Front-hinged flippers

Front-hinged flippers are one of two types of true flipper seen in Robot Wars, and the less common of the two. The pioneer of this weapon type was Rex Garrod's Recyclopse, which competed in Series 1, while the most successful competitor with a front-hinged flipper was the Firestorm series of robots, which finished third twice in the four series in which its incarnations were equipped with this weapon.

Definition

 * Flippers aim to propel another robot and allow gravity and torque to flip the robot over. This contrasts lifting weapons, which aim to lift, push and tip a robot over.
 * A true flipper is defined as a flipper designed to get the entire mechanism underneath the other robot. The surface area of a flipper is much bigger than that of a flipping arm, making it easier for them to get underneath opponents before flipping them.
 * A robot's flipper is front-hinged if the flipper connects at the base or elsewhere on the outer edge of the robot (i.e. not the top of a wedge), opening outwards. This creates a "sit-up" motion in the weapon.
 * Despite the name, a front-hinged flipper does not technically have to be placed at the front of a robot. As long as it is hinged on its outer edge and opens outwards, a flipper placed on the robot's side is still regarded as front-hinged, such as the weapons of Lightning, Buzz and later incarnations of Kronic the Wedgehog.

Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages "...we thought the front hinged flipper gave both good attack and good defense as the bot would always be shielded."
 * Front-hinged true flippers are easy weapons to install onto a wedge, and indeed benefit from this design, as the wedge allows it to get underneath its opponents, onto the flipper. Nearly all robots with this weapon are wedge-shaped for this particular reason.
 * The front hinged true flipper offers considerably more protection than their rear-hinged equivalents, because the flipping plate continues to cover internals and prevent them from being damaged in front-on attacks when opened. This was best demonstrated by Spirit of Knightmare during the second Extreme 1 Annihilator, and was the logic behind Mute:

- Adam Emmett explains the reasoning behind Mute's weapon design


 * Like its rear-hinged counterpart, this weapon can easily end a battle by throwing a robot onto its back or - less frequently - out of the arena. Firestorm 3's straightforward victory over Sir Chromalot in Series 5 demonstrates this.
 * They can double as a self-righting mechanism, the most effective of the four, as it has the power and width of a true flipper and the convenient angle of a front-hinged weapon. Firestorm's flipper never failed to work as a srimech when it was equipped with it across four main UK series and two series of Robot Wars Extreme.
 * They are easier to control than their rear-hinged counterparts, as they involve a simple pushing motion, rather than the unpredictable throwing or leaping motions of rear-hinged flippers. In tandem with its tactic to ride up and wedge opponents against the arena wall, Firestorm was capable of immmobilising opponents such as The Morgue, Panic Attack, 13 Black and Ripper with controlled pushes from its flipper.

Disadvantages
 * This flipper type is less suited to flipping opponents out of the arena, although it is still capable of doing so depending on the flipper's power and the robot's design. Firestorm was able to do so in later series through the use of an adjustable castor, which enabled it to 'rear-up' against the wall and 'push' its opponents over with its flipper.
 * Mute also came close to flipping Roobarb out of the arena in the New Blood Championship without needing an adjustable castor.
 * When opened, the flipper's mechanisms can be left vulnerable to being damaged by overhead weapons or vertical crushers. Notably, Razer was able to bend one of Firestorm 3's pneumatic rams after its flipper opened during their Series 5 Grand Final eliminator, rendering Firestorm 3's flipper inoperable for this and its subsequent playoff against Hypno-Disc.
 * As with all other types of pneumatic weapons, CO2 powered front-hinged flippers only had a limited supply of flips, which could eventually render them unable to attack or self-right when the gas supply became fully depleted.
 * Flippers rarely offered damage potential. Unlike rear-hinged flippers, which can possibly damage opponents once they land on the arena floor after getting flipped, front-hinged flippers can only damage opponents by flipping them completely over or into House Robots or arena hazards.
 * As with other lifting and flipping weapons, their effectiveness was decreased when self-righting mechanisms (srimechs) and invertible robots became more popular. In tandem with its two-wheel drive and exploitable rear ground clearance, this factor resulted in Firestorm's losses to Tornado and Storm 2 in Series 6 and 7 respectively.
 * Unlike rear-hinged flippers, a front-hinged flipper requires the wielder to get completely underneath opponents in order to flip them. A front-hinged flipper will have no effect if the opponent is only slightly wedged. For example, during the New Blood Championship final in Extreme 2, Mute simply pushed Storm 2 away with its flipper after failing to get completely underneath it at one point during the battle.

List of Robots with Front-Hinged Flippers
Robots are listed alphabetically.