Battlebots/Robot Wars?

Robotica came in late - by the time S1 finished the other networks pulled and so they followed. Quite a bit of Robotica competitors were also on BB and RW, with either a modified or different robot to fit the show since combat wasn't the big pull. First couple seasons (prior to the USA airing) of Robot Wars were also like this - mazes, sumo challenge, "pinball" etc were all getting points to the Arena.

Eventually producers figured "people just wanna see the war lol"

 

Yeah, those shows rocked!
It always seemed like the best designs, and by best I mean most deadly, were based on simple machine tools. For instance, the spinning disk with a tool bit attached.

The British show's ruleset was much more strict. If anything, that's why you saw so many more robots that could make quick work of those house bots on the US show. Heck, if you get right down to it, you could pretty much disable anything with long tassles that get caught on their exposed, rotating shafts.

Then there's this.

 

That was the worst part of it - tons of US competitors were denied from competing because they could damage the house robots. Nightmare, Son of Whyachi, are two examples. Like I said, Robot Wars was a game show - not a competition. Battlebots was a competition that was filmed and aired. No "house robots", the judges panel had actual judging criteria (3 judges, each has to split 5 points per 3 catagories - damage, aggression, strategy)

Robot Wars was the WWE, Battlebots was the UFC.

Unless you mean UK robot wars vs US robot wars. They had the same exact ruleset, the US Robot Wars show was filmed in the UK, Menthorn Producitons paid airfare for the US competitors. Most US episodes also had UK robots in the same brackets. also entanglement devices have been banned since the second tournament back in 1995 because it could get stuck in an internal combustion engine and cause a hazard

 

Well this weekend I drove about 4.5 hours south to visit my team mate Michael Mauldin's ranch ( this Michael Mauldin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Loren_Mauldin )

the wife and I went there to visit for the weekend and help him with our 220lb battlebot Polar Vortex for a competition this may



There's part of his work shop. It was a HUGE shop, the shop alone was as big as the Material's Science Lab in school...plus it was 2 stories. That's his testing arena on the right side there, it was used before for smaller robot competitions at his Robot Club & Grille after Battlebots stopped airing.



Installing the speed controllers and programming the failsafe on the receiver. The morning before I showed up he installed a larger torque limiter.



Flipping over his other 220lb robot Blizzard, now possible thanks to the larger torque limiter.



He let me take it for a spin and snapped this picture afterwards.

I mentioned he ran the Robot Club & Grille, it was a gourmet restaurant and also had 3 robot arenas set up for various weight classes. He sold his jet so he could fund it, it lasted about a year. He donate 2 of the arenas to smaller regional robot competitions. In the restaurant they had the robot combat museum, with parts (or complete) robots that competed on Battlebots & Robot Wars.



Here's the prototype spinning weapon for Son of Whyachi, the body is in the crate. Son of Whyachi applied and was denied entrance to Robot Wars UK because the producers were concerned he would damage the house robots (boo hoo -_-)



The shell for Mauler and the spinning blade (minus teeth) of Nightmare. One of Nightmare's teeth was sheered off when it fought Warhead (the same team who built Razer for Robot Wars).



Various parts/bots from Team Toad ranging from 30lb featherweights to 340lb Super heavyweights. The shell for 60lb lightweight champion Dr. Inferno Jr is there, the body to 340lb Electric Lunch is there, and a few others as well.

 

Bumping in case anyone else was interested.



For some reason the video of Touro Maximus vs Tanto went Private, so here is someone elses capture of it from the stream. Missing audio though (and the aftermath). Eitherway, Tanto flew up and hit the lexan right in front of me as I was operating the arena hammers for Tanto’s team.



This is what happens when a UK robot comes to a US Battlebot competition.

This event was streamed live at http://www.twitch.tv/robotrevo (You can go back and watch all the fights, as well as all the in between stuff)

I didn’t take too many pictures, I was a bit too busy but I’ll give a write up of the weekend. I was doing pit crew for Team Toad who has been a part of Battlebots since filming Season 2.0, they opened up the Robot Club & Grille and Fuzzy was a founding member of the Robot Fighting League. They flew me out on Saturday and I arrived Saturday night, after they had already unpacked the pit. We got the robot charged and ready and passed safety inspection. We called it a night.

