Spawn Again

"Reborn and ready for revenge!"

- Robot Wars: The Ultimate Guide

Spawn Again was Team Scutterbots's final entry to Robot Wars. It competed in Series 5, 6 and 7 of Robot Wars, plus both series of Extreme, reaching the Semi-Finals of the earlier two series. Spawn Again also represented the UK in Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors. It was the successor to Spawn of Scutter.

Design
Spawn Again was a large black four-wheel driven, aluminium box-sectioned, wedge-shaped robot with a powerful rear-hinged flipper. The flipper was 1m tall and enormously powerful, having the ability to throw opponents clean out of the arena, which it achieved twice (against Evolution and Chip) and it often flipped itself over during stationary flips due to the immense 1000PSI pressure released from the flipper at full charge. A rollcage was added to the back of the robot in Series 6, replacing the very rarely used spike and, in Extreme 2, the mechanism for the flipper and the drive system were completely changed as well as the new steel armour. This was further upgraded in Series 7, although mostly it was all internally. Outside of Extreme 1, the robot's bodyshell was decorated with spider webs. Despite the success rate and the claims that the robot could reach 25mph, the Spawn Again robot was well known for its lack of reliability; the robot often lost battles after breaking down or suffering mechanical problems such as slow control responses. The original robot was very lightweight at only 79kg. In Series 6, Extreme 2 and 7 Spawn Again's speed was reduced to 20mph.

Extreme 1
In its Robot Wars debut, Spawn Again fought in the Tag Team Terror competition alongside Comengetorix, the successor to Vercingetorix whom Team Scutterbots beat in Series 4 with their previous robot Spawn of Scutter. Spawn Again managed to get a solitary flip in on Major Tom before its flipper jammed open for the rest of the fight. Major Tom was righted by its teammate Bigger Brother, but didn't move after that which allowed Spawn Again and Comengetorix to go through, despite Bigger Brother's best efforts.

In The Semi-Final, they faced Diotoir & Pussycat (who replaced Diotoir's team-mate Mega Morg due to technical problems). Spawn Again was the first out with Pussycat. Spawn Again wasn't fast enough to catch up with Pussycat. Spawn Again eventually got an opportunity, but it missed the first attempted flip on Pussycat. However, it did manage to flip Pussycat into the CPZ with Matilda but Pussycat escaped. After all four of the robots were out in the arena fighting, Spawn Again broke down and was counted out, and was axed by Shunt, thrown by the floor flipper, and pitted by Matilda. Although Comengetorix survived until the end of the battle, Spawn Again's immobility eliminated the team from the competition.

Spawn Again was also due to compete in the Mayhem qualifiers for one of the two Annihilators, but it withdrew for unknown reasons.

Series 5
"Big fan club! Has a high-powered CO2 flipper at the front and a high-powered spike at the rear, twice series Semi-Finalists, 25mph top speed, the fastest in the heat, 4-wheel-driven, should drive all the way to the Semis again!"

- Jonathan Pearce introduces Spawn Again Spawn Again was seeded number 13 for the Fifth Wars, relatively low for a Semi-Finalist from the previous series. Despite this, it was no underdog in its Heat, as it soundly defeated newcomers Hydra in the first round. Spawn Again threw Hydra around the arena repeatedly with its flipper, with Hydra self-righting each time until it finally lost power in its flipping arm and broke down. Hydra was counted out, and Spawn Again went through to the next round of the Heat. "Well, it's a completely new robot since last year, we've got the same drive system, bit faster, but we've got a full bar pressure flipper on it now, bit like Chaos, but a bit sort of higher than Chaos' one. Yeah, it seems to be working well!"

- Darren Hayden-Ball to Craig Charles after Round 1

The second round saw Spawn Again drawn against newcomers Evolution. "We're faster, more powerful, and we've got a full bar pressure 1000 psi flipper, like Chaos only bigger, and this time anyone who comes near us is going into orbit!"

