First testing bot up and running. It's ugly, be gentle!

[Ocracoke]

Hey there, welcome to the forum!

Whatever I build doesn't need to be quite that durable, as I doubt I'll ever enter a proper competitive robot combat event, (but I certainly won't rule out the possibility entirely going forward).

Never say never? I'd start off by going to a Robots Live! event with your machines. Both of them look as if they meet the regulations for fighting robots in terms of lights and removable links though do I spy 2 per robot?

it's constructed out of Sainsburys chopping boards, readily available and well, just a test bed of a bot! Worked out OK'ish as I made a few....adjustments here and there (it shows) and didn't break the bank if I wasted a board or 2 along the way.

Barróg, as far as I recall, did the same thing with using I think it was industrial chopping boards originally (correct me if I am wrong) so you'd be in good company there. That'd make your robots be out of LDPE I think which is not a bad material to start off with. Certainly looks stiffer than some of my creations at the moment. What are the wedges made out of? The same material?

I used cheap (45amp) HobbyKing RC car ESC's to power 2 drills each side, and another for the drill powered weapon, not the best but hell, they are not under stress and I can't fault them thus far. The bot zips along at a fair old pace!

One of my Beetleweight robots, The Honey Badger 4.0 uses them as well for its drive. Solid, if very basic, ESCs. What you may find though is that sort of ESC might not handle current spiking too well (from sustained load on the motor from heavy pushing for example). My first featherweight, also The Honey Badger (1.0) used similar variants of that type of controller and it was endlessly blowing them up. That possibly might be worth upgrading in the future?

As far as a first effort goes, between your two robots (including https://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/thr...-2wd-wedge-bot), they look really good so well done for building them. They both look solid, well bolted down and should serve you well as a platform for experimenting with.