Nuts

"Never in my wildest dreams did I think this lumbering daddy long legs of a robot would make it this far in this competition!"

- Jonathan Pearce during Nuts 2's campaign in Series 10

Nuts (rebuilt for Series 9 and 10 as Nuts 2) was a heavyweight robot which entered Series 8-9 of Robot Wars. The original version reached the Head-to-Head stage in Series 8, losing all three matches there, but surviving to two Judges' decisions in the process. Nuts 2 was eliminated in the first round of Series 9, after suffering drive issues and being thrown out of the arena by Matilda, but returned to Series 10 in greater form, achieving a string of knockouts and then beating the defending champion Carbide, before finishing in joint third place alongside Behemoth.

Nuts
"...all eager to do damage with spinners, axes, flippers and...whatever that is."

- Jonathan Pearce previewing some competitors, including Nuts, in Meet the House Robots

Nuts was a two-wheeled thwackbot armed with a set of chain flails as its primary weapon. Its wheels were made from HDPE, a very tough plastic. The robot protected its huge wheels with a metal ring around the outside, which the flails are attached to. The ring was able to rotate vertically in order to provide extra mobility, turn the robot over to escape from danger, and the ability to lift other robots, as well as satisfying the requirement for a robot to have an active weapon. Nuts had a top speed of 13mph, and its combined weight with its minibots was 110kg. Like most thwackbots, Nuts could spin on the spot at 180rpm for a defensive form of attack, with exceptionally far reach due to the length of its flails. Nuts was accompanied by two smaller wedge-shaped minibots, to attempt to impede the movement of opponents by driving underneath them, and cause distractions. The clusterbots were originally covered in fur which had to be removed for safety reasons. The team claimed that Nuts sacrificed better armour to make its weaponry as strong as possible.

"Our unique style of weaponry comes from our original design of making this sort of cheap robot, and wanting something very unique that... the live events at the time are very dominated by wedge-shaped flippers. We thought, what's as far away from that as we can go?"

- Alex Shakespeare

Nuts 2
Nuts 2 used a lighter and more compact design, now weighing 97kg (90kg in Series 9), and swapped the square ring for an octagonal ring. Its 3m flails had 2kg heads, and Nuts 2's upgrade to 20mph top speeds in Series 9 meant that the robot could now spin on the spot at well over 300 RPM. The drive speed was further upgraded to 26mph in Series 10, enabling spins at almost 400 RPM. Nuts 2's wheels were sleeker, and abandoned the self-righting aids on the side of the previous version. Its chassis was made from 3.2mm HARDOX, with 6mm HARDOX end caps, while the ring was made from 3mm mild steel. In Series 10, Nuts 2 had interchangeable outer rings, including the hexagonal ring from Series 9, a solid flailess toothed ring and the original style square ring. "This thing should pack a serious punch! Similar to being hit by a 180mph sledge hammer in fact..."

- Team Nuts Facebook page

The team had aspirations of using Meltybrain technology to enable Nuts 2 to controllably move around the arena while spinning, being the first robot on the show to use such a method. However, due to a lack of testing, the Meltybrain was not used in Series 9. "A "Meltybrain" controller works by measuring how fast the robot is spinning, and then stopping each motor for a section of the rotation. Repeating this over and over causes the robot to move forward whilst spinning. By having the drive system power the weapon as well, it reduced the cost and made the robot more reliable by having fewer moving parts. It's also a unique system that hasn't been seen on Robot Wars before, so we wanted to try it out."

- Rory Mangles in Robot Wars: Build Your Own Robot

Nuts 2 was accompanied by three new minibots in Series 9, which were lighter than that of the previous series at 3kg each. The minibots' wheels were no longer exposed, slotting into the 10mm HDPE base plates of each minibot, compared to the 8mm HDPE of their predecessors.

"All fully CNCd, including custom battle hardened googly eyes!"

- Team Nuts Facebook page

When Nuts 2 returned in Series 10, the Meltybrain technology was implemented, allowing the robot to fight at its full potential, with the flails proving capable of punching through HARDOX armour. It possess interchangeable rings, and its top speed was upgraded from 20 mph to 26 mph. The revised Nuts 2 could spin up to full speed much more quickly as a result of these changes, which also rectified the reliability issues which affected it in Series 9. However, Nuts 2 was hampered somewhat by poor traction on the arena floor, which reduced its Meltybrain movement to a very slow speed, and affected its spinning and driving as the wheels slipped.

