TV game show · Canale 5 · Early evening 2012 · with Flavio Insinna

Il Braccio e la Mente.

A toy factory the size of a TV studio — over twenty pieces sculpted, painted and installed on set. Mediaset wanted a whole world for the Canale 5 early-evening slot. We built it for them.

Story

One act

Building a
whole world for prime-access.

Mediaset wanted a setting that didn't look like any other show on the schedule: a toy factory inside the studio, with bright red industrial trusses, two-tier shelving and — on those shelves — a whole bestiary of archetypes from the 1950s childhood imagination, each of them grown to a metre tall or more.

In our workshops we tackled the brief by category. The characters: three identical blue retro robots, a line of British royal guards in red cloaks and black bearskin hats, a row of nutcracker soldiers with moustaches and nineteenth-century uniforms, a family of bunnies in brown with pink ears, two giant teddy bears with pink hearts on the soles of their feet.

The play-objects: three blue dice a metre per side, rows of bowling pins in white with red stripes, alphabet cubes in yellow and pink with letters A · S · V and the number 5, a flotilla of yellow bathtub rubber ducks, a pair of pale-blue and magenta rocking horses.

The large one-off pieces: a red-and-white striped hot-air balloon with a wicker basket, a red-and-white ball-armchair on a golden crown base, and a whole stylised steam locomotive installed on set against a backdrop of giant cogwheels.

The recurring technique: hand-carved expanded polystyrene, reinforced with fibreglass, hand-finished in saturated acrylic paint. The same recipe as a theme-park set, applied to a prime-time sound stage.

Flavio Insinna with arms wide open at the centre of the set of Il Braccio e la Mente: playful pose between the yellow-and-red ball on the left, the brown teddy bear with pink heart in the middle, the British guard on the right, with the large orange retro clock and red cogwheels in the background — Flavio Insinna at the heart of the factory

The set installed in the studio: red industrial structure with beams and rivets, two-tier shelving, on the shelves one of the blue robots, an alphabet cube, balls, a Pac-Man silhouette, a pawn shape, a basketball, bowling pins; a technician climbing a ladder on the right — The toy-factory set in the studio

The stylised steam locomotive installed in the studio: round black nose with lamps, red cage, red flatbed wagons, with a painted backdrop of large blue and red cogwheels and gears behind — The locomotive on set — among the giant cogs

The large brown teddy bear sitting on the studio floor: round head, black eyes, pink heart under the sole of its foot; behind it the toy British guards lined up and bowling pins, floor in coloured triangles — The teddy bear, installed, among the guards and the bowling pins

Act two

The German format,
two different directors.

Il Braccio e la Mente is the Italian version of Body and Brain — a format by Germany's Red Arrow International that had never been produced anywhere before. Mediaset imported it as an in-house production for the Canale 5 early-evening slot, a high-pressure window between the late-afternoon news and Striscia la Notizia at the start of prime time. The format: two contestants, one putting their body through a physical challenge, the other putting their mind through a culture quiz. One team, two functions — hence the "childhood learning" feel of the toy factory.

On the directing side, the show changed hands mid-run: Giorgio Romano directed from 7 to 24 May 2012, Roberto Cenci took over from 25 May until the show wrapped on 13 July. Sergio Colabona had directed the pilot. Switching director — extremely rare on a TV production already on air — was a signal: ratings weren't tracking as expected, and Mediaset tried every lever to fix the early evening. The scenography stayed — we had already delivered the twenty pieces, you don't change a whole world mid-run.

For Flavio Insinna this was his Mediaset debut — up to 2012 he had hosted Affari Tuoi on Rai from 2008 to 2011. The studio was built out: a bright red industrial factory with trussed beams and two-tier shelving, with our bestiary on those shelves, and at the back a large orange retro clock with Roman numerals as the show's graphic signature — the countdown of the challenge.

Three identical retro robots sculpted in fibreglass — **The retro-robot trio.** Three identical pieces — one for each challenge platform in the format

Red-and-white scenic hot-air balloon in our workshops — **The hot-air balloon.** A one-off in the workshop, among the friezes and capitals in our warehouse

Red scenic ball-armchair with white stripes on a golden crown base — **The ball-armchair.** A one-off for the host — golden crown base, red bowling-ball shell

Behind the scenes

Twenty pieces, one aesthetic:
the grown-up toy.

The hard part of a "bestiary" set isn't sculpting a robot, a hot-air balloon, a locomotive: it's making sure that all twenty pieces look as if they came out of the same imaginary factory, with the same grammar of shapes, colours and material. It's a job of internal direction within the workshop.

Sculpting in series

The characters made in multiple copies — three identical robots, seven British guards, rows of nutcracker soldiers — start from a clay master model, go into a silicone mould, and are then cast in fibreglass in series. Repeatability is the point: every copy has to be identical to the next, because the camera zoom will catch it. It's a production line, not a unique sculpture.

The one-offs

The hot-air balloon, the ball-armchair, the locomotive, the two giant teddy bears are instead one-offs sculpted by hand: modelled, shaped, reinforced with fibreglass, finished in saturated acrylic paint. They are the focal points of the set — the ones the director frames with a close-up on Insinna or a low-angle shot. They have to be perfect.

The retro aesthetic

The palette holds it all together: bright industrial red for the beams and the clock, electric blue for the robots and the dice, powder yellow and pink for the alphabet cubes and the rubber ducks, warm browns for the bunnies and the teddies. It's the palette of 1950s Fisher-Price toys applied to a set in 2012: the show wants to play on the colour nostalgia of three generations of adults sitting in front of the TV.

20+

different scenic pieces delivered to the studio

~67 days

on air, from 7 May to 13 July 2012

2 directors

swapped mid-run as ratings fell short

From the workshop

The bestiary, before
going on air.

