Hi Dave,

First, welcome to the forum! The people here are genuinely awesome so dont be afraid to ask questions. You would be amazed how many people come into the sport and want to build a Heavyweight straight off the bat. While i can understand why they would want to attempt this, i can tell you from experience that its no mean feit. The costs of building a Heavyweight are quite staggering, of course it depends on your parts and design but in general your looking at a couple of hundred pounds minimum, then factor in the costs of maintaining your machine (replacing armour/electronics, varied nuts and bolts etc) and you should soon understand why so many people give up mid-build. Then theres the practical aspect of it. Do you have enough time to build such a machine? Depending on the complexity of your build it could take you anywhere from a few weeks (if you work non-stop) up to several months and beyond. Do you have the space to build/keep one? Building robots takes up a lot of space, and then when your done you need to keep it and its various fittings/chargers somewhere. Finally theres the biggest problem, do you have the skill to build it? Even rambots are complicated to build/wire up, a newcomer would soon get lost amongst the intricate speed controllers and radio gear, a lot of time would be taken up buying/breaking inadequate components because you dont know what to do/how to do it, and if you factor any kind of specialist equipment (AKA Pneumatics etc) you would be fighting a uphill battle (almost vertical i would say)

If i were you i would build a featherweight. A lot has changed since Robot Wars, the featherweights are just as entertaining/action packed as the Heavyweights, for a fraction of the cost. They are cheap and simple plus they get more interest/varied competition/fights than the Heavyweights.

Just my 2 cents...
Jack