Flippa

Flippa was an American robot from Oregon that fought in the Seventh Wars Annihilator of Robot Wars. It also competed in BattleBots Season 5.0 under the name of Speedy, losing its only battle to Billy-Bot. It was a low box robot with a lifting arm and a rotating drum on the back. The robot was said to have taken approximately 1.5 years to develop, however, it failed to perform. It was immobilised very early on in the Annihilator, and broke down irreparably before the second round. Flippa also entered The Third World Championship but lost in its qualifier to Spartacus. Joe Murawski, the roboteer who created and drove Flippa, also entered Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors with Buzz.

Series 7
Flippa fought in the Annihilator at the end of the Seventh Wars, where it came up against the reigning Annihilator champion Kan-Opener, recent Semi-Finalists Raging Knightmare, recent heat-finalists Robochicken, Team Lambsy's Ewe 2 and Team Roaming Robots' Ripper at the start. In the first round, Flippa and Ewe 2 ran into each other in the opening moments, with Ewe 2 failing to flip it. However, Ripper threw Ewe 2 up onto the arena side wall, leaving it unable to move, with Ewe 2's weight keeping Flippa pinned in place underneath it. Flippa struggled to break free but couldn't get away and the motors ground to a halt as they burnt out after trying to get the robot to flee. "Is Flippa moving? Goodness me it'll be the first time in Robot Wars history if it is!"

- Jonathan Pearce

However, Robochicken was already flipped over by Ripper in the opening seconds of the battle, with the flipper of Robochicken not even working at all, it was deemed immobilised, so they were counted out by Refbot. This meant that both Ewe 2 and Flippa scraped through to the second round of the Annihilator, only after Robochicken was counted out did Ewe 2 and Flippa get away from the arena side wall, and Ewe 2 were sent down the pit by Kan-Opener. Before the second round, however, Flippa broke down irreparably, and although it was present in the loading pen (it can be seen as Ewe 2 enters), it was unable to enter the arena, eliminating Flippa from the competition and leaving it to be placed fifth by default. "The real reason Flippa never made it into the arena for the second round fight was that I pulled his aerial off while we were arming the robots backstage...I was lowering the flipper of EWE2 after gassing up, and his arial was in the way. So I brushed it to one side to let my flipper down, and his aerial came off in my hand."

- Ian Lockhart of Ewe 2

Despite Flippa breaking down immediately, the third round of the annihilator immediately proceeded.

Flippa also competed in a qualifier for The Third World Championship against a fellow American robot, Spartacus. Unfortunately, Flippa did not start at all after entering the arena, only twitching slightly and having its spinning drum spinning. As a result of this, Spartacus was able to grab it using its claw weapon in its own time and drag it around the arena. Spartacus then slowly pulled Flippa across the arena floor, backed into the pit release button, and pushed Flippa into the pit of oblivion, giving the place in the World Championship to Spartacus. "All the way, from the U S of A, for that!"

- Craig Charles

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 1
 * Losses: 2

Trivia

 * Flippa was in three Robot Wars battles, all of which it either broke down before the battle started, as the battle started or just a couple of seconds into the battle. Despite this, it didn't lose all of its fights.