The Alien


 * For the Series 3 Robotic Soccer Competitor, see Alien

"The Alien has landed!"

- Craig Charles

The Alien was a two-wheeled, box-wedge shaped robot with tank steering, a vertical spinning 7-12kg hammer with two 1.5kg lump hammers at the tips and top-mounted self-righting mechanism capable of lifting 150kg. The hammer was capable of flipping an opponent over on a successful charge, spinning at 1000-1300RPM and was powered by a Sinclair C5 motor. It was armoured in 12mm polycarbonate from old phone box panels and by using steel tubing from an old work bench and kart parts, but had pneumatic tyres.

Despite the destruction it could inflict, The Alien did not achieve a great level of success in the three series it competed in, only reaching Round 2 in its first two wars, being defeated by superior opponents and mechanical failures alike.

The team also entered a featherweight in Series 7 called Alienator, which lost in the heats.

Series 5
The Alien began its Robot Wars career very impressively as it only took one blow from the spinning hammer to immobilise veterans Velocirippa, before the House Robots closed in and pitted the fallen machine.

In the second round, it faced Prizephita Mach 2, another machine that had previously lost in the first round. After several unsuccessful attempts at attacking, Prizephita managed to get underneath and flip over The Alien, who tried to self-right but it was flipped in a way where the self-righting mechanism pinned in off the ground. Despite the hammer still working, it was counted out by Refbot, much to the dismay of Sarah Asplin, but then righted itself with assistance from Shunt. The Alien did manage to hit Shunt with its spinning weapon but was still ruled out of the competition.

Series 6
The Alien's first battle in Series 6 was against former Semi-Finalists GBH 2, the very experienced Sir Chromalot and newcomers ICU. In a very eventful bout, The Alien used its weaponry to bend the front panel of ICU straight away, sending several of its decorative eyes scattering across the arena, and consistently flip over Sir Chromalot and GBH 2. It did enough damage to GBH 2 to send it out of the competition on a controversial judges decision, despite the former Semi-Finalist looking impressive with its flipper weaponry and Sir Chromalot being pinned against the arena wall, the latter went through regardless.

In Round 2, The Alien was drawn against Shredder, which was already badly damaged from its previous battle. The Alien started stronger, hitting Shredder with its spinning weapon, but by the end of the battle both robots' spinning weapons had stopped working so both robots mostly resorted to pushing each other into Shunt's CPZ, and the battle eventually ended in a tight judges decision. This time, The Alien was eliminated from the competition.

Series 7
The Alien was drawn against newcomers to the main competition; Lightning and Herbinator alongside the 7th seeds 13 Black. The Alien started promisingly, attacking the seeds with their hammer repeatedly. Eventually, 13 Black started smoking and one of its discs stopped spinning, but The Alien's attacks on 13 Black had caused the safety link to fall out, immobilising it completely. The Alien was thrown by the floor flipper before being pushed onto the Drop Zone where an ocean buoy fell on top of it. Unlike Tomahawk (from the previous heat), The Alien held firm, but it was still out of the competition in the first round.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 2
 * Losses: 3

Series Record

 * Series 1-4: Did not enter
 * Series 5: Heat, Round 2
 * Series 6: Heat, Round 2
 * Series 7: Heat, Round 1

Outside Robot Wars
Like many other Robot Wars Competitors, Team Desert Storm also entered Techno Games 2003, where they entered a weaponless and red version of The Alien called Brutal Beetle, which was beaten by Typhoon Rover in the Assault Course. They also teamed up with The Stag (under the name BeetleBot) for the football, but lost in the first round.