Outrageous Pumpkins - General Discussion

[Guest]

50 minutes ago, Cannoli said:

It's a PUMPKIN show, which is a FALL harvest... the weather isn't faked and they carve into the night. As Maverick mentioned carving a pumpkin,  especially within a designated time, would break a sweat. The haters on Sunny are ridiculous. I frankly liked her presence.

If this is a reaction to someone saying it was ridiculous for Sunny to be wearing earmuffs and a scarf, as part of their belief that the show was faking the fall weather, I wouldn't call that being a hater on Sunny. They were just expressing skepticism about the show - nothing to do with Sunny.

If it's a reaction to the not 100% positive comments earlier in the thread about Sunny being host (mine being one), I wouldn't call that ridiculous - just a different opinion. Sunny is not generally my cup of tea, and I would have preferred to have Alyson Hannigan back. While Sunny didn't  end up overly bothering me, I stand by my preference.

[CrystalBlue]

So happy Eric (the other big guy) won!  He deserved that win.  I'm hoping next year the two ladies, Leigh and Carli, will return.  Tator losing was disappointing for him but the black stove was a miss with all the paint covering up the actual carving.  I also don't think a stove is a playground game gone wrong.  No doubt Tator will pop up again in the Halloween Food Network shows again.

Edited October 24, 2022 by CrystalBlue

[Grizzly]

What was the point of having Maneet come in for the finale? What does she know about pumpkins?

Leigh's donkey is the only one where I could guess the game just by looking. 

[Rammchick]

I thought it was curious that only Eric mentioned a $25,000 prize, and it was only twice during the whole competition.  Sunny never mentioned it.  Based on what she said repeatedly throughout, the winner was getting the belt and bragging rights, no cash.  That seemed so weird.

I loved Leigh's donkey, but the right carve won.  Congratulations, Eric!

[HyeChaps]

From the preview, it sounds like Damaris is the host

[Grizzly]

Ralph is an interesting choice as a judge. I've always liked him on Cake Boss, he is incredibly talented. The hair situation is unfortunate but no one is perfect.

The carvers are interesting. I recognize James from Halloween Wars. This could be a good season. The right person went home.

[MerBearHou]

Fun show tonight and I thought Damaris did a good job as host.  Some very talented carvers.  Such creativity!

[mlp]

1 hour ago, Grizzly said:

Ralph is an interesting choice as a judge. I've always liked him on Cake Boss, he is incredibly talented. The hair situation is unfortunate but no one is perfect.

That was my opinion exactly.  Ralph was always Duff's right hand man.  I wonder what he's doing now.

Based just on the first episode plus the shots of previous works, I think the Indian guy is a winner.

[MerBearHou]

11 hours ago, mlp said:

Based just on the first episode plus the shots of previous works, I think the Indian guy is a winner.

He is a true artist, my gosh.  Head and shoulders above anyone else.  We shall see!

Edited September 25, 2023 by MerBearHou

[Guest]

In the last week or so, FN has been repeatedly showing an extended preview of this show featuring Rebecca struggling. As soon as it was clear in this episode that she wasn't working on the display shown in the preview, it was obvious she wasn't going anywhere. I don't understand the thinking behind showing an extended clip that isn't from the immediately upcoming episode.

Speaking of Rebecca, I might have ended the competition and given her the win right after the small carve challenge (or whatever they call it). Her haunted house was fantastic.

Damaris fits this show well, I think. She was more her regular self, unlike her judging stint on Summer Baking Championship, where she seemed to be holding herself back.

[Maverick]

On 9/25/2023 at 12:29 AM, mlp said:

That was my opinion exactly.  Ralph was always Duff's right hand man.  I wonder what he's doing now.

Ralph works with Buddy.  He's his main assistant on Buddy vs. Duff.   I assume he still works at Carlos. The less said about his hair the better    At least it doesn't look like a cocks comb this time.

