Robot Wars is coming back
Discussion
ash73 said:
leglessAlex said:
Out of interest, what would you consider to be 'moving with the times'?
AI programming, sensor detection of enemy robots, voice control, VR headsets, live onboard telemetry, electronic warfare and hacking, walking robots with handheld weapons, power upgrades in the arena, drone airstrikes...?
They had about 6 weeks from the show announcement to filming. In that timeframe, you're not going to build anything with AI, VR, sensors etc.
Option 1, dust off and tweak the original series robot people know (Razer, Terrahurtz etc).
Option 2, enter something from the live competitions (probably most of them).
Option 3, build something not serious and have some fun (Nuts).
Depending on the RW rules, there could be more interesting stuff in the next series. Battlebots allows flying drones and flame weapons, I don't know if RW would allow drones, they didn't allow flame stuff in the old series. There's a bot in BB called Chomp, which has a camera and movement sensors to automatically trigger its axe, and the guy who built Mortis in early RW has a BB bot with arms controlled by RC metal sleeves, the robot copies his arm movement. They had more than 6 weeks notice to get theirs sorted.
Team Nuts on their time at RW. A long but good read 
. https://www.facebook.com/diegracefullyrobotics/pos...
Spoilered to save space because its a very long chunk of text.
. https://www.facebook.com/diegracefullyrobotics/pos...Spoilered to save space because its a very long chunk of text.
Team Nutz said:
Robot Wars and Team Nuts - Robot Wars
There is a time when filming Robot Wars that you have to stop feigning over famous fighters and pinching yourself very hard to check you're not having a wonderful, vivid hallucination, and actually get on with it. As we loaded Nuts onto the trolley and headed over to the arena for the first time, everything was very workmanlike and systematic. Some have described it as a similar feeling to when you're about to perform in a school play and Rory was certainly very nervous as the driver. For me though, I don't really get scared in those situations. It was just time to do the job - entertain the audience, drive the minibot and fight to the best of our ability. The reboot was relying on all the teams now and it was time to go to work!
Not that we had much hope of making it beyond round 1. When you find out you're in with Razer and Terrorhurtz you flatten your ambitions somewhat and just decide to have a damn good rumble. There was brief team talk of trying to take out Kill-E-Crank-E so that we could at least "claim 3rd" but we also had a feeling that Razer and Terrorhurtz would team up. When we were lead into the control booth alongside Robin Herrick and the young lads with the Crank, our suspitions deepened and, sure enough, upon activate, we found ourselves in a rather personal battle with Terrorhurtz.. Everything was a blur - you don't have time to try and work tactics, you just have to go with it, and there is little point trying to dissect the fight from my point of view; you've all seen what happened better than I can remember thanks to the BBC! All I know is that there was a bang at one point and we looked up to see two robots had disappeared. After a wave of comprehension swept over us, we went a bit mental! Rory later asked me if I thought our celebrations would come across as a bit obnoxious on TV. I think all you have to do is ask "If you'd built a robot for Robot Wars, been drawn into a melee with such esteemed competition, and then suddenly found you were heading through to round 2, what would you do?" So that's what we did.
A little background here to address the elephant in the room. Do I think the Razer team did it on purpose? No, I don't. I talked to Simon and Ian a lot before our battle. They were absolutely exhausted having been up most nights trying to finish the new Warhead in time for Battlebots (which filmed just after we did). Simon came over to check Nuts out and bizarrely even seemed...not 'concerned', but he didn't write us off in the way I expected. He picked up one of the chains and then went over to get Ian and they started talking amongst themselves about the weight of them and how they didn't fancy Razer being hit by one. Was this delirium due to lack of sleep? Maybe. But if you ever enter your own robot into the show you'll find that a lot of the legendary roboteers won't scoff at your efforts - they know better than anyone that anything can happen in the arena.
Anyway, Ian told me they weren't intending to enter Razer at all. They said it was retired and they were too busy with Warhead and that they'd maybe consider building something else if the series took off again, but didn't think they'd apply this time out. But then the pull of Robot Wars took hold and they put in a late minute application with the intention of "giving Razer a final run out". So I don't think they were taking it very seriously. As they went to dump Kill-E-Crank-E into the pit, they misjudged and their foe definitely helped to take them in. They were very gracious about it.
