Aftershock

Aftershock is a robot which competed in Series 9 of Robot Wars. It was built by Team Shock, as the successor to Series 8 Grand Finalist Shockwave. It lived up this legacy by reaching the Grand Final itself.

Design
Aftershock was a silver and blue, four-wheeled robot with two interchangeable vertical spinning weapons; a 24kg, 500mm diameter spinning disc, exerting huge energy into its single tooth upon impact, and a 14kg bar spinner. The disc spun at 2,400rpm and could reach full speed in under 2 seconds. The lighter bar spinner allowed Aftershock to apply extra armour when necessary, and reduced its likelihood of colliding with a horizontal spinner.

Aftershock's disc was initially planned to use a Rotomax brushless motor, but it was replaced by an LEM motor after the ESC for the brushless motor burnt out two weeks before filming.

The front of Aftershock used a low-profile wedge with two teeth to lead opponents into its disc. Much of its chassis is made out of 6mm hardened steel with 15mm hardened steel bulkheads, with 12mm polycarbonate top panels. The robot also has sets of blue LED lights inside the chassis, which were shown to light up whenever it fought in the arena. Aftershock featured no separate self-righting mechanism, instead relying purely on the power of the disc to turn the robot over. However, the robot's top was less protected due to the polycarbonate top panels used, and had an exposed drive belt and wheels.

Series 9
Aftershock competed in Episode 1, fighting Sabretooth, TMHWK and Crank-E in its Group Battle. It immediately drove into Crank-E, flipping it over as TMHWK pushed Crank-E it into its disc. Aftershock flipped Crank-E over several times towards Shunt, causing sparks to fly and ripping Crank-E's top panel and left-hand wheelguard loose as it became immobilised. With its disc losing functionality due to an overheated LEM, Aftershock pressed the Arena Tyre and activated the pit, smoke pouring from underneath it as it pushed Crank-E onto the arena spikes. Needless to say, it qualified for the Head-to-Head stage along with Sabretooth.

Team Shock discovered in the pits afterwards that part of Aftershock's wiring had burnt out, which caused the disc to stop working. However, they were able to replace the damaged wiring in time for its first Head-to-Head battle against Rapid. "Bent front forks against blown-up wiring… who has done the best repairs?"

- Jonathan Pearce as Aftershock's first Head-to-Head gets underway

There, both robots charged into each other straight away, with Rapid pushing Aftershock into the wall and flipping it over. Aftershock landed on its disc, violently recoiling into the wall and landing back upright, before hitting Rapid's open flipper and chasing it a short distance across the arena. Another head-on slam ensued, before Aftershock hit Rapid from the side and sent it spinning into Sir Killalot, only to drive into him itself. Both robots escaped, with Aftershock throwing Rapid onto its back and driving underneath it as it attempted to self-right. As it became apparent that Rapid's flipper had malfunctioned, Aftershock drove away and spun round in victory before Rapid was counted out. "Leave him. Let's not do anything silly, then."

- Ian Thomas advises Will to withdraw Aftershock's attacks on Rapid

Aftershock scored three points following this knock-out victory, which put it joint-first on the leaderboard with its next opponent, Sabretooth. However, its disc had stopped moving freely after striking the arena floor in its previous battle, due to the casing for the weapon motor pulling apart on impact. This resulted in Team Shock needing to replace Aftershock's weapon motor and carry out repairs to the robot's chassis before its next Head-to-Head. Aftershock approached Sabretooth and ripped several of its armour panels off before pushing it onto the Floor Flipper. It briefly got caught underneath the Floor Flipper as Sabretooth was turned over, before repeatedly hitting, flipping and tearing parts off Sabretooth again. Aftershock chased Sabretooth around the arena as it pressed the Arena Tyre, before hitting it several more times, immobilising it near the Floor Flipper. Much to the shock and dismay of Esme Stroud, Aftershock flipped Sabretooth twice more into a CPZ, ripping one of its wheels and motors out, before spinning around in victory as 'cease' was called. As a result, it scored three more points and overtook Sabretooth in the league table standings with six points.

In its last Head-to-Head, Aftershock faced experienced Robot Wars veteran – and original series Grand Finalist - Terrorhurtz. Before the battle, Team Shock fitted extra layers of shock-mounted polycarbonate to Aftershock's armour, in order to offer it extra protection against Terrorhurtz's axe blows. At the start, Aftershock avoided Terrorhurtz's initial charge before clipping its front and rear with the disc, sending sparks and shards of polycarbonate flying as it pushed Terrorhurtz into Shunt's CPZ. Terrorhurtz spun round, only for Aftershock to hit its wedge again, recoiling and sending another shower of sparks flying. Aftershock was pinned against the wall by Shunt and Terrorhurtz as a result, with Aftershock's disc hitting Shunt's scoop before it escaped and pushed Terrorhurtz back into the wall. The two competitors drove away from the wall, with Aftershock hitting Terrorhurtz a few more times as it pushed it towards the Floor Flipper. As the flipper lifted Terrorhurtz, Aftershock catapulted it across the arena, with Terrorhurtz landing upright and with its axe seemingly stuck in the fired position. Aftershock chased Terrorhurtz across the arena, but was flipped by an arena spike, only for its disc to immediately kick it back onto its wheels and allow it to continue chasing. "This isn't the way we thought it would go. I have to admit, I thought Aftershock would win this easy-peasy."

- Jonathan Pearce as Aftershock and Terrorhurtz fall foul of the arena hazards The two robots met each other once again, with Aftershock spinning round in an attempt to strike Terrorhurtz once more. Sparks flew as Aftershock hit Terrorhurtz's front again, while Terrorhurtz responded by striking the axle for Aftershock's disc. Aftershock hit Terrorhurtz several more times in spite of this, the last few hits immobilising and throwing Terrorhurtz onto its back. With Terrorhurtz failing to self-right, Aftershock again performed a victory spin, and scored three more points for its third consecutive knock-out. As a result, it finished top of the Head-to-Head leaderboard with nine points, and secured its place in the Heat Final. There, Aftershock faced Sabretooth for the second time, with both robots fighting for a place in the Grand Final. It was initially pushed around from the side by Sabretooth, before throwing Sabretooth across the arena as it hit the latter's side. Aftershock chased after and bumped into Sabretooth as it lay near the Arena Tyre, and clipped behind its wheel as Sir Killalot grabbed, lifted and held Sabretooth over the Flame Pit. Eventually, Sir Killalot lowered Sabretooth, allowing Aftershock to come in and hit Sabretooth again, tearing one of its back panels off, before leaving Sabretooth to be grabbed and spun round by Sir Killalot. Despite Ian Thomas advising Will to spin its disc down, Aftershock attacked Sabretooth one last time as it tried to drive off the Flame Pit, the hits immobilising Sabretooth for good as it was being counted out. This performance enabled Aftershock to secure its place in the Grand Final.

Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 6
 * Losses: 3

Trivia

 * Aftershock's design is much like the team's well-known featherweight Inertia XL. The team's beetleweight Inertia B2 served as a close replica of the design of Aftershock and greatly influenced the design.
 * Aftershock's disc is the first such weapon to be capable of self-righting in Robot Wars, although self-righting flywheels are commonplace in lower weight categories.
 * Aftershock's disc hit Terrorhurtz with such force that part of Terrorhurtz's HARDOX wedge was instantly welded onto the spinner.
 * In response to a question asked on their Aftershock Reddit AMA on 7th March 2017, Team Shock revealed that they attempted to enter an earlier version of Aftershock into Season 2 of ABC's BattleBots. However, despite reaching the final stage of the selection process, it was not selected to compete in that season.