Thor

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

- Jonathan Pearce in Extreme 2

Thor was originally a red box-wedge shaped robot that competed in Series 6 and 7 of Robot Wars, as well as the second series of Robot Wars Extreme. The robot could travel at 17-18mph, was pointed at the back and had two pincers on the front, which did not feature after Series 6, and a large, gold pointed hammer weapon which could self-right the robot, puncture 15mm polycarbonate and strike 15 times initially and travel at 70mph. It was rebuilt for Extreme 2 so it was the same size but without the claws.

The robot was upgraded for Series 7 through over 300 hours of work that Jason Marston had calculated on the final version of Thor, so that the hammer was shorter but more powerful and the robot could reach 20mph top speed. The armour was also thinner overall, though. The shape of the robot changed from series to series - it was long and fairly wide in Series 6 before becoming much smaller and more wedge-shaped in Series 7.

Thor reached the second round of the Heats in Series 6 and 7, and also came third in the New Blood Championship in Extreme Series 2.

When Robot Wars made a return with its 2016 series, Thor was the first competitor to be officially revealed. The new version of the machine uses a high-speed bladed axe, shaped like Mjollnir in place of a traditional hammer used by the previous version of Thor. The robot is now armoured in hardox, and can fire its weapon more times per match than previously. At 30mph, Thor is the fastest robot in the series, and its drive motor is four times more powerful than it was in Series 7. Jason Marston was also the only one-man team in the 2016 series.

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 first of all got their weapons in on each other but did little damage. After two misfires from its hammer, Thor landed it on Cedric Slammer which slowed it down and Cedric Slammer rolled into the CPZ where after 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, 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) before 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

2016 Series
Thor was the first robot to be revealed as a competitor in the 2016 series, in a trailer where builder Jason Marston admires his robot to the theme of Grover Washington Jr's Just the Two of Us, before cutting to clips of Thor engaging in battle with Shunt in the arena.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 6
 * Losses: 3

Series Record

 * Series 1-5: Did not enter
 * Series 6: Heat, Round 2
 * Series 7: Heat, Round 2
 * 2016 Series: Entered

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.

Outside Robot Wars
Following the end of Robot Wars, the Thor captain Jason Marston teamed up with Shane Swan from Team S-tec 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.

It did come second in the Annihilator though. 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

 * Thor was the only robot in the New Blood Championship to go beyond the first round of the corresponding main series.
 * 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.