Gabby, Stripes, Starla, Darington, Zeg and Watts don’t appear in this episode.
Going by production order, this is the sixteenth episode of the fourth season.
Originally scheduled to air February 22, but was pulled roughly a few days after listing and the PAW Patrol episode “Pups Save The Jungle Penguins/Pups Save A Freighter” aired in its place, due to being pushed there in favor of a President’s Day marathon on the main Nickelodeon channel. It was then listed for May 17 at 1:00 PM, but got pulled again one week before airing and was replaced with a new episode of Ryan's Mystery Playdate.
The episode was digitally released on Nickjr.com and the Nick Jr. app on February 24, 2019, two days after being delayed.
The episode was released on the Ninja Blaze DVD on August 27, 2019, 13 days before airing on Television.
Blackbelt is the third character on the show with a relative introduced after Crusher with Grammy in Rocket Ski Rescue, and Pickle with his whole family in The Pickle Family Campout.
This is the second hearing of Ninjas!, since Ninja Blaze.
Blackbelt uses a flip phone instead of a smartphone, which surpassed the former after 2012, suggesting he was born sometime before that year and still uses one.
But flip phones were not discontinued, and some were brought back around April 2018.
Blackbelt is the second character to use a phone to call someone after Pickle.
This is the first appearance of a dragon since Knighty Knights back in Season 3, and the first time a dragon uses Blazing Speed.
This is only the third episode this season that has a viewer greeting.
Blackbelt is voiced by actor Dempsey Pappion instead of DJ Khaled in this episode, due to Khaled hosting the 2019 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards.
The skunk guards are the same ninja skunks that Blaze encountered in Ninja Blaze.
Grandma Ninja was voiced by Jo Marie Payton Downs, best known for her role of Harriette Winslow on Family Matters.
This has the longest delay from the website upload and the live broadcast.
The episode aired on the same day as the US premiere of the UK show Ricky Zoom. Interestingly, the titular character Ricky bears an uncanny resemblance to Blaze.
The episode also aired air the day after Grandparent's Day in the US.
Running Gags[]
Crusher breaking a piñata, causing gross things to fall on him.
Allusions[]
Goofs[]
Despite being delayed, some cable descriptions list the episode as if it already aired in its would-have-been date.
Google initially erroneously listed the episode to air on March 31 or May 18, 2019.
Errors in the closed-captioning:
The captions list Blackbelt's name as "Black Belt".
When Blaze says "Let's put the suction cups on our tires," the captions say "Let's put the suction cups on out tires."
The term "bighorn" is capitalized.
When AJ says "Over by those purple peppers," the captions say "over by those polka peppers".
Unlike an actual vacuum truck, which has it's hose pointing down, the one Blaze turns into has the hose pointing forward.