The Grim Reaper

The Grim Reaper, also known as The Grimreaper, was a box-wedge shaped robot with a front flipper which competed in Series 3 and 7 of Robot Wars. The team competed in the third series with a black rectangular, steel plated (in a wire case), three-wheeled robot with solid rubber tyres, a front mounted 250PSI air-driven spike ram and rear mounted lifter/ramming spike complete with skeleton across the top. This robot was known simply as Grim Reaper and travelled at 20mph, driven by two car starter motors. Having been knocked out in the first round of Series 3 by Big Brother, the team's redesigned robot driven by a 24V, 750W motor did much better as it was compact, strong and very quick, reaching the series semi-finals where it was eventually knocked out by Storm 2 on a judges' decision.

"We came back, tried again, didn't get through, and the last time we came back, we couldn't self-right, it was about 3 o'clock in the morning, and we phoned up and said, we can't come..."

- Simon Smith in Series 7

The Grim Reaper had previously failed to qualify with a new version of the machine, tracked and armed with a scythe-like axe, which was not selected for Series 4. The team returned again to attempt to qualify for Series 6, however, the pneumatics on their new robot failed to work, so on the day before the qualifiers, the team withdrew.

Series 3
Grim Reaper had the much faster start, but Big Brother had more power and pushed it into Sergeant Bash. Big Brother got under Grim Reaper, lifting it into the air and managing to avoid the pit after bouncing down. Both robots pushed each other into one of the CPZs, and as Grim Reaper stopped, its left-hand wheel came off. Still mobile thanks to its rear wheel, Grim Reaper came back on the attack with its pneumatic spike. However, Big Brother appeared to have been immobilised and Sir Killalot flipped Grim Reaper over just before time ran out. The judges went for Big Brother, eliminating Grim Reaper.

Series 7
After having a four year interval away from Robot Wars, The Grim Reaper team returned with a brand new Grim Reaper machine for Series 7, completely redesigned with a flipper as its weapon. It fought in Heat B of the main competition, its first round battle saw it placed up against Kan-Opener, Barbaric Response and Big Nipper. The Grim Reaper spent the majority of the battle tussling with Big Nipper while Kan-Opener and Barbaric Response were dragging each other across the arena. At the end of the fight, no robot had been eliminated, so it went to the judges, who decided that The Grim Reaper went through with Big Nipper joining it. For its Round 2 match, The Grim Reaper was drawn against Gyrobot. Here, it got a series of only a few flips in on Gyrobot but because it was invertible, it was unharmed. The Grim Reaper couldn't even get the house robots to dispose of Gyrobot or get it out the arena. Eventually, the fight went to a judges decision where, once again, The Grim Reaper was again awarded the win. In the Heat Final it met Big Nipper again. The Grim Reaper at the start was rolled over by Big Nipper and then the two machines found themselves in the CPZ with Cassius Chrome but they managed to escape. The Grim Reaper tried to get Big Nipper out the arena but it was to no avail. In the last few moments of the fight, Big Nipper then got The Grim Reaper in the CPZ turning it over twice but it managed to escape and then in the last 10 seconds, The Grim Reaper was given a piggy-back by Big Nipper. The fight went to a judges decision where, yet again, The Grim Reaper was declared the winner and was through to the Semi-Finals.

The first round of the Series Semi-Final saw The Grim Reaper pitted against 16th seed Storm 2. The Grim Reaper never got its flipper to good use on the New Blood Champions because Storm 2 had been fitted with side-skirts. It managed to use its flipper on Storm 2 once, but could not flip it over. The Grim Reaper was slammed all over the arena by the seeded machine. It also took damage from Shunt and Sergeant Bash. It stayed mobile until the end of the battle, so the fight went to another judges decision, and this time the win was awarded to Storm 2, putting The Grim Reaper out of the Seventh Wars.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 3
 * Losses: 2

Series Record

 * Series 1-2: Did not enter
 * Series 3: Heat, Round 1
 * Series 4: Failed to qualify
 * Series 5: Did not enter
 * Series 6: Withdrew
 * Series 7: Semi-Finals, Round 1

Outside Robot Wars
In 2002, a black version of The Grim Reaper fought in BattleBots, losing by knock-out to Agitator, built by the same team as, and similar to, Extreme Warriors finalist Propeller-Head. A grey version still fights today.

The Series 4 version of the robot competed in various live events across the country, with little success.

The Series 7 shell of The Grim Reaper has been sold to a Leicestershire based team under the name of "Team Avenger" and will be back into running condition soon but is currently used for static display at various live events across the country under the name Reaper. The original builder of The Grim Reaper has since built a new version with the same name. Hence the Series 7 version was renamed Reaper by its new owners.

Trivia

 * During Series 7, the team had a mascot who would stand by the judges' table as they made decisions at the end of the team's battles. The mascot was a man dressed up as Death (aka The Grim Reaper) in a black hooded coat with a large scythe.
 * Interestingly, every battle in which The Grim Reaper competed across the show's history (including its one battle with Big Brother during the Third Wars) ended with a judges' decision, so the mascot had to do a lot of standing during the Seventh Wars.
 * The Grim Reaper is one of nine UK Series Competitor robots to have fought in BattleBots.
 * Having skipped three full wars and two Extremes, The Grim Reaper is the longest retired machine to return to the wars (Constrictor being built by the longest retired team)