Hydra

Hydra was a large four-wheel driven box-shaped robot that competed from Series 5 to Series 7 of Robot Wars, also entering in the second series of Extreme. Hydra did not enjoy great success in most of its wars, reaching just one Heat Final and losing in the first round in its other two attempts, but it came second in the Tag Team Terror tournament of Extreme 2 alongside Barbaric Response, losing to Bulldog Breed and Robochicken in the final.

Hydra (Series 5)
The original Hydra was camouflage green with a front scoop and central flipper as its main weapon, which also acted as a self-righting mechanism. It was made mainly from aluminium alloy taken from scrapyards and neighbours' gardens and was covered with springs (for snakes) on top. It went out in the first round of Series 5, failing to get underneath Spawn Again at any point in the battle and having to constantly self-right before eventually breaking down.

Hydra (Series 6, Extreme 2)
For Series 6, the flipper was remodelled into a flipping arm and a sledgehammer with a 2kg axehead was added with 700lb thrust. In this form, it greatly resembled former competitor Mortis. It was also given a new army-style green and red colour scheme. During Series 6 and Extreme 2, Hydra used its lifting arm to great effect against several robots, but suffered as a result of its weak aluminium armour - Dominator 2 punctured Hydra's shell on many occasions causing it to slow down significantly, and was also immobilised by Bulldog Breed in the Tag Team final.

Hydra (Series 7)
Hydra was upgraded for Series 7 and featured an outer layer of titanium increasing the thickness of its armour, a new hardened steel axe which could puncture titanium and a redesigned front end to get under the other robots easier. It also switched to a new light blue colour scheme. In the first round, it suffered particularly due to its 20mm ground clearance as it was thrown around several times by Gravity, eventually landing on and breaking the arena wall and was then thrown out of the arena by the Dutch machine. Hydra returned for the Axe Attack event, dominating the battle against Kat 3 and Iron-Awe 2.1, but unfortunately drove over the pit as it was activated by Refbot.

Series 5
In the first round of the Fifth Wars, Hydra started off with a challenge, by fighting seeded robot and previous Semi-Finalists Spawn Again. Hydra was unable to get underneath the 13th seed with its flipper. Spawn Again got underneath the side of Hydra, who was trying to dodge the massive flipper, and flipped it up into the air, with Hydra landing on its back. Hydra self-righted spectacularly, though. Hydra was tossed around the arena by Spawn Again multiple times after this, and each time, Hydra managed to self-right, showing no signs of running out of power in the flipper. "Hydra - it's a roly-poly sort of display isn't it?"

- Jonathan Pearce commenting on Hydra's performance

However, after self-righting yet again, something broke inside Hydra, and it stopped moving completely. Spawn Again rammed Hydra three times, failing to breach its low ground clearance. After Spawn Again eventually got underneath Hydra, it made two attempts to throw Hydra out of the arena, but could not do so.. Refbot counted Hydra out, which was left to the mercy of the House Robots. It was thrown across the arena by Sir Killalot and eventually pitted by Matilda, eliminating it from the competition.

Series 6
"Built for agility and attack, lightly armoured, that could be a weakness"

- Jonathan Pearce on Hydra

Back for the Sixth Wars with a newly incorporated hammer, Hydra's first round battle was again with a seeded robot, this time the 6th seeds Dominator 2, Hydra was also up against Sumpthing and Axe-C-Dent 2. Hydra started out well, overturning Axe-C-Dent 2 in the opening moments, immobilising it before ramming, hammering and flipping Dominator 2 over a few times, with little in return, and Sumpthing helping in axing the seeded machine. However, the veteran robot easily self-righted. Sumpthing then became immobilised allowing Hydra to slip through to the next round along with Dominator 2.

Hydra's Heat semi-final was expected to be very evenly matched against similarly-designed Comengetorix, but Hydra dominated the battle, pushing Comengetorix around the arena and due to the floor being slippery with hydraulic fluid, Comengetorix couldn't get any traction. Hydra overturned Comengetorix several times and getting it on the arena wall at one stage. Again Comengetorix recovered, but its flipping arm broke off in the process. When it came to the last 10 seconds of the bout, Comengetorix managed to get its axe into Hydra's inner workings and have a tug-of war towards the flames but the fight ended. The judges decided that Hydra had won the fight having been more aggressive.

The Heat Final saw Hydra once again up against the seeded Dominator 2, who Hydra flipped a few times but, as had been the case earlier on in the Heat, Dominator 2 recovered every time. Dominator 2 managed to land its axe on Hydra's top panels, causing holes to spread. Hydra attempted to use its own axe, but it only bounced off Dominator 2. Dominator 2 let go with its axe, and Hydra seemed to slow down to a crawl. The fight went to a judges' decision and the judges awarded the fight to Dominator 2, eliminating Hydra from the Sixth Wars.

