Robot Wars (TV series) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Robot Wars is a British game show modelled on a US-based competition of the same name. It was broadcast on BBC Two

BBC Two

BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

from 1998 until 2003, with its final series broadcast on Five in 2003 and 2004. Additional series were filmed for specific sectors of the global market, including two series of Robot Wars Extreme Warriors with U.S. competitors for the TNN network

Spike TV

Spike is an American cable television channel. It launched on March 7, 1983 as The Nashville Network , a joint venture of WSM, Inc...

(hosted by Mick Foley

Mick Foley

Michael Francis "Mick" Foley, Sr. is an American semi-retired professional wrestler, author, comedian, actor, voice actor and former color commentator. He has worked for many wrestling promotions, including WWE, WCW, ECW and TNA. He is often referred to as "The Hardcore Legend", a nickname he...

and Rebecca Grant

Rebecca Grant (American actress)

Rebecca Grant , is an American actress. Grant is a graduate of the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York with a joint major in psychology and communication . She was a hostess on NFL Under the Helmet and Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors television programs. After losing her mother to...

), and two of Dutch Robot Wars for distribution in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. The fourth series of the UK Robot Wars was brought to the United States on TNN as Robot Wars: Grand Champions in 2002, and hosted by Joanie Laurer. In 2003, the roboteers themselves formed The Fighting Robot Association and with their associated event organisers, carry on participating in competitions for new audiences.

The series involved teams of amateur and professional roboteers who made their own robots to fight against each other in both friendly and tournament matches. As well as fighting each other, they had to avoid the "House Robots", which were not bound by the same weight or weapon limits as the contestants.

Origins

Robot Wars was the brainchild of Marc Thorpe, a designer working for the LucasToys division of Lucasfilm

Lucasfilm

Lucasfilm Limited is an American film production company founded by George Lucas in 1971, based in San Francisco, California. Lucas is the company's current chairman and CEO, and Micheline Chau is the president and COO....

. In 1992, Thorpe had the initial idea for robot combat sport after unsuccessfully attempting to create a radio controlled vacuum cleaner. In 1994, Marc Thorpe created Robot Wars and held the first competition at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. Approximately one month prior to the event, Thorpe formed a partnership with New York based record company Sm:)e Communications, later Profile Records

Profile Records

Profile Records was a record label that specialized in many types of urban-oriented music, such as hip hop, active until 1996..- History :In 1980, at 23 years old, after working briefly for MCA, Cory Robbins was looking to start a record label. He invited his songwriter friend Steve Plotnicki to be...

, who provided additional funding.

Between 1995 and 1997, three further Robot Wars events took place in America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

and, in 1995, Profile Records partnered with production company Mentorn to produce and televise a Robot Wars event in the UK. Mentorn acquired the worldwide television rights from Profile in 1995 after Tom Gutteridge (the head of Mentorn) had seen an amateur tape of a San Francisco event.

Gutteridge and one of his producers Steve Carsey created a television format based on the Robot Wars concept. They produced a live event opposite BBC Television Centre in Wood Lane, Shepherds Bush, London and hired Derek Foxwell to build 3 combat robots to take on three American robots. The Controller of BBC2, Michael Jackson, attended the event, which was not filmed, and he promised to commission a series. However, it wasn't until 1998 that a subsequent Controller of BBC2, Mark Thompson, fulfilled Jackson's promise and actually commissioned 6 episodes. Gutteridge and Carsey were producers and Foxwell was the technical supervisor and senior technical consultant. He drafted the rules and regulations and was in charge of the pit area and the technical team, which scrutineered the robots, got them on and off stage and helped the contestants prepare and repair their robots. Irvine, initially a member of the technical team, served as one of the judges.

