O Monster Garage, where art thou? Monster Garage is a TV show that spanned from 2002 to 2005 (I may be wrong, but I know it started in 2002). The first episode involved a machine built out of an early 90s Ford Mustang GT (V6 I think) that could cut grass at 120 miles per hour. On a quarter mile, this thing would mow at just about 99 mph. Want to mow the yard fast so you can relax with your friends? This monster is for you. The monsters built in this show were incredible; a wide selection of plots going from a 1980s Pontiac Firebird transformed into a Santa float, to a Ford 20-passenger school bus turned into a luxury party pontoon boat! Crazy Monsters were to come, like an RV skate ramp and an RV Funhouse. The teamwork and concentration contributed into the monsters, and learning how to fabricate as you watched is what made the show, along with the humorous thing that Jesse and the Monster Garage crews throw in there as they build; and the fact that each monster is wacky and creative. People say Jesse was sick of the show and that's why it ended, even though repeatedly he says that It's his job and he loves to do it. I hope Monster Garage comes back to Television, and I can't believe it ended!

This is a very fun and also a very informative show. It's fascinating to observe the building process, which is the bulk of the show and often the most dramatic as the build team is different every week and usually has a nutjob or total dimwit mixed in with the techies and wrench-heads.For new viewers who are waiting with bated breath for the DVDs or for classic episodes to re-air...SPOILERS lie ahead.My only disappointment is with the so-called challenges, which are obviously fixed and dramatized. The fact that Richard Petty beat Jessie James in the Mini Cooper/snowmobile race is more a show of respect for Mr. Petty than a testament to his snowmobile skills.To clarify: Petty would have won anyway.The only requirements for successfully meeting a Monster Garage challenge is that the modified vehicles appear stock (a rule almost always stretched nearly to the breaking point) and that they be functional both as vehicles and as whatever random device they've been modified to emulate. They don't necessarially have to perform the second function WELL, as in the sinking (but not sunk) New Beetle/airboat or the 5.0 Mustang/lawnmower that was clearly more show than mow.The silliness of the challenges never detracts from the fun of watching them being built, however, and even the most preposterous scenarios can be fun in themselves...as in the school bus/pontoon boat race, won by the Monster team by forfeit when the crew of the real pontoon boat abandoned ship to join the party on the Monster boat.But too often the footage of Jesse's performance will be sped up to make him appear to be leaving his opponent in the dust, which is really just insulting to the viewer. When the Monster machine is obviously no match for it's real-life purpose-built counterpart, I think it would be more fun to watch the vehicles be put through their paces in more task-based challenges. Or just downplay the importance of the challenge altogether. What would be more fun: watching the Monster Garage's Ford pickup-based tree-shaking nut harvester go head-to-head with a common tree-shaker? Or watching as the crew took their shaker out into the streets of Long Beach under cover of darkness, prowling for innocent parking meters and mailboxes to victimize?I suppose that might not be the wisest thing to record and broadcast on television...but you get my point: if they showed as much creativity in the presentation of the Monster vehicles as they do in designing and building them, this show would be truly unstoppable.

Red Green gone right, I mean that in a good way. We've all seen Red come up different ideas that make a certain amount of sense, but only to blow up in his face. Like when Red takes an old Pontiac, and makes a fire engine out of it, only have the thing burn up. Here, they take a Lincoln Town Car stretch limo and make a fire engine out of it, and IT WORKS! NO KIDDING! (If you haven't seen it!)Here, a group of guys take cars, and trucks and make them into something else, and it's fully functional. Look what the did with one of Kyle Petty's race cars, that was really cool. (I won't tell you. You gotta see it for yourself!)You have to be impressed with the talent, and imagination these people have. As one reviewer put it, it is the best reality show on t.v., and I'm getting pretty sick of those!But for anybody who likes cars, or just loves to tinker with things, this show should really grab you!

It takes an evil genius to conceive of some of the projects created on Monster Garage, and if you've seen this show, you know EXACTLY what I mean. If you haven't, it currently (as of Feb. 2003) airs mondays at 8 and 11 PM on the Discovery Channel, and I HIGHLY recommend it.The premise is this: each week, the host, legendary custom motorcycle builder Jesse James and his team transform an average vehicle into something totally outrageous. Examples include a Porsche transformed into a golf driving-range ball collector (you know, the little caged carts that we all try to hit?), a stretch limousine converted into a working fire engine, and the most recent (as of this writing), a Mini Cooper snowmobile. The team, handpicked from various resources including an application process at the Discovery Channel website, has one week (one design day, five build days, and the seventh day being the challenge day in which their creation faces off against its real-life counterpart in a challenge contest) to complete the project with a $3000.00 budget. If they can sell any stripped parts, that money is added to the budget, as is any loose change they might find in the seats. Of course, there are always exceptions, such as the recent episode in which the team converted a Geo Tracker into a hot air balloon to the tune of some THIRTY thousand dollars!!!The play by play is provided by Frankie Whiteside, and joining him weekly is the highly entertaining color commentator The Big Schwag, of the Long Beach, CA wrestling promotion Ultimate Pro Wrestling. Funny they are, indeed. but the best comedy, by far, comes from the build team, especially when they hit a snag or keep working when they REALLY should be resting.Team members differ weekly, and while most of the chosen builders are customizers or mechanics to begin with, each team has a resident expert, such as the firefighter who worked on the limousine fire truck, or the Mini Cooper Corporate Executive who was on the Cooper/snowmobile team. Also included in many teams are non-automotive experts whose particular talents benefit the crews (remember the Hollywood special FX/pyrotechnics artist on the VW Beetle Swamp Boat? It was her special FX foam that made it possible to float the Beetle).POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD (only applies to those who wish to order the video set from The Discovery Channel Store): Monster Garage is now in its second year, although it doesn't really follow a standard TV season. Each member of the teams who complete the construction of their respective projects gets a full Mac Tools set, complete with case, valued at $3000.00 each, plus other prizes. As of the end of Feb. 2003, there are about sixteen or so episodes, and the teams have a nearly perfect track record of completing either the construction of their projects (with the exception of the failed hearse/car crusher), or the post-construction challenge, good for additional bragging rights. The only challenge lost by a Monster Garage machine was a race between the Mini Cooper snowmobile and a snowmobile driven by Richard Petty. If you must lose a snowmobile race, who better to have beat you?