X-Terminator

"Apparently this is the X-Factor that everyone's been looking for"

- Philippa Forrester during Series 6

X-Terminator was a wedged box-shaped robot that competed in Series 3 through 7 of Robot Wars, also entering in both series of Extreme. Its weapons were originally a spiked axe to impale and a front scoop to trap opponents. It also had a pneumatic spike on each side to assist in self-righting and was armoured in 25mm thick aluminium sheet and was powered by hatchback car starter motors to drive it up to 20 mph.

For Series 4, the robot had a flipping arm that could be interchanged with the axe where the blade was enlarged for the semi finals, modified side skirts and a top-mounted rollbar. In Series 4, the robot was speedier at 25 mph and changed from red aluminium to silver with added scrapyard materials and was known as X-Terminator 2. Although it reverted to its original name the following series, a logo reading 'XT2' remained on the side of the machine until Series 6, when the robot was given a new silver and black colour scheme and was upgraded to four-wheel drive with scuff-steering. The Extreme 1 model had a lower centre of gravity and a stronger base, still at 25 mph which made it uncontrollable at times. The axe was little more than a wire and shrapnel combination in Series 4, a weapon even the team members held contempt for, but was upgraded to a more powerful pneumatic, "dilithium-coated axe-tip" weapon.

For Series 5 and 6, the 37 kg axe was enlarged and the self-righting spikes were replaced with small arms, similar to Behemoth's. However, it was slower at 18 mph, driven by a 24V motor, and had steering problems and a 1 cm ground clearance.

For Series 7, the original X-Terminator was sold on eBay and a newer, more pyramid-shaped model was built, with two horn-shaped spikes on the sides and again four-wheel driven with four-wheel steering. The axe was replaced with an extremely destructive vertical flywheel with enough power to fling opponents out of the arena but this model was vulnerable to flippers and was slow at 9 mph. This new model was painted silver and blue, giving it a passing resemblance to a Dalek, from the British Science Fiction series Doctor Who.

X-Terminator's best result was coming 4th Place in Robot Wars Series 7. It also reached the semi-finals of Series 4, whilst additionally managing to stay on the sumo platform for 60 seconds in the "Sumo Basho" competition, along with Behemoth. Unfortunately, Panic Attack won the competition, but only because Shunt drove off the ring.

Panic Attack
"Well, I just can't work out what they've got against us, the first year they took us out in the heat final, second year then they managed to pull out their way through Sumo and beat us, and then they burst a pipe on Killalot's hydraulics just before we went in, so we were sliding everywhere..."

- Marlon Pritchard in Extreme 1

In the early stages of X-Terminator's Robot Wars career, the team held a grudge against Team Panic and Panic Attack. The grudge started in X-Terminator's debut, in Heat K of the Third Wars, after both robots easily made their way to the heat final, X-Terminator dominated the battle initially until Panic Attack slammed it into the arena wall, rupturing its gas canister and leaving it unable to self-right once it was finally flipped. In the Fourth Wars, although they didn't fight each other directly, both robots entered the Sumo Basho competition. Despite X-Terminator going to the top of the leaderboard (equal with Behemoth) by surviving the full minute, Panic Attack then managed to defeat Shunt by knocking it off in just over 21 seconds, even though it then fell off itself.

This all led to a grudge match in the first series of Extreme, which Panic Attack then won again. This grudge was clearly light-hearted, as the team were also willing to help out one another. Michael Davies of the Panic Attack team even joined Marlon Pritchard in the control pod for X-Terminator's Mayhem battle in Extreme 1 and their heat semi final against Corkscrew, as the rest of the X-Terminator team was absent, and another person was required to operate the weapons. Nonetheless, the X-Terminator team still desired to face Panic Attack again after Extreme 1, as revealed after winning its heat in Series 7.

However, the two robots didn't fight again, meaning X-Terminator would never get vengeance.