Profile sought no input or consent from Thorpe before doing this, and this aggravated the already troubled relationship between Thorpe and Profile Records and indirectly spurred legal disagreements surrounding the ownership of the Robot Wars concept. The legal proceedings surrounding these would last until February 6, 2002. Mentorn used Thorpe as a Consultant on the series, however, and the initial series of Robot Wars in the UK was broadcast over six weeks in February and March 1998. It was an immediate hit, with more than 2 million viewers, and a further 27 episodes were commissioned by the BBC that year. 155 episodes were produced in total, and the show was seen in 26 countries. Two series were produced in the US for the TNN (now Spike and Adult Swim) network, and a version was also shown on Nickelodeon. Series were also produced in many European countries. Although the series had various directors and producers, all were produced in the UK by Mentorn, and executive produced by Tom Gutteridge and Steve Carsey. The initial series were staged in various film studios around London. But the stage and pit area became too large to fit into any of the conventional studios, so filming was later moved to an aircraft hangar at RAF Newton

RAF Newton

RAF Newton was a Royal Air Force station, 7 miles east of Nottingham, England. It was used briefly as a bomber base and then as a flying training school during World War II....

Presenters

The first series of Robot Wars was presented by Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson is an English broadcaster, journalist and writer who specialises in motoring. He is best known for his role on the BBC TV show Top Gear along with co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May...

and co-hosted by Philippa Forrester

Philippa Forrester

Philippa Forrester is an English television and radio presenter, producer and author. Having presented shows such as Tomorrow's World, The Heaven and Earth Show and Robot Wars, she now makes wildlife programmes with her husband, Charlie Hamilton James.-Education:Forrester was educated at Westgate...

. In keeping with his edgy persona established on Top Gear, Clarkson frequently made tongue-in-cheek jokes about competitors and their robots, such as remarking that a contestant robot called "Scarab" looked like "cheese on toast". Clarkson left Robot Wars after the first series and was replaced with Craig Charles

Craig Charles

Craig Joseph Charles is an English actor, stand-up comedian, author, poet, radio and television presenter, best known for playing Dave Lister in the British cult-favourite science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf...

. Charles, well known as playing the character Dave Lister

Dave Lister

David "Dave" Lister, commonly referred to simply as Lister, is a fictional character from the British science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, portrayed by Craig Charles...

in the science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

themed situation comedy

Situation comedy

A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...

Red Dwarf

Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...

, was seen as taking the programme and its contestants more seriously than Clarkson, and was more enthusiastic while presenting it. Charles would close each episode with a four line poem ending with the words " Robot Wars". Charles presented Robot Wars until its demise in 2004.

In comparison to Charles' background in science fiction, Philippa Forrester was best known as co-host of the science

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

and technology

Technology

Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...

programme Tomorrow's World

Tomorrow's World

Tomorrow's World was a long-running BBC television series, showcasing new developments in the world of science and technology. First aired on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003.- Content :...

. Her role on Robot Wars was as the pit reporter who would speak to contestants about their robots before and after battles. Forrester was pit reporter for six of the show's nine series; Julia Reed

Julia Reed

Julia Reed is a British television presenter who grew up in Mississippi.Reed is best known as the co-presenter of the British game show Robot Wars from 2000 to 2002. She took over the role from Philippa Forrester since Forrester was unable to participate in the programme due to pregnancy...

took the role for Series 4 and Extreme 1 since Forrester was unable to participate in the programme due to pregnancy

Pregnancy

Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...

, and when the programme moved to Five for the seventh series was replaced with Jayne Middlemiss

Jayne Middlemiss

Jayne Middlemiss is a London-based British television and radio presenter, originally from Northumberland. She began presenting music television shows such as The O-Zone and Top of the Pops in the mid '90s, before presenting a variety of other television and radio shows, including on BBC 6 Music...

US Robot Wars

The 1994 Robot Wars in San Francisco, California featured three different 'games' for each of three robot weight classes:

The FACE-OFF paired robots to battle through an elimination tournament. A robot won a match by immobilizing its opponent, either by damage or by pinning. If both robots were still mobile at the end of ten minutes, they both advanced to the next round of the tournament.
The MOB SCENE was a free-for-all melee
Mêlée
Melee , generally refers to disorganized close combat involving a group of fighters. A melee ensues when groups become locked together in combat with no regard to group tactics or fighting as an organized unit; each participant fights as an individual....

fight amongst multiple robots. There were two Mob Scene fights: one for lightweight robots, and a never-repeated 'all weight classes' melee.
The ESCORT event had a single competitor robot escort a defenseless "drone" robot across the arena while a "house robot" attempted to attack the drone. The successful escort with the lowest time was declared the winner. The Escort event was contested only in 1994.

