Atomic

"A flipping great robot!"

- Robot Wars: The Ultimate Guide

Atomic was a competitor robot that competed in Series 4, 5 and 7 of Robot Wars, plus the first series of Robot Wars Extreme. It has a mixed run of success, only reaching the Heat Final in Series 4 and the second round in Series 5 after being beaten by Chaos 2 and Hypno-Disc respectively, but made a sensational run in Series 7 to reach the second round of the semi-finals.

Series 4
The first version of Atomic was a large yellow trapezoid-shaped robot armed with a red pneumatic flipping scoop and with a top speed of 12 mph. It cost around £1000 and was originally made from scrap aluminium with polycarbonate side panels, with the flipper running on nitrogen rather than CO2. However, the side panels were removed from Atomic before it fought, presumably due to the machine being overweight.

Series 5/Extreme 1
For Series 5 and Extreme 1, a new version of Atomic was built, featuring a much more compact and streamlined design and a variety of interchangeable flipper blades including a small plate, a spiked plate and a set of forks. It also featured a foot-long pneumatic spike at the rear which thrust at up to 1000PSI, and was officially known as Atomic 2 (written as Atomic II on the sides).

Series 7
A substantially improved version of the Series 5 Atomic entered Series 7, reverting back to its original name but keeping the Atomic II logo on its sides. The rear spike did not see much action despite still being mentioned on Atomic's statistics board, while a large scoop-like blade was used for the flipper as well as a small plate used on one occasion. The scoop blade proved especially effective in helping Atomic flip other robots out of the arena, in conjunction with Atomic's manoeuverability and great turn of speed.

Qualification
Atomic's first ever battle was at the Series 4 qualifiers, where it fought Reactor. Atomic won the battle, but Reactor still recieved a discretionary place. Robot Wars: The Ultimate Guide claims that Atomic managed to flip Reactor out of the arena, but out of the arena flips were not allowed at the qualifiers.

Atomic 2 had to attend the Series 5 qualifiers, as only the top 16 seeds had been decided prior to the qualifiers. Atomic managed an impressive win against Tiger Shark, but lost to Short Circuit. Atomic 2 was given the 22nd seed.

For unknown reasons, Atomic failed to qualify for Series 6, but it did qualify for Series 7

Series 4
In its first appearance, Atomic was drawn up against the reigning champions, Chaos 2, as well as newcomers Indefatigable. Atomic was immediately charged at by Chaos 2, and attempted to flip the number 1 seed, but missed. Both machines then failed to connect with their weapons, before Atomic swerved its front towards Chaos 2, which continued to target Atomic's sides. In an attempt to shake off Chaos 2, Atomic made a move towards Indefatigable after it had finally got itself into the action. However, during its attempt to chase down the fellow newcomer, Atomic was caught broadside on by Chaos 2, and was chucked onto its side. Despite self-righting quickly, Atomic failed to show any further movement when it landed back on its tyres. While Atomic - with its flipper blade stuck in a raised position - sat motionless, Chaos 2 flipped Indefatigable, which was left stranded on its side as a result. "The srimech system bringing Atomic back into it - but Indefatigable now up on its side, and they have no self-righting mechanism! And Indefatigable, out of the competition!"

- Jonathan Pearce as Atomic is given a passage through to the next round

Atomic then became the centre of attention for Chaos 2 again, and after its rear end was flicked upwards, Atomic was chucked head first into a side-wall camera. Follow-up flips from Chaos 2 left Atomic propped up against the arena wall, so Chaos 2 decided to charge towards Indefatigable again. After taking the reigns of attacking Indefatigable away from Sergeant Bash, George Francis' machine lifted Indefatigable over the side wall and out of the arena, which eliminated it. Despite Atomic's scare, it joined Chaos 2 in progressing to the second round.

In Round 2, Atomic was drawn up against the number 17 seed, King B3, after it and Medusa 2000 progressed from their first round battle involving Attila the Drum, via a Judges' decision. Both machines hovered around each other in the opening moments before a King B3 drive saw one of its lifting spikes plunge into the front of Atomic. Both machines moved each other backwards, with an Atomic lift needed to separate the two. The duo were quickly in at close-quarters again though, as, after King B3 backed over a flame jet, another forward drive from the Robot Wars veteran pierced Atomic's front armour again. Atomic then attempted to deliver King B3 to Dead Metal, but it escaped, before slamming Atomic into the arena wall. Atomic then gave chase to a retreating King B3, and turned it over before shoveling King B3 into Sir Killalot. However, in the subsequent CPZ action, Atomic mistimed a flip, and as a result its flipper blade was sent flying. "And off comes the flipping blade of Atomic! Slam, into the arena wall: buckled and bent and broke!"

