User blog:NJGW/The Robot Wars Gallery of Misleading Photos

Hello, and welcome to a bit of a fun throwaway blog: the Robot Wars Gallery of Misleading Photos! Here, we look to find still images that, to the unknowing eye, can easily be manipulated to prove that something aside from what actually happened in the battle, occurred. If you ever stumble across an image that you feel can have a different caption, then feel free to comment down below with your idea. After all, we want this gallery to be full of Robot Wars photos for newcomers to the show, don't we?

1. TMHWK gives axe bots hope in the modern day
In the reboot of the show, axe bots are something that largely came under criticism. They're machines that a lot of people like, but with armour improving tenfold and machines becoming so nimble, it's often hard for a robot wielding an axe to strike blows that are both accurate and damaging.

However, success often comes to those that think out of the box, and that's certainly what happened in Heat A of Series 9. TMHWK, a Dutch axebot was against some damaging weapons in its Group Battle. So what did TMHWK do to be effective itself? Well, the team knew how vertical bar spinner Crank-E had armour that got progressively weaker the further you moved away from its own weapon, so Team Dutch Robot Girls simply brought TMHWK to the rear of Robin Herrick's machine, and opted to pluck into the air. From here they were free to carry it around the arena with its axe shaft. A beautiful use of tactics and thinking on the spot, and a fight that shows how TMHWK went on to be regarded as one of the best driven robots in the reboot of the show.

2. An Amazing Austrian
The Third World Championships saw the show introduce qualification rounds during the Heat episodes of the Seventh Wars. This allowed the viewing audience to continue to see machines from many a country. In the opening Heat's case, that brought us the first and only Austrian machine we saw: Mechaniac.

But boy, good things come in small quantities don't they? Mechaniac was given a nightmarish draw a paper, as it was placed up against Sri Lankan hopes in Supernova. However, the devilish spinner proved no match for Mechaniac as we see here - with the orange flipper hurling Supernova out of the arena with an absolute mammoth flip.

3. Wheely Good Forks
For Extreme onwards of the show, a weight increase of 20kg was permitted in the rules. The producers specifically requested for this new rule change to be used for increasing weapon power and for roboteers to push the boundaries with their machines in general.

To their annoyance, a lot of machines simply opted for more armour - which created battles with weapons at a similar strength but with defences even harder to penetrate. Thankfully for the producers, they could always rely on Series 2 champion Panic Attack to push the boundaries.

Here, Kim Davies clearly shows that Panic Attack's upgrades were worth it, as its new, high-pressure C02 powered forks thrust Axe-Awe into orbit. A move away from his usual control-bot tactics, but it still helped Panic Attack to an eyecatching victory during this Wild Card Warriors face off.

4. Apollo is toyed with in Series 2... sorry, I mean 9.
Robot Wars has always had a name for being a flipper-friendly show, with many of the big names housing a weapon of this type. Chaos 2, Firestorm, Bigger Brother, Wheely Big Cheese, and many more. However, with 12 years passing until the reboot, none of these iconic names came back. Would we miss them? Not with Apollo in town.

Apollo not only won the Robot Wars title in Series 8, but also won the hearts of the audience, as it flipped over House Robots Dead Metal, Shunt and Matilda during its run to glory. Only Sir Killalot was left - could Sir Killalot be toppled in Series 9?

No, is the answer unfortunately. Not only did Apollo fail to flip Sir Killalot, but as you see here, the leader of the House Robots decides to make things personal, as it carries Apollo towards the Pit. Sir Killalot almost made Apollo look like a reserve with how much it outclassed it.

5. Supernover And Out
Supernova came back into the reboot for Series 8, and was mostly unchanged. Unfortunately, Supernova's more retro build quality came back to hurt it in areas - with the teeth flying off from its spinning weapon during the Group Battle against TR2, Big Nipper and Or Te. This was a battle it subsequently lost, and improvements were going to be required in order to stop Supernova being eliminated at the first stage of Series 9 too.

Get past the first stage it did - as it moved past Wyrm and HIGH-5. However, joining it in the Round Robin was a machine that it actually caused the most damage to during the Group Battle: Frostbite. The school team were caught completely blindsided with so many machines in the mix, which allowed Supernova to carry out a cheap couple of hits. From there on, Supernova was easily able to prove its superiority in the Group Battle.

However, melees are usually subjected to more freak results, and as we know a one vs. one battle is normally a different story. Fuelled by Vengeance, Frostbite proved that with no distractions it was also capable of dealing out some big blows - something it shows here as it rips away part of Supernova' black armour en route to revenge during the two machines' Round Robin encounter.

6. Groundhog Day begins for Onslaught (Credit to CrashBash)
If you remember Onslaught, then you may also remember one of its famous battles. No, no, no - not that romp in the Southern Annihilator involving Razer, but its defeat to Beast of Bodmin in Series 3. Onslaught was bowled over by the yellow and black machine after it rode up Chris Kinsey and Hender Blewett's machine - with a memorable wink from Bodmin completing the famous manoeuvre.

A great moment it was, but this was not actually the first time that this occurred to Onslaught - because it was actually beaten by Bodmin Community College's champion-winning machine Roadblock in a very similar way. Here is the moment for proof, as Onslaught starts that fatal climb up Roadblock's wedge.

7. A cut above the rest
Going into this Heat Final, Barber-Ous 2 was the massive underdog. It may have proved that it could dish out some good blows during its run in Heat K, but at the end of the day it was now fighting Hypno-Disc - which was still the big boy for big hits. The smart money was on the Roses to make another Semi-Final.

But to their horror, memories of a Series 4 fight came back to haunt them. Just like in their crucial Grand Final eliminator match against Pussycat, Hypno-Disc turns away from a spinning weapon in order to get its own weapon up to speed. Previously, this lead to Pussycat attacking the rear of Hypno-Disc and disabling it, and that's exactly what Barber-Ous 2 manages here as well. A stunning attack, reminiscent of the past - but it was Barber-Ous 2 that proved it was the future of spinners, as it sealed its place in the Series 6 Semi-Finals.