Weight classes for this first event were:

Lightweight: 10 to 40 pounds
Middleweight: 41 to 70 pounds
Heavyweight: 71 to 100 pounds

The competition format remained much the same through 1997. Additional safety regulations were implemented each year, match length was trimmed to 5 minutes, a 'featherweight' weight class was added, and weight allowances crept upward; by 1997 the heavyweight maximum was 170 pounds.

The 1997 judging criteria removed pinning an opponent for 30 seconds as an automatic win and required such immobilization techniques to be limited to one minute. The 1997 judging criteria also removed 'audience applause' for selection of a winner when a match ended with both robots still mobile. Robots were judged by a panel based on a scoring system of damage, style, aggression, and control.

UK Robot Wars

The format for the first and second televised U.K. Robot Wars differed radically from the earlier U.S. events. In each heat, a group of six robots would compete through a series of three challenges:

The first challenge: ‘The Gauntlet’ -- an obstacle filled maze defended by house robots. Competitor robots pushed as far down the course as possible in the time allowed. The robot covering the least ground was eliminated, leaving five robots to continue.
The second challenge: ‘The Trial’. This event varied from heat to heat with games like, 'Sumo', 'British Bulldog', 'Stock Car', 'Labyrinth', 'Snooker', and 'Football'. The Second Wars retained Sumo and football and also added 'Skittles', 'Tug of War', 'King of the Castle', 'Joust', and 'Pinball'. Again, the lowest scoring robot was eliminated.
The third challenge: 'The Arena' - the familiar combat event that dominated the later wars. The four remaining robots paired off and fought head-to head in the enclosed arena patrolled by the house robots. The two victorious robots then fought for the heat championship.

In the First Wars, the six heat champions met in a single melee fight to determine the overall winner. The Second Wars had two semifinal shows, each with six heat finalists reprising the heats with a Gauntlet and a Trial, with the last place finisher in each eliminated. The remaining four finalists paired off and fought head-to head in 'The Arena' with the two victorious robots moving on to a final arena battle to determine the champion and the two defeated robots fighting a separate arena battle for 3rd and 4th place.

The Third Wars eliminated 'The Gauntlet' and 'The Trial" from the main tournament, concentrating on 'The Arena'. This format continued throughout the remainder of the Wars — a main knockout tournament with special contests as side attractions. The side events included Tag Team, Annihilator, Rebellion, and regional championship events.

A robot could lose a match in several ways:

A robot immobile for 30 seconds could be counted 'out' and turned over to the house robots for further ‘punishment’. Beginning with Robot Wars Extreme 1, the Refbot counted down the final 10 seconds;
A robot flipped out over the arena railing into the space between the arena and the enclosure box was ‘out’.
A robot that fell or was pushed into the open ‘Pit of Oblivion’ was instantly ‘out’;
If none of the above conditions were satisfied, a panel of three judges scored the competitors on style, control, damage, and aggression. The judges for most of the programmes were Professor Noel Sharkey
Noel Sharkey
Dr Noel Sharkey FBCS, FIET is a Belfast-born British computer scientist. He is best known to the British public for his appearances as an expert on the BBC 2 television series Robot Wars and Techno Games, and co-hosts Bright Sparks, a science and engineering challenge series, for BBC Northern...

, Professor Martin Smith
Martin Smith (academic)
Martin Smith is Visiting Research Professor in Robotics at the Open University. He is also President of the Cybernetics Society in the UK. Previous positions were Professor at the University of Central England and at the University of East London where he set up the Mobile Robots Research...

and Mat Irvine
Mat Irvine
Mat Irvine was born on 7 July 1948. He was a Technical Consultant and Visual Effects Designer who worked on television, primarily for the BBC, from the 1970s to the 1990s....

.

