Sabretooth

Sabretooth (originally referred to by the show as Sabre Tooth) was a competitor in Series 5 and 6, and later Series 8 and 9 of Robot Wars. Despite boasting impressive weapons, it failed to progress beyond the first round in Series 5-8, either through poor reliability, severe damage from other opponents, or a faulty self-righting mechanism.

Although the robot was never successful, Sabretooth proved to be a recurring figure, qualifying for five different series, sporting the same name and aesthetics, including Series 7, from which Sabretooth withdrew. The second teaser trailer for Series 8 centred around Sabretooth and its team, before cutting to footage from its Group Battle with Storm 2, Eruption and Terror Turtle.

Gabriel Stroud appeared as a mentor in Robot Wars: Battle of the Stars, helping Olympic medallists Jonathan and Alastair Brownlee to build a robot of their own design in Jar, which finished bottom in the Head-to-Heads in Episode 1.

Sabretooth (Series 5)
"Basically they got a moped, cut it up, welded lots of bits of metal to it, strapped on some motors and here it is!"

- Jonathan Pearce

The original robot was dome-shaped, as a result of wielding a rollcage in favour of a srimech. The robot's weapon was a wide set of shredding blades that spun at 2400 RPM. Although the blades were fairly effective, the front chain was notably exposed. The robot itself was also somewhat slow, and its weapon proved unreliable in its only televised battle.

Sabretooth (Series 6)
In Series 6, a new Sabretooth armed with a large spinning disc weapon was built. However, its axle for the 13 inch cutting disc weapon broke during the qualifiers, so the team was forced to remove it. The damage came as a result of bending the chassis of a flipper-wielding opponent in its qualifier battle. The old axle was wielded back together, but it would no longer hold up the power of the disc, so the team instead equipped a large tyre for extra speed and mobility, and an improved drive engine, giving Sabretooth 12-horsepower push and allowing it to reach reported incredible speeds of 70 MPH (which would have made it the fastest robot in Robot Wars if these reports are true), in contrast to its former top speed of 12mph. The robot weighed 100kg, and was powered by 2 x 750w electric motors. The added speed given by the tyre didn't help against the weaponry of Terrorhurtz, and because of its thin aluminium armour and the petrol powering the weapon was on board, Sabretooth was eliminated in the first round.

Sabretooth (Series 7 withdrawal)
An all-new Sabretooth was built for Series 7, featuring a horizontal flywheel, capable of spinning at an incredible speed of 9000RPM, powered by a 125cc engine. In its qualifier battle, it teamed up with Disc-O-Inferno and took out Hannibal with a single blow whilst its ally defeated Hassocks Hog 2. Both spinners survived despite Disc-O-Inferno accidentally damaging Sabretooth when flipped by Hassocks Hog 2. Sabretooth lost the judges' decision to Disc-O-Inferno, but received a discretionary place. However, the team was asked to tone down the power on their disc, and were unable to comply in time for the show, so they were forced to withdraw.

"It was a bit over the top!"

- Gabriel Stroud, on their Series 7 weaponry

Sabretooth (Series 8)
The team returned in 2016 to compete with a brand-new version of Sabretooth. The robot has three weapons, including an overhead claw at the front, which also doubles as the robot's srimech. The claw has a steep wedge plate underneath it, referred to on the Robot Wars website as a 'flipper', and a 22kg aluminium spinning drum at the back, spinning at 4500RPM, which emits an ominious scream at top speed.

Sabretooth's wedge was later reused on the front of Jar, entered into Robot Wars: Battle of the Stars under the mentorship of Gabriel Stroud. Sabretooth itself also made a brief cameo appearance in Episode 1 of Battle of the Stars, during Stroud's introduction.

Sabretooth (Series 9)
For Series 9, another brand-new version of Sabretooth was built, this time with two-wheel drive, steel armour and a larger three-toothed, 7,000rpm drum weighing 25kg. The Series 9 Sabretooth is now invertible to circumvent the Series 8 version's self-righting issues, with the Series 8 versions' scoop now bolted onto the top of the robot's chassis. Its design is inspired by a 'rocket powered industrial quarry robot' according to the official Robot Wars website, with its rear end having a circular section modeled on the exhaust of a jet aircraft. This version of Sabretooth also bears a close resemblance to BattleBots competitor Minotaur.

