Aggrobot

"Those menacing teeth and eyes will surely strike fear into the heart of any roboteer"

- Robot Wars: The Official Magazine on Aggrobot

Aggrobot was the name given to a series of four robots created and driven by the Leach brothers: Peter, Bob and Jon. A long-time competitor of Robot Wars, it fought in Series 3, 4, 6 and 7, also entering in the first series of Robot Wars Extreme. All four Aggrobot machines had the same blue colour scheme and angry face. Aggrobot was most famous for its upset victory against a malfunctioning Razer in Robot Wars: The Third Wars, in which it also reached the Heat Final.

Versions of Aggrobot
"...basically every Aggrobot has been completely different"

- Bob Leach, in Series 7, on the Aggrobot series

Aggrobot (Series 3)
The original Aggrobot was very large and had a spring-powered rear 30' spike and a "tongue" at the front to act as a wedge, all of which was built over four weeks and costing £1,500. It was described by Australian journalist Nick Whigham as "a werewolf rat".

The original Aggrobot made the heat final of Series 3, shocking many by defeating heat favourites Razer in the second round. However, it was eventually defeated by Blade in the Heat Final, where it found itself on the receiving end of Dead Metal's saw.

Aggrobot 2
"The product of nine months hard work since the last wars"

- Peter Leach describes Aggrobot 2

Aggrobot 2 entered Series 4, as the 20th seed. It was an invertible, four-wheel driven robot built over nine months, and made from steel and aluminium alloy from a skip. Its weapons were a Lifting Wedge on the front that could lift either way up and was painted with a face similar to that of the original Aggrobot, and a hydraulic Spike at the rear that the team referred to as a Zonker. It was based on the mechanics of a Crossbow, and it was shown to be capable of creating 20mm bullet holes in mild steel.

Aggrobot 3
Aggrobot 3 was a smaller pointed wedge ("stealth shaped, with lurid logos" as Jonathan Pearce put it) with a lifting mechanism that pried Aggrobot's wedge off the ground, in turn lifting its opponent. This technique was seen against Splinter in its Extreme 1 Mayhem, but was unreliable and caused the robot to be eliminated after it jammed open. It also featured a very powerful crushing mechanism similar to the "Jaws of Life" used by Sir Killalot, capable of cutting an aluminium signpost clean in half. The crusher was capable of changing from horizontal to vertical. It was very agile and clad in lightweight laminated armour that was resistant to even Shunt's axe, but was knocked out in the second round of Series 6 by a blow from Vader.

This version of Aggrobot attempted to qualify for Series 5, but failed to qualify.

Aggrobot (Series 7)
"This one is just more powerful, we hope harder, and a lot more fierce."

- Bob Leach in the pre-first round interview

The robot was simply renamed Aggrobot in Series 7; this new model was basically a tougher and more compact version of the previous Aggrobot 3 model. It was armed with a pincer that produced 17 tonnes of pressure. The pincer was, however, never seen in action, as it could not gain any purchase on its opponents in its only battle.

Series 3
"Plenty of boot in the Aggro from a spring powered thirteen inch spike"

- Jonathan Pearce introduces Aggrobot

Aggrobot was originally scheduled to fight fellow newcomers Daisy in the first round of its first Robot Wars appearance, but due to Daisy breaking down before the fight and pulling out of the competition, Aggrobot's first round battle now saw it go up against the substitute robot, another newcomer, Binky. Aggrobot and Binky pushed each other around the arena for a short while, with neither robot really creating any damage to the other until Binky was drawn to the arena side wall by Aggrobot and broke down after being hit by an arena spike. Aggrobot then tore off house robot Matilda's shell as the other House Robots came out to finish off the immobilised Binky machine, cease was eventually called and Aggrobot was put through to the next round of the Heat.

