Junkyard Wars: The Next Generation

A reader writes: "The makers of Junkyard Wars are starting up a new series called Ultimate Machine Combat. 30 teams and 30 days each to build "ultimate fighting vehicle" to battle in a "secret arena". This is attracting gear heads of all genres, including my local Jeep Club."

One problem...

[SGDarkKnight]

I'm all for junkyeard wars and all, but i don't think they should let people spend more on the machine that what they are allocated. This just means that someone will probably go and get some rich sponsor to give them a wack load of money, then hire some nasa engineers to design and build the machine.

On the other hand, I can't wait to see the competition, should be really intresting.

Dangerous?

[Geeyzus]

I am assuming, since this is coming from the Junkyard Wars standpoint and not necessarily Battlebots, are these vehicles manned?

And if so, there have to be some pretty strict regulations. Is this going to be a demolition derby or a large-scale battlebots war with pneumatic spikes and huge sawblades ripping cars apart? Obviously any humans in the ring would be in serious danger. So I have to imagine these things are unmanned.

This is probably then 1 of 3 possibilities:

• Manned cars, but the safety regulations will turn this into a glorified demolition derby... *yawn*
• Unmanned cars, so a huge-scale battlebots thing.... pretty cool, and very expensive... cool to watch I'm sure. But I doubt this is the format.
• Unmanned, small remote control cars.... so, Battlebots. But why would they re-do Battlebots???

My thoughts are, that this will be a really cool, dangerous show, or a boring Battlebots ripoff... hard to tell from the website.

Mark

Re:Dangerous?

[EricWright]

Well, the FAQ says the vehicle must accomodate a roll cage. Pretty useless unless someone is going to be *in* the thing.

Eric

What I want to know

[anti-snot]

Are they still doing the silly thing with an audience? Shows of this nature *should* be filmed in the wilderness with the (few) required cameramen in bunkers and the human combatants safely sealed away... then they can get rid of those silly safety rules. Like explosives, adhesives, electrics, liquids...

Re:cool..but

[daeley]

Yeah, Carmen is cool to look at, but she doesn't hold a candle to the beautiful, brainy, and British Cathy Rogers [discovery.com].

Re:Local jeep club

[debiansierra]

this is funny? +3 funny? you lost me there, while humorous, did it deserve a modding of any caliber? oh, yeah, this must be flamebait, mod away. (Amazing cynicism from someone who has yet to be modded down but is still disgusted at the apparent idiocy of MOST mods)

Re:cool..but

[UberOogie]

Carmen Electra has ruined BattleBots.

Sure, she looks nice in a generic and souless kind of way, but at least the other BattleBot bimbos they had in previous seasons could fake enthusiasm in a somewhat believable way. Electra just stands there, stock still, with the microphone in the spokesmodel position, and then whores herself out monotone. You can tell she is just doing it for the money and hates being there.

And now, the show has become Carmen Electra & Battlebots. She is in every segment. They talk about her, get her to do interviews, or cut to her in the stands so she can say one line, and then cut back to the booth so they can make some sexual innuendo about her one line.

Sad.

Okay, I'm done now.

Yeah, we're OT at this point, but I'm capped. Go crazy.

Robots fighting Robots - no more crap

[CKW]

I'm sick of seeing two small wedges on wheels roll around like they were being driven by drunk mice, with matches only lasting 60 seconds, usually ended by some kind of mysterious mechanical failure. I'm sick of seeing "house robots" and "obstacle courses".

I want to see two robots fight one another, nothing else.

I want to see a plain empty gravel pit, with no crowds. I want to see two robots go in, and only one come out. I want to see four class systems. Weight classes, cost classes, power classes, and armaments classes.

Power Classes:
- Batteries
- Unlimited

Armaments Classes:
- Mechanical weapons only
- liquid/flamable-fuel/sub-cm-projectile based weapons allowed*
- Unlimited class, large caliber projectiles, explosives and shaped charges, and EMP weapons allowed.

The weight and costs classes will have to be set depending on just how many people are willing to compete in them, and considering that now most people have to face the real possibility of having their bot totalled in-game.

May the best team win.

And this time, the losers really do go to the scrapheap!

(*) go-go-gadget sand-blaster! :)

Re:cool..but

[Fishstick]

>cut back to the booth so they can make some sexual innuendo about her one line

Yahknow, I'm up for a good double-entendre as much as the next guy, but these are forced and unfunny. Plus, I like to watch this show with my kids, and I crindge now everytime they cut to Carmen.

Notice how they cut to her a lot and she doesn't have anything interesting to say? She 'interviews' the contenstants after the bout:

So, you guys really 'creamed' them, didn't you *wink,wink*?

Heh, yah... he's a really good driver, and we just tried to keep_

OK, thanks! Back to you, Bill!

Give me Cathy Rogers *any* day.

Hopefully British

[nedron]

Hopefully, this will be produced in England, as the American-based show was terribly lame. The male hosts were terrible and the American teams too, too, how do I say it --- too American! I'm an American and there is nothing worse than watching a bunch of bozos running around "whoop, whooping" and "raising the roof". Ugh! Additionally, it seemed as though many of the challenges were simply rehashes of British shows.

I'm also not looking forward to this new series because I'm not into monster trucks or demolition derbies, which is the crowd this show seems to be targetting.