Arena and hazards

The arena and mechanical hazards for the early non-televised Robot Wars in the U.S. (1994 through 1997) were rudimentary. The arena itself was a 30 by 54 foot rectangle with an asphalt surface. The 1994 arena was defined only by 2-foot high plywood walls—there was no bulletproof plastic enclosure. The following year saw the addition of braced 1/4" thick clear plastic panels extending four feet upward from the plywood panels to enhance audience protection. By 1997 the arena walls had grown to eight feet plus two feet of netting at the top.

Early hazards included a wide ram that could push a robot away from the side railing, nets on hinged arms that could descend to entangle robots that ventured too close, large horizontal pivoting arms to swat passing robots, and a bowling ball pendulum swinging across the arena.

The arena was completely re-done for the televised UK Robot Wars. The arena was approximately 32 feet by 48 feet and was enclosed in a huge clear plastic box 20 feet high. There were assorted hazards in the arena that changed from one series the next:

The Pit of Oblivion – Introduced in Series 2, The Pit of Oblivion was a 4-foot square hole in the arena floor painted black on the inside, and partially filled with old tyres into which a robot might drive, fall or be pushed, instantly eliminating said robot. In Series 2 pits were added to both lanes of The Gauntlet. In Series 3, The Pit was open during the first two rounds of each heat, then covered during the heat final and following matches. For Series 4 The Pit was redesigned as a yellow and black chevron tape outlined area that would descend at some point during the match to form a pit. From its very first appearance in Series 2, The Pit included a small pyrotechnic "explosion" that formed a large ball of white smoke. This would activate when a robot fell into the Pit, primarily used to show that a competitor had fallen in. From Extreme/Series 5 onward, there was a device on the arena wall that competitor robots could use to activate the pit opening. In Extreme/Series 5 that device was a tyre. For Series 6 the tyre was replaced by a metal bumper. The tyre returned for Series 7.
The Floor Flipper – a powerful pneumatic flipper that can toss a robot across the arena. This device made its debut in Series 3, where it just looked like a part of the arena floor. For Series 4 the flipper was given yellow/black paint scheme similar to the redesigned Pit of Oblivion. Series 5/Extreme 1 saw the power of the flipper increased, allowing it to hurl even the heaviest robots into the air, and flip featherweight robots out of the arena.
The Disc of Doom – a spinning panel set into the arena floor activated by a button similar to the pit release. This hazard was used to disrupt a robot's driving, and worked well on lighter competitors. It first appeared in series 6 but was removed for Series 7.
The Drop Zone – a spot on the arena floor where heavy objects (television sets, ocean buoys, refrigerators, washing machines, etc.) fell from the top of the arena. It first appeared in series 6; although the spot where the object would fall, a black square with a yellow 'X' shape across it first appeared in Extreme, not serving any clear purpose at the time.
The Patrol Zones (Series 1) – four large squares marked with striped tape, each occupied by one House Robot and a hazard.
The Perimeter
Perimeter
A perimeter is a path that surrounds an area. The word comes from the Greek peri and meter . The term may be used either for the path or its length - it can be thought of as the length of the outline of a shape. The perimeter of a circular area is called circumference.- Practical uses :Calculating...

Patrol Zone/PPZ (Series 2) – a narrow band around the perimeter of the arena where competitor robots were open to attack by any of the house robots.
The Corner Patrol Zones/CPZ(s) (Series 3 onwards) – From Series 3 onward, the House Robots were confined to the four corners of the arena and moved in a rota system through all of the machines. In Series 4, the house robots switched to a rota system of Shunt, Matilda, Sgt.Bash, and Dead Metal. Sir Killalot consistently appeared every round. From Extreme/Series 5 onwards, only two house robots were allowed in the arena at a time, and this moved in a rota through all of the machines.
Several propane powered flame spouts, capable of roasting electronics or setting flammable robots, or the occasional unlucky house robot, on fire.
Angle Grinders, abrasive grinding wheels built into the arena railings. (replaced with spikes in series 4, but brought back from extreme 1 onwards)
CO₂
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...

geysers, actually useful for putting out flames.
Early hazards included spikes that came up from the ground (Removed in Series 4 after many upsets were caused by these flipping and immobilising robots that were on top.), arena sidebars and grilles that could immobilise robots crossing them (Series 1 only), and swinging spiked maces on chains that were more atmospheric than damaging.

