User blog comment:RA2/Robot Wars Rankdown: Series 4/@comment-32166543-20180601145453

Alright let's get this done.

18: The moment I saw Toon Ganondorf sign up for this rankdown I should have guessed that Crusader 2 would be in the final rankdown. Each of the other robots left have some claim to fame, have shown that they can rumble with the big bots... Crusader 2 never did. It's a decent little robot, but it's not going to contend with anyone else left.

17: It's strange really, I know who my final four are, but it took me a while to decide on the order of them, that said, Bigger Brother was always going to be near the bottom. While it did mainly lose its fight due to a faulty CO2 ca and did show off its potential utterly dominating Firestorm 2 in the Tag Team Terror, but apart from that, it's hard to see the "nightmare in metal" it would later become. Maybe I'm underrating it but Bigger Brother is near the worst of this pool for me.

16: And just like that I've already gone off what I intended to put for my final rankdown as X-terminator splutters in at number 16. I don't think I need to beat around the bush here, the axe was utterly terrible and the lifter won't exactly win any prizes either, poor driving (How do you just break off and go into pit like that?) and just not being hugely impressive outside of the opening melee, X-Terminator only gets this far for me due to being a semi finalist against some pretty decent robots.

15: From axe to axe, we have Killerhurtz. This robot scores no points whatsoever for being dominated by Splinter like they were, but the reason it ranks this high is because it and Dominator 2 took out the reigning champion in the northern annihilator, with barely any effort, an axe like that cannot be ignored and honestly if Killerhurtz wasn't in the main series, I think I would have put this alot higher, but sadly it was.

14: It surprised me to put this, this low but incomes S.M.I.D.S.Y, the heat finalist and the go-to "Should have been a semi finalist" robot. Not at this stage I'm afraid, while S.M.I.S.D.Y definitely started to show the potential it would later have, it still struggled alot to dominate fights,and I just can't put it any further.

13: Speaking of robots I can't put any further, everyone say hello to 'Spikasarus. This was an utter monster in the northern annihilator and is the poster boy for static weapons if you ask me, not just stabbing but utterly skewering Killerhurtz in it, and eventually winning. But let's face it, it only won because no one saw it as any kind of threat before it was too late and Dominator 2 was robb-I mean broke down out of nowhere and it won. Also the main competition left alot to be desired.

12: Now there are a few robots that, while I'm happy made a semi final, I don't particularly think it was a deserved one. Case in point, Thermidor 2, this is kind of like X-Terminator 2 for for me, being a robot where I don't think they would have made the semis in many other heats, but getting a higher placement because they did make a semi final. Unike X-Terminator 2 though, Thermidor 2 shoed alot more promise in its heat and after its heat. Giving us a strong fight against the future runner up, and not letting anyone rest in their heat, Thermidor 2 was definetly one to watch in the future... Just a shame they took two years to deliver again.

11: I do have to wonder, why does Mortis keep rating so high on my lists? Probably because it's a robot with alot of quality that was hated by everyone in the show for some reason, despite being very advanced for the time. Well by now, everyone was catching up to it and it really wasn't as groundbreaking anymore. This robot could have definitely made a semi final and its showing in the War of Independence reflects that beautifully. An amazing robot as always, but everyone else was just a bit more amazing.

10: Probably a bit of a shock here but I'm putting 'Firestorm 2 as the best robot to be in double digits. Still a good robot like the series 3 incarnation, but the utterly horrific heat win and not really showing much else, I hesitate to put it any higher.

9: This was incredibly hard to decides, as it was with all my top 9, but in the end, I had to go for Tornado This was an utterly brilliant debut series and I'd argue that it has yet to be topped for a debut, completely owning both Gemini and Wheely Big Cheese, making the producers really angry that they couldn't have either one of the Chaos 2 rematches. I seriously wanted to put Tornado higher but after the multiple drive chain slips, I just simply can't.