Anyway, we were through! We had to come back tomorrow with a new wristband! We had to enter that arena at least 3 more times! We had to...go one on one with Carbide. Ah.
But first off, Behemoth, a team as nice as they come. Genuinely. We knew Nuts would be very little competition for them but they seemed keen on making a show of it rather than dumping us in the pit in 3 seconds and boy was this one fun. Yes, that was my minibot they launched through the air! It came up to eye-level with us in the booth, hit the floor and then, amazingly, drove off again! I could not believe it. Also, Nuts' run in with Matilda's flywheel may have only looked like a glancing blow on TV, but the damage done to the ring was super. 3 minutes later the battle was awarded to them, obviously, but we weren't really concerned with the results. It was great and we love them for it.
Carbide next. We would have to wait until the next day to take them on which lead to some slightly panicked suggestions over breakfast. Me and Rory talked about maybe trying to modify Nuts somehow to deflect the spinning blade of doom. Alex talked the most sense though. "We came here to fight, spinners and all! Lets just put it in and go for it!" So that's what we did. We knew Carbide had lost to Terrorhurtz the previous day and that their motor was in a bit of a bad way and we had caused one major upset already...maybe...?
We did make one modification to Nuts in the end. If you look closely at the start of the fight you can see we put some gloves on the front of the ring to give Carbide a good tickle! I only ever got one of them back - there was no trace of the other! Anyway, you all saw what happened. It's strangely satisfying watching a machine you know well disintergrate below you. The spectacle was astonishing. Dave Moulds later said he was surprised how good a job Carbide did on us. I don't think we were, he's just a very nice man. Anyway, we got a trollyfull of bits back and wheeled our new bag o' Nuts back to the bench.
Another note here - despite what you saw on TV with Dave Moulds offering to help fix Nuts so that we could take on Terrorhurtz, he never did. This is not a criticism of Dave, he had a lot of work to do himself on Carbide, but some have suggested he was the reason we got back into the arena. He wasn't. Our help came from Team Foxic on the next bench and Team Gabriel, who gave us a box of spare motor parts to help us nurse ours back into existence. Craig from Foxic helped us dismantle the motors and gearboxes and reassemble them. It was his efforts, and our efforts, that got Nuts going again. Alex even managed to get the red minibot working!
Another shout out here for Gillian from Team Razer. The minute we wheeled what was left of Nuts out of the arena she was over offering to go make us tea, get us food, offering hugs and support. She's amazing! We owe those people a lot.
The moment Nuts spluttered back into life on that pit bench, Rory beamed. We were tired, hot and dirty but it was euphoric. We later heard reports that the warm-up guy had announced to the audience that Nuts was alive again and the whole place errupted into applause. We felt as warm and fuzzy as our wasitcoats, but we really did think that one smack from Terrorhurtz would finish us off for good. But at least we could show up! After our exhibition of fun with the Behemoth boys the day before we decided that we should try our best to take Terrorhurtz to a judges' decision, knowing this would grant Behemoth a place in the heat final and knock Terrorhurtz out. We didn't have anything against John Reid's beautiful machine, and indeed thought we'd be doomed on the first blow anyway, but it was the only reason we could find to put up a fight.
As activate was called on our final match, I asked Rory how it was driving. "Lumpy," he said, "Verrrrrrrry luuummmmpy." My favourite quote from our time there. We have no idea how we survived that final battle but we did. In fact, we liked Terrorhurtz so much, that we put a ring on it! ;-)
So that was our time at Robot Wars over with. We had rumbled with legends like Razer, Behemoth and Terrorhurtz, and "done a Robogeddon" against Carbide, only to rise again for a final moment of glorious silliness. I don't take to praise very well, but even I couldn't deny the amount of people who were saying we'd done good. Cast, crew and audience alike were patting us on the back, and since it has gone out on TV, the love for Nuts has increased tenfold. It's mindblowing to think that we originally thought our robot was just too amateur to even get a place on the series looking back on it now. I hope this doesn't sound arrogant, we are all rather stunned by what our daft little machine has done, but I think it proves that there is a space on this wonderful TV show for ANYONE who can get a robot together. If you don't have the knowledge, talent or resources to build the next Razer or Carbide, then think outside the box. Build something designed not to compete, but to simply be different. Really go for it with the theatrics. Remeber it is a TV show. And don't ever back down from a battle, whoever it may be against. Shed builders of the UK, get to it! It is looking fairly likely that we will get another series and you have as much hope of making an impact on it as the engineering superstars do. Get creative, have fun and come and play. It really is the greatest pleasure in the world.