- Jonathan Pearce

Despite its weapon now being completely out of commission, Atomic continued to function as a wedge, and after some pressure it soon became evident that King B3 was smoking and had lost drive on one side. With King B3 unable to move freely, Sir Killalot swiftly dispatched of the 17th seed by dropping it into the Pit of Oblivion. Atomic was through to the Heat Final, where it would face up against Chaos 2 again.

For the Heat Final, Atomic's flipper was welded back on, with gussets added at the bend of the weapon in an attempt to reinforce the breaking point from the last fight. Chaos 2 charged into the front of Atomic straight away, which tried to flip Chaos 2 over but missed. The erroneous timing of the Atomic flip also saw it drop onto the front of Chaos 2's flipper, which turned Atomic over without hesitancy. A second Chaos 2 flip placed Atomic back onto its wheels, but the yellow and red machine was thrown around again after a quick fire pair of flips from the reigning champion. After the rumbling it received, Atomic sat immobile, which allowed Chaos 2 to line up an attempt to flip Atomic out of the arena, although it was unable to lift Atomic's bulky frame up and over the barrier. "The top speed is 15 miles an hour. The current speed... about minus 10."

- Jonathan Pearce on the motionless Atomic

Unable to complete its signature move, Chaos 2 instead hurled Atomic onto Sir Killalot's head and into his CPZ. After turning around, Sir Killalot gave no mercy to Atomic, as he snipped through the top of Atomic's frame before crumpling the bottom left corner of the beaten machine. Sir Killalot then delivered the crippled Atomic to the Floor Flipper, where it was thrown, before Chaos 2 came in with one final flurry of flips before cease was called on Atomic's Fourth Wars campaign.

Extreme 1
Atomic 2's only appearance in either series of Extreme was as part of a Mayhem in Extreme 1 in an attempt to qualify for the second Annihilator of the series. Atomic 2 started by making its way over to Mousetrap, which had its weapon in a fired position due to it be activated before the fight started. Atomic 2 caught Mousetrap broadside on and turned it upside down, before following up with a more explosive flip, which cartwheeled the Series 4 Semi-Finalist over again. Atomic 2 continued its early flipping domination by toppling Fighting Torque over, before righting both Mousetrap and Fighting Torque with its next two flips. Mousetrap wasn't back on its wheels for long though, as Atomic 2 flipped it over again and then used its rear pneumatic spike twice in quick succession. "Atomic doing all the work here."

- Jonathan Pearce

After one more flip on Mousetrap, Atomic 2 decided to leave it to be counted out by Refbot, while it went after Fighting Torque again. While Fighting Torque flailed away with its weapon arm, Atomic 2 fired its spike. The two robots continued to tussle, with Atomic 2 driving Fighting Torque back against the arena wall, where it then turned Fighting Torque over. With Fighting Torque on its side, Atomic 2 darted back towards Mousetrap, which was about to be thrown by the Floor Flipper. When Atomic 2 reached the eliminated machine, the arena hazard activated, sending Mousetrap up into the air before it landed on top of the onrushing Atomic 2. After its minor scare, Atomic 2 stayed out of trouble while Fighting Torque was counted out, although it still found time to turn Fighting Torque over one more time after it was chucked back onto its wheels by the Floor Flipper. With it being the last machine standing at the time of cease, Atomic 2 had earned a place in the second Annihilator. "We're gonna cream them!"

- David Bebb's confidence going into the Annihilator

Atomic 2 was unfortunately unable to compete in the Annihilator, though, as it suffered large amounts of damage from Hypno-Disc in the two machines' Series 5 battle, which took place at about the same time. This same thing happened to Bulldog Breed 3 which also won its Mayhem but suffered too much damage from a battle with the Series 5 Grand Finalist.

Series 5
Atomic 2 was the number 22 seed for the fifth wars. It eased through the heat eliminator against newcomers Kan-Opener after the clawed machine's srimech failed to work properly after being tossed around the arena. Then, for the first and only time in Robot Wars history, the two seeds were drawn against each other in round two. The third seed Hypno-Disc, a grand-finalist from the past two wars, was the opponent for Atomic 2.

