Characters / Robot Wars Heat Finalists

This page is for all notable robots whose best performance in the UK show went no further than the Heat Final- still a worthy accomplishment. In general, only robots that entered the UK wars at least 3 times will appear here, unless they were notable for some other reason (such as performance in one of the international series). In Series 10, not only the losing heat finalist but also the heat's 3rd place robot were entered into a 10-way melee at the start of the Grand Final episode to determine who would be the 6th Wild Card entrant in the final, and the entrants for that will be entered on the semi finalists page instead.

Original Series

Series 2 ( 1998 - 1999)

Onslaught (Series 2 Heat Finalist, Series 4 Southern Annihilator Runner-Up)

Weapons: Front lifting scoop and rear spikes

Battle record: 5 wins, 4 losses

• Attack Its Weak Point: Onslaught's two most notable features were a) its enormously big and powerful engine, the biggest on the show, and b) the fact that this engine was completely unarmoured and exposed. Surprisingly, they were never actually damaged there.
  • Played straight in the Southern Annihilator final against Razer. Razer had agreed not to damage Onslaught's internals because they had too much respect for its "beautiful" engineering, so instead they went for the exposed wheels, shredding the tyres and reducing Onslaught's grip levels.
• Born Unlucky: Made the heat final in its first appearance, before coming up against reigning champions Roadblock, only to break down without moving right at the start of the battle. Had a rematch against the same team with their improved robot Beast of Bodmin in the 3rd Wars and lost again due to BoB's wedge design basically countering them. Entered the 4th Wars but suffered an unexpected breakdown before its first fight and had to withdraw and be replaced by a substitute (although this may have been a blessing in disguise as the substitute, V-Max, went on to be brutally torn apart by Hypno-Disc). Almost won the Southern Annihilator, but the final opponent it had to beat was Razer (it actually held its own fairly well but then drove into Matilda and were overturned). Finally, its srimech failed to work properly in its 5th Wars heat against Tetanus and, although Tetanus was also immobilised and both robots were counted out, the judges ruled against Onslaught.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Not seeded in the 4th Wars despite their experience and several robots that were much less-successful in the 3rd Wars like Plunderbird and Stinger getting seeded.
• Lightning Bruiser: One of the smallest robots in Robot Wars but potentially one of the fastest due to its MASSIVE engine (the biggest on the show during its appearances, even bigger than Killalot's). They turned the power down for its first few appearances to keep better control, but finally let it go to maximum (20 mph) during its unfortunately short Series 5 appearance. It was also extremely tough (completely exposed engine notwithstanding) as what armour it had was made of 15mm-thick steel. Notably, Razer apparently tried and failed to pierce Onslaught's armor multiple times.
• Made of Iron: As stated above, its armor was so thick and tough that not even Razer could penetrate it.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Particularly in Series 5, where it had the smallest volume of any robot in the field, but immensely powerful drive motors.
• Shout-Out: Was named after the X-Men villain.

All Torque (Series 2 Heat Finalist)

Weapons: Ramming blade (Series 2), Scoop (Series 3), Snowplough and Pincers (First World Championship), Spinning Disc (Series 4-5)

Battle record: 2 wins, 3 losses as All Torque; 1 win, 1 loss as Small Torque; 0 wins, 3 losses as Fighting Torque/Hippobotamus

• Charlie Brown from Outta Town: A weird example. The real "Fighting Torque" was a tall, pyramid-shaped machine with a grinding disc mounted on a swinging arm, similar to Dead Metal's weapon. It lost its only battle, an Extreme 1 Mayhem qualifier, but was let into the Annihilator when Atomic pulled out. However, instead of entering Fighting Torque, the team for some unknown reason entered their Series 5 robot Hippobotamus, and called that "Fighting Torque" instead.
• Crippling Overspecialization: All Torque's drive system took up so much weight that there wasn't enough left for them to add a proper weapon, hence why it was only equipped with spikes in Series 2 and a scoop in Series 3. While the First World Championship version supposedly had crushing pincers, they were almost certainly static.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Hippobotamus was torn to shreds by Disc-O-Inferno in the Annihilator. It returned for Series 5, rebuilt, and was smashed to scrap by Stinger.
• Fragile Speedster: All of the team's machines. All Torque and Small Torque both ran at 20mph, but the former had very weak armour and the latter had unreliable motors that ended up catching fire. (Small Torque even had a special cooling system designed to combat this, but it didn't work.) Hippobotamus was slightly slower at 16mph but dialled the "fragile" part up to eleven.
• Joke Character: Hippobotamus couldn't have been anything but. It was built from a plastic child's sandpit, looked utterly ridiculous, and was completely trashed in both of its fights.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: Inverted during Extreme. Fighting Torque was abruptly replaced with Hippobotamus midway through, which was very much a downgrade.
• Mirror Match: In its Series 2 Heat Final, All Torque found itself up against King Buxton, another powerful early rambot with less-than-reliable motors. King B proved to be the superior machine and shoved All Torque into the pit.
• One-Hit Wonder: The first incarnation of All Torque was the only one of the team's machines to have any kind of success.
• Punny Name: The team were quite fond of them.
• Ramming Always Works: All Torque's tactics. While it may not have been as successful as other rammers or shovers, it was still reasonably impressive for its time.

Series 3 ( 1999 - 2000)

Diotoir (Series 3 & 5 Heat Finalist, 1st World Championship Semi-Finalist, International League Runner-Up, Series 4 Celebrity Special Runner-Up, Extreme 1 Tag-Team Terror Champion with Pussycat) (21 Seed in Series 4) (Winner of Sportsmanship Award in Series 1, 3 & 4)

"We're here to kick arse and chew bubblegum, and we're all outta gum!"

^{Click to see Nemesis as "Chef Nemesis"} 

^{Click to see Diotoir in the 2017 international Championship} 

"Somehow Diotoir is... Somehow? It always happens! Why am I baffled? It's on fire! Diotoir's always on fire!"

—Jonathan Pearce

Weapons: Lifting Arm (Series 3-4), Lifting Scoop (Series 5), Crusher (Extreme II) Vertical flywheel (Series 10 International Championship)

