Ah the memories of dragging my dad on a five hour hunt to every Toys R Us in a forty mile radius to find the short packed villains figures for my beetleborgs to battle. Good times, simpler times. I miss him.
@@faselessnobuddy That's one thing, I never outgrew it, but I did lose my dad in 2012. I like to think he'd enjoy the assortment of dragons, robots, and werewolf toys that seem to populate my house now but all my toy hunting is now done with my spouse
With me, it was Masked Rider and Power Rangers hunts so I could continue to have them cross over. Didn't even know they made the villains from BBBB as figures though! Holy crap! One of my cousins gave me a Nukus from some kids meal so my totally blind since birth 90s kid self could appreciate his look. He's the only one I ever saw/felt in fig form.
I know what you mean. My baby sis was crazy for the Power Rangers. She wanted the whole action figure collection from McDonald's. We spent a good chunk of one Sunday looking for the white ranger.
It wasn’t jay playing flabber Billy Forester did he did ha a jay type chin but not quite as pronounced so they probably enhanced it with prosthetics to give it the more jay leno looking chin flabber had in the series
I remember Jay Leno had a segment at the time where viewers would send in pictures of things that look like him. Somebody sent in a picture of Flabber, and Leno said they were just being cruel at that point.
Its probably why they had a kid in PR Turbo to capitalize on that idea from BB. I hate that didnt use the original footage from the Japanese series for the first two seasons and continue making more seasons, with their production team. Its stated that the viewers were watching BB more than PR Zeo and Turbo, which makes sense because at the time PR outgrew it's cool factor. Bb was refreshing and in a way so I can see why kids were watching it ag the time, hell I did.
I’m actually friends with one of the actors from BBB. Todd Hurst, the actor who played Trip, the rich snobby bully. He was shocked when I told him I used to watch it as a kid. He figured nobody ever saw it. He also played the kid who pukes in the beginning of Adam Sandlers “the wedding singer”.
I remember reading an interview from the early 2000s with a BBB writer who said the writers room enjoyed writing the Hillhurst monsters scenes and didn't really care about the fight scenes.
I was obsessed with the show when I was Jo's age and loved that the girl (like me) got to have super strength. Loved that "Power Rangers Meets Scooby-Doo" vibe
Power rangers meet Scooby-Doo is probably the best description of the show I could possibly think of. I mean the level of cheesiness with the monster segments is off the freaking charts.
If this series had an extended library of stock footage like PR had it would've been a mainstay. 1 thing that it had over PR was relatability. Because the main cast was closer to the age of its core audience. Something tells me that Saban saw this and tried to inject that same appeal in PR Turbo when he introduced a younger member in the form of Justin.
I’m not sure that having the performers/characters being the same age as the target audience has ever actually worked real well? Kids tend to find kids on tv annoying. Their escapist fantasy is to be the older kick ass characters.
I loved beetleborgs when I was a kid, but I rewatched it as an adult and honestly? I was looking forward to the monster antics of the episode more than the actual fighting. They did a pretty good job at making them funny and charismatic, like bulk and skull x10
"After an accident where he turns the kids into ACTUAL beetles..." Oh god, I can't believe I'm about to correct details on a show that's LITERALLY been the bane of my existence since childhood (along with being there during all the bad moments in my life), but they are turned into rats and not beetles during the first episode. The beetles thing doesn't happen until season 2.
@@NavySharkz he was a phasm but basically a genie for all intents and purposes. Stuck in an object, grants a wish when freed, performs magic and such. He's 100% inspired by Aladdin's genie lol it's a fair description
Beetleborgs was weird. One thing that always bugged me, was that during the Shadowborg "arc" they introduced a new, white Beetleborg and he may have been in four episodes and *never* showed up again.
That was because there wasn't much footage of him to use; the Extradimensional Supplier Kabuto was only in 4 episodes, 5 if you count him showing up for the finale of B-Fighter Kabuto. He wasn't a 6th ranger/extra rider character, he was just a very minor support character who kinda was more of a nuisance than a boon; trying to turn him into a new major character wasn't a feasible idea on their part. The other problem was his main weapon was just straight up a revolver, which wasn't going to fly on US television and his appearances in the last two episodes of B-Fighter heavily featured him with the cast of Blue Swat, an unadapted Metal Heroes show B-Fighter's cameos of Blue Swat and Jansperson posed more than a few problems of trying to use the footage in that regard- they snuck in Jansperson and Gun Gibson as characters from a different comic summoned to help them- but that was using footage from the finale to make a middle episode (ie, 52 and 53 becoming episode 19)
@@gtf234 Well that's certainly a valid reason. I seem to remember Beetleborgs hyping the kid up as their version of a "sixth ranger", but then he just vanished after he beat Shadowborg.
Head canon? Josh(white blaster borg) kept his power to turn invisible and is actually in every episode after the shadowborg arc but is just invisibility creeping around.
Once again, another ghost from my childhood can rest, as ToyGalaxy's History vid artfully tells its story, and completes its unfinished business. *beetleborgs bow at Toygalaxy and disappears*
It is weirdly cathartic to watch RUclipsrs talk in depth about the silly and highly entertaining shows you loved as a kid. Gives you a sense of closure and valuation that others liked it and maybe it all means something.
I LOVED Big Bad Beetleborgs.... They were super unique at the time. I was the kid that was OBSESSED with Power Rangers but HATED VR Troopers. Beetleborgs I embraced them with open arms. Especially their action figures, best shiny toys ever 😂
Same here, VR Troopers was just too cut up, it was like the couldn't decide which show they wanted to adapt. I remember thinking Ryan and friends looked like Beetleborgs: The college years, so why couldn't the footage look as good as BBB?
I'm still sad Metal Hero died off while KR and SS continue strong. I was introduced to the series with Jiban, and most of the suits still look awesome today, they are works of art!
Apparently he didn’t mention that there was a forth beetle borg, Josh as the White Blaster Borg. Also there were other characters called Astro Borgs which they summon to aid them.
Somebody mentioned the white borg in the comments. Apparently he basically used a revolver as his main weapon and that would have been a big No-No for TV for kids. Also apparently there was very little footage of him from the original series they were pulling from so he didn't last long as a character on the show. Although apparently at the end of it he "turned invisible" or something like that. Essentially some clever writing to work around the obvious issue.
