Tinker

Trivia

 * The Tinker's voice actor, Harry "Hal" Robins, also voiced Dr. Isaac Kleiner in Half-Life 2 and the scientists of Black Mesa in Half-Life. Many of Tinker's voice lines reference characters and events from the Half-Life universe. In addition, the name "Violet Plateau" is quite similar to "Black Mesa", and the events described in Tinker's backstory are remarkably similar to the events of Half-Life.
 * Tinker's responses upon killing 's vo_tinker_tink_rare_07.mp3 "Lamarr, is that you?" and vo_tinker_tink_rare_08.mp3 "Lamarr?!" are a reference to Dr. Kleiner's "debeaked" pet headcrab, Hedy Lamarr.
 * Many of Tinker's lines while using come directly from Half-Life 2 including vo_tinker_tink_ability_rearm 09.mp3 "The massless field flux should self-limit" and vo_tinker_tink_ability_rearm_10.mp3 "I've clamped the manifold parameters to… CY base and LG orbifold… Hilbert inclusive".
 * vo_tinker_tink_death_04.mp3 "It's probably not a problem, probably" is also a reference to Dr. Kleiner, who says it in the beginning of Half Life's second chapter right before the equipment he and his team are working on suffers a catastrophical malfunction and causes the alien invasion of Black Mesa.
 * vo_tinker_tink_rare_02.mp3 "With my brains and your brawn, we'll make an excellent team" is also a quote from Dr. Kleiner.


 * The Tinker's alternate/fun name in DotA was "X!!", the name of a professional DotA player.


 * vo_tinker_tink_respawn_08.mp3 "I tink! Therefore I am!" is a reference to the philosophical statement "I think, therefore I am." proposed by René Descartes. Its original Latin words are "Cogito ergo sum."


 * vo_tinker_tink_death_10.mp3 "Tinker, failure…Soldier…Fie…" is a reference to the 1974 spy novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by British author John le Carré about George Smiley (who was played by Gary Oldman in the 2011 film adaptation).


 * vo_tinker_tink_death_08.mp3 "The machine, stops." is a reference to the short story of the same name by E.M. Forster.


 * "Blinded you, with Science!" is a reference to the song She Blinded Me with Science by Thomas Dolby.