The Grim Reaper

The Grim Reaper, also known as The Grimreaper, was the name of two robots that fought in Series 3 and 7 of Robot Wars. Although unremarkable in its debut in the Third Wars, it returned in The Seventh Wars and reached the Series Semi-Finals, losing to Storm 2.

The team played up to their name, as the team captain wore contact lenses to make his eyes appear menacing in Series 7, where they were also accompanied by a tall, threatening Grim Reaper mascot, who stood beside the Judges.

Grim Reaper (Series 3)
The team competed in the third series with a rectangular, three-wheeled robot known simply as Grim Reaper. It was armed with a front mounted 250PSI air-driven spike ram and rear mounted lifter/ramming spike. Like many other competitors in the early wars, Grim Reaper was built around its own name and featured a skull design. Grim Reaper travelled at 20mph, driven by two car starter motors.

The Grim Reaper (Series 7)
"You can't outrun the reaper"

- Tag line on the rear of the machine

The team's redesigned robot, known on stat boards as The Grimreaper, was driven by a 24V 750W motor. It was a bright green octagon and featured a CO2 powered full-pressure flipper capable of flipping 100kg easily, and capable of flipping a maximum weight of 250kg. It was also far more compact and quick than its predecessor. Because of the design of the ram-turned-flipper, The Grim Reaper was capable of clamping and pushing, which it did several times against Gyrobot and Big Nipper.

Reaper (2016 series)
Under the new name of Reaper, the robot returned to Robot Wars in 2016. Although Reaper did not take part in the main series, after failing to qualify, it fought in the pilot episode, where it achieved one win and one loss.

Attempted Qualifiers
The Grim Reaper failed to qualify for Series 4 with a new version of the machine, tracked and armed with a scythe-like axe. This version of The Grim Reaper competed at the first Dutch Robot Games, painted black and armed with a flipping arm instead of the scythe. "We came back, tried again, didn't get through, and the last time we came back, we couldn't self-right, it was about 3 o'clock in the morning, and we phoned up and said, we can't come..."

- Simon Smith on Grim Reapers failure to qualify in Series 4 and 6

The team returned again to attempt to qualify for Series 6, however, the pneumatics on their new robot failed to work, so the team withdrew the day before the qualifiers.

Series 3
Grim Reaper had the much faster start, but Big Brother had more power and pushed it into Sergeant Bash. Big Brother got under Grim Reaper, lifting it into the air and managing to avoid the pit after bouncing down. Both robots pushed each other into one of the CPZs, and as Grim Reaper stopped, its left-hand wheel came off. Still mobile thanks to its rear wheel, Grim Reaper came back on the attack with its pneumatic spike. However, Big Brother appeared to have been immobilised and Sir Killalot flipped Grim Reaper over just before time ran out. The judges went for Big Brother, eliminating Grim Reaper.

Series 7
After having a four year interval away from Robot Wars, The Grim Reaper team returned with a brand new Grim Reaper machine for Series 7, completely redesigned with a flipper as its weapon. It fought in Heat B of the main competition, its first round battle saw it placed up against Kan-Opener, Barbaric Response and Big Nipper. The Grim Reaper spent the majority of the battle tussling with Big Nipper while Kan-Opener and Barbaric Response were dragging each other across the arena. At the end of the fight, no robot had been eliminated, so it went to the judges, who decided that The Grim Reaper went through with Big Nipper joining it.

For its Round 2 match, The Grim Reaper was drawn against Gyrobot. Here, it got a series of only a few flips in on Gyrobot but because it was invertible, it was unharmed. The Grim Reaper couldn't even get the house robots to dispose of Gyrobot or get it out the arena. Eventually, the fight went to a judges decision where, once again, The Grim Reaper was again awarded the win.

In the Heat Final it met Big Nipper again. The Grim Reaper at the start was rolled over by Big Nipper and then the two machines found themselves in the CPZ with Cassius Chrome but they managed to escape. The Grim Reaper tried to get Big Nipper out the arena but it was to no avail. In the last few moments of the fight, Big Nipper then got The Grim Reaper in the CPZ turning it over twice but it managed to escape and then in the last 10 seconds, The Grim Reaper was given a piggy-back by Big Nipper. The fight went to a judges decision where, yet again, The Grim Reaper was declared the winner and was through to the Semi-Finals.