White borg was also a movie exclusive suit AFAIK, which is why he only exists for the 3-4 episodes with the Shadow Borg. The reason for writing him out was actually really interesting (the hero narratively cannot exist if the villain he exists to fight is vanquished; the comic would "end")
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu No on Beetle Borgs the White Blaster Beetle Borg shot out Ryu style fire balls not a gun. And when he was in his regular normal kid form he could turn his self invisible. Because each kid had a unique power, one was super speed, oe had super strength and one had telekinesis.
Gonna be honest, the idea that someone fed all of Saban's other properties into an AI/ML system and told it to make a new show makes way more sense than anything else.
Seems like every week or so Dan likes to find childhood me and say, “remember that show you loved? Here’s the history.” From M.A.S.K to Gobots to now Beetleborgs, your videos never disappoint. Thank you for your high quality videos as usual.
And as a kid who devoured all of the American Tokusatsu shows I could find, I was very confused to see Shadow Borg on power rangers. I always wanted that crossover.
So wild to learn all of this. As a kid who was way into all of these series at the time, I felt the presence of some strange link between all of the shows but never really understood how it all worked aside from some vague notion of some of the footage being from Japan.
Considering the whole monster/haunted house thing a character granting wishes that turn the main characters into comic book heroes. It's hard to take any of it even remotely seriously for even a split second.
@@redragon1990 I mean did they have footage that would have made that work?! Usually that's the single limiting factor was their footage from original Japanese shows they could splice together to make that work?!
Actually funny describing the Metal Heroes as "Robocop-ish", because according to what we know, the concept for Robocop being a shiny, silver armored hero was inspired by Space Sheriff Gavan. Toei would later reciprocate the inspiration for their two robot detective shows, Kidou Keiji Jiban and Tokusou Robo Janperson, with the creators for both admitting to being heavily inspired by Robocop, especially Jiban which was also in black and silver.
Man I miss the 90s. Such a simpler time, sure I was a kid but in comparison to the hellscape of the 2020s I’d take the 90s any day. Loved Beetleborgs, Power Rangers, and VR Troopers as a kid. I hope Toy Galaxy does a retrospective on Digimon someday (unless it already exists).
As a kid who loved watching the Terminator and RoboCop movies, I ate up anything shiny and robo looking so BBBB was a shoo in. The vac metal toys looked awesome too
Me: I've actually seen the show and I _still_ don't believe them... Every time I convince myself that was some bizarre fever dream, I'm reminded that it was a thing that actually existed and I have to start the process of self-delusion all over again.
Dan should do an episode for April Fool's where he talks about a show and toy line that never actually existed. Reproducing it would be crazy expensive and probably bankrupt the channel, but it would be worth it.
One of my favorite saban style show, every episode was packed with stuff from monsters, to comic enemies and yes childhood problems through which to teach obvious lessons. Yeah it was super cheesy but 90s were full of metal claddened super heros that it just became normal. Also BBBG had flabber which made it so much more fun and as the viewer you could tell the actor who played flabber was all in and well invested in the final product that it just made you, as the viwer, just smile. Even today as a 30 year old I still find myself remembering the good old days of waking up early just to watch the morning cartoons with a bowl of cereal and sitting way too close to the screen for my own good then getting home from school and catching up on the latest goosebumps, power ranger, beetleborgs in the era before streaming where we used tv guides to keep track of what and when to watch any given show.
I remember being the one of the few kids in my neck of the woods who knew about/enjoyed this show, and being in the even smaller group of kids who genuinely loved watching the monsters of Hillhurst get up to mischief. Come to think on it, I'm pretty sure those guys were what got me into things like The Addams Family and The Munsters.
I remember watching this when I was 6. I think I was just mesmerized by how baffling it was. It’s like a train wreck in a fever dream-you can’t look away because you have no choice and no escape. Fun times.
i felt the same way watching this ... especially for the first time when i stumbled across it during the transformation sequence ... it truly was a trainwreck in a fever dream of almost Nic Cage levels
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu “You gotta do the cooking by the book!”-Dammit!!! Now that songs going to be living rent free in my house for the next bloody month! ..Again!!! 😝
I had the blue one and remember watching the shows. That Flaber guy did always remind me if Jay Leno. I remember living the show at the time… when I was 10.
The call to skip Kabutack was made super early and by the very high ups at Saban cus even Gabe Torres who directed the most episodes of BBB didn't know of any planned 3rd season or spin offs. They shipped him off to ireland for Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog and wiped their hands clean of all things borg I guess lol
@@BigBadBeetleBros I mean by the end of the '90s all the other offshoot wannabe power rangers shows were long gone and forgotten. I don't think it's a coincidence that not a single one of the offshoot shows has ever been brought up or considered for a reboot or continuation of any kind. I feel like that was a moment in time that's long past and they don't feel like doing things that way anymore.
I have always been fascinated by, not so much how Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers came to be, but how shows like this, and VR Troopers, sprung in its wake! I also love how the inclusion of the Flabber figure is a big selling point for the haunted house playset!
@@co81385 I'd love to see a documentary about the behind the scenes stuff behind all these Saban shows where they talk to people who worked on them during the years I bet there's some hilarious stuff and some real eye-opening stuff that would definitely raise a few eyebrows at least for sure. I mean things were a lot more fast and loose during the 90s then they would be just a few years into the 2000's.
That ad was my most perfect engagement with marketing ever. What is it? Why do I want it? Wow, where do I get it? One credit card entry later and we are done.
The theme is definitely the best part no question. The show itself is forgettable and pretty ridiculous to be honest. Then again this is also the folks that gave us TMNT the next mutation. If you value your sanity you won't look that up.
I have those sh figuarts. So yeah, there was an interview with the creators online years ago. Apparently they wanted to make 2 different shows, one a comedy about a haunted mansion and the other a different show. The comedy was deemed a bit too adult and word from the higher ups made them combine the two shows. At its height, Beetleborgs was outdoing power rangers, but when Saban ran out of footage, they went to Mystic Knights to try and cut Toei out of the equation, instead of trying to do new stuff (they had most of the stuff needed to produce more beetle borg material).
