Cerberus

Cerberus was a vaguely reversed-wedge robot that competed in the third and fourth series of Robot Wars and both series of Extreme. It was designed to look like a dog, and was named after the three-headed dog who was guardian of the underworld in Greek Mythology. Cerberus was always clad in titanium (kevlar in Series 3) salvaged from a scrapyard, and was a personal favourite of Philippa Forrester because of its gleaming gold coat and shiny armour, including a chrome coated steel head and two sets of stainless steel claws at a cost of £800 over eight weeks. It was later rebuilt over the same period of time at £350 in Series 4. The shiny coat of Cerberus was removed by the time of its last Robot Wars appearance.

Cerberus' main weapon was originally a tungsten tipped circular saw, perhaps inspired by former champions Roadblock, but this had to be removed as it was made of hardened steel, which was prohibited (Pussycat had recently been disqualified for using one). Instead, Cerberus used its ramming head and wedge like clubbing tail to defeat its opponents. Later the team added a blade-like tongue and two side blades that acted as a srimech and increased its speed to 18mph. The srimech was removed for Extreme Series 2, but by then the robot was quite old and lost relatively easily in its only fight of the series.

Cerberus made the heat final of Series 3, but lost in the first round of Series 4. It never competed in the main competition after these attempts, failing to qualify for Series 5 after being defeated by Tip-Top, and also failed to qualify for Series 6 after a defeat at the hands of Bulldog Breed. Cerberus did feature in both series of Extreme, with varying degrees of success. It also represented Cyprus in the First World Championship and the Commonwealth Carnage of Extreme Series 2.

Misfortune
Much like Diotoir, Cerberus encountered large amounts of misfortune regarding its main series appearances. In Series 3, it was forced to remove its primary weapon, the hardened steel saw, due to the recent disqualification of Pussycat in the heats. Although it did reach the heat final of the Third Wars, this wasn't really due to any potency still remaining within the arsenal. In the heat final, Cerberus' lack of weaponry made it easily disposed of by Thing 2. In Series 4, having added a new steel tongue to act as a crusher with the head, the Cerberus team was informed that the new design for Cerberus was over the weight limit, and was then forced to remove the heavy head in order to meet the weight constraints. With the head gone, any potency that the new crushing weapon had was lost, and Cerberus was dispatched by reserves for the wars V-Max in the first round.

In Series 5, Cerberus was equipped now with self-righting arms on the top of the robot, however they did not help the robot improve, as Cerberus was merely dispatched in the qualifiers by Tip-Top, with relative ease, meaning Cerberus failed to qualify. The Cerberus team kept the srimech on for Extreme Series 1.

The Cerberus team then removed the srimech after the first series of Extreme, as the team felt that they were no longer in situations where they needed a srimech. However, this proved to be a critical error in the qualifiers for the Sixth Wars, as their lack of a srimech meant that they were easily defeated by Bulldog Breed. This meant that the robot had failed to qualify once again. This was Cerberus' last fight involving the main competition.

Series 3
"Plenty of bite!"

- Jonathan Pearce

In the first round of the Third Wars, Cerberus was placed up against the experienced Killerhurtz machine. Killerhurtz started the battle as the more aggressive machine, as the axe-wielding robot created a hole in the titanium armour of Cerberus (and put a hole in one of the dog based robots batteries). It then axed the head of Cerberus, but caused no damage as the tip was in mid-air at the time of impact. Suddenly, Killerhurtz drove away for a run-up but drove straight into the open pit, this put Cerberus through to the next round of the heat.

