The Steel Avenger

The Steel Avenger (sometimes written as Steel Avenger) was a plough-shaped robot with a large pneumatic axe as its weapon. It was two interchangable axe heads in Series 3, a pick and a broad axe, but this idea was binned in favour of the sharp steel axe that was featured from Series 4 onwards.

The team competed in Series 3, 4, 5 and 7. In addition to its weaponry, The Steel Avenger often sported a rainbow-coloured feather duster, to "keep the arena clean". In Series 5, the team added a rear flipper to The Steel Avenger, and two mini axes on each side for a self-righting mechanism (Its previous srimech, one of the spikes on either side of the robot used in Series 4, failed to be of much use). The design of the robot was so that when at its maximum speed, a charge and impact from the bladed, arrow-shaped end would cause severe damage. The best example of this was its Mayhem battle, where it sheared a wheel off King B Powerworks.

"The plan was to get the new robot – SA2 - ready for Series 7 and go back in there with all guns blazing. As it happened it was never going to be finished in time, so we reluctantly dragged old Steely out of retirement for one last time so we could take part again."

- John and Jacky

SA2 (Steel Avenger 2) was planned for the Seventh Wars, but it was not finished in time so the team decided to bring the old Avenger out of retirement and try for another wars. A few small changes had been done to The Steel Avenger to make it perform as well as it could. A gas bottle was borrowed from SA2 and fitted in. This bottle had a different dip tube system and allowed a full 1.1kg gas fill without problems. The old bottle only used to allow a 500gm fill which was why The Steel Avenger always ran out of gas and got stuck. The axe head from SA2 was also fitted, a 3/4 inch thick lump of steel. The last change was to strip down the rear lifter to just a skeleton so that the weight saved allowed for the other changes.

The Steel Avenger had a rivalry with Diotoir, having lost to it in both Series 3 and Extreme 1.

The team often sported shiny metal breastplates. The Steel Avenger never made it past a heat final, but came in second in the Extreme 1 Tag Team Terror. It also won the award for Best Engineered robot in Series 4, and an award called Best Costume of Robot Wars Extreme, which was not shown on TV.

Like many Robot Wars competitors, The Steel Avenger team entered Techno Games with an weaponless Steel Avenger called Tin Tackler. It entered the football event teaming up with its Tag-Team Terror partner Lightning (Thunder in Techno Games).

It still appears as a static display robot at the annual Debenham robot rumbles, alongside Stinger, Cassius, Chaos 2 and other famous RW robots that are now retired.

Series 3
"Series 3 was our first attempt after finding the programme on TV and thinking “I can do that!”"

- John Willoughby

The Steel Avenger fought in Heat O, and placed up against Schumey Too. "I counted that Kev got in 11 full whacks with the pick, about three of which made contact"

- John Willoughby

The Steel Avenger missed most of its axe blows, and almost drove into the pit. Overpowering Schumey Too, The Steel Avenger left Schumey Too bouncing on an arena spike, before charging in and pitting it. Before the next battle, the team had to mend the pick, which had become bent by its repeated axe blows. This put The Steel Avenger through to fight Diotoir from Dublin. Before the fight, The Steel Avenger exchanged the pickaxe for the broad axe. Diotoir flicked The Steel Avenger onto the side wall, getting it stuck there. However, Sergeant Bash freed The Steel Avenger and the fight continued. However, The Steel Avenger was almost caught by Dead Metal, and was eventually caught and flipped by Diotoir. It was attacked by Shunt (which was not shown on TV) and had a huge crater chopped in it, as well as the axe cut off by Sergeant Bash. "I would just love to get my own back on them, and avenge the damage they do to our robots. Maybe next time."

- John Willougby

Series 4
The Steel Avenger was ready to redeem its loss to Diotoir. It now had side axes for self-righting purposes. In the first round melee, Wild Thing got under both Humphrey and The Steel Avenger. It was faster than the other robots, and pushed The Steel Avenger into Matilda. Matilda re-righted it - and flipped the feather duster out of the arena - but meanwhile Humphrey was having control problems. It was eliminated, putting the other two through. The Steel Avenger was paired against the 27th seed Sir Chromalot. The Steel Avenger pushed Sir Chromalot around, breaking the drill, before pitting it. This put Steel Avenger back up against Wild Thing in the Heat Final. After some ramming on both sides, Wild Thing toppled Steel Avenger, who's self-righting mechanism failed, leaving it immobilised. However, The Steel Avenger won the award for Best Engineering, beating the previous year's winner Chaos 2.

