[Hieb]

There was a show similar to this on the DIY channel a few years ago. The show format had collegiate teams in a 16 team bracket, with the teams competing head to head. I'm not sure if each team brought their own supplies or if they had common parts to choose from, but they were given something like 12 hours to design and build, then they would compete. They also had the "mystery item" idea. For example, in one challenge the teams were each given a treadmill, and whichever team used the most parts from the treadmill received a 15 second time bonus or something like that.

I think I like the idea better with the VEX kits. Have both teams starting on equal footing as far as parts available, and then challenge their creativity in solving the problem, not which team has the better equipment/bigger budget.