Typhoon 2

Typhoon 2 was a robot that competed in the British television game show Robot Wars. It was a full-body spinning robot described as a UFV (Unmanned Fighting Vehicle) with four cutting blades capable of shattering the arena wall, which it did on two separate occasions. The robot competed in and won the seventh series of Robot Wars after failing to qualify for the previous war. Typhoon 2 did appear in an episode of Extreme 2, where the robot was 8kg lighter, and used electric motors, but it crashed out in the first round of the Annihilator.

Typhoon 2 was created by cadets from the Air Training Corps and painted to resemble the RAF crest to interest young people in engineering. The team also competed in many of the other weight categories with various other robots of the same design, basically a rotating cone with a heavy steel outer ring and four claw-hammer cutters on the sides, devastatingly powerful at gyroscopic speeds. The robot also featured duplex systems based on the principle of most modern aircraft, that the four wheels which were independently driven by four motors were split into two each so if the machine lost drive to one side, it would still be able to fight. However, the robot was unstable when spinning at low speeds and could topple easily. Strangely, on the robot's controller, there was a self-destruct button where, should the robot become immobilised, it would be used "to stop their technology falling into enemy hands", though its true purpose was a trigger for a series of small pyrotechnics intended for theatrical effect. Another strange thing was that in every fight bar its Grand Final eliminator, there was at least one robot with either a flipper or lifter against it.

"There wasn't a srimech in Typhoon 2. We looked at putting one in and had a number of ideas including car air bags or a giant ring on top however at the end of the day we decided not to bother as they would take away from the look of the machine."

- Gary Cairns

Extreme 2
"...planning to whip up a storm with this, or self-destruct"

- Jonathan Pearce on Typhoon 2

For its debut Robot Wars appearance, Typhoon 2 exclusively competed in the Annihilator in the second series of Extreme, where it was placed up against Revenge of Trouble & Strife, Thermidor 2, Raging Reality, Kan-Opener and Major Tom. No sign of its future promise or the success of its predecessors was evident in the first round. In this battle, Typhoon 2 spun up to speed, but its first blow skewered it on the claws on Kan-Opener, stopping the spinner completely. It was unable to start spinning again, and before it could retreat to make a run, Raging Reality came in and flipped Typhoon 2 over onto its back, where it was unable to self-right. Typhoon 2 was eventually counted out, and eliminated from the competition. "Will we see the self-destruct button?"

- Jonathan Pearce after Typhoon 2 was flipped by Raging Reality

Series 7
The eventual champion was almost eliminated in its very first fight with 4th seeds Bigger Brother, veterans Colossus and newcomers U.R.O.. In this battle, it did very little whilst Colossus was flipped over by Bigger Brother and U.R.O. broke down. Typhoon 2 wasn't spinning properly and was eventually flipped over by Bigger Brother as well, but caught a lucky break as Colossus and U.R.O. were immobile first. In the second round Typhoon 2 came up against the Dutch Hammerhead 2. It instantly ran away to get the disc up to speed. It began to strike Hammerhead until it lost drive on one side. The side panels started being ripped off until Hammerhead completely broke down and was counted out. The Heat Final against Iron-Awe 2.1 was done in similar fashion. Typhoon ran away to start spinning. It was almost at full speed which caused Iron-Awe to spin violently each time it was hit. The flipper was buckled and Iron-Awe hit the wall after one of Typhoon's strikes where it broke down.

"It's taken over the mantle of Hypno-Disc..."

- Craig Charles after Typhoon 2's Heat Final victory

The first round of the Semi-Final was fairly easy for Typhoon 2, as it took just one strike to knock 14th seeds Thermidor 2 (one of the machines present in Typhoon 2's annihilator loss) out. In the second round it once again ran away to get up to full spinning speed, but Atomic instantly came in and attempted to flip it. However, on its second flipping attempt it got the flipper caught on the angle grinders and flipped itself over. Instead of self-righting, the flipper stayed stuck open and it started venting CO2 gas. By this point Typhoon 2 was spinning so quickly that a whirring sound could be heard coming from it. After a few spectacular strikes Atomic completely broke down and Typhoon 2 was through to the Grand Final.

Typhoon 2 met its first non-flipper robot in a 1 on 1 match in the Grand Final; the 11th seeds X-Terminator. It too had a spinning weapon but its height and low speed meant it couldn't catch or strike Typhoon 2. After a few strikes, X-Terminator's drive-train for the flywheel was knocked loose, leaving it with no weaponry. However, Typhoon 2 hit the arena wall, destroying it, so cease was called. The judges said that Typhoon 2 was potentially the most dangerous robot in Robot Wars, as no other had ever destroyed the wall with a spinning weapon at such a high power. The bout was restarted and X-Terminator was knocked out in one strike, so Typhoon 2 progressed through to the Final. What followed was arguably the most controversial fight of Robot Wars against New Blood champions Storm 2. The 16th seed charged straight at Typhoon 2 but missed, it then simply bounced away after the first strike with no damage. Typhoon 2 ran away until it hit the arena wall and stopped spinning. Storm 2 then came in and attempted to flip Typhoon 2. Typhoon 2 got away and struggled to get up to speed, so Storm 2 came once again and attempted to flip it. Typhoon 2 escaped once more and got up to speed. It then hit the wall and knocked another panel out, so cease was called again. The arena wall was fixed and the battle started again. Storm 2 was able to attack Typhoon 2 even when it was spinning at full speed without sustaining any damage. It pushed Typhoon 2 into Matilda's CPZ and attempted to flip it again. Typhoon 2 was pushed across the arena where one of the blades caught on the pit panel and gave it an opportunity to escape. It got up to full spinning speed again and was nearly pushed into the pit. Storm 2 started slowing down and Typhoon 2 stopped spinning. Storm 2 started slamming Typhoon 2 into the wall, where a panel at the front came off just moments before cease was called. The judges said that control and aggression was won by Storm 2, and that style and damage was won by Typhoon 2. But since damage carries the most points, the win, and the Championship Title, was awarded to Typhoon 2.

As the new UK champion, Typhoon 2 was due to enter The Third World Championship and fight Tough As Nails and Rawbot in its first battle. However, the team had run out of batteries (although Pearce claimed the robot was having "technical difficulties"), having used their last ones for their Middleweight robot to defend its title in the Middleweight Championship. Because of this, Typhoon 2 was forced to withdraw and the other two robots were left to fight alone.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 7
 * Losses: 1

Series Record

 * Series 1-5: Did not enter
 * Series 6: Failed to qualify
 * Series 7: Grand Champion

Outside Robot Wars
Typhoon 2 also competed at international level for a while, in the Heavyweight Division of the American combat tournament RoboGames in 2005. Although it lost its first round battle against SJ (SlamJob from BattleBots), it progressed through the losers bracket, getting revenge on SJ in the process, before facing defending champion Megabyte in the Bracket Final. Although Typhoon 2 won, it sustained severe damage which was not repairable in time for the Grand Final where it was due to fight Sewer Snake. As a result, it withdrew and won the silver medal overall.

Typhoon 2 was retired from combat altogether shortly after this. As of 2012, Typhoon 2 was being rebuilt to repair the damage sustained at RoboGames.

Trivia

 * Typhoon 2 is one of seven robots to smash the arena wall, and one of two full-body spinners to destroy it.
 * Typhoon 2 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 Tough As Nails.