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Numberblocks is a British children's CGI-animated TV series running on CBeebies since 2017. The Show teaches children about numeracy, including simple arithmetics. It was created by Joe Elliot, who also created Alphablocks, Colourblocks and Wonderblocks.

The show follows the adventures of cute block characters in Numberland, with the number of blocks determining which numeral they stand for and a tiny black floating number above them to show how many blocks they are made of, which they call a Numberling. When one of the blocks hops on top of another, they transform into a different character to make a new number. It helps toddlers and young kids learn numeracy skills, especially how to count and do simple maths.

See also Alphablocks, another block show created by Joe Elliot that ran between 2010 and 2013 while reruns are still airing, and Colourblocks, another show by Joe Elliot made in 2022.

Numberblocks contains examples of the following tropes:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Inverted, at least in the earlier seasons, as some things like dogs, cats, and trees are noticeably Flash animated compared to the CGI Numberblocks.
• 13 Is Unlucky: Poor Thirteen. He's a minor Butt-Monkey and something bad happens if his name is said in earshot.
• 6 Is 9: In "The Wrong Number", Nine asks One to help him find the thief who stole everything from his apartment. It turns out that he actually went into Six's apartment, but because the number on the door was upside-down, he thought it was his own apartment.
• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: More like Accessory-Wearing Numberblocks.
  • Two wears glasses and glitterly shoes.
  • Three wears a jester hat and buttons which doubles as juggling balls.
  • Five wears a glove.
  • Ten wears two gloves.
  • Eleven wears football shoes.
  • Fourteen wears a skater helmet.
  • Twenty wears shoes, additionally with a cane, bowtie and top hat.
  • Thirty wears a bigger jester hat.
  • Super Rectangles tends to wear shorts and a watch.
  • Most of the Step Squads wear boots and masks.
• Affably Evil: The Terrible Twos are normally Laughably Evil Harmless Villain twos, but in "Peekaboo" they're… nice? Or at the very least, they don't Poke the Poodle like they normally do.
• Ambiguous Situation: Does Seventeen know that pretty much everything he painted in his debut became real?
• Amusing Injuries: More like amusing reaction to an injury. In "Fifteen," Eight breaks his leg and yells "Octoblock, ouch! I've got an octo-boo-boo!"
• And the Adventure Continues: As appropriate for an educational show about numbers. Several season endings encourage the watcher to keep asking questions and learning.
  • Twenty-One's personal gimmick: she goes "on and on".
• Animate Inanimate Object:
  • Times Tables are personified as literal talking tables modelled after a particular Numberblock.
  • "Rockets and Rekenreks" introduces Rex the 10-bead rekenrek abacus, who later in the episode fuses with another one of himself to become a 20-bead rekenrek.
• Art Initiates Life: Seventeen, though he seems oblivious.
• Art Shift: One's Dream Sequence is Cel-Shaded, minus her, contrasted to the traditional CGI.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: In "The Case of the Missing Blocks", Big Tum grows to a big size after the word Big is spelt.
• Born Lucky: Seven is known for having good luck, in reference to the Lucky Seven trope. Fourteen, Twenty-One, and presumably other multiples of seven, are also prone to luck when they split.
• Born Unlucky: Thirteen's our Butt-Monkey, mostly because of what happens when you say his name in earshot.
• Bowdlerise: Happens In-Universe in "Ten Green Bottles".

• Breaking Old Trends: Thirty-Six is the first member of the Step Squads to be male.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Sometimes, a Numberblock will address the viewer during the show.
• The Bus Came Back: Zero returns in "Fifteen's Minute of Fame" after being absent for 25 episodes since her debut episode.
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Triangular numbers are referred to as "Step Squads" in the show, because they are shaped like steps, and they are a squad of consequitive numbers.
• Cartoon Creature: Squarey and Oblongy. They just look like furry rectangles, and are also examples of All Animals Are Dogs.
• Catchphrase:
  • Three: "Look at me!"
  • Four: "Square!"
  • Seven: "That was lucky!"
  • Eight: "Octoblock, [command]! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, [said command]!"/ "Have no fear, Octoblock is here!"
  • Thirteen: "Don't say it!"
  • Fourteen: "Extreme!"
  • Fifteen: "Hush, hush!"
  • Eighteen: "Refreshing!"
  • Twenty-Four: "Super-Duper!"
• Cephalothorax: While any Numberblock can choose an arrangement that makes their entire body essentially a massive face with limbs, some such as the square numbers having it as their Shapeshifter Default Form, One's the only one perpetually stuck as this due to only having the one block. Her eye isn't quite big enough to place her into Oculothorax territory, nor are her limbs small enough relative to her body to qualify her as a Waddling Head.
