Junkyard Wars

Robert Llewellyn looks back over the highlights of a decade on the heap with the presenters, experts and contestants who've made the show such a success.

Sixteen teams of backyard bodgers from around the UK battle it out for the chance to take on the crème de la crème of the engineering world, the Scrapheap Allstars.

It's the grand final of Scrapheap Challenge and the Rusty Regiment go head-to-head with Woof Justice for 2008's Rings of Steel trophy

This challenge tests the teams' underwater ingenuity as they build a salvage machine from a stockpile of scrap in order to retrieve lost treasure from the bottom of a mini ocean.

The teams are challenged to build fire engines in just 10 hours. They have to complete a tight course in the fastest possible time, extinguishing two burning mock jet engines.

The teams compete to build wave-pounding power boats capable of skimming across the Scrapheap lake. And it's not as easy as it sounds.

It's a decorator's dream as two teams compete to build a mobile painting machine capable of decorating a house from a distance

This week's mechanical migraine promises to be a Scrapheap classic. The teams must build contraptions to throw a 100-kilogramme scooter as far as they can, without the help of compressed gas or gunpowder. The Balloonatics, a trio of hot air balloonists from Liverpool, take on The Aquarium Crew, a team of aquarium constructors from Dorset.

In this episode the Scrapheap Roadshow moves on and Welly Wanging is the objective and once again 16 teams battle it out to face the Scrapheap All-Stars.

In this Scrapheap special a team from the UK faces a team from the US to make Paddle Boats from scrap to commemorate the maritime achievements of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

In the final of this series Woof Justice take on the Beach Bums to see who can make the better swamp racer and become the Scrapheap Challenge champions 2007.

In the first semi-final the Beach Bums face the Extinguishers to see who can make the best machine capable of moving mounds of earth.

In this episode The Beach Bums face The Diggers to see who can build the better Airboat.

In this episode The Extinguishers must face The Steaming Scots to see who can build the better Giant Skateboard.

Plymouth's Super Subs vie with Sweet Chariots, a group of rugby players, to construct a train they has powered by the teams muscle.

The Vikings, a team of Dark Ages battle re-enactment enthusiasts from Salisbury, face off against the Beach Bums, a team of surfers from Torquay, to construct a machine which can hurl a human-sized mannequin into a disused quarry.

The challenge This week’s Scrapheap Challenge is a test to see who can build the most extreme rapid-fire arrow launcher. The teams will have to build a projectile launcher that can automatically load itself, as well as quickly firing arrows far and accurately. Stage Crew The boys from behind the scenes! Our Bristolian bodgers Pup, Denzel and Jet are responsible for contraptions used in shows such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Mary Poppins and Miss Saigon. Passionate, animated and enthusiastic is the only way to describe them. Captain Pup’s eyes light up when he talks engineering and he is supported by the bearded Denzel with his hearty laugh and Jet, so-called because of his love for jet engines. This team is used to the pressure of having to perform and with their ‘The show must go on’ attitude, is unlikely to disappoint. The Stage Crew’s expert is a friend of the show, Tod Todeschini. Tod began life as a kitchen product designer but he soon got bored. He is now a medieval weaponry expert and maker of special effects for stage and television. This is his third outing to Scrapheap Challenge and having previously tackled Giant Darts and Rapid Fire, this week's test should be a cinch! The Big Dippers The Big Dippers are Lancashire lads responsible for the maintenance of Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Dodgey (he loves car boot sales and ferreting in skips – should be at home on the heap then!), Steve and Brian (nicknamed Two-ey as he only has two front teeth) have been friends for years and have a wealth of experience. Dodgey comes from a family of mechanics, Steve is the electrics supervisor at the Pleasure Beach and Brian claims to be able to weld underwater. So as well as providing a constant level of cheeky banter, these guys are here for more than the ride! In The Big Dippers’ corner is expert armourer John Nixon. John spent 10 years learning his trade as an armourer with REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers), before splitting his time between armoury and mechanics. Nowadays, he is most likely to be found on a film set making guns for epics such as Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan. Let’s see if he will save the day for The Big Dippers! The judge Our judge this week is another Scrapheap veteran, Steve Ralphs. Grand Master of the Traditional Bowyers Guild, Steve began crafting traditional bows and arrows 25 years ago. He now spends most of his time instructing Hollywood actors in the art of archery (this is the man that taught Legolas how to draw a bow). When he’s not doing that he plays guitar in a band called Phabulous Fondue!

