Evil Weevil

"The front spikes are tipped red, to disguise spilled blood."

- Jonathan Pearce

Evil Weevil was a black, green and yellow robot designed to resemble a beetle, it was armed with a pair of electric lifting prongs and armoured in ballistic fibreglass and kevlar with velcro used to snag chainsaws. It ran off Sinclair C5 motors and took three months to build at a cost of £400. Evil Weevil entered in Series 3 and 4 of Robot Wars, it reached the Semi-Finals of Series 3, only to be defeated by eventual runners-up Hypno-Disc. Evil Weevil also won the Series 3 Robotic Soccer tournament despite not scoring a goal in either of its two matches.

In Series 4, the team equipped their updated and newly named machine Evil Weevil 2 (though it was mostly just known as Evil Weevil) with a hammer weapon powered by a fire extinguisher, which, in turn, was powered by a sodastream bottle, and painted it bronze, this version only had two prongs on its lifting forks rather than three, like the Series 3 version featured. This version's base was made from the inside of a security van. However, this new weaponry was no help - due to an uncharged battery, it lost in the first round of its heat.

The Evil Weevil team was founded by ex-Panic Attack team member Kevin Pritchard, a teacher at Llantarnam School with various pupils as team members. However, after losing in Series 4, the team disbanded, and Pritchard later returned to the Panic Attack team in the second series of Extreme, before taking over as captain and driver in the Seventh Wars. "Kevin Pritchard, was a member of the victorious Panic Attack team..."

- Jonathan Pearce, repeatedly

Series 3
"The Evil Weevil..."

- Philippa Forrester, repeatedly

Evil Weevil's first round battle for the Third Wars saw it go up against fellow newcomers Triterobot, which was the perfect shape for Evil Weevil to attack, meaning that it had an easy battle. Evil Weevil rammed the triangular shaped machine around the arena for a little while, but Triterobot impaled Evil Weevil with one of its three spikes. Evil Weevil drove back and forth in an attempt to free itself, but instead, doing this caused Triterobot to start billowing a smokescreen. Evil Weevil then freed itself, and then rammed Triterobot onto its side, meaning it could progress to the next round of the Heat.

In the second round, Evil Weevil went up against newcomers Flip Flop Fly, another good shape for it to push. The sluggish Flip Flop Fly robot was repeatedly slammed by the much quicker Evil Weevil machine, not standing much of a chance to fight back with its swinging weapon. Flip Flop Fly was worn down after a while, with one of its tyres punctured by the forks of Evil Weevil and the batteries running down rapidly. This allowed House Robots Matilda and Shunt to close in on Flip Flop Fly and batter the cylinder-shaped machine into complete submission. Cease was called and Evil Weevil was declared the winner.

Evil Weevil's Heat Final battle saw it go up against another newcomer: Panzer. Like Evil Weevil, Panzer had also progressed through the Heat with relative ease so far. However, the tracked robot failed to move off the mark, making it cannon fodder for Evil Weevil. It was rammed by Evil Weevil, which finally showed the power of its lifting forks against the lifeless Panzer. Sir Killalot then came in and sliced into one of Panzer's tracks, before lifting it into the air and twirling it around. Cease was soon called and Evil Weevil was put through to the Series Semi-Finals. "...and Evil Weevil, up against it, with Hypno-Disc!"

- Jonathan Pearce concludes the Semi-Final line-up

However, in the Series Semi-Finals, Evil Weevil had horrible luck to be drawn up against the Spin-to-Win boys with their Hypno-Disc machine in the first round. Hypno-Disc began the match by ripping some armour off Evil Weevil, which wasn't looking as aggressive as did in the heats. Hypno-Disc then started shredding the front end of Evil Weevil, before the Welsh machine backed into a CPZ, fortunate to escape. Hypno-Disc smashed into the forks, causing sparks to fly. It was around this moment when Kevin Pritchard took the controls of Evil Weevil, to no different effect. Hypno-Disc tore the last bit of armour from Evil Weevil before the latter lost drive on the right-hand side, possibly due to warning tape from the arena having caught in one of its wheels. Shunt smashed his axe into the top of Evil Weevil, immobilising it. Cease was soon called and Evil Weevil was eliminated from the competition. "The spinning disc of doom got you too"

