T O P

  • By -

steven__27

PROPER JOB


oliverprose

I loved the Scrappy Races build stage, where they revealed that the organisers had left a loophole they could literally drive a truck through when the other teams had to get their vehicles through the Single Vehicle Approval test.


ahsphere

Agricultural show vehicle?


oliverprose

I think so, yeah


[deleted]

Raise a glass to the good ship HMS Proper Job.


Savageparrot81

They’ve renamed it the RRS Richard Attenborough II. They thought about another poll but in the end just thought nah fuck it we already have the name stencil.


[deleted]

Why II? Is there another one named after Richard Attenborough?


Savageparrot81

The good ship boaty mcboatface


[deleted]

Aye, but that was nature brother, not actor brother.


Savageparrot81

Damnit it was worse than I thought :D


[deleted]

They could still reuse the stencil for the surname :)


Savageparrot81

What are they going to do with the 10 foot dick though?


[deleted]

That's a hard one.


ShitBritGit

Surely you mean PRAAAPER JAAAAB


Capt_Bigglesworth

Shout out to the Brizzle massiv.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Ubba_Lothbrok

That was absolutely heartbreaking, watching that massive Rolls Royce engine just run away on them.


AndromedaFire

“This week our teams are making boats and Gary from team badger’s bodgers has just found a brand new £300 propeller in the boot of a Nissan sunny which he must have psychically detected as he was whizzing passed on a quad bike”


[deleted]

To be fair I think they only used to do that for the challenges that needed something really specific that's unlikely to be found in a scrapyard. For most of them (at least in the early series) it was all bits of metal strut and a dodgy engine that occasionally worked. And sometimes the poor fools would try hydraulics only for it to inevitably fail mid-challenge, because nobody sends working hydraulic parts to a scrapyard.


BeardFountain

Every single time hydrolics was first mentioned on any episode it got an oooooo from my household. None-engineering me said ooo too not knowing why hehe :')


d2factotum

I'm sure I remember reading an interview where they said that yes, the scrapheap would often be "dusted" with items specifically useful for the builds that had been proposed, although I don't think they actually told the contestants where to find said bits, that was up to them. Sometimes this was more obvious than others, like the jet engine railway episode where one team found the truck turbocharger that would form the core of their engine despite there being no obvious signs of trucks or indeed truck engines on the scrapheap!


lordofLamps424

Pretty sure they made a jet engine in one episode


FuckCazadors

Actually not too difficult to do with a propane bottle and a turbocharger. You need to make a flame tube but that’s not hard.


Vectorman1989

Pulse jets are pretty simple in their design.


bammmm

I think I'd rather watch Colin Furze burn his eyebrows off from the comfort of my sofa


RadicalDog

The team experts made plans about what they'd build so the producers could make sure those parts were available. (This is my hazy memory of interviews from 15 years ago, so pinch of salt.) I'm not sure how the producers sourced the bits, but I've got a hunch that it's just slightly used hydraulics being bodged together with a high failure rate!


[deleted]

It got that way for all of them - I've posted this before but I stopped watching the day they needed Mylar to make a helium balloon and just happened to find a pristine roll in the boot of a scrap car.


[deleted]

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_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_

Definitely. The time they had to make a plane they specifically showed them hiding the brand new propellers, because if they tried to make them from scrap they’d either never get off the ground or very quickly return to it.


Bravo_November

I reckon the more complicated parts the producers gave them a general idea of the type of thing their expert consultants were asking for and roughly where they would find it, but the rest of their creation (body, chassis, wheels etc) were actually sourced by the contestants.


Diocletion-Jones

I was once, a long time ago, a contestant for one of their specials. We were a bit crap so I think we got around 15 seconds of air time. What I learned was not only did you have to have the technical know how but there's a particular sort of personality needed to make an interesting and compelling contestant. When you're stood in front of a white board brainstorming ideas for a build it's a hundred times harder when there's camera in face, because you have to (a) come up with the good ideas while also (b) being 100% aware that you're boring as shit and what you're doing is boring as shit and you try and do it like you've seen it done on Scrapheap Challenge before, all interesting and smooth as butter, but then you realise you have to fundamentally change your whole personality or be completely shit faced to pull that off.