In early 2004 the Robot Wars arena was purchased from the television production firm who produce the show (Mentorn) by a company called Robot Arenas Ltd based in the UK. They are an organisation set up by a past competitor of Robot Wars to continue the sport of robot combat in the UK.

The Robot Wars arena -valued originally at £11,000- was sold for scrap in 2005 for £250 by the new owners of RAF Newton where the arena was housed. A suit filed against RAF Newton by Robot Arenas Ltd found that RAF Newton had acted reasonably in the matter and owed no compensation to Robot Arenas Ltd.

Nickelodeon Robot Wars

In 2002, the Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon (TV channel)

Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...

American television network created Nickelodeon Robot Wars where kids operated combat robots provided by American teams.

Competitors and results

UK Championship results
Series	Winner	Grand Finalists
The First Wars	Roadblock Roadblock (robot) Roadblock was a combat robot that competed on the British television series Robot Wars. Constructed in 1997 by A-level students from Bodmin Community College, the robot was initially called "Road Rage" but was renamed in response to a request from the programme's producers. Both names were derived...	Bodyhammer, Cunning Plan, Recyclopse, Robot The Bruce, T.R.A.C.I.E. T.R.A.C.I.E. T.R.A.C.I.E was the first invertible combat robot seen on British Television's Robot Wars hosted by Jeremy Clarkson and Philippa Forrester...
Series	Winner	Runner-up	Third Place	Fourth Place
The Second Wars	Panic Attack Panic Attack (Robot) Panic Attack was a robot that competed in the British television show Robot Wars. In Series 2, it was just a box, with a set of electrically powered lifting forks, powered by a home made system. It was emblazoned with the image of a spider. The spider was the result of a school competition to come...	Cassius	Roadblock Roadblock (robot) Roadblock was a combat robot that competed on the British television series Robot Wars. Constructed in 1997 by A-level students from Bodmin Community College, the robot was initially called "Road Rage" but was renamed in response to a request from the programme's producers. Both names were derived...	Killertron
The Third Wars	Chaos 2 Chaos 2 Chaos 2 is a combat robot from the UK Television Series Robot Wars, designed and built by self-employed mechanic George Francis, from Ipswich, and operated by Team Chaos. Twice winner of the UK Robot Wars Championship and the only robot with that distinction, it was the first robot to use its...	Hypno-Disc Hypno-Disc A contestant entry in the Robot Wars TV series, Hypno-Disc was one of the first robots to use the kinetic flywheel weapon — a highly damaging weapon that succeeded in heavily damaging and destroying a great many robots. Hypno-Disc's design, however, was somewhat basic, and its high ground...	Firestorm	Steg-O-Saw-Us
The Fourth Wars	Chaos 2 Chaos 2 Chaos 2 is a combat robot from the UK Television Series Robot Wars, designed and built by self-employed mechanic George Francis, from Ipswich, and operated by Team Chaos. Twice winner of the UK Robot Wars Championship and the only robot with that distinction, it was the first robot to use its...	Pussycat	Stinger	Hypno-Disc Hypno-Disc A contestant entry in the Robot Wars TV series, Hypno-Disc was one of the first robots to use the kinetic flywheel weapon — a highly damaging weapon that succeeded in heavily damaging and destroying a great many robots. Hypno-Disc's design, however, was somewhat basic, and its high ground...
The Fifth Wars	Razer Razer (Robot) Razer is a combat robot that competed on the British television series Robot Wars. It was constructed by Simon Scott and Ian Lewis from Bournemouth; the team later expanded to include webmaster Vincent Blood...	Bigger Brother	Firestorm	Hypno-Disc Hypno-Disc A contestant entry in the Robot Wars TV series, Hypno-Disc was one of the first robots to use the kinetic flywheel weapon — a highly damaging weapon that succeeded in heavily damaging and destroying a great many robots. Hypno-Disc's design, however, was somewhat basic, and its high ground...
The Sixth Wars	Tornado Tornado (robot) Tornado was a competitor on the UK TV series Robot Wars, noteworthy as the champion of the sixth series.Tornado was built by Andrew Marchant, Bryan Moss and David Gamble, from Sawtry, near Huntingdon. It even got its own Robot Wars Remote Controlled Toy, Diecast Minibot and pullback toy.Post Robot...	Razer Razer (Robot) Razer is a combat robot that competed on the British television series Robot Wars. It was constructed by Simon Scott and Ian Lewis from Bournemouth; the team later expanded to include webmaster Vincent Blood...	Firestorm	Terrorhurtz
The Seventh Wars	Typhoon 2 Typhoon 2 Typhoon 2 was a robot in the UK television series Robot Wars, noteworthy for being the final champion of the show before it was cancelled. It was a full-body spinner with cutting claws. In two battles in series 7, which it competed in, it knocked out the arena wall, causing the match to restart...	Storm 2 Storm 2 Storm 2 was a robot that competed in the British television game show Robot Wars. It was a small invertible box-shaped robot with a wedge on the front...	Tornado Tornado (robot) Tornado was a competitor on the UK TV series Robot Wars, noteworthy as the champion of the sixth series.Tornado was built by Andrew Marchant, Bryan Moss and David Gamble, from Sawtry, near Huntingdon. It even got its own Robot Wars Remote Controlled Toy, Diecast Minibot and pullback toy.Post Robot...	X-Terminator
World Championship results
Championship	Winner	Runner-up	Semi-Finalists
The First World Championship	Razer Razer (Robot) Razer is a combat robot that competed on the British television series Robot Wars. It was constructed by Simon Scott and Ian Lewis from Bournemouth; the team later expanded to include webmaster Vincent Blood... (England)	Behemoth (England)	101 101 Year 101 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Traianus and Paetus... (England)	Diotoir (Ireland)
The Second World Championship	Razer Razer (Robot) Razer is a combat robot that competed on the British television series Robot Wars. It was constructed by Simon Scott and Ian Lewis from Bournemouth; the team later expanded to include webmaster Vincent Blood... (UK)	Drillzilla (USA)	Manta (USA)	Tornado Tornado (robot) Tornado was a competitor on the UK TV series Robot Wars, noteworthy as the champion of the sixth series.Tornado was built by Andrew Marchant, Bryan Moss and David Gamble, from Sawtry, near Huntingdon. It even got its own Robot Wars Remote Controlled Toy, Diecast Minibot and pullback toy.Post Robot... (UK)
The Third World Championship	Storm 2 Storm 2 Storm 2 was a robot that competed in the British television game show Robot Wars. It was a small invertible box-shaped robot with a wedge on the front... (UK)	Supernova (Sri Lanka)	Crushtacean (South Africa)	Tough As Nails (Netherlands)

