The Steel Avenger

"There's a cutting blade on the nose to inflict maximum damage when ramming - and a pneumatically-powered axe with interchangeable heads! OUCH!"

- Robot Wars Fun Fax on The Steel Avenger

The Steel Avenger (later written as Steel Avenger) was a heavyweight robot, entered by Team Steel Avenger, formerly known as The Pneumatic Fanatics. The team competed in Series 3, 4, 5 and 7 of Robot Wars, also entering in both series of Extreme. During this time, it reached two heat finals and finished as runners-up in the Tag Team Terror of Extreme 1 alongside Suicidal Tendencies.

The team often sported shiny metal breastplates, which garnered them the untelevised "Best Costume" award in Extreme 1. It also won the award for Best Engineered robot in Series 4.

Design
The Steel Avenger was a two-wheel driven, plough-shaped robot armoured with aluminium and stainless steel panels and polycarbonate bulletproof casing, armed with a large pneumatic axe as its weapon. The design of the robot was so that when at its maximum speed, a charge and impact from the bladed, arrow-shaped end would cause severe damage. The best example of this was its Mayhem battle, where it sheared a wheel off King B Powerworks. In addition to its weaponry, The Steel Avenger often sported a brightly-coloured feather duster, to "keep the arena clean", however, this was permanently removed from the robot after Series 5. It was powered by two 750 watt industrial Bosch motors in every appearance. The bodywork was originally covered in a silver coating, with Evo-Stick Bonded stainless steel on top and aluminium sides, as the robot was originally made to vaguely resemble a medieval knight's suit of armour complete with steel chassis. It originally had two interchangeable axe heads in Series 3, a pick and a broad axe which were mounted on a hinged arm, to function like a mace. A third axe head was built, a mace, but this was not brought to Series 3, although it was mentioned by Jonathan Pearce. The top speed was 25mph, making it one of the series fastest robots, but due to a lack of control, this was reduced in later wars. "After getting my design together in January, I started collecting scrap metal and cut my first bits on Valentine's day. The Steel Avenger was basically up and running by the Auditions in May, but then there followed months of further development of the weapon system, re-working of the axles and bearings (the first design of which proved to be totally inadequate), fitting a gyro system and so on. The whole thing was also stripped down and drilled to bits to lose some weight as well!  Our entire project was carried out on the floor of my garage, with me working all day every Sunday and most evenings, sometimes until 2 in the morning just to get it all done.  Having said that, I am a perfectionist and I will spend time tidying up and polishing a part that other people would not bother with.  I must say here that Tony was doing 110 mile round trips every Sunday for three months to get as much done as he could."

- John Willoughby, interviewed on Tectonic Robot Wars

For Series 4, The Steel Avenger underwent a lot of improvements. The hinged arm was scrapped, having been deemed too week by the team, in favour of the sharp steel axe on a solid arm that was featured in all subsequent appearances. The axe mechanism was improved, and the interchangeable axe heads were replaced with a single axe head, made of 5mm steel with a hardened edge. "...and this [the axe] will come down on you with the force of Dawn French in a pair of stilettos."

- Julia Reed on the axe

The stainless steel top “doors” and sides were replaced with 10mm thick polycarbonate, as it was lighter. Aluminum side bumper bars were added to protect the robots sides, which the team had viewed as too soft. The gearing was improved, reducing the top speed to 15mph, making it much more controllable. The batteries were changed for lighter ones, and the robot was lengthened by six inches to make room for a self-righting mechanism, operated by cables, where one cone on each side would come out to tip the robot over }.

"…and this year, we’ve made some improvements; we’ve got a bigger ram inside, which fires the axe. The ram delivers 500 pounds of thrust. We’ve got a new up righting mechanism, which is these two arms that come out, and they’re joined to a lifter which is our second weapon for this year. It can easily lift 100 kilos, so we’re hoping to do some damage this year!"

- John Willoughby lists the improvements to The Steel Avenger in Series 5

For Extreme 1, the team added a rear lifter to The Steel Avenger, a new drive assembly, and two mini axes on each side for a self-righting mechanism. The self-righting mechanism worked by braided steel wire, which was attached to the lifter, so when the lifter fired, the side axes would fire. Also. the chassis' original length was shortened by five inches to meet these requirements, and to accommodate the new 100kg weight allowance. The side bars were removed. The 5cm ground clearance was reduced, though it was still vulnerable at 2cm. "The plan was to get the new robot – SA2 - ready for Series 7 and go back in there with all guns blazing. As it happened it was never going to be finished in time, so we reluctantly dragged old Steely out of retirement for one last time so we could take part again."