Battle record: 13 wins, 11 losses as Diotoir; 0 wins, 2 losses as Nemesis

• Achilles' Heel: Being flipped. It was admittedly a common weakness for a lot of robots, particularly in the early series, but Diotoir was the longest-running machine to suffer from this weakness, as the team were never able to design the flipper in such a way that it would work as a srimech despite multiple redesigns. As Diotoir was actually a very tough machine and would rarely break down from damage, almost all of its defeats were a result of being flipped. Averted with the Series 10 version which was invertible, although that was admittedly just a remodeled Kadeena Machina. And then double subverted when Apollo flipped it onto its side and left it to burn.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Diotoir's flipper weapon was powered by two car suspension springs, jacked down into position by an electric motor. The intent was to combine the kicking power of a CO2 flipper with the stamina of an electric lifter (CO2 flippers being prone to running low on gas in long battles). Unfortunately the weapon couldn't kick very high, meaning it didn't have anything like the same power as a full-yaw flipping ramp, it took forever and a day for the motor to "reload" the springs after firing even once, and it was very prone to just failing outright.
  • In Series 2 & 3, the team started putting food on the robots to cook during the battles, and taking food orders from Philippa! They were the only team to try cooking food in the incredibly impractical venue of a robotic war zone, and apparently, it was delicious.
  Philippa: For the next round, we expect marshmallows! Do you have any vegetarian sausages?
• Battle Trophy: Diotoir's team took the Steel Avenger's feather duster after defeating the latter team, and Firestorm in turn defeated Diotoir and were rewarded by the team with polka dot fur codpieces.
• Black Comedy: When the team is desperately putting Diotoir together for its first fight, after it was dismantled by customs prior to entering England:
  Philippa: Customs didn't know what they were faced with, so they took the whole robot apart. Circuit boards, everything, yes?
  Peter: I think the balaclavas were a bad idea.
• Boring, but Practical: Subverted. Diotoir's biggest strength was really just its raw pushing power. Rambots like Tornado and Storm II received a lot of criticism for being dull, but Diotoir pushing other robots around while on fire was anything but boring.
• Born Unlucky: Oh dear oh dear, where do we begin? Before Diotoir's first appearance in the 3rd Wars, the team were forced to disassemble it to be allowed to take it on the ferry from Ireland to England, forcing them to scramble to put it back together in time for their appearance. In the lead-up to the 4th Wars they anticipated the same thing happening again so dismantled it themselves in advance, only to arrive at the studio and be told their fight had been moved forward, so they had about ten minutes to get the robot ready. With the robot coming in overweight, forcing them to remove their top armour plate, and a chain snapping on the weapon with no time to repair it, they were forced to enter the arena armourless and weaponless, making it not much of a surprise when they literally crashed out in flames- again. Its page on the Robot Wars Wiki even has a section specifically dedicated to its misfortune.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: The team often got involved in wacky hijinks on and off the arena, but they were also extremely competent engineers. Many, many roboteers have expressed gratitude for the help Team Nemesis provides in getting their robots back in fighting shape. Their good deeds behind the scenes even earned them several sportsmanship awards.
• The Bus Came Back: Having retired after Series 5 and not appearing in Series 6, Diotoir briefly returned in Extreme II to defend its Tag Team Terror title.
  • The team rather unsubtly revealed their involvement in Series 10 on Facebook and via Apollo's twitter feed.
  • Team Nemesis actually made a proper return to the Robot Combat scene in early 2018 when they acquired Iron-Awe 7, remodeled it with the fur, eyes and smile, rechristened it as the new Diotoir and entered it in the FMB (Fighting My Bots) tournament in China. They finished as runner-up to New Zealand vertical disc spinner Death Toll.
• Call-Back: During the team's return in the Series 10 International Championship, the show presented footage of Diotoir's famous Series 5 run, including their legendary pitting of Tornado. This wouldn't be such a big deal if it wasn't the first time in the entire reboot that actual footage of the classic series had been used, and during an interview with John Reid he actually namedropped Series 5 itself (previously any references to events from the original show were described with ambiguous terms like "in the past" or "a long time ago"). Unsurprisingly, when this happened the long-time fans lost their minds.
• Chef of Iron: Nemesis and Diotoir often entered the arena with some gag cooking ingredients to cook when it (inevitably) caught fire, including a kebab in Series 2 and 3, and a frying pan containing "pancake mix" (decapitated toy bunny heads stolen from Wild Thing's decorations) in the Celebrity Special.
• Crazy-Prepared: For some unknown reason, the team brought Nemesis along with them in Series 3, despite the troubles they had just bringing Diotoir in and the fact that they had already retired Nemesis. This was great news for the Terror Australis team, whose robot broke down, so they borrowed a repainted Nemesis for the International Robot League episode.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: An obvious joke entry, covered in highly flammable fur with a rather ineffective weapon. But its predecessor Nemesis (which had an even less effective weapon) defeated a house robot and went toe-to-toe with a future champion. Diotoir itself reached 2 heat finals, reached the semis of the First World Championship (the best-performing non-UK entry), made the final of the International League Championship, the final of the Celebrity Special, won the Tag Team Terror and defeated the mighty (and future champion) Tornado in Series 5. Team Tornado called it the most powerful 2WD pusher they'd ever seen.
• Dark Horse Victory: Diotoir has taken out champions Tornado and semi-finalists Wild Thing^note Although to be blunt, it beat Wild Thing in the Celebrity Special where it was not being controlled by its regular diver, Nick Adams, for most of the battle, and after celebrity driver Shauna Lowry handed the controller back to Adams, Sir Killalot came in, grabbed them and pitted them.. Those robots have given other grand finalists a hard time^note With the exception of Bigger Brother, Tornado has defeated every other grand finalist who reached that stage between Series 3 to 6, so Diotoir's easy victory over them was quite shocking.
• Dartboard of Hate: During the Extreme 1 melee with Diotoir against Shear Khan and Panic Attack, Diotoir entered the arena with an image of Panic Attack covering the scoop, and attempted to make it catch fire once the battle began.
• Determinator: Possibly one of the best examples from the show. What it lacked in speed and effective weaponry it made up in resilience, and it showed in battles against Tornado and The Steel Avenger.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Due to the fur becoming a Good Luck Charm, small pieces of it often showed up on robots who appeared in heats long before Diotoir themselves.
• Feigning Intelligence: Happened when the Terror Australis team borrowed Nemesis for an episode. Justified since they were given a new robot and almost no information on it shortly before re-recording their introduction video.
  Peter: We've got cutting and piercing weapons. Hopefully... these weapons will do some cutting damage.
  Rodney: We've got a spike back here... for some spiking and ramming.
• Fighting Irish: Diotoir was the only robot from the Republic of Ireland ever to win a battle on the show.^note Although admittedly only 5 robots from the Republic of Ireland ever entered, from 2 teams, including Diotoir's own predecessor Nemesis- and while Weld-Dor won 2 battles, and Jellyfish won one, both were from Northern Ireland
• Generation Xerox: Diotoir looks almost exactly like its predecessor Nemesis, down to the crazed smile and polka dot fur. If it wasn't for the Diotoir vs Terror Australis (aka Nemesis) fight in Series 3, you would be forgiven for thinking the team just upgraded Nemesis for Series 3, instead of building a new robot.
  • The team's Techno Games entry, Ulysses, also featured the trademark boggle eyes, smiles and fur. Coupled with the fact that Ulysses was like a giant mechanical spider, it was more than a little terrifying.
• Good Luck Charm: Their fur quickly became this, and other competitors started sticking small bits of it on their own robots. Robots in Diotoir's heat and robots that defeated them were even more likely to do it. Some people theorised that whenever Team Nemesis helped out another team in the pit, they'd give them some of the fur as a gift to stick on the robot, which considering how many people they helped out (they won the Sportsmanship Award 3 times for it) would certainly explain how it got so widespread.
  Jonathan Pearce: Look out for the fur, everyone wants a piece of it.
• Good Samaritan: The other thing Team Nemesis was known for; they helped out countless teams with their robots over the years, and in one case even loaned one unlucky team (Terror Australis in the International League Championship) their old robot, Nemesis, to fight with when their own robot refused to start. Jonathan openly called them "the original Good Samaritans" after they won their third Sportsmanship Award in Series 4.
• Iconic Item: Its fur. It was so absurdly popular in the pits that almost every second robot had a piece of it. Even in the infamous battle between Chaos 2 and Firestorm, both robots had a small piece of red fur attached to them.
  • It went up to eleven on several occasions, such as an Extreme 1 melee when Diotoir and its two opponents entered the arena clad in the fur, or the First World Championship where most of the non-England competitors had the fur somewhere on them, like attached to the antenna.
  • Even the first champion of the rebooted series wasn't immune to the charms of Diotoir's fur.
• Incendiary Exponent: Diotoir caught fire in nearly every single fight it had. And it was glorious.
  • Intentionally taken to its extreme in one of the exhibition matches at the end of Series 2. The lineup was Sgt. Bash, Nemesis (Diotoir's predecessor) and a similarly flammable sacrificial robot (Ramrombit) built for the occasion. The latter two were sprayed with paraffin before the fight. At the beginning, Bash fired the flamethrower once. Hilarity Ensued.
  • When they appeared for their final battle in the Series 10 World Series, what's the first thing Peter Redmond did? Drive Diotoir over the flame pit to light it on fire. Then proceeded to do battle while ablaze. It was awesome.
• Irony: It's famous for catching fire, and Diotoir's first loss was to a robot called Firestorm.
• Just Here for Godzilla: After Diotoir caught fire yet again during its Series 3 battle against The Steel Avenger, Jonathan Pearce excitedly joked, "I paid my admission fee just to see this!"
• Karmic Jackpot: After loaning Team Australia their previous robot Nemesis for the Series 3 International League, Team Nemesis were themselves given a loan robot to compete with for the 2017 International Championship, since Diotoir was long retired and outdated.
• Kill It with Fire: Actually subverted. Despite its claim to fame of catching fire on a regular basis, the flames rarely did any actual damage to Diotoir other than burning the fur.
• Lethal Joke Character: Nemesis and Diotoir are often considered a Joke Character because of their flaming fur hijinks, prankster tendencies and lack of much great success, but unlike the likes of Plunderbird and Sir Chromalot they were serious competitors, just a little... eccentric. The robot managed some impressive performances, most notably in Series 5 when it knocked out Tornado. Not to mention it actually has a better win/loss ratio than some of the serious entries, such as S.M.I.D.S.Y.
• Lethal Joke Item: The fur may be an adorable addition to the robot to make it catch fire, but it also caused serious problems to robots with spinning discs as weapons, as the Pussycat and Tornado teams found out. The fur often got caught on the disc, it tore some fur off which caused the disc to slow down and become an almost worthless weapon.
• Legacy Character: Its full name in its first appearance was Diotoir, Son of Nemesis.
• Man on Fire: What Diotoir looks like when it catches fire.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: Obviously not straight examples, but this is what Nemesis and Diotoir were designed to resemble. The fur was originally to reinforce this appearance, rather than to provide the Incendiary Exponent for which it became famous; in fact, they only went with fur instead of just painting Nemesis because they'd read in the rulebook that flamethrowers were banned and didn't realize that this didn't apply to the House Robots.
• Mighty Glacier: Diotoir was very ponderous at 6mph, but was deceptively durable and had the pushing power to manhandle the likes of Tornado.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Doubles up as Meaningful Name. It may not sound threatening at first, but check what it means in Gaelic. Diotoir translates as "Annihilator".
• Nerd Glasses: Diotoir wore a comically oversized pair when Vic Reeves joined the team as guest driver in the Celebrity Special.
• Nice Guy: The team won the Sportsmanship award three times.
• No-Sell: Because of its surprisingly powerful motors, it wasn't noticeably affected by ramming robots such as Tornado, and could push them around the arena instead.
• Once an Episode: ...it catches fire.
• Once a Season: Diotoir and Nemesis entered the arena at least once a year with a prop. They wore a chef's hat with a kebab in Series 2, The Steel Avenger's feather duster in Series 3, Nerd Glasses in the Series 4 Celebrity Special, and an image of Panic Attack during the Extreme 1 melee, filmed during Series 5.
• Out-of-Character Moment: Parodied in the build-up to their vengeance battle with Firestorm, where the erstwhile nice and friendly crew "sabotage" Firestorm using a comically large wrench.
• Plucky Comic Relief: As you can probably tell from most of the other tropes listed here. Particularly notable since they managed to pull this off without becoming a full-on Joke Character.
• The Quiet One: Jack Charles, team member during the Fifth Wars and son of the host, barely said a word during his appearances, even in the presence of his father.
• Reality Subtext: Possibly due to the conflict with the IRA at the time, UK customs officials dismantled Diotoir prior to its first battle in Series 3. When Peter or Philippa held up several bits of the dismantled robot (such as a box with wires coming out of it), and said "Customs didn't know what to make of it", it's obvious they meant "Customs thought it was a weapon". The most blatant reference to the IRA is Peter's joke about wearing balaclavas while at the airport, since active IRA members were infamous for wearing them.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: It didn't enter Series 7 because of Robot Wars' Channel Hop from the BBC to Channel 5. Since Channel 5 and its shows weren't broadcast in Ireland, Diotoir's Irish sponsors withdrew funding, leaving the team with no way to get to England for the qualifiers.
• Slasher Smile: Pasted onto the front in older incarnations, later painted onto the scoop.
• Spectacular Spinning: After attempting to pit Dead Metal in a battle against Cerberus, Diotoir and the house robot started spinning at the same time when Cerberus was pitted instead.
• Troperiffic: Because of how popular and colourful the team is, Diotoir and Nemesis have a lot of applicable tropes, especially when compared to other robots.
• Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight: Diotoir battled (and won) against Nemesis, under the guise of "Terror Australis", in the International League Championship during Series 3.
• Victory by Endurance: How Diotoir won most of its battles, by slowly pushing the opponent around the arena, flip them once or twice, then slowly pushing them down the pit.
• What a Piece of Junk: Diotoir was long retired, rusted and woefully outdated for Series 10, so they were instead given a stock robot (Kadeena Machina) to decorate with the iconic fur and eyes.
• What Could Have Been: In its last appearance in Extreme II, it had a redesigned flipper and a new crushing weapon, but was immobilised before it had any opportunity to show them off.
  • The team applied to enter the 2016 reboot with Diotoir, but never even heard back from the producers.
• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: Pondered on occasion by Jonathan when Diotoir returns to the arena with more fur on, after catching fire the previous round.

Berserk 2 (Series 2 Super Heavyweight Finalist as Berserk, Series 3 Heat Finalist) (24 Seed in Series 4)

Hypno-Disc's worst nightmare.

Weapons: Lifting forks & Axe

Battle record: 3 wins, 2 losses

• Badass Decay: In chronological order, their progress was: Finalist (Berserk), Heat Finalist then Heat semi-finalist (Berserk 2), then round 1 eliminator, then failed to qualify altogether (Twister). They didn't even try to qualify afterwards.
• Call-Back: In Series 3, Philippa greeted them in sign language during the introduction walk scene, after their translator taught her how to during the Grudge Matches special the previous year.
• Dem Bones: Its body evokes this trope, along with Flying Face.
• Determinator: It put up one amazing fight against Hypno-Disc, only losing because an arena spike flipped it upside down, which likely cost it the battle.
• Diabolus ex Machina: Those hated arena spikes flipping Berserk 2 was likely what caused its loss to Hypno-Disc. The fight only continued because Hypno-Disc were sporting enough to knock them back onto their wheels again, but being at its mercy only gave points to Hypno-Disc during the judges' decision.
• Epic Fail: The team's appearance as Twister in Series 5. Up against glacially-slow walkerbot Clawed Hopper, it broke down after just 15 seconds and was very slowly pushed into the pit.
• Foreshadowing: Its narrow loss against Hypno-Disc was the first demonstration of Hypno-Disc's innate weaknesses that would stop it from ever winning the championship and finish its career with a serious case of Badass Decay.
• Handicapped Badass: The entire team is deaf (minus the translator), but that didn't impede them from going toe-to-toe with Hypno-Disc.
• Made of Iron: Berserk 2 was the first robot to stand up to Hypno-Disc's weapon, coming through its heat final battle virtually unscathed, and was one of only a handful of robots in the show's run that was able to withstand the blade.
• Meaningful Background Event: After their first battle with Tut's Revenge and during the pit interview with Philippa, a group of roboteers were seated watching a TV screen playing a loud whirring sound while the roboteers gasped. It was Hypno-Disc (who hadn't been seen in the arena yet) tearing into Robogeddon, and would become the source of Berserk 2's eventual defeat. Interestingly, this was the only time a pit report happened with the TV in view and a battle underway.
  • During the quick shots focusing on the team in the viewing towers, the translator can often be seen making hand gestures to the deaf controlling roboteer, to make sure they start and stop when they needed to.

Suicidal Tendencies (Series 3 & 4 Heat Finalist, Extreme 1 Tag Team Runner-Up with Steel Avenger) (32 Seed in Series 4, 21 Seed in Series 5)

Weapons: Milling cutter (Series 3), Axe and lifting spikes (Series 4), Vertical crusher interchangeable with axe (Series 5)

Battle record: 9 wins^note Includes battle they won but were later forced to concede, 4 losses

• Born Unlucky: Lost a controversial judges' decision in their Series 4 heat final, and won their first match of Series 5 only to break down between bouts, forcing them to retire.
• Killed Offscreen: Their breakdown and withdrawal were abruptly announced by Jonathan Pearce between matches during a view of the battleboard; the team weren't even granted a pits interview to explain this and were never seen again on the show.
• Meaningful Background Event: More like person, but a certain fan named Ed Hoppitt was friends with a member of the team, and would be seen hanging around in the background during team interviews in Series 5 & Extreme 1 despite not technically being part of the team. His experiences with the team inspired him to create his own competitor: Series 7 runner up Storm II.
• Meaningful Name: Had something of a reputation for breaking down at the worst of times. Go figure.
• More Popular Spin-Off: Team associate Ed Hoppitt decided to make his own robot, Storm II, which became more successful than Suicidal Tendencies ever was.
• What Could Have Been: The team started work on a Series 6 entry, but their forced retirement from Series 5 demoralised them and they gave up.

