King Buxton

"Good power and speed, that's what it's all about, this is an old metro sort of robot, you just get out there, and hit 'em hard"

- Simon Harrison

King Buxton was a long-time competitor in Robot Wars, debuting in Series 2 and competing in Series 3-5, 7 and the 2016 series. It reached the Semi-Finals in Series 2, but failed to progress beyond the heats in all of its subsequent appearances, although it won the Series 4 Tag Team Terror tournament alongside 101. As King B Powerworks, King Buxton also fought in the first series of Robot Wars Extreme, but with little success. King B Remix competed in the 2016 series and reached the second round, but did not return in 2017 due to the team finding it outdated. A new version of King Buxton is planned for a hypothetical tenth series of the show.

Versions of King Buxton
In all of its iterations, King Buxton was a flat-box invertible machine with four-wheel drive and armed with lifting forks, sometimes also featuring a cutting disc at the rear. In its subsequent interactions, King Buxton was known by derivatives King B3 (King Buxton 3), King B Powerworks (in reference to its 36 volt motors) and King B Remix. These derivatives lead to the robot being frequently but informally referred to simply as King B.

King Buxton
The first iteration of King Buxton was armoured in 3mm aluminium armour with titanium lifting spikes. Its 750W motors and four-wheel drive allowed King Buxton to reach 18mph top speed and gave it significant pushing power, enabling it to push through bricks, House Robots and even other formidable pushers like All Torque, Roadblock and 101. This original version of King Buxton was the most successful, reaching the series Semi-finals before losing to the reigning champions Roadblock, in the arena stage. It returned in Series 3 with several updates in the third wars, especially to its electronics which had caused problems in the last wars by catching fire. It also featured a rotary cutter at the rear and had upgraded the spikes to serve as more effective lifters, capable of lifting 80kg. It reached the heat final, but lost in the heat final to its rival, 101. The aluminium King Buxton was prone to fire damage, visibly alight during Series 2. The team tried to head this off in their return to Series 3, but was notably smoking and slowing down during the heat final clash with 101.

King B3
King B3, also styled as King Buxton III (King Buxton the Third), entered Series 4 with a new machine that retained the same design, but was now armoured in clear perspex on the top panel. King B3's arsenal consisted of a simple electric lifting mechanism at the front, which had spikes on the ends, and a 9' cutting disc was upgraded to 3000RPM in Series 4 onwards at the rear powered by a petrol engine. "It's quite a mean little thing, it certainly wrecked my garage!"

- Simon Harrison on King B3's circular saw

Despite a new conductive cooling system to counteract the flame problems of the past, King B3 lost in the main competition from catching fire. However, it redeemed this by winning the first Tag Team Terror at the end of Series 4.

King B Powerworks
With the weight limit increase, King Buxton became the 88kg King B Powerworks, named after its 36 volt motors; this was the highest voltage the rules would allow. It was later increased to 97kg for Series 7. The cutting disc was upgraded to 8000RPM. This version of King Buxton fought in Series 5, 7 and Extreme 1, but failed to replicate its past success against capable opponents such as Dominator 2, Dantomkia and The Steel Avenger.

King B Powerworks had a tendency to go berserk mid-way through battles; two of its losses in Extreme Series 1 were for this reason, fortunately, this problem was later resolved. Notably, its Series 7 stat cards referred to the robot as King B "Powerworks", punctuation included.

King B Remix
In 2016, the team created King B Remix, a robot similar in design to King B Powerworks, but with even greater internal strength, albeit with a bumper plate instead of the rear cutting disc. The lifting spikes were also able to rotate, each acting like a small drill. According to the Robot Wars website, the team think of the robot as a living entity and speak to it in Japanese through team member, and Simon’s wife, Natsuko, who acts as King B Remix’s translator. Team Captain Simon prepares for battle at home by “pushing a wheel barrow at high speed around his garden, while knocking down piles of bricks.”