- John and Jacky Willoughby

The Steel Avenger underwent minor modifications for Series 7, borrowing components from its planned successor SA2, such as a gas bottle which had a different dip tube system and allowed a full 1.1 kg gas fill without problems. The old bottle only used to allow a 500gm fill which was why The Steel Avenger often ran out of gas and got stuck. The axe head from SA2 was also fitted in Extreme 2 and Series 7, a 3/4 inch thick lump of steel. The last change was to strip down the rear lifter to just a skeleton so that the weight saved allowed for the other changes. After Robot Wars was finished at the end of Series 7, SA2 was given back the parts that the original robot had borrowed for the series, but ultimately SA2 was never completed.

The Team
"I became gradually more hooked on the programme as I watched series 1 and then series 2. I was lying in bed in January '99 with Flu and doodling with a few ideas for a robot and suddenly decided 'What the heck - let's go for it'. All my life I have been building mechanical and electronic things, and this seemed like something which would be right up my street and would bring together all the various skills and interests which I love. I sent off my Robot Wars Club membership application and the ball was now rolling."

- John Willoughby on joining Robot Wars

The Steel Avenger was entered by a team from Essex, captained by John Willoughby, who drove the robot. The other ever-present member of the team was Tony Bates, the team's co-builder and mechanic. Tony Bates actually lived over 50 miles away from John Willoughby, in Suffolk. In Series 3 and 4, the axe was operated by Kevin Cockerill.

After Series 4, Kevin was replaced by John's wife Jacky, who had previously been in the audience at Series 3. "I was staying at home, getting jealous of them having so much fun. So as soon as I got a chance I was in there."

- Jacky Willoughy in Ultimate Real Robots Magazine

From Extreme 1 onwards, the team wore breastplates, with John and Jacky wearing silver ones, and Tony wearing a black one. "We had about two weeks before Extreme and they said to us, would we like to make some costumes, and we thought "You've got to be kidding"."

- John Willoughby, interviewed in Ultimate Real Robots Magazine

At the end of Extreme 1, the team were awarded with the Best Costume Award, an award made specifically for them. However, the presentation of this award was not shown on the televised show.

Qualification
Unseeded for Series 4, The Steel Avenger entered a preliminary qualifying battle. There it met hopeful newcomers Rotraktor. In a closely fought contest, The Steel Avenger was constantly offensive, creating a decent amount of successful axe blows, ramming, and in turn withstood Rotrakor's shoving attacks. The fight ended in a stalemate, and The Steel Avenger was declared the overall winner by an applause vote from the audience, and therefore secured its place in the Fourth Wars. The Steel Avenger went on to qualify for every other series it applied for.

The team however did not enter Series 6, having been exhausted after all the repairs they had to do after Series 5 and Extreme 1.

The team intended to enter Series 7 with a new build, SA2 (Steel Avenger 2), which was armed with a front lifter as well as an axe. However, it was not finished in time, and the team instead qualified for the series with a modified version of The Steel Avenger.

Series 3
"Series 3 was our first attempt after finding the programme on TV and thinking “I can do that!”"

- John Willoughby

For its first Robot Wars appearance, The Steel Avenger was placed in the penultimate heat of the Third Wars, and was placed up against a returning team with Schumey Too, in its first round battle. "Heavy, but nippy. Strong, with aluminium and stainless steel panels. Dangerous, with an axe, mace or pick at the end of the pneumatic arm. Two electric motor driven, is the new avenger of Robot Wars."

- Jonathan Pearce describes The Steel Avenger

The two robots started by charging at each other, but both robots swerved to try and get at their opponents side. The Steel Avnenger hit Schumey Too's side, but missed with the axe as it was facing the wrong way. Schumey Too turned and pushed against the side of The Steel Avenger, but The Steel Avenger reversed away as it tried to get its lifter underneath. The two robots turned to face each other, but The Steel Avenger turned too far and missed its axe blow. Schumey Too pushed The Steel Avenger towards the pit of oblivion, but The Steel Avenger reversed away just in time, after its front ram hung over the edge. It was helped by being caught on the lifter of Schumey Too, which reversed away. "How many robots has the pit caught in this series of Robot Wars? It's big, it's open, it's black; everyone in the world can see it, apart from the Robot Wars drivers!"

