Extreme Makeover: Bob Edition

This is the second Bob the Builder cake I’ve made. Here’s a picture of the first, from six years ago.

I’ll admit it’s quite gratifying to see how far I’ve come in that time. However, to be fair, Bob’s developed quite a lot himself since then too. These are his before and after pics.

The dramatic change came about in October 2014. According to his publicist, “Bob the Builder is still the warm, best builder buddy any pre-school kid would want on their team but now he’s a Bob for our times – stronger, funnier, more dynamic, more agile and way more inspirational!”

It seems nobody was buying it. If you happened to be on Twitter at the time, you could be forgiven for assuming that a terrible catastrophe had befallen the UK. “They have changed Bob the Builder into a completely different man. I’m suing the BBC,” and “What’s the deal with the new look Bob the Builder!! Devastated, hideous, why would they do that!” and “THERE’S A NEW BOB THE BUILDER NOOOO WTF MY CHILDHOOD IS TERMINATED,” diehard fans moaned.

My reaction was somewhat more restrained. Bob 2.0 is definitely more difficult to make because his facial features are more detailed and he comes across less as a cartoon character and more like a real boy (man? It’s unclear to me). Nevertheless, without a second thought, my allegiance swung easily over to new Bob.