Conquering Clown

Conquering Clown (also sometimes referred to as Killer Clown) was an American competitor robot that fought in both seasons of Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors. In Season 1, it was forced to withdraw from the US Championship due to technical problems, but reached the third round of the Annihilator before becoming immobilized and being pushed onto the Flame Pit by Drillzilla. As Conquering Clown 2, it reached the Grand Final of the Season 2 US Championship, losing to Destructive Criticism on a judges' decision.

Despite its solid performance in Season 2, Conquering Clown was known for its comical appearance, and was often described as a 'comedy entrant' by Stefan Frank. The Silvis Robotics team emphasized this by wearing rainbow tie-dye shirts and afro wigs throughout their appearances, and carrying a clown horn with them that could always be heard whenever they were onscreen. The team often clashed with Extreme Warriors host Mick Foley, due to the ex-pro wrestler's professed phobia of clowns. "I'd gotta be honest here, I don't like clowns, they scare me, I don't feel safe when you guys are around..."

- Mick Foley interviews Silvis Robotics in Season 2

Conquering Clown
Conquering Clown was a low wedged box-shaped robot with two outside wheels and a tall body section with the head and arms of a clown. The robot was painted blue, yellow and red to resemble a clown suit, and also had hammers on each of its arms as well as a pair of rear-mounted circular saws as its main weapons. Conquering Clown's 'head' bobbled around as the robot moved, and was topped with a rainbow afro wig that was flammable and often caught fire during its appearances in both seasons of Extreme Warriors.

Conquering Clown 2
Conquering Clown 2 featured a redesigned chassis with enclosed wheelguards and a new top body with narrower arms, although it kept the clown's head and rainbow afro. Its hammers and saws were also discarded, with a red lawnmower blade being added to the front wedge. The blade itself was made from solid steel and could reportedly spin at up to 10,000rpm, which would make it the fastest spinning weapon in Robot Wars if true. The team jokingly stated that Conquering Clown 2's 'secret weapon' was a little plastic butterfly attached to the body, which they claimed would 'bug' fellow competitors when they faced it in the arena.

From its Season 2 Heat Final onwards, the clown head was replaced with an 'Iron Mask', as the team did not have a spare head with them to replace the head that was destroyed by Sergeant Bash during its battle against Black Widow.

Despite its decidedly comical appearance and flammable head, as well as its fragile weapon and body, Conquering Clown 2 was notable for its maneuverability, durability and pushing power, which directly contributed towards its successful run in Season 2.

Season 1
Conquering Clown was initially scheduled to enter the US Championship, but last-minute technical difficulties forced it to forfeit its place to Tiger Cat.

However, it did take part in the Annihilator, fighting alongside Skullmania, Red Virus, Drillzilla, Rippa Raptor and Unibite. In the first round, it was bullied by Drillzilla, which pushed it into a CPZ, and got underneath to push it around the arena, eventually onto the flame pit where Conquering Clown narrowly avoided catching fire. Unibite and Rippa Raptor joined in attacking the clown, but it was Skullmania which fell first after suffering from a flat tire.

In the second round, Conquering Clown proved more aggressive than before, wedging underneath Red Virus and pushing it around the arena. Conquering Clown the met Unibite's disc head-on, and the force was enough to knock its wig off. Unibite then struck Conquering Clown at the rear, but became immobilised after Drillzilla slammed Unibite into Conquering Clown, allowing the clown to progress further. In celebration, Conquering Clown shoved Rippa Raptor into the arena wall.

In the third round, Conquering Clown was again targeted by Drillzilla, who pushed it all around the arena. Surprisingly though, Conquering Clown was able push back on Drillzilla and shove it into the wall a couple of times. This success was short-lived though, Drillzilla came back on the attack and pushed Conquering Clown into Shunt's CPZ. After enough pushing, Conquering Clown stopped moving, so it was pushed onto the flame pit, where the flames burned its wig and melted off its face. Only after it was counted out, and its head was completely burned up, did Refbot finally extinguish the blaze.

Season 2
"It started out as a car starter, and now it's a robot stopper!"