- Jonathan Pearce

The Steel Avenger then turned off the lifter of Schumey Too, then reversed away, but drove close to Shunt. It reversed quickly to dodge the axe blow of the House Robot, then charged up the arena, driving into the wall. As The Steel Avenger reversed away from the wall, Schumey Too caught up and got under The Steel Avenger, which fired its axe, but to no effect as it could not reach its opponent. The Steel Avenger fell against Schumey Too's side, and Schumey Too drove past. The two robots turned to face each other again, and The Steel Avenger missed another axe blow as Schumey Too pushed against one of its front corners. The Steel Avenger reversed away, then kept its distance as Schumey Too chased it. The Steel Avenger turned around as Schumey Too drove at it, and though the axe did hit the top of its opponent, it bounced off. Schumey Too lifted it up and pushed it, but The Steel Avenger reversed off the lifters. The Steel Avenger tried to axe Schumey Too, but Schumey Too pushed against The Steel Avenger, causing it to miss again with the axe. "Interesting that The Steel Avenger is built like some great knight from Camelot, because John Willoughby is a great fan of King Arthur, castles and knights of the Round Table. His role model: John Steed, the old character from the Avengers series."

- Jonathan Pearce

The Steel Avenger landed another blow as Schumey Too drove past it, which failed to puncture again, though did do some superficial damage. Schumey Too turned and drove head-on at The Steel Avenger, which fired its axe, but missed. The Steel Avenger turned away as Schumey Too tried pushing it, then missed with the axe again, having turned too far as Schumey Too turned around. Schumey Too got at the front corner of The Steel Avenger, and The Steel Avenger fired another axe blow that missed. As Schumey Too lifted The Steel Avenger, The Steel Avenger reversed off and away up the arena. Schumey Too drove onto an arena spike, which flicked it up a couple of times. Schumey Too seemed unaffected as it turned around, but it drove close to the pit, and The Steel Avenger charged at its side, pushing it over the edge of the pit, axing it as it did so. Schumey Too fell into the pit, putting The Steel Avenger through to the next round.

Before the next battle, the team had to mend the pick, which had become bent by its repeated axe blows. "I counted that Kev got in 11 full whacks with the pick, about three of which made contact"

- John Willoughby

The Steel Avenger was then placed up against Team Nemesis with their new Diotoir machine in the second round. Before this battle, The Steel Avenger exchanged the pickaxe for the broad axe.

The two robots slowly approached one another, then Diotoir stopped. The Steel Avenger tried to drive around Diotoir to attack their side, but Diotoir turned and blocked them with their lifting arm. Diotoir tried to get under its opponent, but The Steel Avenger reversed, but then drove straight into Dead Metal. The Steel Avenger was able to quickly reverse away before the House Robot could grab it, but went into a spin and drove into the wall. "Working its way away from danger, but Dead Metal has a long memory."

- Jonathan Pearce as The Steel Avenger escapes Dead Metal

As Diotoir closed in, The Steel Avenger reversed, driving over the flipping arm. It turned around, but in doing so drove onto the flame pit, then reversed into the wall. It turned to fight Diotoir, but turned too far, hitting the fence with its axe. Diotoir got in with its flipper and lifted The Steel Avenger up against the arena wall. The Steel Avenger fired its axe to try and get itself down, but to no effect. However, Sergeant Bash then came out of the CPZ and knocked The Steel Avenger back down. The Steel Avenger drove away from the wall, trying to get behind Diotoir, but Diotoir turned. Its flipped fired too early and missed, and The Steel Avenger fired the axe, which merely bounced off the flipping arm. Diotoir pushed The Steel Avenger into Dead Metal, but the House Robot merely pushed it out of the CPZ. The Steel Avenger charged at Diotoir, but glanced off the side. It turned around, but missed its charge and drove past Diotoir. Diotoir tried to get under the side of The Steel Avenger, which charged forwards to get away, but crashed into the wall. As it turned away, Diotoir got underneath it and used its wedge to turn The Steel Avenger on its side. The Steel Avenger had no means of self-righting, so it was deemed immobilised. "That was their only viable tactic, and it's paid off!"

- Jonathan Pearce as Diotoir tips The Steel Avenger over

The Steel Avenger was ambushed and attacked by Shunt (which was not shown on TV) and had a huge hole smashed into it, as well as having the axe head cut off by Sergeant Bash. Cease was eventually called and The Steel Avenger was eliminated from the competition. "I would just love to get my own back on them [The House Robots], and avenge the damage they do to our robots. Maybe next time."

- John Willoughby

The Steel Avenger was also due to take part in the Tag Team Terror event, where it was due to be partnered with More Panda Monium. However, the event was cancelled due to a behind-the-scenes accident that caused a delay in filming.

Series 4
"Back to avenge defeat by Diotoir last time!"

