User blog:Anderson9132/Favourite/Least favourite US Robots

As you may already know, I have already put up a list of my favourite and least favourite robots of all time. One thing you may have noticed about those lists is that I failed to list any robots from the international competitions.

Was there a reason for this? Not really, I either forgot or just don;t think they are as good as the UK machines (sorry to all Americans everywhere). However, I have decided it would be unfair not to list my favourite robots from other competitions from around the globe, so to start things off, I will be listing my favourite and least favourite robots from the USA that competed on Robot Wars. Sadly Battlebots and Robotica robots do not count.

Just before I get started I would like to let you know a few things. First off, the following opinions are based entirely on the robots listed, and not on their respective teams or who they have beaten/lost too. And secondly, I like to start off with the bad, so I can finish off with the good. Thankfully, there isn't much bad today, as I could only think of six US robots that I truly disliked. Anyway, enough waffling, let's get on with it.

Least Favourite US Robots
6. Sobek - I have a few problems with Sobek. First of all, they somehow managed to make a robot based off a crocodile NOT look like a crocodile. Then there is its puny weaponry, a tiny pair of jaws that barely opened more than 4 inches. I don't really know what the logic was behind using such a small, wimpy and, let's be honest, useless weapon, but they probably took some lessons from the Spam team. It was also incredibly fragile, with its wheels breaking off on two separate occasions and proved to be rather unreliable too, being KOed by the 6 Million Dollar Mouse of all robots. I liked the idea of Sobek, that being a smaller version of Diesector from Battlebots, but sadly it was a poor attempt and sadly it showed.

5. 6 Million Dollar Mouse - No. Just no. I really don't like this machine. I personally found it hideous to look at, incredibly dull to watch and a rather naff attempt. I give it full credit for the two battles it won, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. There really isn't much to say about this machine, that's how much I dislike it. It was just one of those robots that existed yet you had no idea why they bothered in the first place.

4. Black Widow - Black Widow is on this list simply because they managed to take the dullness of Tornado, and somehow make it duller. And Uglier. I have nothing against pushers, after all I like Storm 2, King B 3, Manta, Rocky Bot Boa etc but they have to have the excitement to back them up. Black Widow sadly didn't have the excitement, due to it being a slow pusher that added no excitement to any of its battles. and as I said earlier, the robot looked ugly and basic. It was almost as if someone had found a "basic robot design" cutout in a magazine and based their robot on it. The weaponry was also a joke, being too small to do anything decent and being in an awkward place, stopping the team from getting any use out of them. All in all, Black Widow was pants. End of.

3. Trilobyte - We are moving from the robots that I personally didn't like as much as others to the robots that I literally and strongly dislike. Enter Trilobyte, a big, bulky, clunky, slow robot that is an easy target and has a very bad weapon. I like the idea of a crusher mounted on a lifting arm, but it will only be good if there s enough room to fit a robot underneath the crusher. As you can tell by the picture, there wasn't. Sadly, due to this poor weapon, the robot had no chance, and it showed, losing both of its battles. Slow moving machines with a lot of body to hit are always vulnerable in the arena, which other robots were happy to take advantage of. Trilobyte could have been good, but it was terrible and Extreme Warriors would have been better off without it.

2. Run Away - An example a robot that was entered into a contest it had no right being in, Run Away was the first Robotica champion. That's good and all, but Robtica was more about science and trials. Throw it into the area, with the only difference being a pair of naff spinners, and you're gonna have a bad time. Speaking of the naff spinners, what were they thinking with those anyway? What made them think that they could do anything with them, considering they were positioned in such a daft way, leading them to have a VERY small range of attack. What utterly annoys me however is that this robot, which was by all means unsuitable to Robot Wars, somehow won fights! It felt like one of those robots that was put there to get trashed, only for the producers to be horrified as it made it further then they had hoped.

1. General Chompsalot - Talk about a dull design. I find most crushers dull to begin with, due to them slowing matches down, but this is a whole new level of dull. General Chompsalot's jaws were practically flat edged, meaning that they couldn't crush into another robot's armour. Exciting! Honestly, a blunt set of jaws on wheels isn't what I would call "interesting". Also, due to the shape of the jaws, the robot sometimes found it hard to get a good grip on something. Not the best of designs then. But what really annoys me is that this robot somehow did well, despite its many faults. If anything, it reminds me a lot like Dantomkia. Every match is the same, their tactic is always the same (and most of the time it fails to work) and I saw way too much of it!

Too be continued