Ripper

"A unique shape, with a clear top cover to show the components inside, that's sensible... hang on, is it? No it's not, it's daft!"

- Jonathan Pearce

Ripper was a wedge-shaped robot with a very large flipper which competed in Series 7 of Robot Wars, entered by Team Roaming Robots.

Despite its size, Ripper's mechanics were isolated to one spot, with most of the robot's insides being empty. This allowed Ripper to take a significant amount of damage before being immobilised, which also compensated for its relatively weak armour. Ripper reached the Heat Final in Series 7, where it was flipped out of the arena by the second seed Firestorm 5. It also competed in the Annihilator at the end of the series, finishing runner-up to the previous Annihilator champion, Kan-Opener.

The flipper, though low pressure, was capable of throwing a robot out of the arena as it used two rams rather than one, but despite coming close on several occasions, it never achieved this. "Ripper's flipper was by far NOT the most powerful, but it was big, that was its biggest strength, it had the power and size the flip robots over and out of the arena... and because the pneumatics only ran on 10 bar, we had over 45 flips before getting low on gas!"

- John Findlay

Ripper's flipper was said to be interchangeable with a disc and an axe, but John Findlay recently revealed that this was not actually true, and that he had made it up for the benefit of viewers.

Ripper had previously attempted to enter Series 5, invertible and equipped with two powerful blades. These blades were how the robot got its name, as they ripped apart several sheets of metal and oil drums in testing. Its name was originally stylised as R.I.P.P.E.R., an acronym for "Rest in pieces pathetic elderly robots", but this was dropped after Series 5. R.I.P.P.E.R. fought The Alien at the qualifiers, but the robot's blades were banned by the rules, and without them, Ripper lost the battle and failed to qualify. Fortunately for Team Roaming Robots, they had already qualified with T-Bone, who fought instead, but went out in Round 1.

In Series 6, Ripper 2 attempted to qualify, which featured an electric lifter and a large spinning disc on the back. Ripper 2 was due to fight Double Trouble, GBH 2 and Infernal Contraption at the qualifiers, but failed to start before the battle, and had to withdraw the qualifier, and consequently failed to qualify again.

When the flipper-equipped machine tried for Series 7, there was instant drama. "...just finished and entered the arena for the first time, a small bit of metal swarf had got into the circuit board of the speed controller, and we only moved about 4 meters before it stopped…. Luckily for us our flipper still worked so we kept firing it when robots came near, and the look of the robot got us qualified without having to do anything !!! Lucky or what !!"

- John Findlay

When Robot Wars began its 11-year hiatus, Ripper remained active, eventually being upgraded into a high pressure flipper, armed in Hardox. Ripper won the UK Championship in 2011.

John Findlay has applied to enter Ripper into the 2016 series of Robot Wars, however with changes to the robot that are being kept secret until its TV debut, should Ripper qualify.

Series 7
In Round 1 of Series 7, Ripper fought veterans to Robot Wars Aggrobot, Team Ming's Zorro and twice Round 1 drop-outs Reptirron The Second. Ripper started by avoiding the other robots. However, a few seconds later, Ripper flipped Zorro over. Ripper then flipped Aggrobot with force but it was invertible. Ripper tried to flip Aggrobot, missing but managed to flip it again a few seconds later. Another flip from Ripper and Aggrobot bounced off Reptirron The Second. Ripper let Aggrobot and Reptirron do the fighting for a while, seemingly taking a break from the action. Ripper then rammed into Reptirron, missing another flip. Ripper then chased the other two robots and Zorro who was counted out, but never used its flipper while chasing the rest. Cease was called after Zorro was pitted. The judges decided that Ripper and Reptirron The Second would go through.

In its second round, Ripper was pitted against fellow newcomers Daisy-Cutter. Ripper started by flipping Daisy-Cutter over right at the start, in the quickest immobilisation ever. Ripper left Daisy-Cutter on its side to be counted out. Then, Ripper flipped Shunt. However, it landed on its wheels. Ripper then used its flipper to block Shunt's axe from hitting its armour. Sir Killalot came in to help Shunt out by pinning Ripper against the wall. Sir Killalot pushed Ripper to the flame pit but to no avail. Then, it flipped Refbot almost onto its back, but, thanks to inadvertent help from Shunt, managed to get it over. Ripper then flipped Shunt over and got its axe stuck on Sir Killalot's lance, causing Sir Killalot's breastplate to come off. Ripper drove around the arena and was flipped by the floor flipper. Sir Killalot then pushed Ripper into the pit.



