Milly-Ann Bug

"This robot could be more dangerous than the Millennium Bug!"

- Jonathan Pearce

Milly-Ann Bug was a competitor from Series 2 to 4 of Robot Wars. Built to resemble a caterpillar, it had two hemispherical pods with independent four-wheel drive up to 12mph and a steel chassis. Its armour was made from kevlar, fibre-glass and resin giving it a green colour. Equipped with wooden mandibles and a horizontal circular saw in Series 2, but in its later appearances was painted green, yellow and brown (Royal Navel Air Service colours with 2nd SS Panzer Division markings), and the pincers were replaced with spikes. For Series 2 and 4, Milly-Ann Bug also sported kevlar hair, which could be used to snag chainsaws and had the unique ability to articulate in all directions. Its name was a pun on millennium bug and was branded a personal favourite of Julia Reed.

Although it never reached a heat final of the main competition, it was a seasoned competitor and was awarded the Most Original Entry Award in Series 2.

Appearances in Merchandise

 * Milly-Ann Bug/Robot Wars: Metal Mayhem

Series 2
First to tackle the Gauntlet in its heat, Milly-Ann Bug opted for the Ramrig route. Milly Ann-Bug struggled to negotiate past the angle grinders, but eventually did so before it was cornered by Shunt. It received a blow in the eye from Shunt and when it escaped, it drove into Sergeant Bash, causing its hair to catch fire, but covered sufficient distance to qualify.

Next in the path of Milly-Ann Bug was the Trial, which during Heat D was Football. Before this, Milly-Ann Bug had had it hair restyled by the make-up lady, but obviously this had no effect on its performance It started well using its pincers to control the ball, but was picked on by the house robots, and the other robots and in particular Elvis who tried to flip it. Besides being set on fire by Sergeant Bash, and having only minor impact on the game, Milly-Ann Bug watched as Razer, then Behemoth, then Inquisitor scored. Milly-Ann Bug was now one of only two left, but Sergeant Bash and Dead Metal decided to attack Milly-Ann Bug, rather than defend the goal and so caused more damage to Milly-Ann Bug, during which its hair caught fire twice. Elvis managed to score the final goal. With this, Milly-Ann Bug was eliminated from the competition. "Bye bye to the Nicky Clarke of Robot Wars"

- Philippa Forrester

Series 3
Milly Ann Bug's only match in Series 3 was placed up against Bumblebot. It began the battle by spinning around Bumblebot, and avoiding the huge axe of its opponent. Milly-Ann Bug tried several times to push Bumblebot, but made little headway, until on a huge charge, it pushed Bumblebot very close to the pit, but Bumblebot spun away. More bumping ensued, until Milly-Ann Bug pushed Bumblebot again, but miscued its attack, and drove into the pit of oblivion, eliminating it from the competition. "Oh no, silly miss Milly!"

- Jonathan Pearce as Milly Ann Bug drives into the pit.

Series 4
Milly Ann Bug's first battle was against the 19th seed Pussycat and newcomers Reptirron. In the battle, Pussycat went after Reptirron first, and severed Reptirron's hydraulic cable, causing hydraulic fluid to spurt out. Sergeant Bash then set the fluid, and Reptirron on fire. Pussycat then attacked Milly-Ann Bug, and managed to puncture one of the wheels, as well as ripping off a wheel hub. Milly-Ann Bug got too close to the blazing Reptirron, and its hair caught fire, but was quickly extinguished by the fire extinguisher on Refbot. Milly-Ann Bug then ran into Shunt, who overturned one of the articulating domes, but was soon righted again. Reptirron was immobilized, so Milly-Ann Bug progressed to the next round. "What a horrible torture this is! Its like watching some maniacal, horrible schoolboy pull the legs off a spider."

- Jonathan Pearce

Milly-Ann Bug's next battle saw it go up against the third seed Razer. Obviously the superior machine in this battle, Razer put several large holes in the domes on Milly-Ann Bug, and the flame pits set the hair on fire again. Unhappy with being unable to seperate the domes, Razer settled for just decapitating the bug, removing the wheels, one by one. After three of the wheels had come off, Razer pulled back as Milly-Ann Bug stopped moving. Shunt then attacked the top of Milly-Ann Bug, and Dead Metal attacked the other dome. Cease was eventually called and Milly-Ann Bug was eliminated from the competition, this being its last appearance.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 1
 * Losses: 3

Series Record

 * Series 1: Did not enter
 * Series 2: Heat, Trial
 * Series 3: Heat, Round 1
 * Series 4: Heat, Round 2
 * Series 5-7: Did not enter

Trivia

 * It was originally going to have 3 domes, but this was a complicated design, so it stuck with two domes.
 * Milly-Ann Bug was revealed before its Series 4 Eliminator to be pit reporter Julia Reed's "personal favourite".
 * Milly-Ann Bug never had a judges' decision in its time on Robot Wars.
 * Milly-Ann Bug, along with Razer and Team Cold Fusion, appeared in both Robot Wars: The Second Wars/Heat D and Robot Wars: The Fourth Wars/Heat B.
 * Milly-Ann Bug's rear right wheel was destroyed by Pussycat in its first battle of Series 4. Upon being repaired, it was the first to be destroyed by Razer in the next round.
 * Before the competition was cancelled, Milly-Ann Bug was due to be paired with Agent Orange in the Tag Team Terror competition in Series 3.
 * Milly-Ann Bug, at 53.0kg, was the lightest robot to enter the main competition of the Second Wars.