TiVo Community Forums Archives - Monster Garage, out of ideas? **SPOILERS**

TiVoCommunity.com
(c)opyright 1995-2005 All rights reserved
indexcheckTC
This area is a static history of posts in the TiVo Community Forum Archive.
This archive history was made for the simple indexing of search sites like Google.

Pages:1

Monster Garage, out of ideas? **SPOILERS**
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)

Posted by: mchasal

Does anyone else think that the folks on Monster Garage have gotten lazy? Look at the last 2 projects:

-Convert a Ford Bronco into a rock crawler. Ok, that's a fine project, but hardly "Monster". Its really quite a normal project IMO. Take a 4x4 and jack it up and otherwise modify it to go extreme off-roading. That's what "Trucks!" on TNN does, not "Monster Garage". Now, if it was to convert a Toyota Camry or something similar into a rock crawler, that's more in the spirit.

-Convert an old Cadillac into a demolition derby racer. Again, this seems too standard. In the race at the end, there was nothing different between the Caddy and the other cars in the race other than the more expensive paint job.

What happened to things like the Mustang Mower, and the Mini Snowmobile. Real creative, challenging, non-traditional projects?

Opinions?

Mike

Posted by: LUVmyTIVOinKC

I agree...I really don't watch it any more. The first few shows were interesting but I guess their writers are on vacation.

Posted by: JohnJr

Dumped my SP a few days ago, too.

-John

Posted by: Rosenkavalier

quote:
Originally posted by mchasal
Does anyone else think that the folks on Monster Garage have gotten lazy? Look at the last 2 projects:

-Convert a Ford Bronco into a rock crawler. Ok, that's a fine project, but hardly "Monster".

Well, this one really isn't the fault of the producers -- the rock crawler was the fans' choice project, and was forced on JJ (as stated in the episode). JJ was rather underwhelmed by the idea.

However, you're dead on about the demolition derby car. And the previous complaint here on the board about the hot dog cart conversion (take an existing dragster frame and just attach the cart on the back) was also spot on.

Posted by: rhuntington3

How about taking a AMC Pacer and turning it into a disco! Now that would be hard! :p:p:p:p

Posted by: KRS

Or they could take an ordinary fireplace and turn it into a Tiki head!

I agree that the Bronco project was a bit lame, but not as bad as the all female demolition derby project. I mean, two of the women did nothing but put decorations on the car, most of which were removed before the race! There was nothing monster about it. Hopefully these were just flukes due to the viewer vote and JJ's shoulder injury.

What bothers me even more is the excessive use of "freebies" lately. The Bronco got something like $29,000 in freebies. A bit much for a contest that supposedly is limited to $3k. I mean, they were scavenging parts from the Mini project since they were "out of cash." Not to mention the $3,000 paint jobs all the cars get.

Why don't they do something really challenging - like make an Escalade that gets decent gas mileage!

Posted by: warrenevans

what ideas can you guys come up with?

Posted by: doom1701

I think they've gotten away from the "Vehicle into vehicle" concept. When the show started, it was typically "Turn this dinky car into something bigger". Lately it's either been "Add something silly to this car" or "don't turn this car into anything".

Anybody know anything of JJ's surgery? Did it come up out of the blue? The all girls ep did seem to have that "thrown together" quality to it.

Posted by: Lung Fu

- Turn a Toyota Camry into a snow blower.
- Turn a bus into a go kart course.
- Turn a Chevy Van into a forklift
- Turn the rock crawler into an ice cream truck.

However, you must all admit...the wheelie car was bad-ass.

Posted by: mchasal

quote:
Originally posted by Lung Fu

- Turn the rock crawler into an ice cream truck.

You know that last idea makes me think it would be cool to do a series on the same vehicle with the same team. Maybe a 4 week run where they, (for example)

1) Turn a Pathfinder into a forklift
2) Then turn it into a mobile Coffee bar
3) Then a railroad track cleaner
4) Finally a mobile deposit bottle redemption center.

Then we'd see a lot of "Ooops, shouldn't have cut that crossmember out when we made the forklift, cause now we have nowhere to put the espresso machine."

Maybe the money would decline as the weeks go by, forcing them to re-use parts and think about multi-use items. Or maybe just give them $10k for all 4 weeks and they'll blow it all in the first week.

Mike

Posted by: pmyers

This show definately is on a downward spiral...the hot dog cart was lame the rockcrawler was a yawn fest and the Demo car was a bore. I also agree witht he extreme freebies. I can handle the rims and paint job, but the other stuff is just stupid.

I really enjoyed the one where they turned the bus into a party pontoon boat, the mustang mower, that nut catcher, and many more.

And when they scavange parts from a past project I just go balistic!

Posted by: grecorj

At least on Monster House (the derivative TLC program) they don't make any bones about a "budget" - hell, they sawed a perfectly good sailboat in half for the infamous Tikki episode.

I mean, the "budget" on all these TLC shows are bogus anyway (how do you think they get so "close" to the $1000 budget on Trading Spaces all the time? Good planning?).

Posted by: edrock200

I agree as well. The cadiliac episode was dumb...half the mods they even did on the front had to be cut off before the derby. I think they tried to make that one easy because they underestimated the girls.

I recommend adding a season pass for "American Chopper" for anyone that has not already. Great show.

I also agree on the whole budget thing. They use to be creative because they were on $3k. Now everything is a freebie. No fun in that.

Posted by: vertigo235

Yeah, the budget is stupid, because everything the really need is allways a "Freebie!"

Posted by: warrenevans

well I like this show better then "House" cause JJ has a different way about him self. (I'm wasted aka Vodka but that another thread)