Reactor

undefined "Reactor, be warned - you face meltdown"

- Jonathan Pearce on Reactor in Series 4

Reactor was the name given to two robots from Robot Wars. Both were large, "teardrop-shaped" robots designs in the fashion of a reactor core. This design allowed Reactor to simply roll back onto its wheels. "It is the 21st century of Robot Wars, and we have wooden wheels."

- Julia Reed introducing Reactor

The first Reactor competed in Series 4 and was heavily reliant on wheelchair technology. Whilst the shell was built of steel and aluminium, it featured rubber and wooden wheels, custom made by Russell Orton, who was a joiner by trade. To back up the reactor core theme, these had the nuclear symbol painted on them. The tyres also had small screws protruding in order to gain traction, which Jonathan Pearce called "Ben Hur type spikes". Reactor was painted in a red and black colour scheme, and its main weapon was a CO2 lifting plate on the front of the robot. The whole robot was designed off a small prototype created by Daniel Orton. However, it fell in the second round of its heat.

For Series 5, the robot was known as Reactor 2 and the flipper was modified into a "flamp", part-flipper, part-clamping mechanism. The robot was painted silver and black, and for additional armament, an axe was added to the back. During the upgrade to 100kg weight limit, Reactor's top speed decreased from 12mph to only 8mph. It was, however, a noticeably stronger performer and a very reliant self-righter. Reactor 2 defeated Gemini in an unanticipated turn of events, only to become the first robot to be thrown out of the arena by Firestorm. "Gets back on its feet every time it goes over. It's never failed."

- Martin Crouch

Reactor 3 lost to Raging Reality in the qualifiers for Series 6, losing alongside Lambsy and was retired after this. Afterwards, the Team Reactor fought in Series 7 with the slightly less successful Rhino.

Series 4
Reactor went up against fellow newcomers Scorpion and the number 27 seeds Sir Chromalot in the first round of the Fourth Wars. Not much happened in this battle with none of the competitors making a great aggressive attack. This was until Reactor got under Scorpion's high clearance to flip it, being successful. However, Reactor impaled itself beneath one of the arena side spikes, only able to free itself once given room to move by the attacking house robots. Scorpion couldn't self right, and was left at the mercy of Sergeant Bash and Sir Killalot. This meant Reactor was through to the next round of the heat along with the seeded Sir Chromalot. In the second round, Reactor went up against the 11th seeds Wild Thing.

Wild Thing was by far and away the stronger machine, pushing Reactor around and lifting it with the arm. Reactor moved sluggishly around as Wild Thing pushed it into the arena wall, Dead Metal in quick succession. Wild Thing moved against Reactor's back, and pushed it into Sergeant Bash, then Sir Killalot, who put a severe dent into Reactor's wheel. Reactor was caught by Dead Metal and sliced into. The match went to a judges' decision, who unsurprisingly judged against Reactor and put Wild Thing through to the heat final, eliminating Reactor from the competition.

Series 5
In Heat D of the Fifth Wars, Reactor 2 was drawn up against Team Torque's Bot Out Of Hell in the first round. Reactor 2 used its flipper and flipped Bot Out Of Hell onto its side not too long into the battle. Bot Out of Hell couldn't self-right as it was without a srimech, so it was soon counted out by the Refbot and eliminated. This meant that Reactor 2 was through to the next round of the heat with relative ease. In the second round, Reactor 2 went up against the clusterbot and number 18 seeds Gemini. Gemini was on top at the beginning of the fight, flipping Reactor 2 over and over again. Fortunately, Reactor 2 had a round body, making it roll right back onto its wheels each time it was flipped. Reactor 2 then axed one of the Gemini clusterbots. Then, suddenly, one Gemini clusterbot flipped itself over after trying to attack Reactor 2 once again. Its partner clusterbot tried to right the other half, but ended up rolling over as well, neither clusterbot could self-right as they were both propped onto their backs thanks to their anti-wheelie bars. Refbot counted both Gemini clusterbots out, to allow Reactor 2 go through to the heat final, here, Reactor 2 went up against the number 7 seeds Firestorm 3, fighting for a place in the series semi-finals. "I don't believe it. I never believed we'd beat Gemini, not in a million years."

- Martin Crouch

Firestorm 3 started this battle by driving right onto Reactor 2's "flamp", and Reactor 2 launched Firestorm 3 a few feet away from it with its flipper, but then Firestorm 3 was able to get underneath Reactor 2 side on and pushed it over to the arena side wall. Firestorm 3 then flipped Reactor 2 up onto the wall itself. Reactor dangled there for a few moments before finally falling out into the House Robot entrance, which eliminated Reactor 2 from the competition. "It was the only way they were going to stop us."

- Martin Crouch

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 3
 * Losses: 2

Series History

 * Series 1-3: Did not enter
 * Series 4: Heat, Round 2
 * Series 5: Heat Final
 * Series 6: Failed to qualify
 * Series 7: Entered with Rhino

Trivia

 * Like Hypno-Disc, Reactor's prototype was made with a child's construction toy.