Spotters' Corner: The Channel 4 Scrapyard Idents.

Channel4a

We all loved Where’s Wally, or Waldo if you’re from west of the big blue wet wobbly thing, and quite a few of us are reasonably interested in cars, too. Well, the kindly folk of Britains kind-of-innovative Channel 4 have, for quite a while now, been running a few ident clips between programmes which should be right up our street.

Right from the get-go I see a bit of hot Dodge Intrepid action; from the eyes of a man who has never seen one in this country that shape still doesn’t seem scrapyard-ready. A bit of squinting sees maybe an S10 Blazer on the right,  with a ’90s Olds 98 in Geriatric Racing Beige proudly sitting atop the pile.

Let’s see what else there is as the clip continues.

Channel4b

The idea of the ident, as you’ll see, is for the Channel 4 logo to appear, as if by magic, from within the construct of the clip. In the second screenshot I can begin to see where the cgi-shortcuts have been taken; those soaring towers of tired traffic appears, to my eyes, to be made up of generic non-specific car-shapes, but then it might just be that my skills are too lacking to identify anything that small and blurry. Feel free to have a go.

Channel4c

By the third screenshot we have more clues that the cars in the foreground are the real ones. The pile on the left contains a B11 Nissan Sunny/Sentra, the other two look familiar but I daren’t go into more detail in case of wrongativity.  I easily identified the late ’80s Town Car, though.

In the background are a couple of RV’s, a Class A of ’90s vintage, looking far too nice for junk so probably fake, as well as an inverted Class C, which is also probably make-believe.

Channel4d

When the fourth capture happens, the camera has moved to reveal that the B11 was sitting atop an MN12 Thunderbird, below which is possibly either a Taurus or a Mercedes 190, I can’t quite work that one out.

Channel4e

The first of many conversion vans hoves into view next, the first on a fork-lift and probably genuine if the front-end damage is anything to go by. There’s another Ford van on the right, haphazardly postured on a pile of something or other, with different window spacing to the first, so probably genuine, too.

I’m going to hand things over to the Hoonitariat now. Click the link below to view the clip ad nauseum until you’ve identified as many as you can. Prize? The respect and infinite admiration of your peers and loved ones.

http://www.theidentgallery.com/player.php?id=C4-2010-ID-SCRAPYARD-1

After all that, the definition between what they have skilfully photo-composited and what has been completely computer generated his blurred still further in this other ident which may well see you saying “Gosh” even louder. It’s perhaps more of an AtomicToasters thing than a Hooniverse one, as you’ll see:

http://www.theidentgallery.com/player.php?id=C4-2010-ID-AIRCRAFT-1

As soon as I clocked the rare as unicorn-poo C-133 Cargomaster and the B36s, I immediately knew we we were talking Davis Monthan and AMARC. Check out the exquisite simplicity of the “4” in the clip, and enjoy a bit of planespotting.

(Copyright is owned by Channel 4, but it’s been played so much by now it must be pretty well public domain stuff)

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16 responses to “Spotters' Corner: The Channel 4 Scrapyard Idents.”

  1. racer139 Avatar
    racer139

    The van on the right of the ford on the forklift is a dodge van. It had more squarish taillights than a ford with its longer slender rectanglish tail lights. Theres also a mid eighties s-10 and what looks like a dodge caravan behind it

  2. racer139 Avatar
    racer139

    In the second to last pic it looks like a mid eighties nissan 300z and a accord in the pile just before it, between a sentra and a mercedes (maybe 190). It also looks like a early eighties mazda 626 sticking out beside that smashelincoln.d

    1. desolit Avatar
      desolit

      i agree about the accord. but i believe that to be a 1980 rx7 instead of a Nissan Z. i realize the c-pillar doesnt look quite right but thats because it was mostly under windows. The wide b-pillar was just crushed over to the side. But the 'dead give away (-Ramsey)' for me was the angle of the back end and the taillights…. well where the tailight were. the only z with that kind of horizontal body crease was the z31. But, the z31 had a flat verticle line for a rear end and the tailights made way more of a presence.

  3. dukeisduke Avatar
    dukeisduke

    Any idea where this was shot? The stacks look like giant Jenga games.

  4. Batshitbox Avatar

    A Dodge Intrepid that doesn't seem scrapyard ready? Which part of Dodge Intrepid did you misunderstand? They were only painted up to look like taxicabs around here to disguise them on their way from the factory to the scrapyard. A one-way fare, no passengers.

    1. Rust-MyEnemy Avatar

      Ha! I had heard, actually, that such machines weren't the last word in durability. I'm just misled by that futuristic cab-forward styling….