I forgot until somebody mentioned this was right around the same time they decided to do the worst idea Saban ever came up with which was TMNT the next mutation. A show so dumbed down it actually makes things like this and practically everything else Saban did at that point look like a brilliant well written masterpiece.
I had a BeetleBorgs Metallics pencil-topper that was a giveaway from Blockbuster; you could pivot the “body” (it was only waist-up) 90 degrees to reveal a wheel. If you rolled the wheel along a surface, a mechanism made the arms pump up and down.
I remember watching this with my cousin, I had it on VHS so I just assumed it was a movie and not a show split into parts lol. We would watch it every time he came over. Great times
Aha! I had been hoping you'd get to this show someday. I had already moved on from Power Rangers by time Beetleborgs came out, but I loved it all the same. It was honestly the Haunted House aspect that drew me in because I was obsessed with Halloween and all things spooky. Karate and giant robots were just icing on the cake.
I remember this show in that I distinctly remember it basically being one of the ridiculous amounts of power ranger-ish shows back in those times. I'll admit I'm impressed by just how much content they've been able to create just using footage that had already been made and working around it. Still a lot of these shows are pretty forgettable once you're over the age of 10.
I always thought it'd be interesting to do a remake that takes elements from both the American and Japanese versions. Like the main characters are part of a research institute and the wolf man and vampire and stuff are genetic experiments from there.
Honestly, the biggest highlight of the show for me was when me and my brother won a couple of free Beetleborgs action figures from a giveaway our local Fox station was doing. Might still have them tucked away somewhere.
I loved Big Bad Beetleborgs growing up! The comic style and overall weird but awesomeness of it had me hooked!. Sometimes I wonder if I was the only person who remembered them. Looks like I'm not!
Ill never forget blockbuster giving me Beetleborgs when all the transformers were checked out....I remember throwing a lil fit as you do but then 2 decades later I wish I could thank the clerk who got me into Beetleborgs which led to power rangers and basically everything that made my childhood.
One of my fav. Sure I was 30 something when it came out. Buuuuuut I'm a Gen-X saturday-morning cartoon kind of guy. And even though this is not a cartoon it had that kind of vibe.
Who lives in an organ, in a "haunted house" that's inhabited by various other monsters. The problem is ghosts don't typically grant wishes so I do get the confusion there.
Exactly. They say that all through the show. I love Dan and this series but every blue moon you can tell that he didn't do all of his homework for a review.
I was too young to know where the original source was and the internet was super limited developmently wise BUT both Big Bad Beetlborg series did help cement my love for the Tokusatsu genre
I did like when Power Rangers recycled the Big Bad Beetleborgs into the made for TV movie. Where all the past and present Red Rangers fight the last of the Machine King Generals over Serpentera, Lord Zedd's personal Zord.
Looking back, I remember liking it mostly for the Beetleborg designs, the goofy monster scenes, and the toys as a kid. Didn't come across alot of action figures that were metallic.
Ah yes, Marvel vs. Liefeld over The Fighting American-whom was originally created by Captain America's creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby) after Marvel/Timely claimed ownership of the first star-spangled man. What a weird mess that was.
Beetleborgs was my favorite growing up, 100%! I'm so excited that I got to hear about all of these characters again. It was the charming comedy that hooked me :)
Yeah, after spending years of my life acting out all of these classic Saban shows as a child, I discovered a love for Japan and Tokusatsu as a whole. Do they hold up as "great" now-a-days? Not entirely, but the campy nature of these for kids shows, really made me appreciate other media, and search out cosplaying/fan projects!
Before, I remembered it as that weird Power Rangers-esque show But after looking at its original source material, now it's "that show that had Dante from DMC in it"
The show's crucial flaw: If "three typical average kids" went "inside a haunted mansion" and they "just by chance freed a ghost", they'd sooner screen their heads off and call the Ghost Busters!
I liked the show even though I was already 13 by the time it aired. I really liked how Flabber was able to turn a comic into real, physical beings. It has been on my list for "super powers I wish I had" for decades now.
the original version in Japan feels more like Iron man cops team.（B-Fighter & B-Fighter Kabuto） Yep, u didnt get it wrong, the heros didnt injured like Robot Cop's Murphy and with ten more members manipulating all kinds of giant robots/machines fighting villains acrossed the cities (just like power rangers) If this version can remake in Hollywood today , u cant imagine how cool it is😂 But turns out the US version is bit like Shazam lol.
Big Bad Beetleborgs which is famous for being at a haunted setting, had kids as superheroes, use comic book reference, and had characters wearing armor eventually gave birth to four other popular tv series: Goosebumps, which delivered on the haunted part, Power Rangers Turbo, which had a kid as a superhero in the team, Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, which is based on a comic book property, and Mystic Knights of Tir Nag Nog, which succeed on the armor part featuring five warriors who wore different color armor even one resembling Shovel Knight.
With the fact that Hasbro has the rights to Beetleborgs, I'm surprised they're not rebooting it. I mean, I think if someone came to them with a strong enough pitch to them, I think they would agree to make a new one. In fact, If I were to pitch a reboot, I would have it animated and a quite different premise compared to the OG (and maybe take some ideas from the premises of the original Japanese versions) and maybe a green light to a Beetleborgs of a new generation.
When I watched this as a kid. I found young kids being super heros rather than teens weird. I had the same problem with Power Rangers Turbo introducing Justin the kid Blue Power Ranger.
dont worry EVERY PR fan had a problem with Justin whether or not they had seen the Turbo Movie Tie-In they released in theaters where it explains how Justin meets the other Rangers ... or whether you just went along with it like most because you either had no idea they made Power Rangers A Turbo Movie or maybe missed the pilot were Justin for no reason whatever randomly shows up instead of Rocky
It was actually because of Beetleborgs that Justin happened. Beetleborgs was the more popular show at the time and the general public's interest in Power Rangers had been waning following Zeo. Seeing how well Beetleborgs was doing in comparison with younger kids as the protagonists Saban thought that Power Rangers could be revitalized in a similar manner. So to capitalize on the potential Justin was added to the Power Rangers Turbo movie and season.
My favourite obscure fact about Big Bad Beetleborgs is that it boasts an appearance of John Levene, Sergeant Benton from 70s Doctor Who, in the Abbott and Costello tribute episode. The fact that Levene seems to have only been in these two shows is possible proof of living in a simulated universe.....it glitched.
