Team G.A.R

Hey Guys,

So ive seen a lot of people making update pages and build threads, which are often an interesting read, and for a while thought about doing my own. Ill admit with the way I am its not my kinda thing, but that’s another reason I want to try and do it because its challenging myself. After the champs with my robots in the state they are I think it’s the best time to do one.

So with this first post I thought to do a general status page, then go on from there.

Team Name: Team G.A.R

It literally stands for “Gareth Anstee Robotics”

Team Colours: Black, Red, Blue and White – Custom police design

It's about following the rules society thinks is correct. And how society enforces their own rules upon those who don't want to follow them.

This is what the police colours represent, the enforcement of society's rules upon those who don't wish to follow them. Even if society is often not correct, through political correctness they try to enforce an environment which if allowed to exist unquestionably would form a Utopia/Dystopia depending on weather you agree with society or not.

As said, this can be a Dystopia or Utopia depending on your position within society. And Defector represents the free will of those who choose their own path, as those who wish to not conform are effectively Defectors.

Robots: (Brackets are planned robots)

Heavyweights: Dystopia
Featherweights: Defector Mk2, Utopia Mk2
Beetleweights: (489)
Antweights: (DystopiAnt)

Dystopia: Active, currently need rewiring,

Old Ripper which won the 2011 UK championships. Very unique shape amongst Flippers, with a full pressure scoop and strong drive.

I bought it in 2013 and have been fighting with it ever since. As of 2014 id never been out of round 1 of a competition unfortunately due to different problems every time. Dystopia can be very maintenance intensive at times, though throughout 2014 I managed to attend every Robot Wars event and enter the arena in all bar Maidstone despite the problems.

On a positive note, ive had several wins and many OOTAs with Dystopia. Hopefully once I get it reliable I can actually achieve some serious results with it.

Best fight was the last fight of 2013, tag team with Manta vs Eruption and Ripper. Got very close to an OOTA against Ripper, but managed to pin it against the wall long enough for Manta to finish him off. Then got an OOTA on Eruption before pitting Manta. Felt like I was really starting to come on at that point. Another highlight is the first time I faced Ripper – and won. The cheer that came up is a very good memory.

Upgrade plan for 2015 is a new power system, and a complete replacement of the wiring loom within Dystopia. Its been made into a modern robot hopefully with LiFePo4 replacing the Ni-Cds that was in before, and new wires to simplify and hopefully fix all the connections within the robot which have been coming loose over the years.

Defector: Active, needs complete rebuild.

Old Hannibalito 4. Unique amongst featherweight flippers being fully invertible. Very fast with a highly powerful flipper, second only to Flow.

I bought this in 2014 with an eye on the UK Championships. Id actually been watching some Flow testing videos and became interested in an overly powerful flipper. Hannibalito 4 then looked perfect, as it was very unique with its invertible drive and had a powerful flipper to match. I also liked the sheer size of it compared to many feathers.

Entered into the 2014 UK champs having got it working just in time. Had no flipper for the first day as I found a problem with the Supply bottle which was then fixed.

Managed to just scrape through round 1, then lucked my way through to round 4 after fighting Galactus and Satanix. 720 caused massive damage but his drive soon failed and thus I was in to the quarterfinals. Lost instantly vs Beauty 8, but managed to take a dominant victory in the losers melee. Luck didn’t faver me as I drew Beauty 8 again but this time nearly defeated it, abit of bad luck meant when I flipped it, I actually broke straight through its armor and inverted myself – wasn’t able to escape in time before being OOTAd. 3rd place playoff was a fight to far against Rango, baseplate fell off after nearly getting an OOTA twice – though at least I could now put the No.4 back on the machine.

Entered again into the 2015 UK champs, with a lot of improvements to address the problems, which came up the year before. New motors, new armour, new motor mounts, and a more secure baseplate with an Armox blade.

Unfortunately it had one of the toughest draws possible. 722 damaged a wheel, and in its fight against Decimator the armor was near totally destroyed on one side. The electronics also took a hit, and required a lot of repairs and spares form Utopia in order to continue – promptly knocking out DCH as Binky had also been Decimated, before a good tussle with Tormenta 3 but ended up being stacked against the wall (twice) and was out.

Fought in the annihilator and got an OOTA on its way to the final. However with the damage already sustained, NST was a death wish, which was then granted. The Battery in the end got a direct hit, along with the internals being smashed for good measure. It had been near totally destroyed and the chassis was to be written off – but it still entirely worked and a lot will be reused for next year.

Utopia: Active, Whiteboard only

Bought Rip Evo because of its Dystopia roots at the end of 2013. It was then very quickly destroyed in the 2014 UK champs however the internals managed to remain completely intact.

The shell was then rebuilt with the scoop and internals of the old Utopia to make a robot more closely resembling Dystopia. Became whiteboard only and has had a few teething issues which I aim to solve in the near future.

489: Planned

Planned Beetleweight Rambot, built to the original design of my first feather. Was going to build it with Ranglebox after the World champs, however with Defectors condition that may be delayed

DystopiAnt: Planned

Planned Antweight version of Dystopia I have a chassis for. Lack of interest due to the demands of entering another weight class that has dedicated events atm. Got to many projects ongoing before I finish this off.

So from here on ill try and update this page with my latest going ons. Don’t know how often ill be posting but I think its about time that I try to do this as im now trying to take all robot building and repairs effectively in house, only asking people to do minor things for me which I cant do (welding, so on) rather than just getting my entire robots repaired.

Dystopia is already waiting for me to work on it in Team Hell workshop. Defector will soon be CAD ed up and ill see what I can do about it. Meanwhile I have a few minor upgrades planned for Utopia.