Tornado

Tornado was a robot that competed in the British television game show Robot Wars. The robot was a basic box-shaped robot with a red frame and clear polycarbonate armor. It only had a pneumatic spike in Series 4, but was given a vertical spinning disc in Series 5. In Series 6, it had interchangeable weaponry - the disc, a wedge (which would later incorporate a chain flail), a static spike, and a rectangular frame with horizontal blade (intended for use against Razer). Rather than its weaponry, however, Tornado mainly relied on its speed and strength to push competitors into the pit or slam them into the arena walls. It featured 24V motors being run at 36V to give it high pushing power - its top speed was only 10mph, but it had very good acceleration. Tornado was also invertible, allowing it to continue running even when flipped.

Tornado was particularly notable in that it defeated the best performing clusterbot and the best performing walkerbot in Heat Finals across its history. It also defeated Chaos 2 and Pussycat twice each, the only robot to do so. It also managed to win two Challenge Belts across the Extreme Series.

The robot competed in Series 4-7 of Robot Wars, winning the sixth series. It was built by Andrew Marchant, Bryan Moss and David Gamble, from Huntingdon.

Tornado was renamed Storm Chaser for TechnoGames, where it fought alongside Sprocket (S.M.I.D.S.Y.) in the Football, winning 5-0 in the final against Snowcat and Snowstorm.

Armament
Tornado made its robot combat debut equipped with static ramming spikes, and a small retractable spear. This simple yet effective weapon system saw it all the way through to the top 8 before its lack of potent weapons caused it to be utterly outclassed at the hands of Chaos 2.

In Extreme 1, Tornado returned with a powerful spinning drum weapon. This gave it great success as it reached the semi-finals of the World Championship, the grand final of the All-Stars and gave it complete victory over several adversaries to win two Challenge Belts. It defeated Chaos 2 twice during Extreme with this new weaponry, getting its vengeance two-fold. However, despite slamming Gravedigger, Tornado was felled early in Series 5, as the fur of Diotoir caught in the drum, causing it to catch. Tornado was helpless, and it fell into the pit.

In Series 6, Tornado began to use alternative weapons. This was allowed by Robot Wars rules, as long as Tornado remained within the weight limit. The slot at the front of the machine where the drum sat gave way to many other weapons across the two series.

In Series 7, the Tornado team had to redesign or remove some of their weapons due to some new rules for that year, including one that stated all robots had to have an active weapon.

"Many people could not believe what we had built, and even Craig and Philippa came into the pits specially to see the weapon..."
 * Spinning drum - Tornado's main weapon, spinning at 2,500rpm.
 * Scoop - a simple low wedge, nicknamed "The Charity Scoop" as it was used in live events. It was first used during the Second World Championships.
 * Static spear - This spike was only used once in the battle with Anarchy.
 * Anti-crusher frame - This frame was mostly used as a means of combating Razer. It featured either a large spinning disc or bar weapon.

- Tornado website


 * Anti-spinner weapon - This weapon was never seen, as the Hypno-Disc team raised an official complaint when they learned that Tornado had it.
 * Scoop lifter - Similar in design to the chairty scoop, except it had a lifting mechanism installed. It ultimately failed to work in its only battle.
 * Chain flail - Similar again to the charity scoop with a simple chain flail. It, in effect, was the scoop's replacement for Series 7, where active weapons were required.
 * Vertical bar spinner - This weapon that was never seen, so it is unknown how it worked, what it looked like or the circumstances of why it wasn't seen.

Rivalry
Tornado had an infamous rivalry with Razer. The two robots first met in the All-Stars final in Extreme Series 1, in which Razer immediately grabbed hold of Tornado and tried to pierce the tyres of its opponent. Tornado briefly escaped but Razer grabbed hold once again, doing more damage and leaving it immobilised. This left Razer able to easily push Tornado into the pit. Their next encounter was in the semi-finals of The Second World Championship, which ended with a similar outcome. Once again, Razer quickly grabbed hold of Tornado and pierced through its armour. Razer then picked Tornado up and held it over the pit, eventually dropping it in.

Following these easy Razer victories, Tornado developed a special weapon for use in future battles between the two machines. It was a front-mounted spinning blade, supported by a large metal frame around the whole robot. The first time this weapon was used against Razer was in Extreme Warriors, in the semi-final of the International Championship. In this battle, Tornado was able to push Razer around easily, but when it pushed Razer into the CPZ, the House Robots attacked the cage when they weren't supposed to. Razer also ripped out Tornado's weapon motor in one of the attacks. The judges, however, gave the match to Tornado. Team Razer were so appalled, they confronted the judges directly. The judges had ignored the attacks on the cage by the House Robots, which they deemed should not have happened, but it became clear that they had accidently mistaken Tornado's motor for Razer's wheel. The decision stood, but one of the judges later said it was one of the worst moments of his career.