Thank you so much for doing this video! I loved this show growing up! Drew and Heather never actually got together, kinda sad really! Beetleborgs was still an amazing fantastic show though! It also has a really great theme song and I’m a big fan of the monsters too!
Ah the memories of dragging my dad on a five hour hunt to every Toys R Us in a forty mile radius to find the short packed villains figures for my beetleborgs to battle. Good times, simpler times. I miss him.
Same here, my dad was the greatest about hunting Power Rangers toys with me, I think he was sad when I outgrew it.
@@faselessnobuddy That's one thing, I never outgrew it, but I did lose my dad in 2012. I like to think he'd enjoy the assortment of dragons, robots, and werewolf toys that seem to populate my house now but all my toy hunting is now done with my spouse
With me, it was Masked Rider and Power Rangers hunts so I could continue to have them cross over. Didn't even know they made the villains from BBBB as figures though! Holy crap! One of my cousins gave me a Nukus from some kids meal so my totally blind since birth 90s kid self could appreciate his look. He's the only one I ever saw/felt in fig form.
@@radartechnicianbob8208 Oh man, those were the golden days of happy meal toys. I remember some prime figures I had as a kid from McD's.
I know what you mean. My baby sis was crazy for the Power Rangers. She wanted the whole action figure collection from McDonald's. We spent a good chunk of one Sunday looking for the white ranger.
Jay Leno will never admit it that it was actually him playing Flabber
It wasn’t jay playing flabber Billy Forester did he did ha a jay type chin but not quite as pronounced so they probably enhanced it with prosthetics to give it the more jay leno looking chin flabber had in the series
Aways thought that.
@@kevin10001 it was a joke man :D
Nah, it was Jay's evil twin Hans Leno 😂
Lol are used to to he was Jay Leno for real though
" Biiiiiig Badddddd Beeeeettttllleborgs " runs through my head randomly every few days for the last 25 years...
I never watched the show myself but that jingle plays every time I hear the name lol
@@lonesquiff6551 Probably the second catchiest (and ear-wormiest) Saban theme song behind the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers theme song.
And sometimes I also hear "METALIX!" afterwards.
Same
True
I remember Jay Leno had a segment at the time where viewers would send in pictures of things that look like him. Somebody sent in a picture of Flabber, and Leno said they were just being cruel at that point.
I've never been able to find that episode.
Cruel from Truth!!
video or it didn't happen
I would love to see that
It never happened
I liked Big Bad Beetleborgs. I wasn't obsessed with it like I was with Power Rangers, but as a kid, it was cool seeing other kids as superheroes.
It was aweful. Lol
So true...i finally know why there was no season 3
That was one thing I thought was pretty cool. Although, it really was bizaare.
Its probably why they had a kid in PR Turbo to capitalize on that idea from BB. I hate that didnt use the original footage from the Japanese series for the first two seasons and continue making more seasons, with their production team. Its stated that the viewers were watching BB more than PR Zeo and Turbo, which makes sense because at the time PR outgrew it's cool factor. Bb was refreshing and in a way so I can see why kids were watching it ag the time, hell I did.
I liked the suits mainly why I bought the three toys, and teamed them up with the power rangers as a kid but I really didnt watch the show too much.
I’m actually friends with one of the actors from BBB. Todd Hurst, the actor who played Trip, the rich snobby bully. He was shocked when I told him I used to watch it as a kid. He figured nobody ever saw it. He also played the kid who pukes in the beginning of Adam Sandlers “the wedding singer”.
Tell him I said what up!🎉
I remember reading an interview from the early 2000s with a BBB writer who said the writers room enjoyed writing the Hillhurst monsters scenes and didn't really care about the fight scenes.
Of course they didn't like the fighting scenes those were only put in there because they had to be because that's how you sell the toys.
The Hillhurst scenes were always some of the most fun to watch.
@@justinweber4977 Looking back, the monster sitcom was such a genius idea
They didn't have to write fighting sevens at all lol The sictom/ monster mash idea for the show was amazing.
I was obsessed with the show when I was Jo's age and loved that the girl (like me) got to have super strength. Loved that "Power Rangers Meets Scooby-Doo" vibe
Power rangers meet Scooby-Doo is probably the best description of the show I could possibly think of.
I mean the level of cheesiness with the monster segments is off the freaking charts.
Given her power was super strength, wouldn't that be Power Rangers meets *Scrappy-Doo* ?
@@DisobedientSpaceWhale *She’s **_Pippi Longstocking._* :D
You had super super strength as a child?
Oooóoooóooóoooo😊ó😊😊óooo😊9ooóo😊ó
If this series had an extended library of stock footage like PR had it would've been a mainstay. 1 thing that it had over PR was relatability. Because the main cast was closer to the age of its core audience. Something tells me that Saban saw this and tried to inject that same appeal in PR Turbo when he introduced a younger member in the form of Justin.
I’m not sure that having the performers/characters being the same age as the target audience has ever actually worked real well? Kids tend to find kids on tv annoying. Their escapist fantasy is to be the older kick ass characters.
@@andrewtaylor940 worked for me. Not to mention these kids were a little closer to their teens than I was. They weren't squeakers.
@@andrewtaylor940 Definitely. As a kid I wanted someone to look up to and challenge me to grow. Not someone as new to life as I was lol.
Actually from what I remember of the old interviews, he had the idea for a kid ranger first. He used BBBs to test if it would work.
The only problem was, That everyone wanted to be justin in PR. So he was hated to death...I wanted to be justin ok.
I loved beetleborgs when I was a kid, but I rewatched it as an adult and honestly? I was looking forward to the monster antics of the episode more than the actual fighting. They did a pretty good job at making them funny and charismatic, like bulk and skull x10
I remember watching a few of the episodes. What really stood out for me was the theme song and the Jay Leno alien.
A glorious earworm that will never leave my ear!
Jay leno character was a ghost
@@InfernitBlu88 genie*
@@jrandt08 if we're being technical he's a phantasm.. "flabber the ghost with the most"
@@InfernitBlu88 you are correct, I also heard him as a child day "I'm flabbergasted!" Pun intended!
"After an accident where he turns the kids into ACTUAL beetles..."
