User:Jimlaad43/Wafflings

Here is a page that I will use for any lists (apart from the favourite and worst bots) and other warblings or rants about Robot Wars to not clutter up my user page.

Organisation mistakes
This is a place where I will discuss mistakes and problems (in my opinion) with broadcast and organisation over the course of Robot Wars.

1: Series 3 Seeds This seems to be the biggest bugbear on the wiki. Without seeding, many robots were let down by bad draws. Some heats were packed of heat winners (Cassius 2, Plunderstorm, Pussycat) while others only had one veteran (Razer, Milly-Ann Bug). I have compiled a list of how I would award a 1-16 seeding places based on series 2 and 1 finishes, plus the bias placed towards Razer, but only by giving it a low seeding. 1 - Panic Attack 2 - Cassius 2 3 - Beast of Bodmin 4 - Mortis 5 - Haardvark 6 - King Buxton 7 - Behemoth 8 - Napalm 9 - Facet 10 - Mace 2 11 - Plunderstorm 12 - Chaos 2 (Heat Finalist and Series 1 finalist) 13 - Pussycat (Series 1 finalist) 14 - The Big Cheese (Heat Finalist and Best Engineering winner) 15 - All Torque (Heat Finalist) 16 - Razer (Best Design) This would lead to a reshuffling of the heats. Heat A would contain the same unseeded bots (Suicidal Tendencies, Weeliwako etc) but swap Mace 2 for Panic Attack. The heats would follow the pattern A-1, B-3, C-5...O-4, P-2.

2: Semi-Final line-ups I never thought that the semi finals were set up right. Series 4 saw 16 robots reach the first round, but the draw was weird. Chaos 2 faced Steg 2, 2 finalists from series 3! I know that Steg was seeded 7th, but it should still be avoided. Series 7 seemed to be a similar mismatch of seeds. The splitting each semi-final into odd high seeds and even high seeds was good, but this fell apart in Series 7 as the draw became stupid, for example 1st faced 6th and 3rd faced 16th. It should have been 1-15, 3-13, 5-11, 7-9 before 1-15 vs 7-9 and 3-13 vs 5-11 in the second round. This would make the routes for the top 4 seeds fairer and wouldn't get high seeds knocked out by the champ (if they'd got through, Spawn Again would have had to face Tornado in the first round, knocking out one of only 6 (7 if you count Terrorhurtz) returning heat winners, whereas they would have to face Bulldog Breed in my line-up).

3: Series 7 weapons rule changes The fact that Mentorn tried to disqualify Storm II for not firing its weapon was completely contradictory. There had already been 3 accounts of weapons never moving in the heat. T-Wrecks is one of them, but the matter has been discussed many times and it lost anyway, so didn't matter. The next battle is UFO on its first round. The flipper broke, so it was a moving wedge, but a lot more boring than Storm II. It stayed out of the way as Behemoth knocked Tartarus and Crushtacean out. Why didn't Mentorn try to disqualify UFO then, or force a reserve to enter when it became obvious that there would be no weapon. Finally, the Heat E (A) Final where Tetanus Booster met Tornado and the electronic lifter... but hang on, I don't think the lifter moved. No, one of the two robots that caused the no moving weapons rule to be introduced had turned up with a scoop containing a lifter that "broke" early in the battle. Plus the rule meant that Stinger (who I aren't really a fan of at all) wasn't able to compete. Just watch Stinger vs Fluffy and tell me that the mace wasn't a moving weapon. Finally, what the producers managed to do was kick out their favourite robot. With the maximum pressures rule introduced, Razer were disqualified from Series 7. Now I don't know if the team was willing to compete in the series at all, but if they were, and were told to not turn up despite being worthy 2nd seeds, double world and all-stars champion, former annihilator winner and series 5 champ after all the gerrymandering in the first few series with overly ambitious seedings and weak heats, then the produces messed up very badly.

4: Series 7 reserves Not really knowing what the reserves were, it is tough to know who would replace the missing robots, but the lack was a bad thing. Heat B was depressingly boring with the exciting robots being eliminated in round 1 (Kan-Opener and Terrorhurtz). As stated in many places, the producers knew that Terrorhurtz wouldn't be able to compete. Why not tell George Francis to get Chaos 2 match fit in the time from hearing the Terrorhurtz news and, like Panic Attack, give the controls to the other two teammates. Bring Chaos 2 in as a 'reserve seed' and make Heat B slightly exciting. As for ThUnderpants, they broke down and went down to fix their bot. In this time, why weren't a team of reserves told to prepare in case ThUnderpants wasn't ready. In the world championship, when Typhoon 2 withdrew, finding a replacement would be hard. Storm II and Tornado were already competing and X-Terminator was too badly damaged. Razer weren't allowed to compete, and Firestorm V, the Commonwealth champions were in the All-Stars. Therefore, to be honest, without Typhoon 2, there was no bot that should have replaced it, unless a british qualifying battle occurred as a special event in the All-Stars episode.