Dreadnaut (Series 3 Heat Finalist) (29 Seed in Series 4)

Weapons: Lifting forks

Battle record: 3 wins, 4 losses

• The Alleged Car: Arguably the most unreliable robot in the show's history, on par with Spawn Again and Fluffy, having broken down in all four series it entered. Admittedly, the last one wasn't its fault, but still...
• Born Unlucky: Again, its constant breakdowns. In Series 1 it broke down three times, in Series 2 it was eliminated after the team accidentally knocked out the safety link while wheeling it into the arena, and in Series 3 it looked set to qualify from an extremely weak heat only to break down in the heat final. While it actually didn't break down in Series 4, it was instead attacked by Sir Killalot for no reason and had its shell ripped clean off, immobilizing it (though they were already through as Warhog had broken down). While the team frantically put Dreadnaut back together again, it clearly wasn't working properly and was nearly thrown out of the arena by Thermidor 2 before getting torn apart by the house robots.
  • Born Lucky: Despite all this, it actually got lucky on multiple occasions. In Series 1, it ran out of battery midway through the Trial, but still progressed because one of the other robots, WYSIWYG, was a stock robot that wasn't allowed to progress any further. In Series 3 its first opponent had its axe cut off by Sir Killalot and then broke down, its second opponent broke down instantly, and while it predictably broke down itself while fighting Trident in the heat final, it was spared the usual Humiliation Conga because the house robots decided to trash the shiny Trident instead.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Its last-ever fight, against Thermidor 2 in Series 4. It was still limping after Sir Killalot's unwarranted attack during the melee, and was defeated in a single flip that almost threw it out of the arena before the house robots proceeded to obliterate it.
• Diabolus ex Machina: After Warhog had spectacularly immobilized itself during Dreadnaut's Series 4 melee, Sir Killalot came in and, for no reason at all, picked Dreadnaut up and ripped off its shell, immobilizing it. The team barely managed to put it back together again in time for their next fight against Thermidor 2 (though they might have wished they hadn't bothered).
• Long Runner: Admittedly not one of the longest (it only appeared in the first 4 series, when the record is 9 series and both Extremes), but Dreadnaut was still one of only three robots that fought in both the 1st Wars and 4th Wars with more or less the same design (the others being Killertron, which had skipped the 3rd Wars, and Mortis, which had received constant upgrades).
• Oddly Named Sequel: The Series 4 incarnation was called "Dreadnaut XP-1^note Experimental Prototype 1".
• Once a Season: Its breakdowns. Thrice a season in Series 1.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: Was prone to appearing on the battle or statistics boards as "Dreadnought" or "Dreadnaught".
• Victory by Endurance: Unusually for such a breakdown-prone machine, this is how it got through its Series 4 melee: it took several blows from Warhog that damaged its armour, but Warhog took so much recoil damage in the process, flinging itself across the arena with each hit, that it soon broke down and was eliminated.
• Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: On several occasions.
  • Firstly, the Trial stage in Series 1. It ran out of battery midway through, but went through anyway because stock robot WYSIWYG wasn't allowed to reach the arena stages.
  • Secondly, its heat semi-final against Rattus Rattus in Series 3, in which Rattus Rattus broke down right at the start, giving Dreadnaut a free pass to the heat final.
  • Thirdly, its Series 4 melee against Darke Destroyer 2 and Warhog. It did try and attack, but its only real contribution was tanking Warhog's attacks long enough for Warhog to knock itself out.

Cerberus (Series 3 Heat Finalist) (18 Seed in Series 4)

Weapons: Crushing jaw, spikes, lifting tail

Battle record: 3 wins^note Not including the First World Championship battle it won by default, 5 losses

• Animal Motifs: Dog.
• Born Lucky: While some would consider them to also be Born Unlucky (like Diotoir, they have a section on their wiki page dedicated to their misfortune), most of the "bad luck" there was due to their own mistakes, and the robot got a lot of lucky breaks, from Killerhurtz's careless suicide, to Griffon breaking down (allowing Cerberus to pit them so quickly they would hold the "fastest battle" record all the way up to Series 7), to their first opponent in the 1st World Championship (the monstrous American spinner Mauler) being disqualified for health and safety reasons, to being knocked out by emergency reserves V-Max in their first-round melee in Series 4. Why was being beaten by V-Max lucky? Because V-Max went on to be disemboweled by Hypno-Disc in the next round!
• Bling of War: Philippa adored Cerberus because of its gleaming gold coat and the shiny chrome coating on its head. It was indeed a very pretty machine.
• The Bus Came Back: Failed to qualify for two successive Wars, but briefly came out of retirement to fight in the Commonwealth Carnage in Extreme 2.
• Epic Fail: In two consecutive appearances they were forced to enter the arena weaponless due to not paying attention to the robot design guidelines - the Series 3 version had to remove its hardened steel cutting disc because hardened steel weapons were illegal (and Pussycat had infamously just been disqualified for using one which had shattered in the ring), and the Series 4 model was overweight, forcing them to remove the heavy crushing head to make the 80kg weight limit.
• Irony: The Robot Wars Magazine's run-down of the Series 4 seeds said of Cerberus: "This time with a weapon, it should do well". Of course, Cerberus had to go without its weapon - again - and crashed out in the first round.
• Large Ham: The team - particularly captain Theo Kaccoufa - were prone to this. Just check out his introduction in Extreme:
  Theo: We are team Cerberus! I'm Theo, this is Alex, this is Vass, and this beast is Cerberus! And he's ready to tear the opposition to pieces! We are the most dangerous machine! We are so dangerous, they keep us in a cage!
• Off with His Head!: The Series 4 entry was over the weight limit, so the head had to be removed. This actually had serious ramifications for the robot as the head was part of the crushing jaw weapon, and Cerberus was left with only its static spikes.
• Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: Literally "won" its first round battle in the First World Championship just by showing up at the studio and without even having to enter the arena when its opponent was disqualified for health and safety reasons.
  • Its first battle in Series 3 was similar; Killerhurtz hit it once with its axe, putting a nasty hole in its armour and puncturing one of the batteries, then spun away, raced across the arena floor and crashed into the pit. It won its second round battle against Griffon by doing almost nothing, as Griffon broke down as soon as the battle started and didn't move, meaning Cerberus simply had to drive up to it and shove it down the pit (and even doing that much was not strictly necessary, as Griffon would have been counted out and trashed by the House Robots anyway).

Ultor (Series 3 Heat Finalist)

Weapons: Axe

Battle record: 3 wins, 0 losses

The robot behind one of Robot Wars' most unique and heartwarming incidents when, after defeating Big Brother (the debut incarnation of later stars Bigger Brother) on a close and controversial judges' decision, the team went to meet their opponents in The Stinger and conceded their place in the series semi-finals to them instead, since they believed the judges' decision was wrong. ^Also... Ian Watts of Team Big Brother confirmed in a recent Reddit AMA that the Ultor team weren't able to make the filming for the semis, so they decided to concede their place to Big Brother instead. Doesn't make it any less heartwarming.

• The Ace: Well, sort of; while Ultor really wasn't a great robot, it was technically a Series 3 semi-finalist, beating Big Brother in the heat final before handing over their place in the semis to them afterwards. Since Ultor never entered again, they're one of the few robots to never be defeated.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The exchange between them and Bumblebot (a robot with an absurdly long-shafted axe) over the relative size of their axes.
  Roger Golder: Well it's not the size, it's the way it's used!
• Gratuitous Latin: Its name is Latin for "Avenger".
• Heroic Sacrifice: A variant; they could have been a Series 3 semi-finalist, but they felt Big Brother deserved it more, so they forfeited their position to them.
• Honor Before Reason: The judges said they were the winners of the battle against Big Brother and they were going through to the semi-final. Team Ultor disagreed.
• One-Hit Wonder: They never returned to Robot Wars.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Ultor's gracious gesture to Big Brother meant that, although they were an average bot that only ever fought in three battles, they're still remembered today and the incident was one of the dramatic highlights of the 3rd Wars.
• Un-person: For whatever reason the official merchandise didn't mention Ultor under Bigger Brother's battle history (even when they mentioned all three of its other opponents it had fought that series).

Aggrobot (Series 3 Heat Finalist) (20 Seed in Series 4)

Weapons: Spring-fired spike (Series 3), Hydraulic crossbow (Series 4), Shears (Extreme), Cutting jaws & flipper (Series 6 & 7)

Battle record: 4 wins, 5 losses

Whilst a long-serving competitor, debuting in the Third Wars and fighting all the way to the end of the original run with a variety of different Aggrobots, the original Aggrobot remained the best-known for inadvertently taking out Razer in the Third Wars for no better reason than its awkward, pyramid-like shape happened to be Razer's Logical Weakness.

• The Bus Came Back: Another team that failed to qualify for Series 5 but returned in subsequent series.
• Lethal Joke Character: The original Aggrobot (pictured here) managed to beat Razer simply because it was such an awkward shape for Razer to attack, the battle lasted long enough for the favourites to break down.
• Mighty Glacier: The original Aggrobot, for a given definition of "mighty", even if it did manage to beat Razer.
• Pyrrhic Victory: It broke down in the Heat Final it fought following its defeat of Razer because there wasn't enough time to repair the damage done.
• Small Role, Big Impact / What Could Have Been: The most notable thing Aggrobot ever did, by a long, long way, was take out Razer in Series 3. If Razer hadn't been fighting an opponent that was so difficult to get to grips with, that it could have been able to immobilize before breaking down, the course of that series could have been very different indeed.
• Stopped Numbering Sequels: The Series 7 incarnation of Aggrobot (which, whilst visually similar to the Extreme 1 & Series 6 version, was still clearly a totally different machine, being more compact) was not numbered.
• Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: Its shock win over Razer in Series 3 pretty much amounted to this.
  • It snuck through its first-round melee in Series 6 by simply staying out of the way and doing nothing while 259 tore Infernal Contraption and Infinity to pieces with its flywheel.

Series 4 ( 2000 - 2001)

The Steel Avenger (Series 4 and 7 Heat Finalist, Extreme 1 Tag Team Terror Runner-Up with Suicidal Tendencies, Winner of Best Engineered Robot Award in Series 4)

Weapons: Pneumatic axe, front ramming blade and rear-mounted lifter

Battle record: 11 wins, 8 losses

• Awesome, but Impractical: The axe was pretty good, but highly inaccurate, largely due to Steel Avenger's wedge-shaped front. While it could dish out some good ramming damage, the angled front tended to push other robots off to the side when Steel Avenger rammed them, out of the axe's path.
• Bling of War: The team showed up wearing shiny metal homemade breastplates as part of their costume.
• The Bus Came Back: Missed out on Series 6 but returned for Extreme 2 and Series 7.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Not seeded in Series 5, even though several robots with a lesser pedigree were.
• Iconic Item: They originally took to the warzone with a rainbow-coloured feather duster on the back of the robot, "to clean up the mess". Diotoir swiped it after beating them in the 3rd Wars, and it was seen on Sir Killalot's lance on at least one occasion during the 4th Wars (namely, the "fight" between Hypno-Disc and Raizer Blade). They removed it permanently after the 5th Wars.
• Knight in Shining Armor: The motif the team was going for.
• Lightning Bruiser: Quite fast at 15mph, and reasonably tough and well-armoured. Won the 'Best Engineered' award in Series 4 for it, even beating out series champions Chaos 2 (who had won the same award themselves the previous year).
• Old Soldier: Had this vibe in its final appearance in the 7th Wars (see What Could Have Been), since it was technically retired but the team were reluctantly forced to pull out old reliable again in order to make it.
• Ramming Always Works: The bladed, arrow-shaped front could actually dish out considerable damage if they got a full-speed ram on an opponent, perhaps best illustrated during their Mayhem battle in Extreme when they smashed a wheel clean off King B Powerworks.
• What Could Have Been: The team was supposed to return to the 7th Wars (after missing the 6th) with SA2, but it wasn't finished in time, so rather than miss out, they gave the Old Soldier as many upgrades as they could in the time they had (such as transplanting the improved gas bottle and axe head from SA2) and sent it out to battle in its successor's place. Surprisingly, it did extremely well for such an old machine (losing to Storm 2 in the heat final) so one can only wonder how they would have done if they'd completed the new and improved model in time.^note Realistically speaking, they would have done exactly the same, unless something on the new robot failed somehow- no matter how good SA2 could have been, it would have really been asking a lot to expect it to beat Storm 2!