Rivalry


The King Buxton team had a long-standing rivalry with Team 101, which initially began after both teams fought each other in Series 2. Following King Buxton's victory against Robo Doc in that series, 101 avenged the grudge by defeating King Buxton when both teams met each other again in Series 3. Both teams put their rivalry behind them when they were paired together for the Series 4 Tag Team Terror competition. King B3 and 101 won the tournament, but ironically the alliance was cut short when both robots fought each other in the final round in celebration of their victory. In Extreme Series 1, King B Powerworks and 101 re-entered the Tag Team Terror as reigning champions, but lost in the first round after King B Powerworks lost control and Diotoir and Mega Morg kept attacking 101 aggressively and continuously. Both teams blamed each other for their loss, and settled their newly-rekindled grudge in a Vengeance battle, which 101 won after King B Powerworks again malfunctioned and went 'berserk'.

King B Powerworks submitted and acknowledged the superiority of 101, with the teams promising to continue the Tag Team partnership. However, neither King B Powerworks, nor 101's successor, Anarchy, took part in the second series of Extreme, so they did not have the opportunity to do so.

Qualification
King B Powerworks failed to qualify for Series 6 after losing in a qualifier battle to Spirit of Scorpion. However, it did qualify for Series 7 after winning its qualifier battle against M2, Pressure and Thunderpants. Joint battle winner M2, and Thunderpants, also managed to qualify.

Series 2
"I don't believe they made this robot, because I've only ever seen them polish it."

- Philippa Forrester

King Buxton fought in Heat I of the Second Wars. In the Gauntlet stage of the heat, it took the middle route, but problems with radio interference caused it to become jumpy and erratic. King Buxton fell quickly off the ramp before making a break for the finish. Despite being attacked by the house robots, King Buxton managed a respectable distance of 10.6m, despite the team barely being in control, placing it third on the leaderboard overall. This was enough to qualify for the Joust, where the team - having modified the robot to allow it to be reset if it suffered interference - planned to charge straight at Matilda. However, when Matilda's chainsaw was started, King Buxton began to jitter again, and was unable to move at full speed - after nearly driving over the side of the ramp, it was pushed off the centre by Matilda having managed 6.95 metres, enough to qualify for the arena. "I have to say that it was made to look like we won with ease but this wasn't the case. Our battle with Robo Doc was fantastic. A full 5 minutes of fighting. The judges took over 10 minutes to make the decision. Ok we won it but it really was 50/50. If we had lost we would have been happy as it was such a good battle."

- Phil Brett commenting on King Buxton's semi final fight

Its Heat Semi-Final was against Robo Doc, beginning a long and storied rivalry between the two teams. Both robots had periods of dominance, with King Buxton being able to push RoboDoc into the PPZ and exploit its opponent's high centre of gravity to repeatedly flip it over, but RoboDoc also proving capable of pushing King Buxton into the house robots. It went to a judges' decision, which after much deliberation resulted in King Buxton winning through to fight All Torque in the Heat Final.

All Torque proved a far less threatening opponent than Robo Doc, as King Buxton was soon able to overpower All Torque and push it onto the pit. The current limiting on All Torque's 4QD speed controllers hindered its ability to push back against King Buxton, who had no current limiting. The House Robots finished All Torque off and King Buxton progressed to the Series Semi-Finals. In the Gauntlet stage, King Buxton was the only robot to complete the course, taking less than thirty seconds to get through the central route after pushing the large ball into Shunt, who then drove into the pit.

During the subsequent Pinball round, the team shaved King Buxton's ground clearance to 50mm. Driver Steve Monk incorrectly believed that 120 points would be enough to qualify the team for the arena, and hence did not score highly - hitting bricks and barrels and driving over the ramp to score 165 points. This was enough to qualify King Buxton for the quarter final battle against reigning champions Roadblock. "Could King Buxton be an underdog for the title in Robot Wars?"