5: Sumo Basho 16 competitors, 16 heats, Sumo Basho shown in heats A-H? Either show 1 per heat, or make more. What I would have done is made each seed do the sumo basho. In heat A, the Heat P seeds, Hypno-Disc and Cerberus should have done the sumo. I liked the sumo basho and the lack of it in heats I to P disappointed me.

6: Tornado's naff heat in series 7 The producers of series 7 didn't like rambots. This meant that Tornado and Storm II had an uphill climb to make. However, the defending champs were given an easy heat while Storm II were given "the heat of death". Because Tornado had such a naff heat with un-interesting bots in it, when ThUnderpants withdrew, it was swapped with Heat E, because the producers wanted an explosive start to the series with M2 scoring 2 OotA's in the first battle and a tense final vs Tiberius 3. Storm II, who had added a lifting arm were placed in an evil heat with 3 robots that could have easily been worthy of the much disputed 15th seed, Shredder evolution (Series 6 heat finalist), Supernova (Series 6 heat finalists and long time competitor) and The Steel Avenger (Series 4 heat finalists and fan favourites). Tornado - 1st seeds, Devastator - New boys so unknown quanitity, Ewe 2 - The guys who bought you Lambsy, Saw Point 2 - Fell apart in the Minor Meltdown. ThUnderpants - Purveyors of rubbish bots Team Panda, Barber-Ous 2'n a bit - Heat finalist in series 6 and fell apart, Leveler 2 - New boys with weak flipper, Tetanus Booster - Unimpressive in previous series. Storm II - 16th seeds, Supernova - Heat finalists, Rhino - heat finalists with reactor, Mayhem - Newcomers The Steel Aveneger - Long time competitor and previous heat finalist, Shredder Evolution - Series 6 heat finalists, Trax - New blood competitors, Sub-Version - Armed forces veterans If Tornado had a harder heat (for example if Leveler 2 was swapped with Gravity) then A: Tornado might have had some good competition and B: The producers would have had a good heat to start the series with and keep the heat order correct. On the other hand, Storm II had to battle through a really tough heat as it was a "Tornado-Clone" that the producers wanted to eliminate, while letting the primary box on wheels get through easily.

7: Foreign Champions in Series 7 Now, I don't know about Black Hole or Panzer Mk. 4, but PulverizeR wanted to qualify for UK Series 7. As the Dutch champs, surely they could have been invited to have free entry into Series 7, even if they didn't take it. PulverizeR, Black Hole and Panzer were brilliant bots and it would have been interesting to see how they would have fared in the UK Championships.

8: Extreme 1 House Robot Rebellion This was the main event of one episode of Extreme 1. The 3 robots that competed were completely ineffective against the house robots. Scorpion with a weird reshaped body and a chainsaw were never going to cause damage, Plunderbird 5 with a poxy crusher and Stinger with a weapon only effective if an opponent strays too close. As proved many times, house robots were only immobilised by flippers (All but Killalot), competent crushers (Razer vs Matilda) and spinners (Supernova vs Sir Killalot). So a low powered crusher that got broken quickly, a chainsaw and a thwackbot ignored as the others were attacked made the House Robot Rebellion a waste of time.

9: Featherweight heat structure The featherweight championship in Series 7 had such a weird structure. 18 robots entered with 3 heats and a final. So, 3 heats of 6 robots seems logical doesn't it. Hang on, 7 bots/7 bots/ 4 bots???.

What should have happened, but never did
This is a section for stuff that should have happened, but never did.

1: A House Robot Sent OotA It would have been the greatest moment in Robot Wars. The bot would have been a legend. Teams tried, the Flipper Frenzy in Extreme 1 and round 1 of the Series 7 All-Stars. Here, they were close, but not quite enough. The power of flippers after the weight limit went up from 80kg to 100kg increased massively, and the robots were flipping 100kg opponents out of the arena easily and with lots of height and trajectory (Wheely Big Cheese vs Axe Awe, Spawn Again vs Chip). At 105kg, just 5kgs more than the maximum for wheeled robots, Shunt must have been waiting for the inevitable. However, it was not to be and will forever be a dream.

