Wheely Big Cheese

Wheely Big Cheese was a robot with what was described as the largest flipper ever seen in Robot Wars (the robot itself was over a metre long, and most of its body was the flipper). Its large red wheels were covered in tungsten golf shoe studs which were specially sharpened and used for added grip on the arena floor, but they also proved to be sharp enough to shred one of the eyes of Diotoir. It competed in Series 4 and Series 5 of the main competition, also entering in the first series of Extreme. Its name was a pun on really big cheese, and also refered to the trademarked red wheels.

Wheely Big Cheese has been recorded as the most powerful flipper in Robot Wars, capable of flipping up to 800kg. In perhaps its most famous battle, Wheely Big Cheese threw Axe Awe through the air, over the arena wall and onto the ground from the middle of the arena. It was one of the few robots that had a flipper powerful enough to flip itself over on nearly every use, mainly because there wasn't anything behind the wheels. However, its downfall was the exposed titanium wheels that were vulnerable to attacks from axes, discs etc. These wheels often became dislodged or destroyed, leaving the robot unable to move.

In an interview with Roger Plant, he stated that he built Wheely Big Cheese mainly as a way to get revenge on Sir Killalot for the damage that the House Robot caused to his previous machine, The Big Cheese. The robots width and length were specifically designed to get underneath Killalot, with the flipper being capable of throwing 800 kilos. However, after the near-flip caused on Sir Killalot in the duo's first meeting, Sir Killalot was not included in any of Wheely Big Cheese's battles from then on, as it would have been considered bad for the robots image if it were to be flipped.

Unbeknownst to most, there were actually two versions of Wheely Big Cheese built and, though they may have looked almost identical from a distance, they shared almost no common components. The first version of Wheely Big Cheese competed in Series 4, with a second complete robot being built for Series 5 and Extreme Series 1. The new robot solved the many design flaws and weaknesses of the first version, by using different material grades and thicknesses throughout, new construction techniques and generally stronger components, despite this, this model became immobilised in four of its nine battles. This more powerful version was only possible because of the weight limit change from 80kg to 100kg between Series 4 and 5. The easiest way to tell the difference is that the first version had silver spikes on the wheels and the newer version had black spikes. Both versions reached the first round of the series semi-finals in their respective series. Team Big Cheese had previously competed in Robot Wars with The Mule and The Big Cheese. They competed in Series 2 and 3 respectively, but both lost the Heat Final.

Wheely Big Cheese was intended to return for Series 6 and be seeded again for the main competition, however, around the Series 5 period, the Wheely Big Cheese team fell out with the producers of the show over personal disagreements and retired from Robot Wars all together. Roger Plant then decided to sell or give away all of his robots.

The Extreme 1/Series 5 version of Wheely Big Cheese that produced the infamously huge flip, sending Axe Awe over the side wall from near the centre of the arena, went to Team Xbotz from Wrexham in North Wales and was completely rebuilt, with new electronics, batteries, revised pneumatics and upgraded drive system. It is still used in various live events and educational presentations around the UK. In addition, the original Series 4 Wheely Big Cheese chassis was also owned by Team Xbotz, before being sold to, and fixed up by, Team Cylon, who have brought it out of retirement, planning to enter it into the Roaming Robots events. This raises the rather interesting possibility of both versions of Wheely Big Cheese actually fighting each other one day.

When fighting at robot tournaments around the UK, Wheely Big Cheese version 1 uses tyres instead of its trademark red spiked wheels and has the flipper deactivated. Wheely Big Cheese version 2 also has a number of different wheels available, and is able to run its flipper at events, at variable power levels to suit the safety requirements of the arena environment.