- Jonathan Pearce during King Buxton's Semi-Final Pinball run Due to its lack of current limiting, the motors driving King Buxton became very hot during battles as they pushed other robots, and this reduced their life considerably. Against Roadblock, King Buxton was able to push its opponent easily at first, but Roadblock was able to get underneath King Buxton and push it into the PPZ. It escaped, and resumed pushing Roadblock, but the damaged motors could not last and began to emit smoke, as King Buxton became weaker and weaker until King Buxton caught fire. Roadblock used its circular saw to cut into its tyres and sealed King Buxton's defeat.

"We didn't think we'd have too much trouble [...] But the problem we'd been hiding from the world was going to be our downfall."

- Phil Brett, on King Buxton's overheating motors

Series 3
"A little spinny thing, a little spinny thing, what good's that going to do?"

- Philippa Forrester commenting on King Buxton's new weapon

The King Buxton team returned for the Third Wars, and participated in Heat J of the main competition. King Buxton was placed up against newcomers Eric in its first round battle of the heat. In this battle, both robots lifted each other, but King Buxton lost the tip of its spike. King Buxton then pushed Eric right onto the edge of the pit, but stranded itself on the pit's edge. The more mobile Eric reversed into King Buxton in an attempt to pit it, but this backfired as King Buxton was freed and Eric reversed into the pit itself. In the second round, King Buxton went up against Weld-Dor. King Buxton pushed Weld-Dor around the arena, but soon got its lifting fork stuck inside Weld-Dor's tire arch. This gave King Buxton control over pushing Weld-Dor, but also prevented it from breaking free. King Buxton tried to pit Weld-Dor, but Weld-Dor's driving prevented a smooth run for the pit and so King Buxton slammed it into the walls and house robots instead. Weld-Dor slowed to a halt and the House Robots finished it off, putting King Buxton through to the final. "Who'd have thought it would come to this? We're going to have to fight like demons to beat him, but we must beat him."

- Simon Harrison before the fight with 101

In the Heat Final, 101 and King Buxton each drove over each other and rammed, with 101's treads damaging King Buxton's tires and its spear noticeably punching King Buxton away. King Buxton pushed 101 into Matilda, before 101 retaliated by pushing King Buxton into Shunt. King Buxton got stuck on one of 101's tracks and although it escaped, it started smoking, indicating that it had once against caught fire. Despite this, the fight went to the judges decision, and the judges unanimously voted through 101.

Series 4
King B3, seeded number 17, outclassed Attila the Drum and Medusa 2000 in its first round melee, slamming Atilla the Drum into side walls and CPZ's. This aggression was enough to carry it through the Judges' decision at the expense of Atilla the Drum, and put King B3 up against Atomic.

After recovering from a clamp and push attack from Atomic, King B3 looked set to win the battle initially, slamming Atomic into the side walls. Atomic also lost its weapon by smashing into the side wall, leaving King B3 without a weapon to contend with. However, King B3 strayed too close to the flame jets on the side wall and King B3 broke down. Sir Killalot pitted the seeded robot and Atomic progressed to fight Chaos 2. "Of all the robots in Robot Wars, I can't believe these two have paired up!"

- Julia Reed commenting on the unexpected Tag Team partnership

King B3 also entered the Tag Team Terror Championship during the Christmas season of the Fourth Wars. It fought with its long time rival 101. In the first round, the unlikely pair went up against X-Terminator and Invertabrat. In this battle, Invertabrat soon started limping after a few slices from the disc of King B3, and soon became immobilised after some mighty shoves from 101. X-Terminator was left alone to fight both King B3 and 101, and despite holding off both robots to a judges decision, the two active robots progressed to the final.

Scorpion was lured into its own corner to be attacked by both 101 and King B3. Firestorm 2 came charging in to assist, but hit the arena side wall and immediately became immobilised, having succumbed to its pre-existing difficulties. Scorpion succumbed to the battering from 101 and King B3, and whilst the house robots closed in the two teammates turned on each other. The House Robots separated them and cease was called, giving the Tag Team title to King B3 and its partner 101.