Series 3
X-Terminator's opponent in the first round of its first Robot Wars appearance was fellow newcomers Hefty. In the battle, X-Terminator cornered Hefty in the CPZ, and stuck it with its axe. While retracting it, Hefty was pulled over and immobilised as it was without a srimech. This put X-Terminator through to the next round of the heat. X-Terminator then fought fellow newcomers Judge Shred in the second round. In this battle, X-Terminator once again displayed its speed and power, charging Judge Shred around the arena, and eventually pushing it into the pit for the win. In the heat final, the newcomers X-Terminator were up against the reigning champions, Panic Attack. The fight was going in X-Terminator's favour, but then during the battle, X-Terminator's gas canister suddenly blew, and it lost its ability to self-right. Panic Attack then slammed X-Terminator into the arena side wall and then eventually rolled X-Terminator over for the win, and X-Terminator was out of the third wars. "The fight was going in XT's favour until the gas canister became loose...XT was a sitting duck for Panic Attack's forks"

- Marlon Pritchard on the X-Terminator website

Series 4
"The axe? I don't even want to talk about it!"

- Summary of Series 4 on the X-Terminator website

X-Terminator 2 was seeded number 22 for Series 4. In its first round fight, X-Terminator 2 was up against the walkerbot Millennium Bug and Judge Shred 2, a robot that X-Terminator defeated in the last wars. The battle had a slow start to it, X-Terminator attacked Judge Shred 2 with both robots using their axes. Judge Shred 2 then tried to flip Millennium Bug, and some of its armour came off. X-Terminator and Judge Shred 2 attacked each other again, but X-Terminator's axe had no effect. The robots then ganged up on Millennium Bug, with a result of the 4 mph walkerbot being toppled over and flipped by the floor flipper. This put Judge Shred 2 and X-Terminator 2 through to the second round of the heat. "The second fight...XT was all over them, pushing them around throughout the fight. XT also proved how useless the axe was this year"

- Marlon Pritchard on the X-Terminator website

This was another close battle, as the 22nd seeds went up against Arnold, Arnold Terminegger. X-Terminator 2 rammed Arnold, Arnold Terminegger into the arena wall twice with its scoop, but it used its axe to absolutely no effect. Team EyeEye's machine then flipped X-Terminator 2, which self-righted with its side rams. It pushed Arnold, Arnold Terminegger into the arena wall again, and the robots dodged around until the end of the fight, meaning that it went to a judges' decision, where the judges gave the win to X-Terminator 2. X-Terminator 2 used a flipping arm instead of an axe in the heat final against the 6th seeds Behemoth. Behemoth flipped X-Terminator 2, which self-righted but seemed to stop. The same thing happened twice again. The robots rammed each other, with X-Terminator 2 lifting, but not flipping Behemoth. However, Behemoth was moving very sluggishly towards the end (something that might of happened during the Southern Annihilator). Once again, the judges decided the outcome, and they put the lower seed X-Terminator 2 through to the Series Semi-Finals.

The X-Terminator team met the Adams family and the number 11 seeds Wild Thing in the first round of the Series Semi-Finals. "XT was at a serious disadvantage due to Sir Killalot breaking a hydraulic pipe...XT was sliding everywhere with its small, thin wheels, whilst Wild Thing with large wheels seemed to cope a lot better"

- Marlon Pritchard on the X-Terminator website

X-Terminator 2 pushed Wild Thing into Sir Killalot's CPZ. Wild Thing then pushed X-Terminator 2 into Shunt and Dead Metal's corner patrol zones. Wild Thing then flipped X-Terminator 2 and bent one of its self-righting spikes in the process. The house robots then sawed and axed it before Sir Killalot dumped X-Terminator 2 into the pit of oblivion, eliminating X-Terminator 2 from the competition.

X-Terminator also competed in the Tag Team Terror competition and Sumo Basho competitions in the Fourth Wars. It was the first robot to hold off Shunt in the Sumo trial, wedging its scoop below Shunt and maintaining a stationary position for the full minute, finishing joint second overall along with Behemoth, however it lost out to Panic Attack. In the Tag Team Terror competition, it was paired up with Invertabrat. In the first round, it fought 101 and King B3. After the initial clash, Invertabrat tagged out for X-Terminator, and it charged into 101, with its axe doing absolutely nothing once again. King B3 switched out and pushed into X-Terminator. However, despite being the most aggressive, it was let down by its partner, who had broken down. In the playoff, it fought Bigger Brother and Plunderbird 4. X-Terminator 2 had equipped its lifter instead which proved a better choice as it flipped Bigger Brother. X-Terminator was wedged underneath by Bigger Brother, until Invertabrat came out and helped out. Plunderbird 4 had broken down, leaving X-Terminator 2 and Invertabrat with strength in numbers. It lifted Bigger Brother again, but the smaller robot escaped. As X-Terminator 2 attempted to pit Plunderbird 4, Bigger Brother pushed it away, and X-Terminator 2 drove down the pit, giving Bigger Brother and Plunderbird 4 the win, with Invertabrat having also broken down in this fight.

