Shunt

"A power-packed robot capable of pulling a Land Rover and cleaving all opponents in two with that sharpened steel axe"

- Jonathan Pearce in Heat A of Series 1, the introduction of Shunt.

Shunt was reminiscent of a bulldozer, with a rear-mounted scoop and fearsome axe, both powered by pressurized carbon dioxide. Shunt's chassis and scoops were made of steel, while his superstructure was molded fibreglass. In Series 1 and 2, Shunt was used to fight the competitors in the Sumo trial, and was the flag holder in the trial round of Heat 4 of Series 1.

One of the original four House Robots, Shunt was the lightest of all them, albeit still over the contestant weight limit of 100kg. Shunt was able to pull a fully-loaded Land Rover, and with his snowplough and scoop weapons he excelled at pushing contestant robots around the arena, and featured heavily in the Sumo Basho Trial event thanks to his incredible power. Shunt also had a diamond-edged axe to damage other robots.

Like all the House Robots except Matilda, Shunt was usually referred to as a "he". Jonathan Pearce often commented on Shunt and Matilda's 'relationship', but this was never expanded on.

Appearances in Merchandise

 * Shunt/Pullback
 * Shunt/Minibot
 * Shunt/RC

Armament
Shunt was armed with a pneumatically driven diamond-edged axe capable of delivering blows of over 500 kgf/cm² (7,000 psi), and a rear-mounted pneumatic scoop and front snow plough.

Series 1
Shunt holds the distinction of being the first House Robot to be introduced in Robot Wars, as it was the first featured in the roll call. Its axe was significantly smaller in this series, and its primary weapons were its ploughs and pushing ability. "If he were a car, he'd be a tank"

- Jeremy Clarkson on Shunt

Because of this pushing ability, Shunt was used in the Sumo trial in the very first heat. However, he did not get off to the best of starts, only succeeding to push one competitor (Shogun) off the ring, with Roadblock and Nemesis pushing him off, Killertron stalemating him and stock robot Grunt driving off the ring deliberately. On more than one occasion, his low ground clearance caused him to get stuck on the ramps in the Gauntlet.

Although Shunt's axe did not cause much damage, it was still quite fast, so any attack by him was taken very seriously. The axe did have another use - Shunt was the flag holder during the Stock Car trial of Heat 4, and his axe was replaced with a checkered flag, which he waved when Cunning Plan completed its third lap and won.

Shunt's actions during Heat E were particularly notable. It was particularly effective in the Labyrinth, helping to prevent Bodyhammer from reaching the end. However, its actions in the Heat Final were controversial as it sacrificed itself to free Bodyhammer from the grilles, who was immobilised.

Series 2
Shunt was improved somewhat for Series 2, but did not look visibly different from his previous incarnation. His axe was seen to cause notably more damage this series (for example, it managed to damage Milly-Ann Bug, causing puncture wounds to its eye) and he also was finally able to prove his worth in the Sumo challenges, pushing two robots off the platform. Shunt would also start to use his rear bucket scoop to overturn other robots, which he did to Havoc in the Heat L Final.

Shunt did suffer from a few problems, most notably with driving. It sometimes seemed difficult to keep straight. During the King of the Castle trials of Heat E, he would often drive straight off the platform, often from the entrance ramp. During the second Semi Final, he also drove into the pit by mistake, allowing King Buxton to complete its run.

Shunt also gained something of an arch-rival in this series, in the form of eventual champion Panic Attack. During the Heat F Gauntlet, Panic Attack had gotten stuck on Dead Metal, and Shunt was quick to come in and make numerous holes on the top armour. Panic Attack survived, but Shunt was now of their "hit list", so to speak. The two met again in the Sumo trial, where Panic Attack was quick to get its revenge - after several seconds of pushing each other around, Shunt drove off the ring by mistake. This would not be the last time in the show's history that Shunt and Panic Attack would meet, however.

Series 3
As this series dropped the Gauntlet and Trials from the main competition, the House Robots, Shunt included, were given a redesign. Although still largely focused on its strength and pushing abilities, Shunt's axe was enlarged significantly and tipped with a diamond shape, allowing it to puncture all but the hardest of armours (Notably Blade and Berserk 2, as well as the underbelly of Sir Chromalot, went unaffected by Shunt's attacks).

Thanks to his new axe, Shunt often played crucial roles in the outcome of fights, causing significant damage to the competitor robots. In the first heat of the series, its axe caused some significant damage to Suicidal Tendencies after Mace 2 pushed it into his CPZ. The axe also knocked out All Torque's receiver after it was pushed into Shunt's CPZ by Thing 2, and even the new flip-up paddle of Cassius 2 suffered damage, although this was thankfully minor. Shunt also humourously knocked off the head of the action figure of Atlas and destroyed the walking Anarachnid. However, Shunt did not always have things his own way. After it flipped Hypno-Disc to win the Grand Final, Chaos 2 chose Shunt as its third victim, after Matilda, flipping it over. As Shunt tried to recover, he knocked off his own exhaust. Razer also crumpled Shunt's bucket scoop out of position, and even the lighter robots gave Shunt trouble, after American Middleweight joint champion Tentomushi cut off the house robot's aerial.

