Corkscrew

Corkscrew was an Scottish machine that fought in three wars and a series of Extreme. It was designed to look like a corkscrew stuck into a cork, with a pair of rotating blades at its base. The cork supposedly acted as a self-righter, but this was never seen, but it also acted as a direction indicator for the team, as Corkscrew spun its entire radius, the cork indicated which direction was forward. The original version was built with a makita engine driving the weapon. Corkscrew's debut fight was at the Glasgow SEC Live Tour. Corkscrew fought with no weapon, as Robot Wars was too scared to let the team use the weapon. Regardless, it managed to win all three fights.

Corkscrew was upgraded in Series 6 to a spinning weapon comprised of six blades at its base, and the robot was redesigned into a blue cork, rather than brown. However, the new robot was so close to the weight limit that even the Scottish kilt worn by the original pushed it over the weight limit. In the qualifiers, Corkscrew ran into the side wall and caused several of its teeth to stick in the polycarbonate. It took 4 men 20 minutes to free Corkscrew, but it still qualified. "I think that showed that it was up to the job."

- John Heatlie

For Series 7, it was completely flattened to a invertible disc-shaped robot, named Corkscrew Two. This robot featured a steel spinning disc, but was much less potent and was flipped out of the arena in its only fight. The cork was removed and replaced with a yellow arrow to act as the direction indicator.

Despite the comical appearance of Corkscrew, it was incredibly potent, with a 360 degree killing radius. It was one of the most feared robots among robots, due to the damage inflicted on 13 Black, Kronic 2, Panic Attack, Bondi-Titch, R.O.C.S., and X-Terminator. Despite its lethal capabilities, it suffered from poor maneuverability and speed.

After Robot Wars, Corkscrew Two was rebuilt as Hammertime, which kept the same circular shape, but had a hammer instead of the spinning body. Currently, it is owned by Team Roaming Robots. John Heatlie still owns the original version of Corkscrew and plans on rebuilding it one day.

Series 5
Corkscrew's first wars was very controversial. Many believed that it should have lost to 13 Black, its first opponent, after its blade got stuck in 13 Black's bodywork. However, the judges ruled that damage caused by Corkscrew was more important than the style and control showed by 13 Black. Yet another controversial decision allowed it to defeat the 14th seed X-Terminator, as the public was unaware that X-Terminator had suffered a battery failure and damage to its drive belts. In the heat final, Dominator 2 used its bi-wedge shape to tip over the Scottish machine. Sir Killalot loosened the top armour before it was tossed by the floor flipper, landing hard and buckling severely.



Series 6
"We...eventually met up again with John Heatlie and his sons with `Corkscrew`. When he showed us a home video of Corkscrew attacking a water cooler, I was just glad we hadn`t had our qualifying match against that robot instead."

- The 13 Black team

Corkscrew was redesigned into the blue, six-bladed spinner. It started off very aggresively in its first round melee, ripping a side panel from Panic Attack, and causing damage to Kronic 2, which ultimately caused its demise, as the blow seperated Kronic from R.O.C.S., allowing it to hit the pit release as Corkscrew went for an attack. Corkscrew drove straight into the pit as it was descending, and was eliminated with R.O.C.S.

In the UK vs Germany special at the end of the Sixth Wars, Corkscrew was beaten rather quickly by another spinner, Fluffy. After both machines got their weapons spinning, they came into contact and Corkscrew's weaponary stopped. It became immobilised soon after. After being counted out, the Scottish machine was tossed by the arena floor flipper and out of the special competition.

Extreme 2
"Linked up with G-Bone [Graham Bone] from Firestorm to kick ass and gave Matilda a slap for good measure"

- John Heatlie Corkscrew represented Scotland in the Commonwealth Carnage event in the second series of Robot Wars Extreme. It stayed away from the action early in round one, attempting to get up to spinning speed. It drove near the pit immediately before slamming into Bondi-Titch. Another devastating blow ripped off a side panel from Bondi-Titch. Firestorm 4 flipped both Weld-Dor 3 and Bondi-Titch out of the arena before Corkscrew caused serious damage to Matilda's front end. In round two, it was unable to cause damage to South Africa's Crushtacean before the crab-like machine drove both robots into the pit. The judges ruled that Corkscrew had gone in first, so it was eliminated.

Series 7
"The blade goes that fast, it just looks like it's stopped, so you'll have to watch out for that one."

- John Heatlie on Corkscrew's new weapon

Corkscrew, now known as Corkscrew Two, featured a brand new weapon- a spinning disc. Sadly, the team never got to demonstrate the new weapon, as the the spin motor burned out before filming. "That blade is moving so fast it does seem to, err......be stopped. It isn't spinning, is it?"

- Jonathan Pearce realises something isn't right

Left with no means of offense or defense, Corkscrew Two could do little more than evade in its opening round. It was only a matter of time before Judge Shred backed it into a wall and flipped it out of the arena.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 3
 * Losses: 5

Series Record

 * Series 1-4: Did not enter
 * Series 5: Heat Final
 * Series 6: Heat, Round 1
 * Series 7: Heat, Round 1