Well, some of the earlier episodes were less than
inspiring when contestants spent literally HOURS
pulling parts from vehicles only to not have them work
at all.
Remember that no matter what they're building
(cannons, hang-gliders, amphibious vehicles), they are
given exactly 10 hours to plan/design, scrounge and
manufacture the vehicle. (man, if we could get our
mechanics to put in that kind of turn around
time..."We'll be done with that oil change in a day or
two.")
They've also started adding "specialists" to the teams
. The most recent episodes have teams of three that
know each other, and a specialist in the field of
whatever is then added to the group. (They added a guy
who's specialty is building model air planes...Gee, I
wonder what they're going to have us try to build.
DUH.)
In the episode with the amphibious vehicles, one team
was given buckets of chemical foam to seal the leaks
in their rover. In the episode with cannons, the crews
were given the explosives necessary to propulse the
projectiles. And more recently, it's been obvious that
typical junk yard fair wouldn't work to produce
anything more than disapointing end results.
Derigables made out of trash bags, probably not..But,
HEY LOOK! Here's a whole roll of MYLAR! And we have
some working radio toy controllers, that someone
conveniently discarded.
But, it's still an entertaining show (especially the
earlier episodes when it wasn't so obviously that
items were "placed" there for the contestants to
find.) Maybe they should change the name to "EGG HUNT
WARS".
-Terry
P.S. If I'd been in the episode with the
derigable/model airplane....I would have found one
working remote and then performed a Seek and destroy
on all the others in the junk yard. Try to win now,
mojammers!
--- Vic Whitmore <vicwhit@home.com> wrote:
>
> Yes, I agree with Dave. Many, if not all, of the
> challenges are scripted. I saw
> the same episode of the helium balloon. If you
> recall the opposition was an
> airplane and a suitable engine was a key component.
> Strangely enough they found
> a leaf blower motor. And every junkyard comes
> complete with a useable wing from
> a Cessna. Right?
>
> Still, it is an entertaining show...when you have
> nothing else to do.
>
> Vic Whitmore
> 76 Spitfire
> Thornhill, Ontario
>
> Dave Chu wrote:
> >
> > In message
>
<20001214182847765.AAA204@mail.141.com@smtp.141.com>you
> write:
> > >
> > >Is this show on cable? In fact, I don't even
> think I've seen it on the cable s
> > >chedule here!
> > >
> > It is on TLC, locally in Montreal the show airs
> on Wednesday night. I saw
> > the marathon session while I was visiting
> friends in Pheonix. But I think
> > some of the items that the participants needs
> are planned. There was one
> > show where a group needed special plastic films
> to construct a Helium air
> > ship. Ordinary plastic won't do because helium
> atoms are small and regular
> > plastic will let the helium escape. They ended
> finding a brand new roll
> > of plastic film in the boot of a car for them to
> construct their air ship.
> >
> > Dave
> |\ | | |
> > _______________________________________/\ /\
> /\_____| \|_____| |____________
> > Dave Chu \/ \/
> | /| | |
> > Dept. of Elec. & Comp. Eng.
> |/ | | |
> > Concordia University
> Voice:(514)848-3115 Fax:(514)848-2802
> > 1455 de Maisonneuve W. H961
> Email:dave@ece.concordia.ca
> > Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1M8
> http://www.ece.concordia.ca/~dave/addr.html
> >
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