The next day while going to the event, we ran into Craig Danby who was running a bit late. He flew in from the UK, formerly ran as Team Terrfonics back in the Robot Wars TV days, he had been competing in Robot Wars since Series 2 but this was his first US competition (3rd attempt, life would happen and he would not come to the competition at last minute…after he already had his robot on US soil). Phenomenal guy, but he ran into some issues with his hotel and couldn’t get to the pits until the day of the event. When he arrived, his UPS package had been damaged. Soon as we started unpacking it, the event organizers announced there was only 5 minutes left to pass safety…he had his robot shipped in parts. We got an extension and Craig and I (and a few random good people who passed by and saw the rush) put Tanto together, weighed, and passed on safety.

Tanto was the first heavyweight fight, and I already posted a video of that. Tanto’s forks were made out of Hardox and Touro Maximus still made short work of that. It was curled over pretty bad, his panel came off, his batteries flew out, one of them caught fire and Tauro Maximus’s batteries caught fire too. The landing impact shattered the magnets in one of the drive motors, to make matters worse - UPS lost Craig’s 2 spare motors.

Craig JB Welded the magnets back in place and he used his postponement to let the JB Weld dry over night. Meanwhile, Team Toad’s Polar Vortex was up to fight against a multibot made out of 2 middleweights, but a catch happened - one of the middleweights didn’t show. It went to a judges decision and the half a multibot won.

It’s been a bit of a haze, so these events might be a little out of order. The event was 3 VERY long days. When we got back the next morning we find the armature for Craig’s motor had been tweaked and won’t go back. With no spares, he was going to forfeit. Jim from Team Nightmare and owner of Robot Marketplace, when he heard he came from the UK and UPS lost his spares in transit did an AMAZING act and gave him a spare motor, under the understanding after he gets his settlement from UPS (a month give or take) he pays him back. So then I took the motor out back with an angle grinder and took off the back of the shaft. That done, WE were up to fight against Tanto.

We had the lifting forks rather than a wedge configured, which was designed specifically for a robot like Tanto…but Tanto is a bit smaller than a regular heavyweight and kept falling in between. Tanto was KO’d though by the pulverizers operated by Fuzzy’s wife Debbie. He was hit a few times but the last hit knocked his power link out of place. In the UK, robots must have a removable link - where as the US we allow that or a master power switch (from Whyachi or Hella for example).

After that, Tanto was out of the heavyweight tournament, but his fairyweight (UK Antweight) Anto was still in. Craig is an outstanding guy, and it was a pleasure to meet him. I’m glad I got to help him out, he said this was a great event and he would love to come to the US for another Battlebots event.

Our next fight was against a full body spinner named Shrederator. Shrederator is the descendant of Phrizbee from Battlebots 3.0-5.0, and was also on Robot Wars as “The Revolutionist” (with an American flag paintjob).

We set up the wedge, made of AR400 (the material they make the metal targets out of at shooting ranges). Fuzzy had faced the super heavyweight cousin of it, Phrizbee Ultimate, years and years ago. He had a piece of the shell, and turned it into a necklace to showboat.

It was a good match, and at last second Polar Vortex was able to flip over Shrederator. It didn’t count as a KO because there wasn’t enough time for a countdown, but the judges gave it to Polar Vortex. That was the last fight of the second day.

The last day we were going against Touro Maximus, the same robot that WRECKED Tanto. Robot events are now run as a modified double elimination - so in the finals, if you came from the winners bracket and you lose - you get to fight again. Basically it comes down to - everyone can lose twice.

But before that, we ended up going against The Big Cheese for another match (instead of placement matches, this was loser bracket vs winner bracket). They got disabled, right underneath their own hammer…so they started pounding away trying to get it to work again. It didn’t happen, and Polar Vortex got a KO. Now we were set to go against Touro Maximus.

The first time we went against them, it was over pretty quick. Touro got a few good hits but Polar Vortex was able to get underneath him, and lift him against the spike strip.

The heavyweight final was THE last match of the day, and it’s caused a pretty heated controversy. During the match Fuzzy flipped them, but nearby the pulverizer. They activated their pulverizer and unflipped. They got a few good hits, and Polar Vortex was stuck on top. The event didn’t call for an unstick, and it really tore up the tires and underside of Polar Vortex. Major controversy happened because after the match, Touro Maximus took a late hit onto the back of Polar Vortex.

They got the win by judges decision. We had our closing ceremony, Team Toad took second place. All in all, it was a good time. Took 3 hours to pack up the pits though.

If any Robot Wars fans have questions about the event, or if any other Battlebots fans have questions go ahead and ask away! I’ll of course upload matches to YouTube. The stream was nice because the camera was IN the arena, but it’s also nice to get a view from right outside the Lexan.


220lb Heavyweight Tanto and 150kg Fairyweight (Antweight in the UK) Anto





No, there wasn't a Battlebots Ladder Match.