2: Robots that disappeared after 1 series There were some great 1 hit wonders. Pitbull came into Series 3 and won its heat (Controversially) and then disappeared without any trace. Other heat winners from series 3 like Blade and Trident tried to enter but couldn't. These were also sad losses. Different people have different regrets, such that Wheely Big Cheese and S3 had to pull out after 2 years of success due to money and time problems, but my biggest loss is Anarchy. It was a walker that could fight. It had two weapons, one flipper that should have sent Inshredable OotA and an axe "as powerful as Chaos 2's flipper". In my opinion, that was the second best axe in Robot Wars and only one of three robots to create good axes along with Terrorhurtz and Dominator 2. I have not found any reason anywhere as to why Anarchy never competed in Series 7. I would say that that as a heat finalist and from the team that entered 101, it would have deserved that controversial 15th seed and won Heat H.

3: The People's Choice battle I can understand why Razer and Hypno-Disc didn't want to fight each other in Extreme 1 in the People's Choice battle, but it is sad that they never met at all.

4: Bigger Brother in Series 5 In a comment on a YouTube video of the Series 5 Semi-Finals, someone said that Bigger Brother robbed Series 5 of 3 great battles after its two victories before the final. If Chaos 2 had beaten Bigger Brother, the Grand Final would have seen Chaos 2 fight Hypno-Disc with a srimech. After this battle, the final would have either been Chaos 2 vs Razer or the people's choice, Razer vs Hypno-Disc, with the third place playoff of Chaos 2 vs Firestorm. However, Chaos 2 lost and Bigger Brother faced Hypno-Disc. Gashes in the side, a broken flipper and much damage, it looked like the perfect final, Razer vs Hypno-Disc, but Bigger Brother then shoved Hypno-Disc in the pit. Suddenly, the big battle was gone and Razer took the championship easily. Don't get me wrong, I really like Bigger Brother, I see it as a great flipper and the team are really likeable, but its success robbed us of some great fights in Series 5.

Unconvincing Starts
Some robots blasted onto the scene, dominating their opening match before carrying on the success and becoming feared robots (For Example: Dantomkia, Hypno-Disc, M2). Others went on to great things but started off rather badly. 1: Typhoon 2. Yup, the Series 7 champs started so unconvincingly. By Extreme 2, the team had won the lightweight championship, the middleweight twice and come second in the same competition once as well. Naturally, a heavyweight robot was on the cards. Typhoon 2 was entered into the Annihilator, where it was punctured by Kan-Opener and flipped over by Raging Reality, thusly eliminated in round 1 of the annihilator. Typhoon 2 then lost its qualifier and only got in through a discretionary place. Heat O came and Typhoon 2 was placed in a battle with Bigger Brother, 4th seeds and proven to survive against spinners. Typhoon 2's weapon didn't spin up, so it had to run around the arena waiting for Bigger Brother to defeat Colossus and U.R.O. before flipping Typhoon 2 over. Now upside down, the cone-shaped robot suddenly had its weapon working again. Luckily for the team it was immobilised 3rd, so qualified. Typhoon 2 convincingly destroyed Hammerhead 2, but would then have to face Bigger Broth... Hang on, no, Iron Awe 2.1 won. Probably the only robot in the heat that could beat Typhoon 2, even when its weapon was working were out before the final, so Typhoon 2 were able to win the heat easily. Typhoon 2 proved itself through the series that it deserved to be in the grand final 100%, but I am of the camp that Storm II deserved to win Series 7.

2: Wheely Big Cheese. How does this work. Wheely (15) won its first 3 battles and defeated a former grand finalist. But wait. In its first battle, Wheely Big Cheese dropped into the pit and had to rely on the fact that Prizephita had already broken down. Yes, Killertron was a dominant victory, but in the final, WBC fell in the pit again. Again, the judges decided that the opponent was immobilised sufficiently to let the 15th seeds through, but it wasn't a convincing victory. What places Wheely Big Cheese in the second position is another event in the episode. After damaged sustained by The Big Cheese, Roger Plant built Wheely Big Cheese with one aim, to create a robot to defeat Sir Killalot. In the heat, Sir Killalot (290kg) drove straight on top of WBC's flipper. This was the moment this robot was designed for. However, boasts that it could overturn an 800kg car were instantly quelled as Sir Killalot eventually managed to drive off without Wheely Big Cheese having turned the house robot over. A prime opportunity to fulfil the design aims wasted plus two lucky wins means Wheely Big Cheese takes a high unconvincing starts slot.

3: Razer. Only third? the Razer fans cry, but it doesn't deserve to be higher than Typhoon 2 or Wheely Big Cheese. So in series 2, it loses to Inquisitor, in Series 3 it malfunctions against Aggrobot and in Series 4 it breaks down against Pussycat. These 3 main competition failings were an unconvincing start, but during this time, it did perform well. It won the gauntlet and trial of its heat in series 2, a pinball competition, the International League, 1st world championship and an annihilator. It showed itself to be a decent robot, but not in the main competition.

