Why must you all underestimate us kids.My team (were getting ready ahead of time) almost laughed their heads off at what I told them.Duct tape and a glue gun?!Yes, it is amazing, but it is more amazing what they can do with acres of scrap, drillers, chainsaws and other stuff like that.So please,think about what your saying.Were only 12,but we can build a tramendous amount of stuff.Heck, I've built bridges, hovercrafts,catapults, everything!So please, stop underestimating us.

-- brian (brianhopkin@hotmail.com), March 20, 2001

Answers

You're not beinging under-estimated. The world in this country revolves around lawyers (look at your visual evolutionary scale, they are just above the thing crawling out of the water). That's what keeps us from supporting under 18er's in the scrapyard, regardless of the amount of adult supervision and maturity of the contestants...

That's the truth.

-- Dan Denney (Rustrenegades@hotmail.com), March 20, 2001.

Brian what dan said is sad but true. Lawyers and insurance companies would kill any attempt at using minors.

-- Stephen A. Binion (Stephenbinion@hotmail.com), March 20, 2001.

Brian, It is true what they say---but maybe some other channel (or maybe even TLC)will be brave enough to let you guys have a chance at your own show (just for kids).....my son is 11, and he can handle all manner of tools and I trust him to have the same common sense that that adults have---sometimes even more (you'll know what I mean when you get to High School and see the shop teacher minus a digit or two) Just remember what this feels like so that when you get older, you can change things.....put the old-fogies in their places. Maybe you can start with banning lawyers.

Carrie Stamper wife of 1/3 of Franken-friends "If we can't revive it, it really must be dead!"

-- Carrie Stamper (stamps@telebyte.net), March 21, 2001.

From one Brian to another - they're absolutely right. The chances of you getting hurt are almost nothing. The problem is that if a you DID get hurt, RDF would be open to a lawsuit that would shut down this show forever. Even if your parents were to sign a release form, it really doesn't mean anything. They could still change their mind later and sue RDF anyway...

So, it sucks yes. But until you're 18, you'll have to be satisfied with the much safer tools like duct tape and glue guns.

Brian

-- Brian Flynn (bflynn@nc.rr.com), March 21, 2001.

Everyone wants to have fun....Until someone hacks a finger off! I signed a liability form, being over 18, and I'm sure they have a pretty solid insurance policy. They had 3 emercency crew members and ambulances there on site all the time. If we so much as got a small scrap....those guy's were in there in a flash! "Would you like a plaster?" (that's what they call a bandage)" Parents love to get thier kids involved and then they're the same ones shutting down the show with a lawsuit because poor little Jimmy set down a skill saw on his foot. It's not that the kids aren't capable of doing the task...It's just that one little slip up where the adrenalin is flowing and someone get's ahead of themselves.

-- Duane Flatmo, Art Attack (flatmo@humboldt1.com), March 21, 2001.

Sad but true: The possibility of liability has permeated our lives. (And Shakespeare had it right about the lawyers.) Still, I think I have a solution that might give kids a chance to compete: How about using whole families as teams? Mom, Dad, Dick and Jane all working together! Admittedly, this means a fifth member if they have to have an "expert". What do you think? A family that builds together, well, builds together!

-- Chip Haynes (ehaynes@co.pinellas.fl.us), March 21, 2001.

Good job Chip, now we're getting somewhere.

Brian, if you could see what any of the applicants for this show were doing when they were your age, most of them were probably using all sorts of dangerous gadgetry (I know my brothers and I were). Parents might have allowed these kinds of things but we would never have been permitted to do them on T.V. and kids will probably never be permitted to do them in any organized program. It stunk then, it stinks now, and it will continue to stink.

But don't use this as a cop-out. You can make incredibly destructive launchers and smashers and other fun stuff without welding or using exotic saws. The level of risk could be no greater than the risks on shows like "Double Dare 2000" or "Slime-Off" or "Z-Games".

Be clever and creative and persuasive and give the producers options. You never know what will come of it. Don't underestimate what you can accomplish with pen and paper and persistent e-mails. Get busy Brian and good luck!

-- The Harebrained B.R.O.T.H.E.R.S. (mdbeckmeyer@aol.com), March 21, 2001.

That would be cool to see familie's head to head. Bring the hamster too....What the heck. It might be more like a "Family Junkyard Fued" on Nickolodian"?

-- Duane Flatmo, Art Attack (flatmo@humboldt1.com), March 22, 2001.

Personally, my family (except me) knows next to nothing about engineering.

Anyway, my team and I wont mind, heck, maybe the expert can do th welding, and the kids could do th easy stuff like finding the scrap and other stuff.

Also, the laywers thing may be true, but it made me feel good to write it.

Well, my team is ready, and has a name! So, I just hope to be on the show someday.

Brian, The Metal Distortionists

-- brian (brianhopkin@hotmail.com), March 22, 2001.

P.S. so no one gets confused, my team is just getting ready for the kids version.We are not an adult team. (what a funny e-mail I got)

brian (11 years old) The Metal Distortionists

-- brian (brianhopkin@hotmail.com), March 23, 2001.

im 14 and ive found out that its safer to use torches and power drills than glue guns!!!! with a glue gun i got my pants stuck to the table and burnt my leg! never did that with a torch,wierd huh? (i say down with glue guns! viva la resistance'!) ~anarchy is true freedom~

-- god among insects (argo48@aol.com), January 12, 2004.