Fighting Robots 3: The Hurtz Family · 5:55am Jun 28th, 2020
Fighting Robots 1 (Nightmare, Chaos 2, BioHazard, Razer, Hazard, Deadblow, Blendo)
Fighting Robots 2 (Hypno-Disc, Tombstone, Supernova, Son of Whyachi, Carbide, Minotaur, Apex, Icewave, PP3D)
This Fighting Robots post covers a trio of bots from the same team: Team Hurtz. They kill, they hurt, get used to it!
Killerhurtz
Series: BattleBots and Robot Wars
Division: Heavyweight
Win-Loss record (BattleBots): 12-7
Win-Loss record (Robot Wars): 4-6
The elder of the Hurtz family is the only member to compete in both BattleBots and Robot Wars, doing so before legal clauses barred any robot that competed in one of the two shows from competing in the other (the same team could compete in both shows if they entered a different robot in both).
Killerhurtz was one of the rare robots to use car-style steering rather than the usual tank-style; while this did make lining up attacks easier, it severely affected turning ability (tank-style steering enables a robot to turn in place, while car-style steering forces a robot to be moving in order to turn). Despite this, the elder Hurtz earned a reputation in BattleBots as a strong, if poor-handling, bot, and team captain John Reid was—and still is—regarded as one of the sport’s best drivers.
Killerhurtz used polycarbonate for both its chassis and its armor. The weapon was a pneumatic-powered spiked axe that came down with 800 kg of force at the tip. The robot had a different axe made specifically for competing in BattleBots; to avoid the hassle of getting it through customs, Reid buried it by the side of a road in a desert! The robot’s name is a pun on the measurement kilohertz (103 Hz).
Despite the reputation of both the robot and the driver, Killerhurtz had far less success in Robot Wars than it did in BattleBots; in the former show, many people remember it most for the time it accidentally pitted itself in Series 3 (this is because Reid was used to competing in BattleBots, which has no such hazard, and The Pit was the same color as the rest of the Arena floor, making it harder to see in the dark, until it was outlined with black and yellow stripes from Series 4 onwards).
Terrorhurtz
Series: Robot Wars
Division: Heavyweight
Win-Loss record: 18-10
Following the retirement of the elder, the senior Hurtz family member succeeded them in Series 5 and onward. Terrorhurtz used polycarbonate armor, like Killerhurtz, but added stronger steel armor to the mix. This robot also used a pneumatic-powered axe, but it was instead a blunter, double-headed one that could strike both in front of and behind the robot, and also serve as a SRIMECH more effectively because the lack of a sharp point made it less likely to get stuck in the floor.
The axe was among the strongest in the show (probably stronger than Dominator 2’s) and was able to fire multiple times in quick succession to rapidly string together powerful blows. However, the forces it generated when doing so would lift the robot off the ground and cause it to jump around, making it vulnerable to wedges and flippers. Terrorhurtz’s name is a pun on the measurement terahertz (1012 Hz).
Initially, Terrorhurtz was unsuccessful, much like the robot it succeeded. But in Series 6, it finally earned the family Robot Wars main competition success, brutally smashing all of its opponents into submission (including Series 2 Champion Panic Attack) and only falling in the Grand Finals to the mighty Razer.
Terrorhurtz also entered Extreme 2 and Series 7, but mechanical issues in the latter forced them to withdraw.
When Robot Wars was rebooted, Terrorhurtz received a new design:
The axe’s operation was also changed: rather than being able to quickly fire repeatedly, it instead could only fire once, and then had to reset. Though the rear armor was on the weak side (as Series 9 demonstrated), in Series 10 the front armor was able to tank hits from the ultra-destructive Carbide. How? It was made of ARMOX steel, the same material used to make tank armor!
beta
Series: BattleBots
Division: Heavyweight
Win-Loss record: 3-3
The junior of the Hurtz family. In contrast to Killer and Terror, beta (it’s spelled in all lowercase letters and pronounced “bee-tah”) was armed with an electric-powered hammer instead of a pneumatic-powered axe, though it retained the senior’s polycarbonate/steel armor, along with both of its predecessor’s offensive power.
beta was originally going to compete in Season 5.0, but didn’t because the electromagnets used to keep the robot from flipping itself by swinging its hammer prevented the robot from moving under its own power (and tore up the BattleBox floor, on top of that).
It was scheduled to compete in Reboot Season 1... but was forced to withdraw because a 25 kg bag of vital parts was lost in transit (
).
beta finally was able to compete in Reboot Season 2; it achieved good success, but was defeated by Tombstone in the quarterfinals. It didn’t enter Reboot Seasons 3 or 4 because Reid entered the Chinese show King of Bots, which was filmed at the same time, although he confirmed plans to enter Reboot Season 5.
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I’ll make sure to include it in the next Fighting Robots post.
I cleaned up and expanded parts of the first two posts, btw; check ‘em out if you haven’t already.