The first round of the Series Semi-Final saw The Grim Reaper pitted against 16th seed Storm 2. The Grim Reaper never got its flipper to good use on the New Blood Champions because Storm 2 had been fitted with side-skirts. It managed to use its flipper on Storm 2 once, but could not flip it over. The Grim Reaper was slammed all over the arena by the seeded machine. It also took damage from Shunt and Sergeant Bash. It stayed mobile until the end of the battle, so the fight went to another judges decision, and this time the win was awarded to Storm 2, putting The Grim Reaper out of the Seventh Wars.

2016 Series
Although Reaper did not qualify for the main series of Robot Wars in 2016, it was regardless invited to attend filming of the pilot episode on March 1st, giving it the opportunity to have a head-to-head battle in front of a live audience as part of a camera test. It was taken along by new owner Calum Jones, with his team mates Kane and Toby. The version of Reaper which appeared in the pilot was actually a fully rebuilt version of the machine.

In the first round, Reaper was drawn against Merlin, Wraith, and Monte, although Wraith withdraw at the last moment due to electrical problems. The fight started out well for Reaper, and after a minute or so, Monte lost drive on one side, leaving it to be pitted by Reaper. Reaper and Merlin fought a one-on-one tussle until cease was called at the end of the 3 minutes. From this, Reaper and Merlin went through to the next round. Reaper next fought Turbulence. However, due to technical problems, Reaper lost due to its valve that fires the flipper ceasing up. Reaper self-righted after it was flipped over for the first time, but afterwards, was unable to self-right from Turbulence's second flip, leaving Turbulence as the winner of the battle.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 3
 * Losses: 2

NOTE: This tally does not include the 2016 Pilot

Series Record

 * Series 1-2: Did not enter
 * Series 3: Heat, Round 1
 * Series 4: Failed to qualify
 * Series 5: Did not enter
 * Series 6: Withdrew
 * Series 7: Semi-Finals, Round 1
 * 2016 Series: Pilot only

Outside Robot Wars
A black version of The Grim Reaper fought in the final season of BattleBots, losing its only battle by knock-out to Agitator, which later became an Extreme Warriors Finalist as Propeller-Head, after having its aerial chopped off by its opponent's spinning blade. This version fought in events around the UK during the same year. A grey version still fights today.

The Series 7 shell of The Grim Reaper has been sold to a Leicestershire based team under the name of "Team Avenger" and will be back into running condition soon but is currently used for static display at various live events across the country under the name Reaper. The Series 7 version is in the hands of a roboteer whose FRA name is calumco, as Matthew Pearman of "Team Avenger" sold it to acquire S.M.I.D.S.Y.. Matthew then sold S.M.I.D.S.Y. so that he could buy Bulldog Breed.

Simon and Gary Smith (working with Mike Lambert of Team Dantomkia) also competed in two different series of Scrapheap Challenge. They entered Series 10 as the Cyborgs where they were eventually disqualified. They then entered Series 11 as the Scrappy Whacky Doodaas in the first Chariot Jousting challenge of the series, which they won.

The original builder of The Grim Reaper has since built a new version with the same name. Hence the Series 7 version was renamed Reaper by its new owners.

Trivia

 * Every battle in which The Grim Reaper competed across the televised show's history (including its one battle with Big Brother during the Third Wars) ended with a judges' decision, so their mascot had to do a lot of standing beside the Judges during the Seventh Wars.
 * The Grim Reaper is one of nine UK Series Competitor robots to have fought in BattleBots.
 * Having skipped three full wars and two Extremes, The Grim Reaper was the longest retired machine to return to the wars (Constrictor being built by the longest retired team), until its record was broken in 2016 by The General
 * Every opponent The Grim Reaper fought in the Seventh Wars (apart from Barbaric Response) was invertible.
 * Both wars that The Grim Reaper fought in were the only two to feature 128 robots.