American Robot Wars 1996 (also shortened to American Robot Wars '96 and referred to on order forms as U.S.A. Final 1996) was an official VHS video release highlighting battles from the 1996 US Robot Wars competition in San Francisco, also referred to as the Third Annual Robot Wars. The 50-minute video was first made available in 1998 as a mail-order item exclusive to members of the Robot Wars Club, before being released to the general public on 9 October 2000 as part of the Special Edition Double Pack.
An 8-minute preview version, American Robot Wars Final 1996, was also issued to new Robot Wars Club members as part of the initial membership pack. This contained an order form for the full-length VHS, from which members could purchase it at a discounted price over non-members.
Battles Featured[]
Heavyweight (Face-Off)[]
Offer and order form, available with the American Robot Wars 1996 Final preview video
Round 1[]
Round 2[]
NOTE: The Master vs Tazz and La Machine vs Mauler are both highlighted as Round 1 battles.
- TerMinal frenZy vs BioHazard
- Gutrip vs Killbborg
- The Master vs Tazz
- La Machine vs South Bay Mauler
- Vlad the Impaler vs Prometheus (shown in between interview clips)
Round 3[]
NOTE: Tazz vs La Machine is highlighted as a Round 2 battle.
Round 4[]
NOTE: DooMore vs La Machine is highlighted as a Round 3 battle.
Final[]
Middleweight (Face-Off)[]
Round 1[]
Final[]
Lightweight (Face-Off)[]
Round 1[]
Round 2[]
Final[]
Featherweight (Face-Off)[]
Round 1[]
- Melvin vs Mad Dog - intro montage only
- Draggon Waggin' vs P.A.T.
Final[]
Grudge Matches[]
Melees[]
- Featherweight Melee (Bite Me vs Draggon Waggin' vs Edgar the Hate Bug vs Gigan vs Mad Dog vs Nezumi vs P.A.T. vs Ziggy) - intro montage only
- Heavyweight Melee (Frank vs Gutrip vs Marvin vs Robert Redford Jr. vs SWAK vs TerMinal frenZy) - intro montage only
- Heavyweight Melee (The Master vs. La Machine vs. BioHazard vs. DooMore vs. Vlad the Impaler)
- Featherweight Melee (Arsenic vs Rampage vs Red 2 vs Roach vs Slomo 3 (X2) vs Spiny Norman vs Triple Redundancy)
- Lightweight Melee (Attiller (the Hun) vs Cyclo-Kluge (Bite Me) vs Flipper vs Happy Fun Bot vs Speed Bump (Lorena) vs SPS3)
- Lightweight Melee Final (Flipper vs Speed Bump (Lorena) vs The Enforcer) - brief clips only
- Heavyweight Melee Final
- Heavyweight Melee (Merrimac vs Namreko 3000 vs Red Scorpion vs Tazz) - brief clips only
Other Events (intro montage/credits only)[]
- Featherweight Team Battle: Team W (Arsenic, KMM, My Little Pony & The X-2) vs Team X (Melvin, (Spike, Spiny Norman & WYSIWYG)
- Heavyweight Walking Robot Demo: Bloodletter Jr. vs Rex
Trivia[]
- The video seems to focus more on heavyweight battles than the other weight categories.
- Footage from the 1995 US competition was included for a number of competitors:
- The Heavyweight Face-Off final between The Master and Thor, appearing during the segment covering the former's first-round battle. This documented The Master's knockout victory over the Schilling Robotics machine, along with the damage taken to its circular saw.
- The Middleweight and Heavyweight Melees featuring La Machine, highlighting its exceptional pushing power and popularity among the crowd. Footage of the former is also included during the segment covering the first-round battle between Agamemnon and Satoru Special 3, showing how James Straus had incorporated the latter's anti-wedge skirt having learned from La Machine knocking out the previous Satoru Special.
- Throughout the video, several robots were misidentified by Paul Vallis and/or the accompanying battle captions:
- Punjar is misidentified and mispronounced throughout the event as "Pungar" (the only exception is in its Face-Off battle with Red Scorpion, where Michael Meehan pronounced its name correctly at the end after it immobilises Red Scorpion).
- Satoru Special 3 is not only captioned as Satoru Special 111, but pronounced as Satoru Special The Third during its Middleweight Face-Off against Agamemnon.
- Draggon Waggin' was captioned as Dragon Wagon in its Featherweight Face-Off battle against P.A.T.
- During the Featherweight Melee, Slomo 3 and Spiny Norman were each misidentified as X2 and Spiky respectively.
- During the Lightweight Melee, Cyclo-Kluge was misidentified as Bite Me (a featherweight competitor which was not shown in highlights).
- During the Heavyweight Melee Final, Merrimac was misidentified as Munch (another heavyweight competitor which competed but did not feature).
- Speed Bump's modification for the Lightweight Melee events is not addressed as such throughout the video. Instead, its overall victory is attributed to the original featherweight Lorena, which the doll was loaned from.
- The behind-the-scenes pits montage included cameo appearances from two robots which were not addressed in the official highlights - the featherweights Edgar the Hate Bug and Melvin.
- The shell for Yo Mama! - another featherweight entry - also appears in the interview for builder Bob Schneeveis and the original Lorena.
- The highlights included several instances where clips from at least two battles were edited together into one. Examples include:
- Pokey vs Scrappy, which originally ended in both robots becoming immobilised before a rematch took place.[1]
- The Heavyweight Melee Final, which included clips from an earlier preliminary Melee between Merrimac, Namreko 3000, Red Scorpion and Tazz. Namreko 3000 is notably absent from the Melee Final itself.
- The Lightweight Melees involving Flipper and Speed Bump (Lorena); the clip featuring The Enforcer is taken from the Lightweight Melee Final which Speed Bump won on an audience vote.[2]
References[]
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