Hobbyweights anyone?

[fwsorg]

Weve been here before with ants and fleas. If theres sufficient interest, and there seems to be, there shouldnt be too much of a problem. Certainly accross the pond they have a very happy balance between 30lbs and 12lbers, and most smaller weight class team have both types of bot. Equally, they have a plethora of small weight class events which seem to work. Im willing to give it a try- its not so much a new weight class for the sake of it as filling a bit of a hole.

I will be willing to give it a try possibly the forum admin could make a thread on the main page for all new weight classes eg.hobby,light and fleaweights?

[fwsorg]

I think were more after an initial show of hands to see if anyones interested. Theres no harm in asking :-)

i dont like the name hobbyweights sounds iffy.

Mr Stu I only put that name down as thats what the weight class is called in the US I am sure that it could be changed for over here.

Regards
Ian

[geoff]

Sorry Guys,
I think Im going to have to side with Ed on this one.
Remember that the US has a MUCH higher population then the UK. So proportionaly there are far more roboteers and events, thus the scope for more weight classes.
My team for example has a heavy & feather but we certainly dont have the time to construct, maintain and fight an ant, light or middle let alone a super ant, hobby, kilo or whatever other weight.
I think it would definatly dilute and fragment our sport/hobby if these new weight classes were introduced, let alone the problems of trying to arrange a one or even two day event to cover all the existing PLUS these new classes.
My two pennies anyway.
Geoff.

If you think about the way events are run in Britan at the moment, heavies are the main attraction, featherweights are mostly used to fill in (although they are getting more recognised) and antweights sometimes have to do their fighting at lunchtime when there are no spectators at all. If we add more weight classes they will start fighting for arena time/frequencies and things may go sour.

Just my humble (drunken) opinion

Joe Townsend

Well ants really dont get treated well at most events and it is true that feathers are sometimes a fill in but I dont think you can stop anyone building a machine to a 5kg or 6kg weight limit. It might not be officially recognised but then ants were not officially recognised until series 3 or 4 but they began to be built long before then. I am going to build one regardless (everything is on the workbench and the technobots order for more polycarb is soon to be sent). If i have nobody else to fight well then thats life if I do then great!

Also there are alot of weight classes around antweights but antweights have still not lost many members to otehr simular weight classes. E.g. I currently have a flea and ant and a superant.

This may not become an official class but then just because its not official does not mean people cant or wont build them.

Regards
Ian

[stu]

Who said you cant build them. Build a 300kg robot if you like, just there isnt a weight class for it to fight at a live event. Ian just chill a bit for god sake before you hurt ya self. Im sure live events will accomadate for a weight class to have arena time if there are a lot of them. But sadly most events are having to turn into a crowd pleaseing role, even more so now Robot Wars is no longer on Channel 5 of BBC2. To keep the public in the eye, shows have to use big robots. The crowd and JUST be pleased with a load of Feather Weights in the arena at once. Soon as 2 feathers enter the arena in front of a big crowd, it becomes BORING! And thats coming from a kid who was involved with Feathers from day one! No one has said you cant build a 5kg robot, and no one ever will.

Mr Stu

[geoff]

Hey, far be it for me to stop anyone bulding anything. I was only trying to point out the potential problems if these weights were to be made official. The only thing I would ask is whatever you build, please build and fight it safely. Im quite sure that some of the existing FRA saftey guidelines can be addapted for these new weights.
Good luck,
Geoff

We all knew thats what you meant Geoff, dont worry mate. And im sure Ian and others will try and adopt the FRA rules. Already ian has shown hes going to try and add a power light to his robot.

Mr Stu