Tough as Nails

Tough As Nails (sometimes known as Hard As Nails, or abbreviated to TAN) was a Dutch robot that competed in Series 7 of Robot Wars and Series 2 of Dutch Robot Wars. The robot was invertible with two large clamping arms at the front. It was described by the team as a "horizontal crusher", one of the biggest in the wars. The robot originated from a sketch of a crushing mechanism. "When offered the chance in 2002 to build a robot as a graduation project, I had half a year time to design and build TAN."

- Jeroen van der Loo

It was the first robot to introduce HARDOX (brand name SSAB Sweden) as armour plating for robots. As a result it had very strong armour, was fast and controllable, but had a limited CO2 supply and electrical problems as well. The wheels are made by Jeroen who has found his own way to vulcanise cylindrical lumps of HDPE.

Tough As Nails originally entered the second series of Dutch Robot Wars, but was defeated in the first round by Scrap-2-Saur. However, it did win a major robotic event in the Netherlands prior to the Seventh Wars and was dubbed as a favourite for the series by Jonathan Pearce. Tough As Nails lost its qualifier battle for Series 7 after colliding with Metalis and breaking down. Despite this, it was awarded a discretionary place and won its heat in the main series, defeating former UK champion Panic Attack along the way. It was eventually defeated in the semi-finals by Bulldog Breed. It also defeated two other Dutch robots to qualify for The Third World Championship at the end of the series, in which it reached the semi-finals and was defeated by the eventual champion, Storm 2.

A favoured tactic which was used by the Tough As Nails team was to immediately activate the pit release button, grab hold of its opponents and dump them into the pit. The team attempted this tactic in many battles, successfully pitting Disc-O-Inferno and Robochicken in the heats (although Robochicken was already through to the next round) and Scraptosaur, Gravity and Rawbot in The Third World Championship, before finally being given a taste of its own medicine as it was pitted by Storm 2.

Dutch Series 2
Tough As Nails fought Scrap-2-Saur in its first round of Dutch Robot Wars. Tough As Nails was flipped once before driving over the flame pit. Due to a thermal cut-off from the speed controllers, Tough As Nails's motors shut down, and it was counted out by Refbot. Mr. Psycho put Tough As Nails on the dropzone, where two barrels fell onto it. At this point the speed controllers had cooled down, so Tough As Nails was able to move again (not that it mattered; it had already been counted out). Tough As Nails grabbed one of the dropzone's barrels and carried it around the arena, until Mr. Psycho came in and smashed Tough As Nails's rear with his hammer. The hit caused a small fire, burning out a speed controller and one of the hydraulic tubes, effectively immobilising Tough As Nails again. Dead Metal pushed Tough As Nails, barrel still in its claws, down into the pit. "To repair it the houseroboteers borrowed me a hydraulic tube from Sir. K, but I had to give it back after not being selected for the wildcard."

- Jeroen van der Loo

UK Series 7
In its first fight, Tough As Nails pressed the pit release button, and then grabbed Disc-O-Inferno and dropped it down. It then did the same to Robochicken, however Robochicken had already flipped and immobilised B.O.D., so it still qualified. In the next round, Tough As Nails faced the seeded Panic Attack. It grabbed Panic Attack, and after hitting the pit release, attempted to push it into the pit, but Panic Attack wouldn't let it. Panic Attack tried to flip Tough As Nails, but Tough As Nails' shape wasn't prone to being flipped. Tough As Nails grabbed Panic Attack again and bent its lifting device. Left without any means of attack, Panic Attack was helpless as Tough As Nails pushed it around the arena. It couldn't get Panic Attack to go into the pit, but it still won the judges' decision.



Tough As Nails had reached the heat final, where it met Robochicken again. Tough As Nails was tossed repeatedly by Robochicken's flipper, but since it was invertible, it was wholly unaffected. Robochicken's gas supply began to dwindle, so Tough As Nails opened the pit and clamped down on Robochicken. It spent the rest of the match with Robochicken in its claws, pushing it around the arena. The judges had to choose a heat winner, and they ruled in favour of Tough As Nails.

In the Semi-finals, Tough As Nails met Bulldog Breed, sporting part of Robochicken's head. Tough As Nails was flipped a few times, but did manage to get its pincers around Bulldog Breed. However, it couldn't get enough traction to push Bulldog Breed, and so its opponent pushed it around instead. Tough As Nails was nearly flipped out of the arena, and the two robots continued pushing each other until time ran out. The judges ruled that Tough As Nails had lost.

Tough As Nails also competed in the Third World Championship. In its qualifier battle, it employed its usual tactic of pressing the pit release button at the beginning of the match. After doing do, it grabbed Scraptosaur and pushed it into the abyss. It was flipped once by Gravity, but it still managed to grab the Dutch flipper bot, and push it into the pit too. Through to the World Championships, its first match was made substantially easier when Typhoon 2 was forced to drop out of the melee, leaving only it and Rawbot. Again it went for the pit release, and again it dropped its opponent in. In the semifinal, it found Storm 2 to be a much more difficult opponent. Indeed, Storm 2's speed and traction made it nearly impossible for Tough As Nails to grab and hold Storm 2. Storm 2 slammed Tough As Nails against the wall until one of its tyres came off. Tough As Nails got its pincers around Storm 2, but it was Storm 2 in control, pushing and pulling Tough As Nails around the arena. When it tried to put Tough As Nails into the pit, Tough As Nails refused to loosen its grip, allowing it hover over the pit and stay in play just a little while longer. However, it eventually let go, and plunged into the pit, taking The Netherlands' hopes with it. "The wheel's finally come off Tough As Nails' drive for world domination"

- Craig Charles

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * UK Wins: 5
 * UK Losses: 2
 * Dutch Wins: 0
 * Dutch Losses: 1

UK Series

 * Series 1-6: Did not enter
 * Series 7: Semi-Finals, Round 1

Dutch Series

 * Series 1: Entered with Arena Killer
 * Series 2: Heat, Round 1

Robot Wars Live Events
Tough As Nails competed in the second live event of the new Robot Wars at Portsmouth in March 2013.

Outside Robot Wars
Tough As Nails is still attending live events in the Netherlands and in the UK. The design has hardly changed, although the inside has had several upgrades. Tough As Nails is still using the first set of jaws, with only minimalistic repairs, proving the resilience of the 1/8" thick Hardox 450.

Tough As Nails won the Fighting Robots European Championships twice in a row in 2003 and 2004, and also won the International Special held in the 2011 UK Championships held at the O2 Arena, London.

Trivia

 * Tough As Nails' main tactic was to grab robots and then dump them down the pit, however, ironically, Tough As Nails was the last robot in Robot Wars history to lose a battle via the pit.
 * Tough As Nails is one of two semi-finalists from the Seventh Wars that lost its original qualifier battle and had to rely on a discretionary place from the producers. The other was eventual champion, Typhoon 2.