Apex

Apex is a heavyweight robot that was armed with a vertical crushing spike, when it attempted to qualify for the 2016 series of Robot Wars. The crushing spike was intended to cause piercing damage, and also serve as the robot's self-righting mechanism, much unlike other robots with the same weapon such as Razer and Tiberius, which have separate srimechs.

Not long after applications for the new series were closed, Apex was rebuilt to feature a horizontal bar spinner on top of the robot, in place of the crusher. It is unknown if Apex was intended to use this weapon on Robot Wars if it qualified.

Apex is the successor to TX-108, a robot that failed to qualify for the final three series of Robot Wars before its 12-year hiatus, but was able to defeat Hypno-Disc in an unaired Wild Card Warriors battle. As such, Apex was originally known as TX-109 when it was built in 2014, but was renamed to Apex the following year. The team had previously appeared on the TV series of Robot Wars with their antweight robot Anto, and their featherweight robot, Gi-Ant-O.

Apex regularly competes at Robot Wars live events, albeit with little success, due to its slow self-righting, and after its conversion into a bar spinner, inability to use its weaspon at speeds higher than 100RPM.

Apex was built by Craig Danby and Chris Danby of Team Danby. Despite this, Apex applied for the new series of Robot Wars under the pure captaincy of Chris Danby, as Craig Danby successfully qualified with another robot made by the team, Foxic. Chris Danby would then join Foxic's team for filming of the series.

Robot Wars Live Events
After TX-108 had regularly participated in Roaming Robots events, TX-109 competed at its first official Robot Wars live event at Newport in 2014. TX-109 continued to take part under the new name of Apex, including an appearance at Barnsley in 2015, though did not find major success.

Apex fought at the Robot Wars World Championships held at Colchester in 2015, where in the first round, it was drawn against Manta, DTK and Titan. DTK was quickly thrown out of the arena by Manta, at which point, Apex broke down. With Manta and Titan both mobile, it seemed as though Apex would be eliminated – however, it was saved by a stroke of luck when Manta threw Titan out of the arena before Apex could be officially deemed immobile. In the second round, Apex faced Thunderchild and Nuts. Thunderchild’s flipper was broken, and so could not self-right when turned over by the floor flipper, leaving Apex to fight Nuts alone. However, Nuts was too tall and slippery for Apex to grab properly, and so Apex lost the Judges’ decision. Apex was given a second chance in a losers’ melee against Cherub, but Apex broke down again, leaving it to be turned over by Cherub’s lifting prongs.

Apex was converted into a bar spinner in 2016, meaning that it could not use its weaponry in its first fight of the Robot Wars Live Tour in 2016, which was at Portsmouth. Apex’s speed controller burnt out during a battle with Behemoth.

Outside Robot Wars
Apex competed at RoboGames 2015, held in the USA, wielding the bar spinner.

Series Record

 * Series 1: Did not enter
 * Series 2: Entered Featherweight Championship with Deadline
 * Series 3: Entered Super Heavyweight Championship with Toxin (event cancelled)
 * Series 4: Failed to qualify with Vindicare
 * Series 5-6: Failed to qualify with TX-108
 * Series 7: Failed to qualify with TX-108 and Tanto
 * 2016 Series: Failed to qualify, Entered with Foxic, Pilot only with Tanto