King Buxton

King Buxton (or King B, as it was often known) was a box shaped competitor with two lifting spikes at the front and a circular saw at the back. It was also invertible, allowing it to run even when it was flipped over. It competed from Series 2 to Series 5 and also Series 7, reaching the semi-finals of its first appearance and losing to Roadblock, the reigning champions. It failed to qualify for Series 6 after losing its qualifier to Spirit of Scorpion.

The robot was originally named after a character in the Magic Roundabout film Dougal and the Blue Cat. In Series 4, the robot's name was shortened to King B3 and thereafter it was renamed King B Powerworks after the motors, which were run at the highest voltage the rules would allow. King B's arsenal included a simple lifting mechanism, which had spikes on the ends, and a small cutting disc that spun at 8000 RPM. These weapons were very efficient in its early years, but towards the end of Robot Wars, King B was strongly outclassed in size and weapons, and often suffered early on. "It's quite a mean little thing...wrecked my garage"

- Simon Harrison on the circular saw

King B Powerworks had a tendency to go berserk; two of its losses in Extreme 1 were for this reason. Despite being outmatched in size and weaponry by new robots as the show progressed, King Buxton never lost in the first round of the main competition.

Rivalry


The team had an infamous rivalry with Team 101, having come up against them in both the second and third wars. King Buxton came out on top in series 2, but 101 had its revenge by winning the rematch in series 3. The two teams put this rivalry behind them when they combined to win the 'Tag Team Terror' competition at the end of the fourth series. The friendship didn't last though as in the final, with their opponents already defeated, the 'teammates' began to battle each other in the arena. In Extreme Series 1, the two re-entered as reigning Tag Team Terror Champs, but lost in the first round due to the berserk tendencies of King B Powerworks, and the points scored against 101 from its opponents Mega Morg and Diotoir. Both sides blamed the other for the loss, and fought in a vengeance battle, with 101 finally coming out on top.

King B Powerworks submitted and acknowledged the superiority of the other robot, promising to continue the Tag Team partnership, but neither team participated in Extreme 2, so it did not take place.

Series 2
"I don't believe they made this robot, because I've only ever seen them polish it."

- Philippa Forrester

King Buxtons first run was wobbly, in the Gauntlet it seemed to have difficulty with control and was jumpy and erratic but nevertheless managed a respectable distance enought to qualify. Its trial started similarly with the robot almost driving off the joust platform before it met Matilda but again it did enough to earn a decent leaderboard position. Its first battle was against Robo-Doc, a robot that had matched it fairly evenly across the Gauntlet and Trial. Despite Robo-Doc's bigger size, King Buxton was able to push it across the arena and into the House Robots on several occassions giving it the judges decision. Against heat favourites All Torque in the heat final it once again put its four wheel drive to good use and pushed All Torque into the pit.

In its Semi-Final it was the only robot to complete the Gauntlet, pitting Shunt in the process. Now making a name for itself as a dark horse for the title, it managed enough points in the pinball trial to go through and despite a good onslaught against Roadblock that pushed the latter into the CPZ, King Buxton just couldn't overcome the reigning champions and ended the battle on fire with its wheels hacked into by Roadblock.

Series 3
King Buxton immediately lifted Eric, but was then raised off the ground by Eric, and lost one of its spike tips. King Buxton pushed Eric near the pit but got stuck on the edge. Eric reversed into King Buxton, freeing it, but drove into the pit itself. However, King Buxton hammered Weld-Dor into submission in the second round, before fighting 101 in a grudge match. In this battle both robots got under each other, before 101 was pushed into Matilda but King Buxton. 101 pushed King Buxton with its auto-firing spike over the flame pit. King Buxton attacked 101 but 101 escaped and drove at King Buxton, which was pushed into Shunt, who used its axe. King Buxton got stuck on one of 101's tracks. Eventually it escaped, but started smoking at the end. The fight went to a judge's decision, and King Buxton lost the match.

Series 4
King B3 had a tough run as 17th seed, as it had been placed in the same heat as Chaos 2. It still made its mark, slamming Attila the Drum into the side wall convincingly, which put it through. Against Atomic, the larger robot pressed its flipper on top of King B3, pushing it around the arena. However, Atomic's flipper broke off after slamming into a wall. With no means of attack it seemed like Atomic's hopes were fading but luckily for the yellow robot, King B3's fears were realised when it caught fire and broke down, after which it was pitted by Sir Killalot.