- Darren Hayden-Ball in the team's introduction, shown before Round 2 and in the Semi-Finals Twenty seconds of fighting was all it took to defeat Evolution, as the seeds flipped it over, before sliding underneath the overturned machine and tossing it out of the arena. "Exactly to plan! You see, we was going to go in there, get them straight out, and we did the job, straigh away!"

- Luke Jackman after the fight

This convincing win saw Spawn Again face the experienced Diotoir machine in the Heat Final, who'd defeated the 12th seeds and heat favourites Tornado in the second round to reach that stage. "They're a good bunch of lads, and they're actually the ones who fixed our robot to get us here to this fight, so there's no bad feelings towards them!"

- Darren Hayden-Ball on his opponents In the battle, Spawn Again flipped the Irish robot immediately and Diotoir's desperate attempts to self-right were in vain. Diotoir was later counted out by Refbot and burnt by Sergeant Bash. The Spawn Again team had made a gentleman's agreement with the Diotoir team that if they became immobile they would pit them before the House Robots came in, but Spawn Again broke down, meaning the House Robots went in to attack. This meant that Spawn Again was through to the Series Semi-Finals.

In the Series Semi-Finals, Spawn Again met the 4th seeds, reigning world champions and eventual champions Razer in Round 1, who pierced its flipper straight away and held on to the 13th seeds for the duration of the battle. "I don't think Spawn Again can get away from their peril! Semi-Finalists of Series 3 with the Scutter's Revenge machine, Semi-Finalists with Spawn of Scutter in Series 4, and to me Spawn Again are going to fall at the same hurdle!"

- Jonathan Pearce as Razer pierces Spawn Again Razer eventually brought Spawn Again over to the pit and pitted it with ease.

Spawn Again failed to redeem itself in the Loser's Melee that was to come, where it went up against the 9th Wild Thing and impressive newcomers S3. Spawn Again held little resistance to the attacks from its two opponents, therefore it was soon immobilised by both of their spinning weapons and pitted. It was eliminated, along with Wild Thing, putting the unseeded S3 back into the competition.

At the end of the series, Spawn Again was nominated for the Best Engineered Robot Award, but lost out to Derek.

Series 6
This time around, Spawn Again was seeded number 10, the lowest ranked Semi-Finalist from the previous series. Spawn Again didn't set the arena ablaze in its first battle towards its Sixth Wars campaign, where it faced Supernova, Short Circuit, and Tiberius 3. "So, Spawn Again with all the capability and experience here! Three times Semi-Finalists."

- Jonathan Pearce on the pedigree of Team Scutterbots To begin with, as its mobility was impaired right from the very start, it stayed out of the action completely until Supernova had immobilised the inexperienced Short Circuit and Spawn Again was approached by both Tiberius 3 and Supernova. Spawn Again managed to throw Tiberius 3 over, also managing to flip itself over in the process, however the 10th seed did manage to self-right. Supernova then attacked the sluggish Spawn Again, grinding it slowly to a halt. Luckily, just as Spawn Again stopped, Tiberius 3 was counted out by Refbot, and Spawn Again scraped through to the next round. "I'll tell you what, of the two, Supernova was by far the more impressive. Spawn Again, one launch of the flipper, that was about it!"

- Jonathan Pearce after Tiberius 3 was counted out.

In Spawn Again's second round battle it was up against Spam. Before the fight, major repairs were needed. Despite this, the team acted confident that they could beat Spam. "The chassis' been cut, re-welded, new bits put in it. There's been reinforcements put in, electrical problems, gearbox has been rebuilt. Bearings have been replaced, batteries have been replaced. And that's the only ones I can think of at the moment, but I'm sure there's more!"

- Darren Hayden-Ball on the repairs to Spawn Again The 10th seed was just as sluggish as it was in Round 1 and it also couldn't get its flipper to work at all and was only able to push Spam around if they drove up onto the flipper. Spam then activated the pit release button and began to nudge Spawn Again towards the pit, then, suddenly, Spawn Again's flipper fired. However, before Spawn Again could use it offensively, an out of control Spam drove straight into the pit of its own accord.

