House Robots

The House Robots were a set of robots on Robot Wars, that acted as obstacles to the competitor robots in the arena. They were restricted to staying in their corner patrol zones (CPZs) until a robot had been immobilized. If a competitor robot entered a CPZ, the house robots were free to attack that robot until it escaped. In the first series there were four house robots (Dead Metal, Matilda, Sergeant Bash and Shunt) with further house robots added over time. Sir Killalot was introduced in the second series, the sixth series saw the introduction of Growler and Mr. Psycho, before the final house robot, Cassius Chrome, was added in Series 7. In 2016, new incarnations of Sir Killalot, Matilda, Shunt and Dead Metal were built to fight at modern-day standards, with a variety of improvements. Sgt Bash, Growler, Mr, Psycho and Cassius Chrome did not return to the House Robot line-up. In addition to the main house robots, there were two others with different roles in the show. The Sentinel was only featured in the second series and was used as an obstacle in the gauntlet, and Refbot was introduced in the fourth series to ensure fair play in the arena. Neither returned in the 2016 series.

History
The house robots were instrumental in Robot Wars' marketing success. They were designed to be recurring characters for the audience to latch onto. This ensured that there would be familiar robots in every episode even if the popular competitors lost at an early stage, and that Robot Wars merchandise could be produced without having to negotiate royalties with the competitor teams.

The original house robots were constructed and maintained by the BBC's Visual Effects Department, lead by Chris Reynolds. The department eventually closed in 2003, with Reynolds and his team instead becoming employees of Robot Wars itself for the final series. For the 2016 series of Robot Wars, the new House Robots were constructed by creative engineering company Robo Challenge, who have been involved with numerous other television programmes such as The Gadget Show. The four new House Robots took around 7-8 weeks to build.

Unlike the majority of contestant robots, the house robots were often referred to by a gender. Matilda was referred to as "she", whilst the others were often called "he".

After Robot Wars finished, the House Robots were given to Chris Reynolds, but since then, they were reclaimed from him by the BBC and eventually left in storage. Robot Wars Judge Mat Irvine doubted that they remained in perfect working condition, because the effects department often cannibalized electronics from old projects to save money.

As part of an agreement that involved using the Robot Wars brand, Roaming Robots acquired the rights to the House Robots in early 2013. Soon after this they began using a replica Matilda in their live events. In late September 2014, some of the moulds for the original House Robots were put up for sale on the auction site eBay. In early October of the same year, they were purchased by Roaming Robots and Robot Wars LCC. It is believed that their intentions are to use them for making replicas of the House Robots for future events.

In February 2015, Tech Reporter Lucy Hedges posted an image to Twitter appearing to show her with Matilda and Sergeant Bash outside a London storage facility, with the robots looking in good condition despite their age. Almost a year later, just days before the announcement of the new 2016 series of Robot Wars, Team Storm shared this same image, also confirming that the rest of the House Robots were also in the storage facility. Ed Hoppitt later commented to dispel the various rumors as to their whereabouts that had circulated over the years. "They were never 'lost' someone was paying for their storage - it's just some people didn't know who."

- Ed Hoppitt of Team Storm

Dead Metal, Shunt, Matilda and Sir Killalot appeared in the 2016 series of Robot Wars, featuring vast improvements.

In June 2016 when quizzed about Sergeant Bash's absence, the Official Robot Wars Facebook page responded, suggesting the possibility of further House Robots should the there be a second series. "Sgt Bash isn't joining us for this series, as we only needed four for this series. However next time..."

- Official Robot Wars Facebook Page

Shunt
One of the original four House Robots, Shunt is the lightest of all the House Robots, albeit still over the contestant weight limit of 100 kg. Shunt is able to pull a fully-loaded Land Rover, and with its snowplough and scoop weapons it excelled at pushing contestant robots around the arena, and featured heavily in the Sumo Basho Trials event thanks to its incredible power. Also featuring a diamond-edged axe, delivering a blow of 500kg per square cm. However, Shunt was easily flipped and with no way of self-righting, would be left stricken. Shunt formed a rivalry with Series 2 champion Panic Attack, who Shunt attacked during its Gauntlet run, piercing its shell. Panic Attack got even during the later Sumo Trial, Shunt driving off the plinth after several seconds of pushing each other around. For series 3, Shunt's axe was redesigned, making it capable of puncturing all but the strongest of armour. When the weight limit was increased to 100 kg for Extreme 1 onwards, Shunt began to struggle as some Robots were only 5 kg lighter than him, although he did put up some worthy performances. There was also a somewhat comical moment during one of the heats of Series 6, when Sir Chromalot drove into the arena and hit Shunt. Shunt seemed to take offense to this and chased Sir Chromalot to its starting spotlight. By Series 7, Shunt bore the brunt of the most competitor attacks out of all the House Robots, being flipped over by robots such as Gravity, Hydra and Ceros over the course of the series, and was immediately targeted by the competitors in the first round of the All Stars.

