Does the gadgets constructed go to some Junkyard War museum to be put on display, are they dismantled and the parts scattered throughout the junkyard to be recycled in other future wars, or are they simply sent to the crusher?
In the Bloopers & Trashy Outtakes episode, they said they specially stock the Junkyard before each competition, and they recycle the parts afterwards for future competitions.
This tells me they intentionally put certain items in the junkyard needed for that week’s project, but also some generic items that can be adapted. Some of these items surely come from previous competitions, although they haven’t made special mention of this in any of the episodes I’ve seen.
On one of the recent episodes I saw, a team started off with a cut-down Geo Metro that had been used in a previous ep involving the creation of bridging machines. Some of the decorative paint applied by the previous team had clearly been sprayed over with primer. In the end, however, the wreckage was discarded for something else.
It’s no secret that the set is sometimes seeded with materials that would be unlikely to turn up in a scrapyard, such as live solid rocket canisters. The narration for an ep featuring homemade monster trucks mentioned that the highly valuable wheels for one of the teams’ creations had been donated by a manufacturer of agricultural equipment.
One of my favorite shows, BTW. Gotta love that boat/car/motorcycle whatsit the Russian Bears cobbled together last week. Hilarious, even if it didn’t work very well.
I also noticed during the Megawars episode that they specifically gave each of the teams two seats as opposed to making them scavage them from the yard. Don’t know why seats though…
They usually give them seats on events involving high speed racing. It’s a safety issue - they want to make sure they use approved racing seats with safety harnesses, and they want to make sure each team has the right number of seats.
It’s so that the teams don’t design a crazy seating arrangement, like that episode of South Park featuring the Hand Puppet teacher’s design of “IT” car where you are locked into position with a set of orifice probes.
So who won the Megawars? I unfortunately missed that one.
The Americans.
A SLIGHT HIJACK ON JUNKYARD WARS
Was the guy that originally hosted the show the same guy that plays the robot in Red Dwarf?
Yes, he plays both roles. Here is Robert Llewellyn’s web site:
Did the Wars originate in the UK?
Has the show been on there for a while?
I noticed the show has been in the US as well…
By the way! The Megawars were kinda strange the Russians didn’t seem to have a chance. Isn’t that peculiar to anyone else?
They had the same chance as everyone else. They were in the same junkyard with the same parts. It seemed to me that they were just poor designers. They did an amazing job of actually putting the thing together, but they started off with a bad design.
When the American team’s vehicle overheated from not having air blown across the radiator was I the only one who was screaming at the screen, "Pull the freakin’ radiator hoses off and suck in the lake water!!!"
The program began as “Scrapheap Challenge” in the UK, and the British version remains in production. The US show started first with recycled SC episodes, added American teams competing at the UK site last year, and this year both the US and UK versions are being taped Stateside, at a yard somewhere in Southern California.
This interview with presenter Cathy Rogers provides more details:
Well, they did take first place in the water leg of the event.
There was an earlier eposide of the show featuring amphibious vehicles. The “put wheels on a boat” approach failed miserably in that one too, when up against the “make a car float” approach.
I thought the whole Megawars show was boffo!
I thought the three-team concept of the Megawars episode was better than the usual one-on-one approach. I hope they keep it. Or at least try it a few more times.
Really liked the Mega War format. Hopefully they do it again. Man that Russian contraption was a riot.
-me
Y’know, with all of the camping and fishing I do in the summer, a boatcyclemobile like that would come in pretty handy.
Actually, I think the russians had a decent chance of winning, if the chain hadn’t fallen off/broken during the rock climb part. They were well ahead time wise, and most likely could have made the gully in the vehicle. Bad luck the chain.
Something I noticed about junkyard wars…
The first episodes on TLC involved your basic British junk
in a basic British junkyard. Renaults, Opels, Vauxhalls, and every other car make with right-hand drive.
In the background, you see a blue monorail-type thingy way up high…what IS that anyway?
Later broadcasts with the American host and some American teams here held in the same junkyard…with the same blue
monorail…but now the junkyard has AMERICAN JUNK!
Chevy Monte Carlos, Ford Broncos, Cadillacs, all with
BIG JUICY V8s! Detroit cast-iron push-rod power!
Don’t tell me they loaded up a barge in America with our junk and IMPORTED it over there!