• Character in the Logo: As seen in the page image, One as the "O" in Numberblocks.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Thirty-One only appeared in his figured-out form in "Figure It Out" and isn't seen nor mentioned again after that.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Each digit^note Except 0, which is represented with total transparency. is associated with a specific color or group of colors: 1 is red, 2 is orange, 3 is yellow, 4 is green, 5 is cyan, 6 is indigo, 7 is violet/rainbow, 8 is magenta, and 9 is (three shades of) gray. Ten is uniquely represented with white (and red borders), and all Numberblocks after that use combinations of those colors, with different shades depending on the place value. For instance, Twenty-Three's color scheme is light orange and yellow, representing 20+3.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Not a comic-book based property, but Fifteen is referred to only by her real name. Averted with Eight, codename Octoblock, but his identity is no secret.
• Counting Song:
  • "10 Numberblobs and Me" has the Numberblocks counting to their number along with a different number of objects (from one bun and one sun to ten pens and ten hens).
  • "Ten Green Bottles" is a song about counting backwards from ten to one.
  • "I Can Count To Twenty", the title says itself.
  • Whenever a new Numberblock is introduced from one to twenty, is there a song. They mostly count in it (but from Twelve to Twenty they do not count as much or maybe don't.)
  • There are many songs about the multiplication tables that list all the numbers up until ten.
• Distressed Dude: In "Octoblock to the Rescue", Eight is captured by the Terrible Twos and suspended over a giant pie. The other Numberblocks rescue him.
• Dream Sequence: In "One Thousand and One", after spending time with Ten and One Hundred trying to imagine numbers bigger than 100, One has a dream where she encounters progressively larger powers of ten, all the way up to One Million.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Eleven can be briefly seen on the sidewalk in one scene of "The Wrong Number", an episode before her proper debut.
• Evil Counterpart: The Terrible Twos are basically naughty versions of Two.
  • Octo-Naughty is a rather hammy example.
• Fingerless Hands: The main characters have little nubs for hands and feet, making their limbs look like sausages. But they do have Invisible Anatomy.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: At the end of "The Legend of Big Tum", Big Tum eats the camera. Somewhat Inverted as this is meant to protect the viewer from the intense blizzard currently happening (the Numberblocks present having requested just beforehand that he eat them since it's warm and safe inside his belly).
• Friendly Tickle Torture: Eight briefly tickles the cast in his debut episode.
  • According to Eight’s backstory, he got his powers after being tickled by a radioactive octopus
• Gender Bender: Some Compound Numberblocks can become this once they figured themselves out.
  • Twenty-Four's figured-out form is female contrast to her all-male Compound form.
  • Twenty-Seven's and Twenty-Eight's figured-out forms are also female while their original Compound forms were male.
  • Thirty-One's figured-out form is male clashing with his original Compound female form.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble:
  • For numbers One to Ten, there are five females (One, Three, Five, Six, and Ten) and five males (Two, Four, Seven, Eight, and Nine).
  • For numbers Eleven to Twenty, there are five females (Eleven, Twelve, Fifteen, Sixteen, and Nineteen) and five males (Thirteen, Fourteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, and Twenty), meaning that from numbers One to Twenty, there are a total of ten females and ten males.
• Gentle Giant: Blockzilla seems big and imposing at first, but is a perfectly sweet creature who just wants to play with others.
• Good All Along: In the "The Wrong Number" it reveals that Six hadn't stolen Nine's stuff, she was moving in, that he'd accidentally step in her appartment.
• Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: Near the end of "Octoblock to the Rescue!", Octonaughty tries to escape from Eight and as he escapes, he stands mid-air next to a cliff until he realizes he doesn't know what's down in the pit and then, he falls into a giant pie.
• "I Am" Song: Numberblocks Zero to Twenty have their own songs displaying who they are and what they do.
  • Additionaly, Fifty and One Hundred have their own, with the former's overlapping with Counting Song and the latter's with "I Am Great!" Song.
• Invisible Anatomy: Seventeen allegedly keeps his brush behind his "ear," Six mentions that her step squad have their "fingers" on buzzers, and Twelve tells the compounds to touch their "toes." The Numberblocks are not drawn with any of these body parts.
• Junior Counterpart: Inverted, as the multiples of 10 up to 1 - 10 (minus Ten) look and act like superior versions of the single digit Numberblocks.
  • Subverted with Ninety, as he has a different ability and personality to Nine.
• Lampshade Hanging: One acknowledges that she is a Cyclops when she says "No, this is my eye."
• Laughably Evil: Octonaughty. Somehow he wouldn't hurt a fly.
• Lucky Seven: Seven considers himself lucky all the time.
