MouseTrap

"A trap designed to catch more than a mouse..."

- Robot Wars: The Ultimate Guide

Mousetrap (also originally known as The Mousetrap and sometimes spelled Mouse Trap or MouseTrap) was a robot that competed in Series 4 and 5 of Robot Wars, plus entering in the first series of Extreme. It was a wedge-shaped replica of a spring mousetrap, with the trap itself being the weapon. The robot reached the semi-finals of Series 4, losing to the seeded Stinger. In Series 5, it reached the second round of its heat, losing to future Semi-Finalists S3.

The original Mousetrap travelled at 12mph and was made from steel and lexan, scrapyard debris and an old office desk with polycarbonate side armour and was fitted with an 11kg mousetrap weapon made from 10mm high-tensile scrapyard steel. This weapon was powered by high pressure CO2 driving a pair of hydraulic rams and was said to travel at 100mph. Mousetrap progressed through its heat, but lost a drive chain and was immobilised against Stinger in the semi-finals.

For Extreme 1 and Series 5, the polycarbonate side armour was replaced with much stronger steel and spikes and a guillotine blade was added to the trap weapon, the robot itself driven off a dry cell battery. During Series 5, the robot was known as Mousetrap 2. This version was much slower at 8-9mph and less successful, progressing to the second round only because Shredder pitted itself, before losing on a judges' decision to eventual heat winner S3.

Series 4
"Possibly a bit of a grudge match!"

- Julia Reed, after mentioning who defeated Triterobot in the previous wars

Mousetrap entered the Fourth Wars classed as a newcomer, although its team had fought in the previous series with Triterobot, losing in their only battle to Evil Weevil. Incidentally, Mousetrap was placed up against Evil Weevil 2 in its heat, Evil Weevil 2 now the number 12 seeds, in their first round melee of the Fourth Wars, along with newcomers Tiberius. Team Mousetrap had their revenge this time around, although it didn't really do anything to the robot, this was because Evil Weevil 2 broke down very early on in the battle due to an uncharged battery. Mousetrap, already through to the next round of the heat, clashed with Tiberius, Tiberius clawed Mousetrap and poked the desk outer-shell, however no major damage was caused.

Mousetrap was then placed up against Sump Thing in the second round of the heat, another robot from a team that lost in the first round of the previous series. In this battle, the low-tech robot attempted to destroy Mousetrap's spring, which powered the weapon. It was unsuccessful, but appeared to be on top in the battle, until it was lifted off its wheels by its own forklift in a similar way to Razer in the Third Wars, and immobilised. Mousetrap was through to the next round, although quite luckily. In the heat final, Mousetrap went up against newcomers Little Fly. Mousetrap used its trap weapon, but the attack was unsuccessful, just like one of Little Fly's. Mousetrap then drove at it again, pushing Little Fly into Matilda's CPZ. Little Fly was able to do some more damage to Mousetrap before cease was called and the battle went to a judges' decision. The judges put Mousetrap through to the Series Semi-Finals.

In the Series Semi-Finals, Mousetrap was placed up against the number 30 seeds Stinger in the first round. In this battle, Mousetrap wasn't able to accurately hit Stinger at all, while the future Grand Finalist was able to land blow after blow on Mousetrap. After a time, both of the chains of Mousetrap's weapon broke, and it subsequently stopped working. A few seconds of only being able to use the wedge shape with both chains trailing on the floor saw the whole robot slow to a stop in the centre of the arena, this deemed the robot immobilised. Mousetrap was then attacked by house robots Shunt and Sir Killalot, who crushed the side armour and dragged it to the pit of oblivion. Mousetrap's remarkable run ended here as it was subsequently eliminated from the competition. "Those earlier victories...now mean nothing!"

- Jonathan Pearce, as the house robots close in on the immobilised Mousetrap

Thanks to reaching the Series Semi Finals, the robot was nominated for the Most Promising Newcomer award for Series 4, despite the team having fought before, but lost out to Tornado anyway.

