Gemini

"Double trouble!"

- Robot Wars: The Ultimate Guide

Gemini was the first heavyweight clusterbot in Robot Wars, created by Team Mace. The two robots, each armoured in kevlar and fibreglass, went into the arena attached by a rear 'Hook and Loop' system. Upon the battle starting, the robots would pull apart and act as individuals. Each robot had a powerful flipping arm that could hoist 250kg and gyro stabilisers but were still difficult to control. Gemini competed in Series 4 and Series 5, also competing in the first series of Extreme, but did not enjoy much success in the main series, dropping out in the Heat Final and Second Round respectively. However, it did win the Pinball competition, the Best Design Award and the Most Original Entry in Series 4. The team had previously entered Series 2 and 3 with Mace.

In Series 4, the team found that the Gemini twins had the tendency to wheely and sometimes fall onto their backs if they accelerated too fast. Though they could easily self-right, they were vulnerable for the few seconds that their fronts were off the ground. For Extreme 1 onwards, the team added a bar to the back of each machine to improve their balance so they wouldn't wheely anymore. However, the wheely bars created a serious design flaw; the twins were still vulnerable to being flipped onto their backs (particularly as they would often flip themselves onto their backs), and if they were to be, it would be impossible for them to self-right. This saw Gemini lose battles in surprising fashion to robots such as Napalm and Reactor 2.

Appearances in Merchandise

 * Gemini/Minibot

Series 4
The 8th seeds Gemini caused quite a stir when they first appeared in the arena. In the first round of the Fourth Wars, the clusterbot went up against Kater Killer and newcomers Tornado. As battle was commenced, the Gemini twins split apart. Most of the battle consisted of Tornado ramming Kater Killer around, but both of the twins got good flips in on Kater Killer and Tornado, and one of the flips immobilised Kater Killer, as it couldn't self-right. Tornado later drove itself into the pit, but it had already qualified for the next round of the heat along with Gemini. In the second round, Gemini went up against The Creature. This battle heralded Gemini's strongest performance, where the two of them hurled The Creature around the arena, the enormous flips soon forced the outer shell to slowly break up and off The Creature. Gemini then double teamed The Creature and used their two flipping arms simultaneously to throw The Creature from the arena, making it the second robot (after Chaos 2) to flip another robot out of the arena. However, in the heat final, Gemini went up against Tornado again. This ended the clusterbot's great run in the main competition as Tornado isolated one of the twins, ramming it into submission onto an arena spike. This particular twin then became immobilised, and the rule of clusterbots meant that Tornado had won the battle as both twins have to keep moving for the whole battle, or else they are declared immobilised. This made Gemini the highest seeded robot in Series 4 that made it to the semi-finals the previous year to not make it in Series 4.

Gemini later competed in the Pinball Championship. It cleared up the leaderboard, coming in first place with a score of 255. They hit nearly everything in the arena, as both twins were allowed to attack different targets. The team later recruited the Turner sisters to fight in the Celebrity Special during the Christmas season for the Fourth Wars. In the first round, they went up against Killertron, which was being driven by Chris Eubank. The Gemini twins did well in flipping Killertron up into the air several times. They could both dodge away from the axe blows of the considerably more sluggish Killertron machine. Killertron was flipped around a lot during the battle, and was barely moving by the end of the fight, but survived to a judges' decision. The judges went in favour of Gemini, putting the clusterbot through to the second round. Here, Gemini went up against Diotoir. Both twins of Gemini flipped Diotoir around a lot throughout the battle, and looked on top for the whole battle. However, the original Gemini team took back the controls of Gemini mid-way through the fight, and despite the calls of the Turner sisters to leave Diotoir on its back, the Gemini twins then righted Diotoir, but then Gemini broke down, leaving Diotoir to progress through and Gemini to be surprisingly eliminated from the competition.

Despite their little success in the main competition, the clusterbot design won them the Awards for Best Design and Most Original Entry during the Fourth Wars as well.

Extreme 1
Gemini fought in the All-Stars competition during the first series of Extreme. The clusterbot went up against World Champions Razer in the first round. The twins began well, they managed to flip Razer a few times, but Razer was able to cause considerable damage to both twins using its claw weapon. One twin had a ripped wheel guard and a popped tyre, the other had a huge hole on its top. Razer then gripped onto one of the twins towards the end of the fight, just as the other Gemini twin flipped the two of them. Razer righted them both before the judges' decision that was to follow. The judges went in favour of Razer, eliminating Gemini from the competition.

Unfortunately further footage was cut out of the original TV broadcast due to a so-called "arena flipper misfire". Gemini had managed to disable Razer's drive on one side allowing it to only turn in circles. Razer also grabbed one of the two Gemini twins' flippers later on in the fight, which when fired caused the hydraulic fluid bag to burst within Razer and disable the weaponry, immobilising it completely. Due to the "malfunction" however this footage was never shown and the fight was put down to a judges' decision.

Gemini also fought in a Mayhem battle for a right to fight in the second annihilator of the series. They went up against Napalm and The Spider. The two split up with one attacking one robot each, but The Spider became immobilised on the flame pit fairly quickly, so both attacked Napalm for a long while. Napalm was flipped high in the air by the Gemini clusterbot. However, after The Spider had been counted out, one of the twins forced itself over after trying to flip Napalm and got caught on the rear wheelie-bar added to stop it doing wheelies. The other robot attempted to flip it back over but misjudged the flip and got itself stuck on the rear wheelie-bar as well, so the twins were counted out and eliminated. Shunt then came in and pitted one of the twins along with the winners, Napalm.

Series 5
The twins returned from their Fourth Wars disappointment to be seeded 18th for the series, and sailed through their first round battle, where they went up against Ruf Ruf Dougal. Ruf Ruf Dougal's kevlar coating was blown away by the CO2 gas vents on the arena floor prior to the dog being tipped on its side before Sir Killalot lifted it out of the arena. This put Gemini through to the next round of the heat. In the second round, Gemini went up against Reactor 2, the Gemini clusterbot dominated the first half of the battle, flipping Reactor 2 multiple times. However after being flipped by Reactor 2, one of the robots got stuck on the new addition for Gemini in the Fifth Wars and the first series of Extreme - the wheelie bar. After the other part of the robot tried to help it to self right, both halves got stuck, and surprisingly, they were counted out and eliminated from the competition.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 5
 * Losses: 5

Series Record

 * Series 1: Did not enter
 * Series 2: Entered with Mace
 * Series 3: Entered with Mace 2
 * Series 4: Heat Final
 * Series 5: Heat, Round 2
 * Series 6-7: Did not enter

Trivia

 * Gemini is one of only seven robots to break 200 points in a Pinball tournament. Others to have achieved this are Roadblock, Killerhurtz, Spawn of Scutter, Panic Attack, King B3 and Razer.
 * Gemini is one of two robots to win two different awards, the other being Plunderbird. Gemini won Best Design and Most Original Entry. Unlike Plunderbird, however, Gemini won both awards in the same series.
 * Gemini and 3 Stegs to Heaven are the only non-semi finalists to come from a team with a previous record of consecutive semi-finals. Coincidently, both of these robots were the number 8 seed in their first loss.
 * Recently, for unknown reasons, Gemini's Pinball Warrior trophy was sold by co-driver Brian Fountain on the auction site eBay.
 * Of the teams who were seeded more than once, Team Mace are one of four to always receive an even-numbered seeding, the others being Team Panic, Team Big Brother and Team Lobster.