Let's start a 'Bring Back Robot Wars!' Petition

A huge conversation over MSN with Andrew Jackson, Martijn M Benschop, and Martyn Forsyth, stuck this idea in my head, as they made some pretty good points about this. They gave me a crapload of knowledge of recent events at the FRA, so I think this is the right thing to do, since Ed Hoppit has left, and since XFM has seperated from the FRA.

BBC (mostly; Five just finished it off) killed off Robot Wars. How? Because they had put the show in the wrong time slots. It was good for the viewers, but really bad for Robot Wars itelf because other events were taking place at the time, and thus it was likely to get snuffed for golf, tennis, or other live events. Thus the show got moved all over the place, and through the confusion popularity decreased strongly. Such a decrease forced BBC to quit broadcasting Robot Wars, and thus it died. :sad:

Now Im sure you all know this already, but I just want you to know I do too, so you know what I plan to do. Even though I am from Canada and not England, I plan to start a petition with you guys on the BBC website, asking/begging/pleading (really demanding :proud:) them to bring back all seven series of Robot Wars onto their channel, in a slot where people will find time to watch it, but where it wont conflict with other live events. Doing this will result in boosted popularity, and might even get Mentron Inc. thinking about bringing the show back!

BBC made an error in putting Robot Wars in the wrong slots, and so it was their mistake, but theyre not too keen on puttng the show back on. Thats not good enough! We have to make BBC see that Robot Wars is one of the greatest shows ever! There are still thousands of people, even on YouTube, EVERYWHERE, who miss the series!

And about the petition: this may have been done before, but with few successes. There was actually one I signed myself, but it only got over a hundred signatures, not nearly enough to bring our beloved series back on the air. :sad: So Im going to take it (mostly) into my own hands this time, but I want lots of people, LOTS, to help me with this. Im going to try and get as many people to sign as I can, so Ill be doing my part. Im quite serious about this.

Just think, if this works and Robot Wars is brought back and gets enough airtime, there may even be funds to help build a proper and safe arena for those awesome heavyweight spinners! :)

But seriously, I want to hear what you guys think of this. Im expecting a lot of criticism, but thats okay. You may call me crazy, you may say Im fighting for a lost cause (right! :proud:), but still thats okay. I want my voice to be heard, because I have been a fan of Robot Wars since early 2001, when I first watched the show. The love that I have for the show will never die, and I think there are quite a few people lik me out there who just as badly want this show back. Thats why Im proposing this petition, not just for me, but to those eager fans of the sport!

And AJ, Martijn, and Martyn, please post here if you can. :proud:

Come on, everybody, tell me what you think! :)

I hate to say it but I think we are better off without Robot Wars.

I would much prefer to see a large live event sponsored by a large engineering firm or similar.

Robot Wars was in essance a complete farce, done entirely for Tv ratings. One of the main reasons the FRA was setup as far as I know, to make sure that the roboteers dont get a bum rap if the TV show ever returned.

Just my 2 cents whilst having had one too many beers and just about to head to bed.

i would like to see it back, even though it was done purely for ratings, it would help continue the sport. i would sign the petition, i think their is still money/ratings to be made from it for the bbc, which is what they are after. what i forget now is how long ago it was originally on, my daughter is 9 and did a talk in class about her hobby but all her friends ask whats robot wars? and never heard of it, which is surprising. so i think their is a new audiance it would appeal to all over again.

what someone needs to do is build a simple, cheap,safe fighting robot kit, take it to dragons den, get some backing/funding, get it in the shops near xmas, make lots of money, which will also promote the sport, everything else will follow. simple :lol:

I agree with Five contributing to the demise of Robot Wars with its pathetic alternating timeslot (its on Saturday - no wait, now its on Sunday - 8pm - oh hang on , this week its at 4.25pm) That annoyed the hell out of me. And yes, towards the end of its reign on BBC, it was constantly getting substituted for golf, tennis and everything else in that genre but before that I felt the Friday teatime slot was quite nice.

Maybe its due to the fact that from February 1998 until its demise, my teatime telly consisted of The Simpsons, then Robot Wars (then more Simpsons on Sky One :)) and, knowing that I didnt have school the next day, could go up to my room and play Robot Wars all night with lego, Knex and any other piece of crap that my imagination turned into a robot. It makes me partial to the Friday teatime slot that BBC first gave to it.

But more than anything and, as much as saying this feels almost sac-religious, I believe the demise of Robot Wars was more down to the unchanged format of the show, which I deem to have gone stale after Series Five-ish.