The two robots met again in the Grand Final of Series 6, and Tornado used its anti-crusher device once more. In response to this weapon, the Razer team added an extended claw to the end of its beak, but all it could do was grab the frame of Tornado, and Tornado was able to push Razer around the arena and slam it into the arena walls. Eventually Razer was able to lift Tornado and carry it over to the pit, but Tornado's frame meant that it could not be dropped into the pit. Cease was called and Tornado took Razer's crown of UK Champion.

Tornado used the spinning blade and framework again in the semi-final of the European Championship in Extreme Series 2, but Razer had developed a new add-on in the shape of an upward-facing hook, which would be used to grab hold of Tornado's frame. The hook worked well, and Razer was able to lift Tornado by the frame. Razer opened the pit and tried to carry Tornado towards it, but the motors burnt out and it was unable to finish Tornado off. The judges went for Razer, but the team later decided to give the victory to Tornado as they felt that they had been immobilised.

Series 4
Tornado's first fight was against Kater Killer and the clusterbot Gemini. It exploded off the starting position and slammed straight into Kater Killer. Shoving it into Sir Killalot, it rushed back, circled the arena and slammed into it again, pushing it into one of the Gemini twins, who flipped it over. It pushed Kater Killer around and righted it, pushing it into Shunt, who immobilized it with its axe. Tornado then shoved Shunt around the arena while Killalot finished off Kater Killer. Tornado's next battle was against the seeded Berserk 2. It rammed into the arena wall until it was immobilized. Finally, Tornado came up against Gemini again. Gemini started slower than the speedy Tornado, who was flipped twice, but came back immediately. It targeted one of the Gemini twins and impaled it on an arena spike, immobilizing it. The Gemini team was eliminated since one half was immobilized. The unanticipated win over the clusterbot put Tornado through to the semi-finals.

In the Semi-Finals, Tornado met Wheely Big Cheese. Tornado was far quicker, and although the Cheese flipped Tornado twice, Tornado shoved Wheely Big Cheese into a CPZ and buckled a wheel. Tornado was flipped again and started smoking, but the judges went for Tornado. Tornado's final battle against Chaos 2 was fought three times, but only the third one was shown on TV. Tornado ran into Chaos 2, who rushed it up and flipped it out of the arena. Tornado was awarded Best Newcomer.

Extreme 1
Tornado competed in a Robot Wars Vengeance battle against Stinger, the reason for this being because the Stinger team claimed Tornado was a box on wheels. Tornado shoved Stinger around the arena and into Dead Metal. Stinger escaped and Tornado narrowly avoided the house robot. The fight went to the judges and Tornado was given the win.

It also competed in a Mayhem battle against Steel Avenger and King B Powerworks where it unfortunately broke down eliminating it.

Tornado's highlight of Robot Wars Extreme was participating in the Challenge Belt competition. It challenged the holders, Behemoth. Tornado charged Behemoth towards the arena wall leaving it overturned and being unable to self-right until Refbot righted it. Tornado was then flipped by Behemoth before being flipped against the wall in the CPZ but fortunately, Matilda righted it. After much more pushing and shoving the fight went to the judges and the judges decided Tornado had won and taken the belt off of Behemoth. Tornado then took on Comengetorix, who landed ineffective axe-blows on it before Tornado shoved it around the arena tearing off one of its's side skirts. Tornado then finished off the fight by pushing Comengetorix down the pit. Tornado's next defense was against Wild Thing. Tornado again slammed the wedge-shaped robot into the angle grinders and the arena walls also managing to shred a bit of armour off. Wild Thing was taken to Sir Killalot who had to free it due to it still being mobile causing the fight to go to the judges to decide and they decided Tornado won the fight. Then, after winning 3 successful battles, Tornado was allowed to keep its belt outright and was given a second belt to defend, the first challenger for this was Chaos 2. Tornado managed to ram the current champions into the CPZ before it escaped and retaliated by throwing Tornado twice into the air. Tornado then came back and Chaos 2 was passed over to Shunt where despite overturning the house robot and escaping Dead Metal, it broke down allowing Tornado to go through. The last fight was against Pussycat who Tornado managed to ram into the arena walls and into Matilda's big vertical disc. The Series 4 runners-up managed to escape but Tornado then activated the pit before pushing Pussycat down it. Tornado had won all the challenges in Extreme 1.

