Tentoumushi

Tentoumushi was an American lightweight class robot that took part in two side battles during Series 3 of Robot Wars. It featured a very unique weapon, a servo-mounted ladybug sandpit lid (from which Tentoumushi derived its name, Tentomushi being the Japanese word for ladybug) with a circular saw on the underside. The idea was to drop the shell onto other robots, trapping them underneath while the saw cut into them.

Tentoumushi entered the Middleweight Championship of Series 3, but the event was later cancelled due to an accident in the pits. However, the robot did take part in two battles; the Middleweight Melee, which was an exhibition battle to replace the cancelled championship, where it drew with A-Kill, and a one-off battle during the International League Championship, again against A-Kill, where it represented the USA and won.

Tentoumushi also became a successful entrant in BattleBots, where it reached the quarter-finals twice in the lightweight division (where it competed in all six lightweight competitions before the show was cancelled). The robot also appeared alongside BattleBots veteran Toe Crusher on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The team also entered BattleBots with Spin Orbiting Force, a middleweight robot of similar shape and weapon (but without the sandpit lid), and founded The Robot Fighting League.

Series 3
In the Third Wars Middleweight Melee, Tentoumushi was placed up against the reigning middleweight champion Hard Cheese, A-Kill, Grinder and Ripper's Revenge. Tentoumushi began by covering up Hard Cheese, before moving off to attack Ripper's Revenge, covering it up as well and using the saw. Tentoumushi's attack had immobilised Hard Cheese. Matilda then came in and chopped off Tentoumushi's decorative antenna. Shunt slammed Tentoumushi into the wall and crumpled Tentoumushi's shell, but it retained its shape. Tentoumushi responded by smothering Shunt, breakign the house robot's aerial and disabling it. Tentoumushi concluded the battle by attacking A-Kill, and was declared joint winner along with the Buckinghamshire machine by the judges.

The two winning robots also faced off in the International League Championship, in a special one-off battle called the War of Independence. Although this is often billed as a grudge match, it was actually filmed before the Middleweight Melee, despite being broadcast afterwards. In the battle, Tentoumushi immediately used the smothering shell to trap and drag its opponent. Tentoumushi caught A-Kill side-on, and began to carry it over to the pit of oblivion, however, A-Kill managed to free itself from Tentoumushi's clutches, only a very short distance from the pit. Suddenly, the A-Kill team lost control and couldn't get away from danger. The aforementioned robot spun out of control and found itself balancing over the pit edge. Tentoumushi eventually gave it one final shove into the pit, making it the winner of the War of Independence.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 2 (One joint with A-Kill)
 * Losses: 0

Trivia

 * Because of Tentoumushi's primarily plastic construction, the team attached foil to the underside of its smothering shell to protect the electronics in case it drove over the flame pit. For safety reasons, however, the flame hazards were disabled anyway.
 * Although it was a lightweight robot, Tentoumushi's factsheet displayed its weight as 52kg, which would have made it a middleweight. This was a decision by the Robot Wars production team.
 * The version of Tentoumushi that appeared in Series 3 was infact the BattleBots Season 1.0 version.