2009 reviews anyone?

Well, as we know, 2009 is drawing to a close. I think a thread showing reviews has been deserved to it because for me, it has been one of the best. What did everyone think it went for them?

And I will of course start:
2009 for me was full of up and downs so I'll start off with the downs - It didn't start well when my great grandad was in hospital where he didn't have long to live and died anyway, but whilst it was all going on, I had recieved an update from one of my friends in the scouts who died because of cancer. I've had a bad year for my eppilepsy also, I had 5 seizures in total which is more than any year for me since I first had it, I had 1 seizure on a camp in Switzerland, 2 at college, 1 when working with my uncle and the last one I had at home a few days ago. I've also worked on a farm where not everything was done by me correctly and I also lost my great auntie this year too.

And now for the ups :) 2009 has been the best year for me for going to robot events where I have met famous robots like Mortis, Wheely Big Cheese & Razer for the first time. I also really enjoyed going back to Basel, Switzerland in easter as I stayed there with my class at school 3 years ago and enjoyed it but I had an injury the last time, so I went back to reconcile with my host family and the 2 girls I had staying in my home from the Swiss class. I went to Switzerland again this time with the scouts and had a good time despite my mishap as mensioned in the downs. Also joining Team Bud at Wigan winning the Best Improved Robot Award and Best Event of the year award, getting to see the crowning of the FW & HW UK Champion of this year which is a very rare thing to do for me and getting a phonecall from Jonno on Xmas Day telling me I had a Battle Rat, new Speedo and Transmitter on their ways (Still waiting for them :(). But my best moment had to of course be, my 18th having Jonno, Swanny & Jamie from Team Terminal Damage over with some robots in one of my local towns which was really a night to remember not forgetting all my friends and relatives who came to it as well :)

Well, Beat that!

Liam

2009 started out great for me, bin to some some fun events, got a job after i left college- mabye not the job i wanted to get but its slowly starting to grow on me. met some old school mates again a few months ago who i hadnt seen for like 2 years. etc

but sadly wont be ending on a high, as my grandad passed away at around 11 last night in hospital at the grand old age of 81 bit surprising as i went to visit him christmas day with my dad and he seemed his old self, but ended up taking a turn for the worse a few days ago, so unfortunatly 2010 wont be on the best start as ill be going to his funeral sometime next week, but will be a good time to reflect on the great life he lead and to say our fair-wells.

fingers crossed for a good 2010 not only at home etc but at events and for the organisers.

thats it, i wont be typing anything on here untill next year now :proud:

cya on the other side

Sorry to hear that Calum, and Liam for the loss of your relatives and friend :(
I'm in the same boat; finding it not too easy to get excited about the new year at the moment as I lost my uncle to cancer at 11am yesterday. It was him being diagnosed with it that encouraged me to do the abseil back in October (which reminds me, I need to upload a vid of that).
I was going to say that 2010 will start on a bit of a low as we have his funeral next week too but your statement about it being a chance to remember the good times in their life rings entirely true for me too. Sad though it will be, it will be a time for celebrating his life and remembering him as we move on to the future.

So, a review of the year:
It's been a pretty good year for the team, making it to three events over the course of the twelve months. Started off in January getting Drumroll ready with a new drum and weapon motors, and also getting Kaizer built for Rebel Robots in February. Although neither bot progressed far in that competition it was good getting Drumroll's weapon to an effective level and to have another robot running. Onwards to Robo Challenge in March at the Centre for Life for the featherweight championships. An absolute blast of an event, the best I've ever been to I have to say. Met some great people there for the first time such as Liam and Dave L, and just thoroughly enjoyed myself. Drumroll did really well coming 4th but Kaizer got pretty beaten up. Oh well....

Through the summer I started working on getting the bots ready for the tag team champs in September while also partaking in my annual summer hobby of exam resits! Kaizer fell by the wayside but the event saw the birth of Carcinus for my dad to drive while I toyed with brushless setups for Drumroll. Went to the event, had great fun with the tag champs and power tool drag racing, although didn't do particularly well in either. A week later I was across in Edinburgh for Liam's brithday party which was great relaxed fun, was nice to see an old veteran for the TV show (Mortis) as well as seeing Major Damage in the flesh for the first time. Great fun was had by all and I loved the Battle Ratz :D

And with that, 2009 came to an end in robot combat terms. Both bots have been relatively untouched since then. So what does the upcoming year hold? Well depending on what I do after uni, it could be my last year competing for a while :(
I'm probably just gonna fly solo with the robots (although my dad will probably still come along to share driving/learn to drive robots) as I won't have the time or money to keep another robot on the go for George to drive, plus it's getting more difficult to co-ordinate when he can get time off for competitions. Drumroll II is all designed in my head but may take a while to make it into the flesh, so whatever events I go to in 2010 will probably just be with the current version (maybe on A123s).
I would like to make it to as many events as I can afford, as the best part of them is getting to meet up with you lot of wonderful people and admiring your latest creations.

I wish you all the best for the New Year and will see ya out there.
Catch you next year :)

I have to add my condolences to Liam and Calum and Jamie, and also anyone else who may have lost a relative or friend this year :( my thoughts are with you all.

