Robot Wars back on BBC

[Kite159]

Did Hypnodisc and Razer ever battle each other?

I believe not, the producers tried to make it happen in one of the "Extreme" series, but neither team wanted to risk damage for the sake of entertainment

 

[russdx]

Producers should have offered to pay for repairs, how much damage could they do? A few £thousands? I think the show can afford that

 

[Kite159]

Good final I would say.

 

[alexf380]

Just binge watched all 6 episodes today and I'm pleased I did. A bit disappointed at who won the final, was hoping it would have gone the other way. Anyone know if there is going to be another series?

 

[Butts]

Just binge watched all 6 episodes today and I'm pleased I did. A bit disappointed at who won the final, was hoping it would have gone the other way. Anyone know if there is going to be another series?

I thought Apollo was fab...don't forget he flipped two House Robots earlier in the proceedings....

For that alone a worthy winner

 

[Kite159]

I thought Apollo was fab...don't forget he flipped two House Robots earlier in the proceedings....

For that alone a worthy winner

Three house robots

Did you see Sir Killalot doing a reversal move into the arena wall after the battle with Thor?

 

[Butts]

Three house robots

Did you see Sir Killalot doing a reversal move into the arena wall after the battle with Thor?

I did indeed - the House Bots were to restrained in the new format due to the league nature of the new competition. I wanted them out of the zone and trashing vulnerable bots.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Anyone know if there is going to be another series?

Yes, there will be. They were talking about a "next year" in the final and as far as I understand it it's a two or three year deal anyway but apparently for next year or 2018 it'll be re-named "Extreme Robots" - which I think is a bad idea as people may not realise what it is and might not watch it as a result, leading to lower viewing figures.

 

[Crossover]

I really enjoyed the series and Apollo were worthy winners (though I did hope they would get chewed up by the spinner )

One thing I did notice was the number of robots that had reliability issues - especially on the drives but also some of the spinners (I think the way some of them have to stop dead when they hit someone whereas the likes of Hypnodisc deflected a little more I think)

 

[Monty]

I wasn't particularly impressed with this new series, in the 12 years since the last series there hasn't been that much advancement of robot design and use of new technologies. Pulsar was the only one to me that stood out as trying something completely new but sadly there did seem to be issues with reliability. Most shockingle was the number of teams who still thought having exposed wheels is a good idea. Ultimately the standard 'wedge' shaped robot with a flipper that doubled up as both a weapon and self righting mechanism won. That said the young lad who controlled TR2 was very impressive and it was sad to see him being knocked out considering the the machines track record and inferior machines with a worse win rate also made the final.

Didn't mind the new format though, just hope they tweak the rules for the next series to encourage more innovative designs.

 

[Kite159]

I wasn't particularly impressed with this new series, in the 12 years since the last series there hasn't been that much advancement of robot design and use of new technologies. Pulsar was the only one to me that stood out as trying something completely new but sadly there did seem to be issues with reliability. Most shockingle was the number of teams who still thought having exposed wheels is a good idea. Ultimately the standard 'wedge' shaped robot with a flipper that doubled up as both a weapon and self righting mechanism won. That said the young lad who controlled TR2 was very impressive and it was sad to see him being knocked out considering the the machines track record and inferior machines with a worse win rate also made the final.

Didn't mind the new format though, just hope they tweak the rules for the next series to encourage more innovative designs.

I think one reason for exposed wheels is on the live circuit those powerful spinners are not allowed.

As for the standard 'wedge with flipper' apart from Chaos 2 back in S3 & S4 had a flipper won, with the arena design means flipping something out was quite rare.

I did feel there was a bit of unsportsmanlike behaviour from Carbide in the first battle against Apollo, hitting the robot a couple times after the link fell out and it was being counted out.

 

[AlterEgo]

I wasn't particularly impressed with this new series, in the 12 years since the last series there hasn't been that much advancement of robot design and use of new technologies. Pulsar was the only one to me that stood out as trying something completely new but sadly there did seem to be issues with reliability. Most shockingle was the number of teams who still thought having exposed wheels is a good idea. Ultimately the standard 'wedge' shaped robot with a flipper that doubled up as both a weapon and self righting mechanism won. That said the young lad who controlled TR2 was very impressive and it was sad to see him being knocked out considering the the machines track record and inferior machines with a worse win rate also made the final.

Didn't mind the new format though, just hope they tweak the rules for the next series to encourage more innovative designs.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[talltim]

And mine. It was like none of the competitors had seen previous series and they made the same mistakes again

 

[Kite159]

And mine. It was like none of the competitors had seen previous series and they made the same mistakes again

Especially that machine made from wood.

 

[AlterEgo]

It was far too one-dimensional. If you had a decent flipper then you basically could do what you liked.

 

[TheNewNo2]

I enjoyed the revived series, and was rather surprised to do so. I was especially surprised by how poorly the "grandee" teams of Behemoth and Razer fared.

I found the format a bit weird, as you have the league, then the top two, who have already fought each other, fight again. It was however much better than the last few series of the old wars - good riddance to Refbot!

My main issue with the revived series though: where's Sergeant Bash?

I wasn't particularly impressed with this new series, in the 12 years since the last series there hasn't been that much advancement of robot design and use of new technologies.

