Phage

"My mission is to rule the world in the year 2000, well win Robot Wars (UK) anyway. The plan is for a Scorpion with hydraulic pincers and an articulated tail with a weapon on the end.."

- The Phage Website on the plans for Phage

Phage was a robot that failed to qualify for Series 4 of Robot Wars. It was a roughly triangular prism shaped robot, based on a Scorpion, armed with a hydraulic crusher and a hydraulic “tail”.

The team originally built a robot intended to enter Series 3 called “Heck Raiser”, which was a simple box-shaped robot armed with an axe. However, team captain Gareth was unhappy with the robot, so withdrew from the auditions.

"A few expensive mistakes later I had a Polycarbonate box with a pickaxe for a weapon called "Heck Raiser" ( the name came from a really naff album called "Songs To Drink Beer And Raise Heck To"). I wasn't happy with it so Heck Raiser was withdrawn from Robot Wars three days before the auditions."

- The Phage Website on Heck Raiser

Heck Raiser was stripped down and many of the parts were used to build Phage. Work on Phage began in June 1999, but August 2000, the robot was still not finished, so it was withdrawn just two days before the qualifiers, just as Heck Raiser had been.

"I give in. There are too many problems to get sorted with only 2 days remaining. ... I knew I'd be pushing it for the qualifiers, which means that some of the installation work has been rushed. The best thing I can do is strip most of the system down and build it properly. At least this will give me time to drive and test the 'bot before Series 5."

- The Phage Website on withdrawing from Series 4

All the time I've been building Phage I've been living without a kitchen, doing all my cooking in a microwave on the dining room table. It's about time I got some decorating done.

The name “Phage” means “a thing that devours” and is often used in the names of viruses. The robot was originally named ‘’’Scorpion 2000’’ (Not to be confused with the robot that fought in Series 4 through 7, but this was changed in June 2000.

The team planned to finish Phage in time for the Series 5 qualifiers, but it is unknown whether they entered or not.

Gareth has also built five antweight robots, including "Microphage" and "Dragstar"

Series History

 * Series 1-2: Did not enter
 * Series 3: Withdrew from qualifiers with ‘’’Heck Raiser’’’
 * Series 4: Withdrew from qualifiers
 * Series 5: Unknown
 * Series 6-7: Did not enter