Nuts 2 was accompanied by another new selection of minibots in Series 10; all four are invertible, two-wheeled wedge-shaped robots with a top speed of 12mph and individual designs. With Team Nuts consisting of three members in this series, only two of the minibots could be used in the arena at any one time. The minibots consisted of the following machines, two of which were new to Series 10:
 * Red and blue minibots with googly eyes and black front wedges, each originally used in Series 9.
 * A second red minibot (driven by Chris Shakespeare) with green wheels and two extended forks at the front. The forks are spiked on top to hold robots in place, at the cost of nullifying its wedge when inverted.
 * A white minibot (driven by Alex Shakespeare) with green wheels and powered by brushless motors, giving it six horsepower of drive. This robot features a bulkier design with two red wedges at the front, as well as an opening in the main body of the wedge which houses an on-board camera.

Series 8
Nuts received an extremely tough draw for its first battle, as it was pitted up against Razer, Terrorhurtz and Robin Herrick with his new machine, Kill-E-Crank-E, all three of which had been grand finalists in previous series of Robot Wars.

Although its minibots quickly fled, Nuts started slowly, being pushed towards the fire by Terrorhurtz, avoiding an axe blow, eventually being rolled over by Terrorhurtz and Razer. Nuts was pursued by Terrorhurtz, and drove over the pit, which Kill-E-Crank-E had just opened, narrowly avoiding an early demise, but tumbling over in the process. Nuts righted itself, and span on the spot as a defensive technique, but Razer had pierced one of its minibots, and held it aloft. Nuts continued to spin in the face of Terrorhurtz, landing blows while being edged back. Nuts was backed into a corner, but at this stage, Razer pitted Kill-E-Crank-E, and was dragged in with it, so Nuts was left victorious alongside Terrorhurtz.

"Look at the boys from Nuts, they've got more tricks up their sleeve than Derren Brown, they say, and they're stunned, they're through!"

- Jonathan Pearce

This put Nuts through to the head-to-head stage, where it would be guaranteed another three fights. In the first, Nuts fought another Robot Wars veteran, Behemoth. It was flipped over straight away by Behemoth, so Nuts span in circles in the centre of the arena, sending its own minibot reeling away. Nuts was flipped into the clutches of Dead Metal. Slowly escaping, Nuts was guided into the pit release button by Behemoth, which then launched a Nuts minibot high into the air, while Nuts became stuck after one of its flails became trapped under the floor flipper. Although it freed itself, Nuts did not capitalise on Matilda throwing Behemoth over, instead driving into the pink flywheel to take damage itself. After Behemoth launched a minibot again, Nuts took an offensive approach, wedging under Behemoth's open scoop to push it back, and attack with the flails. In the final moments of the fight, Nuts and its minibots were tossed by Behemoth until time expired, and the battle was sent to a Judges' decision.

The unanimous decision was awarded in favour of Behemoth, so Nuts was next drawn against bar spinner Carbide. "Our tactic against Carbide is to try and use our chains to disable their weapon. They're in a bad state, so we think if we can make them impart a lot of energy, wasting it on stuff like our chains, their spinner mechanism will eat itself and from there we can have the main part and the minibots go to town and take it to the pit."

- Alex Shakespeare

Although Nuts used its usual tactic of spinning on the spot, this did not deflect the bar spinner, and two hits from Carbide removed Nuts's outer rim, including the chain flails. With no weapon and a damaged wheel, Nuts simply ran away, but crashed into the arena wall, and sustained further damage from Carbide. Nuts avoided Sir Killalot, but a huge blow from Carbide threw Nuts straight into the pit release button, and Carbide's next attack split a wheel from Nuts, throwing the wheel out of the arena. With only one wheel left, Nuts could no longer move, and it was rendered immobile while Carbide attacked a minibot, which surprisingly remained mobile, but this loss made it impossible for Nuts to qualify for the Heat Final.

"Myself and Angela were watching this battle in the other control room, and midway through, there's an almighty crash against the glass we're watching, and this was the shard of Nuts that had come smashing at us at God knows what speed, and it's razor sharp!"

- Dara Ó Briain's 'near-death experience' from a piece of Nuts

Despite being eliminated from the competition, Nuts still needed to be repaired in order to fight Terrorhurtz for a second time, despite the extensive damage taken. Dara Ó Briain and Team Nuts joked that they may have needed to compete with only the minibots that compete alongside Nuts. "Do you like jigsaw puzzles?"

