Killerhurtz

"KillerHurtz is an unusual robot in nearly all design areas: all-plastic chassis, combined differential and pivot steering, computer controlled ESCs, and a pneumatic actuated overhead axe weapon with a chain drive."

- Aaron Joerger

Killerhurtz (written as Killer Hurtz in Series 2) was Team Hurtz's entry for Series 2-4 of Robot Wars. It was a polycarbonate plough-shaped robot with two wheels from a moped (replaced with go-kart wheels in Series 4) and a uni-directional steel axe. The axe was custom built, weighed 7lbs and generated 800kg of force and from Series 3 onwards, featured a titanium cutting blade at the front (hardened steel in Series 4), similar to The Steel Avenger, interchangeable axe heads in the Third Wars and car-style steering in the Fourth. Killerhurtz cost £5,000 and two months to build and quickly became a crowd favourite because of its 15-16mph speed, but the robot had a high ground clearance and never managed to get past the heats. In fact, it never even reached a heat final during its run on the show, and the only robot it ever defeated in the main competition was Destruct-A-Bubble, on a judges' decision. Its main UK pedigree came from placing third in both the Pinball Warrior tournament and the Northern Annihilator, two side competitions in Series 4.

Killerhurtz did have some international pedigree though, having competed for many years in the American robot combat series BattleBots. The robot had a lot of success on this show, reaching the quarter finals on four separate occasions and finishing second in Long Beach in 1999, also picking up the Best Driver award whilst it was there. Killerhurtz also entered The First World Championship, representing the Czech Republic (due to team member Dominic Parkinson being half-Czech).

After Series 4, Killerhurtz was retired by the team and replaced by the considerably more successful robot Terrorhurtz, which competed in Series 5-7, also competing in the second series of Extreme.

Series 2
Killerhurtz made its début Robot Wars appearance in the Second Wars. Killerhurtz used its formidable speed to its advantage, shooting past the Sentinel in the Gauntlet stage of the heat. However, it drove straight into Dead Metal's claws, and was driven backwards into the pit of oblivion, meaning Killerhurtz had covered an overall distance of 10.6m. This distance covered by Killerhurtz placed it 4th out of 6 on the leaderboard, meaning it was sufficient to surpass R.O.C.S.. This put Killerhurtz through to the trial stage of the heat, which for this heat was Skittles. There, Killerhurtz used its speed to smash through 64 barrels before it was pinned up against the arena side wall by the house robots, despite this later setback, Killerhurtz was easily put to the top of the leaderboard, putting it through to the arena stage of the heat. However, in the Heat Semi-Final, Killerhurtz was placed up against the reigning champions Roadblock. Roadblock charged at Killerhurtz side on, and pushed it with ease into the PPZ, Killerhurtz was then grappled by Dead Metal, and pushed down the pit of oblivion by the house robot again, eliminating it from the competition.

Killerhurtz later fought up against Griffon, Corporal Punishment and Bodyhammer in the Internet Insurrection Grudge Match at the end of the Second Wars. In the battle, most of the aggressive actions from the competitors were being brought out on the house robots, as Griffon quickly flipped over Sergeant Bash. Killerhurtz managed to break Matilda's chainsaw chain with its axe, but Killerhurtz then suddenly stopped moving, and was attacked by Matilda and Shunt before being overturned, with the axe not working either, Kllerhurtz was left helpless and as the first competitor robot to fall.

Series 3
"Heat 14 saw the early demise of the kamikaze Killerhurtz. The veterans of Robot Wars claimed they didn't see the pit. A likely story."

- Jonathan Pearce

In the Third Wars, Killerhurtz had replaced its bladed axe with a spiked axe. It met the shiny Cerberus machine in the first round of the heat. Killerhurtz started promisingly, axing a hole in Cerberus' armour (and also smashing a hole in its batteries), and then coming back again to buckle the head of the dog. However, as the two robots then parted, in a shocking piece of driving, Killerhurtz drove away from Cerberus, turned, and drove straight into the open pit. The reason for doing this was later given as being that the plan was to turn and attack Cerberus again, the team had forgotten that the pit was there, having come back from BattleBots, which did not use a pit in the arena.

Killerhurtz also entered the Pinball tournament during the Third Wars. Killerhurtz had a very slow start, only moving away from the starting area after ten seconds. It ploughed through the barrels, then bumped into Sergeant Bash, bouncing off him and slammed into the multi-ball release. It rammed the arena wall, then backed away, nudged the bricks and slammed the car door open. After moving towards Shunt's target it ran into him, and was then pushed against a side wall. Shunt whacked it with his axe twice, then let it free. Killerhurtz was almost caught by Dead Metal as it reversed, then ran into Shunt again, who pushed it away. Cease was called shortly after, Killerhurtz had only scored 60 points, and finished joint 8th out of 10 overall on the leaderboard.

Killerhurtz then entered the First World Championship, representing the Czech Republic, as team member Dominic Parkinson was half Czech. In a similar way to a lot of robots, a small toy, in this case a plastic Charmander from Pokémon, was placed on top of the robot to "drive" it, but was merely a mascot. It was drawn against recently crowned UK champs Chaos 2 in the first round. Killerhurtz looked on top when it pinned Chaos 2 with its axe onto the flipper and pushed it into Shunt's CPZ. The house robot then pierced Chaos 2's gas canister. Despite this Chaos 2's flipper was still working and was able to then overturn Killerhurtz, flipping it into Shunt itself. Killerhurtz tried but failed to self-right with its axe and was eliminated from the competition. "The spike, was rather well embedded in Chaos and in the struggle to release it, the axe chain tensioner gave up and the chain slipped, rendering the axe useless. Chaos then managed to flip us and we couldn't self-right without the axe."