8: The next group of robots are so tightly packed together that I seriously wanted to put them all at joint fourth, but sadly I'm not allowed to. Any one of these 8 could have easily made it to the grand final in another universe and the only reason they got out now is because I feel that the rest of the roster could beat them, with that said, Wild Thing, an absolutely legendary control bot which dominated its heat... of not that good robots, while tanking Hypno-Disc for so long does give it major points for me, breaking down under barely any pressure whatsoever in the celebrity special does make it lose those points for the most part. Still amazing though.

7: It surprises me to put a grand finalist so low again but what do you know, next is Stinger. While it being a grand finalist does score points as always, I do have to wonder if it would have gotten there if it faced anyone but Panic Attack in the semis, as we saw in later series, once people worked out how to fight it, it never even escaped the heats, so I have to admit that I think it was rather lucky to get to where it was simply because no one knew how to face it.

6: Likewise I kind of expected Dominator 2 to be lower than it is, but these things have a habit of turning out like this. Having a beautiful showing in its heat before taking on and beating the number 5 seed (even if that was one of the weaker semi-finalists of that episode), then much like Thermidor 2, taking Pussycat to a judges, despite having its shell almost ripped off completely. So why is it only number 6? Everyone else is just better, also it did lose points for breaking down much like Wild Thing at the end of the annihilator but that takes off less points for me due to that being at the end of 5 battles with minimal repair time. Dominator 2 is still a worthy number 6 bot though, and it's not hard to see why it was my favourite.

5: Now when I said that 8-4 was close, 5-3 are so close they literally are the same placement for me. The first of basically joint third is Panic Attack. This was easily their best series and my god does it show. Commanding victories over damn near everything it faced, winning the sumo (even if that was dubious), Panic Attack could have and honestly should have been a grand finalist this series, not everything went their way and they lost in the semis, but everything before that proved that they were at their best and, hopefully this is the best they get in the rankdowns.

4: It was a toss up between Razer and the actual number 4 for this spot, but in the end I felt Chaos 2 was just the weakest of these robots. Yes I put the actual series champion at number 4, now I know half of you are already sharpening your knives but please hear me out. Chaos 2's victory here wasn't nearly as commanding as it was back in series 3, it really had to work for it victory and in everything else, it never stood a chance, looking at the northern annihilator, with all the robots gunning for it, we got to see just how not very good the armour was, getting punctured by damn near everyone there and dying fairly quickly once it happened. Winning a series does give it major points, but again, everyone left just outdoes it for me.

3: So as you might guess, number 3 is Razer. This was in the running for number one, all three of the robots left were. But the fact of the matter is that for me, Razer loses to the last two, but to cover the positives, well, where do I start? Destroying a House Robot completely, almost splitting a robot in two with Milly-Ann Bug, having the potenial to win any other heat apart from Heat P and B, Razer had it all in this series, it's just that the all wasn't enough...

2: What a hypocrite I am, for all my talk about putting robots where they are because they would lose to the robots above them, here I go putting Pussycat at number 2. And it's a controversial decision I get that, being the runner-up, winning the celebrity special, utterly destroying two of the big 3, there is a very strong case for Pussycat to be my number one. I just think there is one robot that's better...

1: I'm not gonna bother with an intro, you've probably guessed who it is, it's Hypno-Disc, the Series 3 runner-up came back with a quality leap that wouldn't be seen again until Carbide in series 9. This thing tore apart The Predator, V-Max and Raizer Blade and there is not a word in the English language that describes what it did to Splinter, taking Wild Thing to a judges where it struggled but stil convincingly won, and then there's the battle that most will point to against Hypno, but to that I say that the hit Pussycat gave it was a one-in a million hit and if it didn't happen, Hypno would have defeated them. From there, and much like Een Jay Gee Woo said, Hypno would demolish Chaos 2 and that for me is the defineing factor. Discounting one in a million shots, Hypno would easily walk over Series 4 and that, is why it's my number 1 pick.

Phew! That's me done in for Series 4 and I'll probably take a break for Extreme/Series 5. 3 consecutive rankdowns is a bit much, someone else deserves a go. This was a ride I will not forget though.