- Dara Ó Briain

Nuts re-entered the arena, battered and bruised, but functional, with one minibot alongside it. It was axed by Terrorhurtz and pushed into Shunt, but Nuts managed to hook Terrorhurtz when its chain flail slotted through a gap in Terrorhurtz's armour near its wheel. This did not prove to be advantageous, as an axe blow from Terrorhurtz caused Nuts to lose its outer rim once again, leaving it without a weapon for a second time. Curiously, Nuts' rim was still stuck to Terrorhurtz, which used the rim to attack Nuts in combination with axe and spinning attacks. Out of options, Nuts opened the pit, but was pushed straight towards it and barely avoided falling in. With one minute remaining, Nuts was axed by both Terrorhurtz and Shunt. A minibot trapped Terrorhurtz in place, so cease was called after three minutes without a knockout.

Nuts had survived until a second Judges' decision, although it lost the decision unanimously again. Nuts therefore exited the Head-to-Head stage with no wins, but it had proven entertaining along the way. "The real star of the show was Nuts, because its control was beautiful! They managed to survive for three minutes with a broken robot, that was astonishing!"

- Professor Noel Sharkey

Series 9
Nuts 2 competed in Heat 1 just like in the previous series, once again facing Terrorhurtz; but also facing newcomers Rapid and former team member Dave Lawrie's new machine Jellyfish. Chris Shakespeare threatened to turn Jellyfish 'into sushi'.

When the battle began, Nuts 2's minibots spread, but the main robot was suffering a drive failure on one side from the start, preventing it from spinning up to speed, uninvolved with the main action. Matilda flipped Nuts 2 to try and bring it into the fray but its movement was limited and only inflicted a glancing blow on Terrorhurtz before the three active robots avoided it again. Nuts 2's white minibot became stuck under Terrorhurtz, and was flipped over, while the red minibot had blown its fuse.

"Nuts 2, turning, spinning... control problems?"

- Jonathan Pearce

Nuts 2 was slowly turning on the closed pit, when Rapid rushed in and closed its flipper on Nuts 2's flail, trapping it. This allowed Rapid to push Nuts 2 into Matilda, and the House Robot flung it out of the arena using her flywheel. The white minibot remained active, attacking Terrorhurtz and turning itself over again, also being slammed by Rapid while Jellyfish was being counted out, but with the main robot out of the arena, Nuts 2 was eliminated from the competition. "One of our ESCs got stagefright and wouldn't function properly. It was fine all through testing but the moment it saw the arena it played up. The exact cause was interference into the ESC's signal line... That was shielded."

- Team Nuts on Reddit

Later into the competition, Rapid forfeited during the second round after sustaining heavy damage from Aftershock, so one robot from this melee was given the opportunity to rejoin the competition, but as Nuts 2 was the first robot to be immobilised in the battle, Jellyfish was the robot chosen to be reinstated. Regardless, Rory Mangles and Alex Shakespeare were invited to join Jellyfish's team for its remaining two fights with Terrorhurtz and Sabretooth, helping to repair the robot along the way. Jellyfish lost to Terrorhurtz, but won a close battle with Sabretooth. "No wonder the Nuts team have been back to help them, their machine's out!"

- Jonathan Pearce during Jellyfish's head-to-head with Terrorhurtz

Series 10
"It may seem odd, but I think that Nuts 2 is worth watching this series. They have been the clowns of Robot Wars for the past couple of series with their crazy design. Nuts 2 may look just the same as it’s previous version but when you look closer it has a much more robust frame and massively upgraded motors to power those enormous flails."

- Professor Noel Sharkey

Nuts 2 competed in Heat 4 of Series 10. In its first battle, it fought the newcomer Androne 4000, and a Grand Finalist from the previous series, Concussion. Rory Mangles spoke to Angela Scanlon about the new Meltybrain technology, hoping for success in the arena.

Nuts 2 held off in the opening stages, in order to reach maximum spinning speed, while Concussion and Androne 4000 fought separately. The minibots briefly harassed Androne 4000 while Concussion engaged Nuts 2, with the latter's flail smashing the former's wheel hub and limiting Concussion's mobility.

"The flail is up to speed and whirring, oh and Concussion gone on the attack, and I think that's damaged one of the wheels of Concussion!"

- Jonathan Pearce

Bolts was flipped upside down by an arena spike. Nuts 2 maintained full spinning speed as it slowly coasted around the arena, while the red minibot attacked Androne 4000, and the white minibot used the floor flipper to right itself. Nuts 2 closed in on Concussion and Androne 4000, striking both with its flails. The white minibot wedged itself under the now-inverted Concussion briefly, while Nuts 2 drove closer to its opponents to start spinning within their proximity. However, at this stage, Androne 4000 drove over the floor flipper while gripping Concussion and broke down, unable to release Concussion, leaving Nuts 2 the winner by proxy. To secure the knockout, Nuts 2 closed in on Androne 4000 and Concussion, spinning its flails along the surface of both robots.

