Robot Wars Merchandise

Robot Wars Merchandise was released as the show gained in popularity since its debut series in 1998. A variety of merchandise was released, from VHS and DVD videos, to computer games, to pullback toys based on the competitors and house robots.

Pullbacks


There was a series of pullbacks modeled on the more famous competitors and the house robots. Most of them (particularly the earlier ones) were packaged with accessories featured in The Trial events of the first four wars e.g. barrels, goalposts and ramps. They all featured moving weapons that could be operated by flicking switches, pushing buttons, through winding-up motions or similar methods. A few had removable panels (like the rear panel of Chaos 2), or interchangeable weapons (such as Matilda's chainsaw/flywheel, or Sir Killalot, whose lance could be replaced by a hammer).

The models released were:


 * Chaos 2
 * Dantomkia
 * Firestorm 3
 * Hypno-Disc
 * Panic Attack
 * Pussycat
 * Razer
 * Stinger
 * Tornado
 * Wheely Big Cheese
 * X-Terminator 2
 * Dead Metal
 * Growler
 * Matilda
 * Mr. Psycho
 * Refbot
 * Sergeant Bash
 * Shunt
 * Sir Killalot

Pitstop Toys
In addition to the pullback toys, there were several pitstop toys released, allowing the user to construct the following robots using the parts and tools provided, which featured a pullback motor and working weapons:


 * Hypno-Disc
 * Panic Attack
 * Matilda

Minibots


A series of smaller, cheaper pullback toys were created, however most of these did not have moving weapons like the Pullbacks and Pitstop toys.


 * Chaos 2
 * Dominator 2
 * Firestorm
 * Gemini
 * Hypno-Disc
 * Mega Morg
 * Panic Attack
 * Plunderbird 5
 * Pussycat
 * Razer
 * Suicidal Tendencies
 * Tornado
 * Wheely Big Cheese
 * Wild Thing
 * X-Terminator 2
 * Dead Metal
 * Matilda
 * Refbot
 * Sergeant Bash
 * Shunt
 * Sir Killalot

Radio Controlled Toys
There were also radio controlled versions of some of the robots. They were much larger than the pullback and pitstop toys, but much smaller than their real life counterparts. The ones that were released had working weapons (modified for safety purposes to avoid the potential for serious injury).


 * Matilda
 * Sir Killalot
 * Shunt
 * Sergeant Bash
 * Growler
 * Tornado

UK releases
The first Robot Wars video that could be obtained was American Robot Wars 1996 in 1998 and could be purchased upon joining the Robot Wars Club. It featured battles taken from the 1996 competition of the original US Robot Wars. In addition a short preview video was sent to new members of the Robot Wars Club as part of their membership pack.

The first video to be released for retail was the VHS title The First Great War in March 1999, which featured a review of the heats and grand final that the first series consisted of plus some behind-the-scenes segments. However, it skipped the fourth heat entirely.

A History of the Third Wars was not made available for retail purchase, instead only being available by post to those who paid the membership fee to join the Robot Wars Club. It was a 18 minute review showing clips from each of the 16 heats, 2 semi-finals and grand final of Series 3. Jonathan Pearce provided the commentary throughout, however only the grand final clips featured his original commentary on the battles.

Next was the First World Championship, filmed following the Third Wars, which was released on VHS in the year 2000. This was before Razer's victory in the event was televised. It was also released on DVD in 2005. It was slightly longer than a standard Series 3 episode at roughly around 70 minutes in length, since it featured 16 robots (rather than eight) in a straight knockout competition across 15 battles, fighting for the coveted prize of Robot Wars World Champion. Eleven nations were represented.

Later that same year in 2000 the Special Edition Double Pack was released. This set included both the First World Championship and American Robot Wars 1996 videos, the latter of which had been previously only available to Robot Wars Club members.

Following that, a series of Ultimate Warrior Collection DVDs and VHS tapes were released in late July 2002. There were four of them in total, with three being dedicated to some of the most successful competitors Chaos 2, Hypno-Disc and Razer. Featured were interviews with the roboteers, an almost complete set of the battles the teams fought in their time in Robot Wars (prior to the Sixth Wars), and a detailed look into how the machines and their weapons were operated. The final Ultimate Warrior Collection disc was dedicated to the House Robots, showcasing each of the original five house robots' best and worst moments. It also featured interviews with the original house robot builders, plus a preview of Mr. Psycho and Growler, introduced to Robot Wars after the videos were filmed.

The last set of releases came in 2004 when vouchers for two DVDs featuring one complete episode each of the Seventh Wars were included with different newspapers: Heat B was included with an issue of The Sun and Heat P was included with an issue of the Daily Express. Both these releases served to promote Fox Kids' acquisition of the rights to broadcast episodes of the Seventh Wars. Two further episodes would be released in 2005 with issues of Jetix Magazine. That same year also saw the release of the First World Championship on DVD.