This put Spawn Again into the Heat Final where it went up against Supernova again. Once again, heavy repairs had to be made for the battle, as the motors were causing frequency interference, meaning the team had to switch from a starter motor to a lawnmower motor. Despite Spawn Again's success in previous wars and their seeding, Supernova went into the battle as favourite to win, as it had been more impressive on the way to the Heat Final. This time, the flipper and mobility of Spawn Again were both working properly and Spawn Again immediately flipped Supernova onto the angle grinders, hindering their mobility, Spawn Again then slammed Supernova into the arena wall, where the Sri Lankan robot finally came to a halt. "Spawn Again on top, and just when they needed it to, the flipper has found its form!"

- Jonathan Pearce as Spawn Again flips Supernova into the arena wall

Supernova was counted out by Refbot, putting Team Scutterbots through to the Series Semi-Finals for the fourth time in a row. "And though it seemed unlikely 5 or 6 minutes ago, Spawn Again will be making another series Semi-Final!"

- Jonathan Pearce as Supernova is counted out and flipped

Spawn Again still seemed to be suffering problems from the two encounters in the Semi-Finals and failed to make any impression on its Round 1 opponent Terrorhurtz, Spawn Again was constantly axed by the insane Terrorhurtz, and failed to take advantage when Terrorhurtz spun out of control. Eventually, Spawn Again was axed into submission and counted out. Spawn Again received further damage from Dead Metal, and was plucked up by Mr. Psycho, which eventually dropped Spawn Again into the pit. "Spawn Again simply never go going!"

- Jonathan Pearce as Spawn Again lies immobile

"It might run, but it might fall to bits! But, it's going against Hypno-Disc, so either way it's; we either trash it ourselves, or it gets trashed!"

- Darren Hayden-Ball before the Losers Melee

However, in the Losers Melee Spawn Again played a huge part in taking out favourite and the number 4 seeds Hypno-Disc by trapping it in the CPZ, making Hypno-Disc flail out of control and become immobilised. Spawn Again then almost flipped the number 2 seeds Bigger Brother out of the arena before its flipper jammed and its old problems seemed to set in again. Spawn Again stopped moving and Bigger Brother took advantage and pitted Spawn Again just as Hypno-Disc was fully counted out.

Extreme 2
"We've just brought it into the 21st century, but we won't find out how good it is until we get in there."

- Darren Hayden-Ball on the upgrades to Spawn Again

In the second series of Extreme, Spawn Again competed in the All-Stars tournament for reaching the Semi-Finals of Series 6. In the first round, it went up against Hypno-Disc and Dominator 2. It was seen as something of an underdog, due to its poor reliability rate throughout the Sixth Wars, but it held its own and was able to flip Hypno-Disc high into the air a few times during the fight. However, for a lot of the battle, Spawn Again stayed out of the main action as Dominator 2 and Hypno-Disc attacked each other, both moving at a rate too fast for Spawn Again. Eventually, Hypno-Disc was immobilised and was counted out by Refbot, but this didn't stop Spawn Again flipping the 3 times Grand Finalist over during the count. This meant that Spawn Again was through to the next round along with Dominator 2. In the second round, Spawn Again was up against former UK Champion Razer for the second time in a vengeance battle from the Series 5 Series Semi-finals.

Despite a valiant effort, Spawn Again sustained a lot of damage from the claw, however this damage proved not to hinder the robot too much until the end when Razer used the claw to hold the flipper down and to reach the wheels and differentials. Spawn Again activated and wedged itself on the pit, before firing its flipper as a last moment of defence. This caused Spawn Again to over-balance, fall into the pit and be eliminated from the competition.

Series 7
"It's basically the same design, but it's all new internally now, so it's new electronics, new batteries, new weapon, new weapon control, new mixer. But yeah, basically everything's new, and hopefully it'll all work!"