      1. J_the_Guy Avatar
        J_the_Guy

        Hooniverse is the only place I have ever heard someone speak lovingly about an intrepid

        1. Maymar Avatar
          Maymar

          Hey, they were great cars, until the accountants had their way with them.

          1. Pete_Gaines Avatar
            Pete_Gaines

            They were great cars, until the Chrysler assembly line had their way with them.

          2. J_the_Guy Avatar
            J_the_Guy

            Hey, they were never great cars, and then, the accountants had their way with them.
            Fixed That For You

          3. Maymar Avatar
            Maymar

            Honestly, they were objectively pretty good cars. Good to drive, between decent handling for such a big car, great ride, spacious, decent looking – road tests of the LH cars were always positive. And let's not forget 214hp was incredibly respectable for 1993, and the Intrepid R/T had 240hp a year before the 3.5L Altima that everyone went nuts for (admittedly, the Intrepid had a few hundred more pounds to lug around and a power-sapping transmission).
            But of course, many of the components were cheapened out, and they were prone to a couple big ticket failures, which help lead to the less than stellar resale values that made them beaters rather early in their life.

  5. desolit Avatar
    desolit

    In the last picture it looks ill go from left to right of immediately what jumps at me.
    1. next to the front loader about mid-picture – the front of a chevy luv (?) i believe.
    2. closer to the point of view is a Dodge Caravan and obviously an S-10 single cab short bed
    3. also obvious is the Toyota Previa in the distance off to the far right.

  6. BlackIce_GTS Avatar
    BlackIce_GTS

    0:02 Mazda Protege. That blue thing on the forklift is powerfully generic. I suspect the majority of viewers almost remember what it is.
    0:12 Maroon Ford Aerostar in the bottom right, behind it may be the front end of a white '86 Oldsmobile Delta 88. That was the first year, and the only one with sealed beams.
    0:25 Yeah, that looks like a Z31 300ZX on top of the… non-Tercel? 4th from the top in the pile above/in front of it looks like a Taurus wagon. That could be a B-body wagon the crane is putting on the stack?
    0:33 The thing between the Taurus and the thing-that-the-Sunny-was-called-in-North-America actually might be an Accord?
    0:43 Isuzu Rodeo in front of another Aerostar.

  7. smokyburnout Avatar
    smokyburnout

    The Event!

  8. dukeisduke Avatar
    dukeisduke

    The white car under the Datsun 210 is an '86-'89 Honda Accord, not an MN12 T-Bird (and yes, that's an M-B 190 Class below). I only know because I know what one of those Accords looks like without a license plate (I know, I know, get a life, right?). I 'm wondering how much of these idents are real and how much are CGI. Junkyards don't stack cars that high (safety hazard for yard workers), and planes don't fly out of boneyards like that. I don't see any B-36s in that yard (also, I think it would be Mojave or Marana, since it's mainly commercial aircraft). i think it's mainly CGI stuff, very well done.

  9. krazykarguy Avatar
    krazykarguy

    Here's my attempt at ID'ing as many cars as possible:
    Blue car on forklift appears to be a Hyundai Excel/Mitsubishi Precis sedan (best known for it's anonymity)
    Silver car on the side appears to be an early '90's Mazda Protege
    Tire pile
    Silver car with trunk open in background appears to be a 2nd gen Dodge Intrepid
    Pile of cars across from the Intrepid include a white/silver B-body Oldsmobile 98 Regency, a brick-colored Ford Aerostar in the foreground, and several other GM products under the pile, including another Olds, this time a late '80's Delta 88. The blue car being eviscerated by the grappler is too non-descript ti be ID'ed.
    There is a mid '80's Lincoln Town Car behind the grappler.
    There are a few Japanese cars in the next pile, a Mazda RX-7, A Datsun/Nissan Stanza, A Toyota Corolla (maybe FX16?), and a mid '80's Honda Accord. Also appears to be a VW Jetta in the same pile.
    A Ford Conversion van flies past on a forklift while a Dodge version of the SAME EXACT THING sits on a pile to it's right, with an early Caravan/Voyager near it. There appears to be an old Toyota 2WD pickup parked on the road up ahead. A weatherbeaten S-10 sits atop the pile in the foreground, while an old Suburban rests behind it at ground level.
    As the camera pans towards the acreage of the scrapyard, you can identify an Isuzu Rodeo, a Buick Century, A Cadillac Eldorado, several Chevy/GM full size trucks, another k-van, if I had more time, I'd find more…