Shunt was rebuilt in 2016 with huge improvements - the former lightest house robot now weighs 327kg, further improving its pushing power, and its titanium axe now strikes in a quarter of a second.

Matilda
Matilda was one of the original four House Robots. Based on a mutant alien boar, she is equipped with pneumatic flipping tusks and interchangeable weapons for the rear that can take either a chainsaw or a flywheel weapon. Early footage of Matilda implies that she was originally designed to be black, before being changed to purple. In the earlier days, Matilda was the House Robot most picked on by the contestants, and was often flipped or attacked by robots for fun. After the flywheel was added, she became one of the most dangerous of the House Robots, her flywheel having the capability of throwing a contestant robot clear out of the arena. Weighing in at 116 kg, Matilda wasn't the heaviest of the house robots, but her armament was no weaker. From series 1-4, Matilda utilised a pair of front tusks to lift and flip robots, and a chainsaw running at 3000rpm, before the chainsaw was scrapped in favour of a huge 27 kg spinning disc. Matilda's most famous moment was at the end of the Southern Annihilator, when Razer, having just won the final, set on her, attacking her, mutilating her chainsaw and rear panels. Afterwards, Matilda was seen driving into the arena, heavily bandaged. Jonathan Pearce sometimes jokingly implied there may be a relationship going on between Matilda and Sir Killalot, and to lesser extents Shunt and Sergeant Bash, but this was never expanded on.

Matilda was rebuilt for 2016, featuring a revised design with added spikes, a new 35kg Hardox flywheel at the rear. Her tusks were vastly improved in terms of power, and Matilda's weight increased to 350kg.

Alan Gribble of the Cold Fusion Team built his own version of Matilda which retained the tusks, but lacked a chainsaw or flywheel at the rear, instead comically sporting a feather duster in a similar manner as The Steel Avenger. This version of Matilda became a house robot used for featherweight battles on Roaming Robots' 2013-2016 Robot Wars Live Tour. John Findlay re-added the signature pink flywheel to the rear of Matilda, though it is required to spin at less than 500RPM for safety reasons. It flipped a number of featherweights out of the arena before retiring at the end of 2016.

Dead Metal
Dead Metal was one of the four original House Robots alongside Matilda, Sergeant Bash and Shunt. Designed to resemble a scorpion, it fights by trapping robots with its pincers, and then cutting into them with the circular saw implemented on its "head". It got it's name from the fact that it looked like it had been made from metal found in a scrapyard. Of the "old" house robots, Dead Metal is the quickest at 12 mph. To fit with its lobster appearance, Dead Metal was originally intended to be painted pink, but was left grey to increase his menacing look. For series 1 and 2, Dead Metal looked more like a scorpion, with claws at the front, and a circular saw which moved forward from the back. The circular saw used in series 1 was, most of the time, unreliable and caused little damage, however in series 2, the grinding blade was replaced with a diamond edged blade, and the petrol motor with an electric alternative, but the destructive power the production crew wanted still wasn't there. In Series 3, the circular saw was replaced with a modified Stihl saw blade mounted at the front, which could move forward to attack, giving the impression of a "head". Dead Metal was only flipped once in the original run of the series, by Gravity although Cassius came close in Series 2, as did Firestorm in the Commonwealth Carnage in Extreme 2. Dead Metal did suffer however from maneuverability issues, causing him to end up in the pit four times.

Dead Metal, rebuilt for 2016 now weighs 343kg, with added LEDs, improved speed, and much larger claws.

Sergeant Bash
One of the original four House Robots, Sergeant Bash was designed to look like a military tank with its green army colours and flamethrower turret weapon. It carried a circular saw at the rear, and a sharp battering ram at the front during Series 1 and 2 before being replaced with pincers similar to Sir Killalot's for Series 3. Bash wielded one of the two flamethrowers used in Robot Wars, the other being Growler, as the weapon was banned under regular circumstances. The circular saw was eventually removed after series 3, after it came off multiple times during the first two series. Sergeant Bash is particularly famous for an incident during Heat A of the New Blood Tournament, where Bash started to attack Refbot for unknown reasons, chasing Refbot around the arena spurting fire. When Refbot gave Bash a yellow card, Bash ignored the warning using his flamethrower again, but Refbot countered this with his fire extinguisher. Bash seemed to be vulnerable to flippers, being flipped by Griffon, Bigger Brother, Chaos 2, Thermidor 2 and Firestorm.

