User:Toon Ganondorf

About Me
I'm Toon Ganondorf, a student living in Australia. During my youth, I happened upon this show on a Saturday morning whilst I was too hyperactive to sleep. I recall now that it was the clip from the audition of Toe-Cutter, during Panic Attack's heat. Soon afterwards, I would drag myself awake at the ridiculously early time of 6am to watch it. During this time, my favourite robot was Cerberus, and I was shattered when it lost to Thing 2. I clearly remember battles like Killerhurtz driving into the pit, Firestorm and Facet, and praying that Dreadnaut would come back to life against Trident. Sadly, it was not meant to be. I was ecstatic in the Finals, such as the Grudge between Chaos 2 and Mace 2, to the bitter fight between 101 and Hypno-Disc, to Chaos 2 launching Firestorm over the wall. When Chaos 2 stopped that spinning disc for the win of Series 3, I was leaping up and down, a move only magnified by Chaos 2 flipping Shunt. I'd like to point out that besides Cassius and Panic Attack, no Grand Final has ever come close to a quarter of the excitement of this one.

Series 4 followed, which I this time watched from start to finish. Somewhere in my home is an old video tape of some of the later heats, Heat G-J, as I recall. For some reason, I missed Heats K-O, but watching Hypno-Disc's heat was immensely satisfying, even though Cerberus fell so early. At the conclusion of the Fourth Wars, I was shattered to learn that Channel Ten had axed Robot Wars. It was the end of an era.

Then came December 27, 2008. I watched the Series 5 recap, and the old feelings of excitement came back. I knew who had won the series, but it didnt stop me from rooting for Bigger Brother. January 1 was another significant day; the day I uploaded the image of Razer in my first ever contribution here. Bitter clashes with current user CBFan did not prevent me from making the best articles I could, the first of which was Hypno-Disc.

Two weeks into my editing, I was promoted to admin on January 14, 2009. I was promoted to Bureaucrat on May 15. I have single-handedly written over one hundred articles for this wiki, uploaded more than 1500 images, and made almost 3000 edits to various articles.

On 20th October, 2009, I reached the 10,000 edit milestone.

http://www.youtube.com/user/MultiBattleaxe

This is my YouTube account; don't bother, I don't have any videos. I have, however, watched nearly the entire Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Wars, plus both Extreme Series, so I am now fully up to date. I also make playlists of Robot Wars videos, such as the Challenge Belt.

That's all my life story, so I hope you enjoy your stay here, and strive to be as committed as I am.

Roboteers I am on email contact with

 * Bold names are those who have answered my questions. Not bold ones I have made initial contact, but am still awaiting a return email with answers to my questions.


 * Noel Poncelot (The Hassocks Hog)
 * John & Jacky Willoughby (The Steel Avenger)
 * Laurie Calvert (Lightning) - Absolute legend, so helpful.
 * Kim Davis (Panic Attack)
 * Mat Irvine (Robot Wars Judge)
 * Robert Grim (Iron Awe)
 * Georje Williams (Kat 3)
 * Steve Merril (Sir Chromalot)
 * Kane Aston (Behemoth)
 * John Lear (8645T)
 * John Findlay (Ripper/T-Bone)
 * WJ Dijkstra (Gravity) - Great guy
 * Sascha Thomsen (Ansgar)
 * John Bell (Scorpion)
 * Stuart Barnwell (Pussycat) - Chatting to him online as of 25th September.
 * Dave Lang (Kronic the Wedgehog)
 * Mark Lumb (Big Nipper)
 * Stuart Pearson (Spikasaurus)
 * Marien Van Der Meer (Scraptosaur)
 * Jeroen van der Loo (Tough As Nails)
 * Shane Swan (Trax)
 * Mischa De Graaf (PulverizeR)
 * Ian Watts (Team Big Brother)

My favourite articles
''These articles have benefited greatly from helpful websites, emails and Youtube footage. As a result they are high quality and I like them very much.''
 * X-Terminator
 * The Steel Avenger
 * Lightning
 * 13 Black
 * Spikasaurus
 * Big Nipper
 * Ripper
 * Ming
 * Reactor
 * And for some reason, Vector and Weeliwako

My Least Favorite Robots

 * 1) Razer - Any literate user on this wiki knows that I hate Razer. Ian Lewis' machine is an overachiever, who has had every tournamount specifically set up for it to win. Worst of all, it managed to blow a few of them, and people still loved it and gave it ridiculously high seds. Once you've seen one Razer battle, you've seen them all - pierce, pierce, pit. Yawn. It wouldn't be as bad if the guys were all as nice as Chaos 2 or Pussycat, but Ian Lewis throwing a tantrum over the "Gentlemen's Agreement" just made me angry. What about poor old Milly-Ann Bug?
 * 2) Storm 2 - Wikia Series 8 made me look differently at this machine. I would like very much to justify the producers - a robot that can never lose is boring. People don't understand the concept of what they meant. There's nothing boring about a Storm 2 battle, but when you can never defeat it, where's the inspiration of entering a tournamount if you have no chance?
 * 3) Tornado - It was awesome in Series 4. However, again, you get sick of these robots. I took three International competition victories for Razer, but when Tornado won two in a row, you begin to feel that its hardly international. I do like Tornado for using that frame - it stopped Razer getting its filthy hands on another rigged title.