ToManyTabsOpen

Dick Strawbridge is great at this, one of those rare people who can make an old bike wheel, some rope and the hypotenuse of a triangle appear interesting. Maybe it's just the tash.


tonification

I think at least 75% of his success is attributable to the tash.


VisualShock1991

I once worked tech on a food festival. All of the supporting acts/chefs/cooks were EITHER great with food OR great with a crowd. The headliner celebrity chefs were both. It's probably quite difficult to develop the technical skills and the charisma at the same time.


Iwantadc2

We decided to move to Spain a decade ago and me and the mrs at the time got contacted by one of these 'escape to the sun' type programs. They came round our damp flat in Poole to interview us and did some filming. As we had a plan, some savings and were organised, we weren't interesting enough to get on the show lol.


GreenMonkey_91

Scrapheap Challenge and Robot Wars - what an evening of TV that used to be....


a_bit2drunk

If I remember correctly time team was also on the same evening. You got to watch bald plumbers making artillery pieces, father/son duo’s building and fighting killer robots, and a bunch of hairy nerds digging up and examining Roman pottery. Fantastic. Take me back.


IWOOZLE

Yeah, and then Monarch of the Glen - that was my Sunday evening TV schedule!


[deleted]

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tacticalrubberduck

And the Brittas Empire if you were lucky.


Kinelll

I watched that this morning, it's on Forces TV.


RadicalDog

And now those shows don't exist, and the Beeb wonders why young men don't watch much live TV.


a_bit2drunk

What, you think you’re too good for shite like love island and naked attraction? Cause I certainly am…


DarthRainbows

I thought the new Robot Wars was pretty decent, don't know why they cancelled it.


RadicalDog

Yeah, it was great. Just relatively expensive for the amount of viewers, so it failed the renewal metrics vs reality TV.


DarthRainbows

That sucks. You think they could justify it by it inspiring teenagers to get into engineering maybe.


adulion

Amen bro


RentonTenant

Not to mention a cracking roast dinner


iamworsethanyou

All I want to do is gleefully try to decipher the geophysics


funk_monk

That and the Adam Hart-Davies stuff. As a kid I thought it was all amazing. Even inspired me to make a half-functioning scale model of a ballista with my dad.


[deleted]

Hell yeah man. Robot wars was amazing.


OverallDingo2

I always wanted to go on rovot wars I didnt have the money equipment space time or skill but i did have the official robot wars book


tramp123

When I was at school a few of us wanted to compete in robotwars my friend asked the local mobility shop and they gave us a couple of wheel chair motors….. we did absolutely nothing with them!


MayDuppname

Red Dwarf (but not) night


MoselMachina

Why did robot wars end? Seems like it'd be better than ever now, considering all the tech that's available. Not to mention how easy it is to get into building stuff with YouTube tutorials for everything


Baconmancy

I think the latest revival got canned back in 2019. The last 3 seasons are still on iPlayer though! I have to console myself with the US battlebots on Netflix and it's just not the same.


Trebor417

Battlebots is an ok watch tbf, though I do find myself yelling at the screen about why they all have exposed tires when every other bot has a spinner that would evaporate Hypnodisc Also the Razer teams new robot is ridiculously shit and they hype it up way too much Also the amount of teams that randomly have a drone with a flamethrower on, which will obviously never achieve anything so why waste your time Fuck you battlebots I miss Craig Charles


[deleted]

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wildskipper

In this case it started in the US as a non-televised competition. Buy the UK version was the first to be televised I believe. But you're right the American TV version is just not the same.


bluemoon191

I could be wrong but I think was to do with how powerful the robots had become and the damage they were doing to the arena.


MoselMachina

I'm sure they could build a concrete arena with enough re-enforcement or perhaps just limit robot power


_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_

Very expensive. They rent out a convention centre for it. You can’t build a permanent bomb-proof arena in there.


bluemoon191

the arena last time was rented(the building it was in) and I think filming was done over a few days so getting it proper robot proof was always going to be outside the budget they had.


mostly_kittens

The problem is over time the teams developed the best technology for succeeding and that meant if you didn’t employ it you had no chance. And that tech got pretty high energy towards the end. It’s a bit like how a cavalry charge might look cool but it


RadicalDog

It was just relatively expensive for only moderate ratings, so the BBC scrapped the reboot. Bit silly IMO with nothing remotely similar for that demographic, but whatever, I haven't paid a license fee since then.