My year...well, it's been very strange :P it started with me still living in Kuwait and struggling with a decent featherweight design (and being in the same country as my bits in order to build it) and has ended with me back in England for good, there was a period in late January/early February that basically changed the course of my life in the next couple of years and resulted in me attending sixth form back in Pontefract, and more importantly meant I put some gearmotors and other parts I'd been donated/bought/begged/stolen to good use over the summer, produced my first antweight, and since then I've attended every event I can and met an awful lot of people I've only previously known from the forums, as well as got better at building robots and actually managed to impress Shane among others with the latest Jigsaw, which surprised me an awful lot to be honest XD

It's overall been a really good year, I've got my education on somewhat more of a track than it was before, I've made some very good friends (bringing my all time close friends total to 4! :P) and most importantly fulfilled part of a great childhood dream to get involved with Robot Wars and combat robotics :proud:

Here's hoping you all have a great 2010 too (mine will be spent getting my featherweight off the ground :P) and a Happy New Year to one and all!

hahaha where to start? :lol:

first off, my condolences to anyone whos lost loved ones, i know exactly how you feel, hard to belive that its been a year since me gran died :cry:

well, iv attended a lot more events this year, and even begun hosting my own (which people enjoy apparently :P) rfrc's are growing in number, the 3rd will be next yea...sorry this year :P (wrote this up on word earlier) and i even got to host a antweight word seires :)

as far as he robots go they have improved dramaticly (with the obvious exeption of aws 30 lol) the ants have grown on me all over again after my period of bordom last year :) valliant has taken out some tough spinners, and dead meat has changed beyond recognition! (wait till you see what we have next ;)) the feathers are coming along and i now have 2 heavys :o orrion and mythras

my fav moment of 2010 was when we (orrion) trashed puck :) funnyest moment was when we looked at the puck and the commentator came over (on mic) and said, you took quite a pounding, how do you feel? we said no we were the ones who did the damage :P got a laugh...wost moment was ending this great year...oh wait wev got anougher one now!!!

jack

happy new year!

jack

well, i finished 6 form which was good as i now dont have to listen to all the teachers moan at me, some drunken idiot ran in front of my car costing me a fortune to fix it! went on me 1st lads holiday to magaluf, turned 18 so i now dont have to use other ppls ids! :) started uni in leeds which is unreal and got a tesco transfer to leeds which has saved me 1000s lol

2010 isnt going to start well as i have 3 exams in the next 2 weeks and the 1st being on monday!! but back to living the life after that!

o and robot terms, beautys still ruling the featherweights with beauty 2 winning the uk champs and beauty 4 winning the tag team champs - so beauty 2 has been on top for the past 3 years and prob will be for another year :) dave moulds is trying very hard to stop this though!! and beast after the upgrade will be top of the heavys!

need a new flashy website though :/ got me website ideas ready incase we get back on tv in 2010 which will make me some dolla but prob wont happen lol

Suddenly getting dumped at 3am last night doesn't seem so bad in comparison. Condolences on your loses guys.

2009 has been an interesting year certainly. I brought in the new year last year with a few weeks of study left to go in Prague and in some ways I wished I had stayed there for the full academic year. I had to come back to sort out various bits and pieces.

Had a bought of depression during my second semester at uni. I'd just like to say thanks to all you here because random chats on msn and various stupid things at robot events certainly helped me get through it.

I got to travel to the US again and work on a summer camp. One of the most stressful and tiring summers I've ever had but one of the most rewarding. I would highly recommend anyone heading to uni or college to look at doing it over your summers. Travelled down to Miami and Key West and met various interesting people along the way. Those experiences aren't going to leave me soon.

My 4th year at uni started and the first semester has worked me ragged. My disertation project for the year is to design and build a 3 axis CNC frame for use with both a plasma cutter and MIG welder. It has certainly been an interesting project and I might well start a thread about all I have done and learned in the build thread section in case anyone is thinking of doing something similar.

2010.....A decade ago I wasn't in the air cadets, hadn't had a proper job, hadn't built a robot or appeared on robot wars, hadn't travelled the world.....the list goes on. I just hope the next decade is filled with as many interesting experiences.

Had a relative pass away, currently have another in hospital, spent new years eve waiting on news..seems to be going ok though.

Had an ex team mate pass away.

Lost my job at LDV due to the recession...which led to me getting a better one with alot more prospects at a much better company.. still had to sell my williams clio because of it though :(

Proved to people who said it carnt be done that brushless technology will work in a robot.

Came 4th at power tool drag racing, loosing only to ian lewis by 0.001 seconds.

Won best engineered robot of the year.

Dumped one girlfriend, got another,

Turned 21.

2010 will be alot better... will be slicing through hardox and i'll get myself an even faster car :proud:

2009 seems to be a year when folks have lost a lot of people close to them, my condolences to all above.

As Dave said Lisa's death in October was a huge shock to us, and it has been hard to find motivation since for either my running or robots. But Ive got a place to run the London Marathon again in 2010 and Ive got my plans for improving DB5 and Apocalypse.

DB5 had another good year by its own standards surviving 360 and the numerous flippers and little hitter many times, its age is starting to show now nearly 200 fights in 3 years (thats 9 hours not counting time spent in the pit!).

Apocalypse had a mixed year. The improvements from the previous version have been good but the weapon is not as effective as before. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.

Overall I didn't get to many RR events which is a shame as they are very much less stressful than RL events for me. Didn't make it to the drag event either hopefully I will in 2010. Hopefully this year we can all continue to pull together which I have seen start to happen this year. Happy New Year everyone.