The skeleton was a full sized skeleton.

They'd probably not be able to get a discount though. Usually the rules on this task are that you have to get at least some discount and can't accept the first price.

It would depend on what the difference between the fines were though. If they did that and were fined, but the saved time meant that they were able to get all of the other items to specification, it might still have added up to less.

Felipe did buy an anatomical skeleton. It wasn't a joke skeleton or a toy, its purpose was to be used by medical students, so it wouldn't be any use if it wasn't anatomically correct.

The only difference was that it was 2D and not 3D, something which Alan Sugar didn't set as criteria.

I thought the same as soon as he paid. My uncle and Aunty also said exactly the same so we were all really surprised when Sugar didn't bat an eye lid.

Still entertaining as ever watching these supposed educated, business savvy adults flail from one debacle to the next. Being utterly inept and everything thrown their way. It's hysterical.

Let's be honest Sugar picks the winner long before the show so much as starts shooting. But as long as it carries on being so entertaining I'll happily watch.

The spec was an anatomically correct skeleton and that is exactly what that skeleton was described as. Phillipe was right and Lord Shug wrong.m


No, they bought it from a toy shop, but it was an inflatable dingy meeting the sizes specified.
You can buy a kite in a toy shop, it's not a toy kite, it's just a kite.

Most people agreed that Felipe pulled a masterstroke getting the skeleton, and LAS was wrong to object to it just because he felt he'd been outmaneuvered.

When I saw the lack of clarification on the dinghy I did wonder if it was deliberate so someone might try to think outside the box, even Elle pointing out second hand was a nifty idea, it didn't say "new".

Then most people were wrong. The cardboard cutout skeleton was not anatomical. Not even if fully assembled. The bones would not have been anatomically correct.

The boat however met the spec. It was inflatable and over 1.5 m in length.

I thought it was established that it was anatomically correct, I don't think Shugs even questioned that in the BR, but that it was obvious he meant a fully assembled one like the other team had got, and not some piece of tat.

I said "even if fully assembled". So I don't disagree with what you say. However you can't make anatomically correct shaped bones from a cardboard cutout. The packaging said anatomical skeleton, IIRC, but the pictures of the assembled kit showed a lot of flat and square section bones, not a proper moulded shape. You can't teach or learn anatomy if the skeleton doesn't show how joints articulate.

I see what you mean, yeah it would've been useless as a real tool for learning, but it met the specs as they were written, using the tightest meaning of each word on the page. I think the downfall wasn't the anatomical nature of it, it was that it wasn't a skeleton, a bit like asking for a cupboard and them turning up with an Ikea flat pack, it isn't an actual cupboard in front of you, but the parts to assemble one.

I'd love to have a look at BBC competition standards because the descriptions on this show seem so vague and obscure. I'm still amazed the skeleton losing team didn't demand a producer to actually explain how they'd violated the rule.

That's what I was thinking. Ask the first French person they see which is the cheap supermarket and go straight there. However, isn't there a rule that they must negotiate the price down? If so, a supermarket may be tricky as they wouldn't necessarily negotiate.

Google dinghy, then press the shopping link at the top.

Even leaving aside toys, proper dinghies for fishing can be had for £25, although £250 for the boat the women bought does not seem extortionate.

If Elle's subteam had phoned around, they'd have known £250 was way over the top, and far more than any likely fine for not buying it. But they didn't.

That depends on your definition of 'anatomically correct'. Flat pieces of cardboard as bones? Doesn't sound anatomically correct to me.

When I was watching last night I was thinking to myself, there's going to be some gimp on DS that starts a thread about inflatable boat v skeleton, conspiracy theory etc.

If they'd bought boat an inflatable boat 'pack' made out paper bits that you glued together with a Pritt Stick and LS had accepted it, then you'd have a point.

With regard to the skeleton, the team spotted a loophole in the requirements and scored a bargain when they bought it but they were so busy congratulating each other about how smart they were that they didn't follow that through by actually assembling it, which gave AS a loophole of his own to spank them with.

If the team had bought the paper skeleton and then tasked somebody with assembling it then AS would probably have congratulated them for their innovation and effort.
That would have been a sign of somebody who was willing to "go the extra mile" to get things done.
As it was, it gave the impression of people who were only willing to put in the minimum required effort.

The boat was a more straightforward example of "thinking outside the box".
The girl's team read the word "boat" and went to a marine retailer.
The boy's team noticed that it was a SMALL boat and realised that it was something they could buy from a toy shop.

There wasn't really the same ambiguity present as was the case with the skeleton.

It's never referred to directly, but I would not be at all surprised if there was something in the task rules that specified that you cannot source any items from any major chain retailers. As has been said, the task requires teams to negotiate on price and large chains don't do that - it would be a waste of everyone's time as well as being a general nuisance. I think that's why we always see teams going to independent stores.

Also, supermarkets and the like don't just allow anyone to wander in and start filming with a TV camera or even a regular still camera come to that. They are very sensitive to customers being filmed without their consent or to competitors coming in to take photos of shelf fixtures etc. I was once (politely) asked to leave a Sainsbury's because I was noting down product prices. To be fair, I was working for Tesco at the time and was taking notes for competitive intelligence, so fair enough.

We frequently see them stocking up on ingredients from supermarkets in the food tasks. I even recall them going into one on a ten items task, though that was back in Series 1.

As on the other thread, you're right about the lack of filming restriction - brain fade on my part. I'm still suspicious about there being a "no chain stores" rule on the negotiation task, though.

I personally think the boat was in there as a bit of a "red herring", they were at the coast, would of already gone into a chandlers to get the anchor, so seeing a boat on the list, would automatically assume they could/should buy it from the same place.

It was there to see if anyone would think outside the box and actually read the specs of the boat being asked for.

Saira Khan got a digital TV box from a retailer in Tottenham Court Road for nothing in series 1

And last year the girls all but stole the diamond, I personally think that the girls or boys should not be allowed to use their sex to obtain items, even though in the real world it does happen.

No - Not this exactly.

He DID get an anatomical skeleton, Just not made of the materials Sugar expected it to be. And annoyed by Felipe's gall, just refused to allow it even though it was perfectly fine.

I don't think the materials were so much the issue as the fact that it was still flat-packed. IIRC, the analogy that Sugar used was that it was like he'd sent them out to buy a birthday cake, and they came back with some eggs, icing and cake mix and told him "Well, it'll be a birthday cake just as soon you bake it!"