FN tried a hard push on Buddy after they were bought but Discovery but he hasn't been seen much lately so I was a little surprised to see him show up here.  He's definitely the more negative judge to the point where he was getting annoying with his "it's good but...".  The other judge seems more supportive while sometimes being sternly critical.  Maybe it's the editing.  But then again they had that woman who works with Buddy as a judge on Holiday Wars a few years back and she was a terror with her critiques.  

[mlp]

3 hours ago, Maverick said:

Ralph works with Buddy.  He's his main assistant on Buddy vs. Duff.   I assume he still works at Carlos. The less said about his hair the better    At least it doesn't look like a cocks comb this time.

Whoops.  You're right.  I don't know why I typed Duff instead of Buddy.  I knew that.  I think I was thinking of Geoff from Charm City Cakes.

[Maverick]

Yes Geoff was Duffs right hand.  I thought it was mentioned on the last Vs challenge he doesn't work for Duff anymore but came back for the show but I might be mixing that up someone else. 

[Guest]

On 9/25/2023 at 7:05 AM, tracyscott76 said:

In the last week or so, FN has been repeatedly showing an extended preview of this show featuring Rebecca struggling. As soon as it was clear in this episode that she wasn't working on the display shown in the preview, it was obvious she wasn't going anywhere. I don't understand the thinking behind showing an extended clip that isn't from the immediately upcoming episode.

After two episodes, I've settled on Rebecca as my favorite. So I've decided that FN showed this pre-season preview of her struggling as a personal eff you directed at me, so I would pull my hair out waiting each week for this scene to actually appear.

Listening to judge Terri go on about wanting more cutouts, all I could think of was this:

 

[Grizzly]

 

3 minutes ago, Grizzly said:

Some of those sculptures were gorgeous. The dragon was incredible but I don't think it told a story. And I loved Ethan's sea turtle. It would have been a real shame if he was sent home for it. I was skeptical when she said moray eel, but it turned out great.

 

Edited October 3, 2023 by Grizzly

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Grizzly said:

I can't even remember what the departed James looked like.

Tall and bald.

7 minutes ago, Grizzly said:

And I loved Ethan's sea turtle. It would have been a real shame if he was sent home for it.

I'm not sure Ethan was really in danger for leaving as a result of that sculpture. I think they just needed a bottom two. Though I was surprised it was him in the bottom two instead of Michele. I guess it was because Terri had a fever, and the prescription was more cutouts.

[mlp]

1 hour ago, tracyscott76 said:

I'm not sure Ethan was really in danger for leaving as a result of that sculpture. I think they just needed a bottom two.

I kinda thought the same thing.  I understood the criticism about cutouts but the turtle was my favorite of all of them.  I was surprised the moray eel won because I never would have figured out that it was supposed to be an eel.  I think the judges gave her extra credit for having pumpkins inside of pumpkins.  I liked the man with the hatchet that moved better.

 

[Guest]

Well the bad-for-Rebecca preview scene finally appeared. I think she's lucky that James mysteriously had to leave the competition earlier, because this was clearly a make-up non-elimination to get things back on track. If not, she most likely was toast, as much as it pains me to admit.

If Chaminda ever figures out how to add more color to his displays, he's going to run away with this.

[CrystalBlue]

I now think Chaminda and the hippie pumpkin guy, Daniel (?), are the ones to watch.  I like Ethan and have been rooting for him.

No one going home tonight and two winners tied was weird a weird final outcome.  Was this manipulated because James had left earlier or could they really not decide?

I really liked the Barking Up the Wrong Tree carving.

[Rammchick]

14 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

No one going home tonight and two winners tied was weird a weird final outcome.  Was this manipulated because James had left earlier or could they really not decide?

Given that they had a person drop out at the beginning, I think they probably stored up an episode where no one would go home, to keep the number of episodes consistent.

[Salacious Kitty]

7 minutes ago, Rammchick said:

Given that they had a person drop out at the beginning, I think they probably stored up an episode where no one would go home, to keep the number of episodes consistent.

Yeah, they're contracted for X number of episodes going in. 