King B3 also competed in the Pinball Warrior Tournament during the Fourth Wars, where it finished on the leaderboard in 4th place with a total of 225 points.

Extreme 1
"The reigning champions King B3 and 101, back to hang on to their title"

- Jonathan Pearce

King B Powerworks and 101 returned to defend its title in the Tag Team Terror. Though 101 handled both Diotoir and Mega Morg at the start, King B Powerworks joined the battle and all four robots began a fight. However, after some initial shoving, King B Powerworks began spinning erratically in circles. The battle went to a judges' decision. Due to the immense lack of control of the pair (101 had also lost drive on one side), and the aggression of Diotoir and Mega Morg, the Tag Team Terror Champions lost the judges decision. "So who was to blame? And who is the better robot of the two?"

- Jonathan Pearce, in the build-up for the vengeance battle

As a result of this failure in the Tag Team Terror tournament, both 101 and King B Powerworks organised a Vengeance battle. King B Powerworks was easily the more agile machine, the two machines slammed into the other to begin with, with little visible damage caused to either robot. However, King B Powerworks suddenly went berserk once again after being steered into the CPZ and then axed in a crucial place by House Robot Shunt. King B Powerworks uncontrollably ran at speed into one arena wall after the other. Eventually, Sergeant Bash caught King B Powerworks and pitted it (though Sergeant Bash fell in afterwards) and settled the rivalry once and for all. "This could be the first Wild Card robot to beat one of the veterans"

- Julia Reed shows her confidence in Draven

King B Powerworks was chosen to act as a veteran against a Wild Card Warrior against Draven. The two machines glanced off each other until King B Powerworks then slid beneath Draven in a technique often used by Panic Attack. Steering Draven into the pit release button, King B Powerworks then dumped the newcomers down into the pit of oblivion, winning the battle for the veterans. King B Powerworks' final appearance in Extreme was in a Mayhem qualifier battle, for a right to fight in the second annihilator of the series. Here, it was placed up against Tornado and The Steel Avenger. Although it initially could not keep up with the pace of its two opponents, forced to keep catching up, its main contribution to the fight was to stab Tornado with its spiked lifter, causing internal damage that ultimately led to Tornado's breakdown. The Steel Avenger then turned its attention onto King B Powerworks, and despite King B Powerworks' attempts at evasion, the battering ram on The Steel Avenger cleaved one of King B Powerworks' wheels off. Despite interference from Matilda against The Steel Avenger and holding on to a Judges' decision, King B Powerworks lost a very close Mayhem on damage points, though the Judges did commend the fight as the best Mayhem in Extreme. "The most important thing though, Tornado, he was out, that's all I care about"

- Simon Harrison after the decision

Series 5
"Experienced, quick, manoeuvrable, worth watching closely"

- Jonathan Pearce introduces King B Powerworks to Series 5

King B Powerworks returned for the Fifth Wars and was placed up against Kronic 2 in the first round of the heat. King B Powerworks was almost flipped over at the start of the battle, but it recovered. King B Powerworks then did all of the aggressive work, shoving and lifting the considerably more sluggish Kronic 2 all around the arena. Its lifting spikes put a few holes in the sides of Kronic 2, whilst its new blade did some minor damage as well. Kronic 2's spikes were then set on fire by the flame pit, before the battle then went to a judges' decision. The decision unsurprisingly went in favour of King B Powerworks, putting them through to the next round of the heat. King B Powerworks was then placed up against the number 11 seeds Dominator 2 in the second round. Dominator 2 outclassed King B Powerworks in weapon power in this battle, with King B Powerworks unable to inflict damage in return. By the time the judges were consulted, King B Powerworks' shell was full of holes, and the judges again eliminated King B Powerworks on the basis of damage.