Extreme 1
"We'll show 'em who's boss!"

- Jason Launchbury, before the mayhem

Mousetrap's only appearance in either series of Extreme was in a Mayhem qualifier battle in the first series of Extreme for a right to fight in the second annihilator of the series. Mousetrap was drawn up against Atomic 2 and Fighting Torque. However, a problem with its trap mechanism left it defenseless, as it fired only once, before activate was sounded, from then on it was stuck in the activated position. Mousetrap was continually flipped around the arena by Atomic, with Fighting Torque largely staying out of the way of the action, Atomic finally left Mousetrap upside down to be counted out by Refbot, flipped by the arena floor flipper, and left for Dead Metal to slice and cut into. Fighting Torque later suffered a similar fate to Mousetrap, and Atomic 2 was declared the winner of the Mayhem and was due to proceed to the annihilator. "The only thing Mousetrap caught were a kickin'!"

- Craig Charles, after the mayhem

Mousetrap 2 was also due to be entered by Stan Launchbury into the Forces Special, which aired during the first series of Extreme. Mousetrap was to represent the Fire Service, however, Mousetrap was too badly damaged to participate as the damage it sustained from S3 in its Series 5 heat was so severe. Instead, Rob Heasman of the Steg-O-Saw-Us team helped Stan create Oblark to represent them instead. This damage caused in Series 5 also stopped Mousetrap taking Atomic's place in the annihilator when the latter was unable to fight (also due to damage done in Series 5). As a result, Fighting Torque took Atomic's place in the form of Hippobotamus.

Series 5
"Will this prove the big cheese, this time around?"

- Jonathan Pearce

Returning for the Fifth Wars, Mousetrap 2 was seeded number 20, this being a rather lowly seed considering its predecessor reached the semi-finals of the previous series. In its first round battle, Mousetrap 2 was pitted up against Shredder. Throughout the battle, Mousetrap 2 seemed incapable of landing a noticeable blow on Shredder to cause any real damage, but Shredder was using its discs to grind at the side of Mousetrap 2. Luckily for Mousetrap 2, Shredder backed into the pit before it could cause any more damage, this put the seeded machine through to the next round of the heat.

Mousetrap 2 was then drawn against the much fancied S3 machine in the second round. In this battle, S3 couldn't cause any severe damage to Mousetrap 2's front end, so Mousetrap 2 drove into S3, making it go up its wedge. Mousetrap 2 swung the trap mechanism and sliced into S3's armour, while S3 chewed up the hose wrapped around the bottom of the trap. For at least thirty seconds, the two robots remained locked together, with the spring having become caught in S3's spinning disc and preventing it from spinning. Mousetrap 2 bulldozed S3 back into a CPZ, looking to win the fight. However, S3 broke free and began to use the weapon to wreck Mousetrap 2. As time ran out, S3 tore a huge chunk of armour from it. These attacks put S3 through to the heat final, with Mousetrap 2 bombing out of the competition. "That was too close!"

- Dave Barker of the S3 team, after the battle

Results

 * }


 * }

Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 4
 * Losses: 3

Series Record

 * Series 1-2: Did not enter
 * Series 3: Entered with Triterobot
 * Series 4: Semi-Final, Round 1
 * Series 5: Heat, Round 2
 * Series 6: Failed to qualify with Mutant Mousetrap
 * Series 7: Entered with Black and Blue

Trivia

 * Robot Wars: The Ultimate Guide makes a mistake by stating that Triterobot (mistakenly spelled Tri-Terra-Bot) was succeeded by S3. S3 actually succeeded Sting, whilst Mousetrap succeeded Triterobot. Ironically, S3 and Mousetrap 2 fought in Series 5.
 * In the Fifth Wars, Mousetrap 2 was given the lowest ever ranking to a Semi-Finalist from the previous series, ranked number 20.
 * It was actually seeded below four Heat Finalists from the previous wars.
 * Had Mousetrap defeated S3 in its Series 5 battle, it would have fought a vengeance battle against Stinger.