The challenge In this first episode of the new series, Scrapheap is off to marvellous Margate where a team of forklifting fixers take on a crew of army helicopter heroes in a battle to build underwater cars that can rip up the ocean bed. Apache Warriors Ring-a-ding-ding-ding! The army boys Tom, Tobe and Oggs have landed and come oozing with charm, charisma and precision in a way only our top ranking military can. The banter is littered with innuendo; theirs is a cross between the school changing room and a Carry On film. Helicopter pilots by day, these boys are all guns blazing for a Scrapheap showdown! Chess-playing Guy Seymour helps them out, bringing skills in off-road machines and underwater vehicles to the heap. Brought up on a boatyard in Australia, Guy studied submersible vehicle design at university and is currently a mechanical and business systems engineer for Subeo, a UK-based manufacturer of submersible vehicles. Subeo are hoping to launch a small affordable submersible vehicle onto the market soon. Before coming to England, Guy was an army reservist for seven years, where he was involved with the maintenance of their 4x4 vehicles. The Powerlifters Neil, Mark and Dave are true Scrapheap! These boys love their drag racing and hot rodding and are all forklift maintenance engineers in Essex. Bald, tattooed and pierced, Neil and Dave provide the main double act but gentle giant Mark doesn’t seem to mind playing the fall guy to the duo. Energetic and with a range of outside interests, The Powerlifters are hardworking, straight talking, great fun, and claim to be able to take on anything Scrapheap can throw at them! Expert Matt Cook started his career as an apprentice at Land Rover and stayed with the company for seven years as a design engineer in the new vehicle development division. Matt has raced 4x4s since he was 17 and has even won the most extreme off-road event in the world – the Malaysian Rainforest Challenge with his business partner Simon Buck in 2002. Together they run the legendary Devon 4x4 near Tiverton where they prepare and modify extreme off-road machines and fabricate custom parts for the sport. Despite this busy life, Matt is also a qualified potter! The judge Stephanie Merry is a respected tactician, navigator and helmswoman, with a successful track record in offshore racing at national and international level. Commercially endorsed yachtmaster and ocean yachtmaster, Stephanie has won countless race titles and challenge cups. She is the owner and skipper of Rollerskate, a 4-tonne race yacht which she sailed to victory in various challenges between 1992 and 1998. Stephanie is a previous judge of Scrapheap Challenge, lending her expertise in the mini-sub challenge, back in series three.

A look back at the series' best bits of bodging, as Robert Llewellyn and Lisa Rogers present 'The Rusties': Scrapheap Challenge's very own awards

The Challenge The Thirsty Knights of Norfolk and the Belfast boys Hairy Hogs go head to head as two teams of bikers battle it out in a race across a lake in their scrappy craft. They must rescue their stranded expert before returning safely to dry land and, hopefully, a place in the final. Hairy Hogs The Hairy Hogs sailed into the semi-finals by scoring a victory over the tree-hugging recyclers The Hogs are three fun-loving bikers from Belfast. Captain Conn Kelly, Darrell Hanna and Alastair Nethercott combine the talents of an electrician, mechanic and a plumber and are all members of the same Harley Owners Group. Big men, with personalities and hearty laughs to match, they are up for most things – except water-based challenges. So having come through the Jet Boats challenge, they'll be hoping for terra firma this time. Ha! Helping them is Simeon Oakley, a freelance designer/fabricator who has built a wide range of marine vessels, from boats to hovercrafts. Born in Woomera, Australia, on a rocket range in the desert, Sim grew up in Saudi Arabia on an RAF base and went to school in North Wales. He has worked for a circus, designs and builds interactive exhibitions for science museums and lives on a restored Thames barge. He's a great engineer, he's a very cool customer and he's quietly confident. The Thirsty Knights The last time we saw The Thirsty Knights, they were gliding past Honda head-honchos The Fireblades in their flying car. Captain Pete Twissell, a design engineer, his brother Frog (yes, that's his real name) Twissell, who is a Buddhist and a vegan, and welder Carl (Roo) Verlander are The Thirsty Knights. This team is quirky, alternative and very intelligent. Yet another team who love their bikes, they have owned, built, raced and maintained many over the years. Used to thinking laterally to get around a problem – they love designing the weird and wonderful. What they produce will be a creation in every sense. Joining them for this boating battle is Bill Rutland, an East-End boat-builder and engineer who has spent all his life working and living on the docks around Tilbury. Bill's firm, SEMEC Engineering Ltd, undertakes a variety of jobs from maintaining boats and barges to engineering specialist pumps for Thames Water. Bill is even building his boat from scratch as a hobby. So far, the 48-tonne craft has taken three years. His practical skills, engineering nous and years of expertise make him an ideal expert. The judge This week's judge is Commander Steve Farrington who has spent a lifetime in the Royal Navy as a marine engineer and is an expert in amphibious ships and landing craft. Currently with the Royal College of Defence Studies, he has been posted to many ships, including the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes, the assault ships HMS Intrepid and HMS Fearless. With that experience, he is the perfect person to preside over this challenge.