After having reached the Series Semi-Finals of Series 4, Tornado also competed in the All-Stars tournament where it fought 3 Stegs To Heaven in Round 1. It was more aggressive in the fight as it rammed it's opponent into the CPZ where after 3 Stegs was picked up by Sir Killalot and roasted on the flame pit. Team Steg-O-Saw-Us' robot appeared to have lost a chain for one of its wheels which allowed Tornado to win the judges decision and go into the Quarter-Finals where it met Pussycat. It pushed Pussycat all over the arena as well as breaking off one of its wheels. Pussycat was immobilised after becoming stuck on its side which meant Tornado went through. The semi-final saw Tornado against Chaos 2. Tornado managed to push Chaos 2 around the arena, but ended up on the wall at one point in the right position to be flipped out by Chaos 2. Contraversially, Refbot knocked Tornado off the wall. The fight then went to a judges decision and Tornado was awarded the win and a place in the All-Stars Grand-Final at the end of the last episode. Despite its best efforts, Tornado couldn't get its disc into any great effect in on Razer who plunged its beak into it's bodywork, not letting it go. After being axed by Shunt and being shoved on the flame pit, Tornado broke down, was counted out by Refbot, flipped by the floor flipper and put out of its misery by getting dumped down the pit.

After finishing second in the All-Stars Grand-Final, Tornado represented the UK in the World Championships along with Chaos 2, Firestorm 3 & Razer. Its first round saw it in a bit of of trouble as it was flipped repeatedly by American Panzer Mk2 and sandwiched against Panzer and Belgian Philliper. After Panzer Mk2 and Yeborobo had both been eliminated, it was left to fight Philliper and shoved it on the flame pit in the last 10 seconds. The fight went to the judges and Tornado was given the win. Tornado then in the Semi-Final fought the Reigning Champion Razer this time with its scoop fitted to it. Again, Razer kept burrying its jaw into Tornado's bodywork before taking it to the pit and dropping it down.

Series 5
12th seeds Tornado eliminated former semi-finallists Gravedigger in the first round. Gravedigger put up a good fight in the opening moments, slamming blows on Tornado with its axe weapon. However, Tornado rammed it into submission against the arena wall. This put Tornado against the Dublin boys and Diotoir, whom it pushed around for most of the battle. However, in an unexpected turn of events, Tornado's disc became clogged with Diotoir's fur, so the Irish machine activated the pit, and pushed Tornado straight in. This meant that Tornado was the only top 12 seed not to reach the heat final in the whole series.

"They proved to be one of the hardest to push 2WD robots we have ever fought, and when we were on their front, their ramped chassis lifted our front wheels off the ground and gave them the pushing advantage. This proved conclusive after they opened the pit just before we lost drive on one side. There was nothing we could do - straight down the pit we went. Out to Diotoir - Noooooo!"

- Andrew Marchant on the Tornado website

Series 6
Tornado returned for Series 6 with a new feature - an interchangable weapons bay. It had a wide variety of weapons for different opponents that could be swapped in or out depending on what was needed. Tornado started off its campaign against Terror-Bull, Inshredable and Edgehog. Tornado giving out some powerful slams in this battle - it pushed Inshredable around the arena a bit, then combined with Edgehog to push Inshredable into Matilda's CPZ. Edgehog became immobile soon afterward. Tornado continued shoving Inshredable around, then shoved Terror Bull into the pit a few seconds before Inshredable was counted out - Tornado and Inshredable qualified. "Dead Metal got stuck in, immobilising Inshredible, or at least so we though(t). So to end the fight we pushed Terrorbull into the pit - and then Inshredible drove out from Dead Metal's corner! Sorry Terrorbull guys, we should have left you alone, you would have gone through then..."

- Team Tornado on inadvertently knocking out Terror Bull.

Inshredable was in no shape to fight again, as proved in its fight against Anarchy. In the second round, Tornado pushed Thor around the arena and into the House Robots, causing one of Thor's side panels to come off and won on a judges' decision. It replaced the spinning disc with a static spike for the final against Anarchy, and pushed the walker around, despite being flipped a few times. At one point, after a failed flip, Tornado charged into Anarchy's interiors, spike-first. This meant that Tornado was in position to prevent Anarchy from closing its flipper, and had lost its most potent weaponry. As a result, Anarchy could not attack Tornado, and Tornado won the judges' decision, through to the semifinals.

"Our first fight of the semis was against the no. 4 seed, Hypno Disc! So we fitted our Anti Spinner Weapon - but the Hypno boys raised an official objection, and we were prevented from using it, as it was viewed according to the rules as a defensive addition rather than an offensive weapon... Our next best option was to use the charity scoop, which was considered offensive simply because it has two spikes fitted..."