Series 7
King B Powerworks was drawn against Dantomkia, Hassocks Hog 2 and Rick in the first round, and played a more passive role compared to Dantomkia. King B Powerworks was able to shove Dantomkia into the side wall, and was unaffected by the flipper of Dantomkia. The evasion paid off as King B Powerworks was able to outlast Hassocks Hog 2. There was a split decision, that went in favour of King B Powerworks and Dantomkia, 2-1, putting these two robots through to the next round of the heat. "We know the hog has gone, Rick for me will be the other decision by the judges, because Dantomkia and King B Powerworks just looked too strong"

- Jonathan Pearce awaits the decision

King B Powerworks was then placed up against Team Vader and their new IG-88 machine in the second round. King B Powerworks attempted to meet IG-88 at the less dangerous wedge end, but IG-88 kept the weapon facing its opponent and a single blow was enough to immobilise King B Powerworks and hurl it against the side wall. King B Powerworks was then counted out by Refbot, dragged onto the arena floor flipper by the house robots and flipped. King B Powerworks' lifting forks were pointing upwards, and were jammed in that position after the collision with IG-88, the flip from the arena floor flipper put King B Powerworks upside down, and with the forks pointing upwards, the robot's wheels were kept off the ground before Shunt pushed it down into the pit. Cease was soon called, and King B Powerworks was eliminated from the competition as a result. "I'm just worried that we're going to get flipped out by Dantomkia really quickly, I mean, I like a long drawn out fight, I don't like something that's over too quickly"

- Simon Harrison before Round 1 of the All-Stars

King B Powerworks, as one of the oldest competing robots in the Seventh Wars, returned for the All-Stars Tournament at the end of the series. In the first round, it was placed up against Pussycat, Behemoth and Dantomkia. In the battle, Pussycat chose to target it with its twin four-toothed blades, which was added mainly in the hope to slice King B Powerworks' armour right off. Pussycat occupied King B's attention for much of the battle, and snapped the right drive train on the first hit. After this, King B Powerworks could only go round in circles. As Dantomkia defeated Behemoth by flipping it out of the arena in the opening few seconds, Dantomkia then targeted King B Powerworks, who tried itself to ram Dantomkia head on itself. However, Pussycat leaped in again, slicing both robots with its disc, causing it to go on its side. This caused resistance to collapse in King B, and Simon Harrison's original fear was met as Dantomkia then carried King B over to the arena side wall and then threw the Series 2 Semi-Finalists out of the arena, thus eliminating King B Powerworks from the competition.

2016 Series
King B Remix appeared in Episode 3, where it was once again drawn into a melee with Dantomkia, as well as newcomers Glitterbomb and Overdozer. The team decorated their bench in the pits with a disco ball. King B immediately targeted the wooden machine, and pushed Overdozer onto the raised pit, which immobilised it straight away. King B Remix turned itself over when it drove onto Glitterbomb, but with Dantomkia focusing on Glitterbomb, King B Remix was already in a strong position to qualify. It pushed Glitterbomb backwards while the pink robot was self-righting, then held it in place for Dantomkia to procure the knockout, putting both robots through.

"I feel like tactically, you kind of sat at the periphery, I hope we see a little more action in the head-to-heads!"

- Angela Scanlon

King B Remix fought Dantomkia again, head-to-head in the next round. It started well, bashing into Dantomkia quickly so it could not be caught, and lured Dantomkia onto the arena spikes. However, King B found itself on the receiving end of a charge towards the wall, where Dantomkia threw it between the pit release button and barrier, the entire robot off the ground. Dantomkia sat idle, and so King B Remix was rendered immobile. To confirm the defeat, Matilda flipped King B out of the arena completely. It was later revealed that King B Remix's drive chain snapped during the battle. With no points to its name, King B Remix needed to defeat Big Nipper to stand a chance of qualification.