Extreme 1
"XT was modified once again for Extreme - wheelbase shortened to try and improve manouverbility. It didn't work that well..."

- Marlon Pritchard on the X-Terminator website

X-Terminator fought in a variety of appearances in the first series of Extreme, and just like Napalm, fought with two different models. The first was similar to the Series 4 version, but much larger, with a bigger axe, but without the scoop bucket.

This version of the robot fought in the All-Stars competition, and fought well against its first round opponents Chaos 2, putting its axe through the lid and successfully self-righting when flipped. The cameras did not show the damage X-Terminator had inflicted. However, Chaos 2 flipped over X-Terminator again and a CO2 pipe blew off, so X-Terminator could not self-right, eliminating it from the competition.

What followed this battle was described by the team as X-Terminator's worst ever fight, it fought Panic Attack in a vengeance battle, but the team made the mistake of adding a large spike on the front. This prevented X-Terminator from self-righting after it was overturned almost immediately by Panic Attack, carried over to the pit of oblivion, and soon put down the pit by the Series 2 champions. "Axe-rated!"

- Jonathan Pearce

X-Terminator later fought with the Series 5 model in Extreme Series 1, reasserted itself in its convincing win in the Mayhem qualifier for a right to fight in the first annihilator of the series. In this battle, X-Terminator went up against newcomers Cataclysmic Variabot and the mildly experienced Panzer Wraith. There was an axe attack between Cataclysmic Variabot and X-Terminator in the beginning, but Panzer Wraith slammed into Catalysmic Variabot and knocked out their removable link. Panzer Wraith then ran away as X-Terminator then dragged the immobilised Cataclysmic Variabot with its axe into Shunt's CPZ. Then Shunt and X-Terminator both used their axes to drag out the beaten machine into the arena centre to be counted out. X-Terminator then left to fight Panzer Wraith. The Series 4 Semi-Finalist axed a hole in Panzer Wraith's rubber track, immobilising Panzer Wraith on one side, before pressing the pit release button and pushing it down the pit, progressing through to the Annihilator. In the annihilator that followed, X-Terminator was originally up against Splinter, Hypno-Disc, Thermidor 2, Arnold A. Terminegger and Pussycat. It was decided at the start that the team would try to take on Hypno-Disc. Throughout the first round battle, it persisted its attack on Hypno-Disc as it managed to pull it away from the main action and constantly axe down on the robot, particularly on the disc. Hypno-Disc struggled to retaliate as it was suffering mechanically right from the start. X-Terminator was occasionally helped out in its attacks by Splinter and Arnold A. Terminegger. X-Terminator managed to go through to the second round mainly due to Thermidor 2 fully breaking down after attacks from Splinter. In the second round of the annihilator, X-Terminator continued to attack Hypno-Disc, however the Series 3 runner-up was more alert and could get away easier, forcing X-Terminator to chase it down. X-Terminator soon found itself right in the middle of the action and was forced to take on an incoming Pussycat. X-Terminator axed down on the cat for a while with Hypno-Disc ramming its rear. With not long to go, it looked like the battle would go to a judges' decision and that X-Terminator would survive to the third round, but suddenly Pussycat's blade weapon came in on X-Terminator and cut out the safety link of the silver machine. X-Terminator was counted out by Refbot, and Sir Killalot then pushed X-Terminator onto the arena floor flipper. X-Terminator 2 was thrown, and went out of the annihilator.

