The Junkyard Wars Tournament will be Sunday 10AM-2PM, Auction Area of the Exhibit Hall
Did you ever wonder what it would be like to be a castaway, a crash-landing survivor, Robinson Crusoe, Omega Man, or Mad Max? Stuck on some yet-uncharted planet or perhaps in a post-apocalyptic city, surrounded by wreckage and locked in a life-or-death struggle?
Or do you just think it would be Really Cool to actually build things like the contestants on the TV show Junkyard Wars?
Now's your chance! Prove yourself! Are you Mad-Maximally cool under pressure?
On Sunday, starting at 10 AM in the Exhibit Hall, we will have a real Junkyard War! Mil-Phil-ians will form teams and compete head-to-head, to build a machine to do .... something! To make it fair - and more evil - we won't even tell you what your device needs to do until the very start of the competition! Then you'll have just 90 minutes to build, bodge, saw, nail, screw, glue, and duct-tape your way to victory.
We'll supply volumes of junk, power tools, random supplies, safety equipment, and a survival problem that will make you scream in fear and delight.
You supply yourself, clothes that won't mind a bit of roughing-about, and any personal tools (hand or cordless power) you can carry. (If you have personal safety glasses, work gloves, or other stuff like cordless tools you'd like to use, YES, you can use your own equipment.
The lead judge will be "Crash," team leader of the NERDS (you saw him and his team on TV, building submarines, fireboats, and steam-powered racing cars).
Audience heckling is encouraged. :-)
Safety Note #1: Be warned, this event can be a little scarey, as there will be sharp things, power tools, hot glue, and crazed con-goers running about. Please dress appropriately (hiking boots and long pants are better than shorts and sandals for this kind of situation.) and be safety concious; our judges will be trying to keep everyone safe but they can't be everywhere all the time. Everyone is responsible for their own safety and must sign an event release to compete.
Safety Note #2: If you're under 18, yes, you can compete, but your parent or gaurdian must be physically present, countersign the event release, supervising you, and responsible for you for the entire session (they don't have to be on your team, or competing, just physically there and watching out for your safety).
We don't mean to scare you off - the worst that's happened in previous Wars has been a splinter or two - but we want to keep it as safe as possible.
Safety Note #3: If you want to contribute junk, yes, we are interested, (more junk is usually better). Sorry, no hazmat. :-)
Attendance Note: If there are too many contestants for the amount of junk and tooling we have, we'll select teams by random process. Hopefully we'll have room for everyone, but we can't gaurantee that.