Tanto

Tanto was a small robot that failed to qualify for Series 7 of Robot Wars. The robot was a grey box-wedge with some ramming prongs and a disc for a weapon. The disc was added on because of the rule for Series 7 that all heavyweight competititors must have a moving weapon. The robot was actually built in Spain.

Tanto failed to qualify for Series 7 despite beating beating Piranha in a qualifier, but was nonetheless considered as a reserve. The team also failed to qualify that year with TX-108, which had previously failed to qualify for Series 5 and 6.

The team is one of the oldest running teams in the UK, first competing in the Featherweight Championship of Series 2, fighting with a robot called Deadline, and having built several robots since then, including TX-108 which has competed in Roaming Robots 2006 alongside Tanto. Despite this, Team Terrafonics had very limited coverage on Robot Wars, with Anto and Gi-Ant-O being the only two of their machines to appear on the televised show.

Series Record

 * Series 1: Did not enter
 * Series 2: Entered Featherweight Championship with Deadline
 * Series 3: Entered Super Heavyweight Championship with Toxin (event cancelled)
 * Series 4: Failed to qualify with Vindicare
 * Series 5-6: Failed to qualify with TX-108
 * Series 7: Failed to qualify (also failed to qualify for Series 7 with TX-108)

Versions of Tanto
All versions of Tanto have been compact, fast and invertible. Each version of Tanto has been around 65cm long, 50cm wide and 25cm tall.

Version 1
Version 1 of Tanto was originally a weapon-less robot but was armed with a spinning disc mounted on the front wedge so that it could try to qualify for Series 7 of Robot Wars. It, however, failed to qualify but was considered a reserve. It had wheel guards. This version could reach 22mph.

Version 2
Version 2 had a wedge with black stripes and wheels in wheel guards.

Version 3
Version 3 had two prongs to attack and push with instead of a solid wedge. This version of Tanto had thin wheel guards. This version displayed the huge pushing power that all the versions of Tanto possesses. This was because Tanto had 2x 11kw motors, that's 30HP in 100kg or 300HP per tonne. At a event in Magna in 2005, Tanto pushed 5 robots in one go.

Version 4
Version 4 had prongs like the previous version but lacked the wheel guards.

Version 5
Version 5 featured similar prongs and exposed wheels.

Version 6
Version 6 of Tanto was built in 2013. The new design maintains the tradition of Tanto being very small for a heavyweight, weighing in at 92kg and being just 65cm long, 50cm wide and 25cm tall. It also sports a new Union Flag-style livery, which was inspired by a robot design uploaded onto the Official Robot Wars Facebook page. Craig has revealed that this version can reach speed of 25-30mph. Tanto has a new top design consisting of the Danby family crest by the forks, Tanto at the back of the top and a "lucky" number, 23, to the side by a wheel.

Robot Wars Live Events
Tanto version 6 made its debut in the new Robot Wars Live Events at Guildford, where it lost its only fight.

Outside of Robot Wars
In 2014, Tanto fought at the STEM Tech Olympiad event in Miami, Florida where it was destroyed by Brazilian competitor Touro Maximus. Tanto was repaired but lost to Team Toad's Polar Vortex by knock out.