Disc-O-Inferno

"Plenty of electric power to shake the body down! It can strut its funky stuff upside-down, the Hypno-Disc style blades will give plenty of Saturday Night Fever, but beware, Matilda wants the slow dance at the end!"

- Jonathan Pearce introduces Disc-O-Inferno in Series 4

Disc-O-Inferno was a robot which competed in Series 4, 6, 7 and Extreme Series 1 of Robot Wars. The team originally met at the University of York, which is where the robot was credited as coming from in Series 4, though it was credited as coming from Cambridge in all subsequent appearance. "Two graduates in computer science and a psychology graduate."

- Jonathan Pearce on the Disc-O-Inferno team in Series 4

Its greatest achievement was winning the second Annihilator in Extreme 1. It also reached its Heat Final in Series 6, but lost in Round 1 in both its first and last appearances.

The robot's name was a pun on the 1976 song by The Trammps, Disco Inferno.

Design
Disc-O-Inferno's weapon was a horizontal 30 kg (15 kg in its debut) solid aluminium spinning disc, initially spinning at 700-750RPM, but upgraded to spin at 1000RPM in Series 6 and 3000RPM in Extreme with two 6' blades on the sides and run on 4HP. It was box-shaped in Series 4 and Extreme 1, but took on a Fluffy-esque diamond shape from Series 6 onwards, and was fitted with disco-like lights at the back of the machine. It could also run inverted, the motors ran through motorcycle chains giving it speeds of up to 30 mph (20 mph in its final appearance) and was armoured in polycarbonate. In Series 7, the sides of the wheels were coloured green.

When it could get its disc working, it had the potential to cause major damage, but the robot had a 5 cm ground clearance and the weapon was very unreliable; most of its battles were lost due to it breaking down.

Qualification
Disc-O-Inferno formed an alliance with Sabretooth in order to win its qualifier for Series 7. Sabretooth defeated Hannibal, and Disc-O-Inferno immobilised Hassocks Hog 2, eventually going on to win the qualifier itself.

Series 4
Disc-O-Inferno made its début against fellow newcomers Major Tom and the 25th seed Shadow of Napalm. Disc-O-Inferno started strongly by repeatedly attacking Shadow Of Napalm and causing minor dents in the armour, and the team looked to have done enough damage to go through but after running into Shadow of Napalm, but a loose wire next to the antenna moved forward and short-circuited the electronics meaning the robot turned itself off, knocking Disc-O-Inferno out completely. The immobile machine was placed onto the Arena floor flipper by Dead Metal and thrown out of the competition. "And when the lights come down at the end of the disco, you know who's waiting - Matilda, for a snog!"

- Jonathan Pearce as Disc-O-Inferno is flipped

The team later entered the Celebrity Special where Disc-O-Inferno was put under the control of Boyband Five. It fought Sir Chromalot in Round One. The battle began with a lot of pushing and shoving until they neared the flame pit, despite Disc-O-Inferno's opponent's additional decorations being set alight, Disc-O-Inferno broke down on the flame pit and was placed on the Arena floor flipper by Dead Metal. Disc-O-Inferno was flung into Sir Chromalot before eventually being pitted, eliminating Disc-O-Inferno from the competition.

Extreme 1
Before their Mayhem battle against Velocirippa and Comengetorix, the Disc-O-Inferno team admitted they did not wish to compete in the following UK championships. This did not show in the actual battle, as Disc-O-Inferno's 30 kg flywheel caused severe damage to Comengetorix before immobilising it. It then turned on Velocirippa, tearing its side panel away, then off completely. With both immobilised, the House Robots closed in and finished it off, putting Disc-O-Inferno through to the annihilator.

Disc-O-Inferno went into the Annihilator as one of the favourites after its mayhem performance. In the Annihilator it would meet Napalm 2, Spirit of Knightmare, Panic Attack, The Steel Avenger and Fighting Torque (under the guise of Hippobotamus). In Round 1 of the Annihilator Disc-O-Inferno tore part of the armour off Napalm then stayed out of the fight for most of the battle, tearing a bit of armour off of Panic Attack, then staying out of the fray once again. After that it tore off the plastic covering of Fighting Torque, immobilising it. "Is Fighting Torque still mobile? Oh, I dont think so now! What's happened to the hippo?"

- Jonathan Pearce as Disc-O-Inferno sliced the side of Fighting Torque

It was then attacked by Panic Attack and pushed into Matilda's 27 kg flywheel by Spirit of Knightmare which seemed to immobilise Disc-O-Inferno. Luckily, Fighting Torque was counted out first, putting Disc-O-Inferno through to the next round.

