Ansgar

Ansgar was the name given to a series of German robots that competed in German Robot Wars and various competitions on UK Robot Wars. "Ansgar" is the German equivalent of the English name Oscar. In Germanic, its literal meaning is "god-spear."

The original Ansgar was created by Sascha Thomsen and his father Joachim after seeing a dubbed promotion episode of Robot Wars. Constructed from aluminium road signs, the result was a vaguely dome shaped robot designed to look like a UFO with interchangeable flipper, spear and lever weapons that could be fired 300 times per minute. The unique aspect of the robot was to "sit down" so it could not be pushed around by other robots, but it was very light at only 74 kilograms. However, despite this weight problem, it won the German melee. "We focused on a good design and tried to built weapons which work well - we failed in that point."

- Sascha Thomsen

The team's second design was Ansgar's Revenge, a walker robot (technically a shufflebot with 16 legs) with a shovel with lifting spears to attack from the front and rear that competed in German Robot Wars and the UK vs Germany Special in UK Series 6. It had hard, powerful motors to produce very quick speeds. Unlike the American shufflebot Drillzilla, Ansgar's Revenge was not affected by the rule change in the US stating that shuffling mechanisms would only allow one-and-a-half times the extra weight, as this rule hadn't yet been established in Europe.

Ansgar 3 was also a walkerbot, this time with a set of rotating blades weighing 10kg like the UK robot Fluffy but much more cumbersome, that competed in The Third World Championship. By this time, however, the shufflebot rule-change had been established in the UK, but Ansgar 3 was allowed to compete regardless.

German Series
The Ansgar team competed in the first and only German Series of Robot Wars, although this was filmed and broadcast after their first UK appearance. Ansgar's Revenge didn't show much controlled movement in its melee, colliding with the arena wall on several occasions and only rarely coming into contact with an opponent. Golem rammed into Ansgar's Revenge on a couple of occasions, but the battle was mostly between Golem and Junkyard Queen, and for this reason the judges chose to eliminate Ansgar's Revenge. "I think we can beat Das Gepäck"

- Quiet confidence from the team

Ansgar's Revenge was drawn against Das Gepäck, a Dutch Competitor brought in to make up for the lack of German robots, in Round 1 of the UK vs Germany special. This competition was also broadcast during Robot Wars: The Sixth Wars. It was immediately rammed by Das Gepäck, before taking the full force of another attack from behind this time and was slammed into Dead Metal. He repeatedly sliced into its Probophobia-esque lifter, Ansgar taking multiple powerful rams from its opponent in the process. Sir Killalot then plucked it up by the lifter, paraded it around the arena and eventually dropped it in the centre of the war zone. Das Gepäck slammed into it again, pushing it into an angle grinder, then pounded it repeatedly into the side wall. It hobbled away, barely able to move. Sir Killalot pushed it away, sapping its last little drop of strength away. It went to a judges' decision, but the winner was clearly Das Gepäck. "Ansgar's Revenge absolutely battered"

- Craig Charles

Extreme Series 1
Team Thomsen's first UK appearance was in the German Melee against Golem, Nasty Warrior and Flensburger Power with the first incarnation of Ansgar. This battle was also broadcast a year later on German Robot Wars. Ansgar was equipped with its flipper weapon in this match, but couldn't get into position to flip anyone, so it spent most of the match swatting the air with its flipper. However, Golem and Flensburger Power broke down, and Nasty Warrior began smoking, allowing Ansgar to win by judges' decision. "After we arrived for the second world championship we already knew that our chances are quite low to win anything with our robot in that year, but it was a great experience."

- Sascha Thomsen

For winning the German Melee, Ansgar represented Germany in the Second World Championship. This competition was also broadcast during Extreme Warriors: Season 1 and Ansgar's opening battle was broadcast during German Robot Wars. Ansgar was equipped with its stabbing spike for this match against the UK champion Chaos 2, US competitor Manta and Mastiff of Italy, but it proved no help, as in the battle, Ansgar was immediately targeted by Manta, who was too low for the spike to hit. Manta pushed Ansgar around while using its blade to tear up the German entry. Ansgar stopped moving when it was pushed onto the flame pit, and was counted out, eliminating it from the competition.

UK Series 7
Ansgar 3 returned to Robot Wars in hopes of representing Germany in a World Championship once again. In the qualifier battle, it easily immobilized Reaper NP2 with a well-placed hit from its blade, before doing the same to I Bot One Beta. It then pushed the red machine down the pit to affirm its place in the Third World Championship.

In the first round it faced very tough competition, being in an eliminator with two UK series grand finalists, Tornado and Storm 2. Indeed, the two pushed it around the arena effortlessly, slamming it into the pit release and then the CPZ. It escaped, but the two rammers pushed it onto the flame pit, where it stopped moving. Storm 2, who would win the World Championship, ultimately dashed its hopes by pushing it down the pit.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * UK Wins: 2
 * UK Losses: 3
 * German Wins: 0
 * German Losses: 1

Series Record

 * German Series: Heat, Round 1

Trivia

 * Ansgar was the last walker to fight in a televised battle on Robot Wars, having competed in the Third World Championship, which was aired after the Series 7 Featherweight championship.