Thor

"From the halls of the Vikings, comes the hammer of the Gods"

- Jonathan Pearce in Extreme 2

Thor is a robot that competed in Series 6-9 of Robot Wars, as well as the second series of Robot Wars Extreme. In its first iterations, it wielded a powerful hammer (as a nod to the weapon of the Norse god from which it took its name), though this was exchanged for a pneumatic axe in Series 8-9. Jason Marston and Lee Cornish dressed in Viking costumes during Series 6 and Extreme 2. Lee Cornish did not return after the end of Series 7.

Thor reached the second round in Series 6 and 7, and finished third in the Extreme 2 New Blood Championship. It had a substantially better performance in Series 8, receiving a wildcard into the Grand Final despite losing its qualifying episode to Shockwave, and ultimately finishing fourth overall.

Jason Marston appeared as a mentor in Robot Wars: Battle of the Stars, competing alongside football pundit Robbie Savage with their robot, Robo Savage. Together, they managed to finish as runners-up in Episode 2.

Thor (Series 6 and Extreme 2)
The original Thor was an flat triangle robot with two pincers at the base. The hammer rested on a line from the base of the triangle to the apex, so that it would strike an opponent directly between the pincers. The hammer was capable of self-righting and could puncture 15mm polycarbonate. It had a top strike speed of 70mph.

In Extreme 2, the robot bore much the same resemblance, albeit the claws were removed.

Thor (Series 7)
The robot was upgraded for Series 7 through over 300 hours of work, with a new thinner wedge-shaped design, a shorter and more powerful hammer, and a higher top speed of 20mph. However, the armour was also thinner overall. Whilst the hammer was very powerful, the robot also proved a little unreliable.

Thor (Series 8)
The Series 8 version of the Thor used a high-speed bladed axe, in place of the traditional hammer used by the previous versions of Thor. The robot was armoured in HARDOX, and could fire its weapon more times per match than previously. At 30mph, Thor was the fastest robot in the series, and its drive motor is four times more powerful than it was in Series 7. This version achieved far more success than its predecessors, mainly due to its incredible speed and much more potent weaponry.

Thor used interchangeable axe heads and wedges, dependant on its opponent. Thor can use floor-hugging wedges to get underneath opponents and negate wedges and scoops, or a wide plate to protect it from spinning discs. Thor's axe heads vary from its signature head based upon Mjölnir to a spiked head. These adjustments cause Thor's weight to vary between 105kg and 108kg.

Thor (Series 9)
Following on from Thor's destructive loss at the hands of Carbide, Jason Marston designed a new version of Thor, which is much more resilient to spinning weapons, as it is guarded by a low wedge at the front, creating a much lower profile in general. The Series 9 version is also 20% smaller than its predecessor, allowing it to feature more durable hardened steel and aluminum armour. Its wheels were moved more towards the back of the machine, and were coupled to a set of Mag motors which gave Thor a power output of 32hp. This version of Thor has a high ground clearance surrounding most of its sides.

Series 6
"A mighty hammer-axe, of course - but wait until you see the team!"

- Jonathan Pearce on Thor

Thor participated in Heat G of the Sixth Wars, for its debut Robot Wars appearance. In the first round of the heat, Thor was drawn up against the experienced Judge Shred 2 ½, Team 101's walkerbot Anarchy, and newcomers Revolution 2. In the battle, Thor and Anarchy almost immediately swapped axe blows, but it soon became evident that they and Revolution 2 were targeting Judge Shred 2 ½. Judge Shred 2½ had to fend off assaults from the axes of Thor and Anarchy, and the spinning blades of Revolution 2, denting Judge Shred 2½'s armour in several places. In the midst of all the attacks, Thor's front pincers were both bent, but it carried on. Revolution 2 rammed Judge Shred 2½ into the arena side wall and in turn was attacked by Dead Metal. Anarchy flipped over Revolution 2, where the supposedly invertible machine got stuck. With three robots remaining, Thor hammered Judge Shred 2½ yet again before doing the same to Anarchy. Judge Shred 2½ almost turned over Thor right at the end, but Judge Shred 2½ was eliminated due to all the damage it took, putting Anarchy and Thor through to the next round of the Heat.

In the second round, Thor was placed up against the number 12 seeds and eventual champions Tornado. "Bring it on, bring it on! We'll give it out best shot, or several in fact!"