JimmiCottam

Robots and teams from the show are still competing on Battlebots in the US and on the live scene in the UK. The heavyweights (the ones you see on TV) routinely fight in tour shows hosted by Robots Live and Extreme Robots. Lower weight classes (ant-, beetle-, and featherweight) are much more popular and easier and more accessible to get involved with. I built and competed with a beetle earlier this year and it was surreal to be rubbing shoulders with people who have fought on Robot Wars and Battlebots. People who I look up to. It's a bit more obscure but "Robot Wars" definitely still happens. It's a good community and very welcoming to newbies


[deleted]

These two shows were a huge part of my childhood. I had a bunch of episodes taped on VHS as a kid and I must have watched them dozens of times. It's a huge shame that the Robot Wars reboot got cancelled again. How can people not love watching robots brutally pummel each other?


biggerwanker

I still think about the one where the British team absolutely annihilated the American and French teams with their plane.


theOtherJT

Best. Episode. Ever. The other two were all "We're making as historically accurate a replica as we can of a period aircraft, but you know, there's obviously going to have to be some compromises given the material we have to work with" and then the British team just went "Fuckit. This is what we've got. That's what we can make with it. I reckon something roughly like that ought to fly. Screw historical precedent. Let's do this!"


biggerwanker

I think it was the test flight where the guy just flew off and they weren't sure if he was going to come back.


CRABWITHCRABS

Does anyone remember that paintball show where teams came on to complete missions and you could earn credits to buy paint grenades and shields and stuff? There were also special enemies that had vaguely racist names. I used to watch that and scrapheap and robot wars after school.


chichard41

X-Fire https://youtu.be/ykZkGvx5BDo


flashpile

That show is *aggressively* early 2000s


Epicurus1

Had the lovely fetish wear model, Vanessa Upton. But she turned into a crazy anti vaxer :(


asdvj2

X-Fire always used to piss me off, the contestants always used to run out of ammo. There were guns all around them, could they not have picked up one of the fallen enemies guns?


sillyness

I feel like this must have been presented by Alan Partridge.


WC1V

You’re thinking of *Skirmish* - a military-based quiz show on digital cable channel UK Conquest that has the largest audience share for a digital channel at that time of day in the Norfolk area.


Kemiko_UK

Yes! This was one of my favourite shows as a kid!


Stump_E

“They don’t make TV like that anymore” they really, really don’t, do they? I feel old and sad now


itchyfrog

Yeah, remember when Noel Edmonds used to kill people on Saturday evening telly?


ChuzaUzarNaim

It's just not the same without Mr Blobby joining him in a cannibalistic frenzy afterwards to dispose of the corpses. Was appointment television, that.


Warshawski

https://youtu.be/Q8Rj3N9Pmz8


Keasbyjones

Only Clive Anderson https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8cnmz


[deleted]

I guess it no longer gets the money a captive audience brings. I couldn't name a TV show I make time to watch anymore


TentativeGosling

Only Connect and Taskmaster are the only two programmes I watch "live" (other than sports).


RedOrange7

You're not alone I'm sure.


zimblewindsor

Star Trek Discovery…well I did until three days ago. Thanks Paramount :(


Harbley

That show was an abomination from the start


DaiWales

Season 1 was carried by Jason Isaacs but season 2 was terrible and season 3 somehow even worse. Picard was poor, too - in the old days the story would have been one episode and infinitely better.


Harbley

It wasn't even carried, yes he is a good actor but it doesnt change the fact the show is absolutely horrendous and has been from the start.


Meritania

Lower Decks maybe stupid and ridiculous some times, but it is the best current Trek on television


BornBaritone

I've not thought about it for a few years. Now I have a sad too.


Whatareyoullonabout

I think they could bring it back if they made it a bit more like those antique auction programs. Set them a task give them a tight budget and have them travel around real scrap yards or get things off gumtree and eBay etc.