Series 5


For reaching the Series Semi-Finals of the last wars, X-Terminator was seeded 14th for the Fifth Wars, considered relatively low for what it achieved in the last wars. In the first round of its heat, it was drawn up against the experienced Immortalis. X-Terminator was turned over when its axe weapon got stuck, and it couldn't self-right. However Refbot moved in and allowed X-Terminator to self-right. Immortalis was then axed by house robot Shunt and it was then placed down the pit of oblivion. This meant that X-Terminator then went through to the heat semi-final. The X-Terminator team removed the front scoop for the second round battle, where it went up against Corkscrew. "Fight two was the end of the line for XT in Series 5. Due to a battery failure, XT was a sitting duck..."

- Marlon Pritchard on the X-Terminator website This was considered a close battle. Corkscrew's weapon wasn't working, and X-Terminator used the axe to penetrate the corkscrew handle on top of Corkscrew. But X-Terminator suffered from a battery failure towards the end of the battle, so Corkscrew caused damage to X-Terminator. One of the drives broke, and X-Terminator was unable to do anything but reverse. A battery failure (X-Terminator had been forced to swap for smaller, shorter life batteries in order to fit the weight constraints) caused it to lose momentum. Despite this, X-Terminator did survive to a judges' decision, however the judges' decision went in favour of the newcomers Corkscrew, eliminating the number 14 seeds from the competition, making this X-Terminator's worst performance in the wars.

Series 6
"...this time, really watch out for the axe"

- Jonathan Pearce

An unseeded X-Terminator machine returned for the Sixth Wars, it fought in Heat B. The X-Terminator team boasted a dilithium coated axe tip for this series, which team member Simon Baldwin claimed would go through anything. X-Terminator showed good promise in its first round battle against Robochicken, Barbaric Response and Spirit of Scorpion. X-Terminator battered at Barbaric Response and Robochicken early on in the battle. It then ran beneath Robochicken and use its axe handle to flip Robochicken over and into the CPZ occupied by house robot Dead Metal. It then drove away and pushed at the seemingly immobile Spirit of Scorpion and Barbaric Response, pushing the overturned Robochicken aside and eventually pitting Barbaric Response, but the Barber family machine was already declared through to the next round for being the most mobile of the other three machines excluding X-Terminator. X-Terminator went through along with Barbaric Response for being the only mobile robot left in the battle. Robochicken and Spirit of Scorpion were eliminated. "Computers have messed me around all my life, so we've made sure the axe is especially sharp"

- Marlon Pritchard before its fight with Mega Hurts 2

X-Terminator then went up against the experienced Mega Hurts 2 in the second round of the heat. X-Terminator slid beneath Mega Hurts 2, axing the computer based machine and pulling the 'face' of the monitor of Mega Hurts 2 off. X-Terminator then smashed the computer monitor with its axe weapon. Mega Hurts 2 was then ripped apart by the House Robots whenever it came close to them as it constantly neared the CPZs thanks to the shoves from X-Terminator. Despite all of this, Mega Hurts 2 valiantly held on for a judges' decision, which was clearly against it. The judges decided that X-Terminator would go through to the heat final. In the heat final, X-Terminator fought the number 3 seeds Firestorm 4, and went in as the underdogs, despite their progress in the heat so far. It was clear that X-Terminator was having axe troubles as none of the opportunities to use the axe during the battle were taken, and Firestorm 4 soon flipped it against the arena side wall with little resistance from X-Terminator. With the axe not working at all, X-Terminator was unable to right itself from the arena side wall. As the robot eventually fell on its back, it was declared immobilised and was counted out by Refbot, being eliminated from the competition. Meanwhile, Firestorm 4 attacked Shunt and flipped him over as well.

Extreme 2
X-Terminator also competed in Extreme Series 2, singularly competing in the Tag Team Terror tournament. Paired up with Mini Morg, it performed much better than its previous attempt in the Tag Team Terror. The pair fought an old team, S.M.I.D.S.Y. and Sumpthing in the first round of the competition. The original match up was X-Terminator against S.M.I.D.S.Y. and this was a very slow opening with both machines swerving and dodging each other with little contact. Soon, X-Terminator landed an axe blow on S.M.I.D.S.Y. before pushing it into the CPZ. Soon all four machines were out of their corners and fighting. X-Terminator axed S.M.I.D.S.Y. again and pushed it into the CPZ, where Dead Metal came in and caused damage itself. The axe of X-Terminator was then bent to a great degree. Sumpthing then came in attacked X-Terminator, but X-Terminator returned the attack by slamming it into the corner of the now unoccupied CPZ. Sumpthing was immobilised as a result of this, and was counted out just moments before cease was called. The match ultimately went to a judges' decision, with X-Terminator and Mini Morg winning as their team still had both robots still mobile. However, the team lost their semi-final battle, where they went up against Hydra and Barbaric Response. X-Terminator had been flipped into Dead Metal's CPZ by Hydra in the opening seconds of the fight, before leaving Mini Morg alone to fight for a little while. After Mini Morg broke down, it was counted out by Refbot and put down the pit just before cease was called. X-Terminator made a few desperate last attacks against Barbaric Response and Hydra, but, for the second time, it lost in the Tag Team Terror because of an unreliable partner.