- Pre-battle confidence from Jason Marston

In this battle, Thor's weak pincers were bent straight away, but Thor got a couple of hammer blows on Tornado early on. Tornado slammed Thor into the pit release button, breaking off part of Thor's side panel. Tornado however, was rammed by the stormy pace of Growler. For a little while, Thor tried to hold onto Tornado between its hammer and its body, but after Tornado got free, Thor very nearly reversed into the pit but drove away. A shove by Tornado had Thor trapped in the CPZ by Sergeant Bash and Growler, and both Thor and Sergeant Bash almost drove down the pit of oblivion. "A team of Formula 1 and Liverpool football fans - well, their road to Wembely, as it were, is about to end here! Last on the grid!"

- Jonathan Pearce as Thor is attacked by the House Robots and Tornado

Thor just survived for another judges' decision, but the decision went in favour of the seeded Tornado, eliminating Thor from the competition.

Extreme 2
Thor participated in the New Blood Championships as a completely rebuilt robot, with no claws this time. It didn't start Round 1 against Night Raider and Hell's Teeth very well, as it tried to hit Night Raider and missed more times than it hit. Fortunately for Thor, Team Blades' robot broke down and was demolished by the House Robots, allowing Thor to go through.

In Round 2, Thor faced Chip and one hammer blow on the Welsh machine was enough to immobilise it. Thor, having beaten Chip, turned its attention to Growler, landing a hammer blow on the dog of war. Growler retaliated, using its massive power to slam Thor against the arena wall, but in doing so beached itself on the arena wall. Meanwhile, Mr. Psycho hammered Chip, before knocking it into Growler, helping to free its stricken pet. "What damage has been sustained by Thor having rather rashly taken on Growler in a one-on-one?"

- Jonathan Pearce

Thor, also freed, hit the pit release button, and Mr. Psycho nearly reversed into the pit, whilst Chip was counted out by the Refbot. "Thor is very impressive, there's a very big hammer there. I would say possibly they could slightly hone their driving skils, as a lot of their hammer blows hit the floor and not the opponent, but when they do hit the opponent, it certainly shakes!"

- Mat Irvine before the Heat Final

In the Heat Final Thor faced Edge Hog. Both robots used their weapons on each other but missed more times than hitting each other. Thor then pushed Edge Hog into Sir Killalot who picked it up, spun it around and let go of it. Edge Hog broke down after self-righting. "Could hammer a final nail in any coffin!"

- Jonathan Pearce as Thor enters the arena for the Grand Final

Thor was in the Grand-Final and up against Storm 2 for a place in the final battle.

Thor kept trying to land its hammer on Storm 2, but Storm 2 was too fast. Thor was then hammered by Mr. Psycho but got away. Thor was whacked into the pit-release tyre by Storm 2, then after one fire from Thor's hammer, it stayed in the fired position and Storm 2 continued to push a defenceless Thor around the arena. Thor was then nearly pushed into the pit by Storm 2, but it got away. After a few failed attempts from Storm 2 to pit Thor, the fight went to the judges to decide. The judges rules that Storm 2 had won and Thor was eliminated.

Thor then took part in the 3rd-place Play-Off against Cedric Slammer. Both robots attacked each other straight away, but did little damage. After two misfires from its hammer, Thor finally managed to hit Cedric Slammer, slowing it down. Cedric Slammer then rolled into the CPZ where it was slammed into by Growler and broke down, meaning Thor took 3rd place in the New Blood Tournament.

Series 7
"Our main aim is to get seeded this year, and anything above that would be a bonus."

- Jason Marston

At the start of Thor's second main series appearance was a melee against Dutch entrants Gravity, newcomers Hodaf The Bad, and previous Heat Finalist Hydra. Thor struck Hodaf The Bad several times, although this did not cause the newcomers much distress. Thor jumped in the air with the power of its hammer trying to hit Gravity and Hydra. Gravity mightily threw Hydra into the air again, and flipped it twice more, getting it out of the arena (and damaging the arena wall in the process), so cease was called early because of the safety violation. The Judges ruled in favour of Gravity and Thor in the battle up to that point. "We had a battery go down inside, so we basically just jammed our way through! We lost drive, but we caught a robot with the hammer, caused damage so we got through luckily."

- Lee Cornish before Round 2

Thor then faced off with Lightning. The majority of Thor's axe blows missed, while Lightning wasn't able get its sideways flipper into action. Both narrowly dodged Shunt, but it was appearing that Lightning was the better controlled, pushing Thor into another CPZ. Lightning hit the pit release tyre and drove straight on top of Thor, which all of a sudden had a very slowly swinging hammer, but was denting its foe's armour. Both remained right next to the open pit until Refbot separated the pair. Lightning got away quickly while Thor didn't, so Lightning got underneath Thor and used its flipper to dump Thor straight into the pit. "I think we had a gas leak, I think we've had a battery go down as well. It's a new machine and unfortunately it's not quite reliable enough yet to keep winning fights."

