Memoirs of a veteran roboteer

[team death]

In the summer of 2001 we arrive at the venue in nottingham for Robot Wars series 5.
We were due to meet Exterminator in round one and really had no fear.

Having learnt my lesson at the auditions in Sheffield I carefully drove Immortalis into the main arena....then a member of the crew whispered in my ear-can you place it in under the spotlight....after much shunting and twisting and turning
I managed to break the one wheel steering mechanism drat.
So smooth as silk Exterinator drove in and I was a sitting duck
Initially I was making throat cutting gestures to cancel the bout but within seconds I thought I wont get a second
so gave it a thumbs up to start.
Exterminator struck a nasty blow thru the roof of Immortalis which took out my bots right eye-my teamate let rip with the lifter and combined with thier spiked axe getting stuck -they were up ended.
Refbot seperated us but by this point immortalis could only drive forwards or backwards or in the direction the wheel was turned and exterinator-due to a bent front scoop could only go backwards-yes It was a non fight and shunt managed to obliterate the light up planter again-still good fun
Immortalis went on to play in the football in techno games under the name celestial terror.

[MrPK]

Dig never made another machine after sumpthing which he donated to the Ingenuity museum in Ironbridge back in about 2001 or 2002. They had it on display with a short write up explaining exactly what it was.
It sure was a fine looking piece of steam punk design. Still possibly my favorite design of all fighting machines - ahhh happy memories.

There is at least one machine that tried an hydraulic drive motor.
Seen that at the Newark Kit Car show in 2004. Used a single back wheel like Project One and armor like Mayor damage ,sawblades as a kind of Roman armor. I did believe it was a successor to Sumpthing. But I don't know for sure.

The original plans for Tough As Nails were based around hydraulic drives and weaponpower.

And of course, the chassis of Flextreme 2 has 2 hydraulic motors to power a set of tracks.

[team death]

Going back further in my Robotic history to 1998,a time when Road block was uk reigning Robot Wars champ
and I was attending my first robot audition with Piece de resistance.
We arrived at the warehouse somewhere in London and carried our robot inside, I recall around 20 tables set
out occupied by a dozen robots,in a adjoining room some robots were been put through thier paces on
a makeshift obsticle course.
Back in the first room the competitors were checking out the competition and my teamate told me
they refered to my bot as Outside Toilet Technology,which at the time annoyed me.. but then again
Outside Toilet Technology is reliable and a doddle to fix if it goes wrong.

Ok its my turn for the safety check and a go on the obsticle course,I recall pandomonium
was enjoying the obsticle course...mainly crashing into the walls and not showing great control while mine was examined by derek foxwell,I was advised to fit failsafes otherwise ok and good to go.
So althought it was sluggish 4mph it knocked down some barrels did a 180 turn and drove up and over a tipping bridge.
I remember road block soon followed my go and they looked far superior so I wasnt confident of getting
my call up papers but was delighted to be chosen.
I like to think that Piece de resistance influenced other roboteere in some way -even if it was
promote the idea-I can do better than that !

[joey_picus]

I enjoyed Piece de Resistance, partially for the reason you suggested but also because it's nice to see robots with some personality and thought put into decorating them - also it was the closest to my neck of the woods (at the time, Pontefract) so I was almost obligated to root for it!

I'm almost certain they made the barrels for the skittles lighter for the second time they did it...

[team death]

Thank's Joey
All the other competitors had an advantage of been able to free wheel and thus pick up speed,piece de resistance
had wheels fixed to wiper motors and had a constant slow speed,though if you see the crease my bot put in the barrel
I'm tempted to agree that the goal posts could have been changed.

[orac]

Hi,

I think that warehouse was in docklands and now part of the Excel arena.

I have a few old photos of the day

[team death]

In my opinion,the venue for the second wars was the best I ever attended,the set up was just perfect
from the lighting and the temperature to the atmosphere and the canteen on the floor above.
my robot was positioned just feet from the tech check and I got to see all the robots as they qued up to
go through the large stage door.
Behemoth was on a table behind and nepalm,vctor and the other robots in my group were on adjacent tables.

The order in which the teams ventured into the arena was not allways as broadcast on the television
and I thought the ones going first were at a disadvantage as you could learn by thier mistakes
as a small screen was displaying thier progress to the any roboteers who cared to watch and
for the gauntlet the distance was marked on a board.
My robot had a microwave oven chassis and fibreglass bodywork with a wiper motor from a mini on each corner
the yellow robot head concealled a Opel Manta wiper motor connected to a car jack and a snow shovel.
The car jack shovel weapon proved to be less than useless and only proceded to buckle the microwave frame
each time it operated .

[RogueTwoRobots]

Sentinel aside, Series 2 is probably my favourite one. The atmosphere and look was brilliant and it was still very much a game show rather than a straight up battle tournament. Great to hear more perspectives from those there at the time.

[supernova]

I was there for the series 2 filming with my 1st robot Oblivion think i was 17 at the time. Oblivion was made of plywood and chequer plate.

I remember going to the audition too, and that warehouse! was a lot of fun, things have changed a lot now.

Don't think Oblivion would last 5 secs against current robots.

[maddox10]

Most series 2 machines will have a hard time against a current high end feather.