King B3 also entered the Tag Team Terror Championship with its rivals 101. In the first round it was against X-terminator and Invertabrat, where Invertabrat soon became immobilised and the rest were barging each other until it went to a judges putting King B and 101 through to face Firestorm and Scorpion in the final. Before the match Firestorm had been having problems, meaning it broke down early on in the fight. Scorpion also became immobilized, so King B and 101 started attacking each other. Eventually cease was called and the two had won the Tag Team Terror Championship.

Extreme 1
King B Powerworks was not very successful in Extreme 1, as its first appearance saw it go berserk in the Tag Team Terror. Due to the immense lack of control, and the aggression of Diotoir and Mega Morg on its partner 101, the Tag Team Terror Champs lost their title. As a result, partners turned on each other in a Vengeance Battle. However, King B Powerworks went berserk once more after being axed by Shunt. King B Powerworks was caught by Sgt. Bash, and pitted, taking the sergeant with it.

King B Powerworks redeemed itself when it was chosen to act as a veteran against the Wild Cards. Fighting Draven, the two robots glanced off each other until King B Powerworks slid beneath Draven in a technique often used by Panic Attack. Steering Draven into the pit release, it dumped the newcomers down the pit for the win.

Its final appearance was in a Mayhem. Here, it fought Tornado and The Steel Avenger. It played very little part in the opening fight, as The Steel Avenger immobilised Tornado. Soon after, it evaded damage from the flipper of The Steel Avenger, but lost one of its wheels on impact with the Willoughby machine. However, The Steel Avenger was hurled onto its side by Matilda's new flywheel in the closing seconds. The judges, based on damage, awarded the win to The Steel Avenger, naming the fight as the best Mayhem in Extreme.

Series 5
King B Powerworks faced Kronic 2 in Round One, it was almost flipped over at the start of the battle, but it recovered. King B then did all the work, shoving and lifting Kronic 2 all around the arena. It's lifter spikes put a few holes in Kronic 2, whilst its new blade did some minor damage. Kronic 2's spikes were set on fire, and King B had done enough to go through to Round 2. Here it faced Dominator 2, it was outclassed in weapon power here as its shell was axed full of holes. However it showed its durability by holding on for a judges decision, but it lost due to the damage it had sustained.

Series 7
This was King B's first appearance in the televised show since the heats in Series 5, since it failed to qualify for Series 6.

King B Powerworks started in the same heat as the 5th seed Dantomkia, and was expected to progress to the second round. It claimed the best weapon was 'speed and power' but it didn't show early on in its first round match between Dantomkia, Hassocks Hog 2 and Rick. After Dantomkia immobilised Hassocks Hog 2, it grabbed Rick and King B tried to flip it over. King B could merely attempt to keep up with Dantomkia as they nearly managed to flip Rick out of the arena. King B started to shove Dantomkia into the arena wall as Rick stayed propped up against the arena wall, before crashing down. King B escaped but was chased by the seeded machine. A few flips from Dantomkia didn't seem to cause much damage. Very good driving allowed it to escape Dantomkia and attack Rick at the same time. It went through on a judges decision to face IG-88 in the second round. King B was constantly trying to meet IG-88 at the front. It tried to steer all the way around IG-88 to get a good run up, but eventually it gave up and got a slam from the axe, then took multiple blows, one of which sent it out of commission to be counted out by Refbot.

King B Powerworks, as one of the oldest competing robots, returned for the All-Stars Tournament. Pussycat chose to target it with its twin four-toothed blades, which occupied King B's attention for much of the battle. As Dantomkia defeated Behemoth by flipping it out of the arena, it targeted King B Powerworks, who put up a valiant resistance against Dantomkia. However, Pussycat leaped in again, slicing both robots with its disc. This caused resistance to collapse in King B, and Dantomkia then threw it out of the arena. This allowed Dantomkia and Pussycat to go through to the next round.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 10
 * Losses: 9

Series Record

 * Series 1: Did not enter
 * Series 2: Semi-Finals, Arena
 * Series 3: Heat Final
 * Series 4: Heat, Round 2
 * Series 5: Heat, Round 2
 * Series 6: Failed to qualify
 * Series 7: Heat, Round 2