Review of Full Metal Challenge

Introduction

Ah, the eccentric British inventor type. We love them. I had the pleasure of being related to one, a man who built his own diggers/fork lift trucks/cement mixers and more, but shuffled off this mortal coil too soon. Something like Full Metal Challenge would have been right up his street.

And it`s right up my street too, continuing the tradition of programmes featuring madcap inventors and the challenges devised for them by the programme makers. The seminal classic has to be The Great Egg Race, presented by Professor Heinz Wolff. The show ran for 8 years from 1978, and had a mini revival a few years ago, with edited versions appearing on BBC Choice/Three.

Combined with this mini revival was a new BBC show, Simply Complicated, where teams had to build machines to perform simple tasks. The machines had to be complicated though, with lots of bells and whistles which they didn`t need. That was the challenge, but the series didn`t last very long, like most original programming for BBC Choice/Three.

By far the most succesful oddball inventor show of recent years has been Scrapheap Challenge (originally known as just Scrapheap), and the made for the USA version, Junkyard Wars. Full Metal Challenge is the next step along the road. All of the shows in this paragraph have one common link - creator, producer and presenter Cathy Rogers.

Whilst watching Apollo 13, she was inspired to create Scrapheap, and gave up her presenting duties on that show in order to devote time to Full Metal Challenge, where 27 teams from all over the globe get $3000 to build a vehicle that will beat all the other vehicles in a series of challenges (more on the challenges in the Extras section). Cathy is joined in front of the camera by rocker Henry Rollins.

As I write this review, Full Metal Challenge is still airing on Channel 4. The DVD takes a look back at the series, in a documentary style, and it also tells you who won. So unless you want to know the winner in advance, don`t watch it before the 6th of July, when the final airs on Channel 4. From the clips of the final on show here, it`s worth waiting and not spoiling it.

Video

A 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer, which looks great, and is presented as it is being broadcast right now. There`s not a whole lot to say about it really, so let`s talk about the visuals of the show briefly.

The whole competition takes place at a converted power station, so they have a turbine hall and three giant chimney stacks in which to play. The overall theme (which arrived quite late in the pre-production stage) is of a fairground, and this design is carried well on a limited television budget.

Lastly to presenter Cathy Rogers - it looks like the wardrobe and make up departments drugged her before sending her out on to the set, since she seems to have had a bit of an image change post-Scrapheap Challenge. Maybe they wanted her to complete with her Scrapheap replacement, the unrelated Lisa Rogers?

Audio

A DD2.0 stereo soundtrack, which is pretty much what you would expect for a TV soundtrack. It`s adequate, and it does the job, and you get to hear big engines go "brrrm brrrm" a few times.

Features

With a rather short 60 minute main feature, it`s good that there are some extras (all presented in widescreen). Let`s take a look under the bonnet.

I suggest that you start with "Interactive Team Information", which is a White Rabbit style extra which allows you to access a clip about each team and their vehicle when it is seen in the main feature. This helps to increase the running time of the main feature.

"The Teams" - this gives you information and stats about each team, and a video clip narrated by Cathy, a bit like you get during each broadcast.

"The Set" has Greg Bryant walking us around the site and talking about the different games, how they were devised, built and tested. Very interesting, and only devalued by the lack of a "play all" feature - you have to keep going back to the menu unless you are ready with your Chapter Skip button. Here`s what you get to see:-

Ten Pin: the vehicle is the ball, the pins are 12 feet high.

Pitball: the vehicle is the football player, the ball is on fire.

Hall of Mirrors: the vehicle drives around a maze of rotating mirrors.

Bumper Cars: the vehicle is the ball in a giant game of pinball.

Rollercoaster: the vehicle has to navigate a rollercoaster style course.

Wetropolis: the vehicle has to navigate a giant fjord.

Sumo: the vehicle is the clinically obese Japanese wrestler.

King of the Hill: the vehicle must be the first to climb ever increasing slopes.

Grand International: the vehicle must navigate an interpretation of the Grand National course at Aintree. Twice.

Those last 2 have not yet been seen on TV, as they were saved for the semi finals and final respectively. Grand International was definitely worth saving.

"Interviews" features a chat with Henry Rollins, Cathy Rogers, director Julia Knowles and rigger Wes Moore. Worth watching.

"Interactive Games" is just another name for a couple of multi angle features which give you the chance to watch the action from different angles, including the onboard cameras that were compulsory in each vehicle.

Conclusion

The show itself is very enjoyable and worth watching if you are a fan of any of the programmes that I mentioned in the introduction. This DVD is a bit of a mixed bag though. It`s also enjoyable and worth watching, but it only lasts an hour. With nearly 10 hours of material appearing in the TV broadcast, what`s happened to the other 9? It`s a bit too distilled, and could have lasted at least 2 hours. Ok, so the extra features make up for it a bit, but not enough.

The combination of the made over Cathy Rogers and Henry Rollins work well on the show, the games are lots of fun as are most of the vehicles and many of the teams. What`s lacking is the scientfic/technical/engineering explanations that fit in so well on Scrapheap Challenge. But at the end of the day, you just wanted more on this DVD. In conjunction with the original broadcasts it works well enough, but take them away and you`re left with something that`s just a bit too hollow. An interesting taster of the series, and maybe the sort of highlights show that fills the Xmas TV schedules, but not enough for a DVD.

Good picture and sound, and some effort on the extras means good points for presentation. Just not enough content. Particularly not at £19.99.