Dave.
There is a time when filming Robot Wars that you have to stop feigning over famous fighters and pinching yourself very hard to check you're not having a wonderful, vivid hallucination, and actually get on with it. As we loaded Nuts onto the trolley and headed over to the arena for the first time, everything was very workmanlike and systematic. Some have described it as a similar feeling to when you're about to perform in a school play and Rory was certainly very nervous as the driver. For me though, I don't really get scared in those situations. It was just time to do the job - entertain the audience, drive the minibot and fight to the best of our ability. The reboot was relying on all the teams now and it was time to go to work!
Not that we had much hope of making it beyond round 1. When you find out you're in with Razer and Terrorhurtz you flatten your ambitions somewhat and just decide to have a damn good rumble. There was brief team talk of trying to take out Kill-E-Crank-E so that we could at least "claim 3rd" but we also had a feeling that Razer and Terrorhurtz would team up. When we were lead into the control booth alongside Robin Herrick and the young lads with the Crank, our suspitions deepened and, sure enough, upon activate, we found ourselves in a rather personal battle with Terrorhurtz.. Everything was a blur - you don't have time to try and work tactics, you just have to go with it, and there is little point trying to dissect the fight from my point of view; you've all seen what happened better than I can remember thanks to the BBC! All I know is that there was a bang at one point and we looked up to see two robots had disappeared. After a wave of comprehension swept over us, we went a bit mental! Rory later asked me if I thought our celebrations would come across as a bit obnoxious on TV. I think all you have to do is ask "If you'd built a robot for Robot Wars, been drawn into a melee with such esteemed competition, and then suddenly found you were heading through to round 2, what would you do?" So that's what we did.
A little background here to address the elephant in the room. Do I think the Razer team did it on purpose? No, I don't. I talked to Simon and Ian a lot before our battle. They were absolutely exhausted having been up most nights trying to finish the new Warhead in time for Battlebots (which filmed just after we did). Simon came over to check Nuts out and bizarrely even seemed...not 'concerned', but he didn't write us off in the way I expected. He picked up one of the chains and then went over to get Ian and they started talking amongst themselves about the weight of them and how they didn't fancy Razer being hit by one. Was this delirium due to lack of sleep? Maybe. But if you ever enter your own robot into the show you'll find that a lot of the legendary roboteers won't scoff at your efforts - they know better than anyone that anything can happen in the arena.
Anyway, Ian told me they weren't intending to enter Razer at all. They said it was retired and they were too busy with Warhead and that they'd maybe consider building something else if the series took off again, but didn't think they'd apply this time out. But then the pull of Robot Wars took hold and they put in a late minute application with the intention of "giving Razer a final run out". So I don't think they were taking it very seriously. As they went to dump Kill-E-Crank-E into the pit, they misjudged and their foe definitely helped to take them in. They were very gracious about it.
Anyway, we were through! We had to come back tomorrow with a new wristband! We had to enter that arena at least 3 more times! We had to...go one on one with Carbide. Ah.
But first off, Behemoth, a team as nice as they come. Genuinely. We knew Nuts would be very little competition for them but they seemed keen on making a show of it rather than dumping us in the pit in 3 seconds and boy was this one fun. Yes, that was my minibot they launched through the air! It came up to eye-level with us in the booth, hit the floor and then, amazingly, drove off again! I could not believe it. Also, Nuts' run in with Matilda's flywheel may have only looked like a glancing blow on TV, but the damage done to the ring was super. 3 minutes later the battle was awarded to them, obviously, but we weren't really concerned with the results. It was great and we love them for it.
