Diotoir

"We're here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and we're all out of gum"

- Dr. Zulu, in Extreme 1

Diotoir (known in Irish as Díotóir) was a competitor from the Republic of Ireland. Its name translated as Annihilator. It was a roughly circular/semi-circular shaped robot covered in red fur with black spots, and its main weapon was a hydraulic flipping arm powered by two springs, rather than the CO2 used by most flippers. For Series 5, it was known as Diotoir 2 and the lifting arm was replaced with a shovel. Side spikes were also included.

Although the weaponry was not as powerful as other flippers and the fur meant that the robot frequently caught fire, Diotoir enjoyed a relatively successful run throughout the three series in which it competed, even defeating the mighty and future grand champion Tornado in a shock turn of events from Series 5. Diotoir also represented the Republic of Ireland in two World Championships, reaching the semi-finals in the first, but going out in the first round in the second.

Diotoir's team also won the Sportsmanship award three times out of five, twice with Diotoir itself. After its retirement from the wars after Series 5, Diotoir made a one-off appearance in Extreme Series 2 with a redesigned weapon system, reprising its Tag Team partnership with Pussycat, but they were eliminated in the first round. The team previously competed in Series 1 and 2 with Nemesis.

The team were occasionally joined by Craig Charles' own son Jack, but it was only explicitly mentioned once.

Like many Robot Wars competitors, the Diotoir team entered Techno Games with a walking robot called Ulysses. Like Diotoir, this robot was covered in their trademark fur and featured a Diotoir style face. It won the Internal Combustion Sprint event beating the reigning champion Tecumseh.

Very often, Sergeant Bash was put in the arena with Diotoir to increase the likelihood of Diotoir catching fire to entertain the fans.

Misfortune
"Poor Díotóir seems to be plagued by bad luck and bad timing. I mean he works fine everywhere but Robot Wars. A little bit like Razer, I think"

- Peter Redmond

Although Diotoir enjoyed a fair bit of success within its three year run, the team did not have as much luck, particularly within the third and fourth series. In Series 3, whilst boarding the ferry to leave Ireland, security stopped them and demanded that Diotoir be completely dismantled. "Apparently the long lifting arm looked like the barrel of a shotgun!"

- Jacky Willoughby

Despite having only a day to reconstruct the robot, Diotoir was put back together in time for its heat, where it reached the final before being beaten by Firestorm. "After last year's incident with customs, we decided to leave Díotóir open for inspection and we would put the finishing touches when we got there. At least that was the theory. After driving all day and all night we arrived at the studio to be told that we would be next to fight and we had ten minutes to get our robot in fighting form."

- Diotoir website

However, the next series was worse. Upon arrival for the Fourth Wars, the Diotoir team had to remove the top armour from their robot after discovering it was overweight. To make matters worse, the chain controlling its flipping arm broke twice, and they had not enough time to replace it. The team had no choice but to enter Diotoir into the arena armour-less and weapon-less, which resulted in its almost instant elimination.

Series 3
Diotoir was placed against Sting 2 in the first round of Series 3. As soon as the activate was sounded, the two robots drove at each other, with Diotoir trying to overturn Sting 2 with its lifting arm. However, its attack missed and Sting 2 began to attack Diotoir with its tail, ripping part of Diotoir's trademark grin. Diotoir chased Sting 2 into Sgt. Bash's CPZ and got underneath Sting 2. The lifter was unsuccessful again. Diotoir pushed Sting against the arena wall, attacking it with its arm like a spear. Diotoir retreated but followed this up with an attack on Sting 2 again, this time pushing the robot back towards Sgt. Bash. Diotoir then got behind Sting 2 and pushed it across the arena and into the pit. Diotoir in the second round rammed The Steel Avenger into the side wall, getting it stuck there. However, Sergeant Bash freed The Steel Avenger and the fight continued. However, The Steel Avenger was almost caught by Dead Metal, and was eventually caught and flipped over by Diotoir, leaving the house robots to finish the job. Diotoir's good run ended in the final, though, against eventual grand finalists Firestorm. Firestorm flipped it over once before pushing it onto the flame pit, where it caught fire, and gave the house robots the right to attack it, before putting it on the arena floor flipper.

Diotoir also fought in the World Championships and the International League, representing Ireland in both. It managed to defeat Depoppesaurus Rex via the judges and Cerberus by flipping it over, but was eliminated in the Semi-Finals by Behemoth on a judges decision, after its opponent spent most of the match turning Diotoir over and re-righting it.

It also made it to the Final of the International League, easily dispatching of Depoppesaurus Rex again and Terror Australis (who were using Team Nemesis's previous robot Nemesis after their own had broken down), to qualify from the group stage with maximum points. Reigning World Champions Razer defeated Diotoir in the final, piercing the frontal armour of the furless Diotoir before pushing it into the pit.