Aggrobot then went up against Heat favourites Razer. Aggrobot held off Razer's attacks using its steep edge, until Razer used its dominant agility and speed to get Aggrobot in the rear and up against the arena side wall. Razer crumpled the rear armour of Aggrobot, narrowly missing the mechanical components for the zonker weapon. However, as Razer retracted its crusher, Aggrobot was still mobile, and Razer had become beached on the tail of its own weapon, as it pinned into the arena floor. Immobilised, Razer was surprisingly eliminated, and Aggrobot was put through to the Heat Final.

Here, it went up against fellow newcomers Blade, and looked as dark horses to win after defeating Razer. The Blade team and the Aggrobot team got along well together, but neither relented in the ensuing battle. Blade came out on top, after pushing Aggrobot around the arena for a short while, Blade rammed the Aggrobot machine into submission over the flame pit, and left it for it to burn and be attacked by the house robots. Dead Metal, the house robot in the nearby CPZ, cut into Aggrobot's nose, causing a shower of sparks while Sir Killalot held it aloft. This was before he carried and placed Aggrobot onto the arena floor flipper, where it flew. Cease was then called and Aggrobot was eliminated from the competition. "And then Dead Metal took the opportunity to wipe the smile off Aggrobot's face."

- Jonathan Pearce

Series 4
"What's this capable of in the last wars? Defeating highly fancied Razer in astonishing style. Razer thought they'd won, but they got stuck in the pirouette of delight."

- Jonathan Pearce

Aggrobot 2 was seeded number 20 for the Fourth Wars, in recognition of its heat final appearance and defeat of Razer. In the penultimate Heat of the series, Aggrobot 2 was drawn up against the experienced Oblivion 2 and newcomers Saw Point in the first round melee. After Saw Point ran over Oblivion 2's fired axe weapon, Aggrobot 2 got in underneath Saw Point, which then became stuck on one wheel for a while. The rest of the battle was largely uneventful, as Oblivion 2 had been immobilised by the initial impact with Saw Point, and Aggrobot 2 and Saw Point were unable to get any purchase on the other. Saw Point did then push Aggrobot 2 into an unoccupied CPZ, but Aggrobot 2 proceeded through to the next round along with Saw Point as Oblivion 2 was eliminated after being immobilised and brutally attacked by the House Robots.

Next, the seeded Aggrobot 2 machine went up against S.M.I.D.S.Y. in the second round of the Heat. In this battle, Aggrobot 2 was piggybacked and tackled by the smaller, yet similar robot's superior speed and power. Aggrobot 2 tried to steer S.M.I.D.S.Y. into the arena flame jets, but was consistently carried away by the Cyberspace machine. Aggrobot 2 was then slammed into the arena side wall by S.M.I.D.S.Y. soon afterwards, crippling Aggrobot 2 so much so that its minimal mobility couldn't get it away from danger; danger being the incoming house robots. Aggrobot 2 was set alight, and had its zonker cannon destroyed by Sir Killalot's claw. Cease was called and Aggrobot 2 was eliminated from the competition.

Extreme 1
"Plenty of Aggro!"

- Jonathan Pearce before the Mayhem

In the first series of Extreme, Aggrobot 3 only fought in a Mayhem qualifier battle where it went up against Killertron and Splinter in a fight described as "three robots removed from their glory days", this was for a right to fight in the first annihilator of the series. In the battle, Aggrobot 3 grappled with Splinter, easily fending off blows from the axe, as well as Killertron. Sliding beneath Splinter, Aggrobot 3 levered Splinter off the ground. Reversing, it dodged the other two before being caught by Splinter and hammered to no effect. Aggrobot then levered Splinter over, pinning it on its back, taking weak blows from Killertron. However, due to the rules (a robot pinned down does not count as immobilised), Refbot pushed away the attacking Dead Metal and righted Splinter. Soon after, it became evident that Aggrobot was beached on its lever, so it was counted out, after being in command of the Mayhem. The robot was able to move again after being counted out but it was too late, and when it steered onto the arena flipper, the flipper activated and Aggrobot went flying. Sir Killalot then unfairly grabbed and pitted Killertron, leaving Splinter as the winner.

Series 6
"This was a thirty mile an hour sign, and this is what it [the weapon] does..."

