Junk Science

Everyone needs a hobby, be it stamp collecting, cataloging TV Guides or building miniature machines. If you are a fan of the latter, if you paid attention in your high-school auto-body class and know your way around a blow torch, then look out: TLC's Junkyard Wars wants you. Like its distant cousin, BattleBots (with a concept invented by British show Robot Wars), which pits junk-built machine against machine, Junkyard Wars gives two teams 10 hours to roam a junkyard, finding the tools to create their wheeled vehicles or craft that can complete gargantuan tasks -- from riding dunes to catapulting washing machines, and even taking flight. Now, TLC is taking the carnage on the road, and this week The Court at King of Prussia will turn into a mini Thunderdome for three days. Contestants in this version will be given 10 minutes to create their very own tricked-out monster vehicles from the odds and ends of wheels, frames and spare parts available. For the sake of avoiding lawsuits, three contestants at a time will simply race their cars down the treacherous "Junkyard Gravity Crash Course," weaving through faux fire, speed bumps, death drops and the ill-named "tunnel of doom" to the winners' circle, complete with photo finish and (all the literal) bells and whistles.

Junkyard Wars: On The Road, Fri., May 9, 2 p.m.-8 p.m.; Sat., May 10, noon-8 p.m.; Sun., May 11, noon-5 p.m., The Court at King of Prussia Mall, Route 202 at Mall Blvd., 610-337-1210.

—Paul Burress