Appearances in Merchandise

 * Wheely Big Cheese/Pullback
 * Wheely Big Cheese/Minibot

Series 4
15th seed Wheely Big Cheese was up against Prizephita Mk 2 and Wheelosaurus in the first round of Series 4. Wheely Big Cheese went straight after Sir Killalot but ran away before Shunt could come in and help attack the seed. Wheely Big Cheese then intercepted Prizephita and slammed it against the arena wall, rendering Prizephita immobile. After a few flips on Prizephita, Wheely Big Cheese then attempted to flip Sir Killalot, the boasts that Wheely Big Cheese could flip 800kg were extinguished as they failed to flip Sir Killalot having being given the chance when Killalot drove up its flipper, Wheely Big Cheese was then carried by the house robots into the pit as it went down, followed by Prizephita with Wheelosaurus pushed in last. Since they'd been lacking in control for longer, Prizephita was eliminated so Wheely Big Cheese and Wheelosaurus went through to the next round. Up against Killertron, it was able to flip it clean over itself, sometimes making it land directly on the axe. After both Wheely Big Cheese and the house robots had stopped trying to right Killertron, Killertron was then attacked by the house robots and eliminated. Wheely Big Cheese almost pulled out of the Heat Final after a pin in one of the gearboxes broke and had to be replaced, but it was fixed in time and ready to fight. In the heat final against 32nd seeds Suicidal Tendencies, Wheely Big Cheese was pushed around into various CPZ's until Suicidal Tendencies lost drive on one side, conveniently close to the pit. Wheely Big Cheese attempted to push it in several times, but eventually drove in itself. The Suicidal Tendencies team then celebrated, thinking that they had won, not realising that the judges had intervened. The judges favoured Wheely Big Cheese, feeling that Suicidal Tendencies had been immobile on one side for at least 30 seconds before Wheely Big Cheese drove into the pit (Suicidal Tendencies had actually been running on one track for over a minute before Wheely Big Cheese drove into the pit). Wheely Big Cheese still had its wheels outside the pit, as it was such a long robot. Up against the newcomers Tornado in the Semi-Finals, Wheely Big Cheese got one good flip that nearly got Tornado out of the Arena. For the vast remainder of the battle it was pushed around the arena by its opponent until it went into the CPZ and had one of its wheels dislodged by Matilda. Tornado suddenly started to belch smoke and slowly grind to a halt, as soon as Wheely Big Cheese started only running in circles. The battle went to a Judges Decision. However, the Judges awarded the win to Tornado and Wheely Big Cheese was knocked out of the competition.

Extreme 1
Wheely Big Cheese competed in the All-Stars Tournament in Extreme Series 1. In the first round, it was against the tournament underdogs Diotoir. After the Irish machine was able to lift Wheely Big Cheese up a little a few times with its scoop, but Diotoir's eye then shattered on Wheely Big Cheese's sharp wheels. Wheely Big Cheese then flipped Diotoir right over from which the robot from Dublin could not self-right. Wheely Big Cheese then flipped Diotoir for it to roll into the arena wall and be counted out. This was enough for Wheely Big Cheese to go through to the All Stars Quarter Finals. This turned out to be Wheely Big Cheese's only win throughout the first series of Extreme. It went up against Chaos 2 in the next round, in a rematch for Series 3, it was continuously flipped as Wheely Big Cheese never seemed to get its own flipper working. Chaos 2 flipped it into CPZ to CPZ in a desperate attempt to eventually flip it out of the arena, Wheely Big Cheese had only one opportunity to flip Chaos 2 when the reigning UK champion drove onto the enormous flipper, but the flipper couldn't activate with enough power and Chaos 2 escaped and persisited in its own attack. Wheely Big Cheese survived for a judges' decision but the win was unsurprisingly given to Chaos 2.

In the Flipper Frenzy, every robot attacked the house robots, Bigger Brother, Chaos 2 and Thermidor 2 all attacked Sergeant Bash and Wheely Big Cheese went straight after Matilda. After attempting to flip Matilda, Wheely Big Cheese was immobilised by the flywheel causing a drive motor to break apart. Wheely Big Cheese was left in a corner of the arena for the remainder of the battle and although it wasn't officially counted out by Refbot it was obviously out of the battle.