- Peter Leach showing Philippa Forrester the mangled pole

In Heat E of the Sixth Wars, Aggrobot 3 was drawn up against Adam Clark's 259, and two newcomers: Infernal Contraption and Infinity, in the first round melee. In the battle, Aggrobot 3 merely shoved Infinity and Infernal Contraption a few feet in each of its attacks but largely managed to avoid the large vertical spinning disc of 259, unlike the other two competitors; Infernal Contraption was bearing the full brunt of 259's attacks. After having its claws mangled by 259, Infinity then drove into the pit of oblivion right after pressing the release button. After a lot more flywheel attacks from 259, Infernal Contraption was later counted out by Refbot when it was stuck on the pit mouth after hardly moving at all. With two of its opponents in pieces, and in the pit, Aggrobot 3 qualified to go through to the next round of the heat, obviously along with the impressive 259, although Aggrobot 3 did very little. Aggrobot 3 then had to face another spinning disc machine in the second round of the heat, in the form of newcomers Vader. In this battle, after both machines started sluggishly, the very first hit from Vader's spinning disc weapon appeared to immobilise Aggrobot 3. The Refbot soon came in and counted out Aggrobot 3, eliminating it from the competition. "Has that slam-bamm, no thank you ma'am, hurt Aggrobot 3?"

- Jonathan Pearce after Vader's initial onslaught

Soon afterwards, house robot Dead Metal closed in and placed the immobilised Aggrobot 3 machine down into the pit of oblivion. This meant that Vader qualified for the heat final, to go up against the seeded Wild Thing 2.

Series 7
Aggrobot's fourth guise had a smaller but a much more substantial design. For its first round battle of the Seventh Wars, Aggrobot fought in the final first round melee of the series, where it was placed up against Team Ming's Zorro, Reptirron The Second and Team Roaming Robots' Ripper. At the very beginning of the battle, Aggrobot took a hefty blow from Zorro, causing a decoration to fly off, and was then attacked by Reptirron The Second, who pushed it into house robot Mr. Psycho's CPZ, by flipping Aggrobot onto its back. However, Aggrobot quickly escaped the huge house robot without any damage received to it, and rushed back into the fray of the battle. Ripper then hurled Aggrobot over, but the invertible Aggrobot recovered from the attack without sweat. Another flip from Ripper caused Aggrobot to roll over twice, before being flipped head over heels again. Reptirron The Second flipped Aggrobot over again, just as Refbot finished counting out the overturned Zorro. Reptirron The Second landed on Aggrobot, pinning it to the ground. Breaking free, Reptirron The Second made one final flip on Aggrobot, and then Aggrobot wedged underneath Ripper and pushed it into an arena wall before the time ran out for the battle to go to a judges' decision between the remaining three competitors. Aggrobot was unsurprisingly eliminated from the competition as a result of the judges' decision, as the robot had dealt little to no damage or aggression at all during the battle.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 4
 * Losses: 5

Outside Robot Wars
Aggrobot also competed in Techno Games, under the name A Bot. It entered the Football tournament, teamed up with V-Bot as "The AV Raiders", and lost in Round 1 to Team Make Robotics.

Trivia

 * Despite fighting in four main competitions and being seeded itself, Aggrobot never fought another seeded machine. The closest it came was when it fought Splinter in its Extreme 1 Mayhem, who was seeded 17th in the concurrently filmed Fifth Wars.
 * Four out of Aggrobot's five one-on-one battles were against a robot with five letters in its name: Binky, Razer, Blade and Vader. The only exception was the six-letter S.M.I.D.S.Y. in Series 4.
 * Aggrobot's intended first opponent in Series 3, Daisy, also had five letters in its name.
 * Aggrobot was profiled in Robot Wars: The Ultimate Guide.
 * In 2016, Australian news outlet "news.com.au" (owned by NewsCorp Australia) profiled the return of Robot Wars. Along with several UK champions, Aggrobot (along with Max Damage and the Series 3 versions of Diotoir) was singled out as one of Robot Wars' memorable and colourful designs.