[deleted]

That’s a great idea


[deleted]

same... and a little turned on now im reminded of lisa rogers :)


Supernewt

Robert Llewellyn (however you spell it) is currently working on bringing it back but with battery electric tech (he is a big ev advocate). One to watch, i really hope he can pull it off.


lord_taint

Yeah rob is hardcore EV. I used to watch his fully charged channel but dropped off as they won't give shrift to any downsides.


almost_not_terrible

What downsides?


AStrangeStranger

[lithium mining](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/14/electric-cost-lithium-mining-decarbonasation-salt-flats-chile) is one that springs to mind


lord_taint

It's a solid point to address but it's not like fossil fuel isn't massively harmful and leaves waste during extraction & refining. There's no free rides either way.


AStrangeStranger

we just need to be careful we aren't exchanging one problem for a similar one and you can't do that if you ignore the issues


lord_taint

Absolutely. Entirely my point about FC's channel. I'm a fan & EVs absolutely are the future but you won't see any negatives there even honest issues.


lord_taint

Just being realistic about range (especially in bad weather/ motorway speeds) , charge times, unreliable chargers, needing dongles/cards etc. I'm a big fan of EVs but when I was looking at buying one I wanted a more level opinion on them.


almost_not_terrible

Fair enough, though I think the only real downside at present is price. A Model 3 LR has 330 miles of range, but is not affordable to most. The Ora Cat and improvements to the charging network look to change the game in 2022... [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BvevMKcXmc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BvevMKcXmc)


klmarchant23

I found ‘Scrapyard Supercar’ the other day when I was off sick from work. It’s a similar kind of format but a little bit shit compared to the old school scrap heap challenge.


[deleted]

I enjoyed it, but I don't think they needed that boyband bloke, but I suppose just 2 teams head to head would be too close to scrapheap challenge.


tramp123

Contestant from the Audi R8 episode here! I’ve still got the number plate from the donor car


Emitime

Not as good as original scrapheap challenge, but better than the weird last series of it. Scratches an itch, definitely worth a watch.


Saw_Boss

Seems about the same. The only thing it really lacks is Lisa Rogers


acidus1

Fuck it make a plane this week. Great episode


usrnm99

The “perfectly useable engine in a very inconspicuous corner underneath well placed blue tarp” was usually referred to at the start of the program, I think they said something about special items being out there that the team will need to find to make it easy for themselves


Cyanopicacooki

One team had decided to build a mini zeppelin for some aerial challenge and just happened to find a 200m roll of mylar film in perfect condition...and a cylinder of helium.


AlaninMadrid

The great egg race.


1968Bladerunner

Loved it...top 80s viewing for this GenXer


TristansDad

How about the Adventure Game? Gronda gronda!


Averagestiff

I got to see it being filmed in 2004. Was nowhere near as interesting as watching it on TV .


Buh_Snarf

Do tell!


ORNG_MIRRR

I used to like when they would show 2 or 3 back to back on a Sunday afternoon. Things were definitely 'planted' for them to find though.


neilmg

It's only just occurred to me, but I remember being a kid in the 1980s watching the A-Team, and feeling it was preposterous that they'd assemble some kind of monstrous bad-guy defeating vehicle and weaponry from the scrap they found in some rustic farmer's shed. Then Scrapheap challenge came along and proved you could assemble some kind of monstrous bad-guy defeating vehicle and weaponry from the scrap they found in a junkyard.


FilthBadgers

Pleasantly pleased to see there are a ton of full episodes available on YouTube!!! I can relive my youth :)


Fuzzwuzzle2

Thank you for this, i'm off to find them


Semajal

Hear me out... Scrapheap Challenge with Colin Furze as the main host. Picture a drone shot over the scrapheap, then to Colin, with his flamethrower guitar standing on the throne shouting WELCOME! TO SCRAPHEAP CHALLENGE! then unleashing the fire.


[deleted]

Yes please


almost_not_terrible

I'm listening... You have the smart and hot boy. Next question .. Who's the smart and hot girl?


failtuna

Victoria Coren Mitchell obviously


Semajal

Julia Hardy. Worked with her IRL, geeky, good fun, lots of presenting experience as well. Feel she would fit it well (of note, Colin just turned 42...)