This was X-Terminator's last fight with its axe weapon, changing to the flywheel weapon from then on.

Series 7
After four wars of fighting with a pick axe, X-Terminator returned with a new weapon - an extremely powerful vertical spinner. X-Terminator was seeded 11th for the Seventh Wars. In the first round battle, X-Terminator went up against German runners-up Tsunami, and two robots from the Isle of Sheppey, Diabolus and Major Tom 3. After a ponderous start, X-Terminator attacked Major Tom 3 side-on, flipping it right over itself thanks to its flywheel, however Major Tom 3 then used its invertible ability to scurry away, as X-Terminator then went on to attack Diabolus. Whilst Tsunami then tossed Major Tom 3 out of the arena, X-Terminator's new destructive power was first properly unleashed on Diabolus - both the weapon and armour of Diabolus were demolished, and Tsunami then took over X-Terminator's attack and flipped out Diabolus too. This put X-Terminator through to the next round along with Tsunami. In the second round of the heat, the seeded X-Terminator faced the experienced Killer Carrot 2. X-Terminator dominated the battle, it used its flywheel weapon to toss Killer Carrot 2 right over several times, also ripping off side panels in the process. Despite the external damage, Killer Carrot 2 just kept coming back for more, not making much impression on X-Terminator. Eventually, the seeded machine brought the slowly decomposing Killer Carrot 2 over to the arena side wall, where it then tossed Killer Carrot 2 out of the arena using the flywheel. This put X-Terminator through to its fourth heat final, here, it fought Tsunami again. The Heat Final appeared to be lost for X-Terminator - as its opponent, after taking a few hits from the spinning disc of the seed, flipped X-Terminator over, the still moving flywheel sent X-Terminator traveling over to the arena side wall. Tsunami then flipped it up and onto the arena side wall. But in trying to toss it out of the arena, Tsunami accidentally brought it back on its wheels. X-Terminator then came back on the attack, and with no more flips left, Tsunami was a sitting duck as X-Terminator pursued it around the arena, hitting it with the disc all the while, until eventually flipping it over with the flywheel, and sending it out of the arena. This put X-Terminator through to the Series Semi-Finals for just the second time, and for the first time since the Fourth Wars.

In the Series Semi-Finals, X-Terminator encountered the Cornish machine St. Agro in the first round. X-Terminator made quick work of the Cornish robot, first taking a chunk out of one of its exposed wheels, then buckling the front of both of the flippers, and eventually immobilising it completely with its sheer destructive power. St. Agro was counted out and X-Terminator was then through to the next round. In the second round of the Semi-Finals, X-Terminator went up against the 12th seeds Bulldog Breed, a robot with just as much experience. Bulldog Breed went in a similar fashion to St. Agro - first the flipper was buckled and bent by the flywheel weapon of the higher seed, so Bulldog Breed couldn't get in underneath and flip X-Terminator, and the bulldog was then completely destroyed, mercilessly, as it could not work up its own offensive attack to defend itself. With Bulldog Breed immobilised and later counted out, X-Terminator was declared the winner and moved on to the Grand Final for the first time in its history.

