Metal Heroes Wiki
Don't have an account?
Register
Advertisement
Register
Metal Heroes Wiki
Metal Heroes Wiki
4,664
pages
in: Series, Big Bad Beetleborgs, Shows Dubbed in Japanese, International Adaptation Series

Big Bad Beetleborgs

Sign in to edit
Icon-metalheroesThis article is about a foreign adaptation in the Metal Hero Series.

Big Bad Beetleborgs is an American television series produced by Saban Entertainment.[1] It aired for two seasons (the second season being named Beetleborgs Metallix) on Fox Kids between September 7, 1996 and March 2, 1998. Reruns later aired on UPN Kids during 1998-1999. On May 7, 2010 the copyright for Beetleborgs was transferred from BVS International to SCG Power Rangers.[2]

The series adapted combat footage from the Metal Hero Series Juukou B-Fighter.

Synopsis[]

Set in the fictional town of Charterville, three "typical average kids", Drew (Wesley Barker), Jo (Shannon Chandler/Brittany Konarzewski), and Roland (Herbie Baez), enter the supposedly haunted Hillhurst Mansion after accepting a dare from rich snobs Van and Trip. The house is revealed to be the home of real monsters when the kids accidentally bump a pipe organ, releasing a phasm named Flabber (Billy Forester). He proves to be friendly, and in return for releasing him, offers to grant them one wish. They wish to become their comic book heroes, the Big Bad Beetleborgs. However, this also brings the Beetleborgs' sworn enemies to life: the Magnavores, led by the evil Vexor, who would summon monsters from the comic books to battle the Beetleborgs. Roland's mom and dad run the comic book shop along with his grandmother Nano. In a 6-parter, Vexor created his own Beetleborg, Shadowborg, which was a match for the Beetleborgs and briefly took their powers. They had to call a temporary Beetleborg (White Blaster Beetleborg) Josh, and after Shadowborg was destroyed, Josh lost his powers. The Beetleborgs would meet the Beetleborgs comic creator, Art Fortunes during this six part story in order for him to create the White Blaster Beetleborg and the Mega Blue Beetleborg.

In the second to last episode of the first season, the Magnavores steal a picture of a new villain named Nukus from Art Fortunes' office. They bring him to life to enlist his help in destroying the Beetleborgs. Nukus assists them by planning devastating attacks on the city and creating Borgslayer, a hybrid of all the Magnavore monsters. Unbeknownst to the Magnavores, Nukus was actually plotting to get rid of them. Nukus tells Van and Trip (who were fleeing Charterville during Borgslayer's attack to their father's country estate) how to defeat Borgslayer, and orders them to take the information to the Beetleborgs. They succeed in destroying Borgslayer, causing the Magnavores to be swept back into the comics. In the last episode of the first season (and the first episode of the second season), Nukus challenged the kids to one last battle and despite Art's warning that he is too powerful, they face him anyway. Nukus quickly wipes them out, and destroys their armor, weapons, and powers.

Characters[]

Beetleborgs[]

BeetleBorgs4

Beetleborgs in Human forms

20140111050738!Images

Beetleborgs

Main article: Beetleborgs
Blue Stinger Beetleborg Andrew McCormick
Green Hunter Beetleborg Roland Williams
Red Striker Beetleborg Josephine McCormick
White Blaster Beetleborg Josh Baldwin

Allies[]

Karato & Silver Ray

Karato & Silver Ray

Karato Karato
Silver Ray Silver Ray

Magnavores[]

Monsters[]

Episodes[]

