User blog comment:SpaceManiac888/Rusty Spanner and Golden Wrench of the Decade (2010s)/@comment-4700688-20191216001213

Golden Wrenches for reboot Robot Wars

3. Getting the old faces back, and bringing in the new guys - I think the one thing roboteers wanted to gain from the reboot most of all was some new faces for the sport, and the return of old competitors alongside them. Learning the competitor list for Series 8 was crazy, there were so many long-forgotten competitors who turned up out of nowhere to make their return! I never, ever would've thought that machines like Infernal Contraption, Terror Turtle, DisConstructor, Crushtacean and even Supernova still existed, but here they are, fighting fit! Other teams we hadn't seen in a long time like Draven, Robin Herrick and even The General showed up with something new, in unprecedented returns, but it was brilliant. Then you have the complete newcomers. If Robot Wars didn't return to our screens, I have to imagine we'd never have the Tom Brewsters and Tim Rackers of this world, there simply wouldn't have been that incentive to take the leap. They're not the only ones though, Tom Lloyd, Georgina Henwood, the Androne guys, these are names that had never built a robot in their lives, but here they are with heavyweights, and many are still around to this day! Community growth was exponentially helped here.

2. Genuinely innovative new designs - Getting onto TV does sometimes require thinking outside of the box, but this often paid off superbly. Some robots like Thor and Gabriel were already enough to qualify unchanged, but went on completely different paths from that point on. Gabriel and Cherub found an unexpected strength against spinners and made their mark this way, while others like Thor and Eruption weren't perfect off the mark, and used these three series to gradually improve. The improvements seen from the likes of Tauron and Chimera were far more dramatic, while the robots that didn't update were left behind. And then we got the true innovators, robots who brought something unheard of to the table. Not all were successful, like Hobgoblin's eggbeater or Vulture's hammer saw, but both weapons are now a staple of the sport over in BattleBots. Others were clearly a bit of a laugh, like Bucky's biter or The Swarm's four-part squadron, but even they found a way to prove themselves. Finally, you get the true genius, where something unheard of proves itself to be a masterpiece. The meltybrain flails of Nuts 2 are to this day a one-off, and were it not for the reboot, Nuts would probably still be a Tragic Roundabout spinner.

1. Series 10 was bloody good, wasn't it - What a perfect storm. Nobody saw it coming. Series 8-9 were decent enough, but were probably heading in the wrong direction, and the reduction to 30 competitors instead of 40 felt like the final nail in the coffin. Instead, we got what may well be the best series of Robot Wars ever! With unprecedented and shocking results, charming narratives, genuine value to every minute of the episode, and just some stellar fights, this is what we all wanted from Robot Wars returning to our screens. To end on the greatest episode of Robot Wars ever, that incredible Grand Final, is something I think we're all at peace with now. Unless you want to bring up World Series Ep 2. Don't

Honourables: Various excellent fights, unforgettable moments like the Crackers ejection and the Apexplosion, the free-of-charge audience tickets providing great memories for the crowd, the strangely colourful yet appealing competitor photos, Richard Browning