- Team Tornado

Tornado fitted a low wedge for the first round battle against Hypno-Disc. It simply shoved Hypno-Disc around, leaving Hypno-Disc unable to get its spinning disc up to speed and use it effectively. Tornado won the judges' decision. In the next battle, Tornado slammed into Dominator 2 twice with its scoop, while Dominator 2 axed it and made a hole. However, Tornado pushed Dominator 2 into the side of Matilda in a CPZ, but Matilda couldn't turn her flywheel into Dominator 2. Tornado backed straight into Matilda's flywheel, and went soaring above the pit and landed at the side of it, where it ran away. Dominator 2 tried to chase it, but did a backwards-nose-dive into the pit. Tornado had made it to the Grand Final for the very first time.

"The next problem was the scoop - we were to be fighting Firestorm so we needed to use it, but it would not sit flat on the ground. We had to adjust the tyre pressures to get it close, and then just hope... Firestorm had ground down their front sufficiently that we thought they would get underneath us even with the scoop, so we were very careful that we didn't hit head on at the start..."

- Team Tornado's tactics to approaching Firestorm.

Tornado was drawn up against Firestorm 4 in the first round, and pushed it around the arena for a bit. Firestorm was having trouble getting under Tornado because its scoop was so low to the ground. Eventually Firestorm pushed Tornado into Shunt and Tornado got axed by the House Robot. Firestorm wedged Tornado into the wall. Tornado's wheels started smoking as it then pushed Firestorm back. Firestorm then got under Tornado again and pushed it around for a bit. Tornado was beginning to falter as it pressed the Pit Button. Tornado then got under Firestorm and slammed it into Shunt. After axing Firestorm, Shunt axed Tornado, nearly hitting the receiver. Firestorm flipped Tornado over. Tornado's scoop was now upside down and ineffective, until Firestorm flipped it again. Tornado then got under Firestorm and slammed them into the Pit Button. Just before time ran out, Tornado got under Firestorm and pushed it into the Pit, qualifying for the grand final. For the battle against Razer, Tornado was fitted with a large metal frame with a lawnmower blade at the front. Created specially for this fight, should it have occurred, the frame made it impossible for Razer to reach the inner parts of Tornado. Razer retaliated by attaching a small claw extension to their weapon. The frame was heavily criticized, but was deemed legal as the team had made it clear alongside all its other weapons before the tournament had started. The round begun with Tornado ramming Razer several times, although rather ineffectively. Tornado's lawnmower blade stopped spinning at one point, and Razer grabbed onto the cage several times, but kept losing its grip. Razer became wedged behind the disc button, and Tornado began its patented "relentless ramming" technique. Refbot intervened and freed Razer. The pit button was pushed and Razer managed to get a grip on Tornado's cage, raised it into the air and tried to dispose it in the pit, but Tornado's wide frame prevented it from falling down the shaft. Cease was called. After a 45 minute wait, the judges finally ruled in favor of Tornado, who was subsequently crowned the new UK Champion.

Extreme 2
Tornado competed in the Extreme 2 All-Stars Championship after having won the Sixth Wars. In the first round it teamed up with Dantomkia on Terrorhurtz shoving John Reid's machine into the CPZs and the arena walls. Tornado went through along with Dantomkia after Terrorhurtz was dispatched down the pit. For the Quarter Final, Tornado faced Bigger Brother, Tornado started as the more aggressive shoving Bigger Brother into Sir Killalot. Tornado was then overturned by Bigger Brother and couldn't get its scoop to any good effect. After the pit had been activated, Bigger Brother put it down, only the second non-Razer loss that knocked out a mobile Tornado, the other being Diotoir.

Tornado also feautured in the Challenge Belt episode where Dantomkia, Sir Chromalot, S.M.I.D.S.Y., Hypno-Disc, Vader, Iron-Awe 2.1, Terrorhurtz and Barber-Ous 2 all fought in a tournament and Tornado the current challenge-belt holder fought the winner. The winner was Terrorhurtz, but Tornado immediately disposed of Terrorhurtz by putting it down the pit - the fastest pitting in the show's history at only 19 seconds - and claiming the Challenge Belt title for a second time in a row.

Tornado also participated in the European Championship tournament, and faced Snake Bite in its first battle. Snake Bite had a Razer-like crusher, but Team Tornado decided not to fit their anti-crusher frame. Tornado started by pushing Snake Bite into Dead Metal, who attacked it with his serrated sawblade. Tornado then pushed Snake Bite into Mr Psycho, and the attacks from both house robots meant Snake Bite was immobile. It was counted out and pitted, and Tornado was through to face adversary Razer.