- Lee Cornish after the fight

Series 8
Thor was the first robot to be revealed as a competitor in Series 8 in a trailer where builder Jason Marston admires his robot to the tune of Grover Washington Jr's "Just the Two of Us", before cutting to clips of Thor engaging in battle with Shunt in the arena. In its first battle of the competition, Thor fought DisConstructor, Shockwave and Tough as Nails in the first round. Thor's entrance into the arena showed the first example of Jason Marston "doing the Thor", a hammering hand gesture. Thor entered the battle with its anti-spinner plate on the front, as a measure of defending itself against DisConstructor. Thor's first target in the battle was Tough as Nails, but it missed spectacularly, and flipped itself over. Thor continued to focus on Tough as Nails, but its axe was too short to reach the lengthy machine, which grabbed the top section of Thor and pushed it back. Although Shockwave rammed into the back of Thor after it had pitted DisConstructor, Thor continued its private battle with Tough as Nails, barely missing an axe attack from Shunt. Thor gained assistance from live circuit friends Team Shock, which helped Thor push Tough as Nails, driving it right up the arena wall, where the axe could finally gain a purchase. When Shockwave wedged underneath Tough as Nails, Thor repeatedly axed the Dutch machine until its removable link had fallen out, and pushed the immobile machine onto the lip of the pit. Thor nudged Tough as Nails in, and qualified for the next round with Shockwave.

"If we're judging on aggression alone, there was no shortage of it!"

- Angela Scanlon

In the head-to-head rounds, Thor's first opponent was full-body spinner M.R. Speed Squared, so Thor kept its anti-spinner plate on the front. Knowing that the full-body spinner needed to have its momentum halted, Thor charged in at full speed, but missed, and needed to perform a U-turn to catch up, the deflection knocking M.R. Speed Squared into the pit release button. Thor gave its opponent no chance to start spinning, and bullied it into the clutches of Dead Metal, over the flame pit, where a strong blow dented the aluminium armour. Two strong slams into the arena walls sent M.R. Speed Squared ricocheting, before returning to Dead Metal where Thor punched a huge gash into its foe. After M.R. Speed Squared escape, Thor sustained a blow from the spinner, and then drove over the floor flipper where both robots were tossed, after which Thor needed to self-right. This flip had overturned M.R. Speed Squared, exposing its internals, as their bottom armour was missing. Although Thor was axed by Shunt, it axed the rim and chassis of M.R. Speed Squared, which drove into the pit straight afterwards, awarding Thor the win by KO. Thor then faced the robot that assisted it in the first round, Shockwave, which had applied a bucket scoop specifically to deflect Thor's axe. This decision proved to be unwise, as Thor elected not to use their axe in the opening moments, pushing Shockwave into Dead Metal where it found an opportunity to damage the bucket. Thor's next attack took a complete third of the scoop away, continuing to push and attack Shockwave afterwards, nearing the house robots, and driving Shockwave across the arena, raining down several axe blows, eventually removing another piece of its scoop. Thor's next blow nearly struck Shockwave's wheels, although Thor was pushed into an empty CPZ in retaliation. Central blows to Shockwave damaged the top, and bent its lifting mechanism, and Thor buried its axe inside a wheel reservation of Shockwave. Simply ramming into Shockwave was enough to knock off the remainder of its scoop, but Shockwave pushed Thor into Matilda's flywheel, which ripped away one of Thor's wheel guards. Cease was called, and Thor was given the victory via unanimous Judges' decision, giving Thor a total of five points in the group stage. "Thor's hammer coming down, hammering it all the time, the aggression, using those criteria, we said Thor would win"

- Dr Lucy Rogers

Thor's final opponent in the round was Foxic, which had already been eliminated from the competition, but was very willing to fight Thor, intending to continue the team's record of defeating axes, hoping to chop Thor's axe off completely. "Well he hasn't won anything since he's been here yet, so I don't think he's gonna start now!"

