Panzer Mk

Panzer Mk was the name given to a series of robots that competed in both seasons of Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors. The team won the US Championship in both seasons of Extreme Warriors, and also represented the USA in The Second World Championship. Todd Mendenhall brought his partner's robot Mjollnir to the MTV Pilot, but it was not chosen to compete.

Panzer Mk 2
Panzer Mk 2 (also spelled Panzer MK2) was the team's entry for the first season, and was closely based on the Panzer, a German tank used in World War 2. It was a six-wheel drive box-shaped robot painted mustard yellow with a large lifting scoop on the front which could hoist 300lbs, although it proved incapable of being used as a srimech. It reportedly had bolt-on weapons including a spinning disc, but none were ever seen.

Panzer Mk 4
Panzer Mk 4 (also spelled Panzer MK4) was the team's entry for the second season, and featured a powerful 6-wheel drive like its predecessor, but a redesigned weapon. The new plough was primarily used to provide Panzer with an adjustable ground clearance, rather than to flip other robots. It was smaller and had little lifting power, so Panzer Mk 4 relied entirely on ramming power to win matches.

Season 1
Panzer Mk2 took part in the US Championships of Season 1 in the US Robot Wars. In Round 1, it got into a tussle with Cyclone and ran around most of the time keeping out of harms reach. It flung Spartacus into the arena wall where it managed to recover, at the end it still managed to keep going on strong meaning the judges had gone for it.

In the Semi-Finals, Panzer Mk2 got bashed and rammed by Manta in the beginning and somewhat couldn't get its flipper underneath it. Near the end of the fight, Manta started slowing down and this time Panzer Mk 2 rammed and bashed at it. The fight went to the judges again and awarded the win to Panzer Mk 2 leaving the Manta team feeling devastated about the result.

In the final, Panzer Mk 2 fought The Revolutionist. Panzer Mk 2 chased The Revolutionist as it got its disc up to speed and then shoved it into the CPZ with Sir Killalot but it managed to get away. Panzer Mk 2 pursued The Revolutionist into the other CPZ where it was grabbed and sliced by Dead Metal. Panzer Mk 2 then chased The Revolutionist around trying in attempts to flip it but couldn't get its flipper into definitive contact with it. Panzer Mk 2 eventually did get under The Revolutionist and flipped it over against the arena wall where it got immobilised for more than 10 seconds before being pitted meaning Panzer Mk 2 had won the US Championships.

Panzer Mk 2 came back for the World Championships representing the USA along with Manta, Drillzilla and The Revolutionist. This competition was also broadcast during Robot Wars Extreme: Series 1. In the first round, it proved an equal of Tornado in pushing power, and managed to flip Tornado over several times. However, it took a battering from Tornado in the process, which ultimately caused the self-righting mechanism to jam. Towards the end of the fight, Philipper approached Panzer Mk 2 from the side whilst it was locking horns with Tornado, and flipped Panzer Mk 2 onto its back. With its self-righting mechanism jammed, Panzer Mk 2 was unable to recover and Refbot counted it out, eliminating it from the competition. "It has a self-righting mechanism, except, from all the beating with Tornado, it seems to have jammed. So, couldn't quite get back over, I was hitting the switch and it was wiggling a little, and that was done."

- Todd Mendenhall

Season 2
Panzer faced Joker and Snake Bite in the first fight of its defence and immediately pushed Joker. Snake Bite stayed away before trying to ram Panzer Mk 4. This didn't faze Panzer Mk 4, which pushed Joker into the wall, onto the flames, and then into the disc button. Panzer Mk 4 and Snake Bite pushed the Joker on the flames before Panzer Mk 4 pushed Snake Bite. Switching targets again, Panzer Mk 4 pushed Joker into Dead Metal, before doing the same to Snake Bite. Time expired and the Judges eliminated Joker, so Panzer Mk 4 faced The Revolutionist's teammate Spin Doctor in Round 2.

Panzer Mk 4 quickly drove straight out towards Spin Doctor and began pushing it around, tires screeching in the process. With their disk still not working, Spin Doctor tried using its rear wedge to slam into Panzer Mk 4, but the unaffected Panzer Mk 4 continued to push them around. Panzer Mk 4 then charged into Spin Doctor, flipping it over. Out of options, Spin Doctor backed into the pit release button, but this gave Panzer Mk 4 another chance to slam its opponent. The disoriented Spin Doctor accidentally backed straight into the opening pit, putting Panzer Mk 4 through to the Heat Final.

There, it faced Probophobia. Panzer Mk 4 was extremely aggressive, pushing Probophobia into the pincer of Sergeant Bash. There, Panzer Mk 4 drove over Probophobia's wedge, into the arena wall and almost over, but Panzer Mk 4 escaped and pushed its adversary into both House Robots and around the arena. It had another scare when Probophobia lifted Panzer Mk 4 up, but the relentless champion eventually pitted its opponent.

In the final, Panzer was up against Rosie the Riveter 2, and pushed it into the angle grinders and then into Dead Metal. Rosie the Riveter launched attacks of its own, but Panzer Mk 4 drove brilliantly to lure Rosie into the pit.

In the next round, against Destructive Criticism, Panzer charged into Destructive Criticism, before Destructive Criticism tried to cut into Panzer with its disc. Panzer then flipped Destructive Criticism against the pit button, before Destructive Criticism broke down and was counted out. Matilda and Shunt pushed it out of its CPZ, before it was pitted by Panzer.

This match was against Tricerabot, a robot that it had beaten at the same stage at Robotica season 3 (in fact, both robots was simply renamed and repainted for Extreme Warriors Season 2). Panzer had a few scares, being nearly flipped, but managed to flip Tricerabot repeatedly, and win on a judges decision. Panzer Mk 4 successfully defended the Robot Wars Extreme Warriors championship.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 9
 * Losses: 1

Outside Robot Wars
The team also entered the first season of the US robot combat series Robotica with their original design Panzer Mk 1 where it beat Malvolio then lost to Viper. They returned for the third season with Panzer Mk 3 and won the competition, defeating Juggerbot in the final. By definition, this makes Panzer the only robot to have won two separate televised robot combat series. It also competed in BattleBots as Wrath, winning three matches before losing to OverKill.

Todd also built and entered lightweight Pestilence for Season 1.0 (Pestilence entered the 1999 Long Beach event as part of middleweight clusterbot SlapPest), super heavyweight Doom of Babylon for Season 2.0, lightweight Harmageddon Too for Season 2.0 (however Harmageddon Too didn't compete) and middleweight '''[http://battlebots.wikia.com/wiki/Wrath_Jr. Wrath Jr.]''' for Season 5.0.

Panzer also entered RoboJoust 4 in November 2002 as Panzer Mk 4.5 and was the champion of the Heavyweight bracket.

Appearances in Merchandise

 * Panzer Mk/Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction (PC/Xbox)
 * Panzer Mk/Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction (GBA)

Trivia

 * Alongside Chaos 2, Panzer Mk was one of only two teams to win and successfully defend their title in their respective main competitions.
 * Panzer Mk was the only one of the four semi-finalists from the first US Championship to reach the Grand Final of the second. The other three semi-finalists all returned for Season 2, but lost in the heats.
 * Panzer Mk is the only robot to beat two robots from a single team in (in the main competition and not in a side competition) in one season.
 * Panzer Mk is one of only five robots to fight at least two past or future domestic champions in a single battle. The others to do this are 13 Black and the other three robots in its Second World Championship heat: Yeborobo, Philipper and Tornado.