By that point the format was battle after battle after battle since Series 3, with events such as pinball and sumo reserved for time-filling sideshows. Not many people agree with me when I say this but I enjoyed the format of the older series, where roboteers had to prove they can drive first and then have some fun in games before the serious carnage kicked in. With the constant battles format, technology advanced so rapidly that by the time Series Seven came around, anything that wasnt a spinner or a powerful crusher couldnt really cause damage. Yes, there were still plenty of flippers around but they ocasionally led to very quick fights, barely giving you time to get into the rhythm of the match before it was over. There were planty of rammers left but any rammer built since the appearance of Storm 2 which didnt boast as much speed and power as Storm 2 all of a sudden moved like a snail and punched like a pillow (no offence to flipper owners or post-Storm 2 rammers)

I agree with Gary when he says were better off without Robot Wars - consign it to the glory years it had. By all means rerun the previous series and generate interest in it that the youth of today have not yet been able to experience (unless theyve been to a live event) but the downside to the regenerated interest is that it wouldnt benefit the current crop of roboteers much as all the money would go to the TV company/broadcaster and wed still be limited to non-spinner capable arenas (no disrespect meant here to the live event organisers - I appreciate all the work you do and understand that the extreme costs of building and maintaining an arena to contain heavyweight spinners make it currently unviable)

Roaming Robot and Robots Live have proved with their numerous sell-out shows in 2007 that robot combat is still incredibly popular. Even though their shows are similar to Robot Wars in terms of format, its still more enjoyable to watch these beasts fighting through a polycarbonate protective screen rather than a TV screen.

While I do enjoy seeing an old episode of Robot Wars on Sky One occasionally (we dont have Challenge or Sci-Fi or whatever channel has the freqent repeats of RW) or several battle clips on Youtube, I think its as good as dead on TV for the forseeable future. Maybe after a while, and with a new format (different terrains and landscapes, a bit like the RW game) robot combat could be on our screens again but until then, and in perfect honestly, I doubt well be seeing a new series of Robot Wars on our TVs, petition or no petition.


Jeez, that was a big post :)

(Message edited by K_C_R on January 09, 2008)

Thank you for your input Gary, Adrian, and Jamie. Anybody else have 2 cents to share? :)

got to agree with jamie and gary i am afraid.

i would love to go on robot wars as i never had the chance to and i would sign the petition but i think the fact that battlebots and robot wars were killed off in america aswell says something but i think robot wars should come back on tv but we need to find the right agreement with a tv company first (they pay for a new spinner arena)

I would sign the petition, but if anything like robotwars was to come back i would hope it would have a more hardcore and technical view to it, rather than all pretty colours aimed at young children. That way i believe would be more interesting to watch, and atleast be a little different.

That was one thing that really annoyed me about robot wars actually. We did a good few minutes talking about the various different parts of the typhoon 2 chassis, how things worked, what they were made from etc. None of that interview went into the final show.

Scrapheap challenge style diagrams would have made that show.

exactly, just needed a little more of a technical side

Heres an idea that Geoff and I have often talked about - Robot Wars Uncut :blush:

This is getting very interesting...Robot Wars Uncut? :uhoh:

how uncut.....i hope this doesnt go into the social side of things

adrian i thought that an events organiser could go on dragons den and ask for a new arena and money to put it on TV, with even getting on the show 10000s of people would be interested and google it after the show - i no iv done that for a few of the ideas

the robot building 1 , well theres loads of kits out in shops but i guess the Rampaging Chariots kit could be sold in shops - wouldnt be cheap tho but im sure cheaper kits should be made

(Message edited by john on January 09, 2008)

if swanny is involved, id rather see robot wars half-cut :)
Mobility scooter anyone?

Its the kind of show that would be on Bravo. I know that were back to satellite/cable tv again but they have the kind of schedule that would suit what I mean.

i was thinking about dave

hang on a sec i was thinking about the channel dave not dave mac, weston, moulds, lang or any other dave. pheeeew

Does Dave show Badly dubbed prawn?
NB deliberate mispelling to avoid admin edit but you know what I mean :wink:

porn :)

:crazy: but Ill stay standing if you dont mind

I think it would be better if the robot community produced good quality video of the fights we already have from Roaming Robots and Robots Live and others, this could then be edited into show clips and sold to broadcasters to compile there own show or they could be used to produce good videos to sell to the public at events. We already have the shows we just need to film them to TV broadcast standard, this is getting more viable with the cost of broadcasting quality equipment coming down in price, you could add before, during and after, interviews with robot crews, tech talks, how to built a robot etc. what do you think?

:)

That is actually a pretty good idea, Craig. :)

Now Im having second thoughts about going forward with the petition. It seems that many of you are content without Robot Wars returning. I can easily understand that, though I really just wanted to bring the show back for other people, not just for myself.

craig, im sorry but my opinion is you need alot of money to get a good enough standard to get any slight interest. if it happens as you hope it would, i will eat my robot. lol
are we missing a point here? what got alot of us into the sport we love today?

watching robot wars, yet no one wants it back :sad:

(Message edited by ady on January 09, 2008)

craig i like your idea - theres so much rubbish on TV atm im sure one of the 1000s of tv channels would show some stuff - and im sure if episodes were created by members of this community then i guess they would be more interested as they would get to see what the quality is like and if its any good and would be sold cheap (well cheaper then £1 million an episode sky paid for Lost - even though thats a great series)

Just scanned through and saw Dave and Porn, sweet.