Carbide next. We would have to wait until the next day to take them on which lead to some slightly panicked suggestions over breakfast. Me and Rory talked about maybe trying to modify Nuts somehow to deflect the spinning blade of doom. Alex talked the most sense though. "We came here to fight, spinners and all! Lets just put it in and go for it!" So that's what we did. We knew Carbide had lost to Terrorhurtz the previous day and that their motor was in a bit of a bad way and we had caused one major upset already...maybe...?
We did make one modification to Nuts in the end. If you look closely at the start of the fight you can see we put some gloves on the front of the ring to give Carbide a good tickle! I only ever got one of them back - there was no trace of the other! Anyway, you all saw what happened. It's strangely satisfying watching a machine you know well disintergrate below you. The spectacle was astonishing. Dave Moulds later said he was surprised how good a job Carbide did on us. I don't think we were, he's just a very nice man. Anyway, we got a trollyfull of bits back and wheeled our new bag o' Nuts back to the bench.
Another note here - despite what you saw on TV with Dave Moulds offering to help fix Nuts so that we could take on Terrorhurtz, he never did. This is not a criticism of Dave, he had a lot of work to do himself on Carbide, but some have suggested he was the reason we got back into the arena. He wasn't. Our help came from Team Foxic on the next bench and Team Gabriel, who gave us a box of spare motor parts to help us nurse ours back into existence. Craig from Foxic helped us dismantle the motors and gearboxes and reassemble them. It was his efforts, and our efforts, that got Nuts going again. Alex even managed to get the red minibot working!
Another shout out here for Gillian from Team Razer. The minute we wheeled what was left of Nuts out of the arena she was over offering to go make us tea, get us food, offering hugs and support. She's amazing! We owe those people a lot.
The moment Nuts spluttered back into life on that pit bench, Rory beamed. We were tired, hot and dirty but it was euphoric. We later heard reports that the warm-up guy had announced to the audience that Nuts was alive again and the whole place errupted into applause. We felt as warm and fuzzy as our wasitcoats, but we really did think that one smack from Terrorhurtz would finish us off for good. But at least we could show up! After our exhibition of fun with the Behemoth boys the day before we decided that we should try our best to take Terrorhurtz to a judges' decision, knowing this would grant Behemoth a place in the heat final and knock Terrorhurtz out. We didn't have anything against John Reid's beautiful machine, and indeed thought we'd be doomed on the first blow anyway, but it was the only reason we could find to put up a fight.
As activate was called on our final match, I asked Rory how it was driving. "Lumpy," he said, "Verrrrrrrry luuummmmpy." My favourite quote from our time there. We have no idea how we survived that final battle but we did. In fact, we liked Terrorhurtz so much, that we put a ring on it! ;-)
So that was our time at Robot Wars over with. We had rumbled with legends like Razer, Behemoth and Terrorhurtz, and "done a Robogeddon" against Carbide, only to rise again for a final moment of glorious silliness. I don't take to praise very well, but even I couldn't deny the amount of people who were saying we'd done good. Cast, crew and audience alike were patting us on the back, and since it has gone out on TV, the love for Nuts has increased tenfold. It's mindblowing to think that we originally thought our robot was just too amateur to even get a place on the series looking back on it now. I hope this doesn't sound arrogant, we are all rather stunned by what our daft little machine has done, but I think it proves that there is a space on this wonderful TV show for ANYONE who can get a robot together. If you don't have the knowledge, talent or resources to build the next Razer or Carbide, then think outside the box. Build something designed not to compete, but to simply be different. Really go for it with the theatrics. Remeber it is a TV show. And don't ever back down from a battle, whoever it may be against. Shed builders of the UK, get to it! It is looking fairly likely that we will get another series and you have as much hope of making an impact on it as the engineering superstars do. Get creative, have fun and come and play. It really is the greatest pleasure in the world.
Dave.
Otispunkmeyer said:
peterperkins said:
Too much dross and drivel in between the battles. i don't want to look round the pits or ponder on why x or u lost. Just get on with it!!!
Don't watch a full showing of battle bots then. Christ they've got some over the top milking going on there. Just starting the fight seems to take them about 10 minutes of announcements, flashing lights and pushing "ready" buttons. RW actually felt rather brisk and very much getting on with it!
This. But BB goes for the full on show as if it was boxing or WWE. Some of the announcers intros are good though... "NASA might be going to Mars, but this robots headed for…Uranus!" 
