Razer

Razer was a robot that competed in the British television game show Robot Wars. It was a roughly wedge-shaped robot with a powerful mechanical claw weapon, looking somewhat similar to a scorpion's tail. This weapon, described as "half bird, half reptile" by commentator Jonathan Pearce, was one of the most powerful weapons in Robot Wars history, being able to penetrate deep into robots and damage their inner mechanics. In Series 3, two "wings" were added to the side of the crushing arm to serve as a self-righting mechanism, should Razer ever be flipped over (as well as making it able to give its infamous "salute"). The weapon was filled with holes drilled to keep Razer within the allowed weight boundaries.

The robot competed in Series 2-6 of Robot Wars, winning the fifth series. It also won the first two Robot Wars World Championships. Razer was created by Simon Scott (the team captain), Ian Lewis and Vincent Blood, from Bournemouth.

The team also entered the Extreme 1 antweight competition with Razzler, a toy Razer with an active beak and wings. The robot lost after being pushed into the pit.

Rivalry
Razer's most famous rivalry was with the Tornado team. The two robots first met in the All-Stars final in Extreme Series 1, in which Razer immediately grabbed hold of Tornado and tried to pierce the tyres of its opponent. Tornado briefly escaped but Razer grabbed hold once again, doing more damage and leaving it immobilised. This left Razer able to easily push Tornado into the pit. Their next encounter was in the semi-finals of The Second World Championship, which ended with a similar outcome. Once again, Razer quickly grabbed hold of Tornado and pierced through its armour. Razer then picked Tornado up and held it over the pit, eventually dropping it in.

Following these easy Razer victories, Tornado developed a special weapon for use in future battles between the two machines. It was a front-mounted spinning blade, supported by a large metal frame around the whole robot. This frame would make it very difficult for Razer to grab hold of it, which was proven in the Grand Final of Series 6. In response to this weapon, the Razer team added an extended claw to the end of its beak, but all it could do was grab the frame of Tornado, and Tornado was able to push Razer around the arena and slam it into the arena walls. Eventually Razer was able to lift Tornado and carry it over to the pit, but Tornado's frame meant that it could not be dropped into the pit. Cease was called and Tornado took Razer's crown of UK Champion.

Tornado used the spinning blade and framework again in the semi-final of the European Championship in Extreme Series 2, but Razer had developed a new add-on in the shape of an upward-facing hook, which would be used to grab hold of Tornado's frame. The hook worked well, and Razer was able to lift Tornado by the frame. Razer opened the pit and tried to carry Tornado towards it, but the motors burnt out and it was unable to finish Tornado off. The judges went for Razer, but the team later decided to give the victory to Tornado as they felt that they had been immobilised.

Razer had previously had a shorter-lived rivalry with the Pussycat team, which started in the heat final in Series 4. Shortly after the battle started, Razer became immobilised against the arena wall and unable to move, which left it at the mercy of Pussycat's blade. Despite Razer conceding defeat, Pussycat continued to attacked its opponent with its spinning disc, causing major damage before Razer was eventually pitted by Dead Metal. The Razer team was very unhappy about the amount of damage that was caused by Pussycat after it had been immobilised and the two teams tried to settle their score in a vengeance battle in Extreme Series 1. In this battle, Razer was able to grab hold of Pussycat and lift it into the air, but Pussycat escaped and lauched an attack on Razer. This attack immobilised Razer once again, and Pussycat continued to attack Razer and cause damage, just like in the previous battle, before it was pitted by Shunt.

Series 2
The robot was hard to control in the gauntlet, but bashed its way past the ram rig and pushed Shunt into the safe zone. It scored the first goal in the football trial. In its semi-final, Razer trapped Inquisitor before crushing its flail support. But Inquisitor was still mobile and escaped, while Razer was suddenly unable to move, the first example of its infamous early unreliability.

Razer won the Best Design Award for Series 2.

Series 3
Razer added the self-righting wings for this wars. In its first round battle, Razer was unable to get a grip on Backstabber, so the team had to settle for trapping it on its wedge, and then pushing it into the pit for the win instead. Razer looked unstoppable against Aggrobot, but lost due to a mechanical failure: when the claw was raised to full height, it became stuck, and the rear end lifted Razer's wheels off the ground, so it couldn't move.

However, Razer would go on to win the Pinball Warrior Tournament of Series 3, and again won the Best Design Award. After Series 3, they won the International League Championship, beating Techno-Lease, and then Diotoir in the final. They also won the direct-to-video feature-length First World Championship tournament: representing England, they beat All Torque, Chaos 2, 101 and Behemoth, so they were still rather successful in this series, in spite of losing in Round 2 of the main competition.

Series 4
Razer was seeded number 3 in this wars. Placing against Robochicken and Velocirippa, the three met in the center of the arena, and Razer picked up Robochicken. It carried Robochicken over to the flame pit while Velocirippa bumped into Razer. Razer left Robochicken for Dead Metal to deal with, and turned its attention to Velocirippa. It pierced with its claw and put it over the flame jet, but Velocirippa got away, and in its haste, crashed into the wall and was immobilized. Robochicken qualified with Razer. Razer dissected Milly-Ann Bug, breaking off its wheels and puncturing its domes in the second round. However, in the final, Razer ran into the arena side wall, malfunctioned and got stuck in forward drive, meaning that it couldn't get out of the way. Pussycat took advantage of this by completely decimating the back and wheels of its adversary with its destructive diamond-edged cutting disc. This onslaught continued until Dead Metal grabbed and pitted the heavily damaged Razer.