Most clever names in UK Robot Wars
After chatting with RA2, I came up with an idea of my own Top 10 list. There have been a great deal of well named robots, such as Black Hole, Beast of Bodmin and Robot the Bruce. However, I've sidled out my top 10 robots who I think deserve commendment for the cleverness behind their names.

10. Fluffy - This one makes my list because of the contradiction. I love that it was named Fluffy when its weapon's capability prove so far the opposite. However, its appearances in Extreme 1 and Series 7 do make it seem a little but fluffy, so that's what its number 10.

9. Gemini - For the name of the first and best clusterbot, Team Mace must be applauded for such a beautiful choice for a name - the twins in the zodiac. Its a real shame Gemini never reached the stars, but it will always be a household name.

8. Diotoir, Son of Nemesis - Its not just the Irish name bringing in a sense of homeland for these guys that earns it here. I loved the tribute to their previous robot. Making a robot a "son" of another really ties the two together, and I really like that.

7. Ceros - Instead of taking a boring animal name, the Ceros team were very clever as they picked the unused second half of the word rhinoceros. I've never seen such a clever idea.

6. 8645T - I am thoroughly opposed to names like T2, but this one had a really cool choice to it. The blur-eyes to make it look like a word was one of the best ideas I've seen.

5. Joint winners Wowot & 259 - Adam Clark's first two main competition robots had really clever names, but the latter two were the ones I liked. His use of his young son's baby talk makes me laugh at how appropriate it is. (robot and 3,2,1)

4. S.M.I.D.S.Y. - What a victory this name was. The classic phrase Sorry Mate I Didn't See You, summed up into a very catchy acronym.

3. Wheely Big Cheese - Ah, the trick of the sequal name. Some go with the bland "2", others with an upgraded adjective. Its this one that is the best choice. Not only is it a different way of naming a sequal, but they've made a similar sounding word by using one of the robot's main features. So brilliant, Roger.

2. Comengetorix - Does this one surprise you? You sort of need to know who Vercingetorix was before you get it. Keeping with the theme, they've prompted a challenge in the name - Come and get 'er!

And number 1...

1. Pussycat - Hardly an apt choice word to describe a robot based on its weapon, but its so clever because of its main attribute - Pussycat always lands on its feet.

The top 10 robots that never quite could
I could always go with a list of robots that were "Coodabeens", but we'd get Crusher, V-Max, and the same ones we always get. I've made this list as an observation of robots that were almost at glory, or who had a chance to really make their mark, but didn't.

10. General Chompsalot - RA2 said it for me, just look how close this robot always came! Its such a fun design, but a great one - more luck would've given it recognition in 5 different areas, and if America gave out awards, I think this would be a certainty for Most Original Entry.

9. 259 - Do I even need to say it? Just look at it in Series 6! How many attacks does it land to cripple Infinity or Infernal Contraption? How many devastating attacks did it launch on Wild Thing? Clark's best machine, in my eyes. A cruel gesture of fate that this machine lost its drive belt when it did - it would have gone against Razer in the semi-finals!

8. All Torque - Dear oh dear. I recall a comment from RA2 back in the Decline forum, which was so aptly put: "Could that hippo sandbox outpush Matilda in the joust?" Of course it couldn't! In fact, I doubt that any of the versions of Team Torque that followed could have performed well - the next All Torque had weaponry to be desired, Small Torque caught fire, Fighting Torque just plain never did a thing, Bot Out of Hell was easy to immobilise and Hippobotamus....I'll say no more. All Torque makes my list in a tribute to that monster who pulverised Matilda in that Joust, followed by Prometheus. All Torque may have even put up a good fight against Roadblock.

7. The Alien - How many robots do you know that can flip another robot with a spinning hammer? Most of them got their recognition, but not poor old Alien. I really don't know how Shredder beat it in Series 6, and it was really unlucky in Series 5. The Alien's best go was in Series 6, I think the best of the four in the eliminator, and lets not forget who actually defeated ICU, in addition to damaging GBH 2 and finishing off Sir Chromalot. The Alien was a fine machine, and one of the greatest not to get far.