Series 7
Tornado kept the interchangeable weaponary and came back into the seventh wars as reigning UK champions. It started off a first round clash with Ewe 2, Saw Point 2 and Devastator. It dominated the early stages, ramming Devastator near the CPZ and singled it out as the probable weakest. It had to seperate it from the other two and continued to bash it into the sidewall, but it had a nudge at Sawpoint 2. After Ewe 2 pitted Saw Point 2, Tornado combined with the flipper to shove Devastator into oblivion and out of the competition. In the second round, it met Leveler 2 and again went with the scoop. Tornado was flipped over, rendering the scoop useless, but used the upside down weapon to get a grip on Leveler 2 and shove it into Sir Killalot. Poor driving meant it couldn't get away and Shunt and Killalot combined to bash it a bit. Leveler flipped Tornado once more but Tornado showed great aggresion by bashing its opponent towards the angle grinder. Leveler eventually was grasped by Killalot, who dropped it. Leveler 2 then drove into the pit. Tornado then destroyed Tetanus Booster in the final with a series of shoves when it kept getting underneath the lookalike. Tetanus started smoking and after a little bout in the CPZ, Tornado pitted it, putting it through to the semi-finals.

There it met Raging Knightmare. Tornado overturned Raging Knightmare with a rebound from a shove into the sidewall, but Shunt axed it. Tornado shoved Raging Knightmare hard repeatedly into the sidewall at speed. Raging Knightmare couldn't self-right and was pitted by Tornado. In the second round it met much-fancied Gravity, who had beaten Dantomkia and 13 Black. Gravity couldn't get underneath Tornado's low scoop and Tornado kept shoving it around the wall. Gravity chucked Tornado high in the air and landed Scoop side up. Although Gravity had a hissing tire, it could now get underneath Tornado. It didn't however and Tornado again pressed the pit release after it had shoved a damaged Gravity onto it and sped away to press it.

In the grand final it met Storm 2. Storm 2 was much like Tornado, meaning it shoved its opponents around the arena but with better speed and power. It also had a flipper. There was no respect between the two and Storm 2 span away into the sidewall with an attempted shove. That was before it kicked in and whammed Tornado into the wall at 25mph, which shook some elctronics. It got some more pushes in and Tornado couldn't handle the Storm 2 movement. It was so aggresive. Unfortunately, Tornado lost the judges decision as Storm 2 won on damage and aggresion. In its battle against X-Terminator, the opponents had taken so much damage against the eventual winners Typhoon 2, it didn't work as well. Tornado dodged the flywheel and more deadly shoving meant X-Terminator was counted out.

US Season 2
Tornado, alongside Kat 3, Wowot and arch rivals Razer, appeared in the International Championship of Extreme Warriors Season 2. The four UK robots were paired up and Tornado fought Adam Clark's Wowot. Tornado slammed into the offensive, shoving Wowot around. The bout was up when Tornado pushed Wowot into Sergeant Bash, who crumpled the battry pack and caused Wowot to lose power. "Our second fight was against Razer. Unlike at Extreme 1 we were not daunted - it was time to play our trump card and reveal our anti-crusher weapon! Razer were dumbfounded - understandably they asked for it to be weighted and measured, but as we knew already it followed the rules to the letter. Everyone who saw it was either amused or speechless!"

- Team Tornado

For the battle against Razer, Team Tornado used their new anti-crusher device for the first time, as the first season of Extreme Warriors was filmed before UK Series 6. In the fight, the chain came off the disc of the Anti-Crusher Web almost immediately, but the weapon served its purpose and Razer could not reach the chassis. Tornado repeatedly pushed Razer into the CPZs, but the House Robots kept attacking Tornado instead. By the end of the fight, the Anti-Crusher Web was completely mangled, but Tornado itself was relatively unharmed. "But the judges were apparently told to ignore any house robot intervention because they had not done as they should. It went to a judges decision - and we won on a 2:1 split decision!"

- Team Tornado

In the final, Tornado met General Chompsalot 2. This time Tornado equipped the pushing scoop, and simply pushed General Chompsalot around the arena and down the pit to claim the International Championship.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * UK Wins: 32
 * UK Losses: 9
 * US Wins: 3
 * US Losses: 0

Series Record

 * Series 1-3: Did not enter
 * Series 4: Semi-Finals, Round 2
 * Series 5: Heats, Round 2
 * Series 6: Grand Champion
 * Series 7: Third Place