Cathy Rogers probably didn't realize it, but she created a new genre of TV entertainment when she came up with the idea for Junkyard Wars (or Scrapheap Challenge if you are in the UK.)  Equal parts game show, science lesson, and MacGyver training ground, the show challenged two teams to build an assigned vehicle out of the refuse they found in a junk yard.  The show was a hit, and it spawned several imitations.  One of the best of these is The Discovery Channel's Monster Garage, the first season of which has now been released on DVD.

The show's premise is simple.  A team of professional mechanics led by custom motorcycle builder Jesse James has to take an assigned vehicle and modify it.  Each episode has a different challenge.  They might have to create a lawn mower, a fire truck, or a golf ball collector.  The twist is that when they are finished, the vehicle has to look like an ordinary stock car, and they only have six days.  The team has $3000 to spend on parts, and there is a challenge at the end.  If they pass the challenge (which they don't always do) the members of the team each receive a $3400 set of MAC Tools.  Not bad for a week's work.

This show takes you through the build, day by day.  The first day is always a design day, where the team finds out what car they are going to be modifying, and what they have to turn it into.  The next five days are the build, and on the seventh, the challenge.  Through the team members chatting and some narration, you see how the team is progressing as time marches on, and also the many the problems and catastrophes that occur.

This is a pretty fun show.  It has a lot of attitude, and the over-the-top creations are both unique and amusing.  I also like the fact that everyone one on the team is a competent professional, and can chip in with ideas and suggestions.  There is actually a fair amount of drama when something goes wrong in a major way, and it's very interesting to see how they overcome the hurdles that they encounter.

There were only a couple of complaints that I had, but they are minor.  First, they give you glimpses of the finished product early in the show.  Sometimes that shows you changes in the design that were made, and consequently lets you know in advance when something isn't going to work.  Another nit-picking item is that they don't really stick to the budget, with some parts being "donated" and others "scrounged." from a junk yard for free.  These are often cosmetic items, so it's not that big of a deal.

The other thing that was a little grating was style of the announcers for the challenge at the end of the build.  They are pretty annoying, sounding like a commercial for a monster truck show rather than a color commentator.  Both of these were minor though, and didn't prevent me from enjoying the show.

The odd thing about this set is that it is billed as "Season One."  There were 24 episodes in the first season, 13 of which are included in this set.  The rest of the episodes from season one are contained on the "Season Two" set.  To add more confusion into the mix, the shows are not in their original broadcast order, according to the episode guide on the Discovery Channel's web site.  The later isn't a big deal since there is no continuity to the show, but with the former the publishers are being a little disingenuous.

The episodes contained in this set are:
 

Switchblade: The team transforms a 1990 Mustang GT convertible into a really fast lawnmower.

Trash Truck: Can you turn a Ford Explorer into a garbage truck with a working arm to pick up the garbage cans?  Jesse bets $500 that their design will fail.

Fire Truck Limo: A Lincoln Town Car is gutted and turned into a working fire truck with pumps, hoses, and everything,

Swamp Buggy: This time they need to build a swamp boat.  What do they use?  A VW Beetle of course!

The Ice Shaver: On the outside in looks like a 1996 Chevy Impala, but it also functions as a Zamboni.

Grim Reaper:  Can the team turn a 1973 Cadillac Hearse into a Car Crusher?  You may be surprised to find out.

Golf Ball Collector: Every golf corse employee's dream: collecting golf balls in a Porsche.

Skool Bus Pontoon Boat: They go one better than the Partridge Family's bus.  This school bus gets transformed into a party boat.

The Mail Blaster: A MAC Tool truck is transformed into a delivery truck.  Sounds dull?  Well this is a delivery truck the Jesse James help design so it has dual air cannons, a trebuchet, and a crossbow.

Hot Air Balloon Buggy: In one of the more creative builds, a '95 Geo Tracker gets transformed into a hot air balloon.

Tree Shaker: An F-150 Pickup truck turns to harvesting nuts and fruit.

Speed Sweeper:  Kyle Petty joins the crew when Monster Garage turns a Dodge Intrepid into one mean street sweeper.

Pop 'A' Wheelie Ambulance: This set ends on a high note, when the crew takes an ambulance and makes it pop a wheelie.
 

Though it says so on the cover, this really isn't the first season of Monster Garage.  It's only slightly more than half of the season.  The first 13 episodes (not in broadcast order) are on three single sided DVDs that come in thinpacks and all of them are housed in a slipcase.

Audio:

The stereo audio track sounds good.  This is a dialog based show so there's not any need for more than a two channel mix and this one does a good job.  You can hear the mechanic's frustration when something goes wrong and their joy when things finally start coming together.  One complaint that I have is that the swearing is bleeped out, like on the TV show, but this is minor gripe.  There are no subtitles.

Video:

The full frame image is about average for a TV show.  It's not as tight as a feature movie, but that's to be expected.  They manage to cram four and sometimes five 50-minute shows onto a single DVD, so there are some compression artifacts.  Aliasing is the main culprit, with many diagonal lines having a stair-step effect, and car grills seeming to move on their own when they glide past the camera.  Corporation logos on T-shirts and such have been blurred out, but that's not a huge complaint.  A nice, if standard picture.

Extras:

This set has one bonus item, the 50-minute special Under the Hood.  This documentary looks back on the (whole) first season and looks at what it takes to create a show.  From the concept, to picking the crew and actually filming an episode, this is a thorough look at the show.

Final Thoughts:

This is a very enjoyable show.  For those of you who like Junkyard Wars, you'll enjoy this program too.  The bad boy attitude that the show has sometimes seems a little bit of an act, but you can really tell that all of the crew enjoy what they are doing.   Gear-heads would be well advised to check this out.  Recommended.