Scrapheap

I work as an engineer, and I couldn't have come up with a show that did a better job promoting science/engineering while also being immensely entertaining. Here is a list of my reasons.

1) Scientists/engineers get to show their ingenuity at problem solving. I often laugh at the end at how clever their results are.

2) I feel better about people after watching. I've only seen 1 instance of bad behavior(team hoarding parts) made up for with teams happily sharing parts with opponents. This may also be due to the prize being a cool trophy rather than a lot of money.

3) Victory is achieved by working with your team to solve a hard problem. This is in contrast to other reality shows which seem to emphasize how well someone can scheme and manipulate other contestants.

4) You learn some of the science behind the designs. This is a show that makes both kids and adults smarter for watching.

5) It teaches the unspoken principals of engineering. 5a) Equipment/software is far from perfect, and you need to come up with a work-around. 5b) What gets built can behave in surprising ways, and you need to figure out why and fix it or work with it. 5c) Success is achieved by imagining multiple design ideas, and understanding the pros/cons of each choice. 5d) You have to trust and rely on every member of the team to do their job right.

Although I have only seen two episodes of it, Junkyard wars is an excellent show that defines the word 'creativity'. Two teams of people from various states in the US will be assigned a specific vehicle to make, whether its an all terrain vehicle or remote controlled torpedo. They have to make this vehicle out of materials found in a junkyard, hence the name. The rules of the show go nowhere into what the design of the vehicle will be, but they do make it so that extreme coordination and team work is required among the contestants. Watching the teams use their imagination and put their minds together is great. Its incredible how they manage to create something like a working ATV out of stuff found in a junk pile. The hosts also bring in an expert to offer his opinions on which team is doing well, or what style a specific team seems to be following. After the 10 hour time limit the teams sleep of the rest of the day, and on the next day they put their machines to the real test. Depending on what vehicle is required, the show will have a different obstacle course to put the teams' vehicles through. So if its an ATV they had to build, then the obstacle course is in the form of a race track consisting of various kinds of terrain. If its a remote controlled torpedo, then its more or less an obstacle course underwater. Overall this is a great show and I highly recommend anyone who has a functional brain to turn on the discovery channel and try to find the time this is shown.

The shows "Scrapheap Challenge" and "Junkyard Wars" really need to have separate IMDB entries.

Scrapheap Challenge ran for a total of 11 seasons or series in the UK from 1998 to 2010.

Junkyard Wars ran for a total of 5 seasons from 2001 to 2003 in the US and had 2 additional seasons as "Junkyard Mega-Wars" in 2002 and 2004.

Each show had different hosts, almost entirely different competing teams and only a few episodes of overlap. The biggest thing the 2 shows have in common is the theme of the show and the production company of RDF entertainment. Having both shows lumped all together into one IMDB entry is very confusing!

This review is about the UK show Scrapheap Challenge which is the original show.

Series 1-10 is excellent television! In particular Robert Llewellyn (S1-10) and Lisa Rogers (S5-10) really shine as the hosts of the show!

The machines the teams come up with are usually amazing and frequently hilarious for one reason or another. Not everything works properly but for me that makes the show feel a bit more like real life.

Unfortunately, season 11 is not good. The show changed production teams, had their budget cut significantly, lost their long established hosts, and lost their "home" junkyards which caused too much of a format change for me.

Watch seasons 1-10 and skip season 11. It's just too different for me to be really enjoyable.

Brilliant diy engineering, genuinely eccentric and talented host, actual tension and excitement. Despite not building a fire breathing, racing, 4x4 monster in every episode the engineering and build is always fantastic and interesting.

This is the most entertaining live action TV programme I have ever seen. Pitting two teams against each other in a contest of both brains and brawn to produce a complex working machine in 10 hours using only what they can find in the eponymous Scrapheap ("Junkyard" for you Americans) is just plain brilliant.

Not only entertaining but educational as well. To make it possible to build the machines, the teams must be able to grasp the basic operational principles behind each one. The explanations they give are a great way of passing that understanding on to the audience.

For some of the projects, I suspect that the scrapheap is "seeded" with some specialist items without which successful construction would be virtually impossible. However, that does not detract from the flow of the programme at all.

The producers also like to select teams full of colourful and eccentric characters. When people with nicknames like "Bowser", "Nosher" and "Lurch" feature, you just know they aren't going to "go quietly into the good night".

I rate this show very highly. I think any country whose citizens pride themselves on their ingenuity and "can-do" attitude would get a real kick out of this programme.

Channel 4 should be very proud of their work.