Kronic the Wedgehog (Series 4 Heat Finalist)

Weapon: Rear-hinged flipper

Battle record: 4 wins, 4 losses

• Animal Motifs: Based on a hedgehog (specifically, Sonic The Hedgehog).
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: The official merchandise repeatedly incorrectly stated that the same team entered the unrelated (beyond being similarly named) Series 1 heat finalist Wedgehog.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: During its time in the live circuit, it defeated Storm II on several occasions. ^note Not even Firestorm, Tornado, or Executive Meddling could stop Storm II in Series 7, but a former heat finalist can! This and its 2005 UK championship win are indicative of just how powerful Kronic became after leaving the studio.
• Epic Fail: Losing to the 83kg almost unarmed Mighty Mouse in the 2nd round of their Series 7 heat, after one of their motors seized up.
• Overly Long Name: The Series 5 version's full name was actually "Kronic 2 ... Yeaaahhhh!!!" (it was not actually referred to as such on the show, although the full name was visible on the robot's side).
• Shout-Out: Obviously to Sonic The Hedgehog.
• Took a Level in Badass: Another competitor who was merely passable during the show (reaching only one heat final in 4 years) yet has become a major player on the live scene. As mentioned below, it's the new holder of the "fastest ever battle" record after flipping Iron-Awe 6 out of the arena in only 4 seconds. It won the Winter Tour in 2005 and it's also only the second robot to ever retain the title of Annihilator champion after Kan-Opener, winning the title in 2010 and 2011.
  • Rebuilt as "Chronic", it also tried to qualify for the ABC 2015 reboot of Battlebots, taking part in the very first battle to be fought in the new Battlebox, but lost its qualifier to Swamp Thing despite getting off to a good start.
  • After Kronic 3 was purchased by Team MAD, they used its design as the basis for Apollo, which went on to win Series 8! Unsurprisingly, it did this by beating Storm 2 again - twice.

S.M.I.D.S.Y. (Series 4, 5 & 7 Heat Finalist) (24 Seed in Series 5, 13 Seed in Series 7)

Weapons: Lifting Jaws, Horizontal Flywheel (Series 5-7)

Battle record: 8 wins, 9 losses

• Always Someone Better: The paramount example in the show, it reached the Heat Final three times and progressed no further, the only robot to do so. Generally considered the best robot of all those to end with a negative win/loss record.
• Fun with Acronyms: Stands for “Sorry Mate I Didn’t See You”. The team were all bikers and had heard this plenty of times from other motorists.
• Killed Off for Real: After an impressive 19-year career, S.M.I.D.S.Y. suffered heavy, seemingly irreparable damage in an exhibition match against Tauron and Apex.
• Ramming Always Works: Whilst it had the lifting jaws and the flywheel, this was its main method of attacking.
• Spectacular Spinning: Added a rear horizontal flywheel starting in Series 5, and became more consistent competitors afterwards. Many years after the show ended, the flywheel was removed and replaced with a small vertical drum.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The team for the majority of the robot's life was Robin Bennett, Mik Reed and Andy Pugh. For whatever reason, the latter two didn't appear in the final series and were replaced by Steve Bennett and Mike Fleming.
  • Mik Reed unfortunately passed away in 2018, not long before the demise of the robot itself.

Mega Morg (Series 4 Heat Finalist) (19 Seed in Series 5)

Weapons: Lifter, Axe (Series 5), Spinning Disc (Extreme II & Series 7)

Battle record: 4 wins, 7 losses

• Awesome, but Impractical: Its low centre of gravity and shape meant that theoretically, whenever it was flipped it would roll back onto its wheels, negating the need for a conventional mechanical srimech. This didn't help it at all when it was flipped against the wall by Firestorm in Series 4 or flipped lengthwise by Robochicken in Series 7.
• The Bus Came Back: Failed to qualify for Series 6, but did so for Series 7.
• Character Shilling: Controversially seeded above/instead of several robots with better track records in Series 5.
• Dartboard of Hate: Had a picture of Anne Robinson on the front during Extreme 1, as the team disliked her attitude towards Welshmen and hoped the picture would get destroyed.
• Mascot: An inflatable sheep the team called a "Ninja Sheep". Most famously, during Mega Morg's (rather dull) battle with Plunderbird 5, Shunt hit the sheep with its axe.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: Mega Morg fought in Extreme, but for Series 5 (which was filmed at the same time) it was replaced with Mini Morg due to dissatisfaction with the Mega version's performance.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Downplayed. In Series 4 it originally went out in the first-round melee, but was reinstated when Scar irreparably broke down. It then reached the heat final and only lost to Firestorm (the robot that had beaten it earlier) on a very controversial judges' decision^note Firestorm had attempted to shove The Morgue down the pit, but The Morgue's length stopped it from going in and Firestorm drove in instead. The judges, however, decided that The Morgue, for all intents and purposes, had gone down the pit, and sent Firestorm through.
• Oddly Named Sequel: The Morgue - Mega Morg - Mini Morg. (It then reverted back to Mega Morg, just to compound things.)
• Product Placement: The symbol of three chain links was actually the logo of the team's sponsor. When it was reproduced on the die-cast toy version of Mega Morg, the team humorously noted it was a rare example of product placement on The BBC, which is strictly forbidden from it.

Raizer Blade (Series 4 Heat Finalist)

Weapons: Lifter, Chainsaw (Series 3), Bludgeoning Spike (Series 4)

Battle record: 3 wins, 2 losses as Raizer Blade; 0 wins, 1 loss as Kill Dozer

• Animal Motif: Was painted to resemble some kind of robotic reptilian.
• Born Lucky: In Series 4, for a given definition of "lucky". It only survived the melee because The Predator took more damage, it only won its 2nd round match after Terror-Bull opted to commit suicide, and while it was barely working at all by the heat final and stood no chance of winning, it was one of the few robots Hypno-Disc ever showed mercy to.
  • It also had a little bit of luck in its first Series 3 battle against Red Dragon. Raizer Blade seemed to be suffering from control problems and was stuck near Sgt Bash's CPZ when Red Dragon suddenly broke down in the middle of the arena. On the other hand...
• Born Unlucky: Being drawn against Hypno-Disc in Series 4 in the first place was the culmination of three years' bad luck for the team. In Series 2 they suffered interference that led to them getting grabbed by Sir Killalot and pitted (their opponent was also stuck in the PPZ with them but got away unscathed), while in Series 3 it nearly made the heat final after one of Suicidal Tendencies' tracks broke and was only eliminated on a very controversial judges' decision.
• Butt-Monkey: On top of getting trashed twice by Hypno-Disc during its Series 4 heat, ahead of the second encounter in the heat final it was actually booed by the audience.
  Jonathan Pearce: The audience don't know what we know... it's bleeding to death.
• Contrasting Sequel Opponent: There's an enormous contrast between Hypno Disc's first and second heat final opponents. Berserk 2 was Made of Iron, held off Hypno-Disc to a close judge's decision, and was a Determinator. Raizer Blade was on its last legs from its previous fight with Hypno-Disc, suffered a One-Hit Kill from them, was ripped open, and the team (and virtually everyone else) knew they would lose the battle.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: On the receiving end of one from Hypno-Disc in its Series 4 Melee, leaving it so badly damaged that its rematch with Hypno-Disc in the Heat Final can barely be considered a fight at all.
• Face Death with Dignity: The team were never under the impression that they could win the heat final against Hypno-Disc, especially since the significant damage the robot was suffering from was from their first battle with Hypno-Disc. They just said that they would put on a good show before bowing gracefully out of the competition.
• Humiliation Conga: Its entire Series 4 appearance. It suffered seemingly irreparable damage in the first round, but went through anyway; it won its heat semi-final by default after its opponent drove over the flame pit, in what some in the crowd believed was a deliberate move; and was then booed because of that before its heat final... against Hypno-Disc. Again.
• Mercy Kill: Its Series 4 heat final appearance effectively amounted to this. The robot was "bleeding to death" and was barely functioning at all, so the team asked Hypno-Disc to be merciful and immobilize it with as little damage as possible. Hypno-Disc obliged, and while they did hit Raizer Blade a few times and knocked one of the side panels off entirely, you can tell they're holding back throughout.
• Mighty Glacier: Its predecessor, Kill Dozer. It was slow but had a lot of pushing power, and in the Tug-of-War Trial it memorably fended off Matilda for the full 30 seconds, the only robot to do so.
• Never Live It Down: The team fought in three series, but are only really remembered for having been trashed (twice) by Hypno-Disc during Series 4.
• Older Than They Think: Mostly remembered for its Series 4 appearance, but it also fought in Series 3, and the team had fought in Series 2 with Kill Dozer.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Their win over Terror Bull in Series 4 was such a cursed prize that some people think Terror-Bull deliberately threw the fight because they were just too terrified of meeting Hypno-Disc. Before the fight Julia had asked the teams whether they really wanted to win, and the captain of Terror-Bull bluntly admitted that he didn't.
• Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: In its Series 4 battle against Terror-Bull, the damage it had already sustained from its fight against Hypno-Disc meant it spent the whole fight spinning around in circles and couldn't line up a proper attack. Fortunately its opponent decided it would be a great idea to drive over the arena flame jets and ended up knocking itself out.

Eric (Series 4 Heat Finalist)

Weapons: Lifter

Battle record: 2 wins, 2 losses

• Animal Motif: The paintjob gives it a dragon-esque look.
• Mechanically Unusual Class: Eric's hydraulic lifting arm was unusual in two aspects. Firstly, it was able to raise and lower almost as fast as a pneumatic flipper, thanks to the use of an accumulator - compare the speed of Eric's lifter to the speed of, say, The Big Cheese's. Secondly, the underside of the arm was lined with sharp teeth, allowing it to double as a clamping or crushing device (though, much like Reactor 2's "flamp", the weapon was never really used that way).
• Old Soldier: It attempted to enter Series 8 and 9 under new ownership, without any changes at all from its Series 4 appearance, and later entered a live circuit event in 2016 where it took heavy damage from Gabriel. It eventually changed hands yet again and underwent a two-year restoration project that concluded in 2023 - whether it will end up getting back into the arena yet again remains to be seen.