- Team Hurtz website

Series 4
Killerhurtz entered the Fourth Wars, and was granted the 16th seed, this was mainly due to the expectations of it, its design and its potential and previous success in BattleBots, rather than any previous success in the UK wars. In the first round of the heat, Killerhurtz went up against Eric and newcomers Destruct-A-Bubble. Killerhurtz charged into both of its opponents, and Eric tried to flip the seed over, but failed. Killerhurtz then drove over the top of Eric as a result and into Destruct-A-Bubble. Destruct-A-Bubble then tried to attack Eric, but was rammed by Killerhurtz. Killerhurtz was then nearly flipped by Eric, so it retaliated with its axe, hitting the bubble of Destruct-A-Bubble while still on an angle, dragging the newcomers off balance as Killerhurtz got back onto its wheels. The melee ended with all three robots in a tangle, as the battle resulted in a judges' decision. Killerhurtz qualified on the judges' decision, along with Eric.

This put it through to the second round of the heat, where they went up against Team Ivanhoe's new machine Splinter. Splinter drove out of Killerhurtz's way and used its grabbing axes, while Killerhurtz spun around in circles. Killerhurtz escaped, but Splinter caught the seeded robot again, pushing Killerhurtz around the arena. Killerhurtz drove into Shunt's CPZ and escaped, but it got stuck in forward drive and soon got caught on the arena side wall, with smoke from its tyres venting from it. It started moving again after being picked up and thrown by Sir Killalot, taking a moment to attack Sergeant Bash and Refbot, but even still, Killerhurtz had already been declared technically immobilised, and was eliminated from the competition.

Killerhurtz participated in the Pinball Warrior Tournament for this series as well, where it did much better than it did in Series 3, as it came third out of sixteen overall on the leaderboard, with an impressive score of 235 points.

Killerhurtz also participated in the Northern Annihilator which took place during the Christmas season of the Fourth Wars. Killerhurtz originally went up against Stinger, Dominator 2, Spikasaurus, the reigning champions Chaos 2 and Suicidal Tendencies. Throughout the entire event, it was continually picked on by all the other robots, in particular Dominator 2. However, the two eventually teamed up to eliminate Chaos 2 in the first round after Chaos 2 was trapped in the CPZ after trying to flip Killerhurtz out of the arena. Killerhurtz self-righted with its axe as Dominator 2 axed Chaos 2. After Killerhurtz found its feet, the two axed down on both the flipper and the electronics of Chaos 2, eventually both Chaos 2's flipper and mobility were ceased, and Killerhurtz qualified for the next round. In the second round, Killerhurtz immediately rammed into Stinger, throwing it up into the air and seeming to immobilise one of the 30th seed's wheels, Killerhurtz would then be axed and stabbed by Dominator 2 and Spikasaurus for much of the battle before taking on Sergeant Bash. Killerhurtz struggled to survive to the judges' decision that eventually followed, but it went through as Stinger had spent the majority of the battle going round in tight circles. In the third round, things were much of the same, Dominator 2 and Killerhurtz spent much time chasing and axing each other with Spikasaurus in hot pursuit of them. However, a few bashes and attacks from these three machines were enough for Suicidal Tendencies to become immobilised with relative ease. By the end of the round, Suicidal Tendencies started to belch a little smoke. This saw Killerhurtz through to the fourth round, where it finally faced off Dominator 2 and Spikasaurus, where the first few attacks from the former ruptured its CO2 bottle, rendering the axe inoperable, and damaging its drive. Unable to get away fast enough, it was rammed by Spikasaurus, whilst Dominator continued to attack it. When Killerhurtz eventually got away, it drove across the arena and ran into the arena side wall on the other side of the arena, rendering itself immobile, and eliminating it from the competition. This would be Killerhurtz's final appearance in Robot Wars as it was replaced by Terrorhurtz the following Wars.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 4
 * Losses: 6

Series Record

 * Series 1: Did not enter
 * Series 2: Heat, Arena Semi-Final
 * Series 3: Heat, Round 1
 * Series 4: Heat, Round 2
 * Series 5-7: Entered with Terrorhurtz

Trivia

 * Killerhurtz was the first competitor to use a Japanese animé character as a mascot. The others that followed were Pika, with Pikachu (also from Pokémon) and Destructosaur, with the Digimon Greymon.
 * Killerhurtz was also notable for it being one of only 2 non-House Robots to be equipped with an onboard camera system (to allow for precision attacks), the other being Facet.
 * Killerhurtz is one of only seven robots to break 200 points in a Pinball tournament. Others to have achieved this are Spawn of Scutter, Panic Attack, Gemini, Roadblock, King B3 and Razer.
 * After the Las Vegas BattleBots PPV in 1999, John Reid found that he wasn't able to take Killerhurtz's full weight back to England. Faced with having to shed some weight, he decided to bury one of the axes in the Nevada desert, where it presumably remains today.
 * In anticipation of fighting Razer in the First World Championship, John Reid prepared a wall of polycarbonate panels to affix above Killerhurtz and make it too high to crush. As it did not face Razer, the add-on was never seen.
 * Team Hurtz are the only team to represent the Czech Republic on Robot Wars.
 * Team Hurtz are also one of two teams to have built two robots that feature on the Combat Robot Hall of Fame.