In the wake of the Power Rangers’ success, Saban set out to bring over several more tokusatsu shows from Japan. They landed on the Metal Hero series from Toei, which had been going strong since 1982. While they had successfully brought over the series previously as VR Troopers, the entire look of the show changed drastically when Juukou B-Fighter started airing. Instead of the standard metalized human suits, the series now had suits that strongly resembled beetles.
With the complete change of the source material, Saban decided that they needed to end the production of VR troopers and make a new show. This new show would bring in elements from other movies and media that the children loved at the time. It would also use the footage from Juukou B-Fighter, later followed by B-Fighter Kabuto for the second season, for the fight scenes. However, it edited the original footage to downplay the violence and target a younger audience. The result was the Big Bad Beetleborgs.
The Big Bad Beetleborgs began airing in 1996 and ran strong until 1998. Unlike its predecessors, the stars of this show were in their preteens, reflecting their target demographic. Andrew “Drew” McCormick, Roland Williams, and Josephine “Jo” McCormick all were in love with a comic book series named the Beetlborgs. So, when they snuck into the haunted Hill Hurst mansion and accidentally awoke Flabber, a magical ghost, they were allowed to make a wish. They all agreed that they would like to become superheroes like their comic heroes.
Their wish turned all three of them into the Beetleborgs and gained special abilities. Andrew became the Blue Stinger Beetlborg and gained telekinesis that activated when he pointed or nodded. The Blue Stinger could transform further into the Mega Blue Beetleborg. Meanwhile, Roland became the Green Hunter Beetleborg and became super fast when he snapped his fingers. Finally, Josephine became the Red Striker Beetleborg and gained super strength that activated when she cracked her knuckles. Their wish also gave life to the villains from the comics, the Magnavores led by Vexor.
As they fought against the Magnavores, they temporarily gained a fourth member. Josh Baldwin became the White Blaster Beetleborg with the power to become invisible when dusting his hands. Unfortunately, he lose his powers when they defeated the Shadowborg.
The second season brought forth several changes as it used footage from B-Fighter Kabuto. The series gained a new subtitle, Metallix. The suits for the titular heroes also changed in this season.
The Blue Stinger became the Chromium Gold Beetleborg. He later could power up into the Mega Spectra Chromium Gold Beetleborg. Then, the Green Hunter became the Titanium Silver Beetleborg, which could power up into the Mega Spectra Silver Beetleborg. Finally, the Red Striker became the Platinum Purple Beetleborg which powered up into the Mega Spectra Platinum Purple Beetleborg. They also gained new enemies, the Crustacean, creations of Les Fortunes led by Nukus.
As with most children’s programming in the 90s, the Beetleborgs made a strong presence in merchandising, especially the toys. Bandai brought over the toys that they had produced for B-Fighter in Japan to sell to the American audience. Thus, most of the toys were the same in both countries.
Most of the action figures were 6” tall, giving plenty of room for details and articulation. There were also special edition 12” action figures. Then, there were battery-powered vehicles, transforming borgs, and full-size role-play toys like the Sonic Laser. There was one the Haunted Hillhurst House playset, which was made specifically for the American Show. Otherwise, the Beetleborgs appeared in trading cards, happy meal toys, and a small series of comic books.
The Beetleborgs briefly made a reappearance in 2015, when Bandai’s S.H. Figuarts produced 6” fully articulated action figures of the main 3 characters. Otherwise, the franchise is completely gone and will not be making a reappearance, since Japan concluded the bug theme at the end of B-Fighter Kabuto.
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How to use the Identification Tool to find your action figures and toy lines
Do you have an old-school G1 Transformers toy you are trying to identify? Don’t know the name? No problem! I’ll help you use this identification tool. For example, just type in “jet” in the figure name field and hit search. You’ll see all the Transformers G1 Toys that are jets. Maybe try “car” and select the color “blue” and a list of Transformers matching those results will appear. Maybe you don’t know what the finished vehicle will make, so try searching by “red” only. Did you forget to remove “car”? Now search just the color “red”. Perhaps you know the name, but can’t spell it try “Wheljck” instead of “Wheeljack” and all the Wheeljack characters are listed for you.
We have all the G1 Transformers list of characters in our database. You can search by Transformers name, as well as just line or subgroup. You can identify Transformers that are all red or all the figures that are orange. The Transformers toy list can even be sorted by package type. You can identify which came with a sticker sheet, or which came without instructions. Want to know all the 1984 Transformers toys and none of the others from 1985-1990? No problem, just select the release year from “1984” to “1984”. Perhaps you just want to know the list of G1 Transformers “Autobots”, or just the “Decepticons”, our ID tool can do that.
Mostly we made this so you could see if your action figures were missing some accessories or parts. So you can see that too.
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