The competing robots are listed in :Category:Robot Wars competitors.

House robots

The Robot Wars arena was also patrolled by the house robots, created as part of the television format. The house robots were a huge success, and particularly popular with younger viewers. Scale models of the house robots were sold as toys, and in 2002 these became the number one boys' toy in the UK. The original house robots were designed and constructed by BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

Visual Effects and did not have to conform to the same rules as contestant robots; for example, they were allowed to be considerably heavier, and were allowed weaponry prohibited in the competitor robots.

Series One

In series one there were four house robots:

Matilda, designed to resemble a mutant robotic dinosaur, and armed with pneumatic lifting tusks and a chainsaw tail; Matilda was the only "female" house robot.
Shunt, a bulldozer-like robot centered around pushing power, was equipped with a plough, lifting scoop and 'diamond-edged' pickaxe;
Sgt. Bash, a military themed robot with a ramming blade, circular saw
Circular saw
The circular saw is a machine using a toothed metal cutting disc or blade. The term is also loosely used for the blade itself. The blade is a tool for cutting wood or other materials and may be hand-held or table-mounted. It can also be used to make narrow slots...

and propane flamethrower
Flamethrower
A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...

gun turret
Gun turret
A gun turret is a weapon mount that protects the crew or mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon and at the same time lets the weapon be aimed and fired in many directions.The turret is also a rotating weapon platform...

