Series 3 of the metal-mashing, chrome-clashing, steel-smashing show Robot Wars is back on our television screens.
A lot of it is the same: Dara O'Briain and Angela Scanlon are still presenting and there are the same four house robots: Shunt, Matilda, Dead Metal and Sir Killalot. But the format has changed.
The heats within the first two series began with two four-way battles, the two winners of each battle then progressed to a round-robin mini league. This has now been changed in favour of a two threeway battles with the winner of each automatically progressing to the next round.
The losers then fight each other in a Robot Redemption or Loser's Melee with the winners of each progressing to the next round. In short the league format has been replaced with a more straightforward knockout championship.
I prefer this as it is more in the style of the old series and has a bigger emphasis on the killing potential of each machine, rather than how well engineered they are.
And the Robot Wars arena has now been upgraded. There is the now cheesily named "Fog of War," where for ten seconds the arena fills with fog.
But that's enough talking. LET THE WARS BEGIN!
Behemoth Vs Donald Thump Vs Sabretooth
The first heat saw the return of Behemoth- a six-wheeled machine armed with a lifting scoop. While they were regular competitors in the original series, they always fared badly, only once making it out of the heats.
Last series, team captain, Anthony Pritchard, became a viral sensation after he stormed out of the studios upon losing to Gabriel. Will he keep his cool this time?
Their first opponent was the satirical robot Donald Thump, armed with fake hair and a spinner bar. Rounding out the trio is Sabretooth, which is armed with a spinning drum. Similar to Behemoth, they are veterans of Robot Wars, but have never had great success.
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This battle began slowly with each robot sizing each other up. Then Sabretooth went on the attack, charging into Behemoth and knocking it over. While Behemoth was recovering, Donald Thump smashed into Sabretooth damaged Sabretooth with their spinning hammer. But shortly after, they inexplicably broke down.
By this time, Behemoth had gotten back to their wheels. Bad driving sent them onto the floor flipper, but then they went back on the attack. Both behemoth and Sabretooth charged into one another; the impact of which immobilised both machines. However, the judges picked Behemoth as the overall winner, with Donald Thump and Sabretooth going into the loser's melee.
Apollo Vs Apocalypse Vs the Swarm
Apollo is already a legend. Armed with their flipper, they won the first series and were finalists in the second. I dare say they were favourites in this heat. But it's a long road to the final and to get there, they first have to beat Apocalypse and the Swarm.
Apocalypse was a robot, which looked like Splinter - a competitor in the original series. Apocalypse was armed with an axe and grabbing arms.
Finally, we have the cluster bot, the Swarm. Any eagle-eyed viewers, may have noticed that the Swarm was captained by Ian Watts, driver of the ferocious robot of old: Bigger Brother. Bigger Brother was teamed by Ian's children: Joe and Ellie and I do wonder where they are now.
Anyway, the Swarm was a curious machine. It was four smaller robots each armed with different weapons: an anti-spinner, a flipper, a spinning hammer and a wedge. The idea for the four robots to surround and overwhelm the enemy.
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Apocalypse started badly with its axe breaking down. Apollo took full advantage of this by launching it through the air. From here, the axebot pondered around, not doing anything.
Apollo then turned its ferocious flipper to the Swarm. While the clusterbots were a creative concept, they were too small to be of any threat. Being so lightweight, Apollo was able to flip them all around the arena. Only the clusterbot with the spinning hammer was any good, but not strong enough to fight off Apollo who dominated this fight and were worthy winners.
Robot Redemption 1: Apocalypse Vs Sabretooth
Time for the first of the new losers' melees. This battle saw the first use of the Fog of War, which was unimpressive to say the least. Other than the arena filling with fog for ten seconds, nothing happened.
The fight itself was more interesting. Apocalypse started strong, going on the attack and chopping down with its axe. True, they missed a lot of the time but this was a big improvement on their first battle.
But just when it looked like Sabretooth were down for the count, they were just lulling me into a false sense of security. In the dying seconds of the fight, they slammed Apocalypse into the wall, immobilising it. A nice comeback by Sabretooth.
Robot Redemption 2:
Donald Thump Vs the Swarm
This was perhaps the Swarm's best fight. While Donald Thump's spinning hammer wasn't working, the Swarm's was. The clusterbot armed with the spinning hammer was lethal and tore away Donald Thump's armour. The rest of the Swarm did very little and i can't help, but think Ian Watts should have made a full-sized spinner robot, rather than four small clusterbots. But considering that they decisively won this fight, who knows?
Round Two: Apollo vs Sabretooth
Having been drawn against an ex-champion, Sabretooth were always going to be up against it.
ANd they were battered. Apollo flipped them around the arena and never allowed them the chance to get their spinning drum into play.
Sabretooth manged to set the house robots on the loose, but this backfired, when the house robots attacked them. Sabretooth then lost in style by being the first robot to be flipped out of the arena this series.
Round 2 Behemoth Vs The Swarm
While The Swarm performed well against Donald Thump,t hey were unable to repeat this success here. Behemoth was too well-armoured to be damaged by the spinning bot, which as we already know is the only robot with any potency.
As for the other clusterbots, Behemoth flipped them around the arena, they broke down or were torched over the flamepit. Behemoth were the clear winners.
The playoff: The Swarm vs Sabretooth
Time for a new addition to this series. The grand final will be fought between six robots: the five heat winners and one wildcard robot.
The wildcard will be picked out of the ten robots who placed 2nd and 3rd in the heats. All ten of these robots will fight in one massive battle until only one remains.
Personally, I can't wait to see this. It sounds like it will be absolute mayhem and certainly bigger than anything the old series ever attempted. Secondly, in the first two series, the judges picked a wildcard option, I think that this new method is much more in the fighting spirit of the contest.
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Although it wasn't an entirely smooth run, Sabretooth battered the clusterbots. As we've seen time and time again, the Swarm is just too lightweight to be of any threat.
Even the spinnerbot was no match for Sabretooth's spinning drum. The flipperbot quickly ran out of the gas, and as for the other two, I can't remember them doing anything at all.
But like Is aid, Sabretooth made mistakes too. Bad driving sent them onto the floor flipper and Shunt, but they were the overall winners and we will be seeing them again. We also got to see the arena malfunction. In the middle of the arena are spikes designed to stab upwards and topple machines. However, in this fight, they pocked with so much force, they fully flew out of the arena, crashing down.
Heat final Apollo Vs Behemoth
This was a great fight, which could have gone either way. Apollo started strongly, charging into Behemoth and flipping them over. Behemoth quickly recovered, but were then shoved into the CPZ.
And this was where I think Apollo got a bit cocky. They let their guard down, allowing Behemoth to flip them over and go on the attack. It was Apollo who was running away and Behemoth who was doing the chasing. And then with a great drive, Behemoth drove Apollo into the pit of oblivion, which as Craig Charles would say was a "real turn-up for the books." After twenty years of defeat after defeat, Behemoth finally made it out of the heats. And good fort hem.
They took full advantage of Apollo's cockiness. But maybe we'll see a grudge match if Apollo wins the wildcard place.
Cue the lights,
scream your applause,
Behemoth is our first finalist
on Robot Wars
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