Does Anyone Else Remember Robot Wars?

Does Anyone Else Remember Robot Wars?

I remember Robot Wars. I remember the anticipation and excitement of sitting down to watch the show, waiting for the sheer destruction to begin. In fact I loved Robot Wars so much I not only had the toys, but I made replicas of the robots you couldn’t buy toys for. My mum decided to throw them away but fortunately I managed to salvage the one shown below. You may be wondering what happened to this great show. All will be revealed.

 

Firstly let’s talk about what made Robot Wars so great in the first place. I like to think watching Robot Wars bought similar thrills to watching gladiators. It’s a very similar concept, just instead of watching people die, you watch their hard work get smashed to pieces. Destruction was the name of this game.

 

When you compare Robot Wars to television shows now days there’s one crucial thing missing that Robot Wars provided in abundance. Excitement. No one can possibly claim that watching people with no talent singing on a stage is more exciting than an intense battle between 2 fighting Robots. Everyone enjoys watching stuff get smashed up and watching the all-powerful house robots demolish anything that came too close was incredibly satisfying.

 

There was also a lot of innovation and creativity in Robot Wars. The weaponry evolved, far beyond what was seen in the first series. We had monstrosities such as Hypno Disc and Razor that would completely demolish some of their opponents beyond repair. You couldn’t stand still in Robot Wars, former champions such as Panic Attack and even the only 2 time winner Chaos 2 were completely overpowered in later series. However so many robots would be rebuilt and come back stronger and better or improvements would be made. A great example of this involves the aforementioned Hypno Disc.

 

A personal favourite of mine, its fly wheel weapon was savage but perhaps the greatest display of its savagery was against a robot called splinter. Poor splinter never knew what hit it as it was torn to shreds. Below is a picture of what it looked like before the battle and then what it looked like after a few minutes in the arena with Hypno Disc. The team behind splinter did not give up though, they rebuilt it to be stronger and better, it actually fought Hypno Disc again and stood up to its ferocious onslaught.

 

This is just one example of the creativity of the teams behind the robots. There were so many Iconic moments, so many iconic robots, most iconic of all being the dreaded Sir Killalot. But even the mighty House Robots were taken on at times, even defeated. Even the mighty Sir Killalot, described in his description in the show as virtually indestructible once caught fire. The shows unpredictable nature made it entertaining, you were always on the edge of your seat.

 



The legendary Sir Killalot, just don't listen to the song

Robot Wars became so popular, that a spin off called Robot Wars Extreme was produced. There were foreign versions such as BattleBots in the U.S. There was tonnes of merchandise, magazines were produced, Sir Killalot even made a song. I haven’t even mentioned the excellent commentating from Johnathan Pearce and the interesting look behind the scenes we got as we got a close look at the damge inflicted to the Robots. This was one of, if not the most defining and important show BBC 2 had. So what happened?

 

Remember how I said the show was unpredictable? That began to change. The producers of the show got more involved, staging other teams sabotaging each other’s robots for our ‘entertainment’ like this was some dumb reality show. They tried to produce drama with ridiculous moments such as having husbands and wives and separate teams battling each other. Robot Wars was eventually moved to channel 5 but here it got even worse. They made a ridiculous rule that stated that all robots must have a moving weapon, a stupid idea that prevented robots such as fan favourite stinger from being able to compete as technically its weapon was static. The biggest controversy of all involved a robot called Storm 2 in the seventh series.

 

Storm 2 didn’t look like much at first look. It was basically just a box on wheels. But watch it for a while and you’ll see why it was so good and successful. It was extremely fast and accelerated at immense speeds. Not only that it was tough, it attacked by simply ramming its opponents and did so to great effect. Once it rammed another robot with such force that when it rammed it into the arena wall the impact sent the poor robot flying out of the arena, giving Storm 2 victory. However for some unknown reason, the shows producers took up a vendetta against Storm 2 for not using its flipping arm enough, a flipping arm only there to satisfy the moving weapon clause. In the arena there was a pit that lowered. Any robot that fell in would instantly loose. Storm 2 pushed a Robot called Tornado into the pit, but it was raised to allow Tornado to escape. Storm 2 eventually won the fight, which happened to be one of the best and most entertaining I think in the shows history. Worse however was to come.

 

In the grand final of series 7 Storm 2 was to fight a robot called Typhoon 2, an impressive robot in its own right and one of the most destructive we’d ever seen. It however was no match for Storm 2. Storm 2 was bossing the fight when the spinning Typhoon 2 hit the arena wall shattering it. The battle was put on hold as the arena was fixed and the Typhoon 2 team were actually allowed to do some much needed repairs to their robot. The fight resumed with Typhoon 2 patched up but it was still battered. All it did was break a small chip off the corner of Storm 2, like what a chipped teacup would look like. A clear victory for Storm 2 right. Right?



Typhoon 2

The judges were given false information. The shows presenter Craig Charles was told to hand the chipped piece of Storm 2 to its team for dramatic effect to prove that Typhoon inflicted more damage, despite that it had to be repaired mid fight. Charles announced that Typhoon 2 was the winner and even the crowd booed. The editors of the shows placed the sound of a cheering crowd over the top so the viewers wouldn’t know. The fight had been fixed. The Robot Wars world championship was filmed shortly after and Typhoon 2 was mysteriously unable to compete. Everyone know it was because of the toll its battle with Storm 2 had taken on it. Storm 2 went on to win the world championships.

 

Robot wars had become a children’s show, not a family show like t was intended, suitable for all ages. It had become more interested in drama than what the point of the show was in the first place, the battles. The scheduling was change over and over until the show was cancelled completely. Soon after the shows that had taken inspiration from it had died out too. Robot wars was dead.

 

Fan Favourite Stinger

Or at least that’s what I thought. Last year I went to Comicon in Birmingham. I was dressed at the Joker and I was excited to see all the costumes. What I didn’t expect was what I found at the back, a robot combat arena. Robots were battling throughout the day, I even saw the famous Stinger. Huge crowds gathered around the battles, my friends who never watched Robot Wars excitedly watched as a flipper robot flipped its opponents high into the air. We were at Comicon a place crammed full of interesting things and yet people crowded round just to get a view of robot combat.

 

I decided to do a little digging and I found at that Robot combat is as prevalent now as it ever was. Robot combat events occur all over the world, it’s just unfortunate that they are not televised. While unfortunately the Robot Wars arena was scrapped, the House Robots are still intact, they eventually ended up with a team called Team Roaming Robots who have the intention of either returning them to working order or if they can’t then creating replicas.

 

The show may be gone but its legacy lives on through the robot fighting competitions. I was never fortunate enough to be able to see the show live, but seeing some battles at Comicon showed me that Robot combat still has the appeal to succeed. After all, there was never anything quite the same as watching robots smash each other to pieces. Perhaps all hope is not lost and one day we can see the return … of Robot Wars, Goodbye. So glad I got that quote in here.