- Darren Hayden-Ball on the improvements to Spawn Again

Spawn Again returned for Series 7, this time seeded 6th as it was one of only 7 returning Semi-Finalists from the previous series. "People are going to need an "Arena Re-entry Device" from now on, because that's the only place people are going, it's outside the arena!"

- Luke Jackman's ironic comment before the round 1 battle

In the first round, Spawn Again was up against Chip, NEATer Machine and Revenge of Trouble & Strife. Spawn Again made a very impressive start to the battle by throwing Chip out of the arena in the opening seconds, quite a way from the arena wall. It then pursued Revenge of Trouble & Strife, nearly flipping it out of the arena several times, however both robots went through to Round 2 as NEATer Machine was already immobilised and counted out thanks to Revenge of Trouble & Strife's spinning disc.

"Throw them out of the arena! 10 seconds maximum!"

- Luke Jackman's tactics for fighting R.O.C.S.

In the second round battle for Spawn Again against R.O.C.S., the 6th seeds couldn't quite match their success in the opening battle but won the battle regardless when it flipped R.O.C.S. over several times, almost getting R.O.C.S. out of the arena. Eventually their self-righting mechanism ceased functioning properly, and R.O.C.S. was counted out and eliminated.

In its Heat Final, it was drawn against Raging Knightmare, a rematch from Series 4, where Spawn of Scutter beat Knightmare. "Same as always; flip them, flip them hard, and flip them out of the arena!"

- Confidence before the battle from Darren Hayden-Ball

The robot leapt quickly out of the traps before a small screw was seen flying out of the ram and the ram exploded spectacularly, sending CO2 gas everywhere. With no flipper and the ram hanging out the front of the robot Spawn Again dashed for the pit release but missed and got the end of the ram wedged underneath the arena wall leaving it as an open target for Raging Knightmare to attack. Raging Knightmare failed at getting its opponent out of the arena on the first attempt, leaving Spawn Again balancing on the arena wall, before being flipped out completely. This was the first time Spawn Again, and Team Scutterbots, had failed to reach the series semi finals. "Now, you can't sit there all day. That's better."

- Jonathan Pearce on Spawn Again being balanced on the arena wall from a flip from Raging Knightmare, then being flipped out completely.

Spawn Again was offered the opportunity to compete in the All-Stars tournament at the end of Series 7, as the team had competed in at least 5 series. Unfortunately, the damage taken in the Heat Final battle with Raging Knightmare was enough to keep it from competing. After many other eligible robots were also unable to compete, Dantomkia was used as a 'filler robot'.

US Season 1
Spawn Again represented the UK in the War of Independence Special in the first season of Extreme Warriors. Due to a faulty kill switch, Spawn Again didn't last long. The first tap from its opponent Joker was enough to shut it down, and take it out of the competition.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * UK Wins: 10
 * UK Losses: 7
 * US Wins: 0
 * US Losses: 1

Trivia

 * Spawn Again was one of eight competitors in The Seventh Wars that competed in at least 5 series of Robot Wars that were excluded from the All-Stars tournament at the end of the series for their own reasons.
 * Spawn Again is one of only nine robots to debut in Extreme 1 and to fight in one of the main competitions. The others were 3 Stegs to Heaven, Axe-Awe, Comengetorix, Fighting Torque, Fluffy, NEAT Machine, Sub-Version and The Executioner. It is also the only robot to debut in Extreme 1 to ever reach a Semi-Final.
 * Spawn Again is the only heat winner from Series 5 and 6 to never fight Firestorm.
 * Spawn Again fought a different vertical crusher wielding robot in every main series in which it competed.
 * "Spawn Again" is the title of a song by Australian band Silverchair that featured on the 1997 film Spawn.
 * Spawn Again's weakness according to its tech stats in Extreme Warriors Season 1 was referred to as having no self-righting mechanism despite the fact that it was armed with a flipper (though this could technically be true since it did not have a roll-cage at that time)
 * In every main series Spawn Again competed in, it was seeded.

Honours
Nominations
 * Best Engineered Award - Robot Wars: The Fifth Wars