Last week's BB, with the first part of the last 32 robots, was 4 fights in 45 minutes (an hour with the TV ads), how many fights were in RW on Sunday?
Yes last week's was better, it didn't make this week's a total bag of arse. Thor was impressive, especially for a one man team, shame it didn't get through. Toxic, with their expertise in the tactic of running away, were useless. Shockwave were ok, but the gas pipe scoop was a bad idea, and I don't think there's much danger of them getting much further. Mr Speed Squared could be a good robot if they can sort the spinner out, it ripped Chimaera to bits so it has got potential.
I know it's school holidays for a few weeks but let's be grown ups and pack it in, eh?
I know it's school holidays for a few weeks but let's be grown ups and pack it in, eh?
Edited by ajprice on Sunday 31st July 23:53
I've watched the latest Battlebots today, it won't be on for a few weeks now because Olympics. Fights stuff... Warhead vs Minotaur. I was hoping Warhead could do it, especially after the spinning top antics in the last fight, but no. Minotaur actually beheaded them, game over. Minotaur and Tombstone both look scary good, I think that could be the final going on form, Poison Arrow is a dark horse though. If Minotaur and Tombstone meet, they could both end up in bits
Good one tonight, I think they put a less good robot in each week like Nuts, Chimaera and Overdozer in to have a laugh, and not make it past round one so then the proper robots can get on with it. But then episode one happened, Razer went out and Nuts got through
Can't see Shockwave or TR2 doing much against Carbide though.
Can't see Shockwave or TR2 doing much against Carbide though.
defblade said:
I've been thinking about that wooden one. I think their error was in mounting the sheets with internal fixings. If they'd have held it together with angle iron externally, it might have held up a lot better, the attacker wouldn't have been able to get into a seam an rip it open the same way.
(I'm ignoring the wooden robot/flame pit problem for now... )
I don't think getting ripped open was the problem, I think it fell apart when Dantomkia flipped it (I'm ignoring the wooden robot/flame pit problem for now...
)227bhp said:
Has anyone noticed how one of the house robots is listed as weighing 750kg? That can't be right, one too many zeros on that maybe?
Sir Killalot, and yes it's right. Competitor robot limit is 110kg, other house robots are around 300kg.And the flailing chains robot was Nuts from the first episode.
Edited by ajprice on Monday 22 August 13:34
MarkRSi said:
I was more impressed by the flying flamethrower! (Until it crashed)
How to kill a flamethrower drone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDHPEyT8mIUPhillipM said:
Gabriel type bot with a great vertical flywheel in the middle hanging down would be interesting....
Nightmare has been in maybe every series of Battlebots. Big vertical disc and not much else to it. When it's good, it does damage. Otherwise it's as much of a danger to itself than it is to the other robot. Many videos of it through the years on YouTube.
I was at Game dear/Insomnia 58 at NEC yesterday (PC/Consoles and games, D&D, Cosplay, and a robot fighting setup. The robots there were RC car size, and could be picked up with one hand, and it was their creating day before fighting today, so not much happened in the little arena setup they had. Anyway, between 2 halls, fenced off, they had Dead Metal and Shunt from this series in show. They are massive, especially Dead Metal.
![](http://thumbsnap.com/sc/k0gA533V.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/etHG3mml" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/etHG3mml.jpg)
And Battlebots is starting on Spike on Sunday 4th September 8pm with the 2015 series (hopefully they follow it on with this year's series straight after)
And Battlebots is starting on Spike on Sunday 4th September 8pm with the 2015 series (hopefully they follow it on with this year's series straight after)
t missed itIts on the My5 player - https://www.my5.tv/battlebots/season-1
Bristol spark said:
Is it possible to stream Spike anyhow? Dont have an aerial/freeview.
ajprice said:
Its on the My5 player - https://www.my5.tv/battlebots/season-1
Otispunkmeyer said:
https://youtu.be/Nm5r0OG0fvo
Did this robot fight? I haven't seen it yet, but Jesus Christ it looks savage!
Excluded from season 2 because they thought it would break the arena.Did this robot fight? I haven't seen it yet, but Jesus Christ it looks savage!
http://battlebots.wikia.com/wiki/HellaChopper
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