[CrystalBlue]

I wonder if the contestants knew that going into this episode's carving projects, meaning they were told, or someone figured it out.  They needed them to all act surprised.

[Salacious Kitty]

7 minutes ago, CrystalBlue said:

I wonder if the contestants knew that going into this episode's carving projects, meaning they were told, or someone figured it out.  They needed them to all act surprised.

They probably figured out there would be a non-elimination at some point, they just don't know when. 

[CrystalBlue]

1 minute ago, Salacious Kitty said:

They probably figured out there would be a non-elimination at some point, they just don't know when. 

Got it.  Thanks.

[mlp]

I was surprised by the tie for first.  I thought the tree was good and I like the guy who made it (can't think of his name) but I thought the hot air balloon was the winner hands down.

[Guest]

Just now, mlp said:

I was surprised by the tie for first.  I thought the tree was good and I like the guy who made it (can't think of his name) but I thought the hot air balloon was the winner hands down.

He didn't listen to the judges:

 

[CrystalBlue]

5 hours ago, mlp said:

I was surprised by the tie for first.  I thought the tree was good and I like the guy who made it (can't think of his name) but I thought the hot air balloon was the winner hands down.

I liked the hot air balloon too, but he got dinged because it was too orange.  Terri Hardin commented she wanted him to use paint for more color while he was constructing it.

[Guest]

I thought Chaminda's Batman figures were way better than everyone else's in terms of shape and anatomy, but I can now kind of see where the judges were coming from last week with their comments about the lack of color. It was a little hard to distinguish the different parts of the figures' bodies just from looking at it head on - initially it just looked like a mass of light orange. Oddly enough, though, I don't think they mentioned the lack of color this time?? His hot air balloon last week was much easier to make sense of, but they dinged him for no color. I'll chalk it up to weird editing.

Rebecca seems to do better when she isn't doing large humanoid figures (or at least not two large humanoid figures), so I hope she is able to lean into that for the next challenges.

Oh, and also! I thought Damaris doing the little roar and Ralph being all "I can't move, stop it Damaris" was a fun bit of lowkey silliness.

Edited October 16, 2023 by tracyscott76

[mlp]

I really think Chaminda should carve something in a permanent material (not on this show).  He is immensely talented.  I've seen things in galleries not as good as what he can do in pumpkin in a few hours.  That lion head and his Batman figures were marvelous.

[Rammchick]

On 10/16/2023 at 6:24 AM, tracyscott76 said:

I thought Chaminda's Batman figures were way better than everyone else's in terms of shape and anatomy, but I can now kind of see where the judges were coming from last week with their comments about the lack of color.

Oddly enough, Terri Hardin said something like, I don't like painting, which I thought was a weird thing to say given how much they harped on Chaminda about painting his displays.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Rammchick said:

Oddly enough, Terri Hardin said something like, I don't like painting, which I thought was a weird thing to say given how much they harped on Chaminda about painting his displays.

I noticed that too, but I think perhaps she meant she usually didn't like painting the entire thing, which Michelle had done to her one figure, but she liked it in this case (it was a clown maybe?). Also, there are other ways to introduce color besides paint, with other types of vegetables, and Chaminda doesn't seem inclined to do that, either.

Edited October 17, 2023 by tracyscott76
Fixed a possessive error

[Grizzly]

Not a big surprise but I don't think that was his strongest piece. The octowoman was terrible. Her head was a different color than the rest of her and the judges mentioned her torso. The captain looked really well done, he should have taken center stage. Then she could have been in the background. I liked Rebecca's and Dan's was decent. I was rooting for Ethan all season long, but he didn't shine in the finale. He's young, he'll have plenty of time to win competions.

[mlp]

16 hours ago, Grizzly said:

Not a big surprise but I don't think that was his strongest piece.

Chaminda is extremely talented and I'm glad he won but I agree that wasn't his best piece.  I actually liked Dan's better.  Ethan's was good but I was getting a little annoyed by his teenage ego.  He has a lot of potential though.  Rebecca was a distant fourth. 