Extreme 2
In Robot Wars Extreme Series 2, Hydra singularly fought in the Tag-Team Terror competition, fighting alongside Barbaric Response. The two faced Team Mouse with Velocirippa and Mighty Mouse in their first round battle. Hydra and Velocirippa were the first two out, but after just a few hammer blows and light flips from Hydra, Velocirippa broke down all of a sudden and Hydra pushed it onto the flame pit. Mighty Mouse then zoomed in to try and get their team-mate off the flame pit, but they ended up getting stuck together instead. Whilst Velocirippa was getting counted out by Refbot, Barbaric Response then came out and flipped Mighty Mouse all over the arena, getting it into Matilda's CPZ, severely damaging the mouse. Hydra then came in and pushed Mighty Mouse down the pit, earning the team a place in the next round of the competition.

In their semi-final bout, they faced X-Terminator and Mini Morg. Hydra and X-Terminator were the first two out. X-Terminator landed one axe blow on Hydra before Hydra flipped X-Terminator into Dead Metal who sliced into its scoop. X-Terminator ran off to tag its team-mate Mini Morg and Hydra tagged Barbaric Response who flipped Mini Morg over but due to its shape, it rolled back on its wheels and then it tagged X-Terminator to come out again. This time, X-Terminator managed to get Hydra's partner into Dead Metal and again Barbaric Response tagged Hydra and from then on, it was the opposing team taking on Hydra. Hydra flipped and slammed Mini Morg all over the place before flipping it into Growler who dragged it out of the CPZ and it broke down resulting in Refbot counting it out. Hydra and Barbaric Response then ganged up on X-Terminator for the rest of the fight. Hydra and Barbaric Response went through to the final as Growler had put Mini Morg down the pit.

The Final saw them taking on Bulldog Breed and Robochicken, again Hydra was the first out of the team to come out in the opening moment of the fight along with Bulldog Breed. Bulldog Breed flipped Hydra over where it tried to and Hydra couldn't self-right. Barbaric Response quickly came out of the corner attacking Bulldog Breed, but Bulldog Breed recovered and then Barbaric Response flipped Hydra back on its wheels only for it to be overturned once again. Barbaric Response was shoved back into its corner and attacked by Robochicken, and Refbot then counted Hydra out eliminating it from the competition. Mr. Psycho then came in and gave Hydra a huge blow with his hammer and then put it out of its misery, pitting it.

Series 7
Fighting in Heat D of the Seventh Wars, Hydra went up against Gravity, Thor, and Hodaf the Bad in its first round battle. Hydra was fairly unlucky in this battle as it was targeted constantly by Gravity. Hydra flew through the air several times because of the Dutch machine's high pressure flipper. Hydra did a lot of work running away from Gravity, running around the other two competitors to distract Gravity. Hydra then flipped Hodaf the Bad over, but Hodaf the Bad self-righted. Gravity then scooped up Hydra again and flipped it up again. Part of the arena wall was crushed when Gravity flipped Hydra again, this time inside a CPZ, Hydra landed on top of the arena wall. Gravity then threw Hydra into a camera outside of the arena before cease was called on the remaining three machines since the arena was no longer deemed to be safe. The battle went to a judges' decision, but Hydra was already considered eliminated because it had already been flipped out of the arena.

Hydra also made an appearance in one of the Special Events happening throughout the series, namely "The Axe Attack" where it fought Kat 3 and Iron-Awe 2.1. It was overall the most aggressive of the three, and dominated the fight. Hydra hammering away at Iron-Awe 2.1 for a long extent, as Kat 3 suddenly broke down due to a few hits from the other two competitors. Kat 3 was counted out by Refbot. Hydra also attacked the house robots, flipping Shunt over and teaming up with Iron-Awe 2.1 on the other house robot Cassius Chrome. However, with Iron-Awe's axe weapon having some problems, Hydra then unfortunately drove over the pit, activated by Refbot, as it descended, it went down and was eliminated from the battle, declaring Iron-Awe 2.1 the winner.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 4
 * Losses: 5

Series Record

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

Outside Robot Wars
Like many Robot Wars competitors, the Hydra team entered Techno Games. The team entered a weapon-less Hydra and renamed it Bugs Buggy, due to this robot having a toy Bugs Bunny on the front of the robot with a steering wheel. Bugs Buggy was entered in the football tournament and was teamed with Terry the Turtle in 2002 and Mighty Mouse, forming The Mouseketeers in 2003 but lost in round 1 both times. It also managed to win the Assault course during the 2002 series but lost to Big Bro in round 2 the following year.

After Robot Wars, Hydra was bought by Team Cylon, who renamed themselves Team Hydra after purchasing the robot. It is no longer fighting today, and since the team have also bought S.M.I.D.S.Y., Dantomkia and Wheely Big Cheese. However, the team sold S.M.I.D.S.Y. in late 2010 - before also selling Dantomkia.

Trivia

 * Hydra is one of seven robots to destroy the arena wall, and the only one to do so by landing on it.
 * Coincidentally, both times Hydra did not go out in the first round were episodes where both S.M.I.D.S.Y. and Sumpthing appeared.