6. Equal place GBH 2 & Facet - GBH may be an odd choice considering that it made a semi-final, but just check the second version of the machine. Thats style, right there. The flair in which it could self-right was great to watch, and its design was commendable. Its a shame it was put where it was - GBH 2 would have monstered some of the other heats - 13 Black's, Bigger Brother's and Dominator 2's, for example. Team Joint Effort's other machine, Facet, also makes an appearance here, because it can only be recognised for beating Terminal Ferocity. Facet could have effortlessly defeated any robot in that heat, and probably Pitbull, Panic Attack and a great deal of semi-finalists. It had a huge flipper, and an even greater speed. If only it had been placed in Trident's heat instead of Dreadnaut...

5. Equal place The Big Cheese & Wheely Big Cheese - Why are these two here, you wonder? Well I'll answer. How many robots can lift Sergeant Bash, a robot well over 40kg heavier, into the air on the tip of a lifting arm without overbalancing? And how many robots can flip a robot 15 feet in the air from the centre of the arena, and cause it to fall outside the arena? Well, Roger Plant made both of those robots. To a brand new fan, the immediate thoughts would be "woah! Did they win?" But we would be forced to inform that fan that both of those robots fell far earlier on than their potential. Big Cheese could have won possibly every other heat in Series 3. Wheely Big Cheese made two semi-finals, but broke its wheel in one, and broke down on the verge of victory in another. Although wins in the semi-finals would have brought it against Chaos 2 and Hypno-Disc, that would have been much more glorious for Roger than the fashion in which his robots lost.

4. Raging Reality - It was such a shame this fantastic robot was placed in the slaughterhouse it was. The capabilities of that flipper were staggering, and it had such a beautiful design. It managed to throw two robots out of the arena - something still relatively new at that point, and it was the first and only robot to KO Typhoon 2 in battle (not counting Bigger Brother). Had Raging Reality been placed somewhere - anywhere - else, it would have certainly been a hot contender for the semi-finals.

3. Crusader 2 - Pop quiz (sorry RA2) - How many times did Crusader 2 flip Steg 2 in Series 4? The answer is 3, to Steg 2's zero. Not to mention that Crusader 2 set the 7th seed on fire, and pressured it into near immobilisation by the end. A one-on-one battle, I know who would have won. In addition, how many attacks did Mortis land in Round 2? 1. Thats ok considering the hole it made, but there were 7 misses. In reality, the House Robots were the ones to defeat Crusader 2. I certainly think that Crusader would have made the semi-finals in Heats I, J, K or L, and would have won this one if not for House Robot damage.

2. Berserk 2 - Berserk 2, poor old Berserk 2. We just don't talk about the Series 4 incarnation, and some of us like to forget that Twister ever existed. But look at the Series 3 version. Not only did it easily defeat two foes, but it held up tremendously to Hypno-Disc. And that fateful spike...Berserk 2 could have easily defeated Evil Weevil, and it would have been a brutal tussell with 101. Even Steg-A-Saw-Us would have been very hard pressed to beat this machine. Berserk 2, like the Big Cheese, was unlucky in its Series 3 heat placement, because it certainly could have won other heats, like K or P.

And the number 1 is...

1. Team Iron Awe - Dear oh dear, poor old Iron Awe. Possibly the unluckiest robot ever in the UK Robot Wars. Pitted against the 7th seed, the 10th seed, the 5th seed and the 4th seed in its four respective appearances. All credit to Iron Awe - the first robot to self-right with an axe, it flipped the highest seed out of the arena, and it was just a tough old machine. However, despite the fact that Axe Awe was hurled sky high by Wheely Big Cheese after only showing a sliver of its potential in beating Granny's Revenge, the merciless producers pitted Iron Awe 2 against Chaos 2 and Dantomkia in its two appearances. Another gesture of cruelty was pitting it against Bigger Brother. And just when Iron Awe 2.1 made its mark by taking out Bigger Brother, fate pitted it against Typhoon 2. I'm glad that Iron Awe 5 made such a mark, because their luck in the UK Robot Wars was horrible.

Extra stuff

 * User:Toon Ganondorf/Alternate Series 5
 * User:Toon Ganondorf/My Stuff
 * I love the Bigger Brother team. Little Joe and Ellie are adorable.
 * Cerberus was a beautiful robot, and should have come back into the UK series after the weight limit was increased.
 * Corkscrew and Steg 2 were great robots....why were they succeeded by such pieces of junk?
 * Its interesting that the only way Mighty Mouse and Velocirippa could fight was if Mighty Mouse defeated Thermidor 2, Typhoon 2 and Atomic, and if Velocirippa defeated Hard, Bulldog Breed, Kat 3, Tough As Nails and X-Terminator. Same goes for Ming Dienasty and Zorro, and IG-88 and Vader.
 * One of the team members of 13 Black has the same name as my former Economics teacher; Richard Morris.