Yeah bring back robotwars so i can win a competition and get some money lol

Found this on the net

Canon XL1 (PAL) Vidcam Package. Top of the range digital video camera from Canon. As used by BBC and CNN. Broadcast image quality. Good condition. Charger, battery and instruction manual included as standard. Original cost £2500.



its a lot but not mega costly! i found a second hand unit on Ebay for £650:)

you can rent the best cameras from some places - dno where though but iv seen them on the net - so this would be alot cheaper but over the long run buying would be better but no one knows how long were going to be doing this for

or someone could set up a business filming events

could make a few bob off that

Here is a question that no one has brought up. Why do we need Television at all?

The internet, the very tool we are using to communicate is a far more powerful medium. It has turned complete nobodies into overnight superstars viewed by millions.

Yes buy a camera and create robot wars as it was meant to be created. Then why not release it on the internet?

It does take a small miracle for something to become big on the net granted, but if we could prove that there was a market for it then tv shows would be knocking down our doors to film events etc. We would be in the driving seats.

O and John, i guess the Rampaging Chariots kit could be sold in shops. The rampaging chariot kit is not designed to be sold in shops. I cant see it ever being sold to make profit. That was not the reason the project was first put together. It is a project of a completely different nature.

(Message edited by typhoon_driver on January 10, 2008)

Gary, didnt Battlebots already do that in 1999?

Mind you saying that, they did get a Television series!

Well if you want to do a internet series to attract a large audience, you would need a camera system inside the arena, because most fights have to be filmed through the polycarb and that is not always the best picture quality. Mind you there have been fights that i was amazed of the quality even though it was filmed with scratched lexan and bad lighting, but still for a larger audience it needs to be that much better.

And post production is also very important. Video editing, sound, credits, interviews. Its a lot of work of you want to do it right. Even for a internet series. It would be fun though.

my brother is into this filming lark, not on the large scale your on about im sure if this idea was put into action then he would be there to help

I will be brining a high quality TV camera to robots live Leicster. But it is difficult to get a decent picture with the lighting. Also all the robot wars cameras where actually in the arena on robot was and I am not prepaired to put a loaned University camera in there. :)

Hi All, I have the full set of VHS tapes of series 7 if anybody out there wants them. I shall be at Leicester on the 2nd and 3rd February and if nobody shows interest Ill bin them.

Glyn, I am interested in em but wont be at leicester.

OK Gary at least you may have won it by default but at least you won it! Ill keep them for you and let me know where you are going then I can bring them.

next event i will be at will be the robochallenge one in may.

If you dont fancy keeping them till then I would be happy to give you something to post them.

quote:

most fights have to be filmed through the polycarb and that is not always the best picture quality

Very true Leo, although reviewing footage of the Robochallenge Thinktank event, it was also filmed through polycarb but was almost crystal clear quality (some of us forgot halfway through watching the footage that it was indeed coming from the other side of the polycarb). Combined with the lighting show they had in the arena it made for a very colourful and clear video.

Certainly something which has potential, this internet broadcast option

Hello all.

Jamie has just brought this thread to my attention as he has been aware of what Im about to say for some time now.

Ive been planning a video on demand internet TV network for a while now, theres still a lot more to do before its launched. I have all sorts of programming planned from cookery, to technology to DIY etc. Now me and Jamie were talking about this a while back. I wanted to recreate a robot wars as it was one of my favorite TV programs and I know theres a whole bunch of people that would want it back.

One of the major problems with internet TV is bandwidth. It isnt a small task, you dont just go to a web host and start renting space on a server, you outgrow it far to quickly. Im even having custom scripts and software written for distribution of files from multiple servers. So theres expense there as well. Anyway this is drifting off topic, my point is that sharing large files (such as video) can get very expensive very quickly. You need to go about it in the right way (by going direct to the major networks for transit like youtube, rapidshare, google as well as many smaller sites do) saying that though youtubes bandwidth bill is still millions of $.

Nothing is ever free. However viewers wont be paying... Funding is provided via sponsors (just like every other channel out there (besides the bbc) However sponsors will be related to the program that they are sponsoring, for example a program on robot wars isnt going to be sponsored by say, pot noodle, it would be something like a robotics/model shop, tool manufactures /shops etc.

The reason Im saying all this is: Id be more then happy to get involved in this. So if anybody wants to discuss this further, then feel free.

Im also interested to hear what any event organizers views are on this too.

Cheers
Danny