.
Dead Metal, a scorpion-like robot with pneumatic pincers and a circular saw mounted on an overhead arm.

Series Two

The original four house robots were joined by,

Sir Killalot, a semi-humanoid robot with a blade mounted on a lance and pincers formed from a set of emergency services Hydraulic Rescue Tools nicknamed the Jaws of Life. Killalot is sometimes considered the "leader" of the house robots.
The Sentinel (first appeared in episode seven) was a modified immobile JCB digger which pushed competitors toward one of two pits on either side in 'The Gauntlet'. It was the only house robot to have an operator inside the arena.

Series Three

No new house robots were introduced, but there were changes for all six of the existing house robots.

Matilda's tusks and chainsaw were strengthened.
Shunt was given a larger and more powerful axe.
Sgt. Bash's ramming blade was replaced by a pair of hydraulically powered pincers and he was given lighter camouflage fibreglass armour to replace his original silver steel hide.
Dead Metal had the biggest makeover. He was given a larger saw and the arm was removed in favour of a new design where a whole section of the robot, where the circular saw was mounted, slowly slid forward. This was much more effective at damaging competitor robots.
Sir Killalot's weapons were enlarged and a drill was mounted on the lance, replacing the static blade from series 2.
'The Gauntlet' was removed from the competition and with it went The Sentinel — never to appear again.

Series Four

One new robot joined the team.

Refbot, this robot, like Sir Killalot, was designed as a semi-humanoid robot, but much taller and with ploughs at the front and rear, a pincer and a fire extinguisher. As his name suggests, his role was to be the referee of the matches, although his role never really advanced until the next season. His main role during Series Four was to separate robots locked together if it felt the match had ground to a stalemate.

Most of the original house robots were fine-tuned, most noticeably Sir Killalot and Sgt. Bash, who both had their pincers enlarged and made stronger than before.

In the special "Southern Annihilator" contest, Razer managed to destroy Matilda. At the end of the episode a message was displayed reading "R.I.P. (Rust in Piece) Matilda: Destroyed in Action" followed by "...or was she?". She was then seen coming into the arena heavily bandaged.

Series Five and Extreme Series One

No new house robots were introduced, but two robots were changed:

Refbot had a new electronic counter installed into his chest, which counted from 0 to 10, to declare that another robot had been immobilized. If the robot was not moving by the time the counter hit ten, then it was technically out. The pincer also held a 'Light Indicator System' (as described by the Robot Wars Extreme official guide), which had a variety of purposes.
- A green light signalled the beginning of a fight.
- A yellow light acted as the equivalent of a yellow card. If a House Robot attacked a robot who wasn't in the CPZ (Corner Patrol Zone), or a Contestant robot got a bit overaggressive with the House Robots, Refbot would display the yellow card as a warning.
- A red light acted as the equivalent of a red card. If a House Robot (or occasionally a contestant robot) continued to attack illegally, Refbot would issue the robot the red card. In the case of the House Robots, it would then have to return to the CPZ and would not be allowed out for the remainder of the fight. The red card was also displayed to a contestant robot who had just been counted out, to show it was out of the match.
Matilda's chainsaw was replaced with a 27 kilogram vertical flywheel, which proved to be much more destructive than her chainsaw. Although designed to be interchangeable with the flywheel, the chainsaw was never used again in the British series — but it was seen in use in the American Robot Wars Extreme Warriors.

Series Six

Two new house robots were added:

Mr. Psycho — An even larger Killalot based robot that ran on tracks, with a gigantic claw for picking up competitors, and a 30 kilogram pneumatic hammer for causing percussive damage. Mr. Psycho was reported to weigh 650 kilograms, but some estimates place that higher.
Growler — A dog-like robot described as Mr. Psycho's pet. Growler has four tonne pressure hydraulic jaws, and a flame jet built into the back. This house robot's main weapon was its speed and power, which it used to ram and drag competitors around the arena. Growler weighed in at 375KG.

Series Seven
The last series to be filmed, a final House Robot was added.

Cassius Chrome was a robot equipped with two punching arms with interchangeable weapons. Examples of weapons include metal fists and spikes. Although weaponry lacked power, it was still rather effective in the capacity of pushing other robots.

