Shunt

Shunt is reminiscent of a bulldozer, with a rear-mounted scoop and fearsome axe, both powered by pressurized carbon dioxide. Shunt's chassis and scoops are made of steel, while its superstructure is molded fiberglass. In series 1 and 2, Shunt was used to fight the competitors in the Sumo trial, and was the flag holder in the trial round of Heat 4 of Series 1.

One of the original four House Robots, Shunt is the lightest of all the House Robots, albeit still over the contestant weight limit of 100 kg. Shunt is able to pull a fully-loaded Land Rover, and with its snowplough and scoop weapons it excelled at pushing contestant robots around the arena, and featured heavily in the Sumo Basho Trials event thanks to its incredible power. Shunt also has a diamond-edged axe to damage other robots.

Like all the House Robots except Matilda, Shunt is often referred to as a "he".

Armament
Shunt is armed with a pneumatically driven diamond-edged axe capable of delivering blows of over 500 kgf/cm² (7,000 psi), and a rear-mounted pneumatic scoop and front snow plough.

Series 1
Shunt holds the distinction of being the first House Robot to be introduced in Robot Wars, as it was the first featured in the roll call. Its axe was significantly smaller in this series, and its primary weapons were its ploughs and pushing ability. "If he were a car, he'd be a tank"

- Jeremy Clarkson on Shunt

Because of this pushing ability, Shunt was used in the Sumo trial in the very first heat. However, he did not get off to the best of starts, only succeeding to push one competitor (Shogun) off the ring, with Roadblock and Nemesis pushing him off, Killertron stalemating him and stock robot Grunt driving off the ring deliberately. On more than one occasion, his low ground clearance caused him to get stuck on the ramps in the Gauntlet.

Although Shunt's axe did not cause much damage, it was still quite fast, so any attack by him was taken very seriously. The axe did have another use - Shunt was the flag holder during the Stock Car trial of Heat 4, and his axe was replaced with a chequered flag, which he waved when Cunning Plan completed its third lap and won.

Series 2
Shunt was improved somewhat for Series 2, but did not look visably different from his previous incarnation. His axe was seen to cause notably more damage this series (for example, it managed to damage Milly-Ann Bug, causing puncture wounds to its eye) and he also was finally able to prove his worth in the Sumo challenges, pushing two robots off the platform. Shunt would also start to use his rear bucket scoop to overturn other robots, which he did to Havoc in the Heat 12 Final.

Shunt did suffer from a few problems, most notably with driving. It sometimes seemed difficult to keep straight. During the King of the Castle trials of Heat E, he would often drive straight off the platform, often from the entrance ramp. During the second Semi Final, he also drove into the pit by mistake, allowing King Buxton to complete its run.

Shunt also gained something of an arch-rival in this series, in the form of eventual champion Panic Attack. During the Heat F Gauntlet, Panic Attack had gotten stuck on Dead Metal, and Shunt was quick to come in and make numerous holes on the top armour. Panic Attack survived, but Shunt was now of their "hit list", so to speak. The two met again in the Sumo trial, where Panic Attack was quick to get its revenge - after several seconds of pushing each other around, Shunt drove off the ring by mistake. This would not be the last time in the show's history that Shunt and Panic Attack would meet, however.

Series 3
As this series dropped the Gauntlet and Trials from the main competition, the House Robots, Shunt included, were given a redesign. Although still largely focused on its strength and pushing abilities, Shunt's axe was enlarged significantly and tipped with diamond, allowing it to puncture all but the hardest of armours (Notably Blade and Berserk 2, as well as the underbelly of Sir Chromalot, went unaffected by Shunt's attacks).

Thanks to his new axe, Shunt often played crucial roles in the outcome of fights, causing significant damage to the competitor robots. In the first heat of the series, its axe caused some significant damage to Suicidal Tendencies after Mace 2 pushed it into his CPZ. The axe also knocked out All Torque's receiver after it was pushed into Shunt's CPZ by Thing 2, and even the new flip-up paddle of Cassius 2 suffered damage, although this was thankfully minor. Shunt also humourously knocked off the head of the action figure of Atlas and destroyed the walking Anarachnid. However, Shunt did not always have things his own way. After it flipped Hypno-Disc to win the Grand Final, Chaos 2 chose Shunt as its second victim, flipping it over. As Shunt tried to recover, he knocked off his own exhaust. Razer also crumbled Shunt's bucket scoop out of position, and even the lighter robots gave Shunt trouble, after American Middleweight joint champion Tentomushi cut off the house robot's ariel.

Series 4
Shunt returned for Series 4 with minor improvements and finetuning. It was during this series that some of his most famous moments occured. One of the most notable of this was during the second round of Heat E, when 101 immobilised Major Tom in the CPZ. After Matilda had caused some damage to Major Tom's head, Shunt hit it with his axe, completely destroying it. Another famous moment occured in the Grand Final, when Hypno-Disc was pushed into his CPZ after Pussycat damaged its wheel guard. Shunt hit Hypno-Disc's spinning flywheel, stopping it completely and causing severe damage, damage that would prevent it from fighting in the play-off.

Shunt also competed in the Sumo Basho special event, which made a return this series. In contrast to earlier series, he was in top form, pushing 13 of his opponents out of the ring, often in less than 10 seconds. This would not last, as X-Terminator and Behemoth survived after charging at him, getting their scoops wedged under his own, preventing him from moving. As if this wasn't bad enough, Shunt later found itself against its old arch-rival, Panic Attack (who had attacked him a few times during the main competition). After a lot of evading and shoving, both robots fell off the platform together after Shunt mis-timed his charge on a beached Panic Attack. The replays showed Shunt had hit the floor first, and Panic Attack was awarded the win, and as the only robot to last longer than the house robot, the Sumo championship.

Noticeable Appearances

 * During X-Terminator's battle with Immortalis in Series 5, the large white globe on Immortalis was shattered to pieces at a blow from Shunt's axe. In a similar fashion, Major Tom's head was smashed off by Shunt in a battle between it and 101 during Series 4. Shunt was one of the more destructive House Robots.
 * In a battle with Lightning, Gravity flipped Shunt and Dead Metal for fun, resulting in a red card from Refbot.