Series 5 ( 2001 - 2002)

Prizephita Mark 2 (Series 5 Heat Finalist)

Weapons: Flipper & rear pneumatic spike

Battle Record: 2 wins, 3 losses

• Awesome, but Impractical: The Series 3 version had a boxing glove attached to a spike at the top of the robot to allow the robot to right itself if it was flipped over. However, the boxing glove got caught on the arena wall when Prizephita was on its side, which immobilized the robot. It was wisely removed the following year.
• Book Ends: Its first-ever and last-ever battles were its losses to Thing II and Wild Thing, both by the Adams Family, in Series 3 and 5 respectively.
• Call-Back: In the Series 5 heat final, both teams reminisced on their previous fight in Series 3, when Thing II quickly beat Prizephita.
• Dark Horse Victory: Having lost in round 1 in the two previous wars, everyone thought it would be fodder to semi-finalist Thermidor 2, but Prizephita instead pulled off an impressive win to reach the heat semi-finals for the first time.
• Determinator: Its entire routine in Series 5 consisted of this. By sheer guts and will, they beat previous semi-finalist Thermidor 2 and impressive entrant The Alien, before coming incredibly close to beating Wild Thing.
• Joke Item: Its flipper was positively tiny compared to most robots, and in Series 4 it was likened by Jonathan Pearce to a dessert spoon. It didn't help that one of the other robots in its Series 4 melee was Wheely Big Cheese. Averted in Series 5 as while the flipper was still comparatively small, it was enough to take out Thermidor 2 and The Alien and almost enough to take out Wild Thing.
• Meaningful Echo: Prizephita in Series 3, round 1, was quickly flipped and disposed of by Thing II. Prizephita Mach 2 in a Series 5 heat final was surprisingly eliminated by Wild Thing in a very close judges' decision.
• Mr. Exposition: Roy spends such an absurdly long amount of time explaining the basic functions of how a flipper works in their Series 3 intro video that Jonathan Pearce exclaims relief when it's finally over.
• One-Hit Wonder: Its only claim to fame is being a heat finalist in Series 5, out of 3 years competing.
• Shocking Elimination: It took so many levels in badass in Series 5 that Craig and the audience were surprised that Prizephita lost the heat final to Wild Thing on a judge's decision, after dominating them the entire battle.
• Shout-Out: The Series 3 entry had Mike Tyson painted on the front. Philippa joked that it was actually Craig (or possibly she genuinely mistook it for a picture of Craig in boxing trunks).
• Took a Level in Badass: Downplayed, as it still didn't get past its heat in the series in which it accomplished this, but it was just another robot entering to lose to the episode's winner in Series 3 & 4 and it looked like it was about to follow that pattern in Series 5 to previous semi-finalist Thermidor 2, before beating them in round 1. It took Wild Thing in the episode's heat final to barely beat Prizephita (again).
• What Could Have Been: A new version of the robot called Prizephita Mark 3 with pneumatics designed by Rex Garrod actually qualified for the 2016 series, but caught fire just prior to filming and forced the team to withdraw. Mk.3 then applied for the 2017 series but was turned away, prompting the team to start working on Mk.4.

Corkscrew (Series 5 Heat Finalist)

Weapons: Full Body Spinner

Battle Record: 3 wins, 5 losses

• The Alleged Car: Of the three wars it entered, its spinning motors burnt out before entering the arena in two of them.
• Born Lucky: Even Craig had to admit that its Series 5 run was this, due to the spinner not working, yet it somehow eliminated Semi-Finalist-worthy robots 13 Black and X-Terminator.
• Dark Horse Victory: Against X-Terminator, who only ever previously made the heat finals or semis.
• Determinator: It had an impressive performance in Series 5 without actually spinning. Instead, its method of winning was ramming the opposing robots until they eventually stopped moving. It beat a future semi-finalist and grand finalist with this method.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: It's called Corkscrew because... guess what it looks like? Averted with Corkscrew 2, which didn't look anything like a corkscrew or its predecessor.
• One-Hit Wonder: Entered Series 5-7, only making the heat final once.
• Running Gag: The young boys getting incensed whenever someone calls their kilts "skirts".
• What Could Have Been: In the one UK championship where its weapon was actually working, Corkscrew managed a very impressive attack, smashing a side panel clean off of Panic Attack. Unfortunately, seconds later it hit another robot and deflected off, into the descending pit.

Kat 3 (Series 5 & 7 Heat Finalist, Series 6 Sportsmanship Award)

Weapons: Pneumatic axe (Kat 3), Pneumatic spike/Electric lifting arm (Kater Killer)

Battle record: 7 wins, 6 losses as Kat 3 (1 win, 2 losses in the US); 0 wins, 2 losses as Kater Killer

• Animal Motifs: A cat, obviously (also partly a caterpillar for the original Kater Killer). Oddly enough, no less than three times it found itself placed in the same heat as Bulldog Breed, and fought them twice (once in the 6th Wars heat melee where both robots went through, the second time in their heat final of Series 7 where Bulldog Breed won). On two separate occasions they also had a quite literal Cat Fight with Pussycat (in the all-female Iron Maidens competition and the 2nd round of the 7th Wars All-Stars competition), with Pussycat beating them both times.
• Follow the Leader: Kat 3 was extremely similar in design to Dominator 2, albeit with a simple flat wedge rather than the distinctive bi-wedge shape^note Ironically, Dominator 3 abandoned the bi-wedge in favour of a straight wedge similar to Kat 3's after the show finished and not nearly as well-armoured.
• Nice Guys: The team won the Sportsmanship Award for Series 6 for helping other teams out behind the scenes.
• Took a Level in Badass: Downplayed, as they never got past the heat final, but Kater Killer never won a single battle, whereas Kat 3 made two heat finals and achieved much more popularity.
• You Go, Girl!: In later series they claimed their main strength was 'Girl Power' and it was listed as such on their stat sheet.

Rick (Series 5 Heat Finalist, Nickelodeon Robot Wars International Tag Team Terror Champion (with Ming 3), Extreme 2 Minor Meltdown Semi-Finalist)

Rick

Weapons: Lifting arm (Series 4), Flipper and face-spinner (Series 5-7)

Battle record: 2 wins, 4 losses as Rick (2 wins, 0 losses in the US Series); 0 wins, 1 loss as Maverick

• Attack Its Weak Point: Razer was able to defeat it by crushing its exposed tires.
• Born Lucky: Like The Morgue in Series 4, they were beaten in their first fight in Series 5 but were reinstated after Suicidal Tendencies broke down. They were then drawn against Destruct-a-Bubble in the next round, giving them an easy run to the heat final, where their luck ran out as they faced Razer.
• The Bus Came Back: Skipped Series 6 but returned for Extreme 2 and Series 7.
• Flipping Helpless: A variation: Rick could run upside-down, but couldn't use its flipper while doing so, leaving it effectively helpless. Maverick played the trope arrow-straight, even lampshading it by writing "This Way Up" on the top of the machine, and this proved to be its downfall when Suicidal Tendencies turned it over with its lifting forks.
• Flying Face: Similar to Berserk 2, Maverick and Rick gave off this sort of impression.
• The Rival: To Suicidal Tendencies, who beat the team in the first round in Series 4 and 5. On the latter occasion Suicidal Tendencies had to withdrew due to mechanical issues and Rick was reinstated.
• Took a Level in Badass: Maverick was a slow, weakly armoured robot that was eliminated in the first round in Series 4. Rick was more powerful, reaching the heat final in Series 5 (albeit after getting reinstated) and won the International Tag Team Terror tournament with Ming 3 in the Nickelodeon series, beating Bigger Brother and The Revolutionist along the way and nearly flipping the former out of the arena!

Crushtacean (Series 5 Heat Finalist; Commonwealth Carnage Runner-up; Series 6 Most Original Entry Award; Dutch Series 2 Grand Finalist as Krab-Bot)

Weapons: 2 crushing pincers

Battle record: 7 wins, 5 losses; (3 wins 1 loss in the Dutch Series)

• Animal Motifs: A crustacean, specifically a crab.
• Awesome, but Impractical: A lot was made of the supposedly high-tech controllers for the robot's claw weapons, a pair of gloves that young Dominic Visser wore which would cause the claws to close when he clenched his fists and open again when he unclenched them. Practically speaking, this wasn't really any different from pressing a button (the gloves didn't really use any kind of motion capture technology, there was a simple toggle visible on them which would trigger when the finger it was attached to moved) and they really made little difference.
• Boring, but Practical: Six of Crushtacean's ten wins were judges decisions; the other four all saw them simply grab their opponents and pit them, although they often had to slam them around a bit before they were able to get a grip. This was basically unavoidable, as the claws weren't terribly damaging weapons, being far too small to inflict the kind of crushing damage a full-sized crusher like Tough As Nails or Kan-Opener could inflict.
• The Bus Came Back: Returned for Series 9 after being forced to miss Series 8 when the filming schedule conflicted with now-grown Dominic's university timetable. It was rumored that the robot had changed hands, but it is in fact still owned and driven by the Visser family.
  • Before the reboot began, Crushtacean made an early return to the UK robot fighting scene in 2016 after not having fought in 12 years to take part in the first live Robot Wars event of the year. It put on an impressive showing, managing to take 3rd place in the main competition after being flipped out by Ripper.
• Charlie Brown from Outta Town: The South-African team was able to compete in the second Dutch series since team captain Ian Visser was able to speak Afrikaans, a language virtually identical to Dutch, so they took part under the pseudonym 'Krab-Bot'. They actually did much better there than they ever managed in the UK series, reaching the Grand Final^note Although the Dutch series didn't have semifinals, meaning they only had to win their heat to make the Grand Final before losing to runners-up Philipper 2.
• David Versus Goliath: They were one of the teams to infamously upset Behemoth in the 5th Wars, when Behemoth accidentally flipped themselves over and Crushtacean was able to grab them and pit them before they could right themselves. Behemoth took revenge in the 7th Wars, though, when they flipped Crushtacean out of the arena in the first round.
  • In the first round of the Commonwealth Carnage, in a rare instance of the claws doing actual serious damage, Crushtacean slipped around behind Sir Killalot and used them to cut his hydraulic cables, disabling his claw and lance weapons!
• He Is All Grown Up: Dominic Visser, now 23 years old and going through university, is the first well-known Cheerful Child from the original series to return to the rebooted show as an adult^note The team of Mr Speed Squared, who drove Trouble & Strife/ROTAS in the original series, were first, but Dominic Visser was the first one of note - Joe and Ellie Watts were not involved in the Orte or Swarm teams.

Fluffy (Series 5 Heat Finalist, Joint Champion of UK vs Germany special with Das Gepäck, Winner of Most Promising Newcomer Award in Series 5)

Weapon: Double-headed spinning axe

Battle record: 5 wins, 5 losses, 1 draw

• The Alleged Car: Pretty much every one of its losses (and its one draw) was due to it breaking down.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Fluffy was capable of inflicting devastating damage when it was working properly, on par with Hypno-Disc. Unfortunately, it almost never worked properly, being incredibly prone to breaking down as soon as it was attacked (or sometimes even without being attacked at all). It was considered one of the greatest wastes of potential on the series.
• Every Year They Fizzle Out: Great things were expected of Fluffy every time they competed, but they always simply... broke down.
• Executive Meddling: Strongly suspected to be the reason that Fluffy drew with Das Gepäck in the final of the UK vs Germany special. While Fluffy did more direct damage to its opponent, Das Gepäck was clearly on top of the battle at the end (while Fluffy was still mobile, their axe had broken down and Das Gepäck was shoving them around easily). With a lot of UK pride riding on the battle and no-one wanting to see a UK robot beaten on their own soil by a foreigner^note Das Gepäck wasn't even German; they couldn't find enough German robots to fill out the competition lineup so Das Gepäck was actually Dutch, it seemed extremely likely that the judges declared a draw (a unique situation that was never repeated) to avoid having to rule against Fluffy, since there was no way they could in good conscience declare them the winners outright. Unsurprisingly, the audience booed the house down.
• Fluffy the Terrible: You don't say?
• For Want Of A Nail: Oh, so much, had Fluffy not broken down against Pussycat. Reaching the series semifinal would have landed it both a winnable fight against Panic Attack in the next round as well as a seed in Series 6. Not only would Fluffy have been seeded somewhere around eighth or ninth in Series 6, which would have likely meant a reasonable path to the series semifinal for Fluffy, but it would have dropped Tornado (as in, the eventual Series 6 champion) off the seed list. Without its seed, Tornado could have landed in any of the heats, creating the possibility for a heat final against the likes of Razer or Hypno-Disc.
• Glass Cannon: Double subverted. Most robots with heavy spinning weapons had weak armour to compensate, but Fluffy's compact body allowed it to bolt on 16mm-thick polycarbonate, an impressive amount of armour for the time. However, it couldn't solve the other problem associated with heavy spinning weapons: the massive recoil. The result was a machine with a tough exterior but internals that would slowly disintegrate with each hit.
• Shocking Elimination: Their first appearance in the main competition was this; up against 2nd seeds Pussycat in the Heat Final, Fluffy were the underdogs but looking mightily impressive. Halfway through the battle Fluffy's whirling axe ripped Pussycat's famous blade clean off, shocking everyone, and it looked like the newcomers were going to cruise to victory over the highly-favoured runners-up of the previous year. But then Fluffy... just stopped. Pussycat was still moving, so they took the victory, even without their weapon.
• Spectacular Spinning: It's got axes that spin. While it wasn't the first robot to make use of a bar spinner (that would be the utterly forgettable Hammertron from Series 3), Fluffy brought the weapon type into the spotlight and showcased just how much damage such a weapon could do.