4: Terrorhurtz. Series 6 finalist, labelled as the most violent robot ever and the basis for most axes in current competitions started badly. In its first battle against Ming 3, the axe hit, sorry touched Ming 3 a few times but did nothing. Terrorhurtz only got through thanks to Matilda's interference and with some decent driving. Then it faced Fluffy where a stupid "Fluffy launch device" was added. This did nothing and the future finalists were destroyed by the blade of Fluffy. In two battles, a new style axe looked like another overhead weapon that looked the part but did nothing. After being ripped apart, no-one would have thought that the sheer destructiveness of the axe hid underneath.

5: Kan-Opener. A weird case this. A broken srimech stopped it winning its first battle against Atomic 2 in series 5. Then in series 6, after moving to an invertible design, Kan-Opener was once again knocked out in the first round, this time by Fluffy (Seems to destroy the hopes of many good bots doesn't it). When it entered the annihilator of Extreme 2, it looked like it would be one of those robots that dropped out in the middle battles leaving Thermidor II to win it easily. However, It battled its way through, stopping the weapon of Typhoon 2 before it could cause destruction to everyone else and being instrumental in virtually every elimination during the annihilator. Annihilator champions, they should have triumphed in a heat that saw Terrorhurtz withdraw and mostly new robots compete. But it wasn't to be as it attacked Barbaric Response, the pincers stuck and it couldn't get them off or into the pit meaning another first round drop-out. Fast forward to the end of the series and it is invited to defend its title, against 5 flippers. The first battle saw Robochicken, Ewe 2 and Flippa immobilised almost instantly and Raging Knightmare, Ripper and Kan-Opener avoiding each other in the centre of the arena. These 3 were left in the penultimate battle where Kan-Opener helped Ripper to defeat Raging Knightmare. Then in the final, Kan-Opener came into its element and destroyed Ripper to defent its title. 9 wins in annihilators and 3 losses in main competition. Bad start, but won one of the most prestigious side competitions.

Started well, but declined later
1: Behemoth. Definitely the most famous robot for this. Some robots declined because they either stayed the same, or they tinkered with the robot and made it worse than before. Behemoth however, kept improving and fixing previous faults. This makes the losses of Behemoth over time seem even more unlikely. They couldn't self-right, so they added a srimech, the link was in a vulnerable place, so it was moved and defended a bit more. If Razer hadn't lost to Inquisitor, Behemoth wouldn't have won the heat. The lifter wasn't good enough in series 2 to topple Razer, so almost lucked into the semi-finals. Series 3 saw a rebuild that gave a solid design and better weapon. What happened is well known and frowned upon as the arena spikes interfered. Series 4 saw srimech's added and a tight judges decision saw then eliminated. Despite being the only lifter to get an OotA, the big build and strength saw it eliminated in embarrassing ways. During Extreme 1, the team boasted that Behemoth was unbeatable. This makes the decline even worse. Series 5 saw a great bit of driving from Crushtacean to grab Behemoth's srimech bars and drop it into the pit. That was one of the best bits of driving in Robot Wars in my opinion but an embarrasing early fall for the robot with so much expectation. Series 6 saw the scoop almost ripped off by Disc-O-Inferno before drawing the 2nd seeds Bigger Brother and being dominated and pitted in that. Extreme 2 saw Behemoth twice beaten when it should have won. In the Iron Maidens, Shunt axed Behemoth's link when beating Chompalot knocking it out. Then as favourites in the University Challenge, it broke down after re-mobilising an enemy and were beaten in the first round. Then it was brought back for the Seventh wars as 10th seed and placed in a relatively weak heat. Here, it was beaten in the second round after damage to the link caused by the dropping 96kgs of Mute, again while winning. All in all, Behemoth started out by completing the gauntlet and losing in the second round of the semi-finals before a run of dissapointing losses coupled with big expectations.

2: Fluffy. What could have been. Started off in a mayhem of Extreme 1 in which it was thrown from the floor flipper straight into the pit. Then it was drawn against 23rd seeds and former semi-finalists 101. It proceded to tear one side of the tracked bot off before comfortably winning the judges decision and leading to the retirement of 101. Next, it faced the successor to Killerhurtz, Terrorhurtz. Here, it once again took little time to destroy the entrant from a team that had competed for many series'. In the heat final, it faced 2nd seeds Pussycat. After a small while, Pussycat lost both a caster and, much more importantly, its cutting disc. Now all Fluffy needed to do was not breakdown and it would have sent the finalist from the previous series out, but it broke down.