Oh god, I can't believe I'm about to correct details on a show that's LITERALLY been the bane of my existence since childhood (along with being there during all the bad moments in my life), but they are turned into rats and not beetles during the first episode. The beetles thing doesn't happen until season 2.
See here I was thinking I had to be only BUGGED by that mistake... I'll see myself out
What has your life been that a forgotten 90s kids show has been the bane of your existence?
He was also wrong about Flabber being a genie, he was a ghost which is clearly stated several times in the show.
@@NavySharkz he was a phasm but basically a genie for all intents and purposes. Stuck in an object, grants a wish when freed, performs magic and such. He's 100% inspired by Aladdin's genie lol it's a fair description
@@BigBadBeetleBros And in the theme song, the lyrics clearly say "freed a ghost".
Beetleborgs was weird. One thing that always bugged me, was that during the Shadowborg "arc" they introduced a new, white Beetleborg and he may have been in four episodes and *never* showed up again.
* giggles *
Bugged
That was because there wasn't much footage of him to use; the Extradimensional Supplier Kabuto was only in 4 episodes, 5 if you count him showing up for the finale of B-Fighter Kabuto. He wasn't a 6th ranger/extra rider character, he was just a very minor support character who kinda was more of a nuisance than a boon; trying to turn him into a new major character wasn't a feasible idea on their part. The other problem was his main weapon was just straight up a revolver, which wasn't going to fly on US television and his appearances in the last two episodes of B-Fighter heavily featured him with the cast of Blue Swat, an unadapted Metal Heroes show
B-Fighter's cameos of Blue Swat and Jansperson posed more than a few problems of trying to use the footage in that regard- they snuck in Jansperson and Gun Gibson as characters from a different comic summoned to help them- but that was using footage from the finale to make a middle episode (ie, 52 and 53 becoming episode 19)
@@gtf234 Well that's certainly a valid reason. I seem to remember Beetleborgs hyping the kid up as their version of a "sixth ranger", but then he just vanished after he beat Shadowborg.
It's weird, while I love the Green ranger, in beetleborgs I kind of resented a new kid showing up and worried that he would take over as the leader
Head canon? Josh(white blaster borg) kept his power to turn invisible and is actually in every episode after the shadowborg arc but is just invisibility creeping around.
Once again, another ghost from my childhood can rest, as ToyGalaxy's History vid artfully tells its story, and completes its unfinished business. *beetleborgs bow at Toygalaxy and disappears*
You summed up my feelings on so many of these episodes, perfectly.
Let's just hope nobody frees this ghost anytime soon.
It is weirdly cathartic to watch RUclipsrs talk in depth about the silly and highly entertaining shows you loved as a kid. Gives you a sense of closure and valuation that others liked it and maybe it all means something.
Well said! This channel does great work and I am eternally grateful for it!
Yes yes and yes, I completely feel the same and agree!
"the wild storm that was Extreme Comics..." I see what you did there.
Yeah... Ahhhhhhhhh Real Monsters, too.
He's so good at that lmao
Ah, the 90s, a decade filled with super sentai live action stuff. I love it.
Just like the 2000's, 2010's and now 2020's?
Yeah, instead of the animated originals, you know, _Kamen Rangers._
This is actually B FIGHTER lol
I LOVED Big Bad Beetleborgs.... They were super unique at the time. I was the kid that was OBSESSED with Power Rangers but HATED VR Troopers. Beetleborgs I embraced them with open arms. Especially their action figures, best shiny toys ever 😂
Same here, VR Troopers was just too cut up, it was like the couldn't decide which show they wanted to adapt. I remember thinking Ryan and friends looked like Beetleborgs: The college years, so why couldn't the footage look as good as BBB?
I couldnt stand VR Troopers.
Def loved Beetleborgs more than Power Rangers doe. Just seemed... alternative somehow.
I never got into VR Troopers either
@@Eternaldarkness3166 I loved VR Troopers
Think all of us did lol
So if you are now covering BBBB that means Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog may be within sight of possibly coming down the pipeline?
PLEASE
I positive he had an episode about MK years ago; I’m either hallucinating or it was taken down.
@@locomadman May have gotten taken down if it existed at all. Thus the asking.
@@Cardigen I was wrong (I asked).
@@locomadman Poparena did one.
I'm still sad Metal Hero died off while KR and SS continue strong. I was introduced to the series with Jiban, and most of the suits still look awesome today, they are works of art!
I will still stand on the hill that Robotack was the last Metal Heroes show before the new Gavan movie.
Apparently he didn’t mention that there was a forth beetle borg, Josh as the White Blaster Borg. Also there were other characters called Astro Borgs which they summon to aid them.
Somebody mentioned the white borg in the comments. Apparently he basically used a revolver as his main weapon and that would have been a big No-No for TV for kids.
Also apparently there was very little footage of him from the original series they were pulling from so he didn't last long as a character on the show. Although apparently at the end of it he "turned invisible" or something like that. Essentially some clever writing to work around the obvious issue.
he also forgot to mention the Astro Borgs are the other members of the Machine Empire in "Forever Red"
White borg was also a movie exclusive suit AFAIK, which is why he only exists for the 3-4 episodes with the Shadow Borg. The reason for writing him out was actually really interesting (the hero narratively cannot exist if the villain he exists to fight is vanquished; the comic would "end")
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu No on Beetle Borgs the White Blaster Beetle Borg shot out Ryu style fire balls not a gun. And when he was in his regular normal kid form he could turn his self invisible. Because each kid had a unique power, one was super speed, oe had super strength and one had telekinesis.
This is like Power Rangers fused with Goosebumps.
To me, Beetleborgs was like Power Rangers fused with:
Addams Family
Batman 1966
Goosebumps
Ha, good one!
@@PowerRangersLostGalaxyFanFilm It def was goth power rangers.
LOL. What about Scooby doo Fused with Goosebumps?
@@lamtsang3236 That works too.
The drinking game for this episode is TAKE A SHOT EVERY TIME DAN SAYS 'LEGALLY DISTINCT!'
Gonna be honest, the idea that someone fed all of Saban's other properties into an AI/ML system and told it to make a new show makes way more sense than anything else.