Reactor (Series 5 Heat Finalist)

Weapons: Flipper (Series 4), "Flamp" & rear-mounted axe (Series 5), flipper & rear disc (Series 7)

Battle record: 3 wins, 2 losses as Reactor; 1 win, 1 loss as Rhino

• Animal Motifs: Rhino was based on a rhino. The team decided they wanted to build a robot that looked like something for the 7th Wars.
• Bamboo Technology: Not quite bamboo as such, but Reactor's wheels were made of wood with a rubber coating (although the hub plates were metal) as its creator was actually a joiner by trade.
  Julia: It is the 21st century of Robot Wars, and we have wooden wheels.
• Crack Defeat: Beat Gemini when the clusterbots flipped themselves over and were unable to self-right after getting stuck on their own anti-wheelie bars! Absolutely nobody saw it coming, including the team themselves (unfortunately, their opponent in the heat final was Firestorm).
  Martin Crouch: I don't believe it. I never believed we'd beat Gemini, not in a million years.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: In Series 5 they upgraded the front flipper to what they called a "flamp"- as well as flipping it up to tip enemy robots, they could also close it on them with some force to use it as a clamp (hence the name "flipper/clamp"). However, they never actually got the opportunity to use it this way.
• No-Sell: Because of its teardrop body shape, Reactor would simply roll over when flipped from the side, most notably seen during its upset victory over Gemini. Unfortunately for them, Firestorm had upgraded itself to the point that it could throw robots over the arena wall, and promptly did.
  Martin Crouch: It was the only way they were going to stop us.
• One-Hit Wonder: Team Reactor entered three series (they failed to qualify for Series 6 with Reactor 3) and made a single heat final. They never entered into the two Extreme series either.

Series 6 ( 2002 - 2003)

Disc-O-Inferno (Extreme 1 Annihilator 2 Champion, Series 6 Heat Finalist)

Weapons: Spinning disc

Battle record: 6 wins, 4 losses

• Awesome, but Impractical: While the disc was never as powerful as Hypno-Disc's, it could still do some serious damage when it was working properly, plus the robot was invertible, making it mostly immune to flippers. However it was unreliable and had a tendency to break down.
  • Born Lucky: Luckily for it, the Annihilator it won was so plagued by breakdowns (some admittedly caused by Disc-O-Inferno's weapon) that it was shortened from five rounds to a mere three, with Napalm and Panic Attack being forced to drop out between rounds.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: In its Series 6 heat final against Bigger Brother, Disc-O Inferno's weapon eventually broke down and, rather than try and fight the #2 seed weaponless, the team cut their losses and drove straight into the pit.
• The Bus Came Back: After debuting in Series 4 and failing to qualify for Series 5, it returned the following year.
• Glass Cannon: Slightly less so than Hypno-Disc, but just watch their performance in the Annihilator (especially what they did to Fighting Torque and Spirit of Knightmare) to see the kind of damage they could dish out!
• Lightning Bruiser: Had a top speed of 20mph, but was allegedly as fast as 30mph when it first debuted!
• Shout-Out: To the disco song "Disco Inferno".
• Spectacular Spinning: As with all flywheel bots. Thanks to its Annihilator win, Disc-O-Inferno was regarded as the third-best of the four great horizontal flywheel bots of the original series, behind Hypno-Disc and 13 Black, and ahead of Supernova.

Hydra (Series 6 Heat Finalist, Extreme 2 Tag Team Terror runner-up with Barbaric Response)

Weapons: Axe and lifting arm

Battle record: 4 wins, 5 losses

• Camera Abuse: Hydra was the first victim of the mighty Gravity in its Series 7 melee, smashing into a camera at it was hurled out of the arena.
• Follow the Leader: While it wasn't the most popular of robots to copy, there were a number of robots that used the same weapons combination that Mortis pioneered (axe alongside a lifting arm which doubled as a srimech) and Hydra was the most successful of these after Mortis itself.
• Mirror Match: Its second-round opponent in Series 6 was Comengetorix, the second most-prominent imitator of Mortis (although in Series 6 Comengetorix had switched to a curved axe rather than a spike). Hydra won fairly comfortably.
• One-Hit Wonder: Reached a heat final in Series 6, eliminated in the first round of Series 5 and 7, although it performed decently in the Tag Team Terror competition of Extreme 2.
• Trash the Set: Before Gravity hurled it over the arena wall, it flipped Hydra into the air, causing it to come down on the wall and smash part of it. Hydra is one of seven robots to smash the wall, but the only one to do so by landing on it.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: It almost won the Axe Attack event in Series 7- Kat 3 had been counted out and it was well ahead of Iron-Awe on points. Unfortunately Refbot activated the pit just before Hydra was about to drive over it and they crashed out.

Supernova (Series 2 Heat Finalist as Oblivion, Series 6 Heat Finalist, 3rd World Championship Runner-up)

^{Click to see Oblivion (original model)} 

Weapons: Axe and Spikes (as Oblivion in Series 2-4), Horizontal spinning flywheel (as Supernova in Series 5-)

Battle record: 7 wins, 6 losses as Supernova; 1 win, 2 losses as Oblivion

• Born Unlucky: Was seemingly about to stroll through its Series 6 heat final against the seeded Spawn Again, which was suffering from reliability problems that left it totally immobile just before the battle, only for the Spawn team to get it working just long enough to take Supernova out with a single attack. They then fell foul of Storm II twice in the 7th Wars, first in the first-round melee of the main competition, then again in the final of the World Championship.
  • In Series 4, Oblivion 2 was possibly the only robot to be eliminated by getting driven over. Saw Point's saw-blade wheels not only disabled the axe, but also bent the casing in such a way that it snagged against the arena floor, pinning its wheels off the ground and immobilizing it.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: In Series 8, Supernova's first blow immobilized Or Te but also broke one off the teeth off the disc, unbalancing it and giving the robot severe control problems that eventually led to its own demise.^note If you were ever wondering why Hypno-Disc needed to have a second upward-pointing tooth welded to the opposite side of their disc, this is why.
  • Happened again in Series 9; in its group stage battle against Pulsar it tore an enormous gash in Pulsar's drum and caused it to break down (again), but was simultaneously thrown halfway across the arena and into the wall, whereupon it broke down completely.
• The Bus Came Back: Returned for the reboot, with the same design and (some of) the same team.
• Can't Catch Up: Downplayed, but still the root cause of its Series 8 demise. While Supernova had been upgraded somewhat, its disc was still the same as before, with the teeth bolted on separately rather than the whole weapon being one solid piece, like modern spinners. The teeth evidently couldn't cope with the increased forces of modern robot combat, and quickly broke off, leaving Supernova weaponless and uncontrollable. The team quite sensibly switched to a more modern one-piece disc for Series 9.
• Demoted to Extra: It only took part in the sideshow Pinball tournament in Series 3, although this was subverted as it returned to the main competition the following series and competed in every war after that.
• Epic Fail: Met a rather undignified end in Series 8 when TR2 rammed into it, and the gyroscopic speed of the disc propelled Supernova through the air, across the arena and into the pit. Even worse, this could have been avoided: the disc's teeth had already broken off, leaving it useless (an epic fail in itself), so there was no real reason for them to continue spinning it.
• Follow the Leader: Of Hypno-Disc, but arguably even more so of Disc-o-Inferno, the first Hypno-Disc imitator to trade a smaller disc for invertibility.
• Glass Cannon: Very powerful, but prone to breakdowns and also suffers from erratic steering due to the sheer gyroscopic force of the weapon.
• Hell Is That Noise: In Series 9 the weapon made an utterly horrendous noise, drowning out the rest of its competitors in its opening melee.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In Series 8, one of the teeth on Supernova's disc broke off after it hit Or Te, and the unbalanced gyroscopic effects ended up causing Supernova to hurl itself across the arena and into the pit.
  • In Series 9, the weapon was far more powerful and sturdy but it tended to deal terminal damage to itself at the same time.
• Long Runner: Because Oblivion was a rather forgettable machine (despite being a heat finalist) it's easy to overlook the fact that Team Trinity were one of the show's longest-lasting competitors, appearing in every series from Series 2 to Series 9 (albeit only in the Pinball Warrior tournament of Series 3). Curiously, though, the team never appeared in either series of Extreme.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Tore Frostbite to pieces in their head-to-head match in Series 9, shattering almost its entire polycarbonate outer shell, smashing one of its motors, and breaking its spinning bar completely off. Frostbite was left totally irreparable and was forced to withdraw.
• One-Hit Kill: In its Series 9 group match, it blew Frostbite's side panel to bits with its first hit and immobilized High-5 with its second.
• Put on a Bus: The team were unable to enter Series 10 due to prior commitments, instead using the time to upgrade and repair Supernova ahead of a planned return for Series 11. Unfortunately, there is no Series 11... yet.
• Shout-Out: As you can see in its picture, during its 6th and 7th Wars appearances its casing was emblazoned with Superman's iconic red and yellow S shield (with a small 'Nova' next to it). It was removed during its appearance in the reboot, probably for legal reasons.
• Single-Stroke Battle:
  • Oblivion in Series 4 was eliminated after about five seconds when Saw Point drove over it. Its saw blade wheels bent the robot's armor downwards, causing it to catch on the arena floor thanks to Oblivion's zero ground clearance, and Oblivion was pinned in place and immobilized.
  • Its Series 9 head-to-head battle against Pulsar was over in a single massive hit that severely damaged Pulsar's drum, but sent Supernova flying halfway across the arena and immobilized it.
• Spectacular Spinning: The last of the 4 great horizontal spinners to fight on Robot Wars, after Hypno-Disc, 13 Black and Disc-o-Inferno. Supernova had the least success, but was still a feared robot for the damage it could potentially inflict. It was also the only one to return for the reboot.
• Took a Level in Badass: Downplayed, as they still never made it past a heat, but despite their first robot, Oblivion, making a Heat Final in its 2nd Wars debut (before getting axed by Mortis), they failed to requalify for the 3rd Wars^note although they took part in the pinball, coming 6th out of 10) and although they made it into the 4th Wars, they crashed out in the first round. It was when they came back with Supernova that they were able to make a real impression again (albeit after a false start in the 5th Wars).
  • After a poor display in Series 8, they returned in Series 9 with a vastly improved machine that tore apart everything it faced... until it met Pulsar.

