Ka-Pow!

Ka-Pow! is a classic wedge-shaped heavyweight robot, armed with a flipper, which competed in the pilot episode of the 2016 series of Robot Wars, where it reached the Heat Final.

The robot is a joint effort between John Wilkinson of Team Toaster and Alan Wood of Team Onslaught, and was constructed using some components from Team Toaster's Techno Games entry, The Savage Toaster. In practice the only significant parts that were reused were the Toaster's Bosche GPA750 drive motors. Ka-Pow! was designed to be cheap and easy to repair after battles, so the armour and chassis were originally built mostly out of mild steel, with a plywood baseplate. It was built at a price of £1,500.

The version of Ka-Pow! that attempted to enter Robot Wars is an upgraded version of the original robot, leading it to be colloquially known as '''Ka-Pow! 1.5''' on the team's website. Improvements included redesigned RAEX 400 armour. Ka-Pow! Is armed with a medium-pressure flipper, which is usually operated at 20bar, although it can be run at up to 30bar.

2016 Series
Although Ka-Pow! was not selected for the main series of Robot Wars in 2016, the team was invited to attend filming of the pilot episode on March 1st, giving it the opportunity to have a head-to-head battle in front of a live audience as part of a camera test.

In its first battle, Ka-Pow! qualified through a four-way match against Tanto, Basher, and Turbulence. Ka-Pow! was responsible for the defeat of Tanto, after Tanto drove over the top of Ka-Pow!, performed a backflip, and the landing removed the safety link of Tanto. When pitting this immobile machine, Basher overbalanced and also pitted itself, leaving Turbulence and Ka-Pow! to go through.

In its first head-to-head battle, Ka-Pow! fought Merlin, but Ka-Pow! drove into the pit in the opening moments of the match, declaring Merlin the winner, which proceeded to attack Dead Metal.

Due to time constraints, Ka-Pow! was put through to the "heat final", where it fought Turbulence again. Ka-Pow! fought valiantly, but was eventually pitted, making Turbulence the heat winner.

Results

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Robot Wars Live Events
As Ka-Pow! was upgraded in 2013, it was able to compete in the new live Robot Wars events, which it has done with limited success. Its debut event was during the Robot Wars Winter Tour 2013 where it fought in the Secondary Heat A fight at Doncaster where it lost after being flipped out by Manta.

Ka-Pow! took part in the Robot Wars World Championship in 2015, held in Colchester. In the first round, it met Beast and Brutus. Ka-Pow! flipped each robot, and was flipped in return by Beast, and pushed by Brutus. All three robots were left standing at the end of the battle, where Ka-Pow! lost the resulting Judges' decision. Ka-Pow! entered the Annihilator at the same event, where it found much more success, making it to the fourth round, where it fought Beast 2 and Toon Raider. However, Ka-Pow! broke down after a single flip from Beast 2, meaning Ka-Pow! finished third overall.

Outside Robot Wars
The original basis for Ka-Pow!, Savage Toaster competed in several events of Techno Games 2002 and Techno Games 2003. Savage Toaster teamed up with A.A.T. for the Football in 2002, and they beat Celestrial Terror and Smash and Grab in the first round, but lost to Team Snow Cat in the second round. In 2003, Savage Toaster entered the same event with Ickle Toaster, forming Team Toast. However, Ickle Toaster withdrew after the speed of its ram sent a bowling ball towards the audience, causing Savage Toaster's efforts to go untelevised. Team Onslaught also competed in other events with Wipeout, a modified version of Onslaught.

Ka-Pow! also has competed in the unofficial Heavyweight UK Championships that followed the cancellation of Robot Wars hosted by event organisers such as Roaming Robots, including the 2007 UK Championships where it reached the quarter-finals, losing to Dantomkia.

The team also compete in live events with two featherweights called Ka-Putt!, which has a flipper, and Throk, which is a rambot.

Series Record

 * Series 1: Did not enter
 * Series 2-3: Entered with Onslaught
 * Series 4: Withdrew with Onslaught
 * Series 5: Entered with Onslaught
 * Series 6-7: Did not enter
 * 2016 Series: Pilot only

Trivia

 * The robot was originally conceived when John Wilkinson was asked by Team Onslaught about the idea of upgrading Savage Toaster to make it competitively viable. Wilkinson also came up with the name.