Seems like every week or so Dan likes to find childhood me and say, “remember that show you loved? Here’s the history.” From M.A.S.K to Gobots to now Beetleborgs, your videos never disappoint. Thank you for your high quality videos as usual.
And as a kid who devoured all of the American Tokusatsu shows I could find, I was very confused to see Shadow Borg on power rangers. I always wanted that crossover.
So wild to learn all of this. As a kid who was way into all of these series at the time, I felt the presence of some strange link between all of the shows but never really understood how it all worked aside from some vague notion of some of the footage being from Japan.
VR Troopers was a saga focused on Ryan finding his father. BBB was a sitcom, by comparison.
Considering the whole monster/haunted house thing a character granting wishes that turn the main characters into comic book heroes.
It's hard to take any of it even remotely seriously for even a split second.
Technically could have had a power rangers crossover several times.
@@redragon1990
I mean did they have footage that would have made that work?!
Usually that's the single limiting factor was their footage from original Japanese shows they could splice together to make that work?!
Okay, but remember how they tried to turn Masked Rider into a sitcom?
@@BagOfMagicFood
I barely remember that show.
But yes I believe that's true.
Actually funny describing the Metal Heroes as "Robocop-ish", because according to what we know, the concept for Robocop being a shiny, silver armored hero was inspired by Space Sheriff Gavan. Toei would later reciprocate the inspiration for their two robot detective shows, Kidou Keiji Jiban and Tokusou Robo Janperson, with the creators for both admitting to being heavily inspired by Robocop, especially Jiban which was also in black and silver.
Man I miss the 90s. Such a simpler time, sure I was a kid but in comparison to the hellscape of the 2020s I’d take the 90s any day. Loved Beetleborgs, Power Rangers, and VR Troopers as a kid. I hope Toy Galaxy does a retrospective on Digimon someday (unless it already exists).
Kamen Rider, Super Sentain and Ultraman are still going strong and it's pretty good.
I'm more emotionally invested into this video about the Beetle Borgs than I was for the actual Beetle Borgs :D
As a kid who loved watching the Terminator and RoboCop movies, I ate up anything shiny and robo looking so BBBB was a shoo in. The vac metal toys looked awesome too
I agree with you on the toys I am currently trying to get the complete set and I love vac metal look , the figures for metallix is a thing of beauty!
The way they explained that casting change is so genius lol
Toy Galaxy: this existed.
Me: I don't believe you
TG: here's proof
Me: I still don't believe you
Me: I've actually seen the show and I _still_ don't believe them... Every time I convince myself that was some bizarre fever dream, I'm reminded that it was a thing that actually existed and I have to start the process of self-delusion all over again.
Dan should do an episode for April Fool's where he talks about a show and toy line that never actually existed. Reproducing it would be crazy expensive and probably bankrupt the channel, but it would be worth it.
KB Toys for me
5 year old me: Wow, this is awesome!
23 year old me: Wow, this is terrible!
Big Bad Beetleborgs is what happens when you try to take an idea and make it TOO original.
There are certainly plenty of ways they could have adapted those two series without involving ripoffs of the Universal monsters.
Nothing is too original for a JoJo fan
It was still good though
@@Chimpbot I'll always wonder how American writers were handed a story about crime-fighters in metal armor and went "haunted house, perfect!"
Lookin back yeah, there were alot of premises going on at once but it worked for me as a kid.
Welp. After this there's only one thing left: Saban's Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog.
(Also, dangit MagicSpoon made me hungry)
A shame considering they sound expensive AF. Anytime you get $5 off an order of four boxes of cereal you know that's about to be damn expensive.
I came here to leave this same comment
Nope there's still Los Luchadores and TMNT: The Next Mutation.
Didn’t he already do a Mystic Knight’s video years ago? I swore he did.
I loved that show! My afternoons personified until toonami came along
One of my favorite saban style show, every episode was packed with stuff from monsters, to comic enemies and yes childhood problems through which to teach obvious lessons. Yeah it was super cheesy but 90s were full of metal claddened super heros that it just became normal. Also BBBG had flabber which made it so much more fun and as the viewer you could tell the actor who played flabber was all in and well invested in the final product that it just made you, as the viwer, just smile. Even today as a 30 year old I still find myself remembering the good old days of waking up early just to watch the morning cartoons with a bowl of cereal and sitting way too close to the screen for my own good then getting home from school and catching up on the latest goosebumps, power ranger, beetleborgs in the era before streaming where we used tv guides to keep track of what and when to watch any given show.
I remember being the one of the few kids in my neck of the woods who knew about/enjoyed this show, and being in the even smaller group of kids who genuinely loved watching the monsters of Hillhurst get up to mischief. Come to think on it, I'm pretty sure those guys were what got me into things like The Addams Family and The Munsters.
I don't hate Beetleborgs, but I do hate that the licensing means B-Fighter episodes on the Toei Toku YT channel are blocked in the US.
Yes this.
Two words: ONORE HASBRO!!!
Really glad you guys did this one!! So many memories at friends houses in the afternoon
I remember watching this when I was 6. I think I was just mesmerized by how baffling it was. It’s like a train wreck in a fever dream-you can’t look away because you have no choice and no escape. Fun times.
i felt the same way watching this ... especially for the first time when i stumbled across it during the transformation sequence ... it truly was a trainwreck in a fever dream of almost Nic Cage levels
This show is pretty disorienting when you come across it unexpectedly while channel surfing. "Did I just see an undead Jay Leno?!"
@@ViccVegaa023
I get some real LazyTown vibes from the character designs I swear.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu “You gotta do the cooking by the book!”-Dammit!!!
Now that songs going to be living rent free in my house for the next bloody month!
..Again!!! 😝
I had the blue one and remember watching the shows. That Flaber guy did always remind me if Jay Leno. I remember living the show at the time… when I was 10.
Little trivia: Kabutack was planned to be the 3rd Beetleborgs series but it was too kiddy, so Saban said "screw it" and abandoned the idea.
Ironic..
I never know that Saban was going bring Kabutack.
@@brianmartinez5453 was going to. Found out that out on TV Tropes.