In the Mayhem battle, Wheely Big Cheese got one flip in on Ming 3 before it had several gashes inflicted in its wheel by Hypno-Disc. Despite many attempts at flipping Hypno Disc, its opponent was too agile. One of the exposed wheels dislodged again. One wheel was still working but Refbot counted them out along with the now wheel-less Ming 3. Whilst Dead Metal was slicing the wheels, a huge amount of sparks flew out all over the Arena from the titanium wheel and tungsten studs. Once Ming 3 was flipped by the floor flipper, Wheely Big Cheese then tried to flip Ming away but it was then pitted along with Ming 3. The robot has since been repaired from this battle, but the battle scars are still very visible, this proves that the damage caused was great, but at the time Roger Plant said the damage was little to nothing. "No problem, just a couple of bolts broken"

- Roger Plant after the Mayhem

Series 5
Roger Plant made an entirely new chassis for Series 5 that was not much different appearance-wise from the old one, but had been upgraded internally, with more powerful and reliable flipper being just one improvement. Wheely Big Cheese was seeded 10th for Series 5 and went up match against Wolverine in its first round battle. Wheely Big Cheese was scooped around a lot by Wolverine without much retalliation, until it was pushed over to the arena wall by Wolverine, where it steered Wolverine onto its flipper and flipped it out of the arena in one go, this easily put Wheely Big Cheese through to Round 2. Wheely Big Cheese's second round battle was perhaps its most famous Robot Wars battle, Axe Awe got one hit with the axe before Wheely Big Cheese flipped it over 10 feet in the air and over the fence from the center of the Arena. This forever stood as a Robot Wars record flip. thumb|300px|left|The record flip set by Wheely Big Cheese "Out of the Arena? Out of the Robot Wars galaxy!"

- Jonathan Pearce

In the Heat Final it got several good flips in on Crushtacean, it flipped the crab robot into the CPZ where Crushtacean then got pinned on the angle grinder and shredded the cheese grater attached to one of the jaws. Wheely Big Cheese flipped it around the arena for a while until Crushtacean pressed the pit release, Wheely Big Cheese then flipped it one last time throwing it several feet into the air, the ariel then came off Crushtacean and Wheely Big Cheese then slowly nudged the crab into the pit. "The Cheese got his potted crab"

- Jonathan Pearce at the defeat of Crushtacean

Its Round 1 battle of the Semi-Finals up against the 11th seeds Dominator 2 was going very well for Wheely Big Cheese as it flipped Dominator 2 several times high up into the air, but somehow Dominator 2 kept moving and self-righting. However, it eventually lost drive on one side, followed by the other, so Wheely Big Cheese was counted out by Refbot and Dominator 2 progressed to Round 2. In the Loser's Melee against the 6th seeds Panic Attack and the 7th seeds Firestorm 3, Wheely Big Cheese got one flip on Panic Attack that wedged the Series 2 champion underneath the pit release button and damaged its mobility. It was then locked in combat with Firestorm 3 but it was flipped repeatedly as it couldn't get its flipper underneath. Wheely Big Cheese was then bashed against the wall beside the angle grinder by Firestorm 3, who then chased off to fight what was left of Panic Attack. Wheely Big Cheese's power then slowly diminished as only one wheel was moving before the 10th seeds broke down completely and got counted out by Refbot again, eliminating it from the competition for good. This was Wheely Big Cheese's and Roger Plant's last appearance in Robot Wars.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 7
 * Losses: 6

Series Record

 * Series 1: Did not enter
 * Series 2: Entered with The Mule
 * Series 3: Entered with The Big Cheese
 * Series 4: Semi-Finals, Round 1
 * Series 5: Semi-Finals, Round 1
 * Series 6-7: Did not enter

Trivia

 * Wheely Big Cheese's flipper was boasted to be powerful enough to flip Sir Killalot, although it never quite managed this. This has led to some fans doubting Wheely Big Cheeses ability to do so, however, it has managed to lift a Mini Cooper, which would be a good deal heavier than Sir Killalot. An explanation for this is that a car has a far higher ground clearance than Sir Killalot, and so would allow the flipper to build up enough momentum to overturn it. When attempting to flip Sir Killalot, Wheely Big Cheese was directly underneath the house robot, and so could not build up enough momentum to overturn it, as well as most of Sir Killalots weight being concentrated in the front of the machine. However, Wheely Big Cheese did succeed in lifting Sir Killalot off of the arena floor, although it didn't quite manage to flip it.
 * Much like Roger Plant's previous machine, The Big Cheese, the first version of Wheely Big Cheese was equipped with submarine components that Plant had salvaged.
 * Wheely Big Cheese is the only machine to flip another machine out of the arena from the middle of the arena.