- Jonathan Pearce

Competing in Heat M of the Fourth Wars, The Steel Avenger now featured a pair of self-righting spikes. In its first round battle, it faced the eleventh seed Wild Thing and newcomer Humphrey. The Steel Avenger started tentatively, staying out of the action as Wild Thing and Humphrey initially drove around each other. Wild Thing then got underneath The Steel Avenger and pushed it around the arena, holding it in place with its new self-righting lance until The Steel Avenger escaped, darting over a flame jet. The Steel Avenger circled around Wild Thing in an attempt to axe it, but could not get into position, and was pushed by Wild Thing into Matilda, who thrust The Steel Avenger onto the wall, where it was left on its side. Matilda re-righted The Steel Avenger, before flicking its feather duster off and out of the arena as it escaped and again drove onto a flame jet. After this, Wild Thing continued to push The Steel Avenger around the arena and into Matilda again, while Humphrey became immobilised and was attacked by the House Robots after suffering control problems throughout the battle. Unseen on the televised broadcast, The Steel Avenger had also bumped and axed Humphrey before Wild Thing's intervention. Even so, it was continuously pushed and lifted by Wild Thing for the remainder of the battle, at one point ramming Dead Metal while he was slicing into Humphrey. At another point missing Wild Thing's wedge with its axe, before being pushed into Sir Killalot. Needless to say, both The Steel Avenger and Wild Thing progressed to the next round, as Humphrey was flipped by the Floor Flipper and paraded around the centre of the arena by Sir Killalot. In the second round, The Steel Avenger faced the twenty-seventh seed, and fellow Essex entry, Sir Chromalot. It immediately pushed Sir Chromalot into the side wall spike, was picked up and spun round the circular body, and rammed it a few times before attempting to axe it several times and missing. As the pit descended, The Steel Avenger finally managed to strike Sir Chromalot's wheel hub body with the axe, only causing minimal damage, although the full battle saw The Steel Avenger inflicting several more blows which were edited from the televised broadcast. The Steel Avenger then pushed Sir Chromalot around again, breaking its drill weapon in the process, before nudging it towards the pit, where Sir Chromalot toppled in.

"Kevin got stuck in with the axe-swinging, landing strikes on it [Sir Chromalot] several times. Great stuff. However, when it came around to watching the recorded fight on TV most of our strikes were cut out, and the rest of the time just showed us not hitting him properly. So I don't know what has happened with that missing footage there."

- John Willoughby

In the Heat Final, The Steel Avenger faced Wild Thing once again. It dodged Wild Thing's initial charge before being shoved around the arena numerous times, at one point being driven into Sir Killalot's CPZ and landing an axe blow on Wild Thing's wedge as it was lifted up after an inaccurate first attempt. Yet more bumping, pushing and circling round ensued, before Wild Thing got underneath The Steel Avenger again and tipped it over using its wedge. However, The Steel Avenger's self-righting spikes failed to work, and the tip of the axe blade was stuck in the arena floor, rendering it immobilised on its side and open to attack from the House Robots. Sir Killalot promptly crushed and dislodged The Steel Avenger's top armour with his jaws, destroying one of the self-righting spikes in the process, before he backed away to allow Wild Thing to push The Steel Avenger into the pit. Following this defeat, The Steel Avenger was eliminated from the Fourth Wars, but won the 'Best Engineered' award at the end of the series, beating the previous year's winner Chaos 2. This order of merit had also granted The Steel Avenger a discretionary placement in the next series.

Extreme 1
The Steel Avenger now had side-axes to replace the self-righting spikes, and was also equipped with a rear flipper. It made its first appearance in Extreme Series 1 by challenging Behemoth for the Challenge Belt, this battle being the main event in the first episode of the series. In the battle, despite striking Behemoth several times with slams and strikes from the axe, The Steel Avenger was flipped over and over by Behemoth, almost out of the arena at one point, before managing to lever itself back on the floor with its axe, but was then left immobilised in the CPZ. Refbot didn't count The Steel Avenger out so Behemoth self-righted The Steel Avenger, but then toyed with it from then on before flipping it over again, cease was then called and the outcome of the battle was obvious, the winner being Behemoth. Still, The Steel Avenger gained some credit in the battle, by knocking out Sir Killalot's blinking red light eyes, when a swing from the axe blade clipped against the house robot's helmet.

The Steel Avenger also fought in the Extreme Series 1 Tag Team Terror tournament, it fought alongside Suicidal Tendencies. "We teamed up with Suicidal Tendencies to do the Tag Team event, as we had met each other before at Debenham and fought there. It seemed like a good idea to join forces and see what we could do together."

