Cobra (Belgian)

Cobra was a heavyweight robot from Belgium, which competed in Series 9 of Robot Wars, falling in the first round to a combined effort from Behemoth and Eruption. The robot's name and logo are based on the venomous snake.

Design
Like its predecessor Brutus, Cobra was an invertible box-shaped robot with four-wheel drive and a focus on pushing power. The robot's weapon was a clamping jaw described as a 'snake bite', designed to clamp robots onto its wedge for the purposes of pushing them. The jaw was modelled on the body and head of a cobra, with two red fangs located underneath the tip. The 250-bar weapon was powered by a pneumatic ram, and possessed 4 tonnes of crushing power. Cobra's powerful Movi-Motors enabled it to reach a top speed of 20mph within one second, but the robot's wheels were largely exposed, and its rear armour was thin.

Cobra had an interchangeable lifting wedge, made from 8mm HARDOX 500, designed to combat spinners. However, it did not get to use this weapon on television.

Team Rubbish
Team Rubbish were formerly known as VHS-Robots, having competed in Dutch Robot Wars with Pika. The team attempted to enter the previous series with Brutus, which formed the design concept for Cobra. Team Rubbish is captained by Marco van Hek, and long time team member Stefan Vanthoor, who drives the robot.

As Tough as Nails was not selected to compete in Series 9, Team Rubbish invited Jeroen van Lieverloo and Jeroen van der Loo of Team KODOX to join the team, creating a Dutch-Belgian blend of team members. Jeroen van der Loo is best known for building Tough as Nails, but his first robot was Arena Killer. Jeroen van Lieverloo first competed with Impact before joining WJ Dijkstra to enter Gravity into Series 7.

Series 9
Cobra competed in Heat 2, where in its first battle, it fought powerful flipping weapons in Behemoth and Eruption, as well as the 'egg beater' spinner Hobgoblin. Cobra showed no hesitation, and punished a mistimed flip from Behemoth with repeated slams, before avoiding the action briefly while Hobgoblin was immobilised. Cobra drove onto the flipper of Eruption, and was tossed over, so Cobra willingly drove onto the floor flipper to right itself, although this led to a sequence of flips from Eruption and the floor flipper again. "Cobra using that speed, straight onto the floor flipper, ohoho, a tumble!"

- Jonathan Pearce

Cobra was turned over by Behemoth, so it fled the scene and pressed the Arena Tyre, lowering the pit, although here Eruption flipped Cobra towards Sir Killalot, which grabbed Cobra and held it over the flame pit. "Cobra got themselves too tight with Killalot, and they've done so well, Cobra!"

- Jonathan Pearce

Cobra maintained its aggression, although this led to it being flipped by Behemoth, and was trapped over the arena spikes by Eruption. Although Cobra was inverted, rendering its weapon useless, it continued to ram into both opponents using its back end. Eruption eventually righted Cobra, but after the Belgian team slammed into Behemoth, Cobra turned itself over once again. Cobra successfully evaded Behemoth, but could not avoid a powerful throw from Eruption. In the final seconds of the match, Cobra chased Eruption across the arena, earning points but also sustaining one last flip. Cease was called at the end of the battle.

"Cobra took some punishment but seemed to be OK... I just wonder whether this moment will count against Cobra."

- Jonathan Pearce over a highlight of Cobra being burned by Sir Killalot

Although Cobra had survived until a Judges' decision, having fought an aggressive battle throughout the duration of the fight, the Judges ultimately ruled that Behemoth and Eruption would be the robots to progress, and Cobra was eliminated.

"That could've actually been very very tight, I mean, I know poor old Cobra bore the brunt of just about everything that could've happened!"

- Dara Ó Briain to Team Make Robotics and Team Eruption

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 0
 * Losses: 1

Dutch Series
NOTE: The above records represent the qualification record only of Marco van Hek

Trivia

 * During the process of building Cobra, team captain Marco van Hek was set on fire.