Sesame Street has a new animated spinoff called Mecha Builders featuring Elmo, Cookie Monster and Abby as “robot heroes-in-training using STEM superpowers to solve larger-than-life problems!” Mecha Builders premiers May 9th on Cartoon Network and streams the following day on HBOMax. For those of you who grew up in the 90’s, Tokusatsu, or Toku, is a genre of Japanese movies and television that feature superheroes (or mecha). Think of it as Power Rangers meets muppets, and you’ll get why this is big news for multiple generations.
Much like the Power Rangers (Earth’s Defenders Never Surrender!), Sesame Street‘s tokusatsu adaptation features superpower-clad characters—really, really cute characters—who will stop at nothing to fix problems. Again, if you were born or grew up in the 90’s, you might be humming a refrain from Vanilla Ice right now. If you’ve got a problem yo I’ll solve it… But we digress.
Mecha Elmo, Mecha Cookie and Mecha Abby apply their superhero powers of problem solving and science, technology, engineering and math know-how to figure out all sorts of challenges in this spinoff. There’s no problem too small or too big for this crew. It appears that in addition to their deductive reasoning, the mechas also have the ability to shrink or enlarge objects. In the official trailer, it appears that they’ve used their powers for good—making a giant pie in the sky—and not for evil.
Don’t be disarmed, however. As in all good Toku, Mecha Builders will have to face off seemingly unsurmountable challenges. Giant rolling boulders are also teased in the trailer, so brace yourself for some conflict… a la Sesame Street.Â
Sesame Street Mecha Builders already showing its toku inspiration with Mecha Elmo doing the classic Kamen Rider Stronger pose pic.twitter.com/1abSMbVC4V
— Daniel Pika (@itsDanielPika) April 18, 2022
As expected, fans of Toku are all abuzz with the news of the new spinoff, looking for hints of the Sesame Street Mecha Builder‘s character powers. The extended theme song recently released “with mechanical powers there’s nothing they cannot solve” hints at some exciting gadgetry for each of the mechas. “The Mecha Builders are always ready to save the day, and while they may not get it right the first time, they won’t give up until they do! There’s no problem too big or too small for this super team to solve … all before snack time.”
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