[MerBearHou]

1 hour ago, mlp said:

Chaminda is extremely talented and I'm glad he won but I agree that wasn't his best piece.  I actually liked Dan's better.  Ethan's was good but I was getting a little annoyed by his teenage ego.  He has a lot of potential though.  Rebecca was a distant fourth. 

I liked Dan's too and felt it was kind of a 1A and 1B for Chaminda and him.  I would have been happy for either to win.  I liked Ethan and Rebecca a lot, but didn't see their final pieces as finale winners.

[Maverick]

 They tried to make it sound like a 4 way race but Ethan and Rebecca's, while good, weren't on the same level.   Ethan's was fourth to me.  Very monotone and he didn't really meet the challenge because nothing really said "parade float"

 Elements of Chaminda's were really good but I thought Dan's was an overall better piece.   The Devil and the Cerberus were really well done and I thought his carving as the the best use of the Atlantic Giant. 

[CrystalBlue]

Well, that's a wrap for 2023's Outrageous Pumpkins!  I thought pretty much all along that Chaminda would win in the end.  He got the final advantage and chose Terri as the 15-minute consultation, but didn't seem to incorporate her advice with regard to the torso of the woman.

I liked Dan's Devil and the Two-headed Hound best.  I was rooting for Ethan all along, but his false confidence was a little irritating.

In the end I thought the final carve that was best was Dan's, but I think the judges were leaning toward Chaminda to be the winner.

[Rammchick]

15 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

In the end I thought the final carve that was best was Dan's, but I think the judges were leaning toward Chaminda to be the winner.

It seemed to me like they had already decided Chaminda was going to win, no matter what he made.  

[HyeChaps]

I’ve admired Damaris’ outfits

[Guest]

2 hours ago, HyeChaps said:

I’ve admired Damaris’ outfits

Yes, she was looking sharp.

[Grizzly]

I saw a commercial that this is back Sept 29. Unfortunately, it looks like Tator is back too. They did not show who is hosting/judging.

[mlp]

The all-stars are doing some great work.  It's amazing what they can do with pumpkins.  

I can't imagine what the losing team could have been thinking when they made a library with one book.  Instead of putting all that work into a fireplace they should have made book shelves.  They went home for a poor decision, not poor work.

I was happy to see Dan Langan.  I remember years ago when he first showed up on Cupcake Wars.  He was very young, maybe 19 or 20, talented and just starting out in business.  Over the years. he appeared on various shows and it was sort of like watching him grow up.  He even judged on the Christmas cookie show and a couple others.  I'm glad he's dong well.

[Grizzly]

I was impressed that the losing team made 2 realistic people as opposed to the stick pumpkin figures. Yes, they should have done a bookcase instead of a fireplace. The mustache and eyebrows of the cop in the kitchen were great. I disliked the attic scene. For the bedroom scene, they should have had the wife pumpkin asking if she looked fat.

[Rammchick]

On 9/15/2024 at 7:05 PM, Grizzly said:

I saw a commercial that this is back Sept 29. Unfortunately, it looks like Tator is back too. They did not show who is hosting/judging.

It seems to me that Tator has grown up a little bit.  I'm not finding him as insufferable as I used to.

[MerBearHou]

Well, that was another fun Outrageous Pumpkins season.  I’m delighted for the winning duo — they were my favorites. 

Two notes:  I really, really hate penalties in the finale, like one team being able to use all of their tools, and the others could only use one tool between the two of them for 30 minutes.  Fine in an earlier episode but not the finale.

Second note:  I’m a longtime fan of Dameris since her early FN days, but her shrill voice does not work for these moments when she has to yell.  Like nails on a chalkboard.  And I hate her severe haircut.  

[mlp]

Most of the final displays looked good to me.  I wish the judges would give more explanations of why one is better than another.  I suppose that would be hard to do without embarrassing the losers but I'd like to understand what they look for better.