Razer also took part in the Pinball and Sumo Basho tournaments of Series 4: it did not perform particularly well in either, scoring only 95 points in the Pinball (abandoning the run to attack Sir Killalot) and being knocked off the Sumo podium by Shunt in less than 5 seconds.

However, it did win the "Southern Annihilator" special. Razer dominated this battle, single-handedly defeating Vercingetorix, Spawn of Scutter and Behemoth. It had a brief scare in the fourth round, as it was unable to harm either Attila the Drum or Onslaught, but Attila ran into Sir Killalot, and was eliminated. After Onslaught was flipped on its side and immobilised in the final round, Razer celebrated its victory by attacking Matilda and caused such horrible damage as wrecking the chainsaw weapon, filling the back end full of holes and setting it on fire, causing it to be suspended for repairs until Series 5.

Extreme
Razer took part in the All-Stars tournament of Robot Wars Extreme 1, and won, beating Gemini, Behemoth, Firestorm 3 and Tornado. Its only other battle in Extreme was a grudge match with Pussycat for the loss in Series 4 - Despite Razer having managed to pierce thorugh Pussycat's armour and hold it over the flame pit, Razer was immoblized by Pussycat's circualr saw, leading to being pitted by Shunt.

The Second World Championship was also filmed as part of Robot Wars Extreme. Representing England again, Razer began its title defence in a melee with Diotoir (Ireland), Flenzburgerpower (Germany) and The Revolutionist (USA) - it qualified when it immobilised The Revolutionist and Flenzburgerpower broke down. Razer then beat Tornado again in the next round, and beat DrillZilla (USA) in the final on a judges decision, retaining its title as World Champion.

Series 2
Heats
 * Gauntlet: Qualified
 * Trial (Football): Qualified
 * Arena Semi-Final vs Inquisitor: Lost

Series 3
Heats
 * Round 1 vs Backstabber: Won
 * Round 2 vs Aggrobot: Lost

International League Championship
 * Group B vs Prometheus: Won by default
 * Group B vs Techno-Lease: Won
 * Final vs Diotoir: Won

The First World Championship
 * Eliminator vs All Torque: Won
 * Quarter Final vs Chaos 2: Won
 * Semi-Final vs 101: Won
 * Final vs Behemoth: Won

Series 4
Heats
 * Eliminator vs Velocirippa vs Robochicken: Qualified
 * Semi-Final vs Milly-Ann Bug: Won
 * Final vs Pussycat: Lost

Southern Annihilator vs Vercingetorix vs Attila the Drum vs Onslaught vs Spawn of Scutter vs Behemoth
 * Round 1: Qualified
 * Round 2: Qualified
 * Round 3: Qualified
 * Round 4: Qualified
 * Round 5: Won

Extreme Series 1
All-Stars Vengeance vs Pussycat: Lost
 * Round 1 vs Gemini: Won
 * Quarter Final vs Behemoth: Won
 * Semi-Final vs Firestorm 3: Won
 * Grand Final vs Tornado: Won

The Second World Championship
 * Heat vs Diotoir vs Flensburger Power vs The Revolutionist: Won
 * Semi-Final vs Tornado: Won
 * Final vs Drillzilla: Won

Series 5
Heats
 * Eliminator vs Big Nipper: Won
 * Semi Final vs Widow's Revenge: Won
 * Final vs Rick: Won

Semi-Finals
 * Round 1 vs Spawn Again: Won
 * Round 2 vs S3: Won

Grand Final
 * Eliminator vs Firestorm 3: Won
 * Final vs Bigger Brother: Won

Series 6
Heats
 * Round 1 vs Brutus Maximus vs Raging Reality vs W.A.S.P.: Qualified
 * Round 2 vs Cyrax: Won
 * Final vs Raging Reality: Won

Semi-Finals
 * Round 1 vs Wild Thing: Won
 * Round 2 vs Dantomkia: Won

Grand Final
 * Eliminator vs Terrorhurtz: Won
 * Final vs Tornado: Lost

Extreme Series 2
All-Stars
 * Round 1 vs Chaos 2 vs 13 Black: Qualified
 * Quarter Final vs Spawn Again: Won
 * Semi-Final vs 13 Black: Won
 * Grand Final vs Firestorm 4: Won

European Championship
 * Round 1 vs Pulverizer: Won
 * Round 2 vs Tornado: Won
 * Note: The Razer team later handed the victory to Tornado as they believed that their robot had been immobilised (Razer's motors had burnt out very early on in the fight) and did not deserve to continue.

Series Record

 * Series 1: Did not enter
 * Series 2: Heats, Arena Semi-Final
 * Series 3: Heats, Round 2
 * Series 4: Heat Final
 * Series 5: Grand Champion
 * Series 6: Runner-up
 * Series 7: Did not enter

Honours
Series 2
 * Best Design Award

Series 3
 * Best Design Award
 * Pinball Champion
 * International League Champion
 * First World Champion

Series 4
 * Southern Annihilator Champion

Extreme Series 1
 * All-Stars Champion
 * Second World Champion

Series 5
 * Fifth Wars Grand Champion
 * Best Design Award

Extreme Series 2
 * All-Stars Champion