The Challenge Power Rowers Scrapheap goes back to the water for the latest challenge as The Anoraks take on Maximus. In honour of our Olympic oarsmen and women, the two teams have to assemble a mechanised galley with at least four oars to scull their way around our tricky aquatic course. The Anoraks The Anoraks In this year's first episode, The Anoraks poured cold water on The Hoselliers, a team of fire fighters from Blackburn, as they raced out of our sheer sand trap in Surrey. Deprived of their captain Geoff Turtell for their second challenge, The Anoraks are now led by Marc Draper. Lyndon Camidge joins him again along with Andy Cross an old school friend of Lyndon's who comes in as a substitute. Andy is a plant fitter and HGV mechanics expert. Named after their club of the same name, these three enthusiasts from Surrey can't get enough of off-roading. The lads spend their spare time in Marc's garage, building and restoring Land Rovers and other 4x4 vehicles. Lyndon claims he has broken, crashed and sunk more Land Rovers than he's had hot dinners and Marc likes to think he is the stabilising influence of the team. Lots of experience, slightly batty and a bit posh, these boys are determined to go all the way! Rob Austin is The Anoraks' expert this week. He's an engineer and teacher from Oxford who organises the Formula Schools engineering challenge. Rob worked as a professional fabricator and engineer in various fields before going into education and creating a successful engineering course for schools. He now runs Formula Schools, a scheme to get youngsters interested in automotive and maritime engineering. From his well-equipped workshop in Oxfordshire, he builds and fabricates pretty much anything and is currently rebuilding a classic Bugatti racing car. Top Maximus Maximus Our second set of challengers are the rickshaw-riding charioteers Maximus, who bowled over Irn Cru in the fourth challenge of series seven with their barmy bouncing bomb. Cycles and big barges float these Bath-based boys' boats. William Trickett, Paul McGarry and Dennis Mapp work at Cycles Maximus, which makes and supplies rickshaws. William, or Trickett as he likes to be known, is also a boat engineer and has a company which makes luxury Dutch barges. They are into all kinds of cycled contraptions from rickshaws and chariots to trikes and motorbikes. They also share an interest in canal boats – so are used to building things out of the ordinary. They are quirky, alternative, great fun and are phased by very little. Trickett is completely mad, Paul lives on a canal boat and is also a circus performer and Dennis is a Motor Cross rider who, in his own words, will have a go at anything! A great team. Maximus' expert Jim Bond is not an engineer but an expert fabricator and metal-work sculptor. His speciality is mechanised sculptures. He has worked on TV series like The Secret Life of Machines and can easily grasp the concepts behind automating a human movement mechanically. Cool and calm, Jim is used to getting kids motivated about engineering projects but confesses he is a bit laid-back. The judge The judge Richard Carless is a keen rower and has lived and worked on the water all his life. He owns a marine safety business for the film industry and recently worked on the BBC's Building the Impossible: Submarine episode. He is a Guinness Book of Records holder for several rowing endurance and distance records. He recently smashed the long-distance rowing record from the origin of the Thames to the Thames estuary. He knows what it takes to make a good rowing stroke and being a boatman all his life can tie this into both engineering and hull design.