- Silvis Robotics explains Conquering Clown 2's spinning blade to Carol Grow

A redesigned Conquering Clown 2 returned for Season 2, competing exclusively in the US Championship. It fought in Heat C, and faced Brute and Sir Force A Lot in its first round battle. Conquering Clown 2 started tentatively, but its spinning blade immediately tore part of Sir Force A Lot's side panel off after the latter attempted to push it. Even so, both Sir Force A Lot and Brute retaliated by bashing Conquering Clown 2 with their spinners, with Sir Force A Lot shoving, ramming and inflicting more blows on Conquering Clown 2, which eventually bent its blade out of shape. With its weapon damaged, Conquering Clown 2 then attempted to ram Sir Force A Lot and Brute in rapid succession, before driving into Refbot and pushing Sir Force A Lot into the CPZ, leaving it vulnerable to a few axe blows from Shunt. Sir Force-A-Lot escaped, but Conquering Clown 2 drove it back into the CPZ as time ran out, and went through to the second round on a judges' decision along with Brute. "Well, you know what, as long as you don't go up in smoke, I think you'll be just fine!"

- Carol Grow's ironic prediction just before Conquering Clown 2's battle with Black Widow

There, Conquering Clown 2 faced Black Widow. Both robots began by spinning and dodging each other around the middle of the arena, before Black Widow slammed into Conquering Clown 2's blade, sending sparks flying and causing the two machines to become stuck to each other. Conquering Clown 2 pushed Black Widow around before both robots separated with assistance from Sir Killalot, only to get underneath Black Widow again and push it into the wall and an empty CPZ. There, Sergeant Bash intervened by setting Conquering Clown 2's head alight, causing it to melt away as Black Widow pushed it around the arena. "The Conquering Clown has been conquered, but not by who you thought! Black Widow was just an innocent bystander, as Bash came in there and torched him."

- Stefan Frank after Conquering Clown 2's head is torched Conquering Clown 2 responded by ramming Black Widow into the Disc of Doom button and the wall in rapid succession. It was then slammed side-on by Sergeant Bash, before Sir Killalot grabbed and lifted it by the lawnmower blade. Conquering Clown 2 sped away once Sir Killalot let go of it, losing more of its body in the process, before following, getting under and pushing Black Widow around the arena, even rolling it back upright at one point. The two robots continued to ram each other until 'cease' was called, and the battle went to a judges' decision, which went unanimously in favor of Conquering Clown 2. In the Heat Final, Conquering Clown 2 faced Unibite 2.0, fitted with its 'Iron Mask' after the team did not have a spare head to replace the one burnt by Sergeant Bash. It dodged Unibite 2.0's disk in the opening seconds before getting hit from the side, although not without getting under Unibite 2.0 and briefly pushing it around. Conquering Clown 2 glanced off Unibite 2.0's disk before attacking it with its blade, causing sparks to fly as it turned round and Unibite 2.0 hit its right-hand wheel. This appeared to immobilize Conquering Clown 2 on one side, with the wheelguard buckled and causing the right-hand wheel to lock up. Both robots continued to bump and hit each other with their spinning weapons until Unibite 2.0 suddenly lost mobility completely, and was counted out by Refbot before being thrown by the Floor Flipper and being placed on the Drop Zone. This allowed Conquering Clown 2 to emerge as the surprise winner of Heat C, and secure its place in the Grand Final. "In fact, these first two battles have been very militaristic except... I have no idea what army the Clown belongs to."

- Stefan Frank summarizes the first rounds of the Grand Final as Conquering Clown 2 and Destructive Criticism fight each other

In the Grand Final, Conquering Clown faced Destructive Criticism in the first round. Both robots began tentatively, before ramming and exchanging blows with their spinning weapons. In doing so, Conquering Clown 2 knocked off Destructive Criticism's emblem, and briefly got underneath it a few times while Destructive Criticism hit its wheelguards and left a sizeable gash in its back panel. Conquering Clown 2 eventually lost its mask and one of its pompoms as it was battered by Destructive Criticism's disk, and its head caught fire again as it spun in circles over the Flame Pit. It was rammed by Destructive Criticism once more before Sir Killalot caught and steered it into the CPZ, then over a CO2 jet just as 'cease' was called. The judges were called to make a decision, which went against Conquering Clown 2, eliminating it from the US Championship.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 5
 * Losses: 2

Outside Robot Wars
The original Conquering Clown also competed in BattleBots under the name Garry Gizzmo. It had a different figure on top of the robot and entered solely in BattleBots Season 3.0, beating Velocity 1 then losing to the clusterbot Pack Raptors. A lighter Conquering Clown 2 was also entered in several events by the team, going by Anorexic Clown.

Trivia
"'Conquering Clown' was another 'fragilebot', with a team that wandered thru [sic] the pits in full clown regalia honking bicycle horns. I suspect that they were just trying to get into the spirit, but they didn't make any friends amongst the underslept Roboteers."
 * Conquering Clown's team would constantly honk their horns during interviews, and were often given grief by Mick Foley, who claimed to hate clowns.

- Mark Joerger of Run Away on Conquering Clown.