3: Cassius. Recyclops reached the final of series 1. Cassius reached the final of Series 2 and showed the srimech off to the world. Cassius 2 fell in the second round of series 3. Cassius 2 was let down by the lack of seedings in series 3. 3 previous semi-finalists and 2 future semi-finalists were in the heat making it tough enough already. After falling in the pit, Cassius was never seen again as the team pulled out due to safety failings and were never seen again. A sad loss and quick decline for the previous years finalists.

4: Stinger. Series 3 aside, Stinger managed to grab 3rd place in series 4. Stinger took its opportunity well, there were few robots with weapons that could deal with Stinger at all due to its awkward shape. Then in series 5, Stinger came against S3 who had just the right weapon to attack those wheels. This left Stinger in the same category as Cassius and Griffon as Grand Finalists to fall in the heats of the next series. They made the heat final again in series 6 before losing to another spinner. After a dull loss in the Tag Team Terror, Stinger was dumped out of Series 7 for not having a moving weapon. A sad end for a well respected competitor.

5: Panic Attack. This may seem like a weird choice, but it deserves to be here. It came into the scene and won the Second Series. It then won heats in series' 3, 4 and 5. I have put it in this list because the design never really changed. Other robots like Pussycat and Chaos 2 kept a similar design after early success, but they had a good weapon to start with. Panic Attack stuck with a lifter designed for series 2/3 that became outdated very quickly. Panic Attack Gold was a complete flop and the lack of Kim Davies driving in series 7 saw it fall even further back.

6: 101. This is the story of a robot that cost £5.05. After Robo Doc, the new robot was built on a shoestring. The clever spike that sensed where an opponent was and speared out was put into good use along with good driving and pushing power to win its heat comfortably against King Buxton. It reached the second round of the series semi-finals and only just lost to Hypno-Disc. In series 4 it won the Tag Team Terror championship and were beaten in the heat final, albeit comprehensively. After a rather naff Extreme 1 that saw it lose the first battle of the Tag Team Terror Title defense, it entered Series 5 as 23rd seeds. 101 then joined the group that would also comprise Ming Dienasty in that it was a seed to be eliminated in the first round by the judges. A rather sorry end as 101 had been totalled by Fluffy in said battle.

7: King Buxton. Arch rivals of 101, King Buxton won its heat in series 2 first time out. In series 3, 101 defeated King Buxton to progress as King Buxton fell to the Third Wars Decline. Series 4 saw King B3 conk out against Atomic after the yellow bot started to fall apart for no apparent reason. King B3 won the Tag Team Terror along with enemies 101 and posted a good score in the pinball. After falling in the first round along with team-enemies 101 in the Tag Team Terror, King B Powerworks won a few battles and lost some in Extreme 1. Series 5 saw Powerworks lose early on again. After a break, King B Powerworks returned for Series 7. Along with Black and Blue, they were the only team to win a heat in the past to not be seeded. During the interviews, the team listed each and every weapon as something that would defeat Powerworks. They won the first round by staying away from Dantomkia the whole match and letting them attack and defeat the others. The second battle saw it face IG-88 and the nail was in King Buxton's coffin with probably the stupid piece of driving ever, as they charged right at the spinning hammer of IG-88. No surprise, this knocked King B Powerworks out. Invited to compete in the All-Stars, King B managed to get defeated again. It was butchered by Pussycat and flipped out of the arena by Dantomkia.

8: Gravedigger. Labelled as a Cassius clone, but just as effective. Dumped Mortis in the pit on its way to the semi-finals. After impressing many people during this run, they came back for the Fourth Wars. Being in a battle against two flippers, the broken flipping arm was not a good thing as the wedge shape did nothing and the seeded Gravedigger fell in round one by being flipped over. Rather than fixing the flipper or making it more powerful during the weight increase of series 5, they converted it to an axe. As I have said many times, axes were often bad on Robot Wars and only 3 robots really pulled off strong axes. A tough draw against Tornado cemented Gravedigger's fate as it had to dig its own grave in round 1 again.

9: Steg. Steg-O-Saw-Us was a reserve robot, but were promoted to a place in series 3. No-one expected the robot to then use its supreme pushing power to win the heat. Not only did it reach the Semi-Finals, but it reached the FINALS. Steg 2 turned up for series 4 with a powerful flipper and won its heat comfortably. Unfortunately, the previous years finalists were seeded 7th and drew champs Chaos 2. This was a bit unfair as a good robot was knocked out too early. After a split in the team, a new low robot was built with a spinner. This had nowhere near as much potency as the flipper and were lucky to not be flipped out of the arena by Bigger Brother in the heat final. The team disappeared after this and the could have been team were gone.

