Bigger Brother

"A nightmare in metal!"

- Little Joe Watts' description of his machine

Bigger Brother (mistakenly referred to on occasion as Big Brother 2) was a wedge shaped robot with a powerful flipper on the front that was able to flip its opponents right out of the arena. It entered Series 4 through 7, as well as both Extreme Series.

Bigger Brother's greatest success was in Series 5. The flipper was much more powerful, and was capable of throwing its opponents out of the arena. It beat three of the previous year's semi-finalists, including the reigning champion Chaos 2. In the Grand Final, it came up against crowd favourite Hypno-Disc. Despite being completely trashed by its opponent's destructive weapon, Bigger Brother surprised everyone in an amazing comeback by pushing Hypno-Disc into the pit. With all the teams pitching in to help it was ready to battle Razer but lost the battle due to a judges' decision.

It also reached the Semi-Finals in Series 6, but was hacked into submission by Terrorhurtz - the only time that Bigger Brother has broken down from damage. It won the Minor Meltdown in Extreme Series 2, but was flipped out of the arena by Iron Awe 2.1 during Series 7, becoming the highest ever seed to be flipped out of the arena.

Bigger Brother was represented by Joe and Ellie Watts, alongside their father Ian. Joe and Ellie were well loved by the roboteering community, particularly Julia Reed and Craig Charles. "Little Joe" was famous for being one of the greatest roboteers of his young age, managing to flip three robots out of the arena, and also drove his robot (Ellie taking over his role as weapons control) to a decisive victory in the Minor Meltdown. Two of of Bigger Brother's three Out of the Arena flips, as well as the Minor Meltdown final against Lambsy and the semi-finals bout in Series 5 against S3, have gone down in the top 30 quickest battles of UK Robot Wars, with the battle against Splinter only just missing out. However, Joe and Ellie had less success in Nickelodeon Robot Wars, placing third after it lost to Ming 3 and Rick.

Bigger Brother is notably the most successful robot to have never won a Judges decision. The only time the team was ever awarded victory in a match that went to the Judges was with their previous machine Big Brother

Recent Televised Appearance
In the 2010 series of reality TV show Big Brother, Bigger Brother appeared as the "ultimate opponent" for the housemates during their robot task. All qualifying housemates had decorated RC Cars, which fought Bigger Brother in a specially built arena. However, most cars were flipped, pitted or in the case of one car, thrown out of the arena completely. The housemates therefore failed their task, and Bigger Brother was victorious.

Series 4
"And, and, also, the weapon, has been tested by little Joe's thumb. So, it must be alright then."

- Jonathan Pearce

Having reached the semi-finals the previous year with Big Brother, Bigger Brother was granted the 14th seed for Series 4. It cleared its first round melee fairly successfully, flipping over the 130+ kg Clawed Hopper and also pushing Hammer & Tong around the arena. This put it through to meet up with Bulldog Breed 2. However, its first attempted flip missed and caused a gas leak, leaving the machine weaponless. Bulldog Breed quickly took advantage of this and flipped it over. Unable to activate the flipper, and thus unable to self-right, Bigger Brother was eliminated. Bigger Brother later competed in the Tag Team Terror, paired up with Plunderbird 4. It showed early aggresion in its first round against Firestorm 2 and Scorpion, but was ultimately let down after Plunderbird had a malfunction and was left immobile. Losing the judges decision, and with the Plunderbird team unable to get their robot going again, Bigger Brother had to fight the play-off between X-Terminator 2 and Invertabrat alone, but managed to hold off both machines and had victory secured after X-Terminator drove down the pit by mistake.

Bigger Brother also competed in the Pinball and Sumo special events, placing equal 5th in Pinball with a score of 180, but was knocked off the sumo after 6.43 seconds.

Extreme 1
Bigger Brother participated in three battles in different competitions in Extreme 1.

It was involved in the Tag Team alongside Plunderbird 5, but Plunderbird broke down before the battle, and Major Tom was brought in as a replacement. The two machines faced Spawn Again and Comengetorix. Bigger Brother started the match against Comengetorix. It lifted its opponent, but was hoisted in the air by its opponent. Major Tom was tagged and flipped, but Bigger Brother self-righted its partner. Major Tom then stopped moving. Bigger Brother tried attacking its opponents, but Major Tom's immobilisation cost Bigger Brother the chance to progress to the second round of the tag team.