The list of Robot Wars videos are as follows:

Scandinavian releases
In 2003 the company PAN Vision obtained the rights to issue Robot Wars videos on VHS and DVD in the Scandinavian region. The DVDs while they had the original English soundtracks also came with Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish subtitles. The most notable release is perhaps that of The First Great War, which was never released on DVD in the UK. It is uncertain whether the DVDs featured the extras of the original UK releases though The First Great War video did leave out the Robot Builder's Guide that was included in the original UK VHS release. Somewhat confusingly they were all billed as part of "The Ultimate Warrior Collection" even though not all of them were treated as such in the UK.

Video Games
The Robot Wars franchise extended into the video game market. The Game Boy Color game Robot Wars: Metal Mayhem came out in time for Christmas 2000, and was based around the third television series. It had a bird's-eye view during gameplay and very simplistic graphics (highly limited by the hardware). All of the weapons appeared to do the same amount of damage. Surprisingly, the game worked similarly to console beat-em-up games, whereby every battle was actually played best two out of three, instead of a single fight. Side events such as The Gauntlet and Sumo Basho were included.

Robot Wars: Advanced Destruction for the Game Boy Advance had four game modes, and was the first to have a multiplayer mode, catering for up to four people at a time. A mode of note is the Mayhem battle mode, where the player faces every robot in the game, making for a 20-way melee. This is the largest number of robots in an arena at any time in any Robot Wars game, and is more than any televised battle ever had.

The first home console release was Robot Wars: Arenas of Destruction. This game allowed the player to earn credits to compete in global championships across eight hugely different arenas. The hazards and number of corner patrol zones varies from level to level. The player starts with a machine entitled "My First Bot", and can either sell it to buy or build a new robot, or upgrade (and rename) the game's starter machine. This game provided the debut of Terrorhurtz, since the videogame was released before Heat L of the Fifth Wars was shown on television. Nine other real-life competitors in their Series 4 iterations were unlockable in the game, plus a fictional robot named Thor, which was created based on a fan competition. However it had no relation to the Series 6 and 7 competitor.

Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction followed largely the same game mechanics of its predecessor, but actually included competitors from Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors. Several of the arenas in the previous game returned, although new ones such as a Mars Base were thrown in. The console and PC editions were rather different from the Game Boy Advance version, however they were all based around UK Series 5 and Extreme Warriors: Season 2. The Game Boy Advance version did not include the Refbot despite its setting.

The full list of Robot Wars video games is:


 * Robot Wars: Metal Mayhem
 * Robot Wars: Advanced Destruction
 * Robot Wars: Arenas of Destruction
 * Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction (PC/Xbox)
 * Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction (GBA)

Books and Magazines
Several Robot Wars books were released during the show's run, they were as follows:


 * Robot Wars Technical Manual
 * Robot Wars: The Official Robot Guide
 * Robot Wars Fun Fax
 * Robot Wars Extreme: The Official Guide
 * Robot Wars: The Ultimate Guide

In addition, two separate series of Robot Wars Magazine were published on a monthly basis. The first followed Series 4, with sneak-peeks at Series 5 in later issues and also included various comic strips. It ran for 20 issues. The second followed Series 6 and Extreme 2, and featured various behind-the-scenes write-ups and team interviews. However, this version was not as successful, being cancelled after only seven issues.

Board Game
A board game was released based around the fourth series.

Battle Cards
Four packs of Top Trumps, known as Battle Cards were made based on individual competitor robots and the house robots. In each pack, 32 cards were included, 30 were of competitors, the other 2 were of house robots. The packs were labelled Pack 1, Pack 2 etc. The first three packs were based on different robots from Series 4, with the five house robots of the time and the Refbot being included. The fourth pack was based on robots from Series 6, with Mr. Psycho and Growler being the house robots included. No robot that featured in any of the first three packs also featured in the fourth pack.

CD/Music Video
There was also a CD single and music video released by Polydor Records.

Miscellaneous
As well as the above merchandise, Robot Wars also expanded into various other areas of merchandise.

Other
 * 2002 Calendar
 * 500 piece jigsaw puzzles
 * Clock
 * Duvet and pillow cover
 * Gift wrap and tags
 * Growler keyring
 * Official Sticker Collection and Album
 * Replica Trophies
 * Shunt birthday card
 * Sir Killalot birthday card
 * Wall lamp
 * Washing kit
 * Wastepaper basket
 * Watch

Links
|The Official Robot Wars Online Shop (Archived)