- Jason Marston, about Craig Danby

The battle opened similarly to Thor's last, with Foxic raising its weapon to defend itself from the axe, but Thor offered no axe blows to begin with, being pushed into the pit release button by Foxic. After this, Thor could easily expose Foxic's front ground clearance, and push it around the arena, nearing the pit. Eventually, Thor crept around the side of Foxic, landed an axe blow directly on top, leaving Foxic essentially immobilised, as it was pushed onto the flame pit, where Dead Metal attacked. After another blow, Thor kept its distance, having done enough to go undefeated in the head-to-head round, as Matilda flipped the immobile Foxic into the pit. "Craig was giving it large, trash talking, trying to psyche me out, saying he's gonna chop the axe off - hasn't got the ability to chop the axe off, I'm the only one with the ability to chop the axe off! So yeah, meant nothing, straight over my head!"

- Jason Marston

Thor went into the Heat Final as the favourite to win, meeting Shockwave for the third time. Thor collided with Shockwave, which had switched back to its metal scoop, and was knocked away in recoil. Thor was pushed into the arena wall and lifted by Shockwave, which surprisingly was enough to immobilise Thor. After being pushed into the wall a second time, Thor could only fire its axe as defence, while Shockwave pressed the pit release button, and put Thor on the edge of the pit. Thor rocked about, firing its weapon, and was pushed in. "That's humiliating for a god of your stature to be dumped into a pit by that!"

- Dara Ó Briain

Although Thor had lost to Shockwave, it entered contention for a wildcard position in the Grand Final along with Behemoth, Dantomkia, Storm 2 and Gabriel. The Judges decided that Thor was the most worthy of the wildcard, and Jason Marston progressed to the Grand Final. In the Grand Final, Thor faced TR2 and Pulsar, where both teams expressed fear of Thor. "They are in trouble, I'm gonna beat seven bells out of everything that gets in the way!"

- Jason Marston

Thor sustained early damage from its chosen target Pulsar, which ripped the top of a wheelguard from Thor, and bent its front wedges backwards. However, Thor left Pulsar alone once it lost full mobility, and pushed TR2. A combination attack from TR2 and Shunt saw Thor overturned twice, and took damage from the House Robot's axe. Thor landed a blow of its own on TR2 before returning to the fairly lifeless Pulsar to axe it, also being flipped by TR2 in the process. Thor and Shunt landed axe blows on one another. Ignoring Pulsar, Thor and TR2 battled again, trading blows, ending with Thor being stranded on its side and thrown towards the trench wall. Pulsar was finally counted out, putting Thor into the next round, despite it being flipped again by TR2. In the head-to-head stage of the Grand Final, Thor first fought bar spinner Carbide. It went into the battle sporting a 10mm HARDOX "anti-Carbide" plate on the front, and a spiked axe head, to punch through Carbide's plastic top plate. The anti-Carbide plate offered good protection at first, minimising the damage from a blow which threw Thor onto the floor flipper, which turned it over. However, Thor received much more damage when Carbide attacked its wheelguards, tearing into them and exposing Thor's wheels. A big blow from Carbide ripped away Thor's HARDOX plate, and threw it out of the arena. Two more blows threw Thor away, and over. When Thor self-righted, Carbide landed its knockout blow, and landed some final blows on Thor before it was counted out. "It seems to be in pretty bad shape, it'll be interesting to see if it'll be battle-worthy the next one!"

- Professor Sethu Vijayakumar on Thor

Thor had suffered immense damage, but was repaired in time for a head-to-head battle with TR2, where it returned to its signature bladed axe. However, Thor was thrown over immediately, and resorted to fleeing. Thor was thrown over four times in succession, and then flipped onto the top of Dead Metal by TR2, where it burned on top of the flame pit. A glancing blow from Thor's hammer struck TR2, but Thor was flipped over again. An attack from the flywheel and tusks of Matilda removed part of Thor's wheelguard once again, and overturned it. Thor could easily self-right from TR2's flip, but it was clearly losing the battle, as it was flipped twice more, and struck by Matilda. Thor could hardly move after this attack, but managed to turn in a circle after firing its axe. This meant that TR2 and Matilda needed to cause more damage, and Thor was left inverted, venting gas. It eventually self-righted, but was flipped into the CPZ, where Matilda threw Thor out of the arena. "We spent a lot of time upside-down, which the pneumatic system doesn't like. When it's upside-down a lot, it starts to freeze up, the valve stops working and then you can see the gas being vented out."

- Jason Marston

Thor was eliminated from the competition at this stage, but would still earn third place if it could defeat Apollo. It entered the match as a shadow of its former self, repaired all over again after another destructive loss. "Thor died many fights ago, this is now zombie Thor!"