  1. Beetle Rock, Part 1
  2. Beetle Park, Part 2
  3. TNT for Two
  4. The Ghost is Toast
  5. The Treasure of Hillhurst Mansion
  6. Never Cry Werewolf
  7. Say the Magic Word
  8. Lights, Camera, Too Much Action
  9. Nano in the House
  10. Locomotion Commotion
  11. Cat-Tastrophy
  12. Drew and Flabber's Less Than Fabulous Adventure
  13. Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun
  14. It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World
  15. The Hunchback of Hillhurst
  16. The Littlest Brattleborg
  17. Haunted Hideout
  18. Monster Rock
  19. Convention Dimension
  20. Root of All Evil
  21. The Doctor Is In
  22. Space Case
  23. The Brain in the Attic
  24. Bye, Bye Frankie
  25. Fangs Over Charterville
  26. Curse of the Shadowborg
  27. The Rise of the Blaster Borg
  28. The Revenge of Vexor
  29. A Friend in Need
  30. Raiders of the Tomb
  31. Big Rumble in Charterville
  32. Yo Ho Borgs
  33. Christmas Bells and Phantom's Spells
  34. Pet Problems
  35. Phantom of Hillhurst
  36. Operation Frankenbeans
  37. The Curse of Mums' Tomb
  38. This Old Ghost
  39. Jo's Strange Change
  40. She Wolf
  41. Something Fishy
  42. Bride of Frankenbeans
  43. Fangula's Last Bite
  44. The Good, the Bad, and the Scary
  45. Buggin' Out
  46. Svengali, By Golly
  47. Big Bad Luck
  48. A Monster is Born
  49. Norman Nussbaum: Vampire Hunter
  50. Brotherly Fright
  51. Fright Files
  52. Borgslayer!
  53. Vexor's Last Laugh


Production[]

It was not uncommon to see cardboard cut-outs and wall decorations of the Beetleborgs characters on the walls of Zoom Comics where the three kids worked. Other decorations used included the costume heads of King Sphinx of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and the original head from the monster costume Kappa from Ninja Sentai Kakuranger (The monster was used as "Parrot Top" in MMPR) which was used to create the costume Malavex. Toys from the Bandai Beetleborgs toyline could also be seen in various displays. Including the Special Edition Deluxe Shadowborg figure, in an episode which preceded Shadowborg's character ever appearing on the show.

Like other adaptations, some of the original source footage was altered for Beetleborgs. The Input Magnums, the original B-Fighter's guns, looked very realistic due to the black-and-silver coloring. In Beetleborgs, the gun's colors were changed to bright red and purple, and all Japanese footage of the Input Magnum's keypad being used was replaced with American footage using the red and purple gun. However, the colors of the guns changed from time to time due to the blending in of the B-Fighter footage. Similarly, the American version of the toy was done in red and purple colors instead of the Input Mangum's black and silver coloring. More violent scenes from B-Fighter were either covered up with large, Batman-esque sound effects or were cut out through comic-book-panel transitions.

Reuse[]

Various monsters from Beetleborgs were re-used along with un-used Juukou B-Fighter monsters as enemy monsters in the Power Rangers series:

The episode "Convention Dimension" had The Beetleborgs attending the comic convention. Among costumes worn at the convention were: Spider-Man, The Tick and Guido Anchovy. At that time Saban owned airing rights to Spider-Man: The Animated Series, The Tick and Samurai Pizza Cats.

On Location[]

The show was filmed in a number of locations.

  • Much of the show was filmed in Santa Paula, California, a small rural town in Ventura County.

Streaming[]

On June 15, 2011 all episodes of Big Bad Beetleborgs were made available on Netflix. The series was removed on February 1st, 2021 after nearly ten years on the service. The series is available to stream in it's entirety on the Fox Kids youtube channel as of March 2023.

Home video releases[]

Shout Factory released Big Bad Beetleborgs on DVD. The first volume was released on October 16, 2012 and the second volume was released on February 12, 2013. Both sets for Season 1 as well as Beetleborgs Metallix are out-of-print as of 2019. There are currently no plans for a Region 1 re-release.

See Also[]

References[]

  1. ↑ Mangan, Jennifer (September 5, 1996). "Get Ready for 'Beetleborgs': Kids, Superheroes And A Ghost Named Flabber". Chicago Tribune
  2. ↑ United States Copyright Office Public Catalog Search the name SCG Power Rangers

External Links[]

Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
More Fandoms
Advertisement

Fan Feed

More Metal Heroes Wiki