Series 5
In the heats of Series 5, Sabretooth fought fellow newcomer Evolution in Round 1. At the start of the battle, Sabretooth moved forward and used its spinning blades to inflict cosmetic damage to Evolution, but in return, received a blow from Evolution's turret weapon. Evolution then rammed Sabre Tooth and stopped its weapon completely. Suddenly, both robots lost a lot of their momentum. The House Robots, Sergeant Bash and Sir Killalot, both closed in to attack Evolution, fiercely penetrating the armour and snapping the turret weapon, while Sabretooth was curiously left alone. Both House Robots received yellow cards from Refbot. Sabretooth came back to life and rammed Evolution, and then time ran out. Due to its more active role in the battle, Evolution had won the Judges' decision and proceeded through to Round 2, and Sabretooth was therefore eliminated.

Series 6
Sabretooth's spinning disc broke long before the first battle, meaning the team had to replace it with a motorcycle tyre, which supposedly increased Sabretooth's top speed to 70mph. As a result, Sabretooth's spinning disc was never referenced on the show.

Sabretooth faced three other veterans in the first round battle: A-Kill, Terrorhurtz and Reptirron The Second. Sabretooth played very little part in its battle, as it ran into Sergeant Bash immediately and then slammed backwards into Terrorhurtz, who landed several powerful axe blows on it. Already immobilised, Sabretooth was shoved into the side wall afterwards, with several pieces of armour buckled and broken. Sabretooth was counted out by Refbot and thrown by the floor flipper. It was eliminated along with later victim, Reptirron the Second.

Series 8
Sabretooth's participation in Series 8 was first officially revealed through the second teaser trailer, which shows Team Legion admiring their robot to the theme of Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You, before showing clips of Sabretooth in its first round battle.

In the first round, Sabretooth met Storm 2, Terror Turtle, and Eruption. However, the robot faced immediate difficulty, as its claw weapon, which also functions as Sabretooth's self-righting mechanism, was broken in the process of repairs. "When we were trying to fix it, it broke! So don't tell anyone, we can't self right!"

- Gabriel Stroud

Compromising for the lack of a srimech, Sabretooth's tactics were to spin the rear drum up to full power, and make itself unapproachable to flippers, pushing its opponents aside. It bravely targeted Eruption to try and dispose of the flipper first, and landed a glancing blow, but was tossed when Eruption snuck underneath the drum, luckily landing back on its wheels. Sabretooth was not discouraged, and buffeted Eruption, but when it was flipped once more, it landed on its back. With Sabretooth unable to self-right due to its broken claw, it was rendered immobile, and was left alone until cease was called.

Sabretooth was nearly required to fight a second battle in the episode, when Team Eruption were struggling to repair their robot in time for its match against Apollo. Had Eruption dropped out, Sabretooth would have filled its place, but ultimately Eruption made it to the arena.

Series 9
Sabretooth will compete in Episode 1.

Results

 * }

Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 0
 * Losses: 3

Outside Robot Wars
As the newest version of Sabretooth is armed with a spinning disc, it cannot compete at UK live events, so instead the team compete at various featherweight events. They do so with two robots, Legion, a white robot armed with a flipper, which also spurred on Team Sabretooth's change of name to Team Legion, and Django, a wide box-shaped white robot armed with a spinning drum. Both robots competed at the Featherweight World Championship in 2016. Although Legion did not experience high success, Django reached the Grand Final, placing second after being flipped out of the arena by Explosion.

Gabriel Stroud recently acquired Dave Moulds' successful featherweight 720, and also Hitman, which attempted to enter an early series of Robot Wars.

In spite of Sabretooth using a spinning disc as a weapon, the robot spent a brief time on the Extreme Robots website before those events gained a spinner-safe arena. Sabretooth was listed as a competitor, hinting at potential participation in 2017 Extreme Robots live events, before its statistics were removed from the website.

Gabriel Stroud collaboratively runs a popular robotics podcast called Inside the Bot, alongside Will Sedgwick. It covers Robot Wars and features many guests who competed in Series 8, also regularly covering BattleBots content.

Trivia

 * Esme Stroud is known by the family as "the Robot Wars baby", as father Gabriel had to leave the studio while filming an original series of Robot Wars to be with his pregnant wife, who gave birth that day. Esme was born, and joined Team Legion in 2016.
 * Angela Scanlon regularly mentions this fact in interviews, stating that she wished Esme was named Matilda.
 * Prior to its official trailer, Sabretooth was leaked as Series 8 competitor as early as March 6th, 2016, due to a tweet from Angela Scanlon, showing her posing in front of Sabretooth's work bench.
 * Leading up to Sabretooth's appearance in Series 9, the social media hashtag #prayforgabe has become widespread in the roboteering community, spurring on Gabriel Stroud to finally collect a televised win.
 * The 9000rpm spinning speeds of Sabretooth's flywheel at the time of Series 7 still holds the record for the fastest spinner in UK Robot Wars, equal with Grand Finalist Pulsar.