Cold Fusion Team

"The Friendly Team...with Unfriendly robots!"

- The current team motto

Team Cold Fusion (renamed Team Kat in Extreme 2) was a very experienced team from Robot Wars. It fought across six wars and two extremes, making it one of the longest competing teams, along with Team Panic, Team Make Robotics, Team Chaos, Team Firestorm and Team Trinity. Team Cold Fusion created two heavyweight robots; Bodyhammer, which reached the Grand Final of Series 1, and Pussycat, an extremely successful robot that placed second in Series 4, as well as winning five side competitions and an international event. The team entered Techno Games with a weapon-less Pussycat in the football in team Pink as "Pink Pants" along with a weaponless pink fur clad RaMyA (Razer My Arse), aka TX-108, but lost to Typhoon Rover and Typhoon 870. The team also entered two featherweight robots; Katnip in Extreme Series 2 and Kitty in Extreme 2 and Series 7.

The team was originally named because Herrick, Dayton-Lovett and Jones were nuclear engineers. However, once none of these men remained on the team, it took on the name of Stuart Barnwell's Team Kat. The team still occasionally makes an appearance in the touring organisation Roaming Robots, with Stuart, Amanda and Roger Barnwell and Alan and Ann Gribble making up the team. Kitty and Katnip do fight in demonstration battles, but no longer in competitions. Pussycat is currently in the posession of John Findlay of Team Roaming Robots, but is only used for static display. "Technology moves on and technology costs money, which at the moment we are not prepared to move on with, we have no money"

- Team Website

Along the way, it also entered another featherweight called KX, which was built in 2006 but has already retired from fighting altogether. Recently, the team also built an invertible featherweight rambot called KR3-SP2, which hasn't competed at all as of yet.

Throughout Robot Wars, Team Cold Fusion were always willing to lend a hand. In Series 7, Alan Gribble even helped M2 repair its flipper at the last minute, even knowing that M2's next battle would be against Pussycat. The team were recognised for their helpfulness in Series 5 when they won the Sportsmanship award.

Team Cold Fusion has seen more team members than any other, and is the only team to have entered in Series 1 and (qualify for) 7, albeit with different robots and completely different team members.

Origins
The team originally consisted of Robin Herrick, Andrew Dayton-Lovett and Steve Jones. In Series 2, Jones was replaced by David Gribble. For the formation of Pussycat, the team consisted of Herrick (the captain), Gribble (the driver) and Robert Bettington (the weapon operator). For the Series 4 heats, David's father, Alan, joined the team in place of Herrick and took over his role as captain. Robin later returned for the Semi-Final and Grand Final in place of Robert Bettington, but left the team after the Fourth Wars. The lineup for Extreme 1 and Series 5 was the same as the Series 4 heats.

Tragedy
Shortly after Extreme Series 1 and Series 5 had been filmed, the team was rocked by tragedy. On Saturday 13th October 2001, David Gribble, Pussycat's driver, was involved in a motorcycle accident and was taken to hospital. Unfortunately he suffered severe internal injuries and died at around 8:50pm in his parents' arms. A book of condolences was compiled on the official Robot Wars website, and a memorial was shown at the end of the first episode of Robot Wars Extreme Series 1. This was the main reason behind Pussycat not returning for Series 6. However, Alan Gribble did act as a Technical Consultant for that series, and was seen helping teams in the pits. He would also fulfill this role during Series 7.

Stuart Barnwell
After Team Cold Fusion began to recover, Alan sought out a new driver. At the time, Rex Garrod from Team Cassius had been running a feature called Rex's Robot Challenge for Real Robots magazine, which explained in detail, how to build a featherweight robot. Stuart Barnwell was building a robot for that challenge, following the magazine, but ended up speaking to Alan via email for advice and the two became friends.

Alan offered to make the weapon for Barnwell's robot, which was Katnip, out of metal as his plastic one was not up to it. After the tragic death of David, Alan invited Stuart to become the team's new driver.

Stuart Barnwell also joined the Tomohawk team in Series 7.

Merge with Team Kat
Stuart Barnwell was originally a featherweight competitor, alongside his parents Roger and Amanda, called Team Kat (not to be confused with Team KaterKiller which entered Kater Killer and Kat 3). Team Kat merged with Team Cold Fusion in Extreme 2, with Stuart also entering his featherweight Katnip. Alan and Ann Gribble are still parts of the team, but since Stuart Barnwell took over as team captain, it has been known as Team Kat for convenience, and it is also the name of the team's official website.

Trivia

 * Team Chaos and Team Cold Fusion were the only two surviving teams from the Series 1 Grand Final to enter Series 4.
 * Team Cold Fusion/Kat is the only team to have competed on the televised show in the first and last Wars.
 * The band Inkwell performed a song named The Tragedy of David Gribble live, to commemorate the life of David Gribble.

Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 37
 * Losses: 14

Series Record

 * Series 1: Grand Final with Bodyhammer
 * Series 2: Heat, Gauntlet with Bodyhammer
 * Series 3: Heat Final with Pussycat
 * Series 4: Runner-up with Pussycat
 * Extreme 1: Annihilator Champion and Tag Team Terror Champion with Pussycat
 * Series 5: Semi-Finals, Round 2 with Pussycat
 * Series 6: Did not enter
 * Extreme 2: Iron Maidens Final with Pussycat and Featherweight Championship Final with Katnip and Featherweight Championship, Round 1 with Kitty
 * Series 7: Heat, Round 2 with Pussycat and Featherweight Championship, Round 1 with Kitty