"Collect Her" is the third episode of Season 2, and the 27th episode overall.
It premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States on July 23, 1999.
Synopsis[]
A comic book geek named Lenny Baxter goes too far to complete his superhero collection when he traps the girls inside his power packages. Now, it's up to the people of Townsville to save the day.
Plot[]
"Comic book geek" Lenny Baxter is a huge Powerpuff Girls fanboy, having amassed an impressive array of Powerpuff merchandise. He comes home one day after making his latest purchase, a poseable Blossom doll, and catalogs the purchase in his computer, but finds that, to his shock, his collection is complete. Despite this, Lenny is still unsatisfied with his work and sneaks into the Powerpuff Girls' home to steal their own belongings. He makes off with Bubbles' artwork, crayons, and Octi doll, a side of beef with which Buttercup exercises, Blossom's hair clip, a photograph of the Professor and the girls, and the girls' hotline. When the girls discover their items are missing, they blame each other for the thefts, and a quarrel ensues. Meanwhile, Lenny, still feeling he has not yet completed his collection, decides to go to extreme measures and "collect" the girls themselves. During their patrol flight, Lenny fakes a distress call to lure them to his apartment, where they are bewildered over the collection of merchandise in their likeness. Suddenly, Lenny appears and offers to introduce them into his collection permanently, before he seals the girls inside his "power packages". The girls let out a scream, alerting the Professor.
Alarmed, he rushes to the Mayor's office to report they are missing, and the Mayor calls an emergency assembly of the citizens of Townsville to the town square to help. After a quick assessment of the people, the Mayor deduces that Lenny Baxter is behind the girls' recent disappearance and the citizens of Townsville angrily march to Lenny's apartment to confront him. Lenny overhears their chanting and locks his apartment to prevent them from entering, but they break down the door and surround him.
When a child finds a trilingual talking Blossom doll that had previously been discontinued, Lenny reveals he had bought every last one and kept them unopened to retain their collectors' worth, which would decrease dramatically upon opening. The Professor takes note of this and has a group of children open the merchandise to pressure a horrified Lenny into setting the girls free. When he refuses, more merchandise is opened, and he collapses. The Professor explains to Lenny that despite having collected virtually everything related to the Powerpuff Girls, he has no "true fandom" as he tried to keep the girls to himself rather than let them continue as they are. With his collection and its value severely desecrated, Lenny reluctantly tells the Professor where the girls are and he frees them from the packages, much to the delight of the Townsville citizens. Defeated and having lost his entire collection, Baxter is taken to jail for his deed and the narrator proclaims that, for the first time, it was the Townsville citizens who saved the day.
Quotes[]
- Buttercup: (angry) You stole my side of beef!
- Bubbles: (angry) I did not! I'm a vegetarian! Besides, you took my drawing!
- Blossom: (brushing her hair) Geez, is that all you two do?! Just blame one another for everything?! (puts her hairbrush down and looks around dresser) (gets angry) Alright, which one of you took my hairclip!?
- Mayor: Uh…well…then the only other person it could be is…Lenny Baxter, the Comic Book Geek! GET HIM!!!
- Lenny: Huh, duh! Hello! (knocking on kid’s head) Earth to kid! (Close-up of him, panning slowly to the box.) Toys are not for playing with; they are an investment, and opening the container of said item would dramatically decrease its collector’s value!
- Professor: You mean like— (Cut to him, hand poised on the box top) this?
Allusions[]
- The Simpsons - The villain Lenny Baxter was based on the Comic Book Guy.
- Craig McCracken is a fan of The Simpsons.
Trivia[]
- Many items of Powerpuff merchandise featured in the episode were later produced and sold.
- When the Mayor is taking a "roll call" of Townsville's citizens to try and determine by process of elimination who is missing (and therefore, the girls' abductor), one of the names he calls is "Genndy McCracken," a combination of the first name of the show's animation director (Genndy Tartakovsky) and the last name if its creator (Craig McCracken).
- This episode was based on the Stephen King novel, Misery, which was adapted to a film directed by Rob Reiner and starring James Caan and Kathy Bates nine years earlier.
- Although this is Lenny Baxter's first and only major appearance, he also used to appear on Cartoon Network's Cartoon Cartoon Fridays.
- This is the third episode where the girls don't save the day, first being "Telephonies" and second being "Just Another Manic Mojo".
- This is one of the few episodes which ends with the narrator saying his catchphrase differently, and the first episode to have the citizens of Townsville save the day. This happens again in "Too Pooped to Puff".
- Lenny Baxter can be seen in the opening sequence.
- Ms. Mojo ranked this as the #6 darkest episode of The Powerpuff Girls.
- When Professor Utonium tells Suzy to "open" one of the toys, the toy she ripped out has Japanese texts containing Blossom's name and a giant pink one.
Errors[]
- When Blossom hears Lenny's cry for help and says "Someone’s in trouble!", her mouth isn't moving.
- Bubbles claims that she's a vegetarian but she is shown eating meat in other episodes such as "Child Fearing" where she gave a taste to Mojo Jojo's shrimp, "Reeking Havoc" where she tasted Professor Utonium's Chili, "Oops, I Did It Again" where she eats a Sloppy Joe, "Not So Awesome Blossom" where she is holding a hot dog, "Slave the Day" where she has meat on her plate, and "Beat Your Greens" where she helped eat the Broccoloids (which are living sentient beings and are thus considered meat). It's possible that she changed her diet.
- When the girls were trapped by Lenny, the order of them on the shelf is: Blossom, Buttercup, Bubbles. But when Lenny tells the Professor where the girls are and he sees them, the order is: Bubbles, Blossom, Buttercup.
- When the camera pans up to the girls trapped on the shelf, the inside of Blossom's mouth is white. It returns to normal in the close-up shot.
- When Lenny snatches the limited-edition, trilingual talking Blossom doll from the kid, his ponytail is missing.