The Executioner

"Will the axe fall quickly on The Executioner?"

- Jonathan Pearce in Series 5.

The Executioner was a competitor in Series 5, 7 and Extreme Series 1 of Robot Wars. In Extreme 1 and Series 5, it was a long, pointed, invertible wedge shaped machine with a 22 tonne hydraulic crushing claw and powered by American-made NPC motors.

It was redesigned for the Sixth Wars to be much shorter, and had a vertical spinning disc powered by a 10hp petrol engine, but it failed to qualify. This version, did qualify for the Seventh Wars, but lost in the first round again. This version was known by the team as Executioner/Evo 2, but was still referred to as The Executioner on the show.

The robot was originally Series 4 version was not invertible as it had small wheels. It beat PC Plod in a qualifier but was overweight so it didn't make the competition. It then became The Piecemaker, the team's BattleBots entry. After BattleBots, it was modified to the Series 5 model, with larger wheels to make it invertible. The Series 5 model had side armour, less red on the body and the shark face on the sides of the wedge whilst the Extreme 1 model had the side armour removed, more red parts on the body and the face removed from the sides of the wedge.

Despite being overweight at the Series 7 Qualifiers, The Executioner was given automatic entry to Series 7, without having to take part in a qualifier battle, because the producers were impressed with the robot and the team promised to lose the weight.

"Pop the ol girl onto the scales and horror of horrors 4 kilos OVER. We we cant let you in they say :( Ian at this point is the most depressed I have ever seen ...So Of I go in search of Neil. "Neil, we are overweight mate." "By how much?" he says. "4 kilos" I say "but its no problem as we can lighten the disk". "Let me speak to the producer" he says! Producer comes over. "Hello Mark nice to see you what's up?" "We are overweight by 4 kilos but its not a problem as we can easily lose it but not today! I have driven all the way from Vienna to be here" "Ahh your the one who comes all the way from Vienna! Well I love the machine and want it in the show so your in! Be back here Tuesday with the weight lost!!" So I guess we are seeded in a way ha ha ha. Ian is suitably relieved :)"

- The Executioner website on qualifying for Series 7

Extreme 1
"Go home guys, you're gonna get trashed!"

- Mark Nemadic confident message to the Dominator team before the battle.

In an astoundingly comical and short battle, The Executioner attempted to hit the pit release three times before Dominator 2 pushed it into the button. As soon as the pit opened, The Executioner drove straight in, albeit with some assistance from a passing Dominator 2. This fight was actually filmed 2-3 days after The Executioner's fight against Pussycat.

"18 seconds, and you're in the pit!"

- Craig Charles reflecting on Mark Nenadic's appalling control.

Series 5
The Executioner was given one of the hardest draws in the eliminator - the second seeds Pussycat. However, The Executioner started promisingly, using its weaponry to grab onto Pussycat's blade and prevent it from doing damage. Eventually the favourites got free and came on the attack, slamming The Executioner into the arena sidewall. The real turning point though came when The Executioner got too close to Matilda's CPZ. The flywheel whacked the newcomers, knocking off the tip of its crushing blade, which flew up and hit the controlling box the team were standing in. The Executioner was then powerless to prevent Pussycat pushing it into the pit.

Series 7
When the melee began, the four machines met in the middle of the arena, and The Executioner's blade snapped off Topbot's spinning disc. The Executioner tried to push R.O.C.S. down, the pit, almost driving in itself. The Executioner and R.O.C.S. continued to grapple until it broke down, due to a broken Vantec speed controller. The headless Mr. Psycho hammered it on the edge of the CPZ, picked it up, and pitted it.

"...we probably miscalculated the current abuse of the control electronics. Also, we didn't provide adequate cooling. Resulting in massive overloading causing erratic behaviour & then complete electrical failure."

- Ian Sanford

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 0
 * Losses: 3

Series Record

 * Series 1-3: Did not enter
 * Series 4: Failed to qualify
 * Series 5: Heat, Round 1
 * Series 6: Failed to qualify
 * Series 7: Heat, Round 1

Outside Robot Wars
The original version of The Executioner also competed in Season 3.0 of BattleBots as The Piecemaker after failing to qualify for Series 4 of Robot Wars. It fared no better than it or its successor did on Robot Wars as it lost its only fight by KO to a robot named My Son.

After Series 7, The Executioner was rebuilt with a smaller shovel and given a blue trim. It was meant to enter an assumed eighth series of Robot Wars, but after the robot's completion, Robot Wars was cancelled. The Executioner was later bought by Team Tornado for the purpose of being a robot that the team's wives could drive at charity events, but it was never used. Since then, it has been sold to Team MAD.

Trivia

 * The Executioner was one of nine UK robots to compete in BattleBots.
 * Like Barber-Ous and Tiberius, every time The Executioner lost, it ended in the pit.
 * The Executioner is one of only nine robots to debut in Extreme 1 and to fight in one of the main competition. The others were 3 Stegs to Heaven, Axe-Awe, Comengetorix, Fighting Torque, Fluffy, NEAT Machine, Spawn Again and Sub-Version.