Chompalot


 * Not to be confused with General Chompsalot.

"They call it a dragon-class rapid offensive unit with wings...but it's vulnerable to knights in shining armour..."

- Jonathan Pearce

Chompalot was a competitor in Series 6, Extreme 2 and the 2016 series of Robot Wars. It was a box shaped robot designed to resemble a dragon. Chompalot's main weapon was a set of crushing jaws, the largest of the Sixth Wars. The upper jaw was hydraulically powered, whilst the lower jaw was static. Chompalot also featured two large wings for self-righting, a spike at the rear to protect the safety link, and light-up eyes, intended to "strike fear into the opponents".

Chompalot was originally built to enter Series 5, and was only finished the day before the qualifiers. However, a motor for one of the wheels broke during testing. Chompalot fought Spirit of Knightmare at the qualifiers, but broke down and was pitted.

"During the Series 5 qualifying event, Chompie seemed sluggish and difficult to turn, Spirit of Knightmare also had difficulties, having set their ground clearance so low, that they could barely move, so consequently Chompie couldn’t get his lower jaws under them. After failing to get a hold of them I opted to ram them, taking runs across the arena to build up speed. Unfortunately the impact loosened some of the control cables to the motor controllers and then, fatally another one of the motors magnets became detached, jamming the motor. Spirit of Knightmare eventually managed to nudge the inert Chompie towards and then into the pit."

- The Chompalot team on the Series 5 Qualifiers

Although it was eliminated in the first round of Series 6, it won the Iron Maidens competition in Extreme 2, driven by Debs Cook, defeating the very experienced Behemoth and Pussycat along the way.

Despite this success in Extreme 2, Chompalot failed to qualify for Series 7 after suffering problems with its receiver crystal. When it returned to Robot Wars in 2016, Chompalot was armoured in 6mm polycarbonate, with the top jaw being made of S355 structural steel, with three tonnes of crushing force. LED lights are now used to give Chompalot piercing eyes.

Series 6
"Ouch!"

- Debs Cook when she heard the Series 6 lineup

Chompalot pulled an unlucky draw in its only main series appearance, coming up against returning teams 13 Black, the 11th seeds Stinger and previous semi-finalist Thermidor 2. This was not the only piece of bad luck for Chompalot, as the team forgot to remove the protective foam from the tip of Chompalot's jaw.

"Eeeeek 13 Black, we had seen them at the qualifiers and seen the mess they had made of their opposition. Thermidor was another big threat with that flipper. I wasn't so worried about Stinger however."

- Team Cookie Monsters, on their first round draw

After the activate call, Chompalot rammed into its perceived threat 13 Black, bounced away, colliding with Thermidor 2. Chompalot chased the other robots around the arena, grabbing hold of 13 Black's roulette wheel and dragging it over the flame pit. Having eventually released 13 Black, Chompalot's weapon then caught hold of Stinger. In Chompalot's state of vulnerability, 13 Black came in from behind and tore into Chompalot with its discs, immobilising it. Chompalot was counted out, and Dead Metal cut into it with his saw. After being twirled around by Sir Killalot, Chompalot was tossed across the arena by the floor flipper, and finally pitted by Dead Metal.

Extreme 2
"What's that? Iron Maidens is full of old dragons? Shame on you!"

- Jonathan Pearce as Chompalot entered the Iron Maidens Championship.

Having required a near total rebuild to repair the damage caused by 13 Black, Chompalot returned for Extreme 2, where its only appearance was in the Iron Maidens competition, Its first battle was against Pussycat and Spin Doctor. Chompalot began by clamping onto Spin Doctor and preventing it from spinning. It dragged Spin Doctor into Shunt's CPZ, while Pussycat took the opportunity to attack it from behind. Chompalot took a hit from Shunt's axe and Pussycat got an attack on Spin Doctor. Chompalot grabbed Spin Doctor again, and one of Spin Doctor's tyres fell off, rendering it immobile.

In the semi-final, Behemoth flipped Chompalot, but Shunt drove out of the CPZ and righted it. The robots danced around each other until Behemoth mistakenly drove into the CPZ, where Chompalot swooped in and got hold of Behemoth, and restrained it while Shunt axed Behemoth until its safety link fell out. Chompalot dragged Behemoth across the arena, hit the pit release button and dropped it into the pit of oblivion.

In the Final, Chompalot and Pussycat started out fairly evenly matched, trading blows. Chompalot skirted a CPZ and was rammed by Growler. Pussycat could not quite bring its weapon to bear and eventually Chompalot got a good hold of Pussycat, then hit the pit release, pushing Pussycat across the arena, and carefully dropping it into the descending pit to earn the title of Iron Maidens champion. This was seen as a huge upset, as Chompalot, a former Round 1 drop-out, had defeated both the favourites for the competition.

2016 Series
Chompalot will appear in Episode 5.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 3
 * Losses: 1

Series Record

 * Series 1-4: Did not enter
 * Series 5: Failed to qualify
 * Series 6: Heat, Round 1
 * Series 7: Failed to qualify
 * 2016 Series: Entered

Outside Robot Wars
Team Cookie Monsters also entered the sister show Techno Games with a swimming robot called Buoyant, in 2002 and 2003. In 2002, Buoyant placed second in its heat, completing the swimming race in a time of 35.97 seconds, ahead of Stealth Stingray and behind Roboduck. Buoyant saw huge improvement in 2003, winning its heat in a time of 11.22 seconds, narrowly missing out on the world record. Despite this, Buoyant capsized in its second round race, eliminating it from the competition despite having been winning the race prior to capsizing.

During Robot Wars' time off-air, Chompalot continued to fight at live events, but only makes occasional appearances. It reached the finals of the Roaming Robots Winter Tour 2004 where it lost to Terrorhurtz in the first round after being severely damaged and also the finals of the 2008 Winter Tour where it reached the quarter-finals losing to Dantomkia. It did however win the Robots Of Destruction 2005 event hosted in Dublin where it managed to beat good robots in Beast, Behemoth, King B, Bigger Brother, Revolution 3, 4x4, St. Agro & Ewe 2 on its way to victory.

In 2005, Simon Cook purchased the Robot Wars veteran Dreadnaut XP-1, for £31. Although the team originally planned to restore it to working condition, it was instead decided that Dreadnaut would remain in retirement, to prevent it from becoming damaged. Team Cookie Monsters have currently loaned Dreadnaut to the Derby Silk Museum of Making.

Trivia

 * Chompalot is one of three robots to win a UK side competition but never win a battle in the UK Championship, along with Kan-Opener and Spikasaurus.
 * Chompalot is the only one of these three not to compete in any Annihilator competitions.
 * Chompalot was the only newcomer in Heat F of Series 6.
 * Chompalot originally applied to take part in the New Blood Championship of Extreme 2, but was not chosen to compete. It was only after applying for the New Blood Championship that Chompalot was invited to participate in the Iron Maidens.
 * Every one of Chompalot's battles contained a former or future Semi-Finalist, and the only robot it ever fought that never reached a Semi-Final was Spin Doctor