Top Ten Bob the Builder Specials

Bob the Builder was one of the biggest forms of media from my childhood, having grown up to watch the cartoon, play the video games, read the books, and..., watch the movies? Yeah there was actually a handful of Bob the Builder movies released, titled as "specials", seeing as they were either used to bridge between different Bob the Builder seasons, or because they had a unique theme to them like Christmas or Wild West, etc. Which one's the best? Let's find out.
The Top Ten
Snowed Under: The Bobblesburg Winter Games

This was always one of my favorite movies as a kid, as it was the first time I saw Bob the Builder on screen, excluding my first video games. I think it has the best story, which is not only good for kids but even older kids.

Scoop gets a lot of character development as the leader for the team, and he has to work on his superiority complex because it leads to everyone not wanting to be with him anymore. This movie introduced us to Benny and Zoomer as well, who became iconic staples for the franchise.

The Knights of Can-a-Lot

Also one of my favorite films as a kid, mostly because I played the video game version of it as well (Bob's Castle Adventure), which is my favorite Bob the Builder game. This is the first time we get to see Bob's dad, who's probably my favorite human character in the series, mostly thanks to his personality. Also, this movie is about medieval castles. You can't go wrong with castles.

The Legend of the Golden Hammer

Bob the Builder had four different series. There's the original series, which was great. Then it received a sequel in a different setting, Project Build It, which is my jam. After it was canceled, they rebooted the entire series under the subtitle Ready Steady Build, which I'm not a big fan of because of how incohesive it is, plus the animation style is far worse.

However, it had some charm left, and I did love the two movie specials quite a lot, my favorite being the Golden Hammer. This is basically a treasure hunt that follows Spud and Scrambler as they hear about the legend of the golden hammer and want to give it as a present to Bob. Despite Spud and Scrambler being the comic relief characters, they were handled very well. Then again, Spud is my favorite comic relief character of all time, so there's that.

A Christmas to Remember

This one's a classic, as it's the first Bob the Builder movie/special released. This one has two protagonists in two different locations: Bob, who has to prepare for Christmas coming to Bobsville and build a stage for a concert, and Bob's twin Tom, who lives in the Arctic Circle and is trying to get to Bobsville to celebrate Christmas with him. It's a really iconic storyline, and I liked it a lot! Oh yeah, and it has Scoot, who is basically the precursor to Zoomer.

When Bob Became a Builder

This was a really interesting one-and-a-half-hour special, as it explores Bob's backstory as Bob himself tells the story to his crew. I haven't watched the movie all that much, but I've read a book version of it, and as a kid, I really loved it. So this one barely gets into the top five.

The Big Dino Dig

From what I've heard, this was the last good form of media about Bob the Builder. This one is kinda similar to The Golden Hammer, as it's also a movie divided into six parts, and each part focuses on one theme. Here, Bob and the gang are building an amusement park, which happens to have a lot of dinosaur fossils, so they decide to make the amusement park themed after it.

This movie also introduces the last original Bob the Builder vehicle, Rubble, who's a dump truck and one of the largest vehicles ever. Again, I liked this one!

Scrambler to the Rescue

This Bob the Builder special, compared to most of the rest, was actually just half an hour, compared to the others which were one full hour. In terms of storyline, this one isn't as interesting or engaging as the others, but it does contain one of the few appearances of Zoomer the snowmobile.

However, the best part is the new and rare character R.Vee, who only has a few minutes of screen time in this episode. He's a huge bus and, in my opinion, has always been one of the coolest characters.

Race to the Finish

Gripper and Grabber are two of the best iconic Bob the Builder vehicles of the Project Build It era, even though they only made two appearances: one in one of the last episodes and the other in this special, where they are the focus characters. I really enjoyed seeing the great digger and the great crane on screen, even if the plot isn't that interesting.

One funny thing is that while I like Grabber better than Gripper in design, the roles switch when it comes to personality (Gripper is more mature, and Grabber is slightly more impulsive). I liked this one.

The Live Show
Bob's Big Plan

The message in this one is probably not only good for kids, but would also be a great lesson to corporations and governments: reduce, reuse, recycle. Basically, it's about being environmentally friendly, seeing as most people are not in this world today.

This episode acted like the pilot for the Project Build It series, but for being a "special," I sure felt as if this one was a little generic. I enjoy it, but the story was a little basic.

The Newcomers

? Building Bobland Bay
? Let's Build the Beach
The Contenders
Build to be Wild

Bob the Builder in the Wild West. While I did grow up with this one, I never really enjoyed it as much as the others, mostly because the Wild West isn't my favorite setting, and the new characters aren't that good. Actually, I did enjoy Jackaroo a lot thanks to his talking style, but his owner (whoever he was) was a little annoying to me. There was also a little too much singing.

I enjoy it. I should probably see it again sometime soon, but from what I remember, I don't like it nearly as much as the others.

Mega Machines
Truck Teamwork
The Three Musketrucks
New to the Crew
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