In the second round, Cerberus was placed up against Griffon. This proved to be another relatively simple encounter for Cerberus, as Griffon broke down immediately, meaning all that Cerberus had to do was just get a hold of it and steer the immobile Griffon into the pit. This battle took the record for the shortest ever Robot Wars battle at just 10 seconds, a record it would hold until the Seventh Wars. Cerberus went through to the heat final after this victory. In the heat final, Cerberus was placed up against another returning team in Thing 2. This battle was another quick fight for Cerberus, however this one didn't go in favour of the newcomers. In this battle, the two competitor robots drove at each other but missed at the start. Thing 2 then pushed Cerberus, but Cerberus steered away and nearly flipped Thing 2, before ramming Thing 2 into the arena side wall. Thing 2 retaliated by pushing Cerberus onto the flame pit, but then drove into Matilda's CPZ. Thing 2 got away before it could suffer damage from the house robot and drove at Cerberus again, this time Thing 2 managed to scoop Cerberus onto its wedge shape and eventually turn it over, breaking the tail at the same time. Cerberus was declared immobilised, and cease was called before the house robots could come in. Cerberus was subsequently eliminated from the competition. "...the dog from Hades is showing its underbelly, and it wants a little bit of tickle!"

- Jonathan Pearce, as Thing 2 flips Cerberus

Cerberus also represented Cyprus in the First World Championship, which took place around the time of the filming for the Third Wars main competition. Cerberus was placed up against the incredibly destructive American entrant Mauler in the first round. Fortunately, Cerberus progressed beyond this round of the competition by default, due to the fact that Mauler was disqualified for being decidedly too dangerous for the arena, and there was no robot to replace it in time for Cerberus to have a fight at all. This put Cerberus automatically through to the Quarter Finals of the Championship.

In the Quarter Final round, Cerberus was placed up against fellow recent heat finalists in Diotoir, who was representing the Republic of Ireland. In the battle, the Irish machine had a slow start, but when it did get going it began to dominate the battle. After several attempted flips and a shove towards the pit, Diotoir finally managed to get in underneath Cerberus with its lifting arm, and slowly turn to force Cerberus to turn over onto its back, this eventually happened and Cerberus was declared immobilised. Cerberus was then attacked by four incoming house robots, whilst Diotoir was set alight, house robot Sir Killalot then grabbed and pushed Cerberus down into the pit of oblivion, eliminating Cerberus and Cyprus from the First World Championship.

At the end of the series, Cerberus was nominated for the Best Design Award, however, it lost out to Razer, the winner of the award from the previous series.

Series 4
"...no longer that ferocious head of jaws!"

- Jonathan Pearce prior to the melee

Cerberus was seeded number 18 for the Fourth Wars and competed in the final heat of the series, but after being too close to the weight limit, the head had to be removed, removing any potency that its new clamp weapon had. Series 2 heat finalists Onslaught and newcomers Terror-Bull were originally the other participants in Cerberus' first round melee (both of whom were planning on ganging up on Cerberus), however Onslaught withdrew in the last minute due to technical problems, and the reserve V-Max took its place. In the battle, after Cerberus was steering towards the arena side wall to stay away from any trouble at all, the seeded machine made an accidental frontal attack towards V-Max, Cerberus landed on its flipping arm, then V-Max flipped Cerberus onto its back, deeming the number 18 seeds immobilised straight away. Sergeant Bash then shoved Cerberus into the pit of oblivion, eliminating Cerberus from the competition. "The dog that guards the gates of hell rolls over and has his tummy tickled!"

- Craig Charles at the end of the fight

Extreme 1
"This beast is Cerberus, and he's ready to tear the opposition to pieces! We are the most dangerous machine, we are so dangerous, they keep us in a cage!"

