User blog comment:RA2/Series 7 Rankdown/@comment-25109076-20191207003220

18. Pussycat - I'd comfortably call Pussycat the fourth, possibly even fifth, strongest robot of the 8 all-stars robots we got, it simply had a very easy route to the final and looked well on course to lose the final until a snipe against Dantomkia. It also did little in its melee compared to Roobarb, and I'd be tempted to say that it only got through ahead of Twister because it was such a popular machine. Its fight against M2 was closer than it looked, but Pussycat just couldn't quite do enough to get off the bottom.

17. Big Nipper - While it perhaps should have won the heat final with a good display, I think it lost its little duel with The Grim Reaper in round 1 comfortably anyway, cancelling that out, whilst Jackson Wallop could do literally nothing to it, giving Big Nipper perhaps the easiest Round 2 draw it could have gotten in the whole series. There's honestly little else I can say of Big Nipper in this series.

16. Spawn Again - Had a brilliant round 1 performance, but it should have been capable of finishing off R.O.C.S. sooner than it did, although thank goodness it didn't, I really enjoyed that fight. The explosion is a freak thing, but at the end of the day, it showed that Spawn Again still had to have something go wrong with it, just like in every series before that bar Extreme 2.

15. Bigger Brother - As unlucky as it got in defeat at the hands of Iron-Awe 2.1, and as unjudgeable as that All-Stars melee is, I still would back the majority of the Series 7 Semi-Finalist flippers against Bigger Brother, and that is why it falls so low on my list.

14. Bulldog Breed - Had a really poor performance in its heat. Mantis overshadowed it in round 1, its failure to flip an immobile Hard out was pretty embarrassing considering what we saw of it in the Tag Team Terror of extreme 2 against Pussycat, and it couldn't finish off Kat 3. Had a fantastic display against Tough as Nails, but even that was still a close fight, before its decimation at the hands of X-Terminator in my favourite fight of the classic era.

13. M2 - M2 had an amazing first round melee, before having a fight with Pussycat closer than you might originally think. Despite being in major peril in its heat final it recovered well against Tiberius 3, but it got completely dominated by Atomic, only achieving one string of three flips while Atomic got many, many, many more. Ahead of Bulldog Breed because I think it'd just about edge it Head-to-Head.

12. The Grim Reaper wasn't the KO killer its name suggests, but hat's what happens when five of your six opponents in the series are invertible and reliable. The Grim Reaper was fast, well driven and incredibly resilient and I think it would have been more than a match for plenty of other heat finalists and semi-finalists. I'd say it definitely got the better of Big Nipper in Round 1, showed some clever control against Gyrobot and edged a close heat final which could have gone either way against Big Nipper. Few robots fared as well against the Storm 2 onslaught as The Grim Reaper either, and I believe it's earnt its place in the Top 12.

11. Tough as Nails - It might have been beaten by Bulldog Breed, who is below it by a few places, but its trump card is that it comfortably handled Gravity, and had one of the best Round 1 performances of any robot ever in a melee environment. Can't imagine how high it would go if it had faced Typhoon 2 in the Third World Championship, who I'm sure Tough as Nails could have beaten. Guess we'll never know now.

10. Dantomkia - Cruised through its heat with lots of control and aggression to boot, but losing so quickly against Gravity counts against it badly. Its OotA against Behemoth in the All-Stars is one of the most controlled, thought out attacks I've ever seen on Robot Wars, and it was even able to take on two House Robots simultaneously, but the manner of the loss to Pussycat prevents it from finishing higher.

9. Ripper - Ripper has rubbish armour, but the flipper was powerful, and it was the star of the Annihilator up until the final round, disposing of Robochicken, Ewe 2 and Raging Knightmare tremendously alongside its quick KOs of Zorro and Daisy Cutter. Losing to Firestorm 5 is nothing to be upset about, this is a robot which didn't lose to a single flipper after its loss to Chaos 2 in Series 3. While Ripper's loss to Kan-Opener hinted at a reliability problem, I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt due to being completely fine in its previous 6 fights. I've put it above Dantomkia simply because of their Live Event clash about a year later, where the two robots were virtually unchanged from their Series 7 guise, so I see little reason as to why happened there wouldn't happen here too.

8. Atomic - People might be surprised to see me put Atomic so low, but one of the reasons why I've done so is it because it had one of the easiest heats of any semi-finalist in Series 7. Terror Turtle, Cygnus X-1, S.M.I.D.S.Y. and Hellbent are robots the Series 5 version of Atomic could have beaten. It performed very well against M2, but wasn't challenged enough for it to be an amazing display, and while people argue it could have beaten Typhoon 2, the fact of the matter is that it didn't, because of poor control on its part, too eager to finish the job early, and then the flipper malfunctioned of its own accord, not because of a Typhoon 2 attack.

7. X-Terminator - Had the best performance of the four Grand Finalists in the Semi-Finals, destroying St. Agro and Bulldog Breed having already done the damage to the likes of Diabolus and Killer Carrot 2, but you could say it was lucky to even reach that stage. Tsunami had it beat, and there was nothing X-Terminator could have done to escape its predicament...

6. Tsunami - … hence I've put Tsunami above it. This robot was Grand Finalist material, and one tactical blunder cost it that place, as I have no doubt lt would have beaten both St. Agro and Bulldog Breed with ease. Could it have beaten Typhoon 2? Who knows, but once it righted X-Terminator it took a hell of a beating, didn't it?

5. Gravity - made one of the best first impressions to the UK scene ever. It's not like it was in a heat of slouches; Hydra, 13 Black and Lightning are all good robots in their own right, and Dantomkia was an even better one to beat in the Semi-Finals. Had it timed an attack right, Gravity may well have taken out reigning champions Tornado too. Alas, it was not to be, and I can't quite put it any higher due to the way Tough as Nails completely dominated it in the World championship Qualifier and the OHKO Mr. Psycho landed on it in the House Robot Rebellion that showcased its fragility. Above Tsunami due to the quality of opposition it had to beat in its heat, would have loved to seen the two of them fight.

4. Firestorm 5 - Didn't put a foot wrong in its first four fights. Had a faultless heat performance, but could do nothing against Storm 2. The near unjudgeable All-Stars melee loss only really dents it because Firestorm 5 was so clearly the best robot of the 8, and should have won the competition.

3. Tornado - just kept on going, only having a brief worry against Leveller 2 in its heat, and only getting a scare once again when it faced Gravity, but Tornado held its ground and finished the job. Performed reasonably well twice against Storm 2, outwedging it several times, although it was clear Storm 2 was better.

2. Typhoon 2 - Round 1 was an unfortunate battle for Typhoon 2, with its weapon seemingly not working, but it was merciless in its next three fights, had a little bit of luck against Atomic and then destroyed the second best spinner in the competition X-Terminator without breaking a sweat. I do believe it still should have lost the title fight, but it's hardly the most controversial decision of all time, I can see the reasons for why it was given the championship instead of Storm 2.

1. Storm 2 - Didn't appear to have any troubles against any of its opponents up until Typhoon 2. Supernova, Trax and The Steel Avenger were all brushed aside, it never looked like it was going to lose to The Grim Reaper, and it outclassed Firestorm 5 in a way no machine other than Razer has really done so. Beat previous champions Tornado twice, and let's not forget the way it outpushed Tough as Nails either, that was just brutal. Probably should have won the judges' decision against Typhoon 2, but far, far worse calls have been made in the past. Ahead of Typhoon 2 due to showing no vulnerabilities up until the title fight and after it should have already been given the victory in the final of the Third World Championship against Supernova.