Lifting weapons

Lifting Weapons were one of the most popular choices for weapons on a robot. The basic principle behind them was to lift a robot up and potentially over. There were four main classes of lifting weapons: Lifters, Scoops, Flipping Arms, and Flippers. Each had notable moments and robots armed with them.

Lifters
Lifters were more designed to lift a robot off from the ground than turn them over. Often, robots armed with lifters would use them to get under a robot and push it around. The most notable of these is Series 2 champion Panic Attack, who defeated many robots by lifting them up and dropping them in the pit. Other notable robots include Panzer Mk 2 and S.M.I.D.S.Y.. The most powerful lifter is almost certainly Series 2 superheavyweight champion Kick Robut.

Strengths of lifters were that they were effective weapons in early seasons, before the invention of the srimech. Panic Attack's road to victory in the Second Wars, as well as its run in Series 3, were the best examples of this. Also, lifting weapons could be used as effective weapons for invertible robots, such as Suicidal Tendencies, Storm 2 and S.M.I.D.S.Y.

Weaknesses included that lifters were not usually powerful enough to self-right or flip a robot from the arena. Robots such as Panic Attack added additional srimechs, but these were not as useful, as shown in Panic Attack's various losses to Firestorm.

List of Robots with Lifters
Robots are listed alphabetically. Robots that aren't heavyweight are listed with a green background.

Scoops
Lifting Scoops were similar to lifters in that they wouldn't flip a robot off the ground, but were more designed to tip robots over than lifters were. The only scoop robot to succeed in flipping out an opponent was Behemoth, which was also the most notable of them. Other notable scoops include Panzer Mk 4 and G.B.H.

Scoops were easily able to lift and tip over other robots because of their size. However, they were not effective as self-righting mechanisms; none of the scoop robots could self-right without an auxiliary srimech.

List of Robots with Scoops
Robots are listed alphabetically. Robots that aren't heavyweight are listed with a green background.

Flippers
The most popular of the lifting weapons was the flipper. Flippers were usually reasonably large pieces of metal that were fired rapidly to toss a robot into the air and onto its back. Flippers were either rear hinged, or less commonly front hinged.

There were two categories of flipper: True Flippers and Flipping Arms

True Flippers
True flippers were often of a reasonable size, and had the most power of all lifting weapons. Both front-hinged and rear-hinged flippers were popular and notable in the history of Robot Wars.

Rear-Hinged Flippers
Rear-Hinged flippers were the more common of the two types of flipper. They first came into existence when Chaos 2 stormed through Series 3, becoming Grand Champion. Before that all rear-hinged weapons, limited as they were, were lifters. The other innovators included Facet. As the series progressed, flippers became more powerful, easily able to toss house robots over and throw other competitors out of the arena. The most notable robot with a rear-hinged flipper is Chaos 2, also the first robot to throw another out of the arena, but as the series progressed, other more powerful robots such as Wheely Big Cheese, Gravity, Spawn Again and Dantomkia also came into the spotlight. The strengths of rear-hinged flippers were that they could easily end a battle quickly by throwing a robot onto its back or out of the arena. They could sometimes double as a self-righting mechanism, depending on the design.

However, flippers were fragile, and could be broken. Also, CO2 powered flippers only had a limited supply of flips. Flippers rarely offered damage potential and their effectiveness was decreased when Self-righting mechanisms and invertible robots became more popular.

List of Robots with Rear-Hinged Flippers
Robots are listed alphabetically. Robots that are not heavyweight are listed with a green background.

Front-Hinged Flippers
The other type of true flipper is the front-hinged flipper, the less common of the two. They were pioneered back in Series 1, with Rex Garrod's Recyclopse leading the way. It was powerful enough, even back then, to throw Matilda onto her back. Since then there have been some excellent robots with the weapon, most notably Firestorm. Front-hinged flippers featured many of the same strengths and weaknesses as rear-hinged ones did. They also had a weakness specific to themselves: While firing their flipper they were vulnerable to axes attacking the exposed insides.

List of Robots with Front-Hinged Flippers
Robots are listed alphabetically. Robots that are not heavyweight are listed with a green background.

Flipping Arms
The other type of flipping weapon was the lifting arm. These were much thinner than true flippers, and were designed to flip robots over rather than out of the arena. Like true flippers, there were rear-hinged, and much less often, front-hinged flipping arms. The pioneer of flipping arms was one of these few: Rex Garrod's Cassius, the first robot in the UK to ever self-right. Flipping arms were often used in conjunction with axes as they could easily be placed next to each other. Mortis was he first robot to employ the combination. Flipping arms usually needed less power to operate that true flippers, so would be capable of more flips. Also, they were usually extremely durable.

However, with the advent of srimechs and invertable robots, the lack of being able to throw another robot out of the arena meant that flipping arms didn't progress very far in later wars.

Rear-Hinged Flipping Arms
These were the more common of the two types of flipping arm. They were most effective at lifting up a robot on one side and toppling it over. The most notable robot with a rear-hinged flipping arm is Gemini. The clusterbot was the only robot with a lifting arm to throw another out of the arena, after they combined against The Creature.

List of Robots with Rear-Hinged Flipping Arms
Robots are listed alphabetically. Robots that are not heavyweight are listed with a green background.

Front-Hinged Flipping Arms
Front-Hinged Flipping Arms were less common than rear-hinged ones but would become even more influential on combat robotics. Rex Garrod's Cassius became the first robot to sucessfully self right in the UK and only the third anywhere in the world. After finishing second in Series 2, clones were spawned of Cassius, most notably Gravedigger who reached the Series Semi-Finals of the following wars, outperforming Cassius itself in that series. Despite these sucesses, front-hinged flipping arms remained few and far between.

List of Robots with Front-Hinged Flipping Arms
Robots are listed alphabetically.