Each piece left our workshops and travelled to the Rai studio. Here they are before departure, still on the yard or in the warehouse.

Seven toy British royal guards in the workshop yard: red cloak with yellow buttons, round pink face with red cheeks, tall black bearskin hat, all standing on wooden pallets with the industrial workshop in the background — Seven British royal guards, end of build

Row of nutcracker-soldier busts in finishing stage: round head with white moustache, tall red tube hat with feather and gold trim, red military uniform with buttons, lined up in the yard before the final paint coat — Nutcracker soldiers — in finishing

Three identical retro robots sculpted in fibreglass in the workshop yard: pale-blue body, protruding red eyes, white-teeth mouth, antennae, grey front panel, red cubic feet, in a row against the fence — The retro-robot trio

Family of bunnies sculpted in fibreglass, still raw: brown fur, tall ears with pink inside, pink nose, black eyes, two large adults and two smaller cubs, warehouse in the background — The bunny family

Giant teddy bear sculpted in fibreglass in the warehouse during build: about two metres tall, warm brown fur, black eyes, smile, with the pink hearts visible sculpted on the soles of the feet, raw warehouse in the background — The teddy bear in the warehouse

Three stylised cartoon birds sculpted in fibreglass: round brown bodies with grey wings, round black eyes, yellow beaks — two with short rounded beaks on the left, one with a long toucan beak on the right, set in the workshop warehouse — Three cartoon birds, warehouse

Rows of bowling pins sculpted in fibreglass: classic bowling-bottle shape, white with three red stripes near the top, laid horizontally in the workshop, alphabet cubes in yellow and pink with letters S and A visible in the background — Bowling pins and alphabet cubes, in build

The three giant blue dice

Giant alphabet cubes in yellow and pink with sculpted letters and numbers (A, S, V, 5), pink bases, lined up in the workshop yard — The alphabet cubes, front view

Four giant yellow toy ducks sculpted in fibreglass: golden body with sculpted feathers, wide orange beak, round black eyes, lined up like a fairground duck-shoot — The flotilla of rubber ducks

Pair of oversize rocking horses in the workshop yard: stylised horse in pale blue on magenta crescent-shaped rockers — The rocking horses

Scenic hot-air balloon in our workshops: red-and-white striped sculpted canopy, white rib structure, woven wicker base; in the background the workshop shelving full of Roman statues, capitals and friezes — The hot-air balloon among the workshop archives

Scenic ball-armchair: bowling-ball shaped red shell with vertical white stripes, internal red velvet seat, circular base in the shape of a yellow and orange crown — The ball-armchair, a one-off

Tech sheet

All production data

Type: Set design for a TV game show · set + bestiary of oversize props
Show: Il Braccio e la Mente · Canale 5 early-evening slot · 7 May — 13 July 2012
Format: Body and Brain by Red Arrow International (Germany) · first-ever production worldwide
Direction: Giorgio Romano (7-24 May 2012) · Roberto Cenci (from 25 May to the end) · Sergio Colabona (pilot episode)
Production: Mediaset · in-house production
Host: Flavio Insinna
Characters built: Three identical blue retro robots · seven British royal guards in red cloak and black bearskin · a row of nutcracker soldiers with moustaches · a family of brown bunnies · two giant teddy bears
Play-objects: Three one-metre blue dice · rows of bowling pins in white with red stripes · alphabet cubes in yellow and pink with letters and numbers · a flotilla of yellow rubber ducks · a pair of rocking horses
Large one-off pieces: Red-and-white hot-air balloon with wicker basket · red-and-white ball-armchair on golden crown base · stylised steam locomotive installed on set
Setting: Red industrial structure with beams and rivets, two-tier shelving, painted backdrop with cogwheels and gears
Techniques: Hand-carved expanded polystyrene · fibreglass reinforcement · saturated acrylic paint · walkable architecture built for a TV studio
Our role: Full build of every scenic piece — sculpture, reinforcement, polychrome finishing, delivery to the studio · more than twenty different pieces delivered before launch
End of the show: Low ratings despite mid-run changes (director swap, shortened opening titles, earlier start time) · cancelled on 13 July 2012
Second life: Several pieces entered our rental catalogue · some of the larger ones (hot-air balloon, ball-armchair) kept in our workshops

Other TV shows with sculpted sets for Mediaset and RAI

Chi ha incastrato Peter Pan — Bonolis's transformer robot on Canale 5
Ciao Darwin — Bonolis's Genodrome portal on Canale 5
Grande Fratello VIP 3 — the prehistoric Cave at Cinecittà
Topo Gigio Show — the Gigioland tent village
Cristina Parodi Live — LA7's biomorphic LED sculpture
Rock Politik — Celentano's Manhattan skyline

Second life

The early-evening slot
that didn't work out.

Despite the production team's efforts — swapping director mid-run, cutting Insinna's sung opening, moving the start time forward by fifteen minutes — the ratings of Il Braccio e la Mente never took off. On 13 July 2012, after just over two months of early-evening broadcasts, Mediaset pulled the show. It didn't return in the following seasons.

For Flavio Insinna it was a one-off experience: the following year he went back to Rai and in 2018 took over L'Eredità, the Rai 1 early-evening show that kept him on screen for years. Il Braccio e la Mente remained an isolated experiment — a format Italian audiences never warmed to, despite the scenographic investment.

The toy factory, on the other hand, was useful to us afterwards. The series-sculpting techniques we refined here — fibreglass over a single master model for the identical series, one-offs for the large focal pieces — we still apply them in theme parks and in commissions for workshop props. Several individual pieces (the hot-air balloon, the ball-armchair, some of the teddy bears) entered our rental catalogue and have been reused for photo shoots and brand installations.