Sabretooth

"Basically they got a moped, cut it up, wielded lots of bits of metal to it, strapped on some motors and here it is!"

- Jonathan Pearce

Sabretooth (originally referred to by the show as Sabre Tooth) was a competitor in Series 5 and 6, and later the 2016 series of Robot Wars. The original robot was dome-shaped, as a result of wielding a rollcage in favour of a srimech. The robot's weapon was a wide set of shredding blades that spun at 2400 RPM. Although the blades were fairly effective, the front chain was notably exposed. The robot itself was also somewhat slow, and proved unreliable in its only televised battle.

In Series 6, a new Sabretooth armed with a large spinning disc weapon was built. However, its axle for the 13 inch cutting disc weapon broke during the qualifiers, so the team was forced to remove it. The damage came as a result of bending the chassis of a flipper-wielding opponent in its qualifier battle. The old axle was wielded back together, but it would no longer hold up the power of the disc, so the team instead equipped a large tyre for extra speed and mobility, and an improved drive engine, giving Sabretooth 12-horsepower push and allowing it to reach reported incredible speeds of 70 MPH (which would have made it the fastest robot in Robot Wars if these reports are true), in contrast to its former top speed of 12mph. The robot weighed 100kg, and was powered by 2 x 750w electric motors. The added speed given by the tyre didn't help against the weaponry of Terrorhurtz, and because of its thin aluminium armour and the petrol powering the weapon was on board, Sabretooth was eliminated in the first round.

An all-new Sabretooth was built for Series 7, featuring a horizontal flywheel, capable of spinning at an incredible speed of 9000RPM, powered by a 125cc engine. In its qualifier battle, it teamed up with Disc-O-Inferno and took out Hannibal with a single blow whilst its ally defeated Hassocks Hog 2. Both spinners survived despite Disc-O-Inferno accidentally damaging Sabretooth when flipped by Hassocks Hog. Sabretooth lost the judges' decision to Disc-O-Inferno, but received a discretionary place. However, the team was asked to tone down the power on their disc, and were unable to comply in time for the show, so they were forced to withdraw.

"It was a bit over the top!"

- Gabriel Stroud, on their Series 7 weaponry

Team Sabretooth, now known as Team Legion after their featherweight of the same name, returned in 2016 to compete with a brand-new version of Sabretooth. The robot has two weapons, including an overhead claw at the front, and a 22kg aliminium spinning drum at the back, spinning at 4500RPM. The second teaser trailer for the series centred around Sabretooth.

Series 5
In the heats of Series 5, Sabretooth fought fellow newcomer Evolution in Round 1. At the start of the battle, Sabretooth moved forward and used its spinning blades to inflict cosmetic damage to Evolution, but in return, received a blow from Evolution's turret weapon. Evolution then rammed Sabre Tooth and stopped its weapon completely. Suddenly, both robots lost a lot of their momentum. The House Robots, Sergeant Bash and Sir Killalot, both closed in to attack Evolution, fiercely penetrating the armour and snapping the turret weapon, while Sabretooth was curiously left alone. Both House Robots received yellow cards from Refbot. Sabretooth came back to life and rammed Evolution, and then time ran out. Due to its more active role in the battle, Evolution had won the Judges' decision and proceeded through to Round 2, and Sabretooth was therefore eliminated.

Series 6
Sabretooth's spinning disc broke long before the first battle, meaning the team had to replace it with a motorcycle tyre, which supposedly increased Sabretooth's top speed to 70mph. As a result, Sabretooth's spinning disc was never referenced on the show. Sabretooth faced three other veterans in the first round battle: A-Kill, Terrorhurtz and Reptirron The Second. Sabretooth played very little part in its battle, as it ran into Sergeant Bash immediately and then slammed backwards into Terrorhurtz, who landed several powerful axe blows on it. Already immobilised, Sabretooth was shoved into the side wall afterwards, with several pieces of armour buckled and broken. Sabretooth was counted out by Refbot and thrown by the floor flipper. It was eliminated along with later victim, Reptirron the Second.

2016 series
Sabretooth's participation in the 2016 series was first officially revealed through the second teaser trailer, which shows Team Legion admiring their robot to the theme of Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You, before showing clips of Sabretooth in its first round battle.

In the first round, Sabretooth met Storm2 and Eruption.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 0
 * Losses: 2

Series Record

 * Series 1-4: Did not enter
 * Series 5: Heat, Round 1
 * Series 6: Heat, Round 1
 * Series 7: Withdrew
 * 2016 Series: Entered

Outside Robot Wars
As the newest version of Sabretooth is armed with a spinning disc, it cannot compete at UK live events, so instead the team compete at various featherweight events. They do so with two robots, Legion, a white robot armed with a flipper, which also spurred on Team Sabretooth's change of name to Team Legion, and Django, a wide box-shaped white robot armed with a spinning drum.

Both robots competed at the Featherweight World Championship in 2016. Although Legion did not experience high success, Django reached the Grand Final, placing second after being flipped out of the arena by Explosion.

In spite of Sabretooth using a spinning disc as a weapon, the robot spent a brief time on the Extreme Robots website, listed as a competitor, hinting at potential participation in 2017 Extreme Robots live events before its statistics were removed from the website.

Trivia

 * Prior to its official trailer, Sabretooth was leaked as a 2016 competitor as early as March 6th, 2016, due to a tweet from Angela Scanlon, showing her posing in front of Sabretooth's work bench.