- John Willoughby

In the first round, the pair went up against Napalm and Sir Chromalot. The Steel Avenger chopped and rammed Napalm, before tagging out Suicidal Tendencies. Suicidal Tendencies crumpled what was left of Napalm, and Sir Killalot then came in and picked up and dumped Napalm outside of the arena. Much of the action was edited out of the The Steel Avenger and Sir Chromalot fighting, but both The Steel Avenger and Suicidal Tendencies were then locked together, briefly, while Sir Chromalot was dumped in the pit of oblivion by Sir Killalot. This had The Steel Avenger and Suicidal Tendencies progressing through to the second round.

They then fought Cerberus and Thermidor 2. The Thermidor 2 machine and The Steel Avenger rushed out to interfere with Suicidal Tendencies and Cerberus' battle, so it turned into a free for all. After a lot of bashing and receiving a couple of axe blows, Thermidor 2 broke down completely, and both Suicidal Tendencies and The Steel Avenger had dealt decent blows to Cerberus. The Steel Avenger then tried lifting Cerberus, before attempting to push Cerberus into the pit, and almost falling in itself, but survived. Yet, both sides held on for a judges' decision, and the duo won the overall decision, and met Pussycat and Diotoir in the final.

Both robots were concerned by Pussycat, but The Steel Avenger team also had to fight a grudge match Diotoir. Suicidal Tendencies held its own against Pussycat, but Diotoir intervened without a tag and The Steel Avenger rushed out to meet it. However, during the confusion Diotoir flipped over The Steel Avenger over and pinned it down, with Pussycat cutting into it as well, but missing the vitals. The Steel Avenger struggled to self-right, and needed assistance from its partner, only to be flipped again afterwards. When free, The Steel Avenger rammed Diotoir and Pussycat, and landed a few axe blows on Diotoir which went unaired, but cease was called. "I thought that, with the last thrust of the fight on our part, and the great control that ST was showing over Pussycat, we might have got the judges' decision. Craig kept us on tenterhooks as the result came through and it went to..... Pussycat and Diotoir! Ah well, we tried"

- John Willoughby

The Steel Avenger later fought in a Mayhem qualifier battle for the right to fight in the second Annihilator of the series. It was placed up against Tornado and King B Powerworks, both of them being invertible 4-wheel drive 36 volt machines with cutting discs as weaponry. In the battle, Tornado cut into The Steel Avenger with its disc, but The Steel Avenger managed to hold its own and landed axe blows on both opponents. Tornado then cut a huge hole in the side of The Steel Avenger, but The Steel Avenger retaliated using its rear lifter. "They hit us broadside on and our right-hand side panel just exploded! That was a 10mm sheet of new polycarb which just shouldn't do that. The result was a big hole in our side, but no damage done to any of the works."

- John Willoughby

Not long afterwards, Tornado broke down from damage inflicted by King B Powerworks' forks, leaving The Steel Avenger and King B Powerworks to fight alone. The Steel Avenger then charged at full speed and the 100 kg mass of The Steel Avenger did its job; breaking a wheel right off King B Powerworks, and threw more axe blows. As time ran out, The Steel Avenger approached Matilda's CPZ, without going inside it, and Matilda hit The Steel Avenger with its flywheel and knocked it onto its side, but this was not taken into consideration in the judges' decision that was to follow. The decision went in favour of The Steel Avenger, putting it through to the Annihilator. "Now this is, I've been informed, a really close call. But they've gone for Steel Avenger!"

- Craig Charles

In the Annihilator, The Steel Avenger was up against Panic Attack, Fighting Torque, Disc-O-Inferno, Napalm 2 and Spirit of Knightmare. The Steel Avenger managed to get through the first round after only taking a few hits from Disc-O-Inferno, and delivering axe blows on Napalm 2 and Spirit of Knightmare, but Fighting Torque and Napalm 2 turned into the centre of attention. Napalm 2 was sliced by Disc-O-Inferno and rammed by Spirit of Knightmare and was moving only in circles by the end of the fight. However, Fighting Torque was charged and axed by The Steel Avenger, shunted across the arena by Spirit of Knightmare and finished off by the disc of Disc-O-Inferno. Fighting Torque was counted out by the Refbot and subsequently eliminated from the first round.

However, The Steel Avenger automatically qualified for the third round as Napalm 2 was forced to withdraw from the Annihilator due to the damage that it sustained in the first round battle. In the third round, The Steel Avenger started under pressure from Panic Attack, as it was lifted onto its side and pinned against the wall briefly, before righting itself. It returned to the battle by attacking Spirit of Knightmare, missing its gas bottle by just a few centimetres, and then attempting to axe Disc-O-Inferno, but the latter easily sped away. The Steel Avenger then targeted Panic Attack, failing to break through its armour but landing blows on its side skirts and forks. However, in retaliation, Panic Attack raised and pushed The Steel Avenger, who was then flipped by Spirit of Knightmare into Disc-O-Inferno's spinning flywheel weapon and onto its side. With so much gas having been used up already in the battle, The Steel Avenger was unable to self-right with its side axes and was eliminated after later being counted out by the Refbot. "As it turns out, we didn't go out alone. We had all caused so much damage to Panic Attack that he was out of it as well. We had hit them very hard, and Kim said that we had broken their front fork actuators. They were indeed smashed very badly and it was more than a pits job to put it back together. Also Panic Attack's back end had been hit so hard by Disco that it was very badly damaged and the magnets had gone in one of the motors...but it was good to be instrumental in taking out one of Robot Wars' most celebrated machines"