Sir Killalot
Sir Killalot (often known as Sir K. or Killalot) is designed to look like a medieval knight with its name being a pun on Lancelot. It took 10 solid days to build Killalot and was still being finished as it was loaded up for travel to the studio. Sir Killalot is armed with a rotating drill and a hydraulic claw, adapted from the cutting jaws that rescue services normally use to save trapped victims from car wrecks. However, Killalot was top-heavy and prone to toppling over, as demonstrated by Groundhog in Series 2, and the petrol powered engine made it susceptible to fire. In fact, Sergeant Bash once set Killalot on fire, by accident, whilst they were attacking a contestant's robot. Killalot's large mass also made it slow, reaching only 5mph, and thus was easy to outrun. As the series progressed, contestant's armor got stronger, and reduced the effectiveness of the jaws. To counter this, Killalot devised a "spin trick", which involved picking a robot up, spinning around on the spot, and letting the robot fly, smashing into anything that was in the way. Killalot was known as the "King of the House Robots" and many brave roboteers attempted to take their grievances out on him. Most notably would be Roger Plant and Wheely Big Cheese, who came closest to flipping Killalot. They failed, however, leaving Sir Killalot as the only House Robot that was never 'properly' flipped.

In 2016, Sir Killalot featured a new revised design. Internally his top speed was doubled, his weaponry and lifting power improved, and his total weight increased by over 200kg.

Growler
Growler was introduced as Mr. Psycho's loyal but terrifying dog, designed by Robin Englebright. The jaws of Growler are capable of creating 4 tons of force. The shell and chassis of Growler is predominantly steel with industrial digger gauge used in the jaw. Growler temporarily had a flamethrower installed for Extreme Series 2, but this was swiftly removed for lack of reliability. With a top speed of 17 mph and a weight of 300 kg, Growler was capable of damage just by ramming into a robot. Growler also utilized a skid-steering system, similar to the one used by Series 6 Grand Champion Tornado.

Mr. Psycho
Mr. Psycho made its debut in the sixth series, designed by Robin Englebright. Mr. Psycho was by far the heaviest of the House Robots, weighing in at 750 kg, and the largest robot ever to appear in Robot Wars history. His design was similar to that of Sir Killalot, featuring caterpillar tracks and a powerful claw weapon. The design differed from Sir Killalot in that Mr. Psycho had a swinging hammer instead of the lance of Sir Killalot; the head of the hammer alone weighed a massive 30 kg. Despite his massive weight, he was not invulnerable to being toppled, a feat Firestorm 4 achieved in Extreme Series 2. Like Sir Killalot, due to his weight, Mr. Psycho suffered from speed issues, only capable of a measly 8 mph, making him one of the slowest House Robots, second only to Killalot (5 mph). Whilst not appearing to be very effective as a weapon, the hammer could wreak havoc with a robot's innards, in some cases enough to completely immobilise a robot with one hit.

Cassius Chrome
Introduced in Series 7, Cassius Chrome was modeled after a heavyweight boxer, with fists and a black eye. Cassius Chrome was the fastest of the house robots, combined with its weaponry of a shovel and two interchangeable "fists" gave it the potential for damage, although the weaponry caused mostly internal damage, causing robots to appear relatively unscathed externally.

Refbot
Refbot was introduced to Robot Wars as the robotic referee of the show for Series 4. It was built with a humanoid form and was created with the sole purpose of making sure there was fair play in the arena. He carried a three light indicator that show either a red card, yellow card and a green light to start the fight. He also is equipped with a fire extinguisher and a counter for counting out immoblised robots before the other House Robots can come out to play. Generally he tends to stay out of the carnage.

The Sentinel
Debuting in Heat G in Series 2, The Sentinel was a large robotic arm on a 180 degree turret, primarily used during the Gauntlet. Because of its status as an "obstacle" rather than a proper House Robot, The Sentinel was not used outside its debut series.

Shove
This untelevised House Robot was designed to push defeated/destroyed competitor robots to the entry gates, where its owners could collect them. Refbot later took over this role for in-house events, but Shove continued to be used for qualifiers and live shows.