Full Metal Challenge

[waider]

Full Metal Challenge is a show in the genre of Scrapheap Challenge and Junkyard Wars; find ~20 teams, give each of them $3K and 30 days to build an all-purposed vehicle without giving them much clue why, and pit the results against each other on an insane set of games housed inside a disused power station in the UK while Henry Rollins and Cathy whose second name I can't remember host the thing. In my typical fashion, I saw week one and then completely forgot what night of the week AND what channel it was on, so missed week two. Tonight, the Deathguild from San Francisco had their asses kicked at sumo wrestling by some Icelandics in a far lighter machine, while the British team lost out in the first round by basically being crap.

Yes, sumo wrestling.

The insane set of games I've seen so far comprise

• Ten Pin: 12-foot-tall bowling pins on a slippery surface. Two runs to knock as many as you can. Best I've seen so far is Deathguild with 8 pins on the first run.
• Pitball: 6-foot "ball" made of metal tubing with a burning bit at the centre, sitting in a large circular pit. First team to push it out of the pit gets maximum points, then the two others play off for second place.
• Roller Coaster: drive your car around a sort of roller-coaster track, accruing 20-second penalties each time any part of your car goes off the track. The obstacles include two 50-foot seesaws and a very tight reverse-camber turn.
• Swamp, or something: drive your car through water of varying depth (deep enough to almost submerge the front of a Land Rover Discovery), avoiding obstacles and reversing in a full circle around three fire hydrants on various parts of the course.
• Hall of Mirrors: a maze, with revolving doors and mirrored walls. The walls aren't exactly built to withstand abuse, so you have to wait for the walls to move rather than driving through them. The object is to drive to the centre of the maze and back out again fastest. The non-driving team members get to give the driver directions while watching the antics on a monitor.

After three of the above, points are added up - 3 for a win, 2 for second, 1 for first - and the loser at that point gets their car tossed in a furnace. Actually, this is the bit of the show that I'm not satisfied, but I'll get back to that. The two remaining cars get put in a ring where the rules of sumo apply, approximately - you win by pushing your opponent out of the ring. However, it has to be completely out of the ring - a foot, er, wheel won't do. As(or If) the rounds progress without a winner, the playing area gets progressively smaller until it's basically just about big enough to contain both cars, after which it goes to judges for a points decision.

This is a really, really good show. Rollins is bloody excellent as a host, and the cars are pretty astounding. As I said, the only bit I'm not happy with is the car-destroying; they show the car being dragged towards what could be a furnace, or a room filled with dry ice and red strobes, and then they set off a pyro just behind the car and when the smoke clears there's no sign of the car. I mean, jeez. Did they give back the cars after all? Where's the fun in that? That niggle aside, though, I'll try and remember to switch on Channel 4 at 17:30 next Sunday. Actually, I'll probably driving back from Doolin then. Crap.

Comments

[loosestrife.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to imagine it, and finding that the game pales in comparison with the idea of Henry Rollins as a show host, period.

[waider.livejournal.com]

One of the funnier moments in last night's show (which is apparently episode seven, and the first I saw was episode five[1]) was when the English team had their machine consigned to the faux furnace. Cathy Rogers (yay, I remembered her name!) was commiserating with them and saying how they'd done a good job and so on, and mid-sentence Henry comes in from off frame, shouldering Cathy out of the way while saying, "Whatever! Let's burn their car!" or words to that effect.

It turns out there's a Full Metal Challenge website, too.