- Philippa Forrester, to the Evil Weevil team after the Semi-Final defeat

Despite being shredded by Hypno-Disc in the Semi-Finals, Evil Weevil also entered in the Robotic Soccer tournament that ran alongside the main competition of the Third Wars. Evil Weevil was placed up against Alien in the qualifier match, and was considered the favourite to win the battle. Evil Weevil was quickly the only competitor still moving as Alien drove over an arena spike and got flipped over onto its side. Evil Weevil tried desperately throughout the remainder of the match to score, but the House Robots held a firm wall, and Evil Weevil failed to score. Cease was eventually called, and Evil Weevil was put through to the final due to being mobile for longer and having more possession and shots. In the final, Evil Weevil went up against Gnasher, The General and Velocirippa. Evil Weevil started the match staying out of the action almost completely. However, eventually Evil Weevil tried to charge at the ball when it was stuck in the corner. Evil Weevil tried to shunt Matilda out of the way of the ball to get to it, but was unsuccessful. Evil Weevil then charged into Gnasher side on and flipped it over using its forks, putting them out of the running. Evil Weevil then tried to steer the ball around the limping General machine, before sending the ball into the centre of the arena, into the path of Sergeant Bash's flamethrower, Sergeant Bash set the ball on fire, but Evil Weevil still tried to steer it towards the goal, however the recent Semi-Finalist was put off by the suddenly mobile Velocirippa robot. Time then ran out, and Evil Weevil was deemed victorious by the judges, declaring it the Robotic Soccer champion, despite failing to score a goal throughout the whole event.

Series 4
"Our seeds...Evil Weevil, as high as number 12"

- Jonathan Pearce at the start of the Heat

For reaching the Semi-Finals and becoming Robotic Soccer champion in the previous wars, Evil Weevil 2 was given the number 12 seed placing for the Fourth Wars. With the team adding a hammer for extra damage, it was easily considered the favourite to go on and win the Heat. In the first round melee, Evil Weevil 2 was placed up against two new machines in Tiberius and Mousetrap. This was also seen as a grudge match, due to the fact that Mousetrap was from the team that entered Triterobot, who Evil Weevil had previously defeated in the first round battle of the Third Wars. In this battle, after all three machines merely dodging around each other, Evil Weevil 2 made a break and tried to lift up Tiberius to shove the newcomers into Dead Metal's CPZ, this was working until Evil Weevil 2 was smacked side on by Mousetrap just outside of the CPZ, allowing Tiberius to escape. After trying to then reverse away from Dead Metal, Evil Weevil 2 then suddenly stopped moving against the arena side wall. After Dead Metal attempted to nudge it into life, all of the House Robots came in and attacked the immobilised seeded machine. Evil Weevil 2 was then dragged away and placed on the arena floor flipper, where it was thrown, with shards of armour splintering off as it landed, upside down. Cease was then called and Evil Weevil 2 was eliminated from the competition. "The bronze shell is ruptured and torched!"

- Jonathan Pearce as Evil Weevil is attacked by the House Robots

Back in the pits, it was revealed the reason that Evil Weevil had stopped was because one of the six batteries the team had available had not been charged fully - it was this battery that was in the robot at the time. This was Evil Weevil's last appearance in Robot Wars.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 5
 * Losses: 2

Series Record

 * Series 1-2: Did not enter
 * Series 3: Semi-Finals, Round 1
 * Series 4: Heat, Round 1
 * Series 5-7: Did not enter

Trivia

 * Evil Weevil is the only Welsh robot to reach the Semi-Finals besides Panic Attack.
 * Evil Weevil 2 was the highest ranked seed for the Fourth Wars to go out in the first round of the main competition. In fact, Evil Weevil 2 was the highest seed in the Fourth Wars to go out before the Heat Final.
 * In every one of its battles, including its Robotic Soccer matches, Evil Weevil went up against at least one newcomer.
 * Despite winning the Robotic Soccer tournament in the Third Wars, Evil Weevil never scored a goal, the only one of the four finalists to fail to do so.
 * Evil Weevil was the only robot that competed in the Robotic Soccer tournament as well as the corresponding main competition.
 * Evil Weevil was one of eight competitors to reach the Semi-Finals in one series, before losing in Round 1 of the following series, including Terrorhurtz's withdrawal from the Seventh Wars.
 * Evil Weevil 2 was the highest seed to be knocked out of the UK Championship in a first round battle (12).