Bigger Brother met Comengetorix in a vengeance match following these events, in a staged argument about flying the Union Jack, but was in reality a ploy to attack Sir Killalot. Bigger Brother flipped its foe over, but it self righted under pressure from Sgt Bash. Bigger Brother flipped the house robot over, before attacking Sir Killalot. Bigger Brother then pitted its opponent, before being pitted by Sir Killalot.

Bigger Brother also participated in the Flipper Frenzy. It teamed up with Thermidor 2 and Chaos 2 on Sgt Bash, and flipped the house robot. They couldn't flip him out of the arena, despite several attempts.

"This is terrible teamwork against our boys"

- Jonathan Pearce on the attacks on the house robots

Bigger Brother was immobilised by Matilda as a result and was defeated.

Series 5
Bigger Brother had an explosive start to series 5, flipping Tip-Top and Splinter out of the arena fairly swiftly in the first two rounds. After nearly getting 3 Stegs to Heaven out in the Heat Final, Bigger Brother flipped Shunt over and left the immobilised 3 Stegs to Heaven to be dealt with by Sir Killalot.

In the first round of the Semi-Finals Bigger Brother attempted to get the unusually-shaped S3 out of the arena, but pushed it down the pit instead. In the second round Bigger Brother was drawn up against reigning champions Chaos 2. Bigger Brother flipped Chaos 2 once, who then flipped Bigger Brother a few times. Bigger Brother flipped Chaos 2 again who ran out of Co2 gas whilst attempting to self-right, sending Bigger Brother through the Grand Final and making it the first robot to defeat Chaos 2 in the main competition.

In the Grand Final Bigger Brother put a hopeless defense against Hypno-Disc, who ripped armour off Bigger Brother and destroyed the flipper. It repeatedly reversed into Hypno-Disc's deadly weapon, relying on the extremely tough titanium plating on the back to withstand the blows. Despite the extreme damage to the bodywork, eventually rendering the flipper bent and unusable, Bigger Brother continued to function while Hypno-Disc began to lose power. Bigger Brother was later able to push Hypno-Disc around, eventually forcing it into the pit release and down the pit, completing one the greatest comebacks in Robot Wars history. After this fight every team except for Bigger Brother's next adversary Razer helped to fix it for the Grand Final. "Are you ready for the fight of the century? Because, the mangled piece of metal on the arena floor that was Bigger Brother has now been rebuilt and is a robot looking ready to fight."

- Philippa Forrester

In that fight Razer pierced several holes in Bigger Brother who put up very little defense and lost on a unanimous judges decision, finishing runner-up for Series 5.

Series 6
After being beaten in the Grand Final of the last wars, Bigger Brother was seeded 2nd for Series 6, this time with much stronger armour. It went through its first round against Killer Carrot 2, Major Tom and Riptilion after the latter two broke down. It met Behemoth in round 2. Team Make Robotics' robot managed to overturn Bigger Brother and take it to the CPZ where Shunt axed it but it escaped. Bigger Brother then flipped Behemoth over, but it self-righted and pressed the pit release button. After Behemoth was positioned between Bigger Brother and the pit, Bigger Brother flipped the Hemel Hempstead robot in the air, clamped its flipper down on top of Behemoth and dumped it down. Bigger Brother met Disc-O-Inferno in its heat final. The second seeds nearly flipped its invertible opponent out the arena a few times. It was able to throw Disc-O-Inferno around the arena, eventually the spinner robot's disc stopped spinning and it then drove straight into the open pit allowing Bigger Brother to go through to the Semi-Finals of the Sixth Wars.

