User blog:Drop Zone mk2/Draft Team Toon Article

On the TR2 talk page, I suggested making a team page for Team Toon, because there is a great deal of information about the team members, the other robots and the charity auctions they have held. Here is the draft I wrote.

Team Toon
"The team believe their biggest strength lies within their driving skills, which they’ve practiced incessantly at amateur robot fighting events over the years."

- Robot Wars website on Team Toon

Team Toon are a team from Gateshead, Tyne and Wear that competed in the 2016 series of Robot Wars. The team consist of the Brown family; captain Alex Brown, and his parents Wendy and Clive. They did not enter any of the original series, having started building robots during the shows hiatus. They reached the Grand Final of the 2016 series with TR2, and also won the 2015 FRA UK championship with the same robot.

The name of the team and the majority of its robots is also a reference to the "Toon Army", a name given to supporters of Newcastle United F.C., which includes team members Alex and Wendy. The majority of the team's robots are painted in the same colour scheme of black and white horizontal stripes, the home colours of Newcastle United F.C..

Other Robots
TR2 is the successor to Toon Raider, which also participates in Robot Wars Live Events, but has no involvement with the TV show. It was originally built in John Findlay's workshop in conjunction with Team Toon, and has received several upgrades since its combat debut in order to keep it in fighting condition. In addition to Robot Wars, TR2 also makes regular appearances in other live robot combat shows such as Robots Live!, with its most recent successes including winning the 2015 FRA UK Heavyweight Championship at their Stevenage event and finishing third in the 2016 event.

TR2's predecessor, Toon Raider, was previously called And His Army, and began life as John Bell's heavyweight Batterbot before being given to Team Toon, who repainted it and gave it its new name. And His Army fell in the group stages of the 2008 UK Championships after being damaged by Tiberius, but was rebuilt for 2009 and reached the UK Championship finals that year, where it lost to Terrorhurtz on a judges' decision. In 2010, And His Army was rebuilt again, this time being renamed Toon Raider, and has performed well since, reaching the semi-finals of the 2010 UK Championships before losing to Iron-Awe 5, as well as finishing third in the 2010 Annihilator. In 2014, Team Toon were also given Hellbent 2 from its previous owner Robert Lewis with the hope of entering it in live events again.

Team Toon have also fought on the live events circuit with various featherweights, which are listed below:
 * 44 Toon: A four-wheel drive, double-scooped rambot, designed to ram its opponents no matter how many times it gets flipped over. The robot was originally built in 2005 by Team Lambsy for the Roaming Robots 2005 Winter Tour, before being sold in 2007 to Team Shock. After an unsuccessful run, it was sold again to Team Toon in 2008.
 * Looney Toon: A pink wedge-shaped robot armed with a front-hinge flipper. Due to its reliability issues at live events, it has frequently been nicknamed "Stagefright".
 * Stealth: A black octagonal wedge-shaped robot armed with a full-pressure flipper.
 * Tiny Toon: The team's first ever robot, originally a featherweight version of Batterbot owned by John Bell of Team Scorpion. It was bought at the time of the Heavyweight 2007 UK Championships and had been renamed and repainted to its current form. Tiny Toon has enjoyed considerable success in live featherweight events, winning the 2009, 2011 & 2014 UK Annihilators, and the 2010 UK Championship.
 * Tiny Hurtz: A featherweight version of Terrorhurtz, armed with a double-headed axe based on that of its heavyweight counterpart, and built using blueprints of Terrorhurtz supplied by John Reid.
 * The Toonimator: A two-wheel drive featherweight armed with a horizontal spinning disc.

Team Toon have also fought on the live event circuit with two antweights, Ant & Dec.

Charity Auction
Team Toon organised a charity auction in 2016, to raise money for Cancer Research UK, as a tribute to Krissy Knee, Alan Gribble, and Steve Merrill. Across four waves, the auction sold various parts from a large number of 2016 and former TV competitors via eBay.

Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 8
 * Losses: 1

Trivia

 * The majority of the team are descended from George Stephenson, the inventor of the railway network of Britain that still exists to this day.
 * Driver Alex Brown is the youngest ever roboteer to win UK Featherweight and Heavyweight championships on the live events circuit