- Adam Clark: "We don't have to build the ultimate robot, we go in there to have fun, build a big weapon, see what happens"
- Philippa Forrester: "There's me thinking people went out there to win."
- — Pre-match interview in the Middleweight Championship
Adam Clark (Born 11 July 1964) was a very experienced roboteer, building a robot for the first six series of Robot Wars, also entering the second series of Robot Wars Extreme.
The Team[]
Adam Clark in Series 6
Adam Clark was mostly a one-man team, creating three heavyweights, two featherweights and a middleweight, and entering four of them (Vector of Armageddon, Wowot, and both versions of 259) by himself. He was helped in part by David Dempster, who assisted with both versions of Corporal Punishment and Armadillo, although he only appeared on the show in Series 3. He was also assisted by Dan Danknick in the second season of Extreme Warriors.
- "It's got a plain metal finish, because one of things I did prior to these events was to go to the competition series in America, and no one ever painted them. It's a bit of a surprise to see everyone painting them, because you can get scratched. The other thing is that it's extra weight, and extra work, so... plain metal finish is how it comes."
- — Adam Clark acknowledges the original US events as inspiration behind Corporal Punishment's unpainted finish (Robot Wars Revealed, Episode 6)
Adam Clark got involved in Robot Wars after researching into and attending the original 1994-1997 US events as a spectator, then discovering that the events were coming to the UK.
Contributions[]
Adam Clark's Toecutter, the first antweight
Adam Clark created the first ever antweight robot in 1998, which was called Toecutter (not related to the Series 3 heavyweight entry). Clark also suggested the idea of an Antweight Championship to Mentorn with one being proposed for Series 3 only for it to be cancelled. In recognition of his contribution to antweight history, he was made the single Judge for the Antweight Championship that took place in Extreme Series 2, where he put Pants and Lower through to the Final in their first-round qualifier.
He was, for a time, in charge of the official Robot Wars website.
Robots[]
| Name | Image | Weight Class | Series |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vector of Armageddon | 
|
Featherweight | Series 1 |
| Corporal Punishment | 
|
Heavyweight | Series 2-3 |
| Armadillo | 
|
Featherweight | Series 2 |
| The Mangulator | 
|
Heavyweight | Series 4 |
| Wowot | 
|
Heavyweight | Series 5, US Season 2 |
| 259 | 
|
Heavyweight | Series 6 |
| 259 | 
|
Middleweight | Extreme 2 |
- Note: Vector of Armageddon was a featherweight robot, but it competed in the main competition of Series 1, as all weight classes were grouped together for that series.
Adam Clark's first Robot Wars robot was Vector of Armageddon, under the team name "Riders of the Apocalypse" which entered Series 1, going out in the Gauntlet stage. His heavyweight robot for Series 2 and 3 was Corporal Punishment and he also entered the featherweight competition in Series 2 with Armadillo.
Bone, an early vertical spinner which made background appearances in the Series 4 War of Independence
As well as Corporal Punishment, Clark built a second robot in the lead-up to Series 3 called Bone (not to be confused with Series 5 entrant T-Bone). An early example of large vertical spinners, Bone would never compete despite making background appearances in the hope of being selected as a reserve.[1] Clark also failed to qualify for Series 4 with a full-body spinner named Twister, (not to be confused with the Series 5 entrant or the Dutch robot).
Adam Clark still made an appearance in The Fourth Wars War of Independence, representing the USA as a team member of The Mangulator, which he had helped to create. Through his friendship and collaboration with Dan Danknick, he also became Team Delta's official representative in the EU, and was responsible for overseeing their sponsorship arrangements with competing UK teams; Team Delta being a renowned supplier of electronic and radio control equipment for both US and UK events.[2] Along with Bob Pitzer, Clark and Danknick planned to collaborate on a second heavyweight for televised US series, Alexander 2, though Alexander 2 would not be completed.[3]
For Series 5, he entered Wowot, which went out in Round 1 to Lambsy. Wowot also fought in the International Championship in Season 2 of Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors, but lost in the first round to Tornado.