- John Willoughby

Series 5
The Steel Avenger returned for the corresponding main competition and was surprisingly unseeded for the Fifth Wars, despite reaching the Heat Final of the previous series. The robot competed in Heat A of the main competition and was placed up against Scottish newcomers, The Tartan Terror, in the first round. In the battle, The Steel Avenger was the better driven robot as it first rammed the spinning Tartan Terror about for a short period, and axed it three times in succession. Then using its rear lifter, The Steel Avenger shoved the barrel-shaped robot into the CPZ with ease, where house robot Shunt joined The Steel Avenger in axing the newcomers' machine. Between the two axes, The Tartan Terror ground to a halt and suffered cracked ribs, before Sir Killalot and Shunt had it lifted onto and then off the side wall. Despite taking the damage well, The Tartan Terror still broke down and was counted out by the Refbot. Shunt then wrapped up the fight by pushing the Tartan Terror onto the flame grille and floor flipper, leaving it thrown and torched, and The Steel Avenger went through to the next round. The Steel Avenger limped out of the arena with a flat tire, from running over one of the Tartan Terror's studs that had come loose. After the team fixed the machine, The Steel Avenger's next opponent was the double reigning champion, Chaos 2. "We have become good friends with the Chaos team, and they are really nice people, but that wasn't going to stop us trying to do whatever we could to win"

- John Willoughby

In this battle, The Steel Avenger got flipped straight away by Chaos 2, but self-righted quickly. This was a recurring incident as The Steel Avenger was being flipped repeatedly by Chaos 2 throughout the battle, but the side srimechs surprisingly kept working and so did the robot. The Steel Avenger also put up a decent fight, taking some colossal impacts without breaking down. At the start of the fight its axe just caught the back compartment of Chaos 2, narrowly missing the electronics, and also managed to get a good hit on it down the side of the flipper later on. The Steel Avenger had then forced Chaos 2 near to a CPZ before getting flipped once more. Suddenly, whilst The Steel Avenger was self-righting, Chaos 2 slid beneath and shoved it over to the corner where it launched it up onto the rail. The Steel Avenger teetered on the brink for a moment, but then fell over, out of the arena, landing on one of the lights, this eliminated The Steel Avenger from the competition. This was supposed to be this version's last appearance, but this turned out not to be the case.

Extreme 2
The Steel Avenger came out of retirement, for what was intended to be the last time before it was replaced with SA2. It returned to compete in the Tag Team Terror tournament, without the feather duster this time, but since Suicidal Tendencies was no longer competing in Robot Wars, The Steel Avenger fought alongside a new Tag Team partner, newcomers to the televised show Lightning. "We teamed up with the Lightning boys...their first appearance on Robot Wars and we were pleased to be partnering such a well-built machine."

- John Willoughby

In the first round, the pair was placed up against Nasty Humphrey and Stinger. At first in the battle, Lightning went out to fight Nasty Humphrey. After a promising start from Lightning, The Steel Avenger tagged out to fight Stinger. The two robots attempted to hit each other with their weapons and missed, before Stinger started spinning on the spot. The Steel Avenger charged at its opponent and stopped it from spinning; this impact also caused Stinger to lose drive in one of its wheels. The Steel Avenger took advantage of the situation and nosed Stinger towards the pit using the aid of its plough shaped front. Once Stinger dropped into the pit of oblivion however, gravity caused The Steel Avenger to follow it in as well. This left Lightning alone to fight Nasty Humphrey once again, however Lightning managed to defeat Nasty Humphrey on a judges' decision, meaning that Lightning and The Steel Avenger were put through to the second round of the competition. In the Semi-Final round, The Steel Avenger and Lightning were placed up against Robochicken and Bulldog Breed, who had previously defeated the reigning Tag Team Terror champions in the first round of the competition. In this battle, Bulldog Breed quickly put Lightning out of commission with one very powerful flip in particular, and The Steel Avenger rushed over to aid its ally. However, it soon became clear that Lightning was out of action completely from a lost radio battery, and The Steel Avenger was left alone to fight Robochicken, as Bulldog Breed took on Growler. The chicken put some huge flips in, and whilst The Steel Avenger righted itself each time, the previous Tag Team Terror finalist finally succumbed to low gas, and had failed to axe either of its opponents. The Steel Avenger was overturned once again by Robochicken, right onto its back, and with limited gas left on board, The Steel Avenger couldn't self-right. Cease was soon called, and The Steel Avenger and Lightning were eliminated from the competition.