• Master of Disguise: Subverted with Fifteen. She calls herself one, but it's an Informed Ability, and she has only been seen using the occasional
• Motor Mouth: Eighteen is prone to this.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Eight and Fifty-Six are heroic examples of this trope.
  • Octo-Naughty is a Downplayed example since he's mostly a Harmless Villain.
• Nearly Normal Animal: The Cat Up a Tree in "Fifteen" is mostly a normal cat, but has human-like facial expressions.
• Noir Episode: "The Wrong Number" is done in this style.
  • "Nine's Time To Shines" suggests that Nines come from this sort of world.
• Non-Ironic Clown: Three is a jester who loves to juggle and entertain, and while she can be a bit of a jerk, she's not malicous.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Fifty-Five is the first multiple of Eleven to not have a Mad Eye.
• Numerological Motif: Several of the Numberblocks have a design and/or interests classically connected to their number:
  • Three is a clown as clowns use 3 juggling balls and there are three points of a jester's cap.
  • Four and Nine love squares since they are square numbers.
  • Five loves stars as they have five points and hands (to give "high fives").
  • Six loves dice as they (typically) have 6 faces.
  • Seven loves rainbow as there are 7 colors of the rainbow and is lucky because of the Lucky Seven trope.
  • Eight is an octopus-themed superhero as octopuses have 8 legs.
  • Ten: Same as five, plus rockets (a ten-second countdown).
  • Eleven: Football (of the European variety).
  • 13 Is Unlucky.
  • Fifteen is a "Super Secret Step Squad" as a reference to her being a triangular number.
  • Twenty-Two: Same as Eleven.
  • Twenty-Four: Like Twelve, she has a watch, and wands with images of the Sun and the Moon referencing that 24 hours is a day .
  • Twenty-Seven's gimmick centers around her being a cube number.
  • Thirty-One loves calendars as a month has 31 days at maximum.
  • Thirty-Two's gimmick is based on powers of two.
  • Sixty-Four's gimmick is similiar to Thirty-Two's, with the addition of technology thanks to her number's use in computing.
• Obliviously Superpowered: Implied. Seventeen doesn't show awareness to his paintings becoming real, despite watching it happen. Hilarity Ensues.
• Official Couple: It's heavily implied One and Two are more than just best friends.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • In "The Numberblocks Express", One and Five get this expression when they realize that the titular train is headed for a dead end.
  • In "Fruit Salad", Three gets this expression when she realizes that her fruit machine has started to malfunction.
• Overt Operative: Fifteen. You wouldn't know it from how she looks around to prevent anyone from hearing her tell you she's a secret agent, but it seems she told everyone anyway. She's called "Agent Fifteen" in Step Squads, meaning they know she's an agent!
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Inverted with Five and Fifty (who are blue females) and Eight and Eighty (who are pink/magenta males).
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The episode "We're Going On A Square Hunt" is exactly one word away from the bestselling 1986 book, We're Going On A Bear Hunt.
• Raiders of the Lost Parody: The episode "Double Trouble" has One (who eventually multiplies into Eight) exploring a cave a la Indiana Jones. Four says "Why did it have to be round things?", Eight makes the Wilhelm Scream, and One of her even has to save her hat from being stuck inside a collapsing temple.
• Real After All: In "How To Count", Three makes up a creature called a "Flapjack Snaffler" to excuse her poor counting skills. However, at the end of the episode when the Numberblocks realize their flapjacks have actually disappeared, the Flapjack Snaffler appears behind them, revealing himself to be real.
• Reality Warper: The What-Iffer is a benevolent and simplified example.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Six constantly speaks in rhyme.
• Rubber Man: Eight has the ability to stretch his limbs really far. So far, his record is nine blocks.
• Rule of Three: Three's debut episode runs on this trope.
• Serial Escalation: Happens per usual Once a Season:
  • Series Two introduces Six, Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten.
  • The latter half of Series Three introduces Numberblocks, Eleven to Fifteen.
  • Series Four introduces the later teens, Twenty, Compond Numberblocks, the multiples of Tens ^note Thirty, Forty, Fifty, Sixty, Seventy, Eighty, Ninty and One Hundred and the multitudes of Ten.
  • And Series Five introduces the Times Tables and the "What-Iffer".
  • Also happens in "Fifteen" when the Step Squad rescues the Cat Up a Tree:

• Series Fauxnale: The show has two instances of this.
  • In "More To Explore" is all about the start of exploring new subjects in mathematics with One saying "Your turn" directly to the camera in the end. But the next season reveals she's actually talking directly to the Numberblobs.
  • In "100 Ways To Leave The Planet" shows all of the Numberblocks leaving Numberland to explore, but it has a continuation via Crossover with the Alphablocks, specials and more seasons.
