| “ |
I live in there! |
” |
| —Greg Universe | ||
Greg's Van is Greg's trademark vehicle from his touring days as a one-man band. It made its debut in "Laser Light Cannon" when Steven was banging on its walls and roof to wake Greg up.
Appearance[]
Greg's van appears to be a white mid-1970's Dodge Tradesman with an elaborate custom paint job; an outer-space mural with asteroids, shooting stars, and planets combined with a purple and white "Mr. Universe" logo and red, orange, and blue stripes.
The interior contains a powerful sound system as shown in "Laser Light Cannon", "Ocean Gem", and "The Return". It is customized with enough hardware to act as a mobile sound studio as revealed in "The Message".
History[]
Acting as the "tour bus" for Greg's one-man band in his youth, it is clear that the van has been around for a long time and is a part of Greg's life. He chooses to live in the van. Steven used to live with Greg (presumably in the van) until Greg and the Gems built the house extension on the temple, as shown in the extended version of "We Are the Crystal Gems".
In the episode "Steven and the Stevens", as his car wash catches on fire, he doesn't attempt to fight the fire, but rather rushes away screaming, "Gotta save the van!" showing that he values its safety in much higher regard than that of his own and his business.
Despite this, the van has been severely damaged or even almost entirely destroyed on several occasions. It is usually fixed by Pearl. The only time he leaves the van is when he lives with Steven for a time in the Beach House and then it was more to live with Steven again than having a real house.
Even after receiving his check in "Drop Beat Dad", he still chooses to live in the van, even though he now has more than enough money to buy a house. This shows that Greg views the van as home no matter how his circumstances change.
In "The Future", Greg moves into the Beach House permanently; it is unknown how he uses the van past this point.
Episode Appearances[]
- "Laser Light Cannon"
- "Cat Fingers"
- "Bubble Buddies" (flashback as parade float)
- "Rose's Room" (cloud)
- "Steven and the Stevens" (mentioned)
- "Ocean Gem"
- "House Guest"
- "Space Race"
- "Watermelon Steven"
- "Winter Forecast"
- "The Message"
- "The Return"
- "Full Disclosure"
- "Story for Steven"
- "Reformed"
- "We Need to Talk"
- "Chille Tid" (mentioned)
- "Keystone Motel"
- "Steven's Birthday"
- "Same Old World"
- "Mr. Greg"
- "Greg the Babysitter"
- "Gem Harvest"
- "Three Gems and a Baby"
- "Steven's Dream"
- "What's Your Problem?"
- "The Question"
- "Escapism"
- "Change Your Mind"
- Steven Universe: The Movie
- "Bluebird"
- "Mr. Universe"
- "Fragments"
- "Everything's Fine" (flashback)
Trivia[]
- Greg's song "Let Me Drive My Van (into Your Heart)" is a reference and tribute to his beloved vehicle.
- Greg has installed a MiniDisc player in the van as mentioned in "Three Gems and a Baby". Also mentioned, this seems to be the cause of the van's heater not working.
- Greg's van has been driven, repaired, and destroyed on multiple occasions and has become something of a recurring gag.
- Pearl drove the van in "Ocean Gem", where the water constructs also destroyed it.
- She repaired it in "House Guest" and "The Message".
- She "borrowed" some parts from it to build a spacecraft in "Space Race", which promptly blew up while attempting to leave the Earth's atmosphere.
- In "The Message", Garnet charged up the van with her electrical powers as Amethyst starts the van with a key.
- In "The Return", Steven slammed his fist on the dashboard of the car, causing the door to break and the passenger airbag to deploy.
- Pearl and Greg are seen fixing the van again in "Reformed".
- In "Mr. Universe", while driving, Steven pulls the steering wheel out, loses control and eventually crushes the van while Greg is still inside.
- Bismuth and Greg are shown trying to repair it in "Fragments".
- Greg's Van acted as a mobile shop for all his merchandise during his musical career.
- He had CDs called "Space Train to the Cosmos", Mr. Universe Shirts, shirts that look like Steven's, and other items packed in the back of the van.
- The license plate is UNIVRS, which is modeled after Greg's last name, "Universe".
- In "The Message", Queen's 1977 album News of the World can be seen inside Greg's van.
- Also, in the SDCC 2015 extended intro, a poster of Queen's 1975 album A Night at the Opera can be seen at the back of Greg's van.
- The interior design of the van is inconsistent from episode to episode throughout the whole series regardless of whether the van was destroyed and rebuilt. Sometimes the interior design drastically changes in different scenes of the same episode.
- The inconsistencies consists of different designs for the door handles at the back of the van, including the panels attached to the back doors either being one large panel on each door or two separate panels consisting of one large and one small above it on each door. The inside of the van contain similar panels on the walls of the van, and they too have the same inconsistency being either drawn as one large panel on each wall, or two panels placed on top of each other on either side of the van's walls. Then there are the handles in the backside of the van whose design switches from either being mounted to the ceiling of the van or the walls of the van.
- Steven Universe: The Movie shows four different interior designs for the van during different scenes in the movie.
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