The Challenge This week's challenge is to build jet-powered speed boats that are both agile and fast. The teams will be competing in a two-part Grand Prix – on jet boats! The race will start with a full-throttle dash up and down the lake and will be followed by the twists and turns of an off-shore obstacle course. Hairy Hogs Conn Kelly, Darrell Hanna and Alastair Nethercott are the Hairy Hogs from Northern Ireland. All members of the Provincewide Harley Owners Group, they are big blokes with bigger laughs who love their Harleys and spend much of their year touring around Europe on them. The Hogs are seriously hands-on and have had experience of most possible mechanical projects. They are rough 'n ready, rugby-playing, Guinness-loving men who are up for the challenge and in search of a 'good craic'. These guys are quietly confident they can't be beaten and should give even the most solid of Scrapheap teams a run for their money! Apparently, they're up for most things apart from a water challenge (ha!). Alan Pickard is the Hairy Hogs' expert as well as being one of the foremost jetskiers in the UK. He runs Jet Shed, the leading specialist workshop in this field in the UK. Previously seen on White Water Rider (series 4), he is a hands-on bodger and technician and previously held the speed record on a jetski – he is currently ranked number three in the UK. Team Ragbo Glynn Myers, Nick Mellor and Colin Bates all work at Smart Recycling, Glynn's plastics waste-recycling firm in Lancashire. Between them, they have worked on everything from factory equipment and heavy plant machinery to cars and bikes. This team are heavily into their bikes and two years ago Nick sold his house so he could buy a Triumph bike – he now lives in a caravan! There is a wide breadth of experience and knowledge in this team and the guys are confident they can deal with anything we throw at them! Glynn and Colin are larger than life in every respect, with 'Hippy Nicky' being slightly quieter – but he sees himself as their 'secret backbone'. Lots of northern humour, loads of energy and bags of banter – you won't be able to get a word in edgeways! Alex Wallis is Chief Engineer at Pursuit Dynamics and will be Team Ragbo's expert this week. His company specialises in pumps, fluid management and innovative marine propulsion systems using steam power. Alex is a mechanical engineer with a practical background, particularly in the bodging of various automotive matters and he's even built his own sail plane. The judge Michael McDowell works for Polaris UK as their technical man, on hand to answer any mechanical problems in the Polaris Jetski dealership chain. He also trains all sales outlets on the mechanical running and maintenance of Polaris Jetskis. He has been working for eight years in the field of maritime power units, impellers and jetskis. He also has an engineering background in motor mechanics, quad bikes, outboards and even pumps. When it comes to summarising what makes a good jetski, Michael can talk at length about all the key ingredients with consummate ease.

This week, Geneva-based expats the Up 'n Atoms face up to the REME Rebels, an all-girl team of army-tank tinkerers in one of Scrapheap's most bizarre challenges to date. Our teams have just 10 hours to build a motorised bowling ball capable of toppling ten-foot skittles on a giant bowling alley.

In the first of the new series, Scrapheap takes to the dusty dunes of a Guildford sand quarry as a team of hot-blooded Lancashire fire fighters take on some nerdy off-road enthusiasts in a battle to build sand-racers that can climb precipitous inclines and dig their way out of the deepest dusty trench.

Robert Llewellyn and Lisa Rogers present the Golden Sprocket awards - the glitziest occasion in the scrap-metal calendar.

A chance to see some of the funniest, most ridiculous and memorable moments of Scrapheap Challenge.

This week sees two new teams battling to become the fastest golf-ball guns on the scrapheap. The day started badly for the Clean Sweeps. They discovered that their ball-feeding mechanism was jamming and were forced into a last-minute rethink. Unfortunately this turned out to be just the first of their problems. Round one was a test of speed and accuracy, and the Sweeps struggled on both fronts: their aim was wayward and motor problems reduced their rate of fire. The Boat Buoys on the other hand looked the genuine article, delivering a string of balls into the moving target and shooting themselves into the lead in the process. Round two was designed to test the machines' sheer power: the object was to smash a wall of bathroom tiles. The Sweeps were forced to abandon their erratic motor for a cordless drill and, although they made an impact, they were no match for the blazing firepower of the Boat Buoys.

The first test of the new series was a closely fought three-round contest. The Barleys won the first round convincingly, but the Munch Bunch stormed to a surprising victory in the second. With everything to play for in the final round, the Barleys were lucky to make it to the finish line: a treacherous mud-hole nearly sank them. The Munch Bunch then had not only to complete the section but to improve on the time set by the Barleys. But it was not to be. Their machine became firmly embedded in the same mud-hole that nearly bagged the Barleys, and they were unable to complete the round. The victorious Barleys will be back in a few weeks.

The mega challenge is to build a hybrid machine to face a two-day triathlon. Stage one is flat out on the salt-flats. Stage two is in a canyon littered with giant boulders. And stage three is on a lake: yes, we're talking amphibious vehicles. The winner of each stage collects three points, the runner-up two and the third-placed team one. The team with the most points at the end of the third stage will be the mega champions.

