Robot The Bruce

Robot The Bruce was a clear armoured box-wedge shaped robot entered by Team Chaos in the first series of Robot Wars. The robot had no weaponry at all, instead using its brute force to push other robots around the arena. It reached the Grand Final of the First Wars, where it was flipped onto its side by Roadblock. Just like Recyclopse, Robot The Bruce was built by Rex Garrod and Simon West from Team Cassius with George Francis handling the electronics.

Its name is a pun on the historical Scottish leader, Robert the Bruce.

Series 1
Robot The Bruce's journey through the Heats was very quick. As the final robot in the Gauntlet, Robot the Bruce had to beat Plunderbird's 4 metres. Powering into Dead Metal, it bulldozed the House Robot to the end zone, being hassled by Shunt on the way. As Dead Metal retreated, Robot the Bruce made the end zone. In Football, Robot the Bruce added to side flaps to successfully dribble the ball, and it successfully battered aside WYSIWYG to shove the ball past Dead Metal. The Arena Semi-Final was close for Robot the Bruce, as it came very close to being tipped on its side by Cruella's wedge several times. Just as Robot the Bruce dodged an attack, Cruella ran into the side wall, onto one of the grills. Completely immobile, Robot the Bruce was through to fight another wedge robot, Wedgehog. "...make him run up the front of us. We've got no chance any other way, he weighs four times our weight."

- Chris Glaister

Wedgehog's wedge could not go beneath Robot the Bruce, and Robot the Bruce bulldozed Wedgehog onto another grill, leaving it immobile and giving Team Chaos its first of many Grand Final appearances.

Robot the Bruce entered the Grand Final brawl after keeping its distance. It rammed Roadblock and Bodyhammer several times, before slipping beneath its brother robot Recyclopse and helping Roadblock on the attack. Robot the Bruce then attacked Bodyhammer, ramming the cone shaped machine several times. Roadblock, having concluded the demise of Recyclopse, attacked Robot the Bruce, and succeeded in doing what Cruella had failed to do - drive beneath Robot the Bruce and tip the box machine onto its side. Thus immobilised, Robot the Bruce was eliminated.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 2
 * Losses: 1

Series Record

 * Series 1: Grand Final
 * Series 2: Entered with Chaos
 * Series 3-6: Entered with Chaos 2
 * Series 7: Did not enter

Trivia

 * Robot the Bruce is the only UK heavyweight robot without a weapon to reach a Grand Final, or indeed, win a battle. The Dutch heavyweight Tyke and UK featherweight Cunning Plan were the only other weaponless robot to reach a Grand Final and win battles.
 * Robot the Bruce is one of six robots to have come first in both The Gauntlet and The Trial in one heat. The other robots in this category are All Torque, Corporal Punishment, Demolition Demon, Nemesis and Razer.
 * Robot the Bruce is the only one of these robots to then go on to win the heat.
 * Robot the Bruce is one of 23 robots to have completed The Gauntlet.
 * Robot the Bruce was the first machine to be named after a real life individual.
 * Robot the Bruce was the only machine to have its weapon listed as Brute Force.