Within the opening seconds of the battle, King B Remix activated the pit release, and pinned Big Nipper on the raised arena spike, reversing it straight towards the pit, but lost grip. King B Remix backed into Big Nipper, trying to stop the spinner from gaining speed, but could not do so, and Big Nipper ripped pieces away from King B's rear armour. King B was then immobilised by a blow from Big Nipper to its wheels, which removed its safety link. King B Remix was left unable to progress to the heat final after its second loss, but it regardless fought TR2. Although it opened with aggression, slamming into TR2, King B quickly exposed its ground clearance, and was flipped into the arena wall. It was flipped several times on the spot in a CPZ, and then thrown into the trench wall. TR2 flipped King B Remix into the grasp of Sir Killalot, which picked up King B and held it over the flame pit. King B Remix was immobilised by this attack, and TR2 flipped it into the pit, creating a third loss for King B Remix.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 11
 * Losses: 12

Series Record

 * Series 1: Did not enter
 * Series 2: Semi-Finals, Arena
 * Series 3: Heat Final
 * Series 4: Heat, Round 2
 * Series 5: Heat, Round 2
 * Series 6: Failed to qualify
 * Series 7: Heat, Round 2
 * 2016 Series: Round 2, Fourth Place
 * 2017 Series: Did not enter

Outside Robot Wars
King B made an appearance at the London MCM Expo in 2007 where it fought Merlin. It also fought Tiberius and required Sam Smith to jump on King B to remove King B from the claw after it got stuck on the claw when Tiberius pierced the polycarb and a motor.

It returned in 2015 after a seven year hiatus at the Robots Live Dublin Event in January where it fought Beast 2 and Ripper. "It was great to be back - thanks so much to the whole Robots Live crew for putting on such a great show, felt good to be driving King B for an enthusiastic UK audience again!"

- Simon Harrison on Facebook

King B participated at the same event in 2016, where it lost to Beast again, but fought a good fight against Meggamouse.

Trivia

 * King Buxton was profiled in Robot Wars: The Ultimate Guide.
 * King Buxton was originally named after the main antagonist of the same name from the 1972 Magic Roundabout film Dougal and the Blue Cat, or Pollux et le Chat Bleu in its original French dub.
 * During Series 2, King Buxton suffered from interference caused by the spark plugs in the motor powering Matilda's chainsaw, which meant every time the chainsaw started, King Buxton jumped forward.
 * Each version of King Buxton became more expensive, the King Buxton seen in Series 3 cost £1500, King B3 cost £4000. Initially the cost of the motors was sponsored by Dominion Computers. Team captain Simon Harrison put up 99.9% of the money it cost to build King B3.
 * King Buxton was one of 23 robots to have completed The Gauntlet. Similar to Killertron, it failed to complete it in the heats, but succeeded in the Series Semi-Finals.
 * Within two series of Robot Wars, King Buxton fought Dantomkia in three different first-round melees.
 * King B3 is one of only seven robots to break 200 points in a Pinball tournament. Others to have achieved this are Gemini, Killerhurtz, Spawn of Scutter, Panic Attack, Roadblock and Razer.
 * King Buxton was one of five seeds for the Fourth Wars that reached the heat final of the Third Wars but fell in the second round of the heat in this series, it shares this statistic with Dreadnaut, Aggrobot, Berserk 2 and the Dartford Girls Grammar.
 * King B Powerworks was one of only two previous Semi-Finalists that was not seeded for the Seventh Wars, the other being Black and Blue, thus making it the only robot, as Black and Blue only reached the Series Semi-Finals in the form of Mousetrap.
 * King B3 had a brief cameo on the sitcom Spaced in the episode "Mettle."
 * King B Remix was the first robot to fly the flag of two different countries, in its case the Union Flag, and Japan's national flag, Nisshōki.
 * In an unused take when King B Remix entered the arena in 2016, the announcer erroneously pronounced the robot's name as "King Bremmix"
 * Captain Simon Harrison once built hi-fi speakers so large that they could not be moved.