10: Corkscrew. Like Fluffy, a good run in Series 5 set the tone. Corkscrew started its first battle against future semi-finalists 13 Black and caused lots of damage to it. The next round looked like Corkscrew would drop out as it was up against seeds X-Terminator, and its weapon had broken. However, the battle saw the seeds break down after decent attacks from a circular push-bot. The heat final was a close run thing as seeds Dominator 2 took time to get Corkscrew out as it still didn't have its weapon. Series 6 saw them start strongly. Panic Attack had their side ripped off by Corkscrews weapon and other damage was caused to opponents before Corkscrew went for the pit. The pit delayed for 20 seconds before opening, but as it went down, Corkscrew was over the pit. As Corkscrew drove out, the spinner hit Kronic and made Corkscrew ricochet back into the descending pit. Corkscrew shone in the first round of the Commonwealth Carnage of Extreme 2 representing Scotland. Small damage stopped Weld-Dor 3 self-righting before it set off and trashed Bondi-Titch. After cease, the spinner ripped the side off Matilda. The second round saw Crushtacean pull off a grab and pit technique it had previously used on Behemoth sending Corkscrew out. Series 7 looked good for Corkscrew as the spinner had been redesigned, but they couldn't get the spinner going for the fight. Escaping tactics worked for a while until it was flipped out of the arena. A sorry end for a robot with potential.

Great names
1: Killerhurtz and Terrorhurtz. Hz^3 and Hz^12. Kilohertz and Terahertz. These were great. Axes designed to hurt and make a noise, with the prefix sounding like an aggressive word, it was an amazing example of a clever pun that works. Even if you don't get the pun, they still sound like great names, which is why it works so well. I have made a little model of Terrorhurtz out of the construction toy K'Nex, and tried to come up with another "to the power of" prefix pun, but annoyingly, nanohurtz or femtohurtz don't have aggressive soundalikes to make it sound good.

2: Thing 2/Wild Thing. The Ad(d)ams family and the Thing. Clever cultural reference. Despite being my most hated robot, I appreciate the name and respect them for it.

3: Pussycat. This either one of these moments where the name was chosen and a design based around the name happened, or the design was made and a name chosen based on it. For those that don't understand the greatness of it, the robot had 360 degree control and no matter how far it was flipped over, it could still move around and attack. Cats are known for always landing on their feet so naming a robot immune to flipping after an animal stereotyped to do the same makes the name great. However, after growing up quite a bit since I originally watched the show, the name did lead to some harmless but light innuendo from Jonathon Pearce after dropping the "cat" from the name.

4: C.V. Not Cataclysmic Variabot, but the genius idea to shorten it for the University Challenge. Time at university is vital in a persons Curriculum Vitae, often shortened to the aforementioned C.V. for convenience. Cataclysmic Variabot only competed in a small mayhem dominated by X-Terminator 2, so few people will have reckognised the name. When I found this episode on Dave in 2012, I hadn't seen Cataclysmic Variabot's Extreme 1 battle for many years, so definitely didn't remember it. I just thought it was named after the latin, and thought this until I joined Robot Wars wiki and visited its page. Boring long name, but abbreviated in the right episode cleverly.

5: S.M.I.D.S.Y. This is in my list as I have kept this acronym in my vocabulary. Sometimes, if I need to say sorry about something to someone for missing them, I will say "SMIDSY" to them as an apology. Of course, as a decade old cultural reference, virtually no-one gets it and I have to expand. But still, it is a catchy acronym and therefore a good name.

6: Tetanus Booster. It looked like the third bot would be called Tetanus 3 as Tetanus 2's successor. However, named after a disease with a well known vaccine, the chance to use the pun was unmissable.

7: 3 Stegs to Heaven. When you leave your name to a competition winner, you will end up with a good one to choose. I would like to know what some of the other entries were. If anybody reads this, please leave what your suggestion for a third Steg bot would be called.

8: Terror-Bull. Shaped like a bull, Terror-Bull fitted its name. However, this turned out to be a bad pun (sorry). Making the word terrible sound like the cattle from hell makes it deserving of a place on this list. However, the basis word of the pun seems to sum up its combat history rather than the eventual name.

9: 13 Black. Combined with the roulette wheel design, this was a name pulled off well with the design. 13 Black is often described as the unlucky number in roulette (taking a starring role in the Thunderbirds episode, "The Dutchess Assignment"), so it is a risk to name your robot after it, if you are superstitious.

10: Ming Dienasty. I was going to give this spot to Scutter's Revenge and Spawn of Scutter, but I watched an episode of Red Dwarf and found that scutter is spelt with a k. So I gave this spot to the last Ming bot. It is a clever pun and it moves away from the Flash Gordon reference towards the ancient Chinese leaders. I am of the ilk that it shouldn't have been 15th seeds, but I appreciate the pun.