Series 7
"...Steel Avenger, very experienced in the eye of survival over the years, one big question, why has it never really succeeded?"

- Jonathan Pearce

SA2 was due to attempt to qualify for the Seventh Wars, but it wasn't completed coming up to the time of the qualifiers, so the team brought the original Steel Avenger machine back out of retirement once again to fight for one last time, with little modifications. "It turned out that we were in the 'Heat of Doom (or Death)' as various people had called it, being grouped with some nasty spinners such as Shredder and Supernova. Storm 2 was also in this heat and was a very powerful rambot. As it turned out, the first fight of the group was between Supernova, Storm 2, Mayhem and Rhino, which kept us out of the worst of it, thank goodness. There were some awful noises coming out of the arena from where we were standing."

- John Willoughby

In its first round melee, The Steel Avenger was placed up against previous heat finalist Shredder Evolution and new robots to the main competition in Trax and Sub-Version 1.1. At first in the battle, The Steel Avenger took on Shredder Evolution, in an attempt to take out what the team considered to be the most potent of the robots. The Steel Avenger shoved Shredder Evolution into the CPZ, along with Sub-Version 1.1. Next, The Steel Avenger ran up the front of Trax, and quickly landed an axe blow before being flipped. However the Essex machine managed to self-right. The Steel Avenger then chased down Shredder Evolution again, and pierced its axe inside Shredder Evolution's left wheel guard and The Steel Avenger dragged Shredder Evolution over to the flame pit. It held the previous heat-finalists over the flame pit for a while, before the other two competitors swarmed in, after having their own private encounter. The Steel Avenger turned back to Trax, giving it a good axe slam just off-screen, and was soon flipped again by Trax, but once again swiftly self-righted. Then The Steel Avenger struck the titanium top of Shredder Evolution, narrowly missing a wire, and then struck again to drag it around, but let go and reversed away just as time was running out. As cease was called, Trax pitted Sub-Version 1.1, Shredder Evolution hit The Steel Avenger's axe and put a large S-Bend in the arm. However, the judges' decision put The Steel Avenger through to the next round of the heat along with Trax, and eliminated Shredder Evolution. "Controversy reigns again on Robot Wars, what are you thinking?"

- Craig Charles, to the judges, upon hearing the decision

The second round saw The Steel Avenger be placed up against the experienced Team Reactor, with their limping Rhino machine. This battle proved much more tentative, particularly in comparison to both of their battles in the first round. In the battle, despite taking a few flicks from the Rhino lifter, The Steel Avenger recovered each time and managed to land around a dozen successful axe blows, causing fine damage, whilst shoving it around the arena. These axe blows were eventually enough to slow Rhino down to a halt, immobilising Rhino, although its weaponry was still working. The Steel Avenger was suffering from leaking batteries, but still managed to activate the pit release button, and The Steel Avenger eventually line up and shove the immobilised Rhino machine down into the pit of oblivion for the win, this sent The Steel Avenger through to the Heat Final. "As I said, it's not a great robot, your robot, but do you know why? It's because you never improve it! You come back, year after year as the same thing!"

- Craig Charles to The Steel Avenger team

It was now that The Steel Avenger was placed up against the number 16 seeds Storm 2. In this battle, Storm 2 immediately ploughed straight into and underneath The Steel Avenger, just as The Steel Avenger fired its axe, therefore missing with its strike, but also catching the axe pick in the arena floor. Once The Steel Avenger eventually came free of the arena floor, Storm 2 rammed it again, but The Steel Avenger then retreated towards the CPZ, dodging around house robot Matilda. Storm 2 did the same as it was in hot pursuit. As The Steel Avenger came broad side onto Storm 2 again, and fired with the axe again, Storm 2 rammed The Steel Avenger once again, this time the seeded machine had a long run up and rammed it at speed right into the corner of the arena, into the CPZ. The Steel Avenger flew straight over the arena side wall from the impact of the seeded machine, and was therefore eliminated from the competition. This was The Steel Avenger's last appearance in Robot Wars before being finally retired for good to make way for SA2 (which would never be completed). "I thought Steely had done really well this year for such an old machine. To have made the Heat Final was more than I had expected we could achieve and I have to remind myself that we only went along to have some fun!"

