Not to be confused with UK competitor, Brutus Maximus
Brutus is a heavyweight robot from Belgium which attempted to enter Series 8 of Robot Wars, but was not selected to compete. It was built by Team Rubbish, and would later become Cobra, which competed in Series 9 and 10.
Design
Brutus was an invertible, four-wheel drive robot armed with a small wedge which could work either way up. It was armoured in HARDOX, and relied on its brute strength and pushing power as its main offensive capabilities. Brutus cost £1,500 to build, and was planned to be fitted with a hydraulic clamp/cutter for its potential entry into Series 8. However, this weapon was not built until the creation of Cobra, as Brutus was not selected to compete in Series 8.
The Team
- Main article: Team Rubbish
Brutus was built by Team Rubbish, comprised of fish salesman and lead builder Marco van Hek, and the robot's driver and co-builder, Stefan Vanthoor. The Belgian team had previously competed on Robot Wars with Pika, and later entered with Cobra.
Qualification
Team Rubbish submitted an online application for Brutus to compete in Series 8, with promise of an active weapon being added to the otherwise complete machine. However, Brutus was not selected to compete in the series. This prompted the team to create a CAD of its successor Cobra for future series.
Series Record
UK Series
Series | Brutus Series Record |
---|---|
The First Wars | Did not enter |
The Second Wars | Did not enter |
The Third Wars | Did not enter |
The Fourth Wars | Did not enter |
The Fifth Wars | Did not enter |
The Sixth Wars | Did not enter |
The Seventh Wars | Failed to qualify with Caesar |
Series 8 | Not selected |
Series 9 | Entered with Cobra |
Series 10 | World Series with Cobra |
Dutch Series
Dutch Series | Brutus Series Record |
---|---|
Series 1 | Entered with Pika 2 |
Series 2 | Entered with Pika 3 |
Outside Robot Wars
Brutus entered the Bronebots 2016 competition in Moscow, together with Beast, Ripper, Dozer, Stinger, Bullfrog and Kan-Opener H-spec.
Although the design of Brutus was succeeded by Cobra for television, the weaponless Brutus fought at the Extreme Robots event in Maidstone, in October 2018. There, it was immobilised by Aftershock in just a few seconds, and also lost to Ripper. However it was more successful in 2019, collecting another win over Sabretooth for the team.
The team also started building a middleweight version of Brutus named Brutus Jr, planned to be 55kg in weight while reusing Bosch GPA 750W motors from Pika 3. For more information on the team's excursions outside of Brutus, see Team Rubbish.
Robot Wars Live Events
Brutus fought at a small handful of Robot Wars live events, though it did not appear as frequently as other robots, due to the team being situated in Belgium. Despite this, Brutus appeared at the Robot Wars World Championship 2015 at Colchester. In the first round, Brutus fought Ka-Pow! and Beast. Brutus survived until the end of the match, where it qualified for Round 2 alongside Beast on a Judges' decision. However, Brutus was quickly thrown out of the arena by eventual champion Toxic 2 in the second round. Brutus also fought in a separate Annihilator competition at the event where it reached the second round losing after breaking down 13 seconds into the battle, despite being the last robot left standing in the first round.
Trivia
- Brutus is one of the few robots to adopt a new identity for the sake of entering Robot Wars (Cobra), and then return to its original identity (Brutus) after the show was cancelled.