I've been watching the original series on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7USYfgvIkU. What amazes me is how flimsy they all look. And original Robot Wars had an entire episode dedicated to robots under 12kg! Another notable thing is how there are more "theme" robots - where there's no real chance of victory, but a lot of fun. Psychosprout - a radio controlled car in a giant brussel sprout. Nemesis - the red and black felt robot. Elvis - well, it's Elvis. The closest the new series came to that was Gabriel.

 

[JoeGJ1984]

I think with 8 robots the best format would be to have 2 groups of 4 with the top two going through, and then a knockout from there (this is a similar structure to tournaments like the football world cup and european cup). It would have greatly increased the number of battles though, which perhaps makes it impractical (especially if it is all filmed in one day as was said earlier). Group then knockout is a better format than knockout then group!

And this would allow them to bring back the tradition of the house robots coming out of their CPZs to destroy immobilised robots during the knockout rounds, which I think is missing in this series.

I'd love to see Chaos 2 and Hypnodisc return in future series.

 

[TheNewNo2]

I'd love to see Chaos 2 and Hypnodisc return in future series.

When I was doing my GCSEs I wrote one of my coursework pieces as a Chaos 2 story.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I saw a trailer this evening on TV on one of the minor channels - Spike, I think - announcing that they will be showing the American imitation series Battlebots starting ( or continuing? ) this Sunday at 20.00.

The clip did not look anywhere near as impressive as our "real thing" but the robots that were in it did look a bit more imaginative in appearance.

 

[MonsooN]

I enjoyed the new series too. The original series was a big hit with my university friends and me back in the late 90s when we'd all crowd round my little 15" portable TV to watch it. I always loved Matilda - she was (and still is!) Awesome!

The new series didn't seem to have moved on with regards to how advanced the robots were, but in one episode, one of the judges said that most of the differences were in things you couldn't necessarily see such as more powerful motors and better batteries.

It was nice to see some of the old teams back such as Razer and it was good to see some of the new teams too. I thought the young lad from Gateshead was really good and I bet we'll see more of him in the future.

I wonder if the new series inspires some of the contestants from the old wars to upgrade some of their old designs because it looked like Razer and Behemoth hadn't changed at all.

 

[TheKnightWho]

I saw a trailer this evening on TV on one of the minor channels - Spike, I think - announcing that they will be showing the American imitation series Battlebots starting ( or continuing? ) this Sunday at 20.00.

The clip did not look anywhere near as impressive as our "real thing" but the robots that were in it did look a bit more imaginative in appearance.

If you go back to the early series of RW there are lots of ridiculous and imaginative designs there too - the issue is that they're usually crap, and so most teams have converged on a few tried and tested designs!

 

[backontrack]

Especially that machine made from wood.

It's a shame that didn't get onto the fire. It had a petrol engine!

 

[TheNewNo2]

It's a shame that didn't get onto the fire. It had a petrol engine!

On the episode I just watched:

Roboteer: "It wasn't a bad fire, just this small bit of plastic burning."
Phillipa Forrester: "And what is that piece of plastic?"
Roboteer: "The petrol tank lid."

 

[backontrack]

On the episode I just watched:

Roboteer: "It wasn't a bad fire, just this small bit of plastic burning."
Phillipa Forrester: "And what is that piece of plastic?"
Roboteer: "The petrol tank lid."

 

[Kite159]

It's a shame that didn't get onto the fire. It had a petrol engine!

And at least it didn't get put into the other 4-way battle against two spinners

 

[Peter Mugridge]

It's a shame that didn't get onto the fire. It had a petrol engine!

One of the other robots did go on fire properly - it had a Lithium Ion battery and it got pierced...

If you go back to the early series of RW there are lots of ridiculous and imaginative designs there too - the issue is that they're usually crap, and so most teams have converged on a few tried and tested designs!

Hmmm... in that case I'll probably record this Battlebots thing - it sounds like it might be an equivalent of the early stages of Robot Wars.

I always loved Matilda - she was (and still is!) Awesome!

You do know the house robots are all new builds from scratch and not the originals don't you?

Incidentally, I agree with you about Matilda and the other day when our daughter turned 13 and was able to join things like Twitter ( which she promptly did ), I immediately posted a tweet myself which said "Some of the people joining Twitter these days it's like letting Matilda loose in a Rolls Royce showroom!"

 

[Crossover]

One of the other robots did go on fire properly - it had a Lithium Ion battery and it got pierced...

To be pedantic, it was a LiPo (Lithium Polymer) battery. The effect was quite something though!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

To be pedantic, it was a LiPo (Lithium Polymer) battery. The effect was quite something though!

Ah.... blame the subtitles which simply said it was a Lithium battery...

 

[90sWereBetter]

Psychosprout was the greatest robot ever, simply because it somehow managed to qualify for the Trials (the second heat in Series 1/2). Pure brilliance.

To be honest I didn't like Elvis.

 

[backontrack]

I enjoyed the new series too. The original series was a big hit with my university friends and me back in the late 90s when we'd all crowd round my little 15" portable TV to watch it. I always loved Matilda - she was (and still is!) Awesome!.

Yeah, she's the best of the house robots by far. Don't let the others hear that, though