Extreme 1
The Steel Avenger made its first appearance in Extreme 1 by challenging Behemoth for the Challenge Belt. However, despite striking Behemoth several times, it was flipped over and over by Behemoth, almost out of the arena, and was left immobile in the CPZ.

The Steel Avenger also fought in a Tag Team partnership with Suicidal Tendencies. "We teamed up with Suicidal Tendencies to do the Tag Team event, as we had met each other before at Debenham and fought there. It seemed like a good idea to join forces and see what we could do together."

- John Willoughby

The Steel Avenger chopped and rammed Napalm, before tagging out Suicidal Tendencies. Suicidal Tendencies crumpled Napalm 2, and Sir Killalot dumped it outside of the arena. Much of the action was edited out of The Steel Avenger and Sir Chromalot, but Sir Chromalot was dumped in the pit and the duo progressed through. They now fought Cerberus and Thermidor 2. Thermidor 2 rushed out to interfere with Suicidal Tendencies and Cerberus' battle, so it turned into a free for all. After a lot of bashing, Thermidor 2 broke down, and both Suicidal Tendencies and The Steel Avenger had dealt decent blows to Cerberus, so the duo won the judges decision and met Pussycat and Diotoir in the final. Both robots were concerned by Pussycat, but The Steel Avenger team had also to be interested in their arch-nemesis Diotoir. Suicidal Tendencies held its own against Pussycat, but Diotoir intervened without a tag and The Steel Avenger rushed out to meet it. However, Diotoir flipped over The Steel Avenger over and pinned it down, with Pussycat cutting into it as well, but missing the vitals. As The Steel Avenger righted itself and attacked Diotoir, cease was called. "I thought that, with the last thrust of the fight on our part, and the great control that ST was showing over Pussycat, we might have got the Judge's decision. Craig kept us on tenterhooks as the result came through and it went to..... Pussycat and Diotoir! Ah well, we tried"

- John Willoughby

The Steel Avenger later fought in a Mayhem battle against two similar robots - Tornado and King B Powerworks were both invertible 4-wheel drive 36 volt machines with cutting discs. Tornado cut into The Steel Avenger with its disc, but The Steel Avenger managed to hold its own and landed axe blows on both opponents. Tornado then cut a huge hole in the side of The Steel Avenger. "They hit us broadside on and our right-hand side panel just exploded! That was a 10mm sheet of new polycarb which just shouldn't do that. The result was a big hole in our side, but no damage done to any of the works."

- John Willoughby

Not long after, Tornado conked out from damage inflicted by King B Powerworks, leaving The Steel Avenger and King B Powerworks alone. The Steel Avenger then charged at full speed and the 100kg mass of The Steel Avenger did its job; knocking a wheel off King B Powerworks. As time ran out, Matilda hit The Steel Avenger with its flywheel and knocked it onto its side, but this was not taken into consideration in the judges decision, which went in favour of The Steel Avenger.

In the Annihilator, The Steel Avenger managed to get through the first round after taking a few blows from Disc-O-Inferno, and Fighting Torque and Napalm 2 both dropped out. The Steel Avenger attacked Spirit of Knightmare, missing its gas bottle by a few centimetres. The Steel Avenger targeted Panic Attack, failing to break through its armour but landing blows on its side skirts and forks. However, in retaliation, Panic Attack raised and pushed The Steel Avenger, who was then flipped by Spirit of Knightmare. With so much gas having been used up, The Steel Avenger was unable to self-right and was eliminated. "As it turns out, we didn't go out alone. We had all caused so much damage to Panic Attack that he was out of it as well. We had hit them very hard, and Kim said that we had broken their front fork actuators. They were indeed smashed very badly and it was more than a pits job to put it back together. Also Panic Attack's back end had been hit so hard by Disco that it was very badly damaged and the magnets had gone in one of the motors...but it was good to be instrumental in taking out one of Robot Wars' most celebrated machines"

