Atomic

"A flipping great robot!"

- Robot Wars: The Ultimate Guide

Atomic was a yellow trapezoid-shaped robot with a red pneumatic flipping scoop that traveled at 12 mph. It competed in Series 4, 5 and 7 of Robot Wars plus the first series of Extreme. It was originally made from scrap aluminium with polycarbonate side panels and the flipper ran on nitrogen rather than CO2, costing around £1,000. In the pits in Series 4, Atomic had side armour, but it was removed by the time the robot went in the Arena, presumably because of weight issues. For Series 5 (and Extreme Series 1), it was more compact and aerodynamic and a pneumatic foot long spike was added at the rear thrusting at up to 1000PSI. The robot was known as Atomic 2 for these series, but it reverted to its original name for Series 7, though the logo on the side of the robot still read Atomic II.

Atomic had a terrible luck in its first two heats, coming up against reigning champions Chaos 2 in its first appearance, then the number 3 seed Hypno-Disc in its second appearance. Despite losing both battles, Atomic became one of the few robots that successfully managed to flip Hypno-Disc over and force it to use its self-righting mechanism.

After failing to qualify for Series 6, it returned for Series 7, where it was more aggressive and reliable and appeared to have interchangeable flippers, as the flipper used against M2 looked more like that of the Series 5 incarnation than from the rest of that war.

Atomic's best performance came in Series 7; Atomic flipped four robots out of the arena, one in each of its first four battles. Atomic reached the second round of Semi-Finals, going out to the eventual champion Typhoon 2.

Series 4
Atomic barely made it through its first fight along with the reigning champions Chaos 2. Chaos 2 chased Atomic around, flipping them, but then turned on its other opponent Indefatigable, who couldn't self-right after being flipped, and was then out of the arena shortly before Chaos 2 immobilised and flipped over Atomic.

It had to face the number 17 seed King B3 in the second round. During the fight, its flipper broke off after it hit the side wall, but it managed to push King B3 into the spikes on the wall, where the 17th seed began smoking. King B3 was eventually pitted by Sir Killalot, and Atomic was put through to the Heat Final to fight against Chaos 2 again.

Atomic was first to attack, trying and failing to flip Chaos 2 over. Chaos 2 then came back on the attack and repeatedly flipped Atomic around, up and over and back onto its wheels a number of times before Atomic was immobilised up against the arena wall. "The top speed is 15 miles an hour. The current speed... about minus 10."

- Jonathan Pearce

Chaos 2 desperately tried to flip Atomic out of the arena, but didn't have enough power left in the flipper. However Chaos 2 persisted in its attack and continued to flip the carcass around. Four flips from Chaos 2 later and Atomic found itself in Sir Killalot's CPZ where the house robot crumpled and crushed its rear armour. Atomic was then placed and thrown from the floor flipper before Chaos 2 came in once more to flip Atomic onto its side. Cease was called and Atomic was eliminated from the competition.

Extreme 1
Atomic 2's only appearance in either series of Extreme was in a Mayhem of Extreme 1 to qualify for the second annihilator. It won convincingly against Mousetrap 2 and Fighting Torque as it flipped around its two opponents repeatedly before eventually leaving them both alone to be counted out and attacked by the House Robots. Atomic 2 was unfortunately unable to compete in the Annihilator as it suffered large amounts of irreparable damage from Hypno-Disc in its Series 5 battle, which took place at about the same time. This same thing happened to Bulldog Breed 3 who also won its Mayhem but suffered too much damage from a battle with the Series 5 Grand Finalist.

Series 5
Atomic 2 was the number 22 seed for the fifth wars. It eased through the heat eliminator against newcomers Kan-Opener after the clawed machine's srimech failed to work after being tossed around the arena. Then, for the first and only time in Robot Wars history, the two seeds were drawn against each other in round two. The third seed Hypno-Disc, a grand-finalist from the past two wars was the opponent for Atomic 2.

In the beginning, the two machines circled each other while the silver spinning disc got up to speed. The first impact left a split down Atomic's side panel, but it was still fully mobile. Hypno-Disc caused another crevice across the other side panel immediately before Atomic turned Hypno-Disc over. Atomic was able to hold the third seeds down for a few seconds before Hypno-Disc self-righted. Hypno-Disc hit Atomic again, buckling part of the flipper, before the next slam ripped the flipper off entirely. Atomic went for the pit release button (a tactic that later helped Bigger Brother to an unlikely win over Hypno-Disc), but failed to push the destructive robot down. Hypno-Disc was able to get in a series of slams on Atomic that ripped through most of the remaining armour, before Sir Killalot and Matilda helped to pit the tattered, yellow scrap that was left of Atomic 2.