• Serious Business: In "Double Trouble", the Twos are briefly stopped in their tracks by snakes, only to find out its made of rubber, but they still treat it as dangerous anyway.
• Shapeshifter Default Form: The Numberblocks can take on any form they like so long as their amount of blocks can be arranged into it (which means smaller blocks are more limited and One isn't capable of such), but most tend to stick to one specific arrangement, such as the Squares being in the shape of... squares.
• Shout-Out:
  • In "Three", the episode directly references The Three Little Pigs, The Three Musketeers, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Blind Mice.
  • The episode featuring the Star Block titled "Block Stars" is a long one to Star Wars: A New Hope, including a Trench Run.
  • In "More to Explore", we see a sketch of the Forty-Two, who wears a dressing gown and carries a towel, mimicking Arthur Dent (as a reference to 42 being the answer to life, the universe and everything). In Season 7, his catchphrase turns out to be the quote on the in-universe Guide's cover: "Don't panic!"
  • The episode "Odd Side Story" references the opening act to West Side Story, as well as its title.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Twelve and Eighteen turn out to be siblings, even though they're complete opposites.
• Silly Animal Sound: Sixteen often snorts like a pig.
• Stealth Pun: "The Super Special Secret Step Squads" helps others and solves problems step by step.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Three toward the beginning. The episode "How to Count" is spent watching her miscount just so she can say her name. She gets better about this, but still has her moments.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Fifteen understands the Nearly Normal Animal Cat Up a Tree, even though it can only meow.
• Superhero Origin: Eight acquired his superpowers when he was tickled by a radioactive octopus.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Hilariously subverted in "Team Factor":

• Thinking Up Portals: Forty-Two can do this, but he can't control it.
• Tickle Torture: The Terrible Twos and Terrible Twenties like to tickle other Numberblocks with feathers, which is how they Poke the Poodle.
• Token Evil Teammate: The Terrible Twos are this to the square root squads.
• Totally Radical: Fourteen speaks like this.
• Toyline-Exclusive Character: Thirty-Three, Thirty-Four, Thirty-Seven, Thirty-Eight and Thirty-Nine are currently only present in one of the show's tie-in MathLink Cubes sets.
• The Twelve Spoofs of Christmas: The special episode "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is about One through Twelve putting on a stage play rendition of the titular song. However, the tree used to display all the gifts dosen't account for the returning gifts from past verses, so when they appear, the ones already on the tree get knocked out, causing havoc.
• Two Girls to a Team: Gender-Flipped, as Thirty-Six and Fifty-Five are the only male Step Squads so far.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: The Hundreds after One Hundred all look very much alike their one-percenter counterparts, except every square is replaced by a 10x10 checkerboard. Same for the Thousands, except they're made of 10x10x10 cubes. Subverted and downplayed in that they haven't been stated to be blood family.
• Unknown Character: Pi, who has official artwork but has never physically appeared in an episode.
• Unseen No More: After only being seen as a drawing for 5 years, Forty-Two finally makes his physical debut in "Rescue Racers".
• Unusual Eyebrows:
  • Nineteen's eyebrows are zig-zagged shaped.
  • Twenty-Five's eyebrows are resembles grass blades.
  • Overlapped with Big Ol' Eyebrows, Forty-Eight's eyebrows works like rear highlights of a car.
• Visual Pun: At the end of "Fruit Salad", Three says, "Easy peasy lemon squeezy!" Cue her getting hit in the head by a lemon.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: The Numberblocks are able to shift their blocks around into new shapes. Nineteen's and Twenty-Eight's gimmicks center around this.
• Waddling Head: While One's limbs are fairly proportionate to her body and thus only make her a Cephalothorax, the larger squares only gain marginally larger limbs while their bodies are far larger, making them much closer to this. One-Hundred is perhaps the most notable example.
• Wannabe Secret Agent: Exaggerated for Fifteen, who has a spy lair but can't even stay hidden long enough to be an agent proper.
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Whenever someone is scared, shocked, or freaked out, their pupils shrink.
• Wham Shot: In "The Big One" after One reaches Ninety-Nine, she jumps onto them leaving a cast of a square shadow to reveal it's One Hundred.
• What If?: The whole gimmick of the "What-Iffer", it's in the name.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Four is afraid of round things, demonstrated in episodes like "Octoblock to the Rescue" where he freaks out upon getting trapped in a bubble and in "Eleven" where he can be seen cowering in fear of a football in a few scenes. This fear dosen't seem to apply to living round things, as he gets along rather well with the Numberblobs, the Circle Flatlander, and One Whole.
• You Are Number Six: Almost the WHOLE cast, but it's justified since they are personified numbers.
• Your Size May Vary: Eight's mask tends to change sizes in some scenes, this was fixed in later seasons.