In the heat final, Ripper went up against the second seeds Firestorm 5. Ripper was rammed into the arena side-wall by Firestorm 5, ending on its back. Ripper self-righted and started dodging Firestorm 5 until it missed a flip and Firestorm got underneath. Getting flipped against the arena wall again, Ripper was stuck. Refbot then counted Ripper out. Firestorm 5 finally finished it by flipping Ripper out of the arena. "While attacking the house robots [in round 2] we had damaged our scoop, and it wasn't sitting flat on the floor anymore, so we knew we couldn't just drive underneath the front of him. Eventually he got underneath and flipped us out of the arena. There was one point in the fight where I reversed... if i'd gone forwards instead, I could have got under his side and flipped him..... but we'll never know what could have happened."

- John Findlay

Ripper returned for the Annihilator at the end of the Seventh Wars. It fought Ewe 2, Raging Knightmare, Kan-Opener, Robochicken and Flippa. Ripper managed to purge the arena in its opening round, managing to flip Robochicken over immediately, before rushing Ewe 2, who was attacking Flippa. In a skillful flip, Ripper threw Ewe 2 over, sticking its open flipping arm over the side wall, and pinning it on top of Flippa, effectively immobilising both robots. It then attacked Raging Knightmare and Kan-Opener, flipping both into side walls and CPZs, but these two managed to escape, and the fight was finally concluded with the defeat of Robochicken. However, Flippa was announced to have broken down irreparably, and was forced to drop out, leaving the remaining four to fight on. It was one of the more aggressive in its next fight, flipping Raging Knightmare all over the place before turning Ewe 2 onto its side where it stayed, immobile. The next battle, Ripper teamed up with the reigning Annihilator champion Kan-Opener on Raging Knightmare before helping Kan-Opener put it in the pit. In the Annihilator final, Ripper started off as the more aggressive getting a series of flips in on Kan-Opener before losing a chain for one of its wheels, causing it to run in circles. It was attacked by Mr. Psycho, crushed by Kan-Opener and Refbot then counted Team Roaming Robots down and out, meaning Kan-Opener retained the title.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 5
 * Losses: 2

Series Record

 * Series 1-3: Did not enter
 * Series 4: Failed to qualify with Banana-R Armour
 * Series 5: Failed to qualify as R.I.P.P.E.R. and entered with T-Bone
 * Series 6: Failed to qualify as Ripper 2
 * Series 7: Heat Final
 * 2016 Series: Application Pending

Robot Wars Live Events
The second model of Ripper competed in the first live event of the new Robot Wars at Barnsley in February 2013, reaching the final battle of the competition and finishing fourth overall. The third model of Ripper made its first Robot Wars appearance at Guildford in June 2013. The second version of Ripper also made its first appearance under its new name, Dystopia, at the same event.

Outside Robot Wars
Nowadays the original Ripper has been retired, (according to John Findlay, its chassis has been bent and "Terrorhurtz'ed" too many times), but in its place an 'evolved' version called Ripper Evo has been fighting in live events winning the 2008 Winter Tour (a separate competition from the UK Championship by that time) and reaching the semi-finals of the UK championships in 2008 & 2009. By the end of 2010, Ripper Evo was scrapped, and a new version was built. The 'Evo' was dropped from its name and returned to being called 'Ripper' (as it was annoying John Findlay), coming second in the 2010 UK Championships, and also winning the 2011 UK Championship event at the O2 arena.

In September 2011, Ripper appeared alongside Thor in the BBC One gameshow Epic Win, in which the two robots were given the challenge of smashing two of four specific items within a caravan and then breaking their way out. The two robots succeeded in demolishing all four items, but got themselves stuck whilst trying to break out. Unable to move, the team forfeited the challenge and as a result, lost the round.

Also in September, Ripper and Thor appeared on Richard Bacon's Beer and Pizza Club where Ripper tore up the floor.

In March 2012, Ripper appeared on the BBC Two programme Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is where John Findlay allowed antiques expert Paul Hayes to operate Ripper when John bought eight toy robots for £75.

In mid-2013, John Findlay sold Ripper, which remained in competition with its new owners Team. Ablaze under the name Dystopia, and built a new incarnation of the robot using parts from Iron-Awe 6, first participating at the Robot Wars event in Guildford in June 2013.

In October 2014, Ripper appeared, along with Beast, on Pawn Stars UK.

In October 2015, Ripper appeared, amongst other robots, on Storage Hunters UK.

Trivia

 * Like Mighty Mouse, Ripper was retired due to damage inflicted by Terrorhurtz.
 * Although the latest version of Ripper has won both won the Winter Tour and the UK Championship, it still does not count as a two time Champion.
 * Two of Ripper's battles placed it in the top 5 quickest immobilisations (its immobilisations of Daisy-Cutter in its heat, and of Robochicken in the Annihilator).