Derek

"Derek didn't fare well in competition, but the judges said it was beautifully constructed...the winner is Derek! A surprise for many perhaps..."

- Jonathan Pearce announcing the Series 5 Best Engineered Award

Derek (also known as Derek!) was a competitor in Series 5 and 6 of Robot Wars. Its chassis was made of aluminum billet, and each piece was professionally milled using a CNC lathe. Its weapons were a lifter and a rear mounted spinning disc. It originally used a chain drive, but the team switched this out for a more reliable geared transmission.

Derek actually lost its Series 5 qualifier against Bulldog Breed when its battery connector came loose and it lost all power, but was given a discretionary place because the judges felt it looked good and functioned well.

It lost in the first round of Series 5 to Dominator 2, but surprised many by winning the award for the Best Engineered robot that year, beating out better-performing robots like Dominator 2 and Firestorm.

For Series 6, the team decided to build a vertical spinner as their new weapon after seeing 259's incredible performance at the qualifiers. However, Derek 2 performed no better than its predecessor and lost in the first round again.

Series 5
In the first round of the Fifth Wars, Derek was unlucky to be drawn against 11th seeds Dominator 2. Derek was immediately rammed by the much quicker Dominator 2, who swung the axe, but missed by centimetres. After the initial pushing and shoving from both robots, Dominator 2 slid beneath Derek and drove around, meaning that Derek's forklift gouged the wooden floor. Dominator 2 then axed the internals of Derek and pushed it into an arena side-wall, and reversed it into the wall where Derek broke down completely. It was hammered once again by Dominator 2 and once by nearby house robot Shunt. The Refbot closed in and counted out the immobilised Derek, eliminating it from the competition.

After the battle, the team discovered that Derek's battery connectors had overheated when the spinning disc hit the floor (when Derek drove up Dominator's wedge, which was cut from the televised version) and caused a surge of current; this ultimately led to its immobilization.

Series 6
Derek 2 fought in the final heat of the Sixth Wars. In the first round, Derek 2 went up against Behemoth, Disc-O-Inferno and newcomers Tridentate. Derek 2 spun on the attack, but was flipped up and over by Behemoth. After it self-righted and landed back on its wheels, Derek 2 slammed into Behemoth's side, not doing any damage, before being hit side-on by Disc-O-Inferno, hitting the arena side wall and breaking down once again. Derek 2 was later counted out by Refbot and eliminated from the competition. Later on, it was placed on the arena floor flipper, along with the similarly immobile Tridentate and thrown with it. Derek 2 then followed Behemoth and Tridentate into the pit of oblivion after being pushed in by the house robots.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 0
 * Losses: 2

Series Record

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