The Mutoid Waste Company was founded by Joe Rush in the mid-1980s. Influenced by the movie Mad Max and the popular Judge Dredd comics, they specialised in organising illegal parties in London throughout the eighties. They were probably also influenced by the TV show, Blake's 7, which featured Mutoids, reconditioned humans who had had their personalities removed. They became famous for building giant welded sculptures and customising broken down cars as well as making large scale murals in the disused buildings where they held their parties. in the late 1980s and early 1990s they attracted a convoy of up to 500 travellers who were dubbed "Crusties" due to their lack of hygiene. In 1989, after a number of police raids on their warehouse in King's Cross, they left the country and travelled to Germany where they became notorious for building giant sculptures out of old machinery and car parts, one of which was a giant figure doing a v-sign over the Berlin Wall. They had a collection of scrap military vehicles including a Russian aeroplane which followed them around wherever they went. They moved to Rimini in the mid-'90s where they set up a scrap village called "Mutonia".