However, things went badly wrong for X-Terminator, when it went up against the newcomers to the main competition Typhoon 2 in the Grand Final eliminator round - X-Terminator's sluggish movement meant it couldn't catch Typhoon 2 in time before the Scottish machine got up to its maximum spinning speed, and it was X-Terminator's turn to be ripped to shreds - the power of Typhoon 2 disabling X-Terminator's spinning disc weapon fairly early on. The fight had to be stopped because Typhoon 2 destroyed the arena side wall, but on re-Activate the first hit from Typhoon 2 knocked X-Terminator out completely, it was declared immobilised and eliminated from the competition. However, it had one more fight against the number 1 seeds Tornado in the play-offs, but it was too severely damaged from its fight with Typhoon 2 to do much in the way of attacking, therefore Tornado dominated the entire fight. X-Terminator took a few hits from Matilda's flywheel, but managed to get revenge on the House Robots by taking a chunk out of Sir Killalot's armour. Soon afterwards however, X-Terminator broke down again, and it was counted out by Refbot, making it finish in fourth place overall.

X-Terminator was also going to be used as one of the All-Stars for the Series 7 All-Stars tournament, but like many other robots asked to take part in this event, it had suffered too much damage from its most recent battle(s) and was unable to compete.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 16
 * Losses: 12

Series Record

 * Series 1-2: Did not enter
 * Series 3: Heat Final
 * Series 4: Semi-Finals, Round 1
 * Series 5: Heat, Round 2
 * Series 6: Heat Final
 * Series 7: Fourth Place



Robot Wars Live Events
The Series 6 X-Terminator was due to compete in the 2013 Robot Wars event in Guildford, but was forced to withdraw, likely due to technical issues in the pits. It was also used as a static display at the Newport event in 2013. In December 2014, John Findlay of Team Roaming Robots acquired X-Terminator, and were in the process of restoring it to fighting condition. Most recently in 2015 in Portsmouth, the series 6 version X-Terminator was seen competing in a melee.

Outside Robot Wars
The X-Terminator team entered Techno Games 2001 with a Internal Combustion Sprint competitor called Dave the Tortoise, but it lost its heat after going around in circles.

After Robot Wars ended, the Series 7 model of X-Terminator continued to compete on the live circuit, ending its career on a high note by winning the Cosford Robot Crusade in 2004-5, defeating Terrorhurtz in the final.

Appearances in Merchandise

 * X-Terminator 2/Pullback
 * X-Terminator 2/Minibot
 * X-Terminator/Robot Wars: Metal Mayhem

Trivia

 * X-Terminator was the first robot to be able to self-right from any possible position.
 * X-Terminator was profiled in Robot Wars: The Ultimate Guide.
 * X-Terminator is one of the only UK Series Semi-Finalists to have made the finals in non-sequential series (doing so in 4 and 7). The other two robots to do so are Tornado and Thermidor 2, who both also reached 4 and 7 (but Tornado also reached and won 6).
 * X-Terminator is one of 11 robots to have fought in 5 or more series of Robot Wars, having fought in Series 3 through 7. It shares this pattern with S.M.I.D.S.Y., Bulldog Breed, Team KaterKiller, Team Big Brother, Team Ming, Team Scutterbots, and Thermidor 2.
 * X-Terminator made the Series Semi-Finals in both years that Philippa Forrester was not the pit reporter. It shares this pattern with Thermidor 2, and both robots fought Typhoon 2 in the latter series.
 * X-Terminator was one of nine competitors in The Seventh Wars that competed in 5 series of Robot Wars that were excluded from the All-Stars tournament later in the series for their own reasons.
 * At 36 seconds, X-Terminator's battle against Tsunami, Major Tom 3 and Diabolus is the shortest battle in UK Robot wars to require two immobilisations. However, it did not make the top 30 list.
 * X-Terminator was one of Philippa Forrester's two sweepstake robots in series 3, the other being Flipper.
 * X-Terminator's Series 3 heat final battle with Panic Attack was nominated for the Battle of the Series, however it lost out to The Big Cheese vs Chaos 2.

Similarity with Behemoth

 * Both reached the Heat Final in Series 3 where they lost via being stranded on their side.
 * Both machines lasted 1:00 in the Sumo Basho in Series 4.
 * Both defeated Judge Shred in round 2.
 * Both machines competed in Heat N of Series 4 where they reached the final which X-Terminator won.
 * Both robots were seeded inside the top 15 in Series 5 which they lost in the second round to a non-English newcomer whose name began with C from a country beginning with S which lost its next battle.