...that'd be interesting though







Pits were calm on Saturday...but that's just because not everyone was there yet. The calm before the storm..



3 arenas. 1lb antweight/ 3lb beetleweight. 12lb Hobbyweight/ 15lb BotsIQ Mini class. 60lb Lightweight/ 120lb middleweight/ 220lb heavyweight.



And Tanto is kocked out of bounds...I'm not a fan of ring outs. They favor flippers - but a spinner did this



This bot had a LOT of lexan in it's structure. I was a bit surprised by that.



And K2 gets a quick knock out with a LiPo fire! Washington robots represent!




Electric Gnome was a REALLY small and compact lightweight. It's overall dimensions dwarf my 60lb drum spinner...maybe it's time to rethink it.




Craig was basically adopted by Team Toad, so he adorned his robots with stickers to reflect that.



The "new" spike strip, quotes are just because it's not THAT new. Doesn't look like it would really do a lot but it did dent a couple rims just by nudging it...



Fuzzy had this toad in a box on the charging rack. I put it on Polar Vortex for this picture and left it...and it stayed there for the rest of the event (besides matches of course)




THAT YELLOW MOUSE. Aka "NOT PIKACHU". This robot came in late because it was tied up in customs. I can't imagine the stress that went through that Canadian teams minds.




That's a big hammer.

Those jeans are not big however.

 

now we're talking TURKEY! nthego:
loved the show, rooted for the house robots, i mean...COME ON!?
who didn't like sir killalot (sir mixalot) and matilda, they were my faves and SGT bash!
one show made my day (thanks @ geluda for the image) and it was a droid looking like this, TOTALLY ripped matilda to f*ckin ribbons!
chewed her arse out! lasted a few matches as well!
some of the best times of my life watching that series....along with RED DWARF! (craig charles and chris barrie made a wicked team of sarcy bastards)
so, this looks the robot that killed matilda in ten seconds FLAT!

fun times! :cocksure:

 

Matilda had a fiberglass shell, hypnodisk's kinetic energy transfer would make short work of it.

So would most of the US robots (some US robots were denied to be compete in the UK Robot Wars because they would damage the house robots), kinetic energy spinners were popular over here since our arenas box in but the UK has a ring out and pit (allows for a easy KO if you're a flipper, which tended to be the most popular design there).

 

^^ didn't know that?!
WOW!
what a cop-out! (UK)
would've been AWESOME if UK/US went head-to head. :cocksure:
well, US would destroy the UK lot if we didn't have the same handicap! (but it wouldn't be an issue in a fair match, one side is allowed the same level of attack/defense as the other, just each side has to use their cheeseboxes to outwit each other)

 

A lot of UK competitors have done well. Killerhurtz came over and preferred the US competitions. Team Razer built Warhead a beautiful spinner that is more suitable for US arenas than Razer

 

And a lot of US robots DID compete in RobotWars. But robot wars was a game show first and foremost - you had to submit an audition tape. In the US, it's a motor sport first. If you build it, pay your entrance fee, and it passes safety inspection - you're gonna compete

 

wahey!
one up for UK, a bit! :cocksure:
what this thread has done to me is make me RIP a torrent package for the UK series, and when that's ripped, go for the US lot and watch them ALL (up to last known date of airing) back-to-back, taking occasional respite to restore blood toxicity levels, interior stuffing and recovery!
damnnit, got my viewing cut out! (i can't believe i MISSED this thread, if you didn't bump it, i'd have hated myself for not seeing it, cheers!)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0sze009Fuo&list=PLeU47dckOTN3TBj1izNqH_nC4VG-cbayY Here's my playlist of the matches I recorded. The whole event (all 3 days) can be viewed because it was live streamed at twitch.tv/robotrevo

the matches are going to be edited and uploaded individually.

 

awesome!
subscribed to your channel and bookmarked playlist!
thanks a lot for the share. (and left + and comment on the first most clip) :friendly_wink:
appreciate the time spent uploading them!
[edit]
i was too lazy to comment on the rest!

 

Who says hobbies don't get you anywhere?

I got my article published in Servo Magazine! It's a great robotics magazine and a lead sponsor for the Tetsujin Robotics Competition in Japan, one of the most prominent robotics magazines in publication.

Check it out!

http://servo.texterity.com/servo/201407/#pg28

 

I used to live Battle bots. I used to have 2 of the little toy replicas that would attack if you put batteries in them. Very surprised Discovery or another similar channel hasn't picked up the reruns.

 

Comedy Central still owns the rights to the show, at least they did last time I spoke to Greg Munson (co-creator of the brand/show) about it back in 2012/early 2013.