Scrapheap Challenge - Jet Racer and other challenges product reviews

For those of us who revere MacGyver and think W. Heath Robinson was a visionary irrationalist inventor, Scrapheap Challenge is the ultimate optical popcorn. Hosted by Robert Llewellyn and Lisa Rogers, we are treated to over 9 hours of bodging and mechanical improvisation the likes of which have my palms itching with the desire to jump right in and give it a go myself.

Hunting through mountains of cast-off scrap parts, machines and outright junk, the contestants must somehow assemble a thing... be it a car able to perform long-distance wheelies while retaining the ability to steer, or a vehicle capable of being carried as a backpack, a tank or a speedboat... no terrain is too tough, no task too outrageous to warrant a shot at the scrapheap. Monster Garage, eat ya heart out... this is recycling with attitude, and entertainment.

The teams are as varied as the tasks, with everyone from armed forces, medieval jousters, real estate agents and even the odd all-female team thrown in for flavour. They all have to complete some amazing tasks... and that's just the preliminary heats! Since this collection has the entire Season 6, we also get the semi-finals and the finals, where the tasks the resulting machines have to perform get tougher and more demanding of perfection.

Overall, this is a great way to blow away a rotten weekend. There are laughs galore... and if you can get past the HORRIBLE puns from the presenters, there's something in here for every man who dreams of a garden shed the size of a hardware store, with every tool and raw material imaginable... or who needs to think of a way to deal with the ever-expanding pile of junk metal down by the back fence.