Operation Junkyard is an American television series that aired from October 5, 2002 to February 15, 2003 on Discovery Kids. Essentially a spin-off of TLC's popular series Junkyard Wars, OP/JY featured teams of teens that were challenged to build gadgets out of junk in six hours. Teams featured on the show include the Rummaging Robots and Jurassic Junkers, and the teams were tasked to build gadgets like water bailing machines, mud scooters, and remote control battleships.
Premise
At the beginning of each show the challenge of the day was revealed and teams attempted to collect "bodgits" by completing small challenges. "Bodgits" were helpful advantages that teams could earn, including time with the on-set engineer or special parts for use in their build. Two identical school buses filled with junk were given to the teams, who had six hours to create their contraptions.
Teams
| Team Name |
|---|
| Jurassic Junkers |
| Banging Builders |
| Rummaging Robots |
| Scrap Scavengers |
| Scrap Heap Henchmen |
| Gearhead Gremlins |
| Garbage Gorillas |
| Renegade Recyclers |
| Junkyard Jugglers |
| Funky Junkers |
| Raging Racers |
| Demolition Dudes |
Episodes
| # | Gadget Made |
|---|---|
| 1 | Catapult |
| 2 | Water Bailer |
| 3 | Water Bike |
| 4 | Cannon |
| 5 | Baseball Pitcher |
| 6 | Master Water Blaster |
| 7 | Go Cart |
| 8 | Mechanical Crane |
| 9 | Ice Drag Racer |
| 10 | Mud Scooter |
| 11 | Pie Filling Machine |
| 12 | Battleship |
Reception
In a positive review, The San Diego Union-Tribune television critic Roshni Kakaiya wrote, "I really recommend this show to everyone, even younger kids. The story has a lot of meaning. If I could rate this on a scale of colors, black being the worst and gold being the best, I would rate this show silver."2 Calling the show "entertaining and educational", The Dallas Morning News's Jeanne Spreier gave it an A-minus, writing that it "gets high marks for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which is using words such as release valve, psi gauge and propulsion—and making them synonymous with fun".3
External links
References
Byrne, Bridget (October 3, 2002). "'Operation Junkyard': In New TV Series, Kids Race To Build Makeshift Machines". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 23, 2024. Retrieved March 23, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240323090728/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/10/03/operation-junkyard/84cd7292-56d4-4b72-a5ae-5e2b2f33c121/ ↩
Kakaiya, Roshni (February 8, 2003). "Discovery Kids' "Operation Junkyard: Battleship"". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Archived from the original on March 23, 2024. Retrieved March 23, 2024. https://archive.today/20240323090718/https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/116D3A1276199A81&f=basic ↩
Spreier, Jeanne (September 29, 2002). "Discovery shows bring energy to NBC's Saturday morning lineup". The Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on March 23, 2024. Retrieved March 23, 2024. https://archive.today/20240323090643/https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/0F6710CB8F75D40D&f=basic ↩