Shredder (Series 6 Heat Finalists, Series 7 Spin City Event Winner)

Weapons: Twin horizontal spinning discs

Battle record: 3 wins, 3 losses; 0 wins, 1 loss as Manic Mutant

• Attack Its Weak Point: Shredder's exposed wheels were vulnerable to axes, and this cost it in Series 7 after The Steel Avenger damaged one of its wheels and then held it over the flame pit. Shredder predictably survived the battle, but not the ensuing judges' decision.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The team were planning on making a successor named Shredder REvolutionS that would have had four spinning discs. However, it proved to be a completely impractical and unworkable design, and was presumably shelved.
  • To be frank, the dual counter-rotating shredder discs didn't really work as planned either. It was extremely difficult for the driver to line up an attack so both discs would make contact with the opponent at the same time, so the net result was effectively the same as two half-sized discs hitting one at a time.
• The Bus Came Back: The team didn't enter Series 4 but returned for Series 5.
• Determinator: Its entire Series 6 performance. In its first battle it took substantial punishment from S3, having one of its discs ripped off, but went through anyway as the only other robot left running. In the heat semi-final it had to face The Alien and its powerful spinning hammers while still fairly damaged, but managed to win comfortably, and in the heat final it faced S3 again, took horrendous amounts of damage, and just kept coming back for more.
• Epic Fail: Manic Mutant was doing well in its Series 3 fight against Gravedigger until it drove straight up Gravedigger's wedge and flipped itself over, and Shredder was doing well in its Series 5 fight against Mousetrap until it drove straight into the pit immediately after shoving Mousetrap into the tyre.
• Lightning Bruiser: Shredder Evolution in Series 7, which retained the previous versions' toughness but dialed the speed up to a blistering 25mph.
• Made of Iron: While most robots with flywheels were Glass Cannons, Shredder was exceptionally tough: "built like a brick", as Jonathan Pearce put it. In Series 6 it took horrific amounts of punishment from S3, with shards of its armour flying into the ceiling, and even though the Refbot counted it out it was still moving at the end of the fight.
• Mechanically Unusual Class: Shredder was unique in that instead of one large disc, it had two smaller ones, positioned next to each other and spinning in opposite directions. The idea was that the counter-rotating discs would pull robots in and... well, shred them.
• Oddly Named Sequel: Was known as Shredder Evolution in Series 7.
• Spectacular Spinning: Shredder had two spinning discs. While they weren't the strongest spinners in the wars, they were good enough for it to win the Spin City event in Series 7.
• Took a Level in Badass: The team's first robot, Manic Mutant, wasn't that bad, but still lost its only fight against Gravedigger in Series 3. The team returned in Series 5 with Shredder, but it took until Series 6 for this trope to really kick in, as it reached the heat final.

Vader (Series 6 Heat Finalists as Vader, Series 7 Heat Finalists as IG-88)

Weapons: Vertical spinning disc (Vader), Vertical bi-rotational double axe (IG-88)

Battle record: 2 wins, 3 losses as Vader; 2 wins, 1 loss as IG-88

• Briefer Than They Think: Team Vader is the first robot to make the Heat Finalists list here despite only competing in 2 main series wars^note the general rule of thumb is that a robot has to enter at least three Wars. They get a place here for entering Series 7 twice with IG-88.
• Expy: Team Vader weren't the only team to enter 2 robots in the 7th Wars^note Team Velocirippa also entered Mighty Mouse as well as Velocirippa 2, and Team Ming entered with Zorro as well as Ming Dienasty, but they were the only one whose second robot was more or less the same as their first. IG-88 was basically an upgraded version of Vader, trading the flywheel for a double-headed spinning axe that could theoretically run in both directions.
• Glass Cannon: Vader and IG-88 both had devastating weapons, but were poorly-armoured due to skating on the edge of the weight limit, and couldn't self-right.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: IG-88 was famously thrown out of the ring by Dantomkia in a record-breaking 8 seconds in their Series 7 heat final, but what actually happened was that Dantomkia threw IG-88 against the arena wall and IG-88's spinning axe caught itself on the edge and propelled them over. Ironically, this probably wouldn't have happened to Vader, which had a more traditional solid disc.
• Informed Ability: Averted; it was her interview with Vader that ended with Philippa's iconic quote "If I had a penny for every time a bloke said to me "I've got a magnificent weapon", I would be rich by now!", but Vader's weapon actually lived up to their boasts.
• Shout-Out: To Star Wars, obviously; not only was Vader named after the iconic Dark Lord of the Sith, IG-88 was named after the robotic bounty hunter that appeared in The Empire Strikes Back.
• Spectacular Spinning: Both robots used powerful vertical spinning weapons.

Barber-Ous (Series 6 Heat Finalist)

Weapons: Spinning drum

Battle record: 2 wins, 5 losses

• Achilles' Heel: It was made of plastic.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Barber-Ous really did have an awe-inspiring weapon, but the robot as a whole was somewhat unwieldy to drive, vulnerable to attack, and very, very fragile.
• Glass Cannon: Probably the greatest example on the show- it may not have had quite as much "cannon" as the likes of Hypno-Disc (although it could still put out some serious damage), but it doubled-down on the "glass" by being made of plastic.
• Irony: Team captain Simon Rafferty hung onto the robot for over a decade after Robot Wars went off the air in the hopes of using it again (he couldn't use it on the live circuit because of the ban on spinning weapons), only to finally give up, admit the show wasn't coming back, and trash it... in 2015, less than a year before the reboot was announced. He mused that it was probably past time to build Barber-Ous 3 anyway, although he didn't do so in time for the 2016 series.^note Barber-Ous 3 was rumoured to have applied for the 2017 season, but it never appeared before the show was re-cancelled.
• Made of Plasticine: Well, plastic anyway.
• Meaningful Name: It looked like a large horizontal barber's pole with teeth.
  Philippa: This is one of those robots, Barber-Ous, that makes you think "What came first; the name, or the robot?" Did they just sit there and go "I know, Barber-Ous! Er... barber's pole? Let's do it!
• Mechanically Unusual Class: While drum spinners are a common weapon in robot combat today, Barber-Ous was the first UK robot to actually use this weapon^note not counting the ineffective "lawnmower blade" type weapons seen on robots like Blade, which weren't designed to have the kind of powerful upwards kick and chunking power seen on a proper drum spinner. However, Barber-Ous one-ups even modern drum spinners by being possibly the only full-body drum spinner.^note Almost 2 decades later it was finally joined by Axe Backwards in the 2018 series of BattleBots.
• Oddly Named Sequel: After "Barber-Ous 2" came "Barber-Ous 2'n a bit"
• One-Hit Wonder: Made the heat final in Series 6 before falling foul of Hypno-Disc, and never won another battle. A bit unlucky, really, although not quite to Born Unlucky levels.
• Punny Name: Obviously.
• Spectacular Spinning: The spinning drum had a huge amount of kick and was probably the most effective weapon of its type in the classic series. In their first-ever battle they mangled the front of Panic Attack, ruining their forklift weapons and damaging their top armour, before they got pushed into Bash and disabled. In Series 6 they almost threw Granny's Revenge 2 right out of the arena and immobilised 4x4 (although their weapon got snared by the anti-spinner cloth on 4x4), then in the next round gave Kat 3 a right bashing, knocking them over and wrecking their axe to keep them from self-righting.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Simon Rafferty confided to Phillipa that the one robot he did not want to fight was Hypno-Disc... which was going to be one of Barber-Ous 2's opponents in its opening melee. Sure enough, a single hit from Hypno-Disc took out Barber-Ous's weapon and a second killed the drive, and while Barber-Ous 2 survived the melee due to having immobilized the other two robots before hand, that meant it had to fight Hypno-Disc again in the heat final, where it was once again battered into submission.
• Too Powerful to Live: Too powerful to fight, anyway, at least for its original purpose. Barber-Ous wasn't originally built for Robot Wars but for another robot contest show on the Discovery Channel called Robots Revenge. While the team were filmed building the robot for the show, it was ultimately deemed too dangerous to be allowed to fight, so they brought it to Robot Wars instead.

Series 7 ( 2003 - 2004)

Tetanus (Series 7 Heat Finalist)

Tetanus Booster; click to see^Tetanus 

and ^{Tetanus 2} [[quoteright:180:

Weapons: Claw and forklift (Tetanus), lifting scoop (Tetanus 2), spinning drum (Tetanus Booster)

Battle record: 4 wins, 4 losses as Tetanus; 1 win, 1 loss as Flip Flop Fly

• Diesel Punk: The robot resembled a pile of junkyard scrap, hence its name.
• Took a Level in Badass: Downplayed; first appeared in the 3rd Wars with Flip Flop Fly, an uncontrollable axlebot which only won its first round because its opponent drove themselves into a pit. Nobody remembered it by the time they came back with Tetanus, even though they didn't actually manage to better its performance and reach a heat final until the 7th Wars (where they promptly came up against reigning champions Tornado).

Robochicken (Series 7 Heat Finalist, Extreme 2 Tag-Team Terror Champion with Bulldog Breed)

Weapons: Axe and flipper (series 4-6), vertical spinning disc and flipper (series 7)

Battle record: 6 wins, 5 losses

• Animal Motifs: Gee, let me guess... a walrus?
• Cloud Cuckoolander: The entire team. It's even listed as the robot's weakness in Series 7.
• Determinator: The Series 4 version of Robochicken had to fight Razer and Pussycat one after the other. It was repeatedly punctured, impaled, and held aloft by the former, and utterly shredded by the latter^note the magazine was not exaggerating when it described Robochicken as having been "torn to ribbons", and yet it was still just about mobile!
• Fun Personified: They came to the war with inflated rubber gloves attached to the tops of their hats, making chicken noises. Enough said.
• Insane Troll Logic: Especially by Series 7. They entered the Annihilator arena without the robot's head (which doubled as an axe), and their explanation?
  Member 1: We've got a cunning plan. We're going to remove the head of the chicken, go into the arena, and nobody will recognise us!
  Jayne: You're telling me you're going in as a headless chicken?
  Member 2: That's right, it's the best way. (blank smile)
  Jayne: So you'll have no head and can't see... The chicken's gonna be confused...
  Member 2: Sometimes, it pays to be blind and do what comes naturally.
  Statistics Board: WEAKNESS: THE TEAM
  • Actually subverted/invoked, as the real reason they took the axe off was that it prevented them from self-righting. Not that it helped, since they were taken out almost immediately by Ripper anyway.
• Lethal Joke Character: The Robochicken team were utterly batty competitors, fun-loving, loopy and daft, but their robot was actually a serious fighting machine.
• Spectacular Spinning: Added a vertical disc - the "rooster rotavator" - to the front of the machine in Series 7, the year they made it to the heat final.
• Took a Level in Badass: Downplayed, but the Series 7 version was a significantly better machine and only narrowly missed out on a place in the semi-finals.
• Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: How it "won" the Tag Team Terror: standing by whilst Bulldog Breed did all the work.

Judge Shred (Series 7 Heat Finalist)

Weapons: 2 lifting pincers and rear spike axe (Judge Shred), 3-bar pneumatic flipper and rear axe (Judge Shred 2), pneumatic flipper and lifting arm (Judge Shred 2 1/2), pneumatic flipper (Judge Shred 3)

Battle record: 4 wins, 6 losses

• Awesome, but Impractical: The first Judge Shred had a pair of little pincer arms on one end that could lift up and down, intending to grab other robots with them or possibly slice through their armour. They didn't work very well.
• Black Cap of Death: The team often dressed up as judges, and one time the captain put one of these caps on top of his wig in their pre-battle interview.
• The Bus Came Back: As with several other robots, it failed to qualify for Series 5 but returned the following series.
• Defiant to the End: Their first appearance in the Wars during Series 3 ended when X-Terminator shoved them into the open pit, but the robot's weapons (its pincers on one end and spike on the other) caught on the sides. Although the pit pyrotechnics went off and they were clearly eliminated, they tried to desperately climb out using their weapons, until the House Robots came in and Matilda applied her chainsaw to their armour.
• Oddly Named Sequel: Judge Shred 2 1/2.
• Ring Out: One of Judge Shred's few claims to fame is that it's the only robot to have been able to ring out an opponent (Corkscrew 2 in its Series 7 melee) while still registering a negative win/loss ratio.
• Sequel Number Snarl: Because the third entry was numbered "2 1/2" (despite being a completely different robot to Judge Shred 2), Judge Shred 3 was in fact the fourth in the series.
• Shout-Out: To Judge Dredd.
• Took a Level in Badass: As with Robochicken, a downplayed example; the Series 7 version was far superior to any of the team's previous robots and would have won its heat were it not for Mute getting in a lucky attack that caused it to break down in the heat final.