My favourite battles
Everybody has differing opinions when it comes to their favourite battles. These are mine. Bold Indicates the winner(s), italics represents robots thrown Out of the Arena.

1: Thermidor II vs Stinger vs Behemoth (Mayhem qualifier, Extreme 1) This was a battle that lived up to its hype. A free-for-all battle between a Grand Finalist and two improved previous heat winners. The fact that this was not the main event is weird, as Mayhem's were (Wheely Big Cheese, Ming 3, Hypno-Disc). However, what was to happen next was brilliant. Thermidor 2 rolled Behemoth over while Stinger spun away. Thermidor then Spectacularly sent Behemoth rolling head-over-heels out of the arena. The slow-mo shot from the back was brilliant with the axe flailing over the wall. Stinger spent the rest of the time avoiding Thermidor until it was chucked out too, right into the camera and next to Behemoth. This was the first battle to contain two Out of the Arena flips. What is a shame is that Thermidor II seemed to lose this form until Extreme 2, after two embarassing first round drop outs.

2: Splinter vs Hypno-Disc (Round 1, Semi-Final 2, Series 4) Well, doesn't need much explaining does this. So you've got the second seeds with a really heavy fast spinning disc vs... and aluminium box with moving spikes and a scoop at the front made of plastic. Splinter just went for a do-or-die tactic, scoop on disc. After resisting well for about 3 hits, gashes started to appear before the whole scoop fell off. Splinter's only tactic failed and it was suddenly time to run away. This didn't work as Hypno-Disc just ran up and hit the side again. Carnage ensued as Hypno-Disc kept hitting the Heat I winners into submission. Sir Killalot grabbed and spun the remains of Splinter before dumping the rubbish in the pit. Fair-play to the Splinter team, they took it well. Laughing about it, they joked that the Rose boys had helped them for next year by taking this version apart.

3: Dantomkia vs Chaos 2 (Heat Final, Heat C, Series 6) The first series I watched was Series 4. All I knew about Series 3 was that it was won by Chaos 2. After Heat D, Steg 2 became my favourite robot. When it was beaten by Chaos 2, dislike for George Francis surged through the five-year-old me. After watching them flip loads of robot out of the arena (something I like), the young me still didn't like them. This meant that by the Heat Final of Heat C in Series 6, Chaos 2 met a strong newcomer who had already flipped one robot out of the arena, Dantomkia. Chaos 2 started the battle off by flipping Dantomkia high into the air in the middle of the arena. After some faff in the CPZ, Dantomkia finally sent the OotA king Out of the Arena. From this moment on, Dantomkia has been my favourite robot. Plus, Dantomkia was made into the best Pullback ever with a strong flipper.

4: St. Agro vs Comengetorix vs Warhog vs S.M.I.D.S.Y. (Round 1, Heat J, Series 6) If you want to see a brilliant four-way melee, this is the battle to watch. This battle goes to show that you don't need lots of quality to produce a great fight. Four robots with low to medium success entered the arena. Newcomers St. Agro would win a heat in the next wars, Warhog had shown promise but lost all battles so far, Comengetorix with a Mortis-esque weapon set-up and S.M.I.D.S.Y. who were two time heat finalists, only being quashed by previous champs in these battles. The battle was organised chaos, each robot attacked each other and skittled around. After an age, St. Agro was pitted spectacularly, soon followed by Warhog. Even Jonathon Pearce said that it was one of the best battles he had seen afterwards.

5: Killerhurtz vs Stinger vs Suicidal Tendencies vs Dominator 2 vs Chaos 2 vs Spikasaurus (Round 1, Northern Annihilator, Series 4) Lets see, 5 seeded robots including the defending champion, the robot who would finish third in the series, another heat winner plus a heat finalist, a kamikaze axe weilder and a first round drop-out. This was the first annihilator ever broadcast, so no-one knew how it would work out. There had been few battles with more than 4 robots in the arena, so it was hyped up. The battle seemed to take forever, with Killerhurtz being picked on by everyone and almost flipped out of the arena by Chaos 2. Dominator 2 managed to punch many holes into the top of almost everyone before they teamed up with Killerhurtz to pummel Chaos 2. After an age, Chaos 2 started to die and were eliminated. In the interviews afterwards, Julia Reed was over the moon that she could interview George Francis in front of a damaged Chaos 2. This was definitely the best annihilator battle ever.