Series 4
Shunt returned for Series 4 with minor improvements and fine-tuning. It was during this series that some of his most famous moments occurred. One of the most notable of this was during the second round of Heat E, when 101 immobilised Major Tom in the CPZ. After Matilda had caused some damage to Major Tom's head, Shunt hit it with his axe, completely destroying it. Another famous moment occurred in the Grand Final, when Hypno-Disc was pushed into his CPZ after Pussycat damaged its wheel guard. Shunt hit Hypno-Disc's spinning flywheel, stopping it completely and causing severe damage, damage that would prevent it from fighting in the play-off.

Shunt also competed in the Sumo Basho special event, which made a return this series. In contrast to earlier series, he was in top form, pushing 13 of his opponents out of the ring, often in less than 10 seconds. It also got vengeance against Team Nemesis, by soundly defeating Diotoir in retaliation for Nemesis' victory in the show's pilot. This would not last, as X-Terminator and Behemoth survived after charging at him, getting their scoops wedged under his own, preventing him from moving. As if this wasn't bad enough, Shunt later found itself against its old arch-rival, Panic Attack (who had attacked him a few times during the main competition). After a lot of evading and shoving, both robots fell off the platform together after Shunt mis-timed his charge on a beached Panic Attack. The replays showed Shunt had hit the floor first, and Panic Attack was awarded the win, and as the only robot to last longer than the house robot, the Sumo championship.

Extreme 1
With the weight limit being increased to 100kg for this series onwards, just 5kg lighter than him, Shunt began to lose his effectiveness. He caused very little notable damage this series and did get involved in some of the contestant robot's frustrations - most notably when he was nearly flipped out of the arena, then overturned completely, by Chaos 2, even though it had lost drive to one wheel.

Shunt did have a few notable appearances in his favour, though. During a vengeance battle between Plunderbird 5 and Mega Morg, Shunt attacked the inflatable sheep on the latter after it had been burned by Sgt Bash. Shunt would meet Plunderbird again, alongside Stinger and Scorpion in the House Robot Rebellion. Tussling with Scorpion all the way through, he eventually pitted it and Plunderbird 5, but was unable to finish off Stinger despite help from Dead Metal and Matilda.

Series 5
Shunt had a few notable appearances in Series 5. The first was when X-Terminator took on Immortalis in the first round of heat F. After Immortalis was immobilised, Shunt struck the white globe like ornament on its back, completely destroying it in a similar fashion to Major Tom's head the previous season. The second, however, would not go in his favour. Shunt suffered one of the few instances in this series of a competitor attack on a House Robot - during its Heat Final clash against 3 Stegs to Heaven, Bigger Brother flipped him over. "He was there!"

- Ian Watts' excuse for attacking Shunt

Shunt's third notable appearance this series came during a battle in Heat K, where Destruct-A-Bubble broke down against Rick. Shunt attacked Destruct-A-Bubble before it had been counted out, which resulted in a red card from Refbot. Shunt, apparently unhappy, tried to pursue Refbot.

A final incident occurred when Shunt tried to pit a beaten Terrorhurtz, but ended up driving in with it.

Series 6
Once again, Shunt did not have a great deal of involvement during this series. However, one of the few House Robot attacks by a competitor was on him, after Firestorm 4 defeated X-Terminator in the Heat Final of Heat B. Firestorm was able to get underneath Shunt, flip him onto his side and drive him round the arena a few times before overturning him. Fittingly, Shunt was able to get some revenge on Panic Attack, dragging it to the floor flipper and then the drop zone.

There was also a somewhat comical moment during one of the heats, when Sir Chromalot drove into the arena and hit Shunt. Shunt seemed to take offence to this and chased Sir Chromalot to its starting spotlight.

US Series
Shunt made numerous appearances in both the American Extreme Warriors and Nickelodeon series of Robot Wars. He is the only original House Robot to compete in all three Robot Rebellions in that region. In the first Rebellion, he spent a majority of the fight attacking Tut Tut but towards the end ran out of power and was beaten into submission by Tricerabot. He had better luck in the second Rebellion against Snake Bite and Snookums and managed to outclass the two less powerful robots until Sir Killalot came in to finish them off. In the Nickelodeon Rebellion, Shunt was sent flying by the spinning maces of Humdrum but managed to recover. It then spent much of the fight attacking Squirmin Vermin, lifting it up into the air until Sir Killalot once again came in and threw Squirmin Vermin out of the arena and sent Humdrum to the Drop Zone.

Noticeable Appearances

 * In a battle with Lightning, Gravity flipped Shunt and Dead Metal for fun, resulting in a red card from Refbot.
 * In Series 7, Heat H, Ceros flipped Shunt onto its side in the middle of the areana.
 * In an all-stars between Firestorm, Panic Attack, Bigger Brother and Kat 3, Shunt was turned over almost immediately by Firestorm.
 * During the Axe Attack in Series 7, Shunt was flipped over by Hydra.
 * In Series 7 Semi Final One, Tornado rammed Raging Knightmare into Shunt's CPZ where it was attack by Raging Knightmare and flipped it on its side.