The call to skip Kabutack was made super early and by the very high ups at Saban cus even Gabe Torres who directed the most episodes of BBB didn't know of any planned 3rd season or spin offs. They shipped him off to ireland for Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog and wiped their hands clean of all things borg I guess lol
@@BigBadBeetleBros
I mean by the end of the '90s all the other offshoot wannabe power rangers shows were long gone and forgotten. I don't think it's a coincidence that not a single one of the offshoot shows has ever been brought up or considered for a reboot or continuation of any kind.
I feel like that was a moment in time that's long past and they don't feel like doing things that way anymore.
I have always been fascinated by, not so much how Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers came to be, but how shows like this, and VR Troopers, sprung in its wake!
I also love how the inclusion of the Flabber figure is a big selling point for the haunted house playset!
I'd love to know how they came up with the name flabber for the ghost.
Like everything else in the show it sounds like a knock off of flubber.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu That certainly is a great question!
@@co81385
I'd love to see a documentary about the behind the scenes stuff behind all these Saban shows where they talk to people who worked on them during the years I bet there's some hilarious stuff and some real eye-opening stuff that would definitely raise a few eyebrows at least for sure. I mean things were a lot more fast and loose during the 90s then they would be just a few years into the 2000's.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu Flabber is short for Flabberghast.
@@KruxisV
And I have to say now that is a good pun. Then again I'd say the "legally distinct" monsters like frank'n beans weren't bad either.
I remember really liking big bad beetleborgs as a kid in the 90's alongside power rangers
The theme song absolutely HYPED me as a kid. Good times 😂
I’m actually tempted to buy Magic Spoon now
That ad was my most perfect engagement with marketing ever. What is it? Why do I want it? Wow, where do I get it? One credit card entry later and we are done.
If Simon Whistler can't get me to spend $10 on a box of cereal nobody can!
Same
The fruity one is the best.
Whatever else can be said about this cereal, it's got a great name.
The theme song to this show stuck with me longer than any memory of the episodes.
The theme is definitely the best part no question. The show itself is forgettable and pretty ridiculous to be honest. Then again this is also the folks that gave us TMNT the next mutation. If you value your sanity you won't look that up.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu I lived through it.....(pained laughing)
I have those sh figuarts. So yeah, there was an interview with the creators online years ago. Apparently they wanted to make 2 different shows, one a comedy about a haunted mansion and the other a different show. The comedy was deemed a bit too adult and word from the higher ups made them combine the two shows. At its height, Beetleborgs was outdoing power rangers, but when Saban ran out of footage, they went to Mystic Knights to try and cut Toei out of the equation, instead of trying to do new stuff (they had most of the stuff needed to produce more beetle borg material).
The haunted house thing always seem to come out of nowhere but now it makes perfect sense
I forgot until somebody mentioned this was right around the same time they decided to do the worst idea Saban ever came up with which was TMNT the next mutation. A show so dumbed down it actually makes things like this and practically everything else Saban did at that point look like a brilliant well written masterpiece.
I had a BeetleBorgs Metallics pencil-topper that was a giveaway from Blockbuster; you could pivot the “body” (it was only waist-up) 90 degrees to reveal a wheel. If you rolled the wheel along a surface, a mechanism made the arms pump up and down.
I wondered when we'd get to this one. What's next, Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills?
I remember watching this with my cousin, I had it on VHS so I just assumed it was a movie and not a show split into parts lol. We would watch it every time he came over. Great times
Oh lord. As soon as I seen the thumbnail the theme song started playing in my head. " Bigggg baddd beeettllleee borggs "
That's about the only thing I remember from the show.
Aha! I had been hoping you'd get to this show someday. I had already moved on from Power Rangers by time Beetleborgs came out, but I loved it all the same. It was honestly the Haunted House aspect that drew me in because I was obsessed with Halloween and all things spooky. Karate and giant robots were just icing on the cake.
I remember this show in that I distinctly remember it basically being one of the ridiculous amounts of power ranger-ish shows back in those times. I'll admit I'm impressed by just how much content they've been able to create just using footage that had already been made and working around it. Still a lot of these shows are pretty forgettable once you're over the age of 10.
I've been waiting for you to cover this series, I loved this show as a kid
My brothers loved the Beetle Borgs and was so sad there wasn’t a third season.
I really hope Shout Factory can get a hold of the B-Fighter series one of these day. Looks like it's something right up my alley.
Now i wait for the Mystic Knights Video.
Facts. Thats my show
I always thought it'd be interesting to do a remake that takes elements from both the American and Japanese versions. Like the main characters are part of a research institute and the wolf man and vampire and stuff are genetic experiments from there.
Honestly, the biggest highlight of the show for me was when me and my brother won a couple of free Beetleborgs action figures from a giveaway our local Fox station was doing. Might still have them tucked away somewhere.
OMG! You actually pronounced "Zyuranger" the proper way instead of how it's spelled! Great work guys!!!
I loved Big Bad Beetleborgs growing up! The comic style and overall weird but awesomeness of it had me hooked!. Sometimes I wonder if I was the only person who remembered them. Looks like I'm not!
Ill never forget blockbuster giving me Beetleborgs when all the transformers were checked out....I remember throwing a lil fit as you do but then 2 decades later I wish I could thank the clerk who got me into Beetleborgs which led to power rangers and basically everything that made my childhood.
One of my fav. Sure I was 30 something when it came out. Buuuuuut I'm a Gen-X saturday-morning cartoon kind of guy. And even though this is not a cartoon it had that kind of vibe.
I have to ask were you 🥴 while watching it.
The Genie thing is killing me. Flabber's a ghost! ...a weird ghost, but a ghost.
Who lives in an organ, in a "haunted house" that's inhabited by various other monsters. The problem is ghosts don't typically grant wishes so I do get the confusion there.
He's a phasm, basically a ghostly genie who grants wishes, or basically just a spectral magical trickster.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu You must have never watched the Beetlejuice cartoon. He was always using his magic to do stuff like that.
@@nathanforester5993 No, he's a ghost, which is clearly said throughout the series.
Exactly. They say that all through the show. I love Dan and this series but every blue moon you can tell that he didn't do all of his homework for a review.
Lol, i had a Fangula in my “Weird Unidentified Figures” bin for years before i found out what it was 😄
Great video! Man, really glad I found this channel, the nostalgia is through the roof. Forgot about a lot of these shows I used to love as a kid
@0:11 Elvis? Flabber looks like Jay Leno. Even as a kid I had always thought Flabber looked like the Tonight Show host.