In Series 6, he entered his most famous and successful robot; the vertical spinner 259. It reached the second round before losing to ninth seed Wild Thing on a controversial judges' decision. 259 also reached the second round in the UK vs Germany Special, losing to Fluffy. Despite its early defeats, 259 scored Clark's first two victories in Robot Wars during its appearances.
In Extreme Series 2, Adam Clark made one final televised appearance with a middleweight version of 259, reaching the final of the Middleweight Championship, before losing to the reigning champions Typhoon.
259-Horizontal, a version of 259 built for Series 7
Planned design for The Skinner
He planned to rebuild 259 for Series 7, with its disc mounted horizontally and renamed 259-Horizontal, or 259-H for short. However, it was not finished[4]. Clark also conceptualised a featherweight version of 259 but never completed the project[5]. Ahead of Series 9's official announcement, Adam Clark started building a drum spinner known as The Skinner[6], with a functional cardboard mock-up being completed, but it is unknown if this robot attempted to enter the series.
Three of Adam Clark's robots received nominations for awards. Corporal Punishment was nominated for the Sportsmanship Award in Series 2, and Wowot and 259 both received nominations for the Best Design Award in Series 5 and 6 respectively, with 259 winning the award in Series 6.
Wins/Losses[]
- Wins: 3
- Losses: 12
Series Record[]
UK Series[]
| Main Series | Adam Clark Series Record |
|---|---|
| The First Wars | Heat, Gauntlet with Vector of Armageddon |
| The Second Wars | Heat, Arena Semi-Final with Corporal Punishment Featherweight Championship with Armadillo |
| The Third Wars | Heat, Round 1 with Corporal Punishment |
| The Fourth Wars | Missed qualifiers with Twister Attended filming with Bone War of Independence with The Mangulator |
| The Fifth Wars | Heat, Round 1 with Wowot |
| The Sixth Wars | Heat, Round 2 with 259 |
| The Seventh Wars | Did not enter |
| Series 8 | Did not enter |
| Series 9 | Did not enter |
| Series 10 | Did not enter |
| Robot Wars Extreme | Appearances |
| Series 1 | Did not enter |
| Series 2 | Middleweight Final with 259 |
NOTE: The Skinner may have attempted to enter Series 9, but this is not confirmed
US Series[]
| US Series | Adam Clark Series Record |
|---|---|
| Season 1 | Did not enter |
| Season 2 | International Championship with Wowot |
| Nickelodeon | Did not enter |
Honours[]
Nominations
- Sportsmanship Award - Robot Wars: The Second Wars
- Best Design Award - Robot Wars: The Fifth Wars
Trivia[]
- Despite competing in so many series of Robot Wars, Adam Clark did not win a single battle until his final year in the sport, winning three battles between his two 259 machines.
- Adam Clark's robots fell in the first round in every odd-numbered war he competed in, the same pattern suffered by the International Wreck Crew and Team Ming.
- In the German broadcast of the UK vs Germany Special, Adam Clark's name was misspelled as 'Adam Clarke'.
- Adam Clark was employed by Mentorn, the creators of Robot Wars and Techno Games, during the show's run and also worked with them to create a programme called Rescue Robots, shown on CITV in 2003. The show revolved around using robots with particular functions to complete special missions, the missions included getting to a power plant and removing the core rods and many other different missions. He was also part of The Steering Committee.
- He also built a custom motorbike with a cow theme called Mootant.
- Adam was born on the same day as Craig Charles.
References[]
- ↑ 'DMachine :: 259 :: Vertical Spinner', Dangerous Machines website (archived 10 August 2003)
- ↑ 'Team Delta 2001', Team Delta website (archived 16 June 2001)
- ↑ 'The Alexander 2', Team Delta website (archived 16 June 2001)
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/groups/UnofficialRobotWars/permalink/578871132392656/?comment_id=582045388741897¬if_t=group_comment_follow¬if_id=1489292911070836
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20061205035439/http://dmachine.tv/
- ↑ http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/threads/13259-the-skinner?highlight=skinner
External Links[]
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