In the beginning, the two machines circled each other while the silver spinning disc got up to speed. The first impact left a split down Atomic 2's side panel, but it was still fully mobile. Hypno-Disc caused another crevice across the other side panel immediately before Atomic 2 turned Hypno-Disc over. Atomic 2 was able to hold the third seeds down for a few seconds before Hypno-Disc self-righted. Hypno-Disc hit Atomic 2 again, buckling part of the flipper, before the next slam ripped the flipper off entirely. Atomic 2 went for the pit release button (a tactic that later helped Bigger Brother to an unlikely win over Hypno-Disc), but failed to push the destructive robot down. Hypno-Disc was able to get in a series of slams on Atomic 2 that ripped through most of the remaining armour, before Sir Killalot and Matilda helped to pit the tattered, yellow scrap that was left of Atomic 2.

Series 7
Atomic returned in Series 7 with a much improved robot. In the first round battle against Terror Turtle, Cygnus X-1 and the 13th seeds S.M.I.D.S.Y., Atomic dominated, flipping Terror Turtle clean out of the arena almost immediately, before flipping Cygnus X-1 against the arena wall where it couldn't self-right. Atomic also created a worry for S.M.I.D.S.Y. when it nearly flipped the 13th seed out of the arena after disposing of Cygnus X-1. It then flipped the seed high into the air, which knocked out S.M.I.D.S.Y.

Atomic placed the immobile S.M.I.D.S.Y. onto the pit, and then pressed the pit release button to dispatch of its third foe in one battle, but both still went through to Round 2. Atomic met Hellbent in the second round. At first, the two robots circled each other and Atomic tried a flip on Hellbent, which did not manage to overturn the robot, instead throwing it backwards. It was not long before Atomic then used its scoop to push Hellbent towards the arena wall, and then hoist it straight over, earning a second win by throwing a robot out of the arena, which it did in less than half a minute. In the Heat Final, Atomic met S.M.I.D.S.Y. again. The two robots attempted to attack each other, but the charges of both robots kept on missing their targets. S.M.I.D.S.Y. managed a couple of nudges on the side of its opponent, before Atomic got underneath and flipped S.M.I.D.S.Y. over. S.M.I.D.S.Y. then attacked Atomic with its spinning disc, but Atomic recovered and continued to get underneath S.M.I.D.S.Y., throwing it into the air twice more. S.M.I.D.S.Y. then began to scamper around the arena, but was soon caught by Atomic who got underneath S.M.I.D.S.Y., pushed it towards the side of the arena and threw it into the wall, which it clipped and then flew over and out of the arena. In the Semi-final, Atomic met the rising star M2. It was a very tactical battle, with both robots flipping and self-righting. Atomic nearly got flipped out of the arena by M2, but by the end M2's energy was wearing down and could not flip as effectively as at the start of the battle. Atomic managed to pin M2 against the arena wall and flip it out. In the second round Atomic met the eventual champions Typhoon 2, and the great run for Atomic ended. In an attempt to get the battle over and done with quickly, Atomic went straight for Typhoon but failed to flip it over. On the second attempt Atomic flipped itself over, jamming its flipper open and unable to self-right. Atomic then started venting gas. Typhoon spun up to the fastest speed seen from the robot in the series (creating an audible whirring sound) before hitting Atomic twice, causing major damage. Atomic was counted out by the Refbot, before being flipped by the floor flipper, pitted by Sir Killalot and eliminated from the competition.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 8
 * Losses: 3

Trivia

 * Atomic holds the record for the most consecutive out of the arena flips with four. This was achieved through all four of its victories in Series 7.
 * Eruption later matched this record in Series 9.
 * Atomic has only ever lost to Grand Finalists of the same series; Chaos 2, Hypno-Disc and Typhoon 2. The former two were also defending Grand Finalists.
 * Atomic is one of the few robots to successfully flip Hypno-Disc over and force it to self-right.
 * Atomic never had a judges' decision during its career.
 * All three of Atomic's losses in the main competition saw it taking substantial damage from its opponents and the House Robots.
 * Atomic is one of three robots (along with X-Terminator and Team Knightmare) to lose to the reigning champion in the heat final of one series and go on to reach the semi-finals in a subsequent series.
 * Atomic is one of three competitors (along with Killertron and Team Big Cheese) to lose to the eventual UK Champion in the heat final of one series and go on to reach the semi-finals in a subsequent series.