"Look at him battering it!"

- Angela Scanlon

Nuts 2 punched a hole in the side of Concussion, and 'cease' was called. Team Nuts were unsure if they had won the fight at this stage, due to Concussion still being mobile within the grip of Androne 4000, and it was unclear if the fight had lasted for three minutes. Dara Ó Briain was the one to break the news of victory to Team Nuts.

Nuts 2 progressed to the Semi-Final stage, and after Androne 4000 and Concussion both won their Robot Redemption Knockouts, Nuts 2 would face Androne 4000 for a second time in its next battle. Alex Shakespeare was confident, knowing that Nuts 2's minibots had previously held Androne 4000 still, allowing Nuts 2 to spin up to speed, which the team wanted to repeat. Angela Scanlon predicted that Nuts 2 would win the battle, based on the damaged state of Androne 4000 following its battle with Tauron. "If we win here, we go straight through to the Heat Final, which is kind of scary, because you know... it is Nuts, and Nuts isn't supposed to be a good robot!"

- Rory Mangles

In accordance with their strategy, Alex and Chris Shakespeare drove their minibots into Androne 4000 while Nuts 2 reached a high spinning speed, delivering a huge hit when Androne 4000 reached its opponent. Nuts 2's attack caused Androne 4000 to leak hydraulic fluid, also bending the crushing arm and denting its back armour, although Androne 4000 was able to push Nuts 2 towards Dead Metal, where it quickly escaped. As a result of the earlier attack from Nuts 2, the hydraulic pipes of Androne 4000 had now completely burst, spewing hydraulic fluid across the arena. Nuts 2 span in place while a panicked Androne 4000 drove over the floor flipper, and due to the loss of hydraulic fluid, Androne 4000 could no longer self-right. A victorious Nuts 2 bumped into Androne 4000 without spinning until 'cease' was called.

Having reached the Heat Final, Nuts 2 entered another rematch, this time against the drum spinner, Concussion. To defend against the spinning flails, polycarbonate panels were added to the side of Concussion, appropriately named the 'Nut Busters', to protect its wheels from the initial blows of Nuts 2. "A win here, and these jokers will finally be taken seriously!"

- Angela Scanlon

Unopposed by the Nuts 2 minibots, Concussion charged straight into the spinning Nuts 2, with its wheels protected. However, the pressure of the flail spinner led Concussion to drive onto the floor flipper, where it was thrown into the spinner. Nuts 2 landed successive blows onto Concussion, which drove onto the floor flipper again, and was turned over. In its advantageous state, Nuts 2 continued to spin in place, even throttling its own red minibot, while Concussion struggled to drive while inverted due to the addition of its polycarbonate sides. The white minibot had also been immobilised at this stage after suffering a direct hit from Nuts 2. "Taking out his own teammates, there!"

- Dara Ó Briain

Nuts 2 edged towards Concussion, which was trying to use gyroscopic forces to turn itself back over, and caused more damage. Concussion was left near Shunt, which took away the power of the drum spinner with an axe blow, and Nuts 2 struck the side of Concussion, then ripped away a 'Nut Buster' with its next attack. The red minibot pressured Concussion, which was immobile on one side, stuck on the arena spikes. The red minibot attempted to block the turning of Concussion, as Nuts 2 landed another hit. Although Concussion still had an active wheel, the damage exerted by Nuts 2 on the weakened machine led Dorset Roboteering Team to voluntarily cease the movement of their machine, and Nuts 2 was awarded the win by knockout, sending it through to the Grand Final.

In the Grand Final, Nuts 2 was drawn against two robots which defeated it in Series 8, Behemoth and Carbide. It entered with the red minibot used in Series 9, and the minibot with forked wedges.

In the battle, Nuts 2 took up its usual tactic of immediately spinning on the spot, while its minibot with forked wedges was immediately disabled. Carbide and Behemoth ignored Nuts 2 at first until the other minibot pressed the pit release button just as Behemoth was over it, causing Behemoth to instantly descend. Carbide then attempted to engage Nuts 2, but the latter's flail precisely nailed Carbide's weapon chain, breaking it and rendering the champion defenseless. Nuts 2 was thrown by the floor flipper as Carbide attempted to reverse into the flails, but this didn't seem to work as the minibot was shoving it away.

"Nuts 2, a very very difficult machine to get close to, to push. You get close to Nuts 2, and you're gonna be destroyed!"

