La Machine

"Undisputed World champion of two years before losing its ground to an even meaner killer machine."

- Jonathan Pearce's brief overview on La Machine

La Machine was a wedged robot that competed in the latter three Robot Wars US tournaments. Commonly hailed as the pioneer of the wedge. It appeared in the 1995 US Open fighting alongside its fellow Americans in various battles which was broadcast, through a series of montages, as part of the British Robot Wars, included in Heat D of Series 1, and the VHS release of Robot Wars: The First Great War.

Design
La Machine's design was inspired by the visual of a jetskier going over a ramp and getting flung into the air, only with the roles reversed - the ramp would charge at the target to create the same effect. For its time, La Machine was exceptionally fast. It easily scooped up other robots and rammed them against the wall, the impact usually flipping them over and ending their chances - few robots had a contingency for being turned over. La Machine's weight made it a middleweight but was effective against most heavyweights.

Series 1
"The UK robots were severely punished by their American cousins"

- Craig Charles

La Machine was one of three US Robot Wars competitors, along with Thor and The Master, to be invited to compete in the 1995 UK Open Competition. It fought in numerous battles alongside its fellow American compatriots, as well as future Stock Robots Grunt and Eubank the Mouse, with considerable success. La Machine was even capable in ramming Grunt out of the arena during one battle. "British triumphs were few and far between, this is America's La Machine, celebrating another victory over the Brits"

- Craig Charles

La Machine and The Master teamed up in a football competition, where they easily beat Eubank the Mouse and Grunt before turning on each other with La Machine ramming The Master about and even toppling the goalposts.

Various clips of these battles were shown in the First Great War video release, while The Master's battle with Thor was also televised as part of the first British series of Robot Wars.

Many of La Machine's fights from the 1996 championship were shown during the First Wars Heat D in particular the 1996 Rumble between The Master, Vlad the Impaler, BioHazard and DooMore. In the battle, La Machine rams Vlad the Impaler into the side wall, getting underneath it before BioHazard intercepts and lifts Vlad the Impaler, failing to topple it. La Machine bulldozed The Master at some point causing the entire saw blade arm to fall off and dart across the arena. La Machine even rammed DooMore forcefully out of the arena before winning the rumble. "The ultimate winner here, La Machine, dumping that one (DooMore) over the edge."

- Jonathan Pierce on La Machine's victory in the rumble

Outside Robot Wars
La Machine won the 1995 middleweight tournament, and finished second in the 1996 and 1997 heavyweight divisions, falling to BioHazard both times. It did however remain undefeated in rumbles, winning both the middle and heavyweight rumbles in 1995, then winning the 1996 Heavyweight one.

Gage Cauchois split from the team to build his own robot, Vlad the Impaler, while Trey Roski and Greg Munson went on to found and run BattleBots. Trey and Greg also built Ginsu. Consequentially, La Machine's only BattleBots appearance was an exhibition match against Jay Leno's Chinkilla, Team Coolrobots' Dreadnought and Ginsu in Season 3.0.

La Machine also appeared at the Long Beach event in 1999, where it went armorless and was used as the "camerabot" seen in many of the fights.

Trivia

 * La Machine was featured heavily during the Battlebots 2018 Season as last competitor listed of the 56 robots, leading to speculation and rumour to its return. However this was due to the real 56th robot being unable to compete.
 * La Machine even appeared in the official Battlebots colouring book.