Round 1 of the Semi-Final saw Bigger Brother fighting the 6th seeds Dominator 2. Bigger Brother started the fight off well overturning Dominator 2 twice, but each time it managed to self-right. Then after Dominator 2 landed a few axe-blows on Bigger Brother, the second seed was then pushed into Sir Killalot's CPZ. The house robot picked up Bigger Brother but it managed to escape but then got attacked once more by Sir Killalot in the last 10 seconds. The fight went to a judges decision and Dominator 2 was put through. Bigger Brother wasn't out though, as it was eligible to compete in the loser's melee along with 4th seeds and previous Series 5 opponents Hypno-Disc and 10th seeds Spawn Again. In the melee, Hypno-Disc broke down and Spawn Again nearly got Bigger Brother out the arena but fortunatly for the Watts family, Spawn Again's flipper jammed open and Bigger Brother were able to push it down the pit. Its fight for a place in the Grand Final was against the unseeded Terrorhurtz who had already taken out seeds such as Panic Attack and Spawn Again. Terrorhurtz hammered away on Bigger Brother's bodywork and Bigger Brother couldn't get under Terrorhurtz's skirts. After many more axe-blows from Terrorhurtz, Bigger Brother was in the CPZ, counted out by Refbot and then Sgt Bash and Shunt dealt with Bigger Brother by putting it on the arena flipper and dumping it down the pit. This was the only time in Robot Wars history that Bigger Brother was KO'd by damage (from an opponent, Matilda had immobilised Bigger Brother before with damage).

Extreme 2
After reaching the Semi-Finals of the Sixth Wars, Bigger Brother returned for the All-Stars tournament. It started Round 1 off very well, turning S3 onto its side before pushing it towards the arena wall at full throttle and then flipping it over the fence. Round 2 saw it facing the Sixth Wars champion Tornado. Tornado pushed Bigger Brother towards Sir Killalot, before the flipper robot managed to overturn Tornado so it had its scoop the wrong way up. Bigger Brother then gained advantage over Tornado and pushed it down the pit. Bigger Brother then faced Firestorm 4 in the Heat Final. Bigger Brother was overturned at the start but recovered, and it tried to flip Firestorm 4 but it didn't go over. Firestorm 4 then tried 3 times to get Bigger Brother out of the arena but failed every time. After both robots were attacked by the house robots, Firestorm 4 flipped Bigger Brother over and it had apparantly ran out of gas so couldn't self-right. Firestorm 4 was then able to put Bigger Brother down the pit.

The Watts family returned for the Minor Meltdown competition where Joe & Ellie drove the machine. Bigger Brother qualified the first round after flipping Saw Point 2 who was attacked by Growler and couldn't self-right which resulted in it getting counted out. Bigger Brother then met Rick in the Semi-Final. Rick lured Bigger Brother into the CPZ but it quickly escaped. Bigger Brother then flipped Rick as Dead Metal's blade rolled across the arena floor, but Rick was unharmed. Rick was then in the grasp of a bladeless Dead Metal and then broke down allowing Bigger Brother to go through to the final. The Watts family in the Minor Meltdown final flipped Lambsy on its side where it couldn't self-right before pushing it down the pit claiming a victory and becoming the Minor Meltdown Champion.

Series 7
In the first round, fourth seeds Bigger Brother came up against U.R.O., Typhoon 2 and Colossus. Typhoon 2 failed to get spinning, however Bigger Brother repeatedly flipped the invertible U.R.O., causing it enough damage to become immobilised. Colossus had already been flipped, leaving Typhoon 2 and Bigger Brother. Bigger Brother flipped over Typhoon, immobilising it and attempted to re-right Collosus. However, Refbot counted out Colossus moments before Colossus landed on its wheels and started moving again, before driving into the pit. In the second round, Bigger Brother, who had flipped three robots out of the arena faced Iron-Awe 2.1. With Bigger Brother having a reputation for flipping robots out of the arena, and Iron Awe being a team with machines that had been flipped out of the arena three times before, everyone believed Bigger Brother had the win in the bag. The battle started as predicted - Bigger Brother started quickly, flipping Iron-Awe 2.1 into Shunt, before the competitor self-righted. The heat favourites darted around Shunt but drove straight onto Iron-Awe 2.1's flipper, and was tossed on top of and over the wall - and out of the competition, this was one of the biggest shocks in Robot Wars history and meant bigger Brother was one of five seeds from Series 7 to go out in Round 2.

Bigger Brother initiated a coup against the House Robots in the All-Stars, and all four robots toppled Shunt and caused Cassius Chrome to break down. However, Bigger Brother, along with Firestorm 5, drove itself into the pit by mistake.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * UK Wins: 20
 * UK Losses: 11
 * US Wins: 1
 * US Losses: 1

Series Record

 * Series 1-2: Did not enter
 * Series 3: Entered with Big Brother
 * Series 4: Heat, Round 2
 * Series 5: Runner-up
 * Series 6: Semi-Finals, Round 2
 * Series 7: Heat, Round 2