- John Willoughby

Series 5
The Steel Avenger was drawn against Scottish newcomers, The Tartan Terror. Axing the newcomers, The Steel Avenger shoved it into the CPZ with its lifter, where Shunt joined in. Between the two axes, The Tartan Terror broke down and suffered cracked ribs, but took the damage well. The Steel Avenger limped out of the arena with a flat tire, from running over one of the Tartan Terror's studs. After fixing the machine, The Steel Avenger was drawn against double reigning champs, Chaos 2. "We have become good friends with the Chaos team, and they are really nice people, but that wasn't going to stop us trying to do whatever we could to win"

- John Willoughby

The Steel Avenger got flipped straight away, but self-righted. It was being flipped repeatedly by Chaos 2, but the srimech kept working and so did the robot. It also put up a decent fight, taking some collossal impacts without breaking down, and also managing to get a good hit on it down the side of its flipper, and just caught the back of it, narrowly missing the electronics. Suddenly, Chaos 2 slid beneath The Steel Avenger and shoved it over to the corner where it launched it up onto the rail. The Steel Avenger teetered on the brink for a moment, but then fell over, landing on one of the lights.

Extreme 2
The Steel Avenger returned to Extreme 2 with a new Tag Team Partner, Lightning. "We teamed up with the Lightning boys...their first appearance on Robot Wars and we were pleased to be partnering such a well-built machine."

- John Willoughby

After a promising start from Lightning, The Steel Avenger tagged out to fight Stinger. After a bit of shoving, dodging and ramming it looked as thought Stinger was having trouble with drive to one of the wheels and possibly aerial problems. The Steel Avenger took advantage of the situation and nosed them towards the pit. Once Stinger dropped into the pit, however, gravity caused The Steel Avenger to follow it in. It left Lightning alone, however, Lightning managed to defeat Nasty Humphrey and the pair moved on. In the next round, the duo fought Robochicken and Bulldog Breed. Bulldog Breed quickly put Lightning out of comission with a powerful flip, and The Steel Avenger rushed over to aid its ally. However, it soon became clear that Lightning was out from a lost radio battery, and The Steel Avenger was left to fight Robochicken. The chicken put some huge flips in, and whilst The Steel Avenger righted itself each time, it finally succumbed to low gas and was out.

Series 7
"It turned out that we were in the 'Heat of Doom (or Death)' as various people had called it, being grouped with some nasty spinners such as Shredder and Supernova. Storm 2 was also in this heat and was a very powerful rambot. As it turned out, the first fight of the group was between Supernova, Storm 2, Mayhem and Rhino, which kept us out of the worst of it, thank goodness. There were some awful noises coming out of the arena from where we were standing."

- John Willoughby

The Steel Avenger took on Shredder Evolution, in an attempt to take out the most potent of the robots. The axe pierced Shredder's tyre and The Steel Avenger dragged Shredder Evolution over to the flame pit. Then The Steel Avenger struck the titanium top of Shredder Evolution, narrowly missing a wire, and then struck again to drag it around. As cease was called, Shredder hit The Steel Avenger's axe and put a large S-Bend in the arm. However, judges decision put The Steel Avenger through with Trax, and eliminated Shredder Evolution. The next round put The Steel Avenger up against the limping Rhino, and managed to land around a dozen succesful axe blows. The Steel Avenger was suffering from leaking batteries, but still managed to activate the pit and shove Rhino down for the win. It was now that The Steel Avenger fought Storm 2. Storm 2 plowed straight through The Steel Avenger and The Steel Avenger missed its axe blow, catching it in the arena floor. Once it finally came free, Storm 2 rammed it again, but this time it had a long run up and rammed it at speed right into the corner of the arena. The Steel Avenger flew straight over the arena wall from the impact. "I thought Steely had done really well this year for such an old machine. To have made the heat final was more than I had expected we could achieve and I have to remind myself that we only went along to have some fun!"

- John Willoughby

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 12
 * Losses: 8

Series Record

 * Series 1-2: Did not enter
 * Series 3: Heat, Round 2
 * Series 4: Heat Final
 * Series 5: Heat, Round 2
 * Series 6: Did not enter
 * Series 7: Heat Final