Series 4
Diotoir was seeded 21 through its prowess in the International Competitions, and also by general popularity. However, in its first melee, Diotoir was at a severe disadvantage as its armour weighed too much and had to be removed and its weapon had broken. It was immediately flipped by Ming 2, and then suffered a familiar fate after being pushed onto the Flame Pit by Bolt from the Blue. "And so, with no armour, no weapon, no sleep and no hope we went to battle. We lasted about 4 seconds. We got flipped upsidedown straight away and as our weapon is also our re-righting device, there was nothing we could do about it. We were then fair game for the house robots. Díotóir, once the pride of Ireland, on his back getting torched, punched and slashed like a wounded wildebeast being ravished by vultures."

- Diotoir website

Diotoir returned in the Sumo Basho tournament, this time supporting its top armour. The extra weight didn't help it as it was shoved off the platform after a dismal 3.95 seconds, especially ironic due to Diotoir's predecessor Nemesis managing to defeat Shunt in the Sumo of the first ever Robot Wars heat. It also entered the pinball tournament and came 5th (equal with Bigger Brother) despite being set on fire by Sgt Bash.

However, Diotoir also participated in the Celebrity Special, under control of Vic Reeves, where it defeated Wild Thing after the Addams family machine suffered its only breakdown. In the next round against Gemini, Diotoir was flipped over easily, but when the Gemini team got overconfident, they re-righted Diotoir, who was still mobile. One of the Gemini twins then broke down, which eliminated the clusterbot and allowed Diotoir to reach the final. However, here, it was cut apart by Pussycat and immobilised.

Extreme 1
Diotoir appeared quite frequently across the first series of Robot Wars Extreme, without much early success.

It lost in the first round of the All-Stars to Wheely Big Cheese. The two machines spent most of the early match trying to get underneath one another. In the end, Wheely Big Cheese got underneath Diotoir and threw it over, breaking off both of the Irish machine's eyes in the process. It was then flipped against the side wall, counted out and burned, as per usual.

Next up came a Mayhem qualifier with Panic Attack and Shear Khan. Panic Attack simply lifted over Diotoir, and as Refbot prepared to count out the Irish robot, Panic Attack hooked onto Diotoir's springs and easily dropped it into the pit.

A Vengeance battle against Firestorm 3 proved no better, although it was notable for the faked CCTV of Dr. Zulu walking up to Firestorm carrying a large comedy spanner, and "sabotaging" its opponent. After much dodging around, Firestorm got underneath Diotoir and flipped it over. Diotoir's one attempt at self-righting only served to knock its eyes off. Firestorm then pushed Diotoir into Sgt Bash, who proceeded to set fire to the Irish machine. By the time Diotoir was counted out, it was completely burnt (even the metal was reduced to charcoal).

However, Diotoir had a good spell in this series in the Tag Team Terror competition, where it was paired up with Mega Morg. Despite being pushed around early on by defending champions King B Powerworks and 101, they managed to pull off the win on a judges decision after the champions suffered from control problems. The two were then due to face Comengetorix and Spawn Again in the next round, but Mega Morg was forced to drop out, having blown all of its speed controllers. Pussycat was bought in as a substitute partner to Diotoir and, again, whilst they started with the few problems, the two came back into it after Spawn Again broke down, once more taking the win. This put them against The Steel Avenger and Suicidal Tendencies in the final and although, yet again, Pussycat had a lot of problems with Suicidal Tendencies, Diotoir was able to secure their win after it flipped The Steel Avenger around the arena several times.

Series 5
"Diotoir started a promising run in show 7..."

- Jonathan Pearce

Diotoir started very strongly. It effortlessly flipped Dome over and then into the pit in its first round battle, before making a shocking comeback in Round 2. Tornado had shunted Diotoir around the arena but couldn't cause any damage as the fur was snagging the disc on Tornado. Then Diotoir activated the pit release. Suddenly, Diotoir launched an attack, pushing a down on power Tornado into the pit. However, Spawn Again was the stronger in the Heat Final, hurling Diotoir onto its back. When Diotoir tried to self-right, its eyes flew off. Diotoir was unable to self-right and was counted out, burnt and eliminated.

Extreme 2
Diotoir briefly came out of retirement and returned as reigning Tag Team Terror Champions in Extreme 2. However, Bulldog Breed immediately threw Pussycat from the arena, and proceeded to flip Diotoir onto its back against the arena wall, narrowly failing to flip Diotoir out as well. The srimech had failed and Robochicken flipped Diotoir onto the flame pit, Refbot counted it out, eliminating it. This was Diotoir's last performance in Robot Wars.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 13
 * Losses: 11

Series Record

 * Series 1-2: Entered with Nemesis
 * Series 3: Heat Final
 * Series 4: Heat, Round 1
 * Series 5: Heat Final
 * Series 6-7: Did not enter