Fighting Robots 2 · 1:46am Jun 14th, 2020
Fighting Robots 1 (Nightmare, Chaos 2, BioHazard, Razer, Hazard, Deadblow, Blendo)
Buckle in, turn on the music, it’s more fighting robot time!
Hypno-Disc
Series: Robot Wars
Division: Heavyweight
Win-Loss record: 22-10
Let’s kick it off with what is considered to be the greatest horizontal flywheel robot of the original Robot Wars series.
Hypno-Disc was a literal game-changer when it debuted in Series 3. Originally, thick metal armor was considered a waste of the weight allotment (and very few robots had weapons powerful enough to make it useful, anyway). Then Hypno-Disc arrived, tore its lightly-armored opponents apart, and just like that, strong metal armor became a critical ingredient for success!
One of the things this robot is best known for is the high-pitched whir its weapon makes. In fact, during a post-battle interview that takes place just before Hypno-Disc’s battle is shown, that whir can be heard from TV monitors in the background, along with shocked gasps from other roboteers as they watch the fearsome spinner demolish its first ever opponent! Most shocking of all, Hypno-Disc’s builders didn’t believe their robot was capable of inflicting nearly as much damage as it ended up doing!
Part of the robot’s huge destructive potential was the design of its disc: only one tooth sticks outward and makes contact, while the second points upwards to solely act as counterbalance, giving consistently higher impact speeds (the counterbalance tooth was changed for a second contact tooth in Series 6 and Extreme 2, to negative effects).
However, for all of its destructive power, Hypno-Disc never won a single championship. The reason is because the robot suffered from the most common weakness that afflicts bots with large spinning weapons: strong recoil that damages the wielder’s internal components when the weapon contacts a sturdy object. As such, Hypno-Disc was a glass cannon, though not one as obvious as Nightmare.
There also was its weapon’s unusual driving method. Spinner-equipped bots typically use a dedicated motor to power their weapon via a belt or chain. Hypno-Disc powers its weapon with a shaft that runs the length of the robot and connects to the disc via a gear mechanism. This design places greater stress on components when the disc hits something, exacerbating Hypno-Disc’s reliability problems. The internals would become damaged enough to immobilize the robot, even though it appeared fine on the outside.
There was even one instance where Hypno-Disc entered the Pit and hit the floor of it disc-first; though a rematch was called, Hypno-Disc had to forfeit because the impact did too much damage to the robot’s internals.
It is considered the greatest robot to never win a Robot Wars championship.
Tombstone
Series: BattleBots
Division: Heavyweight
Win-Loss record: 28-7
Highly-destructive, well-regarded robots always look cool and/or flashy, right?
Wrong.
Meet Tombstone, a simple, black, two-wheeled box with a large (and interchangeable) spinning bar, BattleBots’ #1 seed during the Reboot Seasons and winner of the “Most Destructive Robot” award for damn good reason: it was the combat robot equivalent of a sleeper car, being plain-looking on the outside, but plenty able to blow the doors—or robot parts, as it were—off opponents.
After a runner-up finish in Reboot Season 1 (ABC Season 1), this robot of mass destruction brute-forced its way to the Reboot Season 2 (ABC Season 2) title, even though the season was fraught with controversy due to new rules that blatantly biased things in favor of spinners (said rules were removed in the next season, to the happiness of many).
Probably the best demonstration of Tombstone’s destructive power was during its battle against Minotaur in Reboot Season 3 (Discovery Season 1), where Tombstone’s bar tore through all three layers of the BattleBox’s steel floor and into the support structure underneath! It was still a glass cannon, however; if an opponent could survive the hits, then the weapon’s recoil would likely do it in sooner or later.
Supernova
Series: Robot Wars
Division: Heavyweight
Win-Loss record: 7-7
The original series of Robot Wars had four great horizontal flywheel robots: Hypno-Disc (1st), 13 Black (2nd), Disc-O-Inferno (3rd), and Supernova (4th). Of the quartet, Supernova was the least successful (it never won a trophy and never advanced beyond the Heat Finals), but like Hypno-Disc, it was rightfully feared for the damage it could dish out.
Like Disc-O-Inferno, Supernova was inspired by Hypno-Disc, but traded a smaller disc for invertibility (the ability to drive upside-down). This bot’s colors varied over the years, starting as yellow in Series 5, changing to blue in Series 6-8, and finally black/red in Series 9. The logo also changed, starting fully written out in Series 5, changing to a Superman “S” shield with “nova” written next to it in Series 6 and 7, then changing back to “Supernova” fully written out in the reboot series (probably for legal reasons).
Unlike the robot that inspired it, Supernova had an inauspicious debut because it was matched against Behemoth, one of Robot Wars’ most effective spinner-killers.
Afterwards, though, the robot made a name for itself as a legitimate threat... as long as its opponent’s armor couldn’t survive the blows from its disc. Supernova’s disc originally had its teeth bolted on separately; while this (mostly) worked fine in the original series, they proved to be the weakest link in the reboot series (by which time large discs were one single piece), during which they broke off, making the robot even harder to control and ultimately causing its elimination.
The aforementioned control problem comes from two factors.
First, Supernova was a two-wheeled robot. Two-wheeled designs can turn faster than ones with four or more wheels, but at the same time, this makes them inherently more difficult to control.
Second, the disc generated enough gyroscopic force to interfere with the robot’s steering. This can even lift a robot onto one wheel while turning (depending on its design), but such gyroscopic force can be generated by any powerful enough spinning weapon, regardless of type (disc, drum or bar) or orientation (horizontal or vertical).