- Theo Kaccoufa

Despite not appearing in either of the corresponding main competitions, Cerberus competed in both series of Robot Wars Extreme. In the first series (where the team added a srimech), it exclusively competed in the Tag Team Terror tournament, alongside Thermidor 2. The pair had an easy victory in the first round, where they were drawn up against S.M.I.D.S.Y. and Sumpthing. Despite Cerberus suffering from problems with its main weapon, S.M.I.D.S.Y. and Cerberus had a ponderous pushing match, S.M.I.D.S.Y. then sliced into the tail of Cerberus, but then lost control and drove into its teammate Sumpthing, S.M.I.D.S.Y. then charged out again and slammed into the angle grinder at the opposite end of the arena, as it was stuck in forwardc drive. Thermidor 2 then came out and quickly dispatched Sumpthing by flipping it over, using Cerberus as a chock. Sumpthing and S.M.I.D.S.Y. were then counted out and Cerberus and Thermidor 2 were put through to the second round of the Tag-Team Terror, however, the main weapon of Cerberus was badly damaged. Unable to fix the main weapon, the Cerberus team removed it for the Semi-Final battle, a battle where Cerberus and Thermidor 2 were placed up against The Steel Avenger and Suicidal Tendencies. However, a lot of accidental in-fighting occured between the dog and lobster based robots. Cerberus was left out for most of the battle, until all four competitors came out to fight. Suddenly, Thermidor 2 lost power completely and stopped moving, as it was over the flame pit. The lobster was soon counted out by Refbot, leaving Cerberus to fight the cause alone. Although it didn't go on the offensive, particularly, Cerberus still managed to hang on to a judges' decision as it used its agility to avoid the weaponry of its opponents for the rest of the battle, but Thermidor 2's immobilisation easily put the team at a disadvantage, and they were indeed eliminated from the competition as a result of the judges' decision.

The Cerberus team later removed the srimech at the end of the first series of Extreme, as they had already failed to qualify for the Fifth Wars. This was also the last time Cerberus featured on the televised show until the next series of Extreme.

Extreme 2
Coming out of retirement, an old, less than shiny Cerberus returned in the second series of Extreme to compete in the Commonwealth Carnage event, once again representing Cyprus. It would battle Panic Attack (representing Wales), Terror Turtle (representing Canada) and Crushtacean (representing South Africa) in the first round. In the battle, Cerberus was the quickest to the centre of the arena as it charged into Panic Attack, attempting to shove it but then glancing away. Cerberus was then spinning madly in an attempt to shy Panic Attack off, but the Welsh machine kept coming back for more. Cerberus was then targeted by Crushtacean, Cerberus tried to out steer the crab robot but were soon cornered and seized by the claws of Crushtacean side-on, making Cerberus unable to get away. Crushtacean, still with Cerberus in its clutches, then ran across the arena and activated the pit release button. The South African machine then lined Cerberus up with the pit, before eventually dumping Cerberus into the pit of oblivion after just 49 seconds of fighting, eliminating Cerberus from the competition. This was Cerberus' last appearance in Robot Wars. "SEND IT UP!!! SEND IT UP!!!"

- Chants from the Cerberus team after Cerberus goes into the pit

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 3
 * Losses: 5

Series Record

 * Series 1-2: Did not enter
 * Series 3: Heat Final
 * Series 4: Heat, Round 1
 * Series 5-6: Failed to qualify
 * Series 7: Did not enter

Trivia

 * Cerberus held the record for the shortest ever Robot Wars battle at 10 seconds in Series 3, this stood as the shortest battle until the Seventh Wars, it also forever stood as the shortest battle that didn't involve an OotA.
 * Cerberus was one of six robots from the original line-up for the Fourth Wars to be excluded from the Robot Wars Battle Cards.
 * Cerberus was the only Cypriot machine to appear on Robot Wars.
 * Cerberus had a brief cameo on the sitcom | Spaced in the episode "Mettle."

Similarities with Diotoir
Many similarities have been noted between Cerberus and Diotoir


 * Both robots made their first appearance in Series 3 (Although Team Nemesis had previously fought with Nemesis).
 * Both defeated a team that would go onto much greater success in later wars with a different machine (Cerberus beat Team Hurtz, who reached the Series 6 Grand Final with Terrorhurtz, and Diotoir defeated The 1 Law Associates, who later reached two semi finals with S3).
 * Both reached the heat final.
 * Both lost their heat final after being flipped.
 * Both fought in The First World Championship (Where coincidentally, they fought).
 * Both returned seeded for Series 4, only to have to remove important parts of the machine to make the weight limit (Cerberus’s head and Diotior’s top armour).
 * Both were dispatched very quickly by a robot with a front hinged flipper.
 * Both fought in the Extreme 1 Tag Team, alongside a Semi Finalist from Series 4.
 * Both made one last appearance in Extreme 2, despite not appearing in Series 6, and lost their only fight.