6: Wheely Big Cheese vs Axe-Awe (Round 2, Heat H, Series 5) I wonder why this is on the list? Fourteen seconds to greatness. The hype before surrounded the fact that both teams were from the same town in Somerset. When the battle started, the two met in the middle, Axe-Awe fired its small axe onto the titanium flipper. This of course did nothing. Then the legendary bit. Wheely Big Cheese easily slotted the gargantuan flipper underneath Axe-Awe and flipped. The red bot flew into the air, bounced off the arena wall and hit the audience guard. The camera cut to Axe-Awe's box and the team were beside themselves. Robert Grimm was cowering in awe (appropriately) while the other two were both laughing and applauding in the face of defeat. It was then left to Craig Charles to come out and try to convey his surprise to the audience while keeping a straight face. A record flip that has been neared by others (Gravity vs Hydra, Dantomkia; Spawn Again vs Chip) but never beaten on TV.

7: Chaos 2 vs Fire Storm (Round 1, Grand Final, Series 3) This was a pioneering battle. To decide who would be a finalist, the two robots were greatly hyped. Fire Storm had defeated fan favourites Diotoir and defending champions Panic Attack on their way to this stage. Chaos 2 had shown itself to be a prolific flipper, setting the grudge with Team Mace at 1-1 and become a feared robot. The battle saw the two meet in the middle and after a bit of faff avoiding each other, Chaos 2 got in a flip. They then scooped the red and yellow bot up and aimed to flip it into the wall to try and dislodge something inside. However, Fire Storm flew into the wall and OVER it... yes OVER and out of the arena. Cue a typical Jonathon Pearce laughing fit while Team Chaos stood in their control box horrified, they thought they would be disqualified. However, they were not and went on to flip 5 more robots out of the arena during a great run.

8: S.M.I.D.S.Y. vs Terrorhurtz (Round 2, Challenge Belt, Extreme 2) This battle panned out virtually the same as Terrorhurtz's next battle against Dantomkia, but as Dantomkia did manage to get a flip in - and the fact that I was unhappy that it lost, albeit to another bot I liked - I chose this battle as a favourite. This battle highlighted exactly what Terrorhurtz was about. Constant hounding and accurate violence. S.M.I.D.S.Y. was unable to do anything as the axe kept thwacking the top. When the robot formerly from cyberspace slowed, Terrorhurtz focused the constant axe hits on one wheel, disabling it and changing the shape of S.M.I.D.S.Y. without any fuss. The scale of damage was great and it showed that Terrorhurtz could control a battle just by staying near the opponent and hitting it constantly. The axe was strong enought that it could damage greatly but because it was bladed and not spiked and used a different mechanism for rotating the axe than many, it was able to keep hitting and basically break everything inside and outside of the opponent.

9: Anarchy vs Thor vs Revolution 2 vs Judge Shred 2½ (Round 1, Heat G, Series 6) Like the Heat J melee mentioned earlier, you don't need lots of good robots to create a great fight. Here, you had the Judge Shred team with a new robot, a newcomer in the shape of Thor with an impressive looking axe, more newcomers Revolution 2 with probably the most spectacular looking weapon ever - basically loads of spinning Razer claws - on the front. Finally, team 101 had turned up with an untested walkerbot and boasted that the axe had as much power as Chaos 2's flipper, plus it had its own flipper aswell. The battle saw Revolution spin up its weapon and instantly impale it in the side of Judge Shred. What followed was Thor and Anarchy to also decide to test their axes on Judge Shred and they kept pummeling the little flipper, who seemed to have nothing to offer in defense against the walker bot, allowed to be a lot heavier than Judge Shred's maximum flip. Anarchy finally proved that the walkerbot (not shufflebot) could be good.

10: X-Terminator vs Killer Carrot 2 (Round 2, Heat F, Series 7) I had never seen any of the foreign (non-UK) episodes of Robot Wars, so I was completely unaware of the feats of Cyclone 2 in the Extreme Warriors annihilator. 259 had come close to throwing a competitor out of the arena with a disc when it attacked Infernal Contraption, and Matilda had thrown both Sir Chromalot and Vader out in the same episode, but a UK competitor was still to throw an opponent out with a spinner. This battle showed X-Terminator as what it is and also showed what Killer Carrot had proved before. Killer Carrot was one of those robots that just wouldn't die. Disc-O-Inferno had torn virtually everything off in Series 6 but Killer Carrot survived until cease. Glossing over the Minor Meltdown where Killer Carrot lost because its wheel fell off, it came into this battle with a new bot. They had mathematically designed the flipper to work best with the Hassocks Hog team (Why???) and hoped to win this. However, their opponents were X-Terminator who had destroyed Diabolus in less than the 34 seconds that the first round melee had taken. Killer Carrot was again totalled but a spinner but it just...wouldn't...die. They kept going and pushed the pit release after much pummelling to try and pit X-Terminator, but all it meant was that they were near the arena wall and after a decent charge, X-Terminator's spinner threw the shredded Carrot out of the arena.