For Series 9, Supernova was equipped with a one-piece disc that was sturdier, more powerful, and produced a sound that would make Hypno-Disc proud, but still caused enough recoil to damage the robot’s internals. Additionally, the bot still suffered from another problem that plagued it since its debut: the weapon’s recoil bouncing Supernova away from its opponent, even though it had received rubber pads on its wheels to try and solve this.
Supernova’s Series 9 iteration was by far the most devastating, brutally immobilizing multiple opponents (even forcing one to withdraw because it couldn’t be repaired in time). This awesome run was cut short when it fought reboot newcomer and fellow glass cannon Pulsar; Supernova managed to take out Pulsar’s weapon in a single vicious strike, but simultaneously was thrown across the Arena and into a wall, breaking down upon landing.
It didn’t enter Series 10 due to its team’s prior commitments, but they used the time to make changes ahead of a planned return to Series 11. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled after Series 10.
Son of Whyachi
Series: BattleBots
Division: Heavyweight, Superheavyweight
Win-Loss record: 18-9
A slow-moving but devastatingly-powerful contender armed with a spinning trio of hammers. “Whyachi” is a word made by the team, meaning “to bring someone down hard and to inflict massive amounts of pain or damage”, something the robot was very capable of doing.
In its Season 3.0 debut, this robot uniquely moved via “feet” that shuffled along the ground. Originally classed as a Heavyweight, it was reclassified as a Superheavyweight in Season 4.0, and swapped its shuffling system for regular wheels from Season 5.0 onward.
Although it never managed to repeat its Season 3.0 run, where it won the Heavyweight Championship, Son of Whyachi was always a force to be reckoned with—barring, of course, in Season 4.0, where modifications made prior to battling Swirlee caused the champ to crash out after just 39 seconds. The driver had a good attitude about it:
*smiling* “Well that didn’t work for shit!”
Carbide
Series: Robot Wars
Division: Heavyweight
Win-Loss record: 22-5
Hypno-Disc was the most feared spinner in Robot Wars’ original series, and in the reboot series, Carbide carried the torch.
Armed with a spinning bar that produced a very distinctive/frightening noise, Carbide did well in Series 8, but ultimately fell in the Grand Finals.
Then Series 9 came around.
With changes made from its previous version, Carbide, seeming invincible, demolished every opponent in its way—including Series 8 Champion Apollo and fellow destructive spinners Aftershock and Ironside3—to win the Series 9 Championship, along with comments that it was the most destructive robot to ever compete in Robot Wars.
Come Series 10, Carbide’s invincibility had worn off, but it still managed to advance to the Grand Finals once more.
In essence, Carbide was Tombstone’s flashier sibling from another country.
Minotaur
Series: BattleBots
Division: Heavyweight
Win-Loss record: 15-7
A (sort of) pint-sized bruiser hailing from Brazil, and a fine example that it’s not the size of the robot in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the robot. The surprisingly compact Minotaur was armed with a devastating 10,000 rpm drum that could tear chunks out of other robots just as easily as it could tear off entire parts; something it did spectacularly in its battle against fan-favorite Warhead.
Like the mythological creature it’s named after, this robot relentlessly pursues targets, overpowers them and brutally tears them to pieces; it’s earned a reputation similar to Tombstone!
Apex
Series: Robot Wars
Division: Heavyweight
Win-Loss record: 0-3
Nightmare wielded one of the largest spinning weapons—if not the largest—in BattleBots. Apex here did the same in Robot Wars, packing the biggest spinning bar to ever compete in the show.
It never won a battle, but was quite entertaining to watch.
However, it wasn’t the size of its weapon that made Apex so memorable; it was the way it went out in a blaze of glory!
Icewave
Series: BattleBots
Division: Heavyweight
Win-Loss record: 9-8
Icewave was heavily-hyped as one of the best contenders for the title when it debuted in Reboot Season 1, being the #2 seed, but it ultimately fell in the quarterfinals.
Icewave was another one of the rare robots to utilize an internal combustion engine (hence the “ice” in its name), using one to power its spinning bar weapon. Said bar was quite powerful, but proved problematic if the opponent could tank the hits (noticing a pattern here?). In an omen of things to come, it lost a battle of endurance against Nightmare in Reboot Season 2 (ABC Season 2)...
... And things only went downhill from there, as other robots beefed up while this one remained just as prone to breakdowns. Yes, Nightmare was also a glass cannon, but when it lost by being damaged, it was never because of recoil from its own weapon. To quote TV Tropes, you can generally count on Icewave delivering one to three hits before someone dies.
PP3D
Series: Robot Wars
Division: Heavyweight
Win-Loss record: 3-5
This unusual-looking spinner competed in Series 8 and 9, passing up Series 10 due to work commitments and two of its team members getting married (
).
PP3D’s name comes from two sources: Parts Printed in 3D (it used several 3D-printed parts, a first for Robot Wars), and PlastiPrint 3D (a 3D printing company that was the robot’s sponsor and owned by the team captain).
The horizontal spinning disc was, unusually, mounted beneath the robot, and provided effective frontal and rear defense, though the wheels were fully exposed. The disc weighed 31 kilograms and was just millimeters above the ground.
In Series 9, PP3D memorably demonstrated the 65 kilojoules of force its disc exerts at the tips (that’s more than Carbide’s weapon!) courtesy of the team captain:
“She’s up to speed now, boys!”