Napalm couldn't continue as it had problems, so it was eliminated from the annihilator and it went to Round 3. At the start of Round 3, Disc-O-Inferno stayed out of the battle once again while Panic Attack lifted The Steel Avenger against the side wall, which then self-righted and escaped. Panic Attack attacked Disc-O-Inferno and the Steel Avenger then tried to axe the flywheel robot but missed every time. Disc-O-Inferno then stayed away for the rest of the fight, trying to damage Spirit of Knightmare but having no effect. Afterwards Spirit of Knightmare flipped The Steel Avenger which couldn't self-right and was counted out by the Refbot. Prior to the final, it was revealed that Panic Attack was too damaged and couldn't be repaired in time for the battle so was eliminated and Disc-O-Inferno was through to the Annihilator Final. In the Final, Disc-O-Inferno shredded bits off Spirit of Knightmare, buckling and bending the flipper, then bending the back panel in on itself. "Described as a "refined wedge", Spirit of Knightmare. There is no refinement in Disc-O-Inferno's attacks!"

- Jonathan Pearce

Spirit of Knightmare stopped moving, but Disc-O-Inferno continued to attack its beaten opponent. As Spirit of Knightmare was counted out, Disc-O-Inferno landed more celebratory hits, rebounding off the Refbot, having just become the Annihilator champion. "Slice and dice time, backing away to come crunching forward on another assault"

- Jonathan Pearce on Disc-O-Inferno's attack on Spirit of Knightmare

Series 6
"Yes, ready to dance, but will it be an early cha-cha or ta-ta?"

- Jonathan Pearce as Disc-O-Inferno enters the Arena

Disc-O-Inferno met Behemoth, Tridentate and Derek 2 in Round 1. At the start of the battle, Disc-O-Inferno stayed away from the action to get its 3000rpm disc up to speed, Derek 2 landed on top of it from a Behemoth flip right afterwards, and Disc-O-Inferno damaged Derek and Tridentate. It then attacked Behemoth, immobilising it on one side, and pushing it onto the flame pit. It also immobilised Tridentate by ripping off its side guards. It then unhinged Behemoth's scoop and fully immobilised the robot, leaving Disc-O-Inferno as the only robot left standing, while the others were pitted. This allowed Disc-O-Inferno to progress to Round 2, where it faced Killer Carrot 2.

Disc-O-Inferno tore off Killer Carrot 2's front panels, before damaging its opponent's wheels. It was lifted up by the Killer Carrot, but landed back on its wheels before proceeding to damage its side armour and one of its wheels, almost tearing it clean off. It then proceeded to tear more pieces of Killer Carrot but drove over a flame vent, this caused the disc robot to have control problems and started smoking. "What's Disc-O-Inferno doing? Spinning in the disco lights? What are they doing? Showing off I would think - or just heating up that blade for extra purchase."

- Jonathan Pearce

Meanwhile Killer Carrot's damaged wheel was causing it problems and was shoved into a CPZ by Shunt. Fortunately, Disc-O-Inferno started moving again and cease was called. It won the resulting judges' decision. This meant Disc-O-Inferno faced Bigger Brother in the Heat Final. "Service with a smile!"

- Jonathan Pearce

The Heat Final started with Disc-O-Inferno driving away from Bigger Brother, trying to stay away but ended up almost driving into Sir Killalot and while trying to escape got stuck onto the arena sidewall. Disc-O-Inferno then was stuck between Bigger Brother and Sir Killalot, who went on the attack, pushing the robot into the middle of the arena. Disc-O-Inferno was then flipped repeatedly by Bigger Brother who got underneath Disc-O-Inferno's 5 cm ground clearance, and pushed it into the angle grinders, then flipping it into the pit button. After that, Disc-O-Inferno's weaponry had stopped working, so it drove straight into the pit.

Series 7
"A Heat Finalist in the Sixth Wars and back to dance again."

- Jonathan Pearce introduces Disc-O-Inferno to the Seventh Wars

An unchanged Disc-O-Inferno machine was placed in Heat M of the Seventh Wars main competition. It was drawn up against Dutch entrants Tough as Nails, New-Blood competitors B.O.D. and Tag-Team winners Robochicken in its first round battle. In the battle, Disc-O-Inferno started off by staying away as Tough as Nails activated the pit release button, then once the disc was up to speed, Disc-O-Inferno was immediately seized by Tough as Nails. Tough as Nails brought Disc-O-Inferno over to the pit, it passed B.O.D. and sliced a panel off them, but Tough as Nails hung it over the pit of oblivion and eventually dropped it down, eliminating Disc-O-Inferno from the competition at such an early stage. Tough as Nails, by the end of the battle, had pitted all three of its opponents, and although B.O.D. was the last one of the three in the pit, Robochicken was deemed to be mobile the longest of them, so the latter went through to the next round along with Tough as Nails. "...and the disco didn't last long did it?"

- Jonathan Pearce after Disc-O-Inferno is pitted

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 6
 * Losses: 4

The second and fourth rounds of the annihilator, skipped because Napalm and Panic Attack withdrew from damage, are omitted from the wins tally.

Trivia
"Its creators claim that DI was actually the first spinning disc type weapon - but Hypno-Disc built their machine faster. It would be great to see the two spinners against each other!"
 * According to Issue 6 of the original Robot Wars Magazine, Disco-O-Inferno's team claimed that it was the first robot to be equipped with a horizontal flywheel, but it was not finished in time for Series 3.

- The original Robot Wars Magazine on Disc-O-Inferno