Q64's destruction, Blinx was in the Time Factory's corridor, watching the announcement (and eventually the transmission overtaken by the Tom Toms) as the other Sweepers fled World B1Q64. Infatuated with the Tom Tom's hostage, Princess Lena, he runs to the warp gate to World B1Q64 against the Aniki's protests.

Following the clearing of the entire world of time monsters and Tom Toms, culminating in the rescue of an unconscious Princess Lena before returning to the Time Factory amidst many cheering factory workers. Princess Lena wrote a letter detailing her appreciation and used time crystals he had collected to rewind time to her rescue to thank him personally.

However, he does not play a very large role in the sequel. In fact, he is not even playable. However, Blinx does appear in a few cutscenes of the game, assisting the player through some levels, and revealing some facts about the main plot.

By the time of the Big Crystal incident, Blinx had visibly aged, having replaced his jacket with a unique two-toned variety and acquired a new sweeper, the TS-5000 X LV2, a custom model designed either specifically for him or by him, though it was also mass produced and used for training activities for other Sweepers (and the rest of his team).

He had become a widely known and respected Time Sweeper by this point, known by name even by Tom Toms. As such, he was the Sweeper chosen personally by the CEO to travel to the Ruins of Time to investigate damages to the Big Crystal.

Blinx spent the vast majority of his time during the Big Crystal incident at the Ruins of Time and the Destiny Ruins. Though he accomplished nothing of significance at the Ruins of Time, his team found a stone tablet in the future portion (later decoded to reveal the involvement of the Goddesses) and a Big Crystal fragment in the past portion. Blinx's team comprised of the only Sweepers sent to the future portion of the world, though they also located a portal to the past portion, leading to their encounter with Team Eat or Die upon entry (and subsequent retreat following the arrival of the Tom Tom Protagonist's team). Blinx then remained in the Destiny Ruins for the remainder of the incident (later returning to the Ruins of Time), claiming that he wanted to investigate some matter, though he reports nothing during this period.

The Design of Blinx

Who designed Blinx?

Ohshima designed the first specifications of Blinx including the colours, model and motions. Because Ohshima couldn't sufficiently express what cats are like, a female designer in Artoon who is also a cat lover was responsible for developing the feline traits of Blinx.

User Testing

The key art of Blinx with his arms folded was the most popular in user testing, regardless of gender. This may have had an influence on the game cover art for the NTSC-J version of Blinx: The Time Sweeper.

Name Candidates

"NecoJi" was one of many name candidates during his creation, later used for a supporting character in MOTAS.

Early Designs

Trivia

• Blinx was designed by Naoto Ohshima, the same person who designed Sonic the Hedgehog, Doctor Robotnik and NiGHTS.
• Blinx's feline mannerisms were developed with the help of cat lover and female designer Mariko Nanba.
• TTS Blinx was voiced by Naoto Oshima himself.
• In the first game, certain conditions will get Blinx to wear his goggles over his eyes.
• If Blinx is standing in a waterfall or similar body of water.
• Using the TS-2000 Flame Lv.2+.
• Blinx's TTS model is 1m tall.
• The second half of the Japanese TTS manual ("Blinx Memo") further develops Blinx's personality uniquely to the games.
• On the back of the JAP manual for Blinx: The Time Sweeper, there is an image of Blinx's employee ID card. His ID number is 01712.
• The TS-1000 he received upon qualifying as a Time Sweeper is his favourite model. But when he has 2000G, he'll definitely buy the TS-4000.
• All of the drawings done in marker are supposedly drawn by Blinx himself.
• Blinx loves cute girls.
• He seems to have a fondness for piercings if the outfits in TTS are any indication.
• The costumes in-game indicate he has two piercings on his right ear and two on his tail.
• One particular prize art of Blinx wearing punkish clothing depicts Blinx to have five piercings in his left ear, four on his right and one on his lip. In combination with the two on his tail, that's a total of 12 piercings!
• Blinx leads an team size of eight (including himself) as seen in the World 2 versus battle as the Tom Toms. This is double the size of the standard team of four members.
• Unlike most Sweepers, Blinx appears entirely right-handed, never wielding his sweeper left-handed.
• Blinx does not have an armband despite being the leader of his team. However, in commercials Blinx wears a yellow armband and in the prize art, he wears a white band.
• Blinx reminds the CEO of his younger self.
• Blinx's birthday is the same date as the release date of Blinx: The Time Sweeper in Japan.
• In the Perfect Guide, Blinx's motto is to work hard, even if it looks bad.

Gallery

References

Last updated on 14 Jan 2023