Ripper (Series 7 Heat Finalist, Series 7 Annihilator Runner-Up, Series 7 Featherweight Finalist as Rip)

Weapons: Rear-hinged flipper (Ripper and Rip), spinning disc (T-Bone and Neoteric)

Battle record: 5 wins, 2 losses as Ripper; 0 wins, 1 loss as T-Bone; 0 wins, 1 loss as Neoteric; 1 win, 1 loss as Rip

More than any other robot on this page (except maybe Ultor), Ripper is here less for its accomplishments on the show than for what it stands for. The flagship machine of Team Roaming Robots, Ripper may not have been a major player in the show's lifetime, but after Series 7 ended and the show was canceled, it was the Roaming Robots organisation who were the driving force behind the robot combat live scene in the UK, eventually acquiring the "Robot Wars" brand itself in 2013. They can claim a considerable amount of the credit for keeping the sport alive for more than a decade between Series 7 and the 2016 reboot, and are still doing so even after the show's return, now under the name Extreme Robots.

• Better to Die than Be Killed: Before the featherweight final, John Findlay was tipped off by the producers that the House Robots would be seeking revenge for Ripper's attacks in the main series. Given just how much damage they could do to a featherweight (as Mini-Maul and Micro-Mute brutally found out), he drove Rip down the pit at the earliest opportunity when Rip's motors started seizing up.
• The Big Guy: Ripper, because of its lightweight but sturdy construction, was comparatively large by competitor standards- its dimensions were 0.64m x 1.38m x 1.15m. Its internal mechanics were actually very compact, resulting in a large amount of empty space, so even if a weapon went clean through Ripper's armor, it had less chance of hitting something important.
• Blatant Lies: During Ripper's introduction, John Findlay claimed the flipper was interchangeable with an axe or spinning disc weapon, but he later admitted that he'd just made that up.
• Blown Across the Room: Despite being armed with a low-pressure flipper rather than the high-pressure ones that had been in vogue ever since Chaos 2, Ripper's flipper was still extremely powerful due to its sheer size and double ram action, relying on leverage rather than pure kick. It never quite managed to ring an opponent out, but it easily had the power to do so.
• Bullying a Dragon: The team had a lot of fun fighting against the House Robots during their Series 7 appearance. Unfortunately they paid for this when retaliation damage they took from Shunt and Killalot in the second round damaged their scoop, causing it to not sit flat on the ground and possibly costing them the heat final battle against Firestorm.
• The Collector: Non-villainous variant; as the biggest and most important organisation in the UK robot combat scene, Team Roaming Robots have, at some time or another, acquired ownership of many different robots created by other teams for use or display, including Pussycat, Stinger, S.M.I.D.S.Y, Mighty Mouse and Schumey Too.
• For Want Of A Nail: If Ripper hadn't gotten itself into trouble with the House Robots in the second round, they might have had a better chance at getting under Firestorm in the heat final.
• Fun with Acronyms: The team's second machine was R.I.P.P.E.R, which stood for "Rest In Pieces Pathetic Elderly Robots". They'd dropped this by the time Ripper actually appeared in Series 7.
• Mechanically Unusual Class: As stated under The Big Guy, Ripper went completely against the prevailing wisdom that a robot's chassis should hug the internals as tightly as possible, instead having tightly-packed internals inside a very large shell. This meant Ripper could theoretically take a huge amount of external damage while keeping its vital mechanics more or less intact.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Team Roaming Robots can be thanked for keeping robot combat, and even the "Robot Wars" name itself, alive in the UK after the show went off the air. Unfortunately, this has resulted in them being prohibited from entering the rebooted series of the show itself, as this would be considered a conflict of interest which would be "unfair" to the other competitors.
• One-Hit Kill: Ripper flipped Daisy Cutter (a full-body spinner which, like all full-body spinners, had no srimech) and left them for dead only 3 seconds into their second round battle, and spent the rest of the time picking a fight with the House Robots instead.
  • In the Annihilator, they took out Robochicken almost as fast (4 seconds).
• Small Role, Big Impact: Ripper only appeared twice on Robot Wars (once in its Series 7 heat and once in the Annihilator) and the team's other robots were even less notable, but Team Roaming Robots is still arguably THE most important team in UK combat robot history for the work they did keeping the live scene going in the years after Robot Wars went off the air.

Rebooted Series

These robots ended up falling short of reaching the Grand Final. Most of the robots to fall at this stage previously reached the Semi-Finals/ Grand Final, showing just how powerful the new competitors are.

Series 8 (2016)

Team Saint (Gabriel & Cherub)

This six-person team consists of members of the Colliass family, who have previously competed at robot combat live events. For both years, they entered with their two robots, Gabriel and Cherub and both reached the heat final. Gabriel II returned in Series 10.

Tropes that apply to the team:

• Badass Family: They reached the heat finals twice, while facing tough opposition.
• Light Is Good: The bots' white colour scheme reflects the team's desire to be one of the "good guys".
• Meaningful Name: Gabriel is named after one of the archangels from the Bible, while Cherub is also named for a type of angel, reflecting the team's desire to be "one of the good guys".
• Mechanically Unusual Class: Both of the team's robots. Gabriel is almost unique among torque-reaction axlebots in that the body can move independently of the wheels, so it can stand in one place and attack continuously, while Cherub is armed with a unique 360-rotating lifter.
• Shout-Out: Craig's costume has been compared to that of the father from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
• The Smart Guy: Craig, oh so very much. He's a member of MENSA and once built a robot (Cherub) for the sole purpose of doing handstands, which is a lot more difficult than it sounds.

Gabriel (Series 8 Heat Finalist)

The Archangel of robotics

"My robot is a lot different to most others in as much that it’s got really, really big wheels and an even bigger sword."

— Craig Colliass

Weapon: Interchangeable axes

Battle Record: 3 wins, 4 losses as Gabriel/Gabriel 2

• BFS: Though Gabriel has several interchangeable weapons, the one it uses most often (and the one pictured to the right) is a blood-red sword that's about five feet long.
• The Big Guy: Gabriel's wheels are the size of a washing machine. It's so big, other competitors can drive completely underneath it.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': The one battle where Gabriel dealt severe damage to an opponent was in its battle against Chompalot. The damage inflicted was so bad (compounded with severe damage dealt to it earlier) that Chompalot blew up and had to withdraw, so Pulsar^note who broke down and were eliminated in Round 1 was reinstated, and wiped the floor with its opponents, including Gabriel.
• Confusion Fu: Like Stinger before it, one of Gabriel's biggest strengths is that it's incredibly difficult to fight. The wheels just bend away from attacks, the body is too high up for most weapons to hit it (and is made of inch-thick plastic), you can't flip it, you can't push it, and all the while it's swinging away at you with its massive sword.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: A gangly thwackbot with plastic armour and ridiculously huge wheels, yet it reached the heat final and never lost by knockout. It then went on to win the 2016 FRA championship.
  • Gabriel further proves its Hidden Badass potential in Series 10, it survived a full 3 Minutes against Carbide and even destroyed one of its wheels at one point. It was so impressive they were met with a roar of applause from the other competitors on their way back to the pits.
• Irony: Despite their attempts to spare robots from undue damage, they inadvertently contributed to Chompalot bursting into flames, completely destroying them in a tearjerking fashion.
• Loophole Abuse: Ordinarily, torque-reaction thwackbots like Gabriel would be banned under the show's "moving weapons" rule. However, because Gabriel is able to move its body independently of its wheels, the sword thus classifies as a "moving weapon" and it's allowed in.
• Never Trust a Trailer: Some promotional material showed Gabriel fighting Behemoth, which could only happen if they both made the grand final, leading some fans to believe that they won their respective heats. In reality, they had simply both signed up for the exhibition matches filmed during the final to keep the audience entertained during the two-hour repair periods and were filmed while doing so.
• Nice Guy: They refused to attack Beast (and other robots) when they were immobilised. Indeed, the team actually fashion themselves as the "good guys" of the series, hence the robot being named after a Biblical saint.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Its main body is out of reach of most weaponry, and its design is such that it can't be flipped. Its thick plastic wheels simply bend whenever something hits them, with even powerful spinners such as Pulsar and Ironside 3 only managing to strip off the exterior traction pads.
  • Unfortunately, while it was just barely able to survive combat against the unbelievable power of Carbide (albeit at the cost of the wheels being almost completely wrecked) Gabriel 2 finally met its match in Aftershock, whose high-reaching vertical disc was able to hit the central body and deliver punishing hits, eventually knocking it out.

Cherub (Series 9 Heat Finalist)

Good things come in small packages!

Weapon: 360-Degree lifter

Battle Record: 3 wins, 2 losses as Cherub

"My Dad was a wimp last year, and I'm gonna make sure I don't make the same mistake as he did."

—Sarah Colliass

• Ace Pilot: Toby the driver went toe-to-toe with the extremely experienced Behemoth and PP3D teams and won.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Cherub's handstands. Fun to watch and quite the feat of engineering, but too slow to be of any use in an actual fight. In practice, Cherub was ultimately more or less a glorified shovebot carried to the heat final by durability and sheer driving skill.
• Badass Boast: Provided by team captain Sarah, above.
• Blown Across the Room: In its heat final against Eruption, Cherub was thrown a good 15-20 feet and clear over the arena wall with one flip. Also received one in its head-to-head fight against PP3D, which struck a massive blow that sent Cherub flying across the arena into the opposite wall, knocking a wall panel loose in the process.
• Born Lucky: Would have lost to PP3D had the fearsome spinner not knocked itself out with its final blow, and would almost certainly have lost to Behemoth if they hadn't equipped an experimental scoop that didn't work properly. They still might have lost after getting wedged under the floor flipper, but the judges restarted the fight and Cherub went on to win.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Downplayed, but their lifting arms looked to be entirely useless for attacking. They were just so good at driving that it didn't matter.
• The Cameo: Craig appears briefly during the team's introductory video.
• Dark Horse Victory: Despite looking like round 1 fodder, it defeated the experienced Behemoth in the head-to-head rounds when Behemoth underestimated Cherub, used an inefficient grabbing weapon and lost the subsequent judge's decision, while PP3D lost to Cherub when the latter spent part of the match shoving PP3D around until one almighty hit knocked them both out.
• Little Miss Badass: Team captain Sarah, especially during the rather striking image of her dual-welding power drills.
• Meaningful Name: Cherubs are usually depicted as children, and the team is almost entirely staffed by children.
• Mutual Kill: The final spectacular hit between Cherub and PP3D threw both robots across the arena and immobilized them simultaneously. Both robots were also crippled for their next fights: PP3D broke down against Behemoth in a spectacular shower of sparks, while Cherub failed to move at all and was thrown out of the arena by Eruption.
• Punched Across the Room: In Cherub's group battle against PP3D, the climactic blow sent Cherub spinning halfway across the arena and into the wall, with enough force to smash one of the wall panels off. And just for good measure, the same blow sent PP3D flying backwards into the opposite wall.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Craig couldn't join the team since he had already applied with Gabriel. The rebooted series didn't allow for the same team to enter two robots in one series, so the Series 9 members of Team Saint were forced to create a new team under the name "Team Cherub", in case Gabriel qualified with the original Team Saint for Series 9.
• Single-Stroke Battle: Cherub's heat final against Eruption was over in just five seconds, as Eruption got straight underneath, charged it towards the arena wall and threw it out.
• Took a Level in Badass: Went from a robot built to do handstands for its owner's amusement to a robot capable of reaching the heat final!