Series 7
Atomic returned in Series 7 with a much improved robot. In the first round battle against Terror Turtle, Cygnus X-1 and the 13th seeds S.M.I.D.S.Y., Atomic dominated, flipping Terror Turtle clean out of the arena almost immediately, before flipping Cygnus X-1 against the arena wall where it couldn't self-right. Atomic also created a worry for S.M.I.D.S.Y. when it nearly flipped the 13th seed out of the arena after disposing of Cygnus X-1. It then flipped the seed high into the air, which knocked out S.M.I.D.S.Y.. Atomic put S.M.I.D.S.Y. into the pit but both still went through to Round 2.

Atomic met Hellbent in the second round. At first, the two robots circled each other and Atomic tried a flip on Hellbent, which did not manage to overturn the robot. Atomic then used its scoop to push Hellbent towards the arena wall before flipping it powerfully out of the arena.

In the Heat Final, Atomic met S.M.I.D.S.Y. again. The two robots attempted to attack each other, but the charges of both robots kept on missing their targets. S.M.I.D.S.Y. managed a couple of nudges on the side of its opponent, before Atomic got underneath and flipped S.M.I.D.S.Y. over. S.M.I.D.S.Y. then attacked Atomic with its spinning disc, but Atomic recovered and continued to get underneath S.M.I.D.S.Y., throwing it into the air twice more. S.M.I.D.S.Y. then began to scamper around the arena, but was soon caught by Atomic who got underneath S.M.I.D.S.Y., pushed it towards the side of the arena and threw it into the wall, which it clipped and then flew over and out of the arena.

In the semi final, Atomic met the rising star M2. It was a very tactical battle, with both robots flipping and self-righting. Atomic nearly got flipped out of the arena by M2, but by the end M2's energy was wearing down and could not flip as effectively as at the start of the battle. Atomic managed to pin M2 against the arena wall and flip it out.

In the second round Atomic met the eventual champions Typhoon 2, and the great run for Atomic ended. In an attempt to get the battle over and done with quickly, Atomic went straight for Typhoon but failed to flip it over. On the second attempt Atomic flipped itself over, jamming its flipper open and unable to self-right. Atomic then started venting gas. Typhoon spun up to the fastest speed seen from the robot in the series (creating an audible whirring sound) before hitting Atomic twice, causing major damage. Atomic was counted out by the Refbot, before being flipped by the floor flipper, pitted by Sir Killalot and eliminated from the competition.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 8
 * Losses: 3

Series Record

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

Trivia

 * Atomic and Thermidor 2 tie as the robot with the most Out of the Arena flips without having been flipped out itself.
 * Atomic has only ever lost to Grand Finalists, including two Grand Champions in its unseeded appearances.
 * Atomic never had a judges' decision during its career.
 * Atomic is the second robot to lose to Chaos 2 in the heats and later make the Semi-Finals itself. The first was Wheely Big Cheese, although Crushtacean would make a World Championship semi-final.
 * Atomic was the last robot to throw another out of the arena in the main competition.

Similarities with Bulldog Breed
Atomic had many similarities with fellow flipper, Bulldog Breed, including the following:
 * Atomic and Bulldog Breed both reached the heat final in Series 4, defeating a seeded robot in the second round, before falling to an eventual grand finalist in their heat finals.
 * Both robots won Mayhems in Robot Wars Extreme, but could not participate in the Annihilator due to suffering major damage from Hypno-Disc.
 * Both robots featured in Heat B of Series 5, where they defeated a robot that could not self-right by flipping it in the first round, eventually being immobilised by Hypno-Disc within the heat.
 * Additionally, had Atomic not been drawn to fight the other seeded robot in the heat, Hypno-Disc, in the second round, when battles would typically be structured so the two seeds would instead meet in the heat final, Atomic could potentially have fought Bulldog Breed.
 * Atomic and Bulldog Breed both reached the second round of the series semi-finals in Series 7, before being defeated by a robot with a rotating weapon.
 * Both robots' names were numbered in Robot Wars Extreme and Series 5, before dropping the numbers afterwards, despite still having their names on the side of the robot with numbers.