- Jonathan Pearce

Carbide pressed the Dial of Doom, activating Rogue House Robot. Sir Killalot shoved both competitors around briefly before returning to his CPZ. Nuts 2 then pressed the Dial of Doom, activating the Fog of War. After it dissipated, Carbide became stuck on top of the minibot, and was almost counted out before managing to drive away with only one second left on its countdown timer. Carbide continued to move around the arena with no answer to Nuts 2 while the latter continued attacking, hammering Carbide's body and leaving dents and scratches all over it, eventually shearing part of its wheel. Time ran out and the judges unanimously awarded the win to Nuts 2, over the defending champion. "To be honest, I don't think I should be interviewing [Rory Mangles], I should be interviewing whoever drove the tiny robot."

- Dara O'Briain praises Alex Shakespeare's performance driving the minibot

Nuts 2's victory in the Group Battle put it straight through to the semi-final, where it faced Carbide again. For this battle, Carbide added a piece of metal scavenged from Rapid known as 'Nut Guards' to protect its weapon chain, and Nuts 2 replaced its broken minibot with a blue wedge.

As the battle began, Carbide charged straight for the spinning Nuts 2 but was deflected away twice. Unlike Concussion's protective add-on, however, Carbide's worked very well and successfully blocked Nuts 2's flails. Nuts 2 wobbled around and its ring dipped low enough to be partially sheared off by Carbide's bar. With only one flail and half its ring left, Nuts 2 still managed to spin but was hit by Carbide again. The minibot activated the Fog of War, after which Carbide hit Nuts 2 again. Nuts 2 drove erratically into the wall, with only one wheel working and its insides exposed. Nuts 2 continually moved around in uncontrolled spurts, so Carbide held off and performed a victory spin while Nuts 2 was eventually counted out, once the robot fully stopped moving.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 5
 * Losses: 5

Outside Robot Wars
After Series 8 ended, Nuts was repaired to fighting condition and in October 2016 appeared at a Robots Live! event in Stevenage, fighting in the 2016 FRA UK Heavyweight Championship. It beat Gabriel in round one, before progressing along with Dystopia in round two after the latter flipped out Photon Storm, before losing to TR2 in the quarter-finals. Nuts also lost to Gabriel in the subsequent losers' melee, but its impressive performance meant that it finished fifth overall.

Nuts 2 fought its first live battle at the Burgess Hill event hosted by Robots Live!, where it fought Or Te, Suspension and Weird Alice. However, it had to enter the arena without its flails for safety reasons, and was eventually stranded by Weird Alice. Nuts 2 was also defeated in a melee with Behemoth, Eruption and TR3.

In the lead-up to the Series 10 Grand Final, Rory Mangles and the original Nuts machine appeared on BBC Points West, where a BBC presenter drove Nuts in a battle between it and Two-Headed Death Flamingo, driven by Mangles at his farm. Nuts was ultimately stranded on its side, losing the battle, but the programme wished Nuts 2 luck in the Series 10 Grand Final.

The members of Team Nuts all have their own teams and fight with their own robots in both live events and antweight class events. Dave Lawrie, Chris Shakespeare and Alex Shakespeare joined Rory Mangles' Team Nuts for Series 8 of Robot Wars. For more information on their excursions, see the Team Nuts page.

Robot Wars Live Events
Nuts made its combat debut prior to the TV series at Robot Wars live events, competing at various Robot Wars Live Tour events, albeit with few victories.

Despite this, Nuts performed reasonably well at the Robot Wars World Championships in 2015. Nuts fought Iron-Awe 7, Meggamouse and Weird mAlice in the first round, where it qualified after Weird mAlice was thrown out of the arena by Iron-Awe, and Meggamouse drove into the pit. In the second round, Nuts was drawn against Thunderchild and Apex. Thunderchild’s flipper was not working, so was rendered immobile after being turned over by the floor flipper, leaving Nuts to fight Apex alone. Nuts won the resulting Judges’ decision due to its aggression and damage caused in the battle. Nuts was eliminated in the quarter-finals, after being immobilised by repeated axe blows from Thor destroying the removable link.

Trivia

 * The original Nuts cost around £1,100 to build, making it one of the cheapest robots in Series 8.
 * Throughout its heat in Series 10, Nuts 2 only fought two different robots. In the Grand Final, it also fought only two robots, totalling four opponents in its entire campaign.
 * Originally, Nuts 2 was intended to appear in Episode 2 of Robot Wars: World Series, but was unable to do so, due to damage inflicted by Carbide, which also withdrew from the same episode.