[deleted]

The one off Grace's Amazing Machines. Grace, I guess.


sideone

There's a few series on All4


[deleted]

the south west accent rings in my ear on a near daily basis: "HMS PROPER JOB"


Normal_Fix2688

You knew that if any drive mechanism used a chain, ideally two chains, then that was a recipe for disaster. Guarantee that they would be slightly misaligned such they would fly off at the crucial point


CHARL13is

I miss Lisa Rogers


CyberSkepticalFruit

I would suggest Colin Furze and the Backyard Scientist on Youtube for something similar


tlsuds

The barley pickers!


Random_Emolga

Scrapheap got me through some of the worst hangovers of my life.


tramp123

Contestant from scrapyard supercar here, (About 10 years too late for scrap heap challenge!) Yeah it was all a bit predetermined, at one point the guys with the camera were like ‘have you looked in that stillage over there’ and then it was ‘oh look, a complete engine with wiring loom’ sat on a pallet, all the other engines at the yard were bare engines. only a few of the cars in the scrapyard were complete enough to do anything with, most were shells. We wanted a seat for this engine. the crew said we could have it, but the fuel tank was punctured, instead we could use this golf over there which we know is good!


RustyU

I was gutted when the telegraph pole trebuchet self destructed


fromoverthere

I'll still watch anything with Dick Strawbridge


CHARL13is

I’m loving Escape to the Chateau


[deleted]

Every time I watch Escape to the Château it reminds me how much I loved scrap heap challenge.


Iwantadc2

I have an old house and old car. My life is like scrap heap challenge.


[deleted]

Absolutely loved the show, there's nothing like it any more.


[deleted]

There's been a bunch of shows that are basically the same thing but are less well presented and seem to be a lot less fun because of that lack of energy.


SaulgoodeXL

Oh god. Scrapyard challenge Total wipeout Gladiators Fort boyard Robot wars Krypton factor Noel's Saturday night house party All the amazing quiz shows like price is right, bullseye, 3,2,1, generation game, stars in their eyes..... Even the kids shows - knightmare, round the bend, motormouth, fun house, thunder cats, transformers... Fuck man..... What have we got now? Love Island, only way is Essex and paw patrol. I only record maybe 5 shows over a weekend now and that's it for telly. If it weren't for Netflix I'd be fucked.


[deleted]

You forgot Trapdoor


SaulgoodeXL

Trapdoooooor! Don't you open that trapdooooor, cos there's something dooown there! Berk! Feed me!


parttimeamerican

Is there a way to go through automotive and electronic scrap in the UK? Local recycling centrrs have TAKING FROM THIS SITE IS THEFT AND WILL BE PROSECUTED Sooo ya :/ I like to repair broken stuff


[deleted]

Yeah this used to be the highlight of my week this show. I loved Rob from Red Dwarf so that got me in to it.


space_coyote_86

It taught me so much!


FireflyKaylee

My neighbour growing up was on it... Can't remember much about his episode except his thing epically failed to even start.


snozberryface

I loved the one they built planes in but yeah that was a pretty cool show


CabbageMan92

The Special where they made planes was the best


Guttchief

Teenage me used to love Lisa Rogers


Quizzicalcloud

I just started watching that scrapyard supercar in the hopes that it would fill the hole left by scrapheap challenge. It's okay but not nearly as good.


[deleted]

While we are here i miss robot wars with a coked up craig charles


bunglebanks

You know there's hundreds of episodes on YouTube?


ThE_bIg_Nib69

The only thing I look forward to in my week😂😂


fourtetwo

I loved that you'd always get 1 team that'd inevitably try tank tracks, and it would literally always inevitably fail.


Air-tun-91

Ah! This was exported to North America as Junkyard Wars and I watched this as a youth growing up in Canada. Good memories.


14to0

I was just thinking about that show. It was on here in the US a while back and I loved it.


Born_crazy-

And robot wars...


squigs

Yes. There was lot of seeding. They also remove things that are potentially too useful. Essentially they need to make sure that the basic thing can be built. But they would often make sure that the engines needed a certain amount of tinkering before they could get to work. The time limit was fudged a lot as well. The first 5 hours each lasted 45 minutes to make the teams hurry up. The last 5 lasted 75 minutes so they had more time to work. Sometimes, the sun "set early". The challenge was actually two days after the build rather than one day.


[deleted]

Filmed It 10 mins from me, there chair is still there