Other

Another house robot, Shove, was used by the crew to transport destroyed robots from the arena. It was never seen on television. It had a similar design and appearance to Shunt. It was presumably used between series 1 and 3, as its job was effectively made redundant by the introduction of Refbot.

Toys

There were pullback toys of all the house robots, with the exception of Cassius Chrome. There were also pullback toys of competitors Razer, Chaos 2, Firestorm, Wheely Big Cheese, Panic Attack, Hypno-Disc, X terminator, Stinger, Pussycat (before 2002), Tornado and Dantomkia (both made 2003). Each robot came with an accessory. There were remote controlled toys of Shunt, Matilda, Sir Killalot, Sgt. Bash , Tornado and Growler. There were pitstop toys of House Robots Matilda and Sgt. Bash, and competitors Hypno-disc and Panic Attack. Minibots were made of the house robots at the time of series 5 and competitors Razer, Chaos 2, Panic Attack, Hypno-Disc, Pussycat, X-Terminator, Suicidal Tendencies, Mega Morg, Wild Thing, Dominator 2, Plunderbird 5, Tornado, Firestorm, Wheeley Big Cheese and Gemini (which is a clusterbot, but both halves were joined together). The Minibots also came with their own arena, with the pit, floor flipper and drop zone.

Specials

All but the first and fifth series of UK Robot Wars had at least one 'special' episode outside of the main competition. Series Four had by far the most specials, all aired over Christmas, which were the Northern and Southern Annihilators, A Tag Team Terror Contest, a War of Independence and a Celebrity Special featuring Shauna Lowry

Shauna Lowry

Shauna Lowry is a television presenter from Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is probably most famous for being the reporter on the popular BBC series, Animal Hospital and ITV 1's Style Challenge. She also presented the National Lottery and presented coverage of Northern Ireland's celebrations on...

, Chris Eubank

Chris Eubank

Chris Eubank, Lord of the Manor of Brighton is a retired British boxer who held world titles at middleweight and super middleweight...

, Anthea Turner

Anthea Turner

Anthea Millicent Turner is an English television presenter and media personality.-Education:Turner was educated at the independent St. Dominic's High School in Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent....

and Wendy Turner, 5ive, Natalie Cassidy

Natalie Cassidy

Natalie Ann Cassidy is a British actress, most commonly known for appearing in the television soap EastEnders where she played Sonia Jackson for many years. She has also appeared in the BBC Two sitcom Psychoville and was a contestant on the seventh series of Strictly Come Dancing.-Career:As a...

, Shane Lynch

Shane Lynch

Shane Lynch is an Irish singer-songwriter, actor and professional drift driver, best known for his distinctive body art, outlandish sense of style, and as a member of Boyzone...

, Vic Reeves

Vic Reeves

James Roderick Moir , better known by the stage name Vic Reeves, is an English comedian, best known for his double act with Bob Mortimer . He is known for his surreal and non sequitur sense of humour....

and Adam Woodyatt

Adam Woodyatt

Adam Brinley Woodyatt is an English actor and media personality, best known for his role as Ian Beale in the long-running BBC soap opera EastEnders...

(the winner).

Original series

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	20 February 1998	27 March 1998	6
2	6 November 1998	26 February 1999	15
3	3 December 1999	21 April 2000	19
4	22 September 2000	23 February 2001	19
5	24 May 2002	1 November 2002	15
6	8 November 2002	7 March 2003	15
7	2 November 2003	7 March 2004	19

Extreme series

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	26 October 2001	8 February 2002	15
2	9 May 2003	3 October 2003	15

External links

Robot Wars USA Version |(spike TV) Starred Mick Foley and Rebecca Grant
Rebecca Grant (American actress)
Rebecca Grant , is an American actress. Grant is a graduate of the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York with a joint major in psychology and communication . She was a hostess on NFL Under the Helmet and Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors television programs. After losing her mother to...
http://web.archive.org/web/20040101094551/http://www.robotwars.co.uk/ (archived robot wars website)
http://robotwars.wikia.com/wiki/Robot_Wars_Wiki_-_Main_Page

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.