Yep. I thought he looked like Jay Leno too.
I was too young to know where the original source was and the internet was super limited developmently wise BUT both Big Bad Beetlborg series did help cement my love for the Tokusatsu genre
I did like when Power Rangers recycled the Big Bad Beetleborgs into the made for TV movie. Where all the past and present Red Rangers fight the last of the Machine King Generals over Serpentera, Lord Zedd's personal Zord.
Looking back, I remember liking it mostly for the Beetleborg designs, the goofy monster scenes, and the toys as a kid.
Didn't come across alot of action figures that were metallic.
So this wasn't a fever dream I had. Good to know.
I'm glad Forever Red was mentioned. I sat through the whole episode waiting for it.
Biiiiiiiiiiig Baaaaaaaaaaad Beeeetle Borgs.. Once you get by the opening theme it goes downhill from there.
Didn’t mention because they ran out of footage, the Beetleborgs series ends on a cliffhanger.
Ah yes, Marvel vs. Liefeld over The Fighting American-whom was originally created by Captain America's creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby) after Marvel/Timely claimed ownership of the first star-spangled man. What a weird mess that was.
Beetleborgs was my favorite growing up, 100%! I'm so excited that I got to hear about all of these characters again. It was the charming comedy that hooked me :)
Rob Liefeld: "Beetleborgs need more muscles! MORE MUSCLES!"
And less feet.😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Yeah, after spending years of my life acting out all of these classic Saban shows as a child, I discovered a love for Japan and Tokusatsu as a whole. Do they hold up as "great" now-a-days? Not entirely, but the campy nature of these for kids shows, really made me appreciate other media, and search out cosplaying/fan projects!
They were turned into actual Beatles, but sadly there were no instruments so they were unable to summon their Yellow Submarine.
This channel is absolutely essential. Still pushing for a triumph/ tragedy of fox kids video
I remember absolutely hating this show as a kid.
That guy looks like the lovechild of Jambi & Jay Leno.
Woah this just unlocked so many old memories of me renting the episodes at family video as a young kid. Loved these guys.
Before, I remembered it as that weird Power Rangers-esque show
But after looking at its original source material, now it's "that show that had Dante from DMC in it"
also nero and vergil were power rangers before DMC
Magic spoon is a sponsor I can get behind. Went on keto last year and having a keto friendly cereal was a godsend.
Power Rangers never caught on with my daughter, but she really enjoyed Beetleborgs. I knew you'd get to them eventually, and here we are! :D
I remember owning the Metallix Movie on VHS. Man this show brings back old memories
The show's crucial flaw: If "three typical average kids" went "inside a haunted mansion" and they "just by chance freed a ghost", they'd sooner screen their heads off and call the Ghost Busters!
I liked the show even though I was already 13 by the time it aired. I really liked how Flabber was able to turn a comic into real, physical beings. It has been on my list for "super powers I wish I had" for decades now.
the original version in Japan feels more like Iron man cops team.（B-Fighter & B-Fighter Kabuto）
Yep, u didnt get it wrong, the heros didnt injured like Robot Cop's Murphy and with ten more members manipulating all kinds of giant robots/machines fighting villains acrossed the cities (just like power rangers) If this version can remake in Hollywood today , u cant imagine how cool it is😂
But turns out the US version is bit like Shazam lol.
Big Bad Beetleborgs which is famous for being at a haunted setting, had kids as superheroes, use comic book reference, and had characters wearing armor eventually gave birth to four other popular tv series: Goosebumps, which delivered on the haunted part, Power Rangers Turbo, which had a kid as a superhero in the team, Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, which is based on a comic book property, and Mystic Knights of Tir Nag Nog, which succeed on the armor part featuring five warriors who wore different color armor even one resembling Shovel Knight.
Did you cover Mystic Knights of Tír Na Nog?
Just rewatched that series on RUclips, still worth watching if you can forgive the lame CGI and fight scenes
With the fact that Hasbro has the rights to Beetleborgs, I'm surprised they're not rebooting it.
I mean, I think if someone came to them with a strong enough pitch to them, I think they would agree to make a new one.
In fact, If I were to pitch a reboot, I would have it animated and a quite different premise compared to the OG (and maybe take some ideas from the premises of the original Japanese versions) and maybe a green light to a Beetleborgs of a new generation.
When I watched this as a kid. I found young kids being super heros rather than teens weird. I had the same problem with Power Rangers Turbo introducing Justin the kid Blue Power Ranger.
dont worry EVERY PR fan had a problem with Justin whether or not they had seen the Turbo Movie Tie-In they released in theaters where it explains how Justin meets the other Rangers ... or whether you just went along with it like most because you either had no idea they made Power Rangers A Turbo Movie or maybe missed the pilot were Justin for no reason whatever randomly shows up instead of Rocky
@@bm1747 kid that magically grew in height lol
It was actually because of Beetleborgs that Justin happened. Beetleborgs was the more popular show at the time and the general public's interest in Power Rangers had been waning following Zeo. Seeing how well Beetleborgs was doing in comparison with younger kids as the protagonists Saban thought that Power Rangers could be revitalized in a similar manner. So to capitalize on the potential Justin was added to the Power Rangers Turbo movie and season.
@@josephjones7828 Ha is that seriously what happened? Seems like an error. How was Turbo received overall?
I liked Justin, but when I found out the White Ranger was a kid in Japan, I was like "Why didn't they just use him then?" .
My favourite obscure fact about Big Bad Beetleborgs is that it boasts an appearance of John Levene, Sergeant Benton from 70s Doctor Who, in the Abbott and Costello tribute episode. The fact that Levene seems to have only been in these two shows is possible proof of living in a simulated universe.....it glitched.
FOX KIDS SHOW NOSTALGIA AT ITS PEAK....(WTF is that Jay Leno?) 🤣
That’s my hometown! 4:45
I also remember this show and collected one of the figurines. The metallic suits was 🔥
Hey you just reminded me that they used the name Vengix for two Enemies in Power Rangers.
Thank you so much for doing this video! I loved this show growing up! Drew and Heather never actually got together, kinda sad really! Beetleborgs was still an amazing fantastic show though! It also has a really great theme song and I’m a big fan of the monsters too!