- Dara Ó Briain

Thor fled from Apollo, but drove over the floor flipper, and was left inverted once again, then was launched by Apollo. Armour fell off the back of Thor when it was thrown again, including vital components, leaving Thor immobile and unable to self-right. Thor was counted out, and lost its final battle of the series, but this still meant that Thor had finished fourth place overall in the series. "To come fourth in the competition of Robot Wars? Spot on!"

- Jason Marston

Series 9
Thor will compete in Episode 3.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 11
 * Losses: 7

Robot Wars Live Events
Thor has been one of the regular contestant robots to participate in the Robot Wars Live Events, it has fought in both friendly and competition fights with some good degrees of success. It took part in its first event in Barnsley in February 2013, where it got through to the final of the competition, losing to Maelstrom due to it getting its hammer stuck in the arena wall. Thor was also the winner of the Robot Wars Live Show in Guildford in June 2013.

Thor found great success at the Robot Wars World Championship in 2015. Thor qualified through Round 1 alongside Tiberius, after Tanto was thrown out of the arena by Iron-Awe 5, before Iron-Awe was eliminated on a Judges' decision due to damage sustained from Thor and Tiberius. Thor then won its second-round qualifier when TR2 could not self-right from a flip, while Thor won its second Judges' decision by hammering Eruption. In the quarter-finals, Thor met Nuts, and immobilised it with repeated blows, before pitting it. Thor won its semi-final through a third Judges' decision, after a close fight with Gabriel. Thor eventually finished second, after it was thrown out of the arena by Toxic 2 in the Grand Final.

Following the damage that Carbide caused to Thor in Series 8, it was scrapped and a new Thor was built. It made its Live Event debut at Colchester 2016, but it was still suffering from being untested at its first event, but these problems were fixed in time for a very successful event in Maidstone.

Outside Robot Wars
Following the end of Robot Wars, the Thor captain Jason Marston teamed up with Shane Swan from Team S.Tek to form Team Bud, which competed in various robot combat events across the country, both with an extensively modified Thor and with Shane Swan's newest machine called Envy, which largely resembles Firestorm. Thor made its debut after Robot Wars at the 2004 Winter Tour in its Series 7 guise where it lost its only fight to Dantomkia. Thor then reappeared with a brand new design but still painted red in 2007 UK Championships but lost both of its fights to Kan-Opener and Das Gepäck by being pitted. However, it did finish second in the Annihilator.

It returned in the UK championship of 2008 with a new black colour scheme but lost to Dantomkia and then Terrorhurtz in the Winter Tour. In 2009's year long UK championship, it reached the finals at Wigan causing serious damage to such robots like Dantomkia on the way and when it fought And His Army and Terrorhurtz, with which it had a smashing contest with it lost due to losing drive in one side. In 2010, it fought Merlin but lost due to it damaging its own weapon following a rebuild and being unable to self right after Merlin flung Thor over. It then fought weaponless against Tiberius 4 and Cabrakan in a white board but was pierced by Tiberius 4 multiple times and pitted by Cabrakan 2. Thor did very well in the 2011 UK Championships which were held at the O2 Arena where it achieved fourth place. It won the 12PM Portsmouth Roaming Robots event 2011, in a final against Toon Raider and Cherub.

In September 2011, Thor appeared alongside Ripper in the BBC One game show Epic Win, which challenged them to break two of four items in a caravan and then break out of it. The two robots started well, destroyed all four items, but after Thor got its axe stuck in the cupboard, the team were forced to give up.

Trivia

 * When Robot Wars returned in 2016, Thor was the first competitor to be officially revealed.
 * Thor was the fastest robot in Series 8, at 30mph.
 * Thor's recent success has inspired many more hammer-wielding robots to be built, such as Asgard, a featherweight which greatly resembles Thor, built by Team Asgard.
 * Thor was the first robot to have gone undefeated in the Head to Head league table.
 * Subsequently though, Thor became the first, and so far only, robot to win the Head-to-Heads outright but fail to win the Heat Final.
 * However, Thor also owns the dubious honour of losing the most fights in Series 8, with four.
 * Thor is also the first Grand Finalist to have reached the UK Grand Final despite having lost its heat, having been awarded the 2016 wildcard.
 * Jason Marston was also the only one-man team in the rebooted series.
 * Both times Thor reached a podium position in Robot Wars, it featured in Heat B (New Blood Championship and Series 8)
 * Thor was one of eight competitors from The Sixth Wars to enter the New Blood Championship, alongside Doctor Fist, Mr Nasty, Revolution 2, Cedric Slammer, ICU, Edge Hog and Roobarb.