- John Willoughby

Results

 * }

Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 11
 * Losses: 8

The second round of the Annihilator, skipped because Napalm 2 withdrew from damage, is omitted from the wins tally.

Outside Robot Wars
Like many Robot Wars competitors, The Steel Avenger team entered Techno Games with a weaponless Steel Avenger called Tin Tackler. It entered the Football event, teaming up with its Robot Wars Tag-Team Terror partner Lightning (known as Thunder in Techno Games). In Techno Games, the team was joined by Ian Swann from Team Chaos.

The Steel Avenger competed at the Debenham Robot Rumble 2000 after Series 4, but it was flipped against the wall by Suicidal Tendencies and axed repeatedly, until The Steel Avenger lost the Judges' decision. At Oundle Mill in 2001, The Steel Avenger fought Chaos 2 using a novelty hammer.

"ST lifted and pushed the Avenger about, at one point even turning them on their side and peppering their underside with holes. Suicidal Tendencies were the clear winner."

- Team Tornado website

After Robot Wars was cancelled, The Steel Avenger was retired and regularly appeared as a static display at the annual Debenham robot rumbles, alongside all three Cassius models, Chaos 2, and other famous Robot Wars robots that are now retired.

In 2011, The Steel Avenger was sold to Team Enigma, and has since been entered into various robot events such as Robots Live! and Roaming Robots, with the feather duster attached again for some battles.

It again changed hands to John Findlay, who allowed the robot to fight at Robot Wars live events before The Steel Avenger became part of the Extreme Robots Platinum VIP package, allowing fans to drive The Steel Avenger against other past competitors. If an Extreme Robots events is low on competitors, The Steel Avenger occasionally fights during the show, defeating Halo in September 2018 at the Chatham event. The robot is now painted black on the front, with a face seen on torpedoes.

SA2 was sold to Team Shock with the intention of finishing it and competing with it in the future. It was planned to return in September at the Bluewater event, to be renamed Shockwave. SA2's axe setup was later purchased by Gareth Anstee, while the current whereabouts of the machine remain unknown.

The original Steel Avenger made an appearance on Dave TV show Storage Hunters UK in 2015, where it was "sold" to a bidder alongside Ripper, Bulldog Breed, Beast, Major Damage and more for £1400.

Robot Wars Live Events
The Steel Avenger competed in the first live event of the new Robot Wars at Portsmouth in March 2013, where it took part in the main competition and fought Bullfrog, Weird mAlice & TR2 in the heats, but it fell at this stage after Bullfrog flipped it against the arena wall, where it could not self-right. It also fought at Guildford 2013, where it fell in the Heats of the competition after being flipped out the arena by Manta. Also in 2013, The Steel Avenger featured as a static display at the Gloucester and Newport events, alongside several other Robot Wars veterans like Axe-Awe, The Big Cheese, X-Terminator and Stinger.

It returned to fighting again in 2014 at the Guildford event with both its axe and rear lifter working. As of November 2014, The Steel Avenger has been reserved as a retro class robot only- along with fellow Robot Wars veterans Stinger, X-Terminator, Bulldog Breed, Mr Nasty & Schumey Too.

Trivia
"We had the idea the cones might somehow deflect axe blow, but with the axes around today they wouldn't have made a blind bit of difference."
 * The Steel Avenger (along with Diotoir) is the only robot to collect more than ten UK combat victories without once winning a heat.
 * Originally, The Steel Avenger was intended to have many cones on each side, giving the robot an appearance like a hedgehog. However, in order to keep to the weight limit, only three were used on each side.

- John Willoughby in Ultimate Real Robots Magazine


 * Also, in the original design, The Steel Avenger had a face painted on, to go with the hedgehog appearance. This was not used on the robot when it appeared on television, but after being sold, a face would be painted on.


 * The Steel Avenger was the first and only returning robot to win the Best Engineered Award.
 * Despite its good reliability throughout its Robot Wars career, five of The Steel Avenger's eight losses were the result of it being flipped, with four of those being attributed to its self-righting arms failing to work.
 * The Steel Avenger, Terrorhurtz and Thor are the only robots armed with bladed axes to have immobilised an opponent with this weapon type.
 * In Extreme 1, The Steel Avenger was incorrectly stated as having gone out in the first round in both Series 3 and 4 ahead of its Challenge Belt match against Behemoth, when it had actually reached the second round and Heat Final in each.
 * In addition to its main appearance in Series 4, The Steel Avenger made an additional cameo appearance in the German broadcast of Heat K, where it appeared in a behind-the-scenes segment explaining the Robot Wars scrutineering process.
 * John Willoughby was part of The Steering Committee.