The ultimate challenge in this series is to build a hydrofoil ­ a boat with wing-like structures underneath its hull to lift the hull out of the water at speed. The team with the fastest single time out of three heats over an eighth of a mile takes the trophy.

The challenge this week is to build a one-man hill climber. The teams will have three attempts to scale a 360ft slope with a 1:2 gradient. The team that makes it to the top the most times wins. If both teams reach the summit only once, car-rallying rules will apply and the first successful attempt - that is, the successful attempt in the earliest of the three rounds - will be the one that counts.

This challenge is to build mobile cranes to lift and carry scrap down a course to a drop-off point. Each piece of scrap is allocated a points value relating to its weight or awkwardness. The team that accumulates the most points over two 15-minute rounds is the winner.

The challenge is to build a powered craft to negotiate a stretch of white-water river. The craft must be powerful enough to get up the rapids but also have enough manoeuvrability to avoid treacherous rocks and to make a U-turn at the top of the course. Whoever sets the fastest single time in the course of three heats is the winner.

This week's challenge is to torpedo the opposition. Each team must build re-usable torpedoes that run just under the surface of the water, like the torpedoes used to attack boats (rather than those used to attack another submarine). The teams then have to try and hit wooden 'battleships' in front of each other's launch platforms, taking it in turn to fire. The platforms are 150 feet apart, and there's a rock in the middle which they have to steer their torpedoes around. They will have to hit each other's battleship three times. In the event of both teams being on target with their first two shots, the third and final shot will be a simultaneous shoot-out.

The new series kicks off with our barmiest challenge yet: to build a machine that will fire an ostrich egg as far as possible and bring it back to earth in one piece. The machines must be mobile so that - if the eggs survive intact - they can be wheeled to the landing spot for another attempt. Each team is given three eggs and the winner is whoever has travelled the furthest after three shots.

Drag racing. Nothing gets a Junkyard Warrior's blood stirring like sheer speed. In this special match-up, the Season 3 champs go up against last year's winner to see who can go as fast as possible while staying on the ground. The champs go for a classic dragster car, but when their gearbox blows up, they have to flip the back axle upside down, making reverse gear push the car forward. Last year's winners go for a trike, which increases the possible speed, but takes much more precision to build.

In the second semifinal match, the challenge is to make a vehicle that drives on steam power. One team finds a weird little three-wheeled car and adds a steam engine, their opponents decide to build a dragster. But don't think that these machines will be on the roads anytime soon. A broken drive shaft on one car has to be welded back together mid-race, while the other car has no brakes, and must be thrown into reverse to make it up hills.

Brothers in Arms go up against the winner of Bomber (3 Revs a Minute or Mothers of Invention) in a challenge to build a vehicle that can carry all four members across a 30-foot ravine. The vehicle must also be capable of both deploying a bridge and retrieving it once the team is across. The Brothers go for a van-based bridger, while their opponents use bikes.

The Techno-Teachers go up against The Manic Mechanics to see who can harness the forces of Mother Nature and build a windmill to power a machine crucial to life as we know it — a coffee grinder! One team constructs a conventional fan-bladed windmill, while their opponents go for a vertical-axis Savonious rotor. Quick on-screen sketches reveal which is best for which wind conditions. But a half-hour before the competition, the weather services release a gale warning, forcing one team to clip the blades off their windmill for fear of having them ripped off. But at competition time, the wind doesn't get over 2 miles per hour.

Teams must build a nonpiloted flying vehicle that can accurately drop paint bombs on a target on the ground. Both teams need to go with radio-controlled vehicles, but that's where the similarities end. Three Revs a Minute are three trainee ministers (Get it? Revs?) who decide to build a working model airplane. Their opponents, The Mothers of Invention, go for a big blimp made of Mylar. The challenge begins at 3 a.m., since both teams want to avoid any wind.

The challenge is to build a salvage machine capable of raising a Mini from the bottom of a murky lake and park it safely in a car park.

The teams are asked to build a yacht, but not one for the high seas - a land yacht capable of carrying the entire team. The winners will sail through to the semi-finals.

In this episode the two teams must create fully functional cannons

In this episode the teams must build rockets from the scrap to see who's can go the highest.

In this episode the two